History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 30

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1138

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of age. His father, George Mitchell, a veteran of the war of 1812, settled in Michigan in 1839. The family was founded in New England in the early colonial epoch, being of Scotch-Irish extraction.

George T. Mitchell was reared on the home- stead farm, while his educational advantages were those afforded by the public schools and a commercial college in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Thereafter he was for a number of years em- ployed as a commercial traveling salesman, in which connection he met with excellent success and gained a reputation for ability and energy. In 1882 he came to what is now South Dakota and took up his permanent abode in Melrose township, Grant county, having come here the preceding fall and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land, upon which he located in June of the year mentioned, while later he added another tract of equal area, so that he now has a farm of two hundred and forty acres, im- proved with good buildings, fences, etc., and devoted to diversified agriculture and to the raising of good live stock. He gives no little attention to dairying, and furnishes a very con- siderable supply of milk to the co-operative creamery at Milbank, having been one of those actively identified with the establishment of the enterprise, which met with some opposition or apathy on the start, much trouble having been experienced for a time in securing the co-opera- tion of many of those who are now numbered among its principal supporters, though it now has about one hundred and twenty-five patrons. He was elected president of the operating com- pany at the time of its organization, and has ever since continued in tenure of this office, while it is due in no small degree to his energy and progressive ideas that the institution has built up a fine business, having the best cream- ery plant in the state. About three and a half million pounds of milk are received each year in the plant, and the annual product aggregates about twenty-six thousand to twenty-eight thou- sand pounds of butter. Mr. Mitchell is also treas- urer of the farmers' grain elevator at Milbank. having been one of the organizers of the company

and having contributed materially to the success of the enterprise, whose financial prosperity has shown how great benefits may be gained by farmers through such co-operation. About two hundred thousand bushels of wheat and thirty thousand bushels of flax are handled annually. The company buys on a close margin and is thus enabled to declare very gratifying dividends to the stockholders. Mr. Mitchell was a member of the board of county commissioners from 1891 for twelve years and was chairman of the same for nine years. The significance of this long tenure of the important office as a Democrat in a strong Republican county is prima facia, as it indicates in an unmistakable way the high degree of confidence and esteem in which he is held in the county and the objective appreciation of his loyalty and business and executive ability. At the time of this writing he is also supervisor of his township. He manifests at all times a lively interest in public affairs, particularly those of a local nature, and in politics is a stalwart ad- vocate of the principles of the Democratic party. Fraternally he is identified with Milbank Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, which he represented in the grand lodge of the state for three years, and with Milbank Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, in which he is serving his third year as high priest, while he also holds mem- bership in the auxiliary chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, and is affiliated with the Mod- ern Woodmen of America and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

At Ionia, Michigan, on the 17th of Novem- ber. 1880, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mitchell to Miss Mary Allen, who was born in Allegany county, New York, as were also her parents, Roy and Melissa (Lewis) Allen, repre- sentatives of old colonial stock and now residents of Milbank. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell have four children, Maude E., Curtis B., Clara M. and Leroy.

JUNIUS W. SHANNON, born Will county, Illinois, 1835. Editor; established Huronite June 2, 1881, President board of regents, 1893. Died, 1899.

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COURTS AND BAR OF THE BLACK HILLS.

BY GRANVILLE G. BENNETT.

[The following interesting sketch was scheduled to appear among the other contributed articles in Volume I, but was not received until after the completion of that volume .- ED. }

The treaty with the Sioux Indians, ceding the Black Hills, was made in the summer of 1876, and ratified by the senate on the 27th day of Feb- ruary, 1877. The territorial legislature which convened in January, 1877, anticipated the ratifi- cation of that treaty, and, realizing the urgent need of civil administration in that new, busy and seething mining country, passed an act to take effect immediately upon the ratification of the treaty, consolidating the first judicial district with the second, of which Chief Justice Peter C. Shannon was then the presiding judge, and con- stituting the Black Hills the first district, and transferring Judge Granville G. Bennett from the old to the new first district. Judge Bennett reached Deadwood with his clerk, General A. R. Z. Dawson, on the 28th day of April, 1877, and immediately entered upon the task of organizing the courts.

