Dakota Territorial History from 1861 to 1875

This file was extracted from "The Province and the States", edited by Weston 
Arthur Goodspeed, LL. B., Editor-in-Chief, Vol. VI (1904), pages 222-270.

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CHAPTER II


The Territory from 1861 to 1875

	ON MARCH 2, 1861, two days before going out of office, President Buchanan 
approved the bill for a territorial government. The boundaries then included all 
of Montana and the eastern slope of Idaho; extending from British America, on 
the north, to the Niobrara and Turtle Hill rivers on the south; along the 43rd 
parallel to the summit of the Rocky mountains, and along the summit to British 
America. As organized, the Territory of Dakota was the largest Territory ever 
erected by the United States.  It contained more than three hundred and fifty 
thousand square miles, with two thousand miles of navigable rivers.

	Though approving the bill, President Buchanan made no appointments of 
territorial officers, leaving that matter for his successor. In April, President 
Lincoln appointed the following: For governor, William Jayne, of Illinois; 
secretary, John Hutchinson, of Minnesota; chief justice, Philemon Bliss, of 
Ohio; associate judges, L. P. Williston, of Pennsylvania, and J. L. Williams, of 
Tennessee; district attorney, William E. Gleeson, of Maryland; U. S. marshal, W. 
F. Shaeffer, of Maryland; surveyor general, George D. Hill, of Michigan.

	William Jayne, the first governor of the Territory of Dakota, was born at 
Springfield, Ill., in 1826. He was educated in the public schools of that city, 
and the State University of Illinois, after which he took a course in medicine 
at the Missouri Medical College. For eleven years he practiced his profession in 
his native city, during which time he became an intimate friend of Abraham 
Lincoln. Doubtless personal friendship influenced President Lincoln in 
appointing Doctor Jayne governor of the new Territory, but subsequent events 
demonstrated the wisdom of his choice. Although the period of his 
administration, from 1861 to 1863, was a period of general disturbance, owing to 
the Civil War, and notwithstanding the unavoidable friction concomitant upon the 
organization of a new government, Doctor Jayne was equal to every emergency. He 
had served as mayor of Springfield and in the Illinois State senate, and had 
therefore had experience in public affairs. He was a man of temperate habits and 
conscientious motives, and soon won the confidence of the people of the 
Territory he had been called to govern. In 1862 he was elected delegate to the 
Thirty-eighth congress from Dakota, but his seat was successfully contested by 
Capt. J. B. S. Todd. Soon after this he returned to Springfie]d, Ill., where he 
was elected mayor three times in succession. When the' First National bank of 
Springfield was organized, he became a stockholder, and was for ten years the 
vice president of the bank.

	Governor Jayne arrived at the city of Yankton May 27, 1861, and at once 
entered upon his duties. A census which was taken showed the population of the 
Territory to be a little in excess of twenty-four hundred. On the 13th of July 
the governor issued his first proclamation, dividing the Territory into judicial 
districts and assigning the judges. The first judicial district was made to 
consist of "all that part of the Territory of Dakota lying east of a line 
between ranges fifty-three and fifty-four, west, and west of the fifth principal 
meridian." Over this district Judge L. P. Williston was appointed to preside.  
The second judicial district consisted of "all that part of the Territory of 
Dakota lying between the line dividing ranges fifty-three and fifty-four, and 
the line dividing ranges fifty-seven and fifty-eight. Chief Justice Philemon 
Bliss was assigned to this district. Judge Joseph L. Williams was assigned to 
the third district, which was all that part of the Territory west of, and not 
included in, the other two. The first courts were held at Bon Homme, Yankton and 
Vermillion, but the territorial offices were located at Yankton.

	On July 29, the governor issued a second proclamation dividing the 
Territory into legislative districts and appointing September i6 for a general 
election, at which members of the first territorial assembly, and a delegate to 
congress should be chosen.

	The first council district included all between the Missouri and Big Sioux 
rivers, west to the range line dividing ranges fifty and fifty-one. This 
included all the Red river valley, with the towns of St. Joseph and Pembina, and 
was entitled to two councilmen. The second district was bounded on the east by 
the line separating ranges fifty and fifty-one, and extended west to the 
Vermillion river. This district was also given two members of the council. 
Beginning at the Vermillion river on the east, the third district extended as 
far west as the line dividing ranges fifty-three and fifty-four, and was given 
one councilman.  From the western boundary of the third district the fourth 
extended to the line dividing ranges fifty-seven and fifty-eight, and was 
entitled to two members of the council. The fifth district had for its eastern 
boundary Chouteau Creek, and extended far enough west to include what was known 
as the Hamilton settlement.  It also included all that part of the Territory 
lying between the Missouri and Niobrara rivers. Two councilmen were apportioned 
to this district.

	By the same proclamation the representative districts were fixed as 
follows: The first district lay between the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers, 
extending west to the line dividing ranges fifty and fifty-one, and north to the 
line between townships ninety-four and ninety-five. Two voting places were named 
for this district: The first at the house of Thomas Maloney, where William 
Matthews, James Somers and Thomas Maloney were to serve as judges; the second 
was at Eli Wilson's hotel, at Elk Point, with Sherman Clyde, William Frisbie and 
K. P. Ronne, judges of election. Two representatives were to be elected from 
this district.

	The second district, which was entitled to one representative, lay west of 
the Big Sioux river and north of the line dividing townships ninety-four and 
ninety-five, extending west to the line between ranges fifty and fifty-one, and 
north to an east and west line drawn from the south end of Lake Preston. In this 
district the voting place was located at William Amidon's residence, and G. P. 
Waldron, Barney Fowler and John Kelts appointed to serve as judges of election. 
North of the northern boundary of the second district, and extending to British 
America, lay the third district, the eastern boundary of which was the Red 
river, and the western boundary the line dividing ranges fifty and fifty-one. 
This district included the settlements of St. Joseph and Pembina, and was 
entitled to one member of the house. The voting place in Pembina was at the 
house of Charles LeMay, where the election judges were James McFetridge, H. 
Donelson, and Charles LeMay. At St. Joseph the voting place was at the house of 
Baptiste Shorette, who with Charles Bottiman and Antoine Zangrean constituted 
the election board.

	The fourth representative district was bounded on the east by the line 
between ranges fifty and fifty-one, and on the west by the Vermillion river. Two 
members were apportioned to this district, and the voting was to be done at the 
residence of James McHenry, in Vermillion, where A. J. Harlan, Ole Anderson and 
A. Eckels were appointed election judges. West of the Vermillion river and 
extending to the line between ranges fifty-three and fifty-four, was the 
fiftieth district, entitled to two representatives. In this district the voting 
place was located at the house of Bly Wood, and Ole Oleson, Bly Wood and Ole 
Bottolfson were to serve as judges of election.

	Beginning at the line between ranges fifty-three and fifty-four on the 
east, the sixth district extended west to the line dividing ranges fifty-seven 
and fifty-eight.  Two members were to be elected from this district, and the 
office of Todd & Frost, in Yankton, was designated as the voting place. The 
judges of election appointed for this district were Moses K. Armstrong, Frank 
Chapel and J. S. Presho.

	The seventh district, to which two representatives were apportioned by the 
proclamation, began, on the east, at the line dividing ranges fifty-seven and 
fifty-eight, and extended west to Choteau Creek. This district voted at 
Herrick's hotel, in Bon Homme, where Daniel Gifford, George M. Pinney and George 
Falkenburg constituted the election board.

	The eighth representative district was identical with the fifth council 
district. One member of the house was to be elected from this district, and two 
voting places were located; the first at the residence of F. D. Pease, where J. 
C. Hamilton, Benjamin Estes, and Joseph Ellis acted as judges, and the second at 
Gregory's store where the judges were Charles Young, James Tufts and Thomas 
Small.

	Three candidates presented  themselves for congressional honors; Capt. J. 
B. S. Todd, who ran as an independent, A. J. Bell, representing the Union party, 
and C. P. Booge, who styled himself the people's candidate. In June, 1861, 
Ziebach & Freny began the publication of a paper, at Yankton, called the "Weekly 
Dakotaian", the first number appearing June 6; A paper, called the "Republican", 
was started a month later at Vermillion, by Bedel & Clark. During the campaign 
the "Dakotaian" supported Todd, the "Republican" advocated the election of Bell, 
while it is said Booge depended mainly upon stump speeches and fast horses. At 
the election 585 votes were cast. Of these Todd received 397, Booge 110, and 
Bell 78. Todd was declared duly elected, and the board of canvassers issued him 
a certificate accordingly.

	By a provision of the organic act, Dakota was made a distinct land 
district. The president had appointed a surveyor general, and in the summer of 
1861 a land office was opened at Vermillion, with H. A. Kennerly, register, and 
Jesse Wherry receiver, but, for some reason, was closed before any business was 
transacted and remained closed until the autumn of 1862.

	At the time President Lincoln appointed the officers for the Territory of 
Dakota, he also named H. A. Hoffman, of New York, as agent for the Ponca 
Indians, and Dr. W. A. Burleigh, of Kittanning, Pa., as agent for the Yanktons. 
Doctor Burleigh arrived about the first of July, and opened his agency on the 
reservation opposite Fort Randall. Soon after the Indians became incensed at 
some of his rulings, and threatened to burn the agency. Doctor Burleigh sent two 
men to Fort Randall for assistance, and next morning a detachment of United 
States regulars came, just as the attack was about to begin. Trouble was averted 
for the time, though it broke out with renewed vigor the following summer.

	The winter of 1861-62 was unusually severe.  Owing to the poorly 
constructed houses, several froze to death. With the breaking up of the ice in 
the streams, a mighty ice gorge was formed a short distance below the mouth of 
the Dakota river, causing the streams to overflow their banks. The flood 
extended to Sioux City, a distance of sixty miles, and many of the settlers were 
driven from their homes, some losing everything they possessed. Under these 
conditions it was natural that some should become discouraged and leave the 
Territory. But there were some courageous ones, not to be dismayed by frost or 
flood, who toiled on and by their perseverance built up the great State of South 
Dakota.

	During the winter Company A of the Dakota cavalry was organized under 
authority of the secretary of war.  Ninety-six men were enrolled; Nelson Miner 
was made captain, and the company was mustered into the United States service on 
the 19th of April, 1862.

	On March 17, 1862 - St. Patrick's day - pursuant to the governor's 
proclamation, the first territorial legislature was convened. At the election, 
the preceding September, the following were elected members of the council: From 
the Yankton district Enos Stutsman and D. T. Bramble; from the East Vermillion 
district, H. D. Betts and J. W. Boyle; from West Vermillion, Jacob Deuel; from 
Big Sioux and Red river, Austin Cole and W. W. Brookings; from Bon Homme, John 
H. Shober; from the Fort Randall district, J. S. Gregory.  The membership of the 
house was made up as follows: From Yankton, Moses K. Armstrong and John Stanage; 
from East Vermillion, L. Burgess and A. W. Puett; from West Vermillion, J. A. 
Jacobson and B. E. Wood; from Big Sioux and Red river, C. Maloney, J. C. 
McBride, G. P. Waldron and H. S. Donaldson; from Bon Homme, George M. Pinney and 
Reuben Wallace; from Fort Randall, John L. Tiernon.

	Chief Justice Philemon Bliss administered the oath of office to the 
members. The council organized by the election of John H. Shober, of Bon Homme, 
president, and James Tufts, of Yankton, secretary; E. M. Bond, of Clay county, 
was elected assistant secretary; W. R. Goodfellow, enrolling clerk; Rev. S. M. 
Ingham, of Yankton, chaplain; Charles F. Picotte, sergeant-at-arms; E. B. 
Wixson, of Cole county, messenger, and W. W. Warford, of Bon Horurne, fireman. 
As no capitol building had yet been provided, the council met in a house that 
was afterward occupied by Gen. William Tripp as a residence.

	The house soon effected an organization by tile election of George M. 
Pinney, of Bon Homme, speaker, and Joseph R. Hanson, of Yankton, chief clerk.  
The subordinate positions were filled by the election of James M. Allen, 
assistant clerk; Daniel Gifford of Bon Homme, engrossing clerk; M. D. Metcalf, 
chaplain; James Somers, sergeant-at-arms; A. B. Smith, messenger, and Ole 
Anderson, fireman. The meetings of the house were held in a house afterward 
occupied by the Rev. M. Hoyt.

	As soon as the two bodies were organized, they met in joint session to 
hear the governor's message.  In his first message Governor Jayne called 
attention to the natural advantages of Dakota, predicted a great future for the 
Territory, and closed this part of his message by saying:

	"It is well for you to remember that you are not legislating alone for 
today, but also for an indefinite future - not for a few thousands now resident 
in the territory, but for the tens of thou sands who will soon be attracted 
within our limits."

	The publication of this message, and the favorable comments it received 
from many of the leading newspapers, did much to attract attention to the 
resources and possibilities of Dakota, and encourage immigration.  This was 
really the first official utterance from the Territory of Dakota, that had ever 
been given to the general public. In his recommendations Governor Jayne advised 
legislation to regulate intercourse with the Indians, particularly regarding the 
liquor traffic, to provide for the organization of some kind of a militia, owing 
to the exposed position of the Territory on the frontier, to prescribe sound 
election laws to "preserve the purity of the franchise," and to make some 
provision for a school system. On this point the governor said:

	"Every dollar levied for the support of schools, lessens, by many dollars, 
the taxes which would be assessed for prisons and poorhouses." These 
recommendations were generally observed by the assembly, and much of the 
legislation of this first session was along the lines suggested. One of the 
first acts, in which both houses concurred, was the election of George W. 
Kingsbury, who had become interested in the "Dakotaian", to the office of public 
printer.

