William H. Hedges Biography


	This biography appears on pages 898-900 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				WILLIAM H. HEDGES. 

	William H. Hedges, C. E., is now residing at Mattawan, Michigan, 
but was for twelve years a resident of South Dakota and worked on 
location surveys for a number of railroads running through the state, 
including the lines to Aberdeen and Huron. He also owned a ranch upon 
the Jim river and devoted considerable time to its development. He 
understood Indians well, and was able at one time to save the 
settlement from destruction by persuading the chief, Drifting Goose, to 
delay his attack, thus giving the settlers time to call in troops to 
their aid. He was born in Sinclsirville, Chautauqua county, New York, 
on the 29th of June, 1833, and is a son of Colonel Elias S. and Rebekah 
(Parker) Hedges, the former of whom was a farmer and also a tanner, 
having a large establishment in Sinclairville. He was also provost 
marshal at Des Moines, Iowa, during the Civil war. Both he and his wife 
are deceased and are buried in Sidney, Fremont county, Iowa. The 
family, which is of English origin, came from Maidstone, Kent county, 
in 1648, and several members thereof fought in the Revolutionary war. 
For eleven generations the first child born was a son, a record that is 
unusual. 

	William H. Hedges attended school in the Empire state, but put 
aside his textbooks at the age of seventeen years, after which he 
assisted his father for one year. He then took the civil engineering 
course in the Chamberlain Institute of New York and after graduating 
from the same went to Canada, where for seven years he was engaged in 
survey and construction work. In 1860, however, he returned to the 
United States and crossed the plains to Denver, where he had many of 
the adventures incident to pioneer life, and became well acquainted 
with the character and customs of the Indians. He came to know them so 
well that he learned in a measure to speak and understand the Sioux 
language, which later was of great value to him. After his return from 
Colorado he was employed in the city of Chicago in construction work 
for twelve years, but in 1879 he resigned his position there and came 
to South Dakota. He located on a ranch upon the banks of the Jim river, 
but soon afterward joined the Northwestern preliminary survey party, as 
scout and topographer, and traveled all over that part of the state 
which was then practically unknown to white men. His only way of going 
from place to place was by horseback and when scouting on preliminary 
railroad surveys he rode on an average of thirty miles a day, and once 
rode seventy-five miles a day for three successive days. He helped to 
survey the lines to Aberdeen and Huron and also worked on a number of 
other roads and upon the completion of the work for the year, in 1879, 
he returned to his ranch, where he spent the winter. In the spring of 
1880, however, he took up the work of construction engineer in the 
employ of the Northwestern Railway, which constructed the road from 
Huron to Aberdeen and which work he superintended. In the winter of 
1880 he was again upon his ranch and then from that time until 1891 he 
devoted the most of his time to supervising the work there. He was, 
however, county surveyor and did a little engineering work outside of 
his official duties. In 1891 he again removed to Chicago and for 
twenty-four years has been connected with engineering work in the 
bureau of sewers, city of Chicago. Mr. Hedges was the originator of the 
system of levels that corrected the errors in bench elevations that had 
reached a point that threatened the very existence of city datum. When 
these correction levels were determined upon, Mr. Hedges was made bench 
and street grade engineer and placed in charge of the work, which he 
carried on successfully until April, 1915, when his health failed so 
seriously that he was given a year's leave of absence. 

	Soon after Mr. Hedges settled upon his ranch upon the Jim river, 
Drifting Goose, an Indian chief, who had been very badly treated by the 
government, decided to go upon the warpath and went to Mr. Hedges, 
ranch, threatening the destruction of the white settlement. Mr. Hedges, 
however, through his knowledge of the Indian language, was able to 
delay the attack upon the settlers until they had time to summon troops 
to their aid and Drifting Goose was eventually induced to return in 
peace to his reservation. Some time later the Indians, under the 
leadership of Drifting Goose, again left their reservation and 
threatened the white settlement. He, with twenty of his men, came to 
Mr. Hedges' ranch and told him that he was a bad man and that he must 
go where the sun rises, otherwise he would be killed and scalped. Mr. 
Hedges retorted that the Great Father at Washington gave him the land 
and that he meant to stay, and thereupon began to prepare for the 
defense of his home. As it turned out, he was not molested. However, 
during the excitement a man named Whiteman working for Mr. Hedges was 
killed by his careless handling of a revolver and the man thus 
unfortunately shot was the first white person buried in Spink county. 

	Another interesting incident in the life of Mr. Hedges had to do 
with the right to settle upon land. The man with whom he came from 
Watertown to the Jim river was the agent of a land grabbing firm of 
Minneapolis, who desired to get control of the whole Jim River valley. 
This land agent tried to prevent people from settling along the river 
but the land had been opened for settlement. The United States land 
office at Watertown had received entries. Mr. Hedges and some other 
settlers had actually made their entries and had their papers The land 
office was only kept open about fifteen days and then for no known 
reason was suddenly closed but the settlers felt safe. The Drifting 
Goose reservation had never been heard of. Then the speculators went to 
Washington where by means of lying and corrupt influences President 
Hayes as a measure of justice was persuaded to set apart the three 
townships in question as the Drifting Goose reservation. This meant the 
loss to the squatters of their homes and the subsequent gain of the 
land grabbers, as, when it suited their purposes, they would have had 
the reservation released and so come into its possession. Mr. Hedges 
heard of the success of the scheme of the land agents and immediately 
started out to secure the rights of the settlers. He went on horseback 
to every settler from Sand Lake to Belcher's Ford although they lived 
from four to ten miles apart along the river, and secured all of their 
signatures. He was in the saddle eight days and the thermometer was 
below zero at home. It was in the winter and if he had missed any 
dugout he would without doubt have wandered about the plains until 
frozen to death, as there was no track or road of any kind. However, he 
made the round in safety and after securing the needed signatures the 
petition was brought before the president of United States, who 
immediately saw that he had been deceived by the land grabbers and 
ruled that the settlers had a right to the land upon which they were 
living, and the reservation was abolished. 

	Mr. Hedges was married in Dresden, Canada, on the 11th of 
January, 1858, to Miss Maria Clarke, a daughter of Rev. William and 
Mary (Fletcher) Clarke, both of whom are deceased and are buried in the 
cemetery at Dresden, Ontario, Canada. The family is of English descent. 
Mr. and Mrs. Hedges had six children: Dr. Le Roy, a physician of 
Chicago; Albert, who has the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and is 
likewise a resident of the Windy city; Henry, a civil engineer of 
Chicago; two who died in infancy; and a daughter, Rebekah, who married 
Rev. J. F. Walker and died in Grand Junction, Colorado, where she was 
buried. Mr. and Mrs. Hedges celebrated their golden wedding anniversary 
in 1908 and many of their friends came to congratulate them upon fifty 
years of happy married life. 

	Mr. Hedges is a member of the Masonic order and in his life 
exemplifies the high moral principles which are the teachings of the 
craft. Although not now a resident of South Dakota, he took an active 
part in the early days in the shaping of the destiny of this state and 
deserves a place in the record of its history. He lived here when the 
white settlers were surrounded by danger from prairie fires, from 
blizzards and from hostile Indians and not only faced the danger 
bravely, but in some instances was instrumental in averting it. Some 
idea of the conditions of the times may be gathered from the fact that 
he had to go eighty miles for his mail. He has now sold his interests 
in this state, but has city property in Chicago.