Fredrick W. Pettigrew Biography


	This biography appears on pages 238-241 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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			FREDERICK W. PETTIGREW.  

	Frederick W. Pettigrew, born at Ludlow, Vermont, July 29, 1850

	Parents, Andrew Pettigrew and Hannah B. Sawtell Pettigrew.  

	Brothers and sisters: Hannah M., Justin A., Luetta B., Alma J., 
Henrietta A., Richard F., Elizabeth M. and Harlan P. Pettigrew.  

	Andrew Pettigrew, the father, was the son of a Vermont farmer, 
and at the time of the birth of the subject of this sketch was a 
merchant conducting a general store in the village of Ludlow, Vermont. 
Hannah B. Pettigrew, his mother, was the daughter of Elnathan Sawtell, 
a farmer residing near the village of Ludlow, Vermont.  

	Andrew Pettigrew was a man of strong convictions, religious, and 
trained his family according to the moral code common to the New 
England Christian faith. He was an abolitionist and a distributor of 
emancipation literature, and a link in the underground railroad (as it 
was called) to assist runaway slaves from the south on their way to 
Canada. For his outspoken views in opposition to slavery, and his 
approval of William Lloyd Garrison of Boston, many people boycotted his 
business and refused to trade in his store, and often threatened him 
with violence.  

	His mother, Hannah B. Sawtell, was of Puritan stock; her 
ancestors came to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1630. (Watertown is now 
a part of Boston.) They were at the siege of Lewisburg, and Elnathan, 
her grandfather, was a private soldier at the battle of Bunker Hill.  

	Andrew Pettigrew was in poor health and, in 1854, he sold his 
store and with his family moved to the town of Union, Rock county, 
Wisconsin, where he purchased a farm and engaged in general farming. In 
1860 he moved to Evansville, so that his numerous children could attend 
the Evansville Academy. In 1863, when the first slaves came north as a 
result of the war, he gave these negroes the preference and employed 
them upon the farm, and they were treated the same as if they were 
white. An ex-slave started a blacksmith shop, and Andrew Pettigrew gave 
the negro blacksmith all his work. It was well to give these ex-slaves 
employment, but the effort to establish their social equality was not 
necessary, or understood, or appreciated by them.  

	Andrew Pettigrew died during the last days of December, 1866, in 
his fifty-sixth year, leaving a widow and nine children — four boys and 
five girls.  

	Frederick, the subject of this sketch, was now sixteen years of 
age, and he remained at home and worked the farm until the spring of 
1871, attending the Evansville Seminary during the winter. His habits 
were of the best, he having no vices and great industry. In 1871 he 
moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, having made the journey of six 
hundred miles with a span of horses and a covered wagon.  

	Early in the summer of 1871, he entered one hundred and sixty 
acres of government land under the preemption law, which required that 
a residence should be established upon the land, not less than five 
acres put under cultivation, and that after six months, occupation the 
settler should pay one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. This land 
is located near Sioux Falls South Dakota.  

	Early in the summer of 1872, having acquired title to the land 
under the preemption act, he went to what is now Flandreau, South 
Dakota, and entered as a homestead the land upon which the city of 
Flandreau is built. This land is located in township 107, range 48, 
and, at the time the land was entered as a homestead, it was a part of 
Brookings county.  

	When the legislature convened in January, 1873, an act was passed 
creating the counties of Moody and Lake out of the counties of 
Brookings and Minnehaha, by taking two rows of townships off from each. 
This left young Pettigrew's homestead in the center of Moody county, 
and he immediately secured the organization of the county, and the 
location of the county seat upon his homestead, where it has ever since 
remained. The creation of these counties, and the location of the town 
of Flandreau, and the building of a city there is almost entirely the 
work of the subject of this sketch. In 1871, 1872 and 1873 he was 
employed as chairman with a surveying party, and very rapidly learned 
the business, including the use of the solar compass.  

	For several years Mr. Pettigrew was engaged in surveying the 
public lands of the United States for the government in the territory 
and state of South Dakota. These surveying expeditions carried him into 
the country west of the Missouri river and through the badlands, so-
called, and among the Sioux Indians, for he surveyed many of their 
reservations. He also surveyed the boundary between South Dakota and 
the state of Montana, and in the northwest corner of the state of South 
Dakota, near the Montana line, on one of the branches of the Little 
Missouri river, he found a hollow petrified stump with the ends of the 
roots in perfect preservation. This fossil was of great size, weighing 
about five thousand pounds, and one of the most remarkable of its kind 
ever discovered. His investigation of the fossil formation of the bad-
lands was perhaps the most thorough of any ever undertaken, and his 
collection of the fossils of this region is of importance. His study of 
the geology of South Dakota was extensive and accurate, and if he had 
lived his contribution to this subject would have been of great 
interest and importance. His knowledge of the Sioux Indians and their 
history, and of their methods of life, and of their implements of the 
chase and of industry during the stone age was probably more extensive 
than that of any other one person in the United States, and his 
collection from the mounds and ancient dwellings of these Indians is 
both valuable and interesting. He had written considerable upon the 
subject, and if it had not been for his untimely end his investigations 
would have been of great value upon this subject and would have 
corrected many of the errors entertained relative to these people, for 
whom he had a high regard.  

	In the early summer of 1879 he was married, and as a result of 
the marriage there were five children, all still living. There are 
three girls and two boys.  

	In 1893 he resided for some time at what was then known as Fort 
Pierre, on the opposite side of the Missouri river from the present 
capital in South Dakota. He was largely interested in the town of Fort 
Pierre and owned considerable property, helped organize the county of 
Stanley and was elected county judge. After a residence of about three 
years at Fort Pierre, he removed his family to Sioux [Falls, South 
Dakota. At the time of his death he was residing upon a farm about 
three miles south of the city of Sioux Falls. His death was the result 
of an accident and occurred during the last days of December, 1901.  

	F. W. Pettigrew was a typical pioneer, reticent, brave, 
absolutely honest, true to his friends and relentless to his enemies. 
He was studious and had a strong, original and vigorous mind. and his 
work in reclaiming the state from the wilderness entitles him to a high 
place among her most honored citizens.