	Everything went along smoothly until April 5, when a bill locating the 
permanent seat of government at Yankton passed the council, and was sent to the 
house.  Pinney, when he was a candidate for the speakership, had entered into a 
written agreement with the friends of Yankton to vote for that place for the 
capital, and upon this pledge they had given him their support for speaker. Now, 
when the question came before the house, Pinney left the chair and moved to 
amend by striking out the word Yankton and inserting Bon Homme. This amendment 
being lost, he next moved to amend by striking out the word Yankton and 
inserting Vermillion. On this there was a tie vote, when, by virtue of his 
office as speaker, he decided in favor of the amendment.

	In the scenes which followed, Moses K. Armstrong, one of the members of 
the house, afterward said that "a little blood was shed, much whisky drank, a 
few eyes blacked, revolvers drawn, 'and some running done." Pinney was charged 
with being a traitor and a liar, and sergeant-at-arms, Somers, offered to throw 
him out of the house. The feeling against the speaker ran so high that he asked 
the governor for protection. Consequently the next morning, when the house met, 
the members found twenty men, from the Dakota cavalry, ranged around the 
speaker's desk. A resolution asking the governor to explain the presence of the 
troops was offered, but the speaker ruled the resolution out of order, at the 
same time stating that he had made a request for protection in case an effort 
should be made to remove him. Then the council took a hand and demanded an 
explanation from the governor, as to why the military had been sent to the 
house. Governor Jayne promptly replied that the troops had been placed there "at 
the request of one George M. Pinney," who had "cowardly and scandalously 
reported that he feared outside violence from the people." The governor's 
explanation was ordered spread upon the journal of the council proceedings, 
which so humiliated Mr. Pinney that he resigned, and John L. Tiernon, of the 
Fort Randall district, was elected in his place.

	After everything quieted down, the location of a capital again came up in 
the house with the result that a compromise was effected, Yankton getting the 
capital, Vermillion a university, while the territorial penitentiary was to be 
located at Bon Homme. The provisions of this act were never fully carried out.

	Early in the session the question of establishing counties and defining 
their boundaries, came up. On the 5th of April the governor approved a bill 
establishing the counties of Bon Homme, Brookings and Deuel. April 10, he 
approved another act providing for the establishment of Clay, Cole and Yankton 
counties. Sheyenne, Chippewa, Stevens and Kittson counties were established 
April 24, and on May 8, the counties of Jayne, Hutchinson, Todd, Gregory, 
Charles Mix and Bruguier were erected.  Few of the counties established at this 
first session of the legislature, retain their original boundaries, and some 
have ceased to exist. One may search in vain the map of Dakota for Jayne county, 
yet the act of May 8, 1862, which created it defined its boundaries as follows: 
Beginning at the northeast corner of Yankton county; thence north thirty miles; 
thence west twenty-four miles; thence south to the northwest corner of Yankton 
county, and east along the boundary of Yankton county to the place of beginning.

	In other words Jayne county lay directly north of Yankton county, was 
thirty miles in extent from north to south, and twenty-four miles from east to 
west. A glance at the map shows that territory today to be included in Turner 
and Hutchinson counties. So, too, Cole county has disappeared from the extreme 
southeastern part of the State, between the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers, and 
the county of Union occupies its place.

	An act establishing a code of civil procedure and also a criminal code, 
was approved by the governor early in May. The code of civil procedure provided 
for the form, time and manner of beginning civil proceedings; jurisdiction of 
courts; rules of pleading; trials by jury; by court; rules of evidence; causes 
of action, etc.  The criminal code defined crime, and classified crimes into 
offenses against person, property, public policy, public justice, public peace, 
public health, and public morality, and suitable penalties were provided for 
violations. These codes were repealed a few years later to make room for others 
more comprehensive in their provisions, though their principal features have 
been retained through all subsequent legislation.  The legislature adjourned May 
15.

	As previously stated, the United States land office was reopened at 
Vermillion, in the fall of this year, James M. Allen being appointed register, 
and M. Wilkinson receiver.  The first preemption claim in Dakota was made by 
Thomas McLeese, and the first homestead entered by Mahlon Gore, though it was 
afterward forfeited by abandonment during the Indian troubles.

	By the treaty at Traverse de Sioux in July, 1851, the chiefs of the 
Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Sioux were to receive two hundred seventy-five 
thousand dollars, and thirty thousand dollars more was to be expended in 
improvements for the benefit of the tribe. At Mendota, August 5, the government 
agreed to pay the chiefs of the Medewakanton and Wahpekuta bands two hundred 
thousand dollars and the further sum of thirty thousand dollars was to be 
expended in improvements.  It was agreed that these sums should be paid in open 
council, but the promise of the government representatives was not kept, 
according to the understanding of the Indians, and dissatisfaction resulted.  
Added to this source of discontent was the massacre at Spirit Lake, Ia., in 
1857, since which time the Indians had been nursing the wrath that broke out 
into open hostilities at Fort Ridgely, New Ulm and Birch Coolie, Minn., on the 
23rd of August, 1862.

	When the news of the Indian uprising reached Dakota, it brought tears and 
terror to many a humble cabin, where man and wife had toiled hand in hand, 
hoping to build up a home, in this new country, where they could spend their 
declining years in peace, and in the enjoyment of the fruits of their industry 
and frugality.  Stories of massacres never grow less by being repeated. All the 
horrible details of those in Minnesota were dwelt upon and augmented, until by 
the time the reports reached Dakota they were awful enough to fill the stoutest 
heart with fear.  It was soon learned that the chief Little Crow, and some of 
the most murderously inclined of the Indians had escaped, and were headed for 
Dakota, which increased the general anxiety.

	On August 25, Judge J. B. Amidon and his son (or his grandson) left their 
home at Sioux Falls to go about a mile from the village to cut hay. Night came 
on, but they did not return home. Mrs. Amidon became uneasy, and a searching 
party was organized. They found the team of oxen, tied to the wheels of the 
wagon, but no trace could be found of Mr. Amidon or the boy. Next morning the 
search was renewed, and the body of the judge was soon found. A bullet hole in 
his back, indicating instant death, told the story. Search was continued until 
the body of the boy was found in an adjacent cornfield, pierced by a dozen or 
more arrows. lie had evidently lived some time, for he had managed to pull 
several of the arrows from his body before death overtook him. The news of this 
ruthless butchery spread rapidly, and the alarm became general.  People 
hurriedly gathered together a few necessaries, packed them in a bundle and 
started in quest of a place of refuge. At the time of the Amidon murder, Sioux 
Falls was one of the most flourishing settlements in the Territory.  Besides a 
number of comfortable dwelling houses, there was a hotel, a general store, a 
printing office and a steam saw mill, all doing a fair business.  Now all was 
changed, and in a little while the place was abandoned to Indian savagery. All 
the buildings except three were burned, and the valley of the Big Sioux remained 
practically deserted for several years.

	In this extremity Governor Jayne issued a proclamation calling every able 
bodied man in the Territory into armed service to protect homes from the torch, 
and loved ones from the knife and tomahawk. About four hundred citizens promptly 
responded to the governor's call, and presented themselves at Yankton ready for 
military duty. Each man furnished his own arms, and, in a large majority of 
cases, each found his own subsistence. These volunteers were hurriedly organized 
into a company, with F. M. Ziebach, captain, David Fisher, first lieutenant, and 
John Lawrence, second lieutenant. A stockade was soon under way, including 
within its limits the central part of the city.  It began on Fourth street, at 
the alley west of Broadway, ran east to Cedar street, then south to the middle 
of the block south of Third street, west to the alley west of Broadway and north 
to the place of begin-fling.  Not much choice was displayed in the selection of 
materials, lumber, dirt, loads of manure, pieces of stone, anything that would 
serve to increase the size of the bulwark, and offer resistance to a foe being 
acceptable. While the men worked on this extemporaneous fortification, the women 
encouraged them by cheering words and cups of fragrant coffee, until the fort 
was pronounced complete. 

	Meantime Captain Miner's company of cavalry was divided into small 
parties, which scoured the country in all directions, looking for hostile 
Indians and warning the settlers to seek safety in the stockade at the capital.  
Soon nearly all the settlers were either congregated in Yankton, or had left the 
Territory for other states.  Those in the Yankton stockade were expecting every 
moment to be attacked. Maj. W. P. Lyman and J. K. Fowler, first lieutenant of 
Captain Miner's cavalry, had been to the agency to ascertain the feeling of the 
Indians there. They came back and reported that the head chief, Strike the Ree, 
was unquestionably friendly to the whites; but that he had told them he was 
meeting with opposition from some of his warriors, and might be unable to 
control the young men of his tribe.

	Roving war parties of Indians between Yankton and Vermillion prevented 
travel for a while, and outrages by these bands were frequent.  Three miles from 
the capital the United States mail carrier between Yankton and Sioux City was 
waylaid and robbed, but was fortunate enough to escape with his life. A stage 
driver was shot and killed near Chouteau Creek, his horses stripped of the 
harness and driven away, and at the Dakota river ferry one man was killed, and 
others were wounded.

	At the Unkpapa agency, on the upper Missouri, some trouble was experienced 
in getting the Indians to accept the goods sent out by the government. The 
agent, Samuel N. Latta, finally prevailed on one of the chiefs, named Bear's 
Rib, to accept the portion due his band. Bear's Rib reluctantly consented, 
telling the agent at the time that he feared his people would kill him for 
accepting the goods.  Subsequent events proved that his fears were not 
groundless, for soon after Agent Latta received the following communication from 
the principal chiefs of the Unkpapa tribe:

	"We have this day requested Mr. Garreau to deliver to you this our 
message. It is our wish that you stop the boat belonging to Mr. Galpin at this 
place and send it back, as we don't want the whites to travel through our 
country. We claim both sides of the river, and boats going above must of 
necessity pass through it. We do not want the whites to travel on our lands. The 
Indians have given permission to travel by water, but not by land; and the boats 
carrying passengers we will not allow. If you pay no attention to what we now 
say to you, you may rely on seeing the tracks of our horses on the war path.

	"We beg of you for the last time not to bring us any more presents, as we 
will not accept them. As yet, we have never accepted of your goods since you 
have been bringing them to us. A few of our people have been in the habit of 
receiving and receipting for them, but not with the consent of the nation or the 
chief soldiers and headmen of our camp.

	"We notified Bear's Rib yearly not to receive your goods; he had no ears, 
and we gave him ears by killing him.  We now say to you, bring us no more goods; 
if any of our people receive any more from you we will give them ears as we did 
Bear's Rib. We acknowledge no agent, and we notify you for the last time to 
bring us no more goods. We have told all the agents the same thing, but they 
have paid no attention to what we have said. If you have no ears we will give 
you ears, and then your Father very likely will not send us any more goods or 
agent.

	"We also say to you that we wish you to stop the whites from traveling 
through our country, and if you do not stop them we will.  If you whites have no 
ears we will give them ears.

	"The whites in this country have been threatening us with soldiers. All we 
ask of you is to bring men, and not women dressed in soldier's clothes. We do 
not ask for soldiers to fight without you refuse to comply with what we ask. We 
have sent you several messages, and we think you have not received them; 
otherwise, we would have heard something from you. We are not certain that you 
will ever hear what we now say. You may get this and tear it up, and tell your 
father that we are all quiet and receive your presents, and by this means keep 
your place and fill your pockets with money, while our Great Father knows 
nothing of what is going on, but is like a blind old woman that cannot see. We 
beg of you for once to tell our Great Father what we say and tell him the 
truth."

	This letter was signed by nine of the Unkpapa chiefs, viz.:
Feather Tied to His Hair, The Bald Eagle, The Red Hair, The One That Shouts, 
Little Bear, Little Knife, The Crow That Looks, Bear Heart and White at Both 
Ends. It has been reproduced here because it shows the feeling of several of the 
tribes in Dakota immediately following the Minnesota massacre.  One account says 
Bear's Rib was killed within the gates of Fort Pierre. He was one of the chiefs 
appointed by General Harney, in 1856.

	In August the Indians at the Yankton agency showed signs of becoming 
hostile. Doctor Burleigh built a block house, which was garrisoned by a small 
body of troops sent from Iowa.  These preparations for defense, together with 
the fact that the head chief of the Yanktons, Struck by the Ree, remained the 
firm friend of the whites, dampened the ardor of the young braves, and no attack 
was made.

	The threatening attitude of the Indians continuing all summer, caused the 
settlers to feel the need of better military protection. This feeling led to the 
organization of Company B of the Dakota cavalry, numbering eighty-eight men, 
with William Tripp as captain. During the Indian troubles in the two years 
following, this company and Captain Miner's rendered valiant service, and from 
their activity were soon known as the Dakota Rangers.

	Toward fall the Indians quieted down somewhat, preparatory to going into 
winter quarters. This gave the settlers an opportunity to return to their homes 
and save enough from their neglected crops to prevent starvation, though the 
outlook was anything but hopeful.

	On July 16, a convention at Yankton nominated Governor Jayne for delegate 
to congress.  Another convention at Vermillion, on July 24, nominated Capt. J. 
B. S. Todd for re-election The first canvass of the votes, by Secretary 
Hutchinson and Chief Justice Bliss, showed that Jayne had received 408 and Todd 
375 votes.  Some irregularities in the election, and in the canvass of the vote 
were alleged by Captain Todd, who announced his intention of contesting the 
election. He employed John Currier, Jesse Wherry and William E. Gleeson as his 
attorneys and they at once served notice upon the governor.  Governor Jayne 
retained W. W. Brookings, Enos Stutsman and George M. Pinney and a contest was 
begun which lasted all winter. Todd's evidence showed that 22 legal votes, cast 
for him in the Bon Homme district, were thrown out, that seven non-residents 
voted in Yankton county, that 39, or more; illegal votes were cast in the Brule 
Creek precinct, and that the vote was canvassed before the returns of Kittson 
county were received. On this showing congress awarded him the seat, and soon 
after the contest was settled Governor Jayne returned to Springfield, Ill.