The Black Hills were then indeed "the forest primeval." The cruel axe of the woodman had just begun its work of slaughter and denuda- tion, which in twenty-seven years has left bare and forbidding large areas once beautiful with their heavy growth of majestic and stately pines. Game was abundant. Deer, antelope, bear, moun- tain lion, wild cat and elk made the Hills the hunter's paradise. There were no roads, except of nature's own contruction ; no bridges ; means of travel were primitive, either on foot, horse- back or in a dead ox wagon. The population was at that time about twelve thousand. Of this num- ber, ten thousand were in Deadwood, Lead City, Central City and adjacent gulches. In 1876 Cus- ter was the populous camp, containing, as was claimed, not less than six thousand people, but the discovery of placer gold on Deadwood creek, in the northern hills, had well-nigh depopulated it, and at the time of which we are writing it had very much the appearance of a "deserted village,"

but without a Goldsmith to link its name with the immortality of song. Perhaps the white mont- ments in the valley of the Little Big Horn will be more enduring as they tell a story more tragic and pathetic than any that might be woven in a poet's brain. Most of the early settlers were mere fortune hunters, with no thought of becom- ing permanent dwellers or establishing homes, so took but little interest in the organization of society, of churches or schools. The mining states and territories of the west had the much larger representation, and quite a majority of these belonged to the class of placer miners, who as a general thing are improvident and nomadic.

The greater portion of the population had entered the Hills in 1876 under the ban of the United States government, against its protest, and in the face of its active opposition. Being then Indian country, the territorial government was powerless to give them aid or extend to them the protection of the law and the courts. Feeling the necessity for some sort of judicial adminis- tration, to hold the unruly element in check, pun- ish petty crimes, and settle chattel property rights, these pioneers of 1876 organized in Cus- ter and Deadwood provisional courts, with judges and ministerial officers. Questions relat- ing to mining and the right of possession of min- ing ground were settled by miners' meetings, as provided by the rules and regulations adopted by the miners in the several mining districts. The decisions of these courts and miners' meet- ings were very generally respected as bind- ing and final. Minor offenses were readily disposed of, but when it came to capital or other felonious crimes these hardy fron- tiersmen preferred giving the culprit his liberty on condition that he would leave the camp,-as in the case of McCall, who murdered Wild Bill,-rather than assume the responsibility of inflicting the death penalty, and the execution of a pententiary sentence being impossible. There is no question but what these temporary govern- mental expedients were productive of good. They exercised a wholesome restraint over the lawless element, engendered and kept alive re- spect for law and authority, prevented serious

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personal encounters and bloodshed over property rights, and a resort to the questionable methods of vigilantes and the barbarities of lynch law.

Such were the existing conditions when the jurisdiction of the territorial government was extended over the Black Hills country. The counties of Lawrence, Pennington and Custer were organized and the machinery of the law put into operation.

There was some funny work done and at- tempted by the respective boards of county commissioners of these counties, in the tempor- ary location of the county seats. That of Custer was fixed at a little placer mining camp, called Hayward, which afterwards proved to be in Pen- nington county, and its subsequent removal to Custer City involved some citizens in rather unpleasant experiences in the courts. The com- missioners of Pennington county laid out a town away up in the hills on Spring creek, where there were a few miners' cabins, called it Sheri- dan, and made it the county seat. An effort was made to locate the county seat of Lawrence county at Crook City, a small hamlet seven miles north - east of Deadwood, but this failed and Deadwood was selected.

