John Stanage Biography


	This biography appears on pages 284-285 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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				JOHN STANAGE.  

	John Stanage is a resident farmer of Yankton county and has the 
distinction of being the first white child born in Dakota territory, 
his birth having occurred at Fort Pierre March 20, 1857. The history of 
the residence of the Stanage family in Dakota is the history of the 
pioneer development of the state. The father, John Stanage, was one of 
the earliest, settlers within the borders of Dakota, arriving in 1856 
with a regiment that came from Fort Ridgley, Minnesota, and was 
stationed at Fort Pierre. After his term of enlistment had expired Mr. 
Stanage was employed on a reservation at Fort Pierre and also at Fort 
Randall for a few years. Subsequently he left the reservation and went 
to Sioux City, but soon filed on a homestead of one hundred and sixty-
nine acres on the James river, where the family still reside. Soon 
afterward he built a boat and established a ferry, which he operated 
until the bridge was built at the Todd place a few miles west. Sully's 
expedition on its way west crossed at the Stanage ferry. After proving 
up on his homestead Mr. Stanage filed on forty acres east of the place 
under preemption rights, but never used the remainder of his preemption 
rights nor his privilege of securing a timber claim. He bent his 
energies to the development and cultivation of his fields and he and 
his wife remained upon the homestead farm until called to their final 
rest. In public affairs Mr. Stanage took an active and helpful part and 
did everything in his power to further the welfare and upbuilding of 
the territory, serving as a member of the first territorial 
legislature. He was a native of Ireland, his birth having occurred in 
County Cavan, in the province of Ulster, July 22, 1828. He came to 
America when twenty-four years of age and soon afterward enlisted in 
the army, which eventually brought him to Dakota. He was stationed at 
Fort Ridgley, Minnesota, at the time he married Bridget Murnan, a 
native of Ireland. He was a democrat in his political views and an 
Episcopalian in his religious faith. 

	To him and his wife were born four children who are yet living, 
the eldest being their son John, whose name introduces this review. The 
second son, James Stanage, was born at Elk Point, South Dakota, April 
11, 1861, the family having gone there for refuge while the Indians 
were troublesome. He married Kate Garvie, a daughter of Edward Garvie, 
one of the early settlers of Yankton county. Mary Ann Stanage is on the 
old home farm with her brother John. Elizabeth, born in Yankton county, 
is the wife of Frank Dominick and lives upon part of the old homestead.  

	John Stanage, of this review, remained with his parents until 
their deaths, operating the farm for them, and he still occupies the 
old homestead. He conducted a store at Mission Hill for two or three 
years and he now owns one hundred and sixty acres east of the home farm 
in Yankton county. His political endorsement is given to the democratic 
party and fraternally he is connected with 1:he Modern Woodman of 
America.  

	In 1862 Indians were hostile all through the northwest. A 
neighbor, Henry Bradley, went to the Stanage farm to warn the family. 
He went to the river bank for a bucket of water and, returning, saw the 
Indians approaching the house. He shouted, ran in and barred the doors. 
The Indians fired and bullets were embedded in the cabin for many 
years, some being found when the log house was removed to a new 
location on the place. Because of the hostility of the Indians the 
family then went to Yankton, remaining in the stockade until the red 
men were driven off by Captain English and his troops. The Indians, 
however, succeeded in stealing horses, which were never recovered.  

	Mr. Stanage, Sr., had a postoffice established at his place known 
as the Jim River Postoffice and his commission as postmaster was signed 
by President Lincoln. During the flood which swept over the country in 
the spring of 1881 the water rose to a height of five or six feet in 
the cabin, on which occasion our subject rode a horse and drove their 
stock to high ground. The father and other members of the family were 
taken out of the house in boats and conveyed to a place of safety. 
During the memorable snow storm of April, 1873, when Custer's men were 
camping below Yankton, John Stanage and his father hauled hay to supply 
the cavalry horses. The parents were out for a time in the Yankton 
blizzard of January, 1888, and remained through the night at Heffner's 
on their way home. The daughter, Mary, was teaching school at Mayfield 
and remained in school with the children all night. Those were 
experiences never to be forgotten and entailing great suffering and 
hardships and oft times dangers. Buffaloes were to be seen here when 
the family settled on the James river. The father shot at a buffalo and 
later found the carcass on the prairie, but the wolves had eaten most 
of it. John Stanage, Jr., was near enough to a deer to shoot one which 
was swimming across the river, but it escaped. Wolves were plentiful of 
the big grey timber variety and have not altogether disappeared yet, a 
few being trapped along the river. In the early days they would carry 
away young pigs and chickens from the farm yards. All this has changed, 
however, and conditions of the present indicate how active and 
industrious have been the early settlers in their efforts to reclaim 
the wild land for purposes of civilization, transforming it into highly 
cultivable and productive fields. The Stanage family have ever borne 
their part in the work of agricultural progress in Yankton county and 
they are widely and favorably known in that section of the state.