	The council elected in 1862 was made up as follows: From Yankton county, 
Enos Stutsman and D. T. Bramble; for Clay county, H. F. Betts and J. W. Boyle; 
for Cole county and Sioux Falls, A. Cole and W. W. Brookings; for the Red river 
district, James McFetridge; for Bon Homme county, John H. Shober; for the Fort 
Randall district, J. S. Gregory.

	The members of the house were: For Yankton county, Moses K. Armstrong and 
Knud Larson; for Clay county, A. J Harlan, L. Bothun, A. W. Puett and J. A. 
Jacobson; for Cole county and Sioux Falls, N. H. W~lace, M. H. Somers and G. P. 
Waldron; for the Red river district, H. S. Donaldson and J. Y Buckman; for Bon 
Homme, Edward Gifford and R. M. Johnson; for Fort Randall, F. D. Pease.

	Pursuant to an act passed at the first session, the second legislature met 
on the 1st day of December, 1862. An organization was soon effected in the 
council by the election of Enos Stutsman, president, and James Tufts, secretary. 
A temporary organization was made in the house with A. J. Harlan, speaker, and 
B. M. Smith, chief clerk, but owing to a number of contested seats a permanent 
organization was not attained for several days. Under the temporary organization 
the adjustment of contests was undertaken, and ten days were spent in wrangling.  
A fight over the location of the county seat in Cole county was the cause of the 
first contest. Bitter feeling was engendered during the campaign, and the Brule 
Creek precinct determined to win.  The ballot box was taken possession of at 
midnight preceding election day, September 1, and 33 or more illegal voters cast 
their votes at that time to avoid challenge.  Next day the box was used in the 
election with these illegal ballots already in it.  As first counted the vote in 
three precincts showed seventy votes for William Frisbie, and thirty-eight for 
M. H. Somers; but in the contest the illegal votes from Brule Creek were thrown 
out, and the seat was given to Mr. Somers.

	A similar contest came up from Bon Homme county.  Only thirty-nine votes 
were cast in this county on the first of September.  At the closing of the polls 
a row in which the ballot box was destroyed occurred, rendering it impossible to 
count the vote.  Twenty-five voters made affidavits that they had voted for 
Edward Gifford, which would leave but fourteen votes for his opponent, Laban H. 
Litchfield.  A second election was ordered, at which 22 of the 39 voters cast 
open ballots for Edward Gifford.  Notwithstanding this, Laban H. Litchfield 
presented himself as the member from Bon Homme county, and a contest was made 
necessary before Mr. Gifford obtained his seat.

	On the tenth day of the session six members objected to the speaker's 
ruling in one of these cases, and, under the leadership of A. W. Puett, 
withdrew, leaving the house without a quorum. They returned after a week's 
absence, and on the seventeenth day of the session a permanent organization was 
reached, Moses K. Armstrong being elected speaker, and Robert Hagaman, chief 
clerk.

	During all this time the governor had withheld his message, refusing to 
submit it until the house was permanently organized. Some of the members of the 
council became impatient at the loss of time.  Daily messages advising him that 
the council was ready to receive any communication he might desire to make, were 
sent to the governor, but the message was not forthcoming.  The clerk and 
messenger quit, a motion to adjourn sine die was lost by a bare majority, and 
finally Attorney General Gleeson was asked for an opinion as to whether the 
recognition of the governor was essential "to the competency of this house to 
proceed with necessary legislation."

	Mr. Gleeson, in his decision, held that by the act of congress 
establishing the territory the governor had no authority for "arrogance so 
strange and monstrous;" that the council "may adopt rules for your government to 
facilitate the business of legislation, memorialize and resolve without 
executive sanction." He took the sting out of this decision, however, by saying 
in conclusion:

	"The Governor will not, I am persuaded, assume to impede and prevent all 
legislation, in which the Territory has so deep an interest, nor permit the 
beneficent appropriation of the General Government, for legislative purposes, to 
be exhausted without benefits to the people."  Three hundred copies of this 
opinion were ordered to be printed, but before they made their appearance the 
differences in the house were settled, and the matter was dropped.

	Governor Jayne, in his second message, spoke in complimentary terms of the 
work of the first legislature; recommended amendments to the election laws 
providing greater security for the ballot; criticised the general government for 
not keeping its promises made to the Indians; and suggested a memorial to 
congress asking for the establishment of military posts to protect the people 
from the ravages of hostile Indians. A memorial in harmony with the governor's 
recommendation, asking for forts and garrisons at Sioux Falls, Medary, Big Stone 
lake, on Goose and Turtle rivers, at the mouth of Cheyenne river, Devil's lake, 
and some minor points, was adopted.

	At the opening of the year 1863 the pioneers of Dakota were confronted by 
a rather cheerless prospect. The Indian outbreaks of the previous summer had 
driven a number of farmers from the border settlements clear out of the 
territory.  Since the repulse of the Santees in Minnesota, the Indians were 
afraid of the whites.  No large war parties were to be found, but a number of 
smaller bands that carried on a guerrilla warfare, kept the settlers in a state 
of constant apprehension.  February 21, congress passed an act authorizing the 
removal of the Winnebagoes from Minnesota, to some point on the Missouri river, 
and Col. Clark W. Thompson was appointed to locate a new reservation within a 
hundred miles of Fort Randall.  This move was looked upon with fear and 
trembling, and the general government was severely criticised for making Dakota 
a camping ground for all the murderous Indians in adjoining states. They sent 
protest to Washington, in which it was declared, that: "Before three months 
there will be enough Indians located on the ceded lands of Dakota to scalp the 
entire Territory and burn every town and hamlet within our borders."

	Henry W. Reed, agent for the Blackfeet Sioux, on the upper Missouri, early 
in January, had asked the war department to station two companies at each of the 
forts, Benton, Berthold and Pierre as a precautionary measure, but his request 
had not been granted.  On April 8, Secretary Hutchinson, who was also acting 
governor, wrote to Brig. Gen. John Cook, in command of the First district, 
Northwest, asking for protection, but received no answer.

	Added to this neglect on the part of the general government, congress had, 
March 3, passed an act erecting a territory out of the western part of Dakota, 
to be called Idaho. The discovery of gold in this region the year before had 
diverted emigration from the settlements in Southeastern Dakota, and the 
establishment of the Territory of Idaho at this juncture, served to increase 
this diversion.

	Toward the latter part of April two men, named Thompson and Jacobson, were 
attacked in the night, while they were encamped at Greenway's ferry, and 
Jacobson was killed.  Not long after this two citizens of Yankton were brutally 
murdered, almost within sight of the capital by one of the predatory bands that 
infested the country.  In the meantime General Cook had been superseded by Gen. 
Alfred Sully.  Secretary Hutchinson wrote to General Sully under date of May 6, 
requesting that troops be sent into Dakota to hold the Indians in check and 
protect the settlers. Hope revived and the future brightened when General 
Sully's reply, promising succor to the territory, was received. Before the 
troops promised by Sully arrived, the people of Yank-ton were overjoyed at 
seeing Captain Tripp's company of the Dakota cavalry, now fully armed and 
equipped, enter the capital, and report to Secretary Hutchinson for duty. The 
soldiers were greeted with flags, cheers and cannon, and the hopes of the people 
rose still higher, a day or two later, when four companies of the Sixth Iowa 
cavalry passed through Yankton on their way to Fort Randall.

	In June, General Sully, with an army of two thousand men, fully equipped, 
entered the Missouri valley for an expedition against the Indians. He was joined 
by the two companies of Dakota cavalry, who remained with him until after the 
battle of White Stone Hills.  Another force, under General Sibley entered the 
territory from the east to co-operate with Sully, the intention being to scour 
the whole country, from Canada to the Missouri river.  Fifty friendly Indians 
from the Yankton agency were organized for scout service by the agent, Dr. W. A. 
Burleigh, and added to the expedition.  More was really expected from this 
campaign than was realized. The Indians fled at the approach of Sully and 
Sibley, and then fell to rear, where, after the troops were at a safe distance, 
they recommenced their depredations. A few weeks before the active work of this 
expedition begun, Colonel Thompson completed the work of removing the 
Winnebagoes to their new reservation on the Missouri, near the mouth of 
Campbell's creek.  They soon became dissatisfied and commenced building canoes 
to go to the Omaha agency  Several deserted, but were brought back.  General 
Sully, upon ascertaining the situation, wrote to Washington, urging that they be 
permitted to go to the Omahas, with whom they were on good terms Incidentally he 
mildly censured Colonel Thompson for locating them in a sandy region where 
nothing would grow. The Winnebagoes had taken no part in the Minnesota 
massacres, which fact was pointed out by General Sully, in his letter, and they 
were finally allowed to go on the reservation of their friends, the Omahas.  
During the summer of 1863, eighteen steamboats went up the Missouri, carrying a 
large number of passengers, and about five thousand tons of freight for the 
settlements in the newly discovered gold fields of Idaho.  Two boats, the 
Shreveport and the Robert Campbell, passed up the river laden with goods for 
Indian agent, Samuel N. Latta. August 7, when these boats were about fifty miles 
below the mouth of the Yellowstone, they were stopped by the sudden appearance 
of several hundred Indians, chiefly Minneconjous, upon the bank.  As the Indians 
appeared to be friendly, a yawl, with six men, and a supply of presents for the 
chiefs, was sent ashore. They were received with a cordial handshake, and the 
inevitable "How," and a moment later the work of shooting and stabbing began. 
Three white men were instantly killed, and two others seriously wounded.  The 
sixth man by dexterous dodging managed to reach the water and swam to the boat.  
For a moment those on board were horror stricken at this turn of affairs.  So 
sincere had the Indians seemed in their protestations of friendship, that, 
notwithstanding the numerous recorded instances of Indian cunning and treachery, 
the whites had been thoroughly deceived.  On board were three small cannons 
which were now turned upon the Indians and fire opened. Twenty or more were seen 
to fall at the first discharge, and the rest sought safety in flight.

	In August, 1863, President Lincoln appointed Newton Edmunds governor of 
the territory, and he at once entered upon his duties.  Newton Edmunds, the 
second territorial governor of Dakota, came to Yankton in 1861, as chief clerk 
in the surveyor general's office. At that time he was forty-two years of age. 
From the moment of his first introduction to Dakota, he took an active and 
absorbing interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of the young 
territory. His education had been mainly acquired in the common schools of 
Michigan, but what he lacked in schooling was more than made up by his ready 
power of discrimination, and his cool, unerring judgment. During the Indian 
troubles of 1862, in the improvised fort at Yankton, when men were not undressed 
for ten days at a time, these qualities showed to good advantage, and came to be 
appreciated. He received his appointment as governor of Dakota, and came into 
office at a time when both local and general conditions were unfavorable. The 
nation was in the midst of a Civil war that showed every indication of being a 
prolonged contest. All through the Northwest the Indians were either in open 
hostilities, or in a state of armed neutrality.  Dakota had been scourged the 
summer before by parties of Indian guerrillas, and the people were thoroughly 
disheartened.  But Governor Edmunds brought to the executive office that cool 
judgment already mentioned, a hopeful optimism and undaunted courage.  In some 
respects he was a paradox.  In his messages to the legislature in 1863-64, he 
criticised the campaigns of General Sully and Sibley for their ineffectiveness, 
and in February, 1865, went to Washington to persuade the president and the war 
department, to try pacific measures with the Indians. President Lincoln was so 
impressed with the suggestions of Governor Edmunds that he sent for Thaddeus 
Stevens, then chairman of the ways and means committee, and asked him to 
recommend an appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars, for a peace 
commission to treat with the Indians of Dakota. The appropriation was made, and 
in the June following a commission, consisting of Governor Edmunds, General 
Curtis, Colonel Taylor, of Omaha, and Reverend Doctor Reed, was appointed. The 
work of this commission is described elsewhere in this history. Among the 
Indians Governor Edmunds acquired a great reputation as a "talker." It is 
related that on one occasion, when a council had been called and Governor 
Edmunds arose to open the discussion, one old chief sprang to his feet, pointed 
to the governor, and then turning to the assembled chiefs, said: "Get out of 
here.  If you listen to a word from that man's mouth, you are lost.  Follow me!" 
Immediately all arose, and were going out, when the governor called to them to 
wait a moment. He then mildly reproached them for their lack of courtesy to a 
representative of the Great Father, and induced them to open the council again.  
But the old chief who had uttered the warning was right, for the governor 
succeeded in gaining his point, and those who listened to him were "lost," in 
the sense the old chief meant when he uttered the warning. In 1866 he was 
succeeded as governor by Andrew J. Faulk, of Pennsylvania, but he never lost 
interest in matters pertaining to the welfare of his adopted state. After 
retiring from the office of governor he engaged in the banking business at 
Yankton. Two of his sons became associated with him in this undertaking, a third 
graduating with honors from West Point, and entering the military service of the 
United States.

