Faulk County, SD History .....Chapter XX Faulk Co. 1909
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CHAPTER XX.

 FAULK COUNTY. 

By D. H. Smith, Esq.



    In an article written by one of our oldest and most influential citizens for

another publication in 1904, covering much ground that has all ready been

occupied, the following extracts deserves a place and will be of interest and

real value for information and historical facts they contain:



    "Faulk county is so named after that illustrious citizen and stateman,

Ex-Governor Faulk, of Yankton. This county was first inhabited by parties from

near St. Louis, Mo., in the summer of 1882, among whom was D. S. Smith, A.

LaFoon, Thomas McMullen and J. C. Booth, also on the eastern extremity by Lou

Reed and Hiram Rose. By some mistake range 66 was unattached to any county. The

territorial legislature of 1883 added this range to Faulk county and detached

range 73 from Faulk and added it to Potter county. Faulk county is centrally

located in what is termed the great artesian basin of South Dakota and within

the last two years something over eighty-five flowing artesian wells have been

completed and at this time are supplying from eighty to one hundred gallons of

water each per minute. Faulk county is to day conservatively estimated to

contain 6000 inhabitance. Major John A. Pickler from this county has been

honored with four elections to the United States house of representatives."



    “As is the case in many of the early settled counties comparatively few

practical farmers were among the settlers, and final proof put a good deal of

the land of the first settlers of the county into possession of mortgage

companies and non-residents by mortgage foreclosures. Since the lands have been

falling into other hands, marked progress has been noted in the prosperity of

the county, wheat raising is successful and profitable and with some of our

farmers becoming a specialty. Corn is fast becoming and in a large portion of

the county is already established as one of the staple crops, stock raising has

become an important industry with quite a number of successful ranchmen in our

county, the county is by nature well adapted to this pursuit. I attributed the

enviable position that Faulk county occupies to day to cohesiveness of the

people and the production of the soil; and notwithstanding the slovenly and

neglectful manner in which a portion of our agriculturalist have done their

work, nature asserts her superiorty and brings forth abundant crops. Our people

are intelligent, happy and prosperous, they are improving the benefits of our

school system, and the youths of our county are applying themselves in a way

that assures us that our county will stand with the foremost in the young,

prosperous and progressive state of South Dakota.”



A HEALTH RESORT.



    Faulk county lies east of the divide, between the waters of the Missouri and

James river. Strictly speaking it may be claimed that only the east half of the

county is in the James river valley, yet the rise is so gradual to an elevation

of less than fifteen hundred feet at the Potter county line as to be almost

imperceptible to a casual observer.



    Snake creek christened by the early settlers of Faulk-ton, Nixon river;

takes its rise in the coteaux or hills in Potter county, runs in an easterly 

direction entirely across the county, flowing into the James river in Spink 
county.



    The land is sufficiently rolling to secure the best of drainage, not only

for the natural flow of water but for the hundreds of artesian wells that have

become an important factor to the wealth and prosperity of the county and I am

fully satisfied that they have not in the least interfered with the wonderful,

life giving power of remarkable sunshiny days and powerful bracing atmosphere

that our high altitude vouchsafes to us.



    Believing as I do, and that opinion based upon careful observation and

practical experience, Faulk county is not only a good place to secure abundance

of this world's goods, but to secure (at last) good health and the continued use

of vital forces.



    In 1884 I came to southwest Faulk county, suffering from wounds received in

the army, producing contusion of the left breast and paralysis of the left side.

With a wife and a family of small children on my hands, there was a desperate

struggle for life. After several changes, among them a year upon the gulf coast

of Texas, without any permanent improvement, in the spring of 1884 I located in

the western range of townships in this county. While my improvement was not

rapid, it was marked and steady and in the summer of 1886 I was comparatively

free from suffering and able to take up constant employment. These conditions

continued until I left Faulk county for Washington, D. C., in 1889.



    I had not been absent from here one year before there was a renewal of my

trouble, which finally culminated in a complete breakdown in the spring of 1907

at which time I could not dress and undress myself without assistance. In August

of that year I returned to Faulk county. At first I was unable to see any

improvement, in fact, not until the last of April, 1908, had I been able to see

much improvement.



    At the present writing, December 22, 1908, there is a decided and most happy

change for the better. As I look back to A. D., 1825, when I first saw the light

of day or even to fifty years ago, when I saw more light, I am admonished by the

infirmities of passing years, that old age is approaching and evidently has been

hastened by hardships, privation, and wounds received in army life, but with

uninterrupted sunlight, clear, pure bracing air, water, whether from the surface

or brought up from deep down in the depths of mother earth, tinctured with

health giving properties, almost the essence of life, I have almost forgotten

that four score and three years have already passed by.



    As I look around and see the freedom from disease, the sturdy, well

preserved people well advanced in life and realize what the glorious sunlight,

the clear, dry, cool, vitalizing air and the clear sparkling water, a beverage

prepared by God Himself, has done for them, I am inclined to place these health

giving and health restoring properties in the first and highest place in all of

God's gifts to man.



Additional Comments:
From:



HISTORY OF

FAULK COUNTY

SOUTH DAKOTA

CAPTAIN C. H. ELLIS



TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND PROMINENT CITIZENS



ILLUSTRATED

19O9





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