Prior to statehood, the following judges oc- cupied the bench of the Black Hills district : Granville G. Bennett, Gideon C. Moody, William E. Church and Charles M. Thomas. Upon the admission of the state, the seventh and eighth circuits were created. The seventh embraced the counties of Pennington, Custer and Fall River, and some adjacent unorganized counties, Lawrence, Meade and Butte counties, with cer- tain adjoining unorganized territory, constitut- ed the eighth circuit. The seventh has had three judges, viz: John W. Nowland, William Gardner and Levi McGee. Judge Nowland died during his term of office. The eighth has had the following: Charles M. Thomas, Adoniram J. Plowman, Joseph B. Moore, Frank J. Washa- baugh and William G. Rice, the latter filling by appointment the unexpired term of Judge Wash- abaugh. Of the judges who have presided over the courts of the Black Hills, three are dead, Judges Thomas, Moody and Washabaugh.

The first term of United States court was convened at Sheridan on the 4th Tuesday of May, 1877. There were no civil cases for trial, and no parties held to answer to the grand jury. So no juries were empaneled, no attorneys were present except Mr. Frank J. Washabaugh, who had been appointed and qualified as district at- torney for Pennington county. There was no building in which to hold court, and a miner's cabin, with dirt floor and a dirt roof, was used as a hall of justice, and during a heavy rain- storm the descending water and mud made things very uncomfortable. The session was of short duration and no business was transacted.

The next term of court at Sheridan was held in September, same year. It was unique in many respects. The little cluster of miners' cabins was still all there was of the town, known as the county seat. The county commissioners had erected a one-story log house to serve as a court house. It, too, had a dirt floor and roof. Places were cut out for doorways and windows, but that was all; no doors were hung and no sash or glass ; all was open. There was organized the first United States grand jury in the Hills. Many indictments were found and a number of con- victions followed, most of them for violations of the internal revenue laws. The United States government was represented by the late John R. Gamble. Quite a number of attorneys were pres- ent, but few of whom are still in this jurisdic- tion. The court, attorneys, jurors and witnesses had to make the trip either from Deadwood or Rapid City by private conveyances, taking with them bedding, provisions and camp equipage, and providing for themselves during the term. A number encamped across the road opposite the court house and fared sumptuously on bacon. slap-jacks and canned goods, and when court was not in session found amusement in shooting the judge's "bench" full of holes, though the open doorway. They were a jolly lot of fellows, and enjoyed their outing. This was the last terni of court held at Sheridan, and the last of the town. The county seat was removed to Rapid City, where it should have been located in the first place, and the old site of the prospective city of

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Sheridan passed to the ownership of a prosper- ous ranchman, and became one of the most pro- ductive farms on upper Spring creek.

The first term of court held in Deadwood, the fore part of May. 1877, was in many respects rather remarkable. There was no civil calendar, and criminal business occupied the time of the court. The grand jury returned fifteen indict- ments, and but one out of that number was ac- quitted, fourteen being sentenced to the peniten- tiary. The crimes for which these persons were indicted and punished ranged all the way from manslaughter to assaults with deadly weapons.

Shortly before the arrival of the judge in the Hills, two homicides had been committed, in a quarrel over the possession of certain town lots. Certain citizens, regarding the conditions as rather unbearable, organized a vigilance com- mittee and proposed to inaugurate extreme meas- ures. One of its members stated that the judge was on his way in and would open court very soon, and suggested that the committee wait and see if he should be able to enforce the law and punish crime. This was acceded to, and this committee ceased to exist after this first term of the court. It can be said to its credit, that during all the period of its wild and reckless history there never was a case of lynching in Deadwood. And since that first term of court life and prop- erty have been as safe in Lawrence county as in any county in the west.

In this first effort to establish law and order in this new mining camp, the judge was most efficiently assisted and supported by three excel- lent officers, Sheriff Seth Bullock, District At- torney John H. Barnes, and Clerk A. R. Z. Daw- son. They were among the first settlers, knew the people well, were familiar with conditions and were able to give valuable information and ad- vice.