	The third annual session of the legislature convened on the 7th of 
December.  Governor Edmunds administered the oath of office to the members, and 
a speedy organization was effected in both houses. Enos Stutsman was again 
elected president of the council, and Joseph R. Hanson secretary.  In the house 
A. W. Puett was chosen speaker, and Mahlon Gore, chief clerk.  In his first 
message to the assembly, which was read to the two houses in joint session 
December 9, Governor Edmunds referred to the military expeditions of Sully and 
Sibley as ineffective, holding that the punishment of the Indians had not been 
sufficiently severe to put an end to the depredations that had been going on for 
the past eighteen months. He accounted, to some extent, for the failure of Sully 
as being due to low water in the Missouri.  He recommended amendments to the 
militia law providing for complete reports from the officers, and an arsenal or 
armory in which to store military supplies: a memorial to congress for a line of 
military posts from the Minnesota state line to Crow creek; amendments to the 
election law to throw greater safeguards about the ballot, and the passage of an 
act creating the office of territorial superintendent of public instruction. The 
first legislature had passed an act establishing the district system, with 
county superintendents, but the governor foresaw that, with increasing 
immigration, confusion was likely to result from a lack of uniformity. In his 
message he referred also to the cost of the two preceding legislatures. An 
appropriation of twenty thousand dollars had been made for the expenses of each 
session. The first had expended eighteen thousand eight hundred thirteen dollars 
and ninety-four cents and the second thirteen thousand two hundred seventy 
dollars and eighty cents, leaving a balance, of seven thousand nine hundred 
fifteen dollars and thirty-six cents in the treasury. In comparing the cost of 
the two sessions the greater cost of the first was accounted for because it had 
to take everything from the rough.

	Very little important legislation was enacted at this session. Buffalo 
county was established January 6, and attached to Charles Mix county for 
judicial purposes. On January 7, the county of Union was created, and the county 
seat located "on the point of the bluff in the southeast quarter, of the 
northeast quarter, of section 29, township 92, range 49 west." Lincoln, 
Minnehaha and Union were joined for election and judicial purposes by an act of 
January 15.  Congress was memorialized for appropriations for a capitol 
building, a university and for bridges.

	Early in the year 1864 a colony of sixty New York families settled along 
the Missouri valley, between the Big Sioux river and Bon Homme.  The colony had 
been organized at Syracuse, N. Y., the summer before, the organizers being James 
S. Foster, Frank1in Bronson, Charles Van Epps, G. C. Cole and R. E. Fairchild. 
Foster had been sent out in 1863 to select a location.  He had visited Iowa, 
Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Dakota, and finally reported in favor of Dakota.  
Originally the colony consisted of a hundred families.  When the time came for 
starting, a few backed out and remained in New York, some stopped on the way, so 
that only sixty families reached Dakota.  A few of these left the following 
year, being discouraged by the drought and the grasshoppers during the summer of 
1864.  In the preparation of this work a complete list of the heads of these 
families could not be obtained.  Several years after their arrival there were 
still living in the vicinity of Yankton: A. L. Hinman, James V. Williams, James 
V. and George V. Bunker, James Prentiss, Charles Van Epps, G. C. Moody, L. H. 
Elliott, C. W. and George I. Foster, S. C. Fargo, Grove Buell, Ellison and A. C. 
Brownson, L. W. Case, Eugene and Albert Alexander, Mrs. Newman and James S. 
Foster.  Near Lincoln in Clay county Charles N. Taylor, Stephen Baker, James and 
Richard Selden, and Eugene Brownson were to be found; Darwin and Amos Philips 
were at Elk Point, and Myron and George Coykendall at Richland. Among these 
colonists were several who rose to greater or less prominence in the affairs of 
Dakota.

	James S. Foster was the first territorial superintendent of public 
instruction, being appointed by Governor Edmunds in the fall of 1864. He was 
afterward commissioner of immigration.

	Gideon C. Moody was appointed register in bankruptcy for the District of 
Dakota, in 1867. He was elected the same year to a seat in the house, in the 
seventh territorial legislature, and re-elected in 1868.  In 1872 he was a 
candidate for delegate to congress, but owing to a factional fight in his party, 
that resulted in the nomination of two candidates, he was defeated by Moses K. 
Armstrong. He was a delegate to the Sioux Falls convention of 1883 and that of 
1885, the latter of which framed a constitution for South Dakota, which, four 
years later, was adopted with very little modification. He was one of the first 
United States senators from South Dakota in 1889.

	George I. Foster was chief clerk of the house during the legislatures of 
1864 and 1865, and secretary of the council in 1867 ; Charles Van Epps became a 
prominent contractor at Yankton being one of the firm that built the first 
public school house in the city, L. W. Case, another of the colony, being the 
other partner. 

	On February 24, 1864, the Chamber of Commerce of Milwaukee, Wis., 
memorialized congress, praying for a wagon road through Dakota to the mines of 
Idaho.  The memorial set forth that from the west line of Minnesota the distance 
in a direct line was less than five hundred miles, while emigrants were 
compelled to go round by Utah for lack of a highway.  Prompt action on the part 
of congress was asked to construct a road on the shortest route, and the 
memorial was signed by Thomas Whitney, president, and James Kellogg, secretary. 
Thus from afar came an influence to assist the people of Dakota to secure some 
of the advantages of civilization for which they had been praying.

	Early in the spring the Indians again became warlike.  As an ultimatum 
they demanded pay for all buffalo killed during the preceding year; 
indemnification for damages done by Sully and Sibley; no roads through their 
country, and no travel over their roads. If these demands were not acceded to 
there would be a vigorous prosecution of the war, and every officer captured 
should be made to eat the men captured with him. This attitude called for prompt 
and energetic action on the part of the whites. Another expedition into the 
Indian country, on a more elaborate plan than that of 1863, was undertaken by 
General Sully, in which he was again assisted by Minnesota troops.  So far as 
results were concerned, however, this campaign was not more productive of good 
than that of the previous year. The Indians were punished, but they were not 
subdued.

	October 11, was election day. Two candidates, Dr. W. A. Burleigh and Capt. 
J. B. S. Todd, had been nominated on substantially the same platform. The 
contest was, therefore, as much a choice of men as it was a matter of measures. 
Of the 606 votes cast Doctor Burleigh received 386 and Captain Todd, 220. Again 
Captain Todd contested the election, but this time congress decided in favor of 
his opponent.

	On the 5th of December, 1864, the fourth legislature convened. Enos 
Stutsman was again elected president of the council, and G. N. Propper, 
secretary. W. W. Brookings was elected speaker of the house, and George I. 
Foster, chief clerk. In his message, Governor Edmunds, in again referring to the 
Sully campaigns of that year, and the year before, said:

	"These expeditions have been immensely expensive to the Government, and 
ought, in my opinion, to have brought about more decided results. I am not 
prepared to say why they were failures; I leave this subject to the War 
Department, where it properly belongs."

	James S. Foster, as superintendent of public instruction, made report to 
this legislature, showing that there were no public schools in the territory. 
The secretary's report showed the total territorial indebtedness to be one 
thousand one hundred thirty-six dollars and sixty-seven cents.  Some 
dissatisfaction arose in Union county as a result of the act locating the county 
seat, passed by the legislature of 1863. An act providing for the location of 
the county seat by popular vote was passed January 9, 1865, a special election 
was called for that purpose on the second Monday of April. Thus a precedent that 
was afterward followed in a number of county seat disputes was established, some 
of the most aggravated contests being finally settled by a popular election.

	The year 1865 dawned with brighter prospects. There seemed to be a general 
feeling that the Civil war, which for four years had hung like a pall over the 
country, was about to end.  Ara Bartlett was appointed chief justice and 
Jefferson P. Kidder and W. E. Gleeson associate justices of the supreme court 
and Laban H. Litchfield, marshal; S. L. Spink was appointed secretary of the 
territory and G. D. Hill was reappointed surveyor general; Joel A. Potter was 
appointed Indian agent for the Poncas, James M. Stone for the Santees and Joseph 
R. Hanson at Fort Thompson. Congress had made liberal appropriations for the 
construction or roads in the Northwest. Col. James A. Sawyer was appointed 
superintendent to build a road, from Niobrara to Virginia City, for which fifty 
thousand dollars had been appropriated.  W. W. Brookings, with thirty thousand 
dollars, was to constructed a road from the Minnesota state line, straight 
across Dakota to the Cheyenne, where it was to intersect with the Sawyer route.  
Another road from Sioux City up the Missouri valley to the Big Cheyenne, was 
provided for by an appropriation  of twenty-five thousand dollars, and its 
construction was placed in the hands of Col. Gideon C. Moody.  These 
appropriations by congress, and the appointment of Dakota men to carry out the 
provisions of the act, naturally gave rise to the hope that immigration would be 
increased, and the territory be materially benefitted.

	In February Governor Edmunds went to Washington.  The two Indian 
campaigns, of 1863 and 1864, had cost the government about eight million 
dollars, and very little good had been accomplished.  Four years in Dakota, 
during which time he had been thrown into frequent contact with the Indians, had 
taught Governor Edmunds to understand the Indian character.  He believed now 
that more good could be effected, by treating with the Indians than by fighting 
them, and at much less expense.  As previously stated he went directly to the 
president and presented his views.  An appropriation of twenty-five thousand 
dollars was made, and the commission appointed in June met at Fort Randall in 
July to begin their labors.  On this commission were Governor Edmunds, General 
Curtis, Dr. H. W. Reed and Colonel Taylor of Omaha.  Above Fort Randall all the 
Indians were hostile. An order had been given to the various military posts 
along the Missouri, to furnish the commission with protection whenever the 
members deemed necessary. With the true military instinct, General Curtis 
insisted upon a guard going with them from Fort Randall, and remain with them 
all the time they were in the hostile country. Governor Edmunds insisted that 
the presence of troops on board their boat would have a tendency to incense the 
Indians and make the work of the commission all the more difficult, if it did 
not render it altogether futile.  He argued that their mission was one of peace; 
that the Indians would treat with them more readily if everything of a warlike 
nature should be left behind, and they entered the Indian country barehanded and 
sued for peace.  His argument finally won the day, and the little steamer 
"Calipso" went on up the river, with none on board save the officers and crew of 
the boat, the members of the commission and Charles F. Picotte, interpreter. As 
a matter of fact Governor Edmunds relied upon the assistance of Mr. Picotte, in 
negotiating treaties with the tribes they were going to visit, as he did upon 
that of the other members of the commission.

	Charles F. Picotte was the son of Honore Picotte, a member of the American 
Fur Company, but his mother was a full blooded Yankton Sioux. When he was about 
eight years old, Father DeSmet who was engaged in missionary work among the 
Indians of the Missouri valley, took him to St. Louis and placed him in school. 
He remained in St. Louis until he reached his majority, when he returned to his 
mother's people. Here he exerted all his influence to bring about peaceful 
relations between his mother's tribe and the white people. He went with Captain 
Todd and sixteen of the head men of the Yankton tribe, including himself, to 
Washington in the winter of 1867, and it was largely due to his intelligent and 
well directed efforts that the treaty of April, 1858, was consummated. When, in 
1860, the Indians became dissatisfied with their agent, Major Redfield, and 
threatened the extermination of all the whites at the agency, they were 
prevented from carrying out their threat by the counsel of Mr. Picotte. Soon 
after this he went to live near Yankton upon the six hundred and forty acres he 
had reserved to himself in the treaty of 1858, though his services as 
interpreter and peacemaker were often afterward called into requisition.

	Runners were sent out, here and there, as they proceeded up the river, 
asking the Indians to come in and treat with them. In a majority of these cases 
the Indians signified their willingness to accept the overtures of peace, 
declaring they had had war enough, and some treaties were made. A little 
distance above Fort Berthold, word reached them that a large body of Black Feet 
Sioux were in the neighborhood. Taking Mr. Picotte as his only companion 
Governor Edmunds set out on foot to find the camp.  They had gone about three 
miles from the boat, when they met a Yankton Indian who told them where they 
could find the Blackfeet, and also gave them the information that the band 
numbered about twenty-five hundred. Governor Edmunds sent a message by this 
Yankton to the Blackfeet, telling them that the Great Father had sent three or 
four white men to make peace with them; that if they, the Blackfeet, wanted 
peace they must come to the boat, which was waiting for them at a certain place.

	That same afternoon about two thousand Indians came to the boat. As they 
came aboard the captain of the boat, seeing the Indians were all armed, became 
frightened and exclaimed: We shall all be killed as certain as the world!" 
Governor Edmund~ answered quietly, "O, I guess not," and then turning to the 
Indians, said: "My friends, I met one of your number out on the prairie, and 
sent word to you, by him, that the Great Father had sent out three or four men 
to see you, and to treat with you for peace. Did you get that message?" After a 
short pause one the chiefs grunted out a reply in the affirmative, and the 
governor continued: "Now, when the Great Father sends the white brother to make 
peace with the red brother, he sends him unarmed, but when he sends us to war 
with you, he sends soldiers to fight with you." Here the governor paused again 
to note the effect of the hint he had thrown out. Some of the head chiefs held a 
whispered consultation, that lasted for a few minutes, when they all began to 
quietly leave the boat. Some expected an immediate attack, but the Indians only 
went ashore and quietly laid down their arms, when they returned to the boat, 
ready to hold a council. After this unprecedented behavior on the part of the 
Indians, the governor asked:

	"Now, my friends, when you got that message from me, why did you come here 
armed?" One of the chiefs answered "White man has lied to us." Governor Edmunds 
was too well acquainted with the Indian, and too much of a diplomat to enter 
into an argument on this proposition. He was not there to defend the white man's 
faults and mistakes, he was there to make peace. After a skillful presentation 
of the advantages to be gained by a treaty of peace, he brought out the stores, 
and began a distribution of presents. Blankets were given to the chiefs, calico 
was presented to the squaws, and an abundance of food was distributed to all. In 
a little while a treaty was concluded, and the commission set out on the return 
trip down the river. This incident is mentioned here to show the policy of 
Governor Edmunds in dealing with the Indians. It might have been better had that 
policy been more widely adopted by the government in its Indian affairs.

