Dakota Territory History, 1876-1884

CHAPTER IV

This file was extracted from "The Province and the States", edited by Weston 
Arthur Goodspeed, LL. B., Editor-in-Chief, Vol. