Beadle County, SD - Brief History

	This brief history of Beadle County was found in the 1954 Beadle 
	County Farm Directory, published by Dakota Directory Service, 
	Mitchell, SD

	Scanning and OCR by Joy Fisher, sdgenweb@yahoo.com

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				BEADLE COUNTY DATA

	Gen. William Henry Harrison Beadle, pioneer educator, soldier and 
legislator, surveyed the boundaries of this county in 1872, and the next 
year it was officially created by the Territorial legislature and named Beadle. 
The county government was organized in., 1880 with Huron as the county seat.

	Early in 1879 settlers began to arrive, and the town of Cavour was started 
as the first in the county. Marvin Hughitt, surveyor for the North Western Railway, 
laid out the town site of Huron and 880 acres were set aside for railroad terminal 
facilities-a far-sighted act that has contributed heavily to Huron's development.

	A printing press was set up on the banks of the James river by John Cain who 
published the Beadle County Settler before the town of Huron was actually started. 
In April, 1880, the town's population was 25; by June of the same year it was 500; 
and on January 4, 1888, there were 5,000 people in the bustling young city.

	Other towns sprang up with the development of the railroad lines. Wessington, 
Wolsey, Iroquois, Hitchcock, Broadland, Bonilla, Virgil and Yale came into existence 
between 1880 and 1888. At Wolsey, the first station agent was W. R. "Dick" Sears, a 
young man who resigned his job to organize the mail order house, Sears, Roebuck and 
Company. William W. Howes, who came to Wolsey in 1910 to practice law and later moved 
to Huron, became well known in political circles. Charles "Chick" Sale, author and 
actor, was born and raised in Huron.

	As a trade and processing center for a large agricultural area, Huron has grown 
steadily. Industries include a packing plant, railroad terminal and a number of large 
wholesale and retail plants. The State Fair brings thousands of visitors each fall, 
and a new artificial lake provides a fine water supply and recreational facilities.

	Although a small part of Beadle county was affected by erosion and drought, 
since 1933 conditions have been vastly improved and the area has been reclaimed through 
local efforts in co-operation with the U. S. Department of Agriculture. An article entitled
"Life and Death of 470 Acres," published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1938 and written 
by Robert Lusk, editor of the Evening Huronite, brought nationwide attention to the 
conservation work being done in Beadle county.