	Treaties were made by this commission with the Yanktonians, Brules, Two 
Kettles, Minneconjous, Sans Arcs, Ogallalas and Blackfeet.  Most of these 
treaties were kept until the Indians were again driven into hostilities by new 
causes. Thus, at an expense of twenty-five thousand dollars, more was done 
toward securing peaceful relations between the whites and Indians, than two 
military campaigns costing millions of dollars.

	During the spring and summer of 1865 several cessions of land in Dakota, 
were made to the government by various tribes. On March 8, the Winnebago 
reservation, located by Col. C. W. Thompson, in 1863, a short distance below 
Port Pierre, was ceded to the United States, and the Winnebagoes were given a 
home with the Omahas in Nebraska. This cession was afterward included in the 
great Sioux reservation, by the treaty of April 29, 1868. Two days later a 
treaty by which a small tract on the north side of the Keya Paha was ceded to 
the government, was made with the Poncas and soon after opened to settlement.

	At Fort Sully, October 14, a treaty in which they relinquished their 
claims to a tract on the west side of the Missouri river, beginning at the mouth 
of White river and extending about twenty miles north, was made with the 
Ogallalas, Two Kettles and Lower Brule Sioux. This cession lay opposite 
Chamberlain and included Fort Lookout. It was also made a part of the great 
Sioux reservation by the Fort Laramie treaty of 1868.

	In June General Sully led his third expedition against the Indians in the 
upper Missouri country. Aside from this military demonstration, and an 
occasional Indian outrage, peace prevailed. Bountiful harvests this year 
rewarded the labors of the pioneers, and Dakota wore an air of peace and 
prosperity.  The summer of 1865 witnessed the last of the Indian outrages in 
Southeastern Dakota. Three men named Watson, Fletcher and LaMoure, assisted by, 
Mrs. Fletcher, were putting up hay near Richland, in Union county, when they 
were attacked by Indians. LaMoure, who was driving the mower, was instantly 
killed. Watson was shot several times with arrows, one of which entered his 
back, just below the shoulder blade, and passed entirely through his body.  He 
recovered however and lived several years to tell the story.  Fletcher escaped 
unhurt.  Mrs. Fletcher, who was loading the hay on the wagon, made a valiant 
effort to prevent the savages from taking the horses.  Every time they would 
begin to unharness the team she would strike at them with the pitchfork.  
Several of the Indians received ugly wounds in the face and neck at the hands of 
the heroic woman. Then a few arrows were fired at her, and, realizing that her 
life was threatened, she fell upon the hay where she remained unmolested.

	The Indians took all the horses on the farm, and went up the Big Sioux 
toward Sioux Falls. A posse was organized and started in pursuit, but the 
Indians were not overtaken.  Just before this happened Captain Miner's company 
had been mustered out of the United States service, disbanded, and the men had 
returned to their homes again to take up the lives of civilians.

	Other outrages committed in this predatory warfare were the burning of 
stations of the overland mail route; isolated bands of emigrants were cut off 
and murdered; and some minor depredations, as the stealing of horses and cattle.  
These were some of the drawbacks to the Territory of Dakota, in a season that 
otherwise was full of promise.  Added to this was the lack of population.  Owing 
to the absence of gold in paying quantities, immigrants came in but in small 
numbers, the territories farther west promising greater returns with less 
effort.

	During the summer the government largely increased the forces west of the 
Missouri, many of the soldiers being men who had served in the Confederate army. 
This display of armed force had its effect upon the Indians, who either retired 
to their winter camps, or sued for peace.

	Beginning July 6, the first session of the territorial supreme court was 
held at Yankton, with Chief Justice Ara Bartlett, presiding, Jefferson P. Kidder 
and William E. Gleeson, associate judges, and Moses K. Armstrong, clerk.

	As winter approached the question of schools began to receive some 
attention.  Several new families had come to the territory during the year, and 
it was realized that the increase in the number of children demanded some action 
looking toward their education.  A school-house which some maintain was the 
first in Dakota had been built at Vermillion the winter before (1864-5) On this 
point authorities are divided.  Doane Robertson says the first school-house was 
built as early as 1860, at Bon Homme, by John H. Shober, and that Miss Emma 
Bradford was employed as teacher.  Others assert that the first school was in 
Union county, near Elk Point, but do not say whether a school-house was built 
there.

	However this may be, the first school-house in Yankton was built in the 
winter of 1865-66.  It originated with the women, who, seeing the need of some 
place where the children could acquire at least the rudiments of an education, 
organized themselves into the "Ladies Educational Aid Society."  The officers of 
this society were:  Mrs. Newton Edmunds, president; Mrs A. G. Fuller and Mrs. G. 
W. Kingsbury, vice presidents; Mrs. J. S. Foster, secretary; Mrs. B. M. Smith, 
treasurer; Mrs. J. D. Vanderhule, inspectress, and Mesdames M. U. Hoyt, J. V. 
Bunker, L. H. Elliott and Anna Mathieson, directresses.  A committee on 
entertainment was appointed, consisting of Mesdames G. P. Waldron, W. Elliott, 
H. C. Ash, M. M. Mathieson and S. Morrow.  Thus organized the ladies went forth 
to conquer. The first meeting after the organization was held November 23, 1865.  
At this meeting receipts amounting to nine dollars and eighty-five cents were 
reported.  Of this seven dollars and twenty-five cents was received from 
membership fees, the members, in addition to the officers and committees already 
named, being Mesdames S. C. Fargo, Frank Bronson, Ara Bartlett, L. M. Griffith, 
Warner Elliot, _____Young, ______ Grant, and Misses Ada Cooley, V. Vanderhule, 
Lizzie and Callie Hoyt, Nettie Bronson and Lula Waldron.  The other two dollars 
and sixty cents was reported as being the proceeds resulting from the sale of 
five bed ticks at forty cents each, two aprons at twenty-five cents each, and 
one pillow case ten cents.

	This sum of nine dollars and eighty-five cents was the nucleus of the fund 
that built Yankton's first school-house.  On the evening of November 27, the 
society gave a "Thanksgiving festival," which netted two hundred twenty-two 
dollars and twenty-five cents, and a Christmas entertainment brought in one 
hundred eight dollars and seventy cents more. An oyster supper on April 5, added 
nearly a hundred dollars more to the treasury, and S. C. Fargo donated twenty-
five dollars.  April 26, 1866, the society held its last meeting, at which all 
outstanding indebtedness was provided for, and four hundred eighty-two dollars 
and forty-five cents was turned over to William Miner, treasurer of a building 
committee composed of Gov. Newton Edmunds, D. T. Bramble, A. C. Fuller, F. J. 
DeWitt, Jas. S. Foster and William Miner.  The west side of Walnut street, 
between Third and Fourth streets, the location of the new post office, was 
selected as a site, and the contract was let to Van Epps and Case for eleven 
hundred dollars.  The plan contemplated a building thirty by seventy feet, which 
could be used for a town hall, as well as for a school room.  It was begun 
August 22, 1866, and on Christmas eve was dedicated by a grand ball.

	On December 4, 1865, the fifth annual session of the legislature met at 
Yankton.  George Stickney was elected president of the council. and Maj. Joseph 
R. Hanson, secretary.  In the house G. B. Bigelow was elected speaker, and 
George I. Foster was again chosen chief clerk.  As soon as the two houses were 
organized, they met in joint session to hear the message of the governor.  In 
his message Governor Edmunds spoke feelingly of the assassination of President 
Lincoln, which had occurred in the preceding April, and recommended legislation 
to foster immigration, establish better schools, and, as coal had been 
discovered by one of the Sully expeditions, encourage mining within the limits 
of the Territory.  He also recommended memorials to congress asking for more 
wagon roads, and for an appropriation for a capitol building.

	Up to this time ferries, town sites and new counties had each been made 
the subject of a special act of the legislature. At this session, acting upon a 
suggestion from the governor, the legislature enacted general laws to cover such 
cases. Toward the close of the session they passed an act creating a board of 
education, and Rev. M. Hoyt, William Shriner and N. J. Wallace were appointed 
the first board, with power to appoint a superintendent of public instruction, 
recommend amendments to the school laws, and select text books for use in the 
schools. Aside from the acts mentioned, little was done by this session of the 
legislature.

	Much snow accompanied by severe weather fell during the winter of 1865-66. 
As the snow melted off in the spring, the Missouri overflowed its banks, causing 
considerable damage. The three years' war with the Indians was declared at an 
end, and, upon the suggestion of Generals Conner and Sully, a commission was 
sent up the Missouri river to form treaties with the late hostile tribes. The 
work of the commission of the previous year had been so satisfactory that 
Governor Edmunds, Dr. H. W. Reed and General Curtis were re-appointed on the 
commission of 1866. A Mr. Guernsey was added to the commission, a son of 
Reverend Doctor Reed was taken along as secretary, and Moses K. Armstrong was 
made assistant secretary. They left Yankton in May, on the steamer "Ben 
Johnson," went up the Missouri to a hundred miles above Fort Union, and returned 
in August. On the trip they made treaties with the Arickarees, Gros Ventres, 
Mandans, Assiniboines, Crows and Unkpapa Sioux, and distributed one hundred 
twenty-two thousand dollars worth of goods among the tribes named.

	During the summer of 1866, the surveys, showing the standard parallels, 
township, range and section lines, were extended westward into the Sioux 
reservation near Fort Randall. Although some of the treaties made with wandering 
tribes of Indians were not kept, the extension of these surveys opened new lands 
for settlement, the people apparently forgot the recent Indian outrages, and 
Dakota took on every appearance of prosperity.

	President Johnson appointed Andrew J. Faulk, of Pennsylvania, to succeed 
Governor Edmunds, and the new governor reached Yankton in August. Andrew J. 
Faulk, the third territorial governor of Dakota, was born at Milford, Pike 
county, Penn., in 1814. His early education was acquired in the "common pay 
schools" and in the Kittanning Academy. Upon leaving school he learned the 
printer's trade and from 1837 to 1843 edited and published the Armstrong 
"Democrat". While conducting this paper, he read law, afterward entering the 
office of Gallagher and Buffington, at Kittanning, where he completed his legal 
education and was admitted to practice. He took an active part in the politics 
of his native state. The abolition of the law for imprisonment of debtors, which 
was abolished by the constitution of 1838, was due largely to his efforts. In 
1849 the Democratic convention in Pennsylvania declared in opposition to the 
extension of slavery. Two years later this position was repudiated, which led to 
a split in the party; Faulk became a follower of Premont and Lincoln and helped 
to found the Republican party in 1856. In 1861 he was appointed post trader to 
the Yankton Indian agency, in Dakota, by President Lincoln. At that time the 
post was the principal depot of supplies for all the Indian agencies of the 
Upper Missouri country. The position of trader at this post was an important and 
dangerous one. The agency was almost continually surrounded by a horde of 
Indians who professed friendship, but who only wanted an opportunity to loot the 
stores at the agency. After serving three years in this position, Mr. Faulk 
returned to Pennsylvania and engaged in business at Oil City. At this time 
excitement ran high over the wells of petroleum in Western Pennsylvania. 
Governor Faulk caught the fever and became one of the organizers of the Paxton 
Oil Company, of Pittsburg.  He was also one of the organizers and superintendent 
of the Latonia company.  When he was appointed governor of Dakota by President 
Johnson, he was also made superintendent of Indian affairs for the Territory. 
His experience as post trader now proved of great value to him in the discharge 
of the duties of this position.  In 1867 he visited Washington with a number of 
chiefs and head men of the Sioux tribes, and presented them to the president and 
departments. With General Sherman and others, he was an honorary member of the 
peace commission that concluded the Fort Laramie treaty, in 1868, locating all 
the Sioux tribes west of the Missouri river. While governor, he influenced the 
legislature of Dakota to memorialize congress in favor of acquiring the Black 
Hills country and opening it to white settlers. In 1869 he was succeeded by 
Governor Burbank. After retiring from the office of governor, he served as a 
member of the board of aldermen and mayor of Yankton, clerk of the United States 
courts, United States court commissioner, and for a number of years was 
president of the Dakota Bar Association.

	With the incoming of Governor Faulk's administration, several changes were 
made in the subordinate offices of the Territory. George H. Hand was appointed 
United States district attorney for Dakota; William Tripp was appointed surveyor 
general in place of Gen. George D. Hill who resigned; William Shriner, of Clay 
county, was made collector of United States internal revenue for the district of 
Dakota; Edward C. Collins, of Union county, was appointed assessor, and A. L. 
Edwards, of Yankton, was appointed assistant assessor.  This was the first year 
that internal revenue taxes were collected in the Territory of Dakota.

	In the election this year, for delegate to congress, 846 votes were 
polled, an increase of nearly forty per cent over the vote of 1864. Dr. Walter 
A. Burleigh was nominated for re-election, on what was called a "Johnson" 
platform, and W. W. Brookings was nominated on a "straight Republican" platform 
to oppose him. There ensued a spirited campaign which resulted in the re-
election of Doctor Burleigh, by a vote of 592 to 254.  In the legislature this 
year Moses K. Armstrong was elected president of the council, and B. M. Smith, 
secretary.  Capt J. B. S. Todd was chosen speaker of the house and F. Wixson, 
chief clerk. Governor Faulk in his message recommended a memorial to congress 
favoring a new Indian reservation north of the Big Cheyenne river and on the 
plains east of the Rocky mountains, and the opening of the Black Hills to white 
people.  This was the beginning of an agitation that culminated ten years later 
in the government's acquiring title to the Hills, and in turning a strong tide 
of emigration to Dakota.

