Charles Mix Co., SD - Description and History, 1884 This file is a complete transcription of the descriptive information about Charles Mix County as found in A. T. Andreas' "Historical Atlas of Dakota", 1884. CHARLES MIX COUNTY This county is bounded on the south and west by the Missouri River, on the east by Bon Homme County, and on the north by Douglas, Aurora and Brule counties. It contains, including the Yankton Indian reservation, about 720,000 acres. The general surface of the county is undulating and gently rolling prairie, except in the neighborhood of streams, and especially along the Missouri River. The bluffs along the "Big Muddy" are high, and invariable precipitous. The soil in the Missouri River bottom, which averages about one mile in width, is a rich, black loam, and very productive. The soil on the prairie is generally a black vegetable loam, and equally fertile. The subsoil throughout is clay. No failures of crops from either moisture or drought have been reported since the settlement of the county. It is well watered by such steams as Platte, Snake, Five Mile, Cedar, Campbell, and other creeks, which flow in a southerly direction and empty into the Missouri River. ORGANIZATION.--This county was established by the first legislative assembly held in the Territory, the bill being approved May 8, 1862. The boundaries of the original county were described as follows: "That so much of the Territory as is embraced in the following described limits be and the same is hereby created and declared to be a county, to be known as Charles Mix County, to-wit: Commencing at the northeast corner of the Yankton Indian Reservation; thence north to Firesteel Creek; thence west up the main channel of said creek to its source; thence in a direct line to the head of the main branch of the Fish or Platte Creek; thence down the main channel of said creek to the Missouri River; thence down the main channel of said river to the southwest corner of the Yankton Indian Reservation; thence on the west line of said reserve to the northwest corner of same; thence on the north line of said reserve to the place of beginning. The county seat of said Charles Mix County is hereby located and established at Papineau, on the Missouri River, on the claim of Mr. Papineau." Soon after Mr. Colin Lamonte was appointed Register of Deeds, and the following gentlemen were appointed commissioners for the purpose of organizing the county, viz.: F. T. Wheeler, Felician Fallas and C. P. Barbier. It is supposed that the organization was kept up for some time, but there are no official records showing any transaction, and no taxes were collected or warrants issued. This county reorganized with its present bounds under an act of the Legislature passed in 1868-69. The county-seat was then changed to Platte Creek. In January, 1875, President Grant issued a proclamation whereby the lands in this and adjoining counties were withdrawn from settlement, and relegated to the Sioux Indian Reservation. In July, 1879, it was re-opened for settlement by proclamation of President Hayes. There were at this latter date in the neighborhood of sixty voters in the county. In September, 1879, James G. Jones, Jno. Johns and William Millar were appointed by Governor Howard, county commissioners with full power to reorganize the county. They held their first meeting at Wheeler, September 15, 1879, and made the following appointments: Register of Deeds and County Clerk, M. B. Reynolds; Treasurer, Loyal Adams; Sheriff, E. R. Pennypacker; Judge of Probate, F. T. Wheeler; County Surveyor, M. N. Vandall; School Superintendent, M. T. Post; Coroner, Jno. M. Cook; Assessor, Charles Marshall; Justices of the Peace, J. Kilpatrick. B. Cournoyer, Henry T. Oldham and F. Fallas; Constable, S. Campbell, J. Woods, B. F. Reynolds and George Loudner. On the 3rd of October, 1879, notices were issued, calling for an election to be held November 4, 1879, for the purpose of electing county officers and locating the county seat. At that election Wheeler was made the county seat and the following gentlemen were elected to county offices: County Commissioners, H. T. Oldham, Jno. Johns, and Wm. Millar; Register of Deeds, Jas. G. Jones; Sheriff, E. R. Pennypacker; Treasurer, Loyal Adams; School Superintendent, M. T. Post; Assessor, M. N. Vandall; Surveyor, Wm. Cox; Coroner, Jno. M. Cook; Justices of the Peace, F. Fallas, J. P. Kilpatrick; Constables, B. Cournoyer and Joseph Kennedy, B. F. Reynolds, C. T. Oldham, J. Woods, George Loudner. PRESENT OFFICERS.