Vest P. Shoun Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1559-1560 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	VEST P. SHOUN was born in Johnson county, Tennessee, on July 18, 
1837, and received his early education in the place of his nativity, 
remaining at home until he reached the age of eighteen. In the spring of 
1856 he crossed the Missouri into Kansas and Nebraska, a section of the 
country which was then in the throes of a border war over the question 
of slavery, and which was therefore an uninviting place to live. 
Accordingly, in 1857, he joined a party of mining men who were getting 
up an outfit at Springfield, Missouri, wherewith to cross the plains to 
California. They were well equipped for the journey and had nine hundred 
cattle with them. The trip consumed nine months of weary travel, but was 
otherwise uneventful until the party reached Humboldt river in what is 
now Nevada, where they had a skirmish with the Indians in which they 
lost a few of their cattle, but escaped without loss of human life. On 
reaching California Mr. Shoun left the party and went into Jackson, 
Amadore county, California, and there passed a year working in the 
mines. From there he went into Oregon prospecting until 1859, then 
proceeded to British Columbia where he prospected about five months in 
the Frazer river country, but with indifferent success. The next year 
was passed at Salem, Oregon, and in the spring of 1861, having heard of 
the discovery of gold by a party of prospectors in the Boise Basin, now 
a part of Idaho, he went to that region among the first of the miners to 
arrive there, and was at Elk City when the territory was organized. He 
remained there until 1865 and took an active part in all the exciting 
incidents of the early history of the section, among them being with 
Jeff Stanford and other miners when they attacked and killed a number of 
hostile Indians on Owyhee river in 1862. In 1865 he went to Virginia 
City, Montana, then a new mining camp. There he secured an outfit and 
began freighting from that place, Helena, Fort Benton and other points 
in Montana to Salt Lake City. In 1868 he joined the workmen on the Union 
Pacific, which was then built to Green river, and during the next year 
he worked on that great highway of commerce and travel, at the end of 
that period taking an outfit into Nevada and from then until 1871 being 
engaged in freighting through all portions of that state and Arizona. 
Selling out then he made an extended trip through the West and Southwest 
to New Orleans, and from there north to Minnesota. Here he did contract 
work on the construction of the Northern Pacific until the fall of 1873. 
The love of travel and adventure was still strong with him, and at this 
time he determined to make another trip to Iowa and thence to New 
Orleans and Texas and back to Iowa. In March, 1875, he joined a large 
party comprising one hundred and seventy-six men and two women who 
outfitted at Sioux City to go into the Black Hills. This was known as 
the John B. Gordon expedition, Mr. Gordon being its captain. They 
crossed the Missouri at Sioux City on April 5th, and when they reached a 
point sixty miles from the Spotted Tail agency and twenty from the 
present town of Gordon they were taken prisoners by United States troops 
who burned all their wagons and supplies and conducted the entire party 
to Fort Randall on the Missouri. There, giving them three days' rations 
of flour, coffee, and beans, the commander at the fort started them east 
with orders to never come on the reservation again. Mr. Shoun and half a 
dozen others remained at the fort and he secured employment with the 
Platt & Ferriss Freighting Company, with which he remained until 
September. He then organized an expedition into the Black Hills on his 
own account, which started from the Spotted Tail agency, and an account 
of which is given in the historical part of this work. He was one of the 
first men at Deadwood and helped to organize that town, locating on 
claim No. 11 there and No. 1 at Black Tail. He opened mines and got them 
running, then sold his interest. Being an expert marksman, he passed the 
winter of 1875-6 hunting deer, at which he was very successful, clearing 
one thousand dollars on the meat and having three hundred and twenty 
hides to sell in the spring. He then engaged in freighting between 
Pierre and Sidney at one end and Deadwood and Rapid City at the other, 
continuing his operations in this line until the completion of the 
railroad through this region. In 1879 he located on his present ranch on 
Elk creek about thirty-five miles from Rapid City, on the old Pierre and 
Deadwood freight trail, taking up the land while he was yet engaged in 
freighting; and from the time when he settled there until his freighting 
operations ceased he conducted a road ranch. Since then he has devoted 
his entire time to raising stock of high grade. He has a large body of 
land and his ranch is one of the finest on Elk creek.