	The report of the superintendent of public instruction showed that there 
were 1,550 children of school age enumerated in the Territory, of which number 
421 attended the public schools and 160 attended private schools.  Schools had 
been opened in Clay, Union, Yankton and Bon Homme counties.  While the 
legislature was in session there came the news of the horrible butchery of 
Lieutenant Colonel Fetterman and ninety-two soldiers by Red Cloud's band, at 
Fort Phil Kearney in the western part of the Territory. News of this outrage led 
to a memorial to congress praying for the establishment of military posts on the 
frontier, and for the passage of a bill to establish and maintain a territorial 
militia. Congress had given a thousand stand of arms to the Territory and 
Governor Faulk, in his message, recommended that the legislature provide a 
suitable building for their storage and preservation.

	By an act of January 9,1867, all that part of the Territory lying west of 
the 104th meridian was made to constitute the county of Laramie. William L. 
Kuykendall, Philip Mandell and William L. Hopkins were appointed county 
commissioners; Robert Foot, sheriff; George Wilson, Jr., judge of probate; James 
C. Lehmer, register of deeds; Robert Tate, justice of the peace; Frank Ernest, 
constable, and B. J. Walters coroner. Fort Sanders was made the county seat.

	On the same day the legislature passed an act attaching all the lands 
ceded by the Red Lake and Pembina bands of Chippewas to Pembina connty, and 
making Pembina the county seat, unless changed by popular vote on the second 
Tuesday of October following.  By this act the governor was empowered to appoint 
the officers for the county thus constituted. Acts incorporating the Dakota and 
Northwestern and the Minnesota and Missouri railroads were passed.

	At the beginning of the year 1867, it was estimated that the population of 
the Territory had almost, if not quite, doubled during the preceding year.  The 
prospects of an early removal of the Indians to reservations west of the 
Missouri, and the building of the Northern Pacific railroad, gave a great 
impetus to immigration, and already some were talking of the time when Dakota 
would be admitted as a state.  In behalf of the effort to consolidate the 
various Sioux tribes west of the Missouri, Governor Faulk, in company with 
Indian Agents P. H. Conger, of the Yanktons, J M. Stone, of the Santees, and 
Maj. Joseph R. Hanson, of the Two Kettles, visited Washington in February, 1867. 
With them they took fifteen of the chiefs and leading men of each tribe for 
consultation with the government officials. The party left Yankton February 8, 
and remained several weeks in the National Capital.  One of the chiefs was found 
one morning hanging to a lamp post, which was the only incident to mar the 
pleasure of the visit.  All the other chiefs returned to their tribes highly 
pleased with their visit to the Great Father's village, and for a year sowed the 
seeds of amity that yielded fruit in the treaty of Fort Laramie the next year.

	In February the boundaries of the reservation of the Sisseton and Wahpeton 
bands were established.  This reservation was bounded on the south and east by 
the treaty line of 1851, and the Red river of the north to the mouth of Goose 
river; on the north by the Goose river to the north point of Devil's lake; from 
the north point of Devil's lake southwest to the James river; down the James 
river to the mouth of the Moccasin river, and from the mouth of Moccasin in a 
direct line to Kampeska lake. Reservations at Lake Traverse and Devil's lake 
were established, and the title to all included within these boundaries remained 
in the Indians, though the government was given the right to run roads through 
the tract.

	By an executive order on the 20th of March, a reservation was established 
between the Big Sioux and James rivers, for the Santee Sioux. The southern 
boundary of this reservation was a due east and west line, a short distance 
north of Madison, extending from the Big Sioux to the James river; the northern 
boundary was just north of Watertown, and was almost identical with the fourth 
standard parallel. This reservation was never occupied by the Santees, and two 
years later the order establishing it was revoked, and the land was thrown open 
for settlement.

	Governor Faulk was re-appointed in March; George Stickney, ex-president of 
the council, was appointed receiver of the United States land office at 
Vermillion; John W. Boyle was appointed associate justice of the supreme court 
for the third district in place of W. E. Gleason, resigned; Col. G. C. Moody was 
chosen register in bankruptcy for the district of Dakota, and D. M. Mills, of 
Elk Point, became assessor of internal revenue.

	By an act of congress, approved July 20, 1867, the president was 
authorized to send another peace commission into the Upper Missouri country.  
President Johnson appointed on this commission Gen. W. T. Sherman, Gen. W. S. 
Harney, Gen. John B. Sanborn, Gen. A. H. Terry, Col. N. G. Taylor, who was 
commissioner of Indian affairs, Mr. Henderson, chairman of the senate committee 
on Indian affairs, and Colonel Tappan of Colorado. The commission met at St. 
Louis, August 6, and organized by the election of Col. N. G. Taylor, president, 
and A. S. H. White, an old attache of the interior department, secretary. As 
they went up the river they were joined by Governor Faulk, who remained with the 
commission until its labors for that season were ended.

	The main object of the commission was to induce all the tribes east of the 
Missouri, to accept reservations west of that stream, and remove to them. While 
nothing definite was accomplished this year, the way was opened for the treaty 
of Fort Laramie the succeeding April, by which the great Sioux reservation was 
established.

	A movement to open up a route to the gold mines of Montana by way of the 
Black Hills was commenced this year. An expedition under the leadership of Byron 
M. Smith was organized in Southeastern Dakota. Circulars were sent out, and a 
number of people came from the east to Yankton to join the enterprise. The 
government was asked to furnish an escort of cavalry, but the request was 
refused, and the expedition was positively forbidden to enter the Indian 
country. The undertaking was therefore abandoned.

	During the summer Governor Faulk received from the war department 
equipments for ten companies of cavalry. Men enough to make up the quota were 
soon enlisted, and the governor appointed the following staff: James L. Kelley, 
adjutant general; D. M. Mills, quartermaster, with the rank of brigadier 
general; John L. Jolley, paymaster, and John Lawrence, aid de camp, each with 
the rank of colonel. Companies were soon organized and the equipments were 
distributed, but the men were never called upon for active service.

	In June, an attack was made upon Fort Randall. One man was killed, and 
thirty-seven horses were taken by the Indians. At the Yankton agency, on the 
opposite side of the Missouri the fort, the agent, P. H. Conger, placed all the 
white men about the agency under arms in expectation of an assault; but the 
outbreak ended with the theft of the horses, and the agency was not molested. On 
August 7, Major Powell, with a detachment of troops, was guarding a wood train 
at Fort Phil Kearney, when he was attacked by about eight hundred Indians, and; 
after a spirited engagement of three hours, the Indians were repulsed with heavy 
loss.  In the early part of November Lieutenant Shirley, with forty men, was 
attacked about twenty miles above Fort Phil Kearney by some of Red Cloud's band.  
Shirley was shot in the foot, and the Indians succeeded in capturing six wagons 
and about twenty thousand dollars worth of goods. About the same time, fourteen 
warriors belonging to Big Bear's gang came within two miles of Fort Laramie and 
ran off seventy-five horses and mules that were grazing under the care of some 
herdsmen.  Captain Wells with a company of cavalry pursued them, but they 
succeeded in making their escape. These were the only exhibitions of hostility 
of consequence in the Territory, during the year.

	A teachers' institute, the first in Dakota, was held this summer at Elk 
Point.  About twenty teachers were enrolled, and addresses were made by S. L. 
Spink and W. W. Brookings, of Yankton, Hon. E. C. Collins and Rev. T. McK. 
Stewart, of Elk Point, and James S. Foster, superintendent of public 
instruction.

	Contests over the Yankton town site had cast a doubt on the validity of 
titles to real estate in that city.  In the summer of 1867 James E. Witherspoon 
received a patent to 127.45 acres of land in the west part of the town of 
Yankton. He compromised with the occupants of the land, which proceeding settled 
the question of titles in that part of the capital.

	The seventh session of the territorial legislature met December 2. H. J. 
Austin was chosen president of the council, and George I. Foster, secretary. 
Enos Stutsman, who had been president of the council in several of the earlier 
legislatures, was elected speaker of the house, and P. Halnan, chief clerk. 
Owing to the increase in population, several new counties were created at this 
session. Carter county was created from that part of Laramie county lying west 
of one hundred and seven degrees twenty minutes. James H. Lowery, William 
Misshany and William Rose were appointed county commissioners; Hancy B. Hubble, 
judge of probate; John Murphy, sheriff; A. G. Turner, register of deeds; 
Frederick Staples and Francis D. McGovern, justices of the peace, and Nathaniel 
McDaniels, coroner.

	This necessitated new officers for Laramie county, and Benjamin Ellinger, 
Roger T. Beal and Patrick McDonald were appointed commissioners; J. L. Laird, 
sheriff; William L. Kuykendall, judge of probate; William Morris, register of 
deeds; F. W. Johnson, coroner; J. H. Gildersleeve, county superintendent of 
schools; S. H. Winson, surveyor, and E. P. Johnson, district attorney.

	On December 30, the governor approved an act organizing the county of 
Lincoln, which had been created by the act of April 5, 1862. The counties of Bon 
Homme, Clay, Union and Yankton, had been organized in 1862, the same year they 
had been created. Lincoln county, then, was the fifth organized county in the 
Territory. Officers were appointed, as follows: County commissioners, Augustus 
J. Linderman, H. P. Hyde and Benjamin Hill; sheriff, C. H. Smith; judge of 
probate, J. Q. Fitzgerald; register of deeds, William Hill; justices of the 
peace, W. Hyde and W. S Smith; constable, James Weekly; coroner, Joseph Weekly.  
For judicial and legislative purposes the county was attached to the county of 
Union, and the county seat was located at Canton, where it still remains.

	On January 4, the county of Minnehaha was organized. John Nelson, John 
Thompson and William Melville were appointed commissioners, and Edward Broughton 
register oŁ deeds. The commissioners were given power to fill the other offices 
by appointments.

	Probably the most important event of the year 1868, so far as the people 
of Dakota were concerned, was the treaty of Fort Laramie, April 19, by which the 
great Sioux reservation was located west of the Missouri river. In his order of 
August i8, for the removal of the various Indian tribes to their reservations, 
General Sherman has this to say of the Sioux reservation:

	"The following district of country is set aside for the exclusive use df 
the Sioux nation of Indians, viz.: Bounded on the east by the Missouri River, 
south by the State of Nebraska, west by the one hundred and fourth meridian of 
longitude west from Greenwich, and north by the forty-sixth parallel of 
latitude, and will constitute a military district under the command of Brevet 
Major-General W. S. Harney, United States Army, who will have the supervision 
and control of the Sioux, and of all issues and disbursements to them, subject 
only to the authority of the Lieutenant-General commanding; but in matters 
affecting the United States troops stationed in said district, he will be 
subject to the department commander, Brevet Major-General A. H. Terry." 

	By the treaty the Indians gave up all right to occupy lands outside this 
reservation, except that they were given permission to hunt north of the North 
Platte and the Republican fork of Smoky Hill river, as long as buffaloes were to 
be found there. This treaty virtually settled the Indian question in all that 
part of Dakota lying east of the Missouri.  Scarcely had it been signed, when 
the Black Hills fever broke out again in eastern Dakota, and a protest against 
including the Hills in the great reservation was made.  But the protest came too 
late; the treaty had already been concluded.

	Capt. P. B. Davy, of Minnesota, offered his services for the purpose of 
organizing a company to explore the Black Hills.  It was generally believed that 
coal and iron were to be found there, and these minerals were more desired by 
the people of Dakota than gold. Timber was known to be plentiful in the valleys 
of that region, and lumber is an essential article in the development of a new 
country.  Hand bills were again posted, circulars sent out, meetings held, and 
general interest was aroused in the venture, when the government again 
interposed.

	Facilities for traveling were materially increased this season. The 
Northwestern Transportation Company began running boats regularly from Sioux 
City to Fort Benton. A stage route was opened from Sioux City to Yankton, thus 
giving the capital a daily mail. A wagon road from Sioux City to Fort Randall 
had been practically completed the previous year. John Lawrence was appointed 
superintendent to finish it, and to construct the necessary bridges along the 
route.

	By an act of congress, approved July 25, 1865, the two western counties of 
Dakota-Laramie and Carter-were cut off and erected into the Territory of 
Wyoming.

	During the session of 1867, the legislature of Dakota had recommended this 
action, because the gold mines in that section of the Territory had attracted a 
lawless, turbulent element, that, being so far from the seat of government and 
the established courts, could not well be controlled.  Before the Territory of 
Wyoming was separated from Dakota, the election of 1868 was held. Five 
candidates presented themselves for congressional honors. S. L. Spink was 
nominated as the straight Republican, and Capt. J. B. S. Todd, as the straight 
Democratic candidate. Influenced chiefly by local considerations, J. W. Toohey, 
Dr. W. A. Burleigh and J. P. Kidder ran as independents. The vote this year 
showed a marked increase in the population, 4,679 votes being cast.  Of these S. 
L. Spink received 1,424, Captain Todd, 1,089, Mr. Toohey, 878, Doctor Burleigh, 
698 and Judge Kidder, 591. A full legislative ticket was also elected. The 
legislature met December 7, and was organized by the election of W. W. Brookings 
president of the council, and A. F. Shaw secretary; Eno Stutsman was elected 
speaker of the house.