--County Commissioners, L. Adams, F. T. Wheeler, Albert Brainard; Register of Deeds and County Clerk, S. M. Lindley; Sheriff, E. R. Pennypacker; Treasurer, M. T. Post; Judge of Probate, F. T. Wheeler; Assessor, L. Adams; Coroner, John M. Cook; Surveyor, William Cox; Superintendent of Schools, William A. Shunk; Justices of the Peace, M. Shindler, F. C. Chase, William Shunk; Constables, George Adolph, Jacob Ellis, George Marcotte, Thomas Ryan. EARLY HISTORY. The first settlements in this county were made at an early day, by the employees of the American Fur Company. Some of these gentry came in as early as 1830 and were principally French Canadians. A good many of them intermarried with the Indians and lived up and down the Missouri wherever the necessities of their calling required. The following are the names of a few of these men: Theophilus Bruguyer; J. Laroche--"Old Papineau;" F. Fallas; Guthbert Ducharme; Louis Archambault; _____ Archambault; Pierre Pallisier; Narcisse Drapeau, and J. Ellis. There were others who came in at an early date and were employed in different capacities along the river, viz: William Cox (1859); N. B. Reynolds (1860); Charles Lewis, in 1873; M. T. Post, in 1875. The actual settlement of the county, however, did not begin until 1878, when farming operations were commenced on an extensive scale by the Reynolds Bros. (N. B. and John W.), and Messrs. Jones and Moorhead. The latter parties located at the mouth of Cedar Creek. About the same time C. T. Oldham located on the Mule Head bottom, and in 1879 Frank Chamberlain located on Cedar Creek about seven miles from its mouth. One Abram Tourgon located near the mouth of Platte Creek in the fall of 1878. In the spring of 1880, settlers commenced coming more rapidly and in the spring of 1882 the rush began. GREENWOOD AGENCY.--About one-half of this county is composed of the Yankton Indian Reservation. The agency was established in 1858, the Yanktons in that year, by treaty, ceding all their lands except the present reservation. There are on the reservation some 2,000 Indians, under the leadership of their chief, "The Man that was struck by the Ree," one of the most aged and honored chiefs of the Sioux nation. He derived his name on account of having been severely wounded in a fight with the Arickaree Indians, and came into prominence a few years before the Minnesota Massacre. His action at that time in not allowing his tribe to participate in the Indian outbreak, has won him the respect and esteem of his white neighbors. He claims that he never in any way opposed the whites, but was always their friend; and that on the day of his birth, two white men visited his tribe. These men bathed and dressed him, and, as the old chief says, "made him a white man." It is presumed that these men were Capts. Lewis and Clark, who in 1804 started on their journey to explore the Missouri to its headwaters, and the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. The first missionary among the Yankton Indians was the Rev. John P. Williamson, a Presbyterian clergyman, who accompanied Col. Thompson to Crow Creek in 1863, and in 1869 was sent to the Greenwood Agency and has labored there since. The Indians here, as elsewhere, are treated in a most humane manner. Two or three fine school buildings have been erected at the agency, and the Government is doing everything in its power to educate them and change their mode of life. It is a difficult, and, possibly, and impracticable task, to change the habits and customs of centuries, but the prospect now is very favorable to such a result. THE PRESS.--The Charles Mix "Chronicle" was established by S. D. Cook, the first issue appearing in July, 1882. He was at that time proprietor of the Chamberlain "Register," and for the first two or three weeks the "Chronicle" was printed at Chamberlain. In February, 1883, he sent M. A. Fuller with a complete outfit to Wheeler. The first paper ever printed in the county bears date February 21, 1883. On or about April 1, 1883, Mr. Cook sold to W. B. Lucas, of Mason City, Iowa, who a few days afterward sold to the present proprietor, Mr. M. T. Post, who changed the name of the paper to the "County Record." The Castalia "Republican" was established at Castalia, by Messrs. Lucas & Sons, in June, 1883. WHEELER.--This place was settled permanently about 1878, when the Reynolds brothers opened extensive farms or ranches in the neighborhood. N. B. Reynolds has had a general store at Wheeler for some years, it being the only trading establishment in the place. This is the county seat, and contains a very respectable frame courthouse and jail, a newspaper before mentioned, a few mechanics, and twenty or thirty buildings. The town is regularly laid out on the Missouri bottom, a half mile from the river, and has a good steamer landing. It is immediately on the west line of the Fort Randall military reservation. CASTALIA is an important town located in the township of the same name at a point near Platt Creek, about seven and a half miles from the Missouri River, where a number of roads converge, making it a good trade center. It is surrounded by a fine farming region. It contains a post office, a newspaper, the Castalia "Republican," several stores and shops, a good school, and a considerable and growing population. JASPER, BLOOMINGTON, DARLINGTON, COLVIN, TOOTKAY, FRIESLAND and BURNSIDE are post offices in various parts of the county. Charles Mix County is a fine agricultural county, and has a greater front on the Missouri River than any other in Dakota, the total amounting to over ninety miles. There are a number of large islands in its channel. In the Yankton Indian Reservation is situated a fine sheet of water known as Lake Andes, about eight miles in length by an average of one mile in width. The Fort Randall military reservation includes about the equivalent of one Congressional township in this county, nearly all within the boundaries of Jackson school township.