At this first term seventy or more attorneys were admitted to the practice of the law, repre- senting almost every western state and territory. Of all these, but four remain in the Hills. Many have crossed the mystic river, while the remain- ing survivors are scattered far and wide. The following year some able men were added, and

the Lawrence county bar soon acquired the rep- utation of being the strongest in the then terri- tory, which it has in a measure maintained, al- though having lost by death and removal a num- ber of its recognized leaders and talented mem- bers. Opportunity is a great factor in the lives of most men, and this factor has been potent with the lawyers of the Black Hills. For many years the litigation, especially in Lawrence county, was extensive and very important. Property rights of great value being frequently involved, and the cases closely and hard fought, could not, than otherwise, develop a keen, logical and thor- oughly equipped class of attorneys.

The early strenuous legal contests in the Black Hills courts were cases involving rights to mining ground. These were frequently complicated by the carelessness with which mining claims had been located and sometimes by the utter disre- gard of the rights of others by subsequent loca- tors. There were other elements entering into these contests, which made the duties of the pre- siding judge difficult and perplexing. The mem- bers of the bar, as has been already stated, came from almost every mining state and territory of the west. Each brought with him his own ideas and interpretation of the practice and pro- cedure in the jurisdiction from which he had come, and insisted upon their adoption and ob- servance, regardless of the provisions of the code of civil procedure of this territory. In fact there was but one lawyer among the sixty or seventy who had a copy of the code. There were then (1877) 110 accessible text-books and scarcely no adjudicated cases on mines and mining law. One authority only could be produced attempting to construe the mining acts of congress, and that was the Golden Fleece case, decided by the su- preme court of Nevada a short time previous. Then there were a few attorneys, wholly devoid of any sense of moral or legal responsibility, who would resort to any methods, however question- able, for the accomplishment of their purposes. Under all these adverse conditions it is not at all strange that the pathway of the presiding judge was rather rough, at least not strewn with flowers.

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Some of the earlier cases, while protracted and fought with stubborn ability, proved disastrous to all litigant parties concerned. The first case involving mining rights, being that of the Hidden Treasure Mining Company vs. The Aurora Mining Company, was instituted immediately upon the organization of the courts in Lawrence county. It was conducted on part of counsel for defendant with unpardonable bitterness and mal- ice, the effects of which were apparent for a long time. When the case was concluded it was found that the ground in dispute was worthless, and neither company survived the disastrous legal battle. Of the counsel engaged in this somewhat celebrated case, but one survives, Judge Kings- ley, who is now a resident of Denver, Colorado. Of a similar nature was the Sitting Bull case, but without any unpleasantness. It was long- drawn-out and very expensive, at the end both parties were bankrupt, and the ground in dispute has never since been worked and is regarded as of but little if any value. The attorneys for de- fendant in this case, to-wit : Messrs. Mclaughlin, Steele, Moody and Skinner, are all dead, while the attorneys for plaintiff still survive, Messrs. Van Cise and Kingsley being in Denver and Messrs. John R. Wilson and Bennett still prac- ticing in Deadwood. The judge who presided at that trial, Hon. W. E. Church, is now residing in Chicago.

A very important case more recently tried in the federal court was that of the Buxston Mining Company vs. the Golden Reward Mining Com- pany, in which the plaintiff obtained a judgment of over sixty thousand dollars. The plaintiff in this case was represented by Messrs. Martin & Mason, with whom was associated Granville G. Bennett, and the defendants by Messrs. W. R. Steele, G. C. Moody and W. L. Mclaughlin. There never was a case more closely tried, every inch being tenaciously contested, and although the trial occupied about four weeks, it was con- ducted in the most amicable spirit, and without the least friction or unpleasantness, in this pre- senting a marked contrast to the methods and spirit employed and displayed by certain attor- neys in the conduct of the first civil action tried

and determined in the courts of the Black Hills.

I have referred to these cases simply as sam- ples of the heavy and important litigation in which the Lawrence county bar has been engaged during more than a quarter of a century.

It will be noticed how the Lawrence county bar has suffered from deaths and removals dur- ing its comparatively short existence. But no man was ever yet so great or important that he could not be spared from the world's activities, and these places made vacant are being rapidly filled by the oncoming aspirants for curialistic honors, who give good promise of maintaining the enviable reputation which this bar has en- joyed in the past.