	Albany county, in the western part of the Territory, was created by an act 
approved December i6, and the following county officers were appointed: 
Commissioners, J. W. Collins, Frederick Laycock and T. J. Ruth; sheriff, Thomas 
D. Sears; judge of probate, M. C. Page; register of deeds, A. W. McClearn; 
justices of the peace, N. T. Webber, J. C. Walters, B. E. Green and H. C. Hall; 
constables, S. Osborn and Samuel Douglas; coroner, J. H. Finfrock; county 
superintendent of schools, George W. Lancaster; surveyor, H. H. Richards; 
district attorney, E. L. Kerr. Laramie City was made the county seat, and the 
county was attached to Carbon county for judicial purposes. On the same date 
Carbon county was created. John C. Dyer, G. Frazer and S. M. Burr were appointed 
county commissioners; John Gurnell, sheriff; Francis B. Edwards, probate judge; 
L. P. Corey, district attorney; George Ward and M .E. Metcalf, constables. 
Rawling's Springs was designated as the county seat. Both of these counties now 
are in Wyoming.

	A resolution asking the president to appoint residents of the Territory to 
the territorial offices was adopted at this session, and complements of 
residents were recommended for such appointments. As the 4th of March, 1869, 
approached, quite a number of the leading politicians of Dakota went to 
Washington to urge upon the new president the importance of appointing those 
recommended by the legislature. But there were too many office seekers from 
other states to be taken care of, and only six residents of the Territory were 
appointed. Soon after his inauguration of President Grant named the following 
officers for the Territory: Governor, John A. Burbank, of Indiana; secretary, 
Turney M. Wilkins; chief justice, George W. French; associate justices, 
Jefferson P. Kidder and Wilmot W. Brookings; marshal, Laban N. Litchfield; 
surveyor general, W. H. H. Beadle; assessor of internal revenue, J. Pope 
Hodnett; assistant, J. A. Pierce; collector of internal revenue, G. P. Bennett; 
register United States land office, B. F. Campbell; receiver, N. J. Wallace; 
postmasters, at Yankton, M. U. Hoyt; at Vermillion, L. N. Palmer; at E1k Point, 
C. M. Northup; Indian agents, Capt. William J. Broatch for the Yanktons and Maj. 
W. H. Hugo for the Poncas. In June of the same year Warren Cowles of 
Pennsylvania was appointed United States district attorney.

	John A. Burbank, the fourth territorial governor of Dakota, was born at 
Centerville, Wayne county, Ind., in 1827.  He was brought up to the mercantile 
business and became a successful merchant. At the close of the Civil war, he 
emigrated to Nebraska, where he became interested in the development of mining 
interests in the Northwest, and took a prominent part in the organization of 
Wyoming. At the time he was appointed governor of Dakota, he was an applicant 
for the governorship of Wyoming.  Soon after coming to Yankton, he associated 
himself with Maj. Joseph R. Hanson, W. W. Brookings and George W French, in the 
real estate business, under the firm name of J. R Hanson & Co.  The Picotte 
grant was part of the land placed on the market by this firm, which for several 
years did a lucrative business.  During the factional fight in his party, in 
Yankton, in the campaigns of 1870-72, one of his partners, Mr. Brookings, 
happened to be a leader of one of the factions.  Because of this fact, Governor 
Burbank was accused of favoring the Brookings clique.  To all these accusations 
he paid no attention, and in 1874 a reconciliation between the factions was 
effected, mainly through his influence as mediator.  In 1874 he was succeeded by 
Governor Pennington, and returned to Richmond, Ind., where he again engaged in 
mercantile pursuits.

	The year 1869 marks the actual beginning of permanent growth and 
improvement in the city of Yankton.  Owing to the dispute over titles, 
previously mentioned, the capital of Dakota had, for several years, been a 
straggling town, with a population of about 500. Few buildings of a substantial 
character had been erected, until the compromise of Mr. Witherspoon in 1867 
brought about a better class of structures, and in two years the town had 
assumed more of a metropolitan appearance.  In 1869 Capt. J B. S. Todd followed 
the example of Mr. Witherspoon, and compromised with the citizens of Yankton 
occupying land for which he held a government patent. A phenomenal increase in 
the value of Yankton real estate followed, reaching in some instances, as high 
as three hundred per cent and the future of Yankton was assured.  The greatest 
need of Southeastern Dakota was improved means of transportation.  In 1869 the 
citizens made attempts to secure a railroad from Yankton, through Clay and Union 
counties, to Sioux City, Ia., but nothing definite was achieved. A large number 
of immigrants came to Dakota this year, most of them settling near Yankton, 
Vermillion or Sioux Falls. Among these immigrants was Richard F. Pettigrew, 
afterward United States senator from South Dakota.

	The city of Yankton was incorporated by the legislature at the session of 
1868-69, and the first city election at which Wm. N. Collamer was chosen mayor 
and there was chosen a board of six aldermen, was held in April, 1869.

	On June 18, 1869, the military reservation at Sioux Falls was vacated, 
Fort Dakota being removed to Medary, about sixty miles farther north. The next 
year the reservation was opened to settlement, and another influx of immigrants 
was brought to Minnehaha county.

	On October 12, an election for members of the territorial legislature was 
held. A full council and house were elected; but the legislature did not meet, 
because congress made no appropriation for defraying the expenses of the 
session.  From this time forward the sessions of the legislature were held 
biennially.

	The census of 1870 showed that Dakota had fourteen established counties, 
viz.: Bon Homme, Brookings, Buffalo, Charles Mix, Clay, Deuel, Hutchings, Jayne, 
Lincoln, Minnehaha, Pembina, Todd, Union and Yankton. The population of these 
fourteen counties was 12,090, while the unorganized portion of the Territory 
contained a population of 2,091 more. In 1860 the population was 4,837, thus 
showing an increase of nearly three hundred per cent during the decade, the 
greater portion of which had been made during the last three years. An act 
authorizing the appointment of a commissioner of immigration was passed by the 
legislature of 1868-69, and the governor appointed James S. Foster, who had come 
to Dakota in 1864 with the New York colony, and who had served as the first 
superintendent of public instruction. Immediately upon receiving his 
appointment, Mr. Foster went to work gathering data regarding the resources of 
Dakota, and giving the results of his investigation to the public. Much of the 
immigration during the next few years can be traced directly to this source. On 
April 12, 1870, by an executive order, President Grant set apart from the public 
domain a reservation for the Arickaree, Gros Ventres and Mandan Indians.  By 
this order the reservation was located south and west of the Missouri river, 
extending south as far as the headwaters of the Heart river, and westward into 
Montana. By accepting the reservation thus given them, the Indians gave up all 
title to the lands assigned to them by the treaty of 1851.

	Ninety miles up the Red river of the north from Pembina is the city of 
Grand Forks, the county seat of Grand Forks county.  As one walks along the 
streets of the bustling little city today, he can hardly realize that in 1870 
the site was a howling wilderness. Yet the first shack was built upon the high 
banks of Red river this year by Capt. Alexander Griggs.

	In the Republican convention of 1870, there occurred a rupture that 
resulted in the nomination of two candidates, Dr. W. A. Burleigh and S. L. 
Spink, for delegate to congress. The break grew out of local conditions in the 
city of Yankton. One faction was led by W. W. Brookings and was known as the 
"Capital Street gang." Col. Gideon C. Moody became the leader of the other side 
which was called the "Broadway gang."  Practically the whole Territory took 
sides in the matter, and men living hundreds of miles from the capital were 
charged with being members of the Capital Street or Broadway gangs. Not only 
were two candidates nominated for delegate, but each faction put a full ticket 
for legislative and county officers in the field.  Moses K. Armstrong was 
nominated for delegate by the Democrats, and, owing to the fight in the 
Republican party, which grew more bitter as election day approached, was elected 
by a small plurality.  Of the 3,302 votes cast, Armstrong received 1,198, 
Burleigh 1,102, and Spink 1,002.

	On December 5, the first biennial session of the legislature was convened. 
It was at this session of the legislature that the first significant expression 
regarding a division of the Territory was made. From Yankton to Pembina was 
three hundred fifty miles, as the crow flies. As population increased, it was 
seen that the government of the commonwealth would become more expensive, 
because of the vast expanse of country over which it must be administered. 
Wyoming had been cut off two years before for this very reason. On January 12, 
1871, the governor approved a memorial to congress praying for a division of the 
Territory on the forty-sixth degree of latitude.

	The growth of population in some of the unorganized portions of the 
Territory, made it necessary for this session of the legislature to provide some 
general method for the organization of counties. Accordingly, on January 11, 
1871, the legislature approved a bill providing that whenever fifty or more of 
the inhabitants of any unorganized county should petition the governor for a 
county organization the governor should appoint three commissioners, who were to 
appoint the other county officers - both the commissioners and officers 
appointed by them to hold until the next general election. Under this act 
several counties were organized during the three years following its passage.

	Two days after the approval of this act, the governor added his signature 
to another defining the boundaries of Union, Clay, Bon Homme, Charles Mix, 
Buffalo, Hutchinson, Turner, Lincoln, Minnehaha, Brookings, Deuel, Pembina and 
Hanson counties.

	By the provisions of this act, Turner and Hanson counties were created, 
the boundaries of the adjacent counties being adjusted to accommodate them. On 
the same date Brookings, Buffalo, Hanson, Hutchinson and Turner counties were 
all organized, and county officers were appointed, as follows: For Brookings 
county, Martin Trygstadt, L. M. Hewlet, Elias Thompson were appointed with full 
power to fill the other offices, except that of register of deeds, which was 
filled by the appointment of William H. Packard. In Hutchinson county Charles H. 
Greno was appointed register of deeds, and T. J. Maxwell, John Bray and Henry 
Maxwell were appointed commissioners with power to fill the other offices by 
appointment. Maxwell City was made the county seat. Hanson county was organized 
by the appointment of John Q. Burbank register of deeds; George E. Vernon, G. H. 
Wetmore and John Caffrey commissioners with power to appoint the other officers. 
The county seat of Hanson county was temporarily located at old Fort James and 
known as Rockport. Henry Walker, John Reeves and George Cheatham were appointed 
commissioners of Buffalo county, and given power to fill the other offices, 
except register of deeds, which was filled by the appointment of George Timms. 
White Earth City near the mouth of White Earth river, was designated as a 
temporary county seat. C. S. Scott was appointed register of deeds of Turner 
county, and William W. Aurner, Vale P. Thielman and Lewis H. Elliott were 
appointed county commissioners. The county seat of Turner county was located on 
the southeast quarter of section 9, township 97 north, range 53 west, and was 
named Swan Lake City. Soon after the adjournment of the legislature, in 1871, 
the agitation of the railroad question came up again in Southeastern Dakota, and 
the governor was importuned to call a special session of the legislature to pass 
a measure authorizing organized counties to vote subsidies to railroad 
companies, and issue bonds to secure the building of the roads. In response to 
the demand, Governor Burbank called a special session, and on the 21st of April, 
1871, he approved an act of the character above mentioned. Yankton county, for 
whose benefit, more than any other county, the act was passed, held an election 
on the 2d of September following, and voted a bond issue of two hundred thousand 
dollars to aid in the construction of the Dakota Southern railroad, from Yankton 
to Sioux City, Ia., or some point, where it would connect with railroad lines 
leading eastward. These bonds were to run twenty years, and were to bear 
interest at the rate of eight per cent per annum, payable semi-annually. The 
Dakota Southern Company accepted the proposition of Yankton county, and agreed 
to have a railroad completed to the capital by the close of the year 1872. It 
was some weeks later than this before the road was finished, and the first train 
rolled into Yankton in the dead of winter. Ten years later this bond issue came 
up to harass the people of Dakota, when they were knocking at the door of 
congress for admission into the Union.

	In June, 1872, congress passed an act instructing the secretary of the 
interior to report the extent of the title of the Sisseton and Wahpeton tribes 
to the tract of land lying between the Cheyenne and James rivers, which extended 
eastward, south of the Cheyenne, to the Minnesota line, and which had been made 
the subject of treaty February 19, 1867. By the agreement made at that time, the 
whites were granted the privilege of running roads through the Indian 
possessions. One of the roads constructed under this right was the Northern 
Pacific railroad, that part of the line between Valley City and Jamestown being 
in the Indian country.  On September 20, 1872, the Indians ceded the whole tract 
to the United States except the reservations at Lake Traverse and Devil's lake, 
which had been established by the aforementioned treaty of 1867.  By an act, 
February 14, 1873, congress amended the treaty of September 20, which step 
caused a delay in the final settlement with the tribes; and the land was not 
opened to settlers until June 22, 1874.

	In the campaign of 1872 each of the two factions in the Republican party 
put forth its leader as a candidate for delegate to congress.  Instead of 
becoming reconciled, the breach widened, and again there were two Republican 
candidates in the field.  The "Capital Street" element nominated W. W. 
Brookings, and the "Broadway" crowd, loyal to their leader, named Col. Gideon C. 
Moody. Moses K. Armstrong was again nominated by the Democrats, and was given 
the support of the liberal Republicans. Again Armstrong was elected by reason of 
the opposing forces being divided. Of the total vote cast, he received 1,902, 
Moody, 1,549 and Brookings 992. After the election the strife between the two 
divisions of the Republican party became more bitter, and culminated in the 
assassination of Gen. E. S. McCook by P. P. Wintermute.

	Governor Burbank, Chief Justice French, and General McCook, who had been 
appointed territorial secretary earlier in the season, constituted the board of 
canvassers of the vote of 1872. In counting the vote it was discovered that a 
number of bogus precincts had sent in returns, which the board threw out.

	As the time drew near for the meeting of the legislature, it began to be 
rumored that the "Broadwayites" were endeavoring to form a coalition with 
certain democratic members, for the purpose of unseating some of the Brookings, 
or Capital Street clan. One of the members marked for removal was Enos Stutsman, 
this year a member of the house from Pembina county. Mr. Stutsman had served as 
president of the council and speaker of the house in some of the earlier 
legislatures.  He was deservedly popular, and the report that he was to be 
ousted by the means and for the reasons reported, aroused a storm of 
indignation. Governor Burbank denounced the effort to unseat members of the 
legislature as an outrage, and he and General McCook are said to have intimated 
to Mr. Armstrong that if any of his friends became parties to such a course, it 
might become necessary for the canvassing board to order a recount of the vote 
and admit the precincts which had been rejected in the former canvass. Whatever 
may have been the facts, the canvassing board was not reconvened nor were the 
members removed from their seats.

	General McCook lived on Capital street, while Wintermute lived in the 
Broadway district. When the latter heard of the proposed action of the 
canvassing board, he accused McCook of taking sides with the Capital Street 
faction, and said some very harsh things about the secretary. The ill feeling 
increased until later during a public meeting, Wintermute after a violent and 
angry discussion, in which both parties came to blows, shot and killed MeCook in 
self defense, as afterwards found by the jury. The shock of this assassination 
brought the warring factions to their senses. All saw to what an extent their 
animosity had led, and the feud was at an end.

	The second biennial session of the legislature was convened December 2, 
1872, and remained in session till January 10, 1873. On December 21, they passed 
an act authorizing Yankton county to borrow not more than eight thousand dollars 
in any one year, nor for a longer period than twelve months, to pay interest on 
the Dakota Southern bonds, issued the year before. Railroad warrants - not to 
exceed eight thousand dollars in any one year, and bearing ten per cent interest 
- were to be issued, and were to be receivable in payment of taxes.

	Much attention was paid during this session to the creation of new 
counties. On January 4, 1873, the governor approved an act creating the counties 
of Grand Forks, just south of Pembina; Cass county, south of Grand Forks; 
Richland county, south of Cass; Burbank, west of Cass; Stutsman, west of 
Burbank; Ransom, west of Richland, and LaMoure, west of Ransom. George Winship, 
John W. Stewart and Ole Thompson were appointed commissioners of Grand Forks 
county, and John J. Mullen was appointed register of deeds. Judson LaMoure and 
A. H. Kelley were named as two of the commissioners of Stutsman county. All 
other officers in the counties created by this act, were to be appointed by the 
governor whenever fifty or more voters of the county petitioned for 
organization.

	Fargo was made the county seat of Cass county, and Cagkinkapa, the county 
seat of Richland county.  It was further provided that the south line of 
Richland, Ransom and LaMoure counties should be the south line of the northern 
territory in case Dakota should be divided.

	Another bill, of the same date, established a tier of counties along the 
northern border, from Pembina to Montana. Immediately west of the county of 
Pembina was the county of Cavalier; then in order came Rolette, Bottineau, 
Renville, Mountvaille, and Wallette. The last named lay in the extreme 
northwestern corner of the Territory, and was afterward divided into the 
counties of Buford and Flannery.  South of this tier were established the 
counties of Ramsey, lying directly south of Cavalier; Foster, south of Ramsey, 
and McHenry, south of Bottineau. Gingras, Stevens and French counties created at 
the same time, have since been incorporated into other counties.

	On January 8, the following named counties, all in South Dakota, were 
created: Beadle, Camphell, Clark, Davison, Edmunds, Faulk, Grant, Hamlin, Hand, 
Hughes, Hyde, Kingsbury, Lake, Lyman, McCook, McPherson, Miner, Moody, Presho, 
Spink, Stanley, Sully and Walworth.  Several counties, viz.: Armstrong, Bramble, 
Burchard, Cragin, Greeley, Mills, Stone, Thompson, Wetmore and Wood, created by 
this act, have ceased to exist. Two days after all these counties were 
established, the county of Douglas was created, and the boundaries of Charles 
Mix were changed to admit the formation of the new county.

	Another memorial to congress, asking for a division of the Territory on 
the forty-sixth parallel, was passed on the last day of 1872, with but four 
dissenting votes in the house and none in the council.

	Late in 1873. John L. Pennington was appointed to succeed Governor 
Burbank. He reached Yankton soon after the holidays, and his administration 
dates from January 25, 1874. After the death of General McCook, Oscar Whitney 
was appointed secretary.

	John L. Pennington was born at Newbern, N. C., and the major part of his 
education was received in the common schools of his native town.  It has been 
said of him that "he was raised in a printing office," for while he was a mere 
boy he went to work to learn the printers trade. Before he was twenty-one years 
of age, he went to Columbia, S. C., where he founded a paper which he named the 
"Columbian", and successfully conducted it for a while, when he sold out and 
went back to Newbern.  In 1857 he started the Newbern "Daily Progress", which he 
was still conducting when the city of Newbern was captured by the Union troops 
in 1862. He afterward started another paper at Raleigh, and had it on the high 
road to success, when, in 1866, he went to Lee county, Ala. Here he was elected 
to the first legislature of Alabama after the reconstruction, and later was 
elected state senator. His term as senator expired in 1873, and the same year he 
was appointed governor of Dakota, being the fifth territorial governor. As a 
newspaper writer, Governor Pennington wrote much upon the subject of education. 
Aside from the early training he had received in the common schools, his own 
education had been acquired in the great school of experience. Yet he became an 
able writer and ready debater. In the various positions of trust and profit, 
from manager of a newspaper to governor of a territory, his career showed him to 
be a man of good judgment, and to have a fair share of executive ability.

	About the time he retired from the governor's office, in 1878, the State 
of Nebraska and Territory of Dakota had been consolidated into one internal 
revenue district. He was appointed collector for this district, with 
headquarters at Omaha. After the death of his wife, which occurred in 1891, he 
returned south, and took up his residence at Knoxville, Tenn.

	In July of this year, the Northern Pacific railroad was put into operation 
as far west as the Missouri river. The Dakota Southern, from Yankton to Sioux 
City, a distance of sixty-one miles, was the only other railroad in the 
Territory. Several other railroads were proposed. The most important were 
probably the Yankton and Northwestern, from Yankton to the Big Cheyenne river, 
and the Dakota Central, from Yankton to some point north where a connection with 
the Northern Pacific would be formed.

	It was easy to foresee that the place where the Northern Pacific would 
cross the Missouri would develop into a town. Actuated by this idea Col. Clement 
A. Lounsberry, in the spring of 1873, ordered a newspaper outfit, consisting of 
a Taylor cylinder press and an assortment of type, and set out for the future 
city of Bismarck. On May 11, he reached the place, and, having been colonel of 
the Twentieth Michigan cavalry, took out a soldier's homestead, upon which part 
of the city of Bismarck was afterward built. A cabin was hastily constructed, 
and on June 14, the printing outfit arrived, several days ahead of the railroad, 
and on July 6, the first copy of the Bismarck "Tribune" made its appearance. The 
paper was conducted as a weekly until 1881, when it was changed to a daily.

	Early in the spring of 1874, a war party of Unkpapas made a raid on some 
herdsmen near the Grand river agency, killing Private Collins of the Seventh 
infantry and stealing several horses. Troops followed the Indians toward 
Standing Rock until the trail was lost, when they returned to the agency, and 
the marauders escaped.

	In July an Indian threatened the life of the agent at the Lower Brule 
agency, and then escaped. The tribe was ordered to bring him in and surrender 
him to the authorities.  The next day two hundred and fifty Indians, mounted and 
armed, appeared at the agency, but refused to give up the culprit until the 
agent was given up to them. Captain Bush turned howitzers upon them and 
threatened to fire unless the offender was surrendered. After a short parley 
they gave up the man and disappeared.  Fearing a return, the captain kept the 
guns in position till the next day, when a council was held, in which Bishop 
Hare took a part. The Indians were in bad humor and made a demand for the 
prisoner, some threatening to burn the buildings at the agency if he were not 
released. No attention was paid to their demand, the man was still held and 
again they went away, the show of force made by Captain Bush, probably being the 
only thing that prevented an attack.

	Possibly the event fraught with the greatest importance to the people of 
Dakota during the year 1874, was the expedition of General Custer to the Black 
Hills.  Up to this time no attempt to develop the mineral resources of the 
Territory had been made. It was generally known that deposits of various 
minerals were to be found in the region of the Black Hills; expeditions had been 
organized to explore and locate these deposits, but had been stopped by the 
government.  Governors of the Territory had recommended and legislatures had 
memorialized, but to all the suggestions and prayers the government had turned a 
deaf ear until this year, when General Custer was ordered to explore the region 
and make a report. (For a full account of Custer's expedition see the chapter on 
the Black Hills.)

	During the summer of 1874, myriads of grasshoppers swooped down upon 
Dakota, leaving behind them a trail of destruction and famine. Hundreds of 
families were left without the means of subsistence, or without the seed for 
another crop.  Societies were organized to relieve the suffering caused by the 
visitation of the merciless insects. Clothing, seed and money were sent to these 
societies by generous hearted people of the Eastern states, and, by the arrival 
of seed time in 1875, the people went to work as though such a thing as a 
grasshopper had never existed, to make the success of this year overcome the 
disaster of the year previous. But those who lived in Dakota in the year 1874 
will not soon forget the grasshopper plague that came to them that summer.

	On August 20, a Democratic convention was held at Elk Point, and Moses K. 
Armstrong was again nominated for delegate to congress. On this occasion they 
adopted a resolution to the effect "that it is the sense of this convention, 
that the best interests of the public demand the erection of a new territory of 
that portion of Dakota lying north of the forty-sixth parallel." The nominee of 
the convention was pledged, in the event of his election, to use all honorable 
means to accomplish this end.

	The two factions of the Republican party reunited this year and nominated 
Jefferson P. Kidder for delegate. Of the 9,518 votes cast, the board of 
canvassers rejected about 2,800 from the Black Hills, on the ground that the 
section where they were cast was in an Indian reservation, and not entitled to 
recognition. This decision gave the election to Judge Kidder.

	The third biennial legislature, and the eleventh session since the 
organization of the Territory, was convened December 7, 1874. Up to this time 
the greater part of Western Dakota had not been divided into counties. By the 
act of January 11, 1875, this unorganized territory was divided into the 
counties of Lugenbeel, Shannon, Forsythe, Custer, Lawrence, Pennington, 
Cheyenne, Delano, Mandan, White River, in the southern part, and Mercer, DeSmet, 
and Barnes lying north of the forty-sixth parallel.  Subsequent subdivisions of 
some of the larger counties created by this act have caused them to disappear 
entirely from the map. At the same time Brule county was established, lying west 
of what was then Cragin county; H. M. Leedy, George Trimmer and James Blacketor 
were named as county commissioners and M. H. Day was appointed register of 
deeds.

	On January 14, Traill county, in the northern part, was created. The 
Minnesota state line forms the eastern boundary of Traill county, and the 
northern boundary is marked by the twelfth standard. The county seat was located 
on the southeast quarter of section 15, township 146 north, range 49 west, and 
was named Caledonia. It was removed to Hillsboro about 1891. The legislature 
appointed Asa Morgan, John Brown and James Ostland county commissioners; George 
E. Weston, register of deeds; C. M. Clarke, sheriff, and Asa Sargent, judge of 
probate. Traill county was originally a part of the county of Grand Forks. By 
the establishment of the new county, the boundary lines of Grand Forks county 
were made to conform. The legislature named D. P. Reeves, Alexander Griggs and 
George E. Wheeler for commissioners, and James Elton for register of deeds.

	At this session the legislature passed an act authorizing the governor to 
appoint a commission of "three competent and worthy persons, learned in the law, 
to revise and codify the laws of this territory." In pursuance of the provisions 
of this act, Governor Pennington appointed P. C. Shannon, chief justice of the 
territoral supreme court, Granville G. Bennett, associate justice of the supreme 
court, and the Hon. Bartlett Tripp.  This commission was organized in January, 
1876, a few days after the adjournment of the legislature. Judge Shannon was 
chosen chairman, and Gen. W. H. Beadle was elected secretary.  So thoroughly did 
the members of this commission to their work, that their report was not 
completed until near the close of the legislative session in February, 1877.

	By an executive order, January 11, 1875, the president set apart a tract 
on the east side of the Missouri river, as an addition to the reservations 
established by the treaty of April 29, 1868. Briefly described this tract 
included all the land lying south of the forty-sixth parallel, between the 
ninety-ninth meridian and the Missouri river.  This tract, except a very small 
portion which was relinquished by the order of March 20, 1884, was again 
restored to the public domain by an executive order, dated August 9, 1879.

	On March 16, the president issued another order, adding to the Sioux 
reservation west of the Mississippi river a tract of land lying between the 
forty-sixth parallel and the Cannon Ball river, and extending west to the one 
hundred third meridian.  This land was ceded to the United States by the treaty 
of April 29, 1868, and, notwithstanding this executive order, it really reverted 
to the Indians by the treaty of September 26, 1876, being that part of the 
Standing Rock reservation lying north of the forty-sixth parallel.  A small 
tract was added to the Sioux reservation by an executive order of May 20. This 
addition lay just west of the Yankton reservation near Fort Randall, and was 
practically a continuation of the Yankton reserve to the Missouri river.

	This brings the history of Dakota down to the year 1875. The most 
important event of the year 1876 was the acquisition of the Black Hills by the 
United States, by the treaty of September 25 This acquisition will he made the 
subject of the next chapter.