The Lawrence county bar has not been over- looked in the distribution of political honors. It has furnished a delegate in congress, Granville G. Bennett, a United States senator, Gideon C. Moody, a member of congress, Eben W. Martin, a member of the state's supreme court, Dighton Carson, besides many minor positions.

The bars of the other Black Hills counties have many able lawyers, and have not been so- changeable in their membership. They have not had the important and extensive litigation that Lawrence has had, hence have not had the same opportunities and experiences as the attorneys in the northern Hills.

The tempestnous days are past. Mining ground is being rapidly patented, which settles very generally mining titles, and does away with what has been the most important branch of the- law in the Hills.

Things are fast assuming the steady charac- ter of the older communities and litigation is be- coming commonplace. But those stirring times will long be remembered by those who were actors in their exciting and busy scenes.

PIERCE CAHILL, representative of the district in the state senate and one of the suc- cessful farmers and stock growers of Grant county, was born in Beetown, Grant county,. Wisconsin, on the 9th of January, 1869, and is.

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a son of John and Margaret (Quirk) Cahill, the former of whom was born in Ireland and the latter in Wisconsin. The father was a child of four years when his parents removed to the United States, the family locating in the state of Wisconsin, where he was reared. He became identified with railroad contract work as a young man and was thus engaged at the time of the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion, when he enlisted as a private in Company C, Second Wis- consin Volunteer Infantry, with which he was under Mcclellan in the famous old "Iron Brigade," participating in both battles of Bull Run and receiving four gun-shot wounds in the second of those engagements, the injuries thus received resulting in his death, in 1901. His brother Pierce was likewise a soldier and was captured and hield prisoner in Andersonville for eighteen months. John and Margaret Cahill became the parents of three sons and one daugh- ter, and all are now living in Grant county, South Dakota.

Pierce Cahill secured his early educational discipline in the public schools of Fox Lake, Wisconsin, and assisted his father in his farm- ing operations until he had attained the age of twenty-six years. In 1889, at the age of twenty years, he came to South Dakota and, in com- pany with his brother, Frank, purchased six hundred and forty acres of land, in Grant county, and here they now have one of the finely im- proved and valuable farms of this section of the state, while they have given particular atten- tion to the raising of the best grade of live stock. The subject has a fine residence in the village of Albee and is now engaged in stock- buying business here, still retaining his interest in the ranch property and stock-growing enter- prise, through the medium of which he has at- tained a high degree of prosperity and a reputa- tion as a progressive and sagacious man. He is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America, and his political faith is that of the Republican party, of whose principles he has been a stanch advocate, being a factor in public affairs and having held various township offices. . In 1900 a just recognition of his eligibility and

party fealty was given in his being selected to represent his district in the state senate. He made an excellent record during the session of the general assembly, being assigned to impor- tant committees and taking an active part in the work and councils of the senate, and the popu- lar appreciation of his efforts was shown by his re-election in November, 1902. He is held in high esteem and is deserving of unequivocal confidence.

THOMAS FITCH, one of the esteemed citizens of Milbank, is a native of the old Buck- eve state, having been born in Trumbull county, Ohio, on the 7th of July, 1840, being a son of Andrew and Elizabeth ( Blackburn) Fitch, the former of whom was born in Connecticut and the latter in Ohio, the father being a scion of old colonial stock, while representatives of the name were valiant soldiers in the Continental army during the war of the Revolution. Andrew Fitch was a man of sterling character and com- manded unqualified confidence and esteem. He served as auditor of Trumbull county, Ohio, and about 1849 he removed with his family to Mc- Henry county, Illinois, where he remained until 1856, when he took up his residence in Fillmore county, Minnesota, becoming a pioneer settler of that section, where he took up a homestead and improved a good farm. He died at Mil- bank at the age of seventy-four years, having passed the closing years of his life in Milbank, and his wife was summoned into eternal rest three years later, at the age of seventy-four years. They became the parents of ten children, of whom only two are now living, Thomas and Emmor A., who is a resident of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 30

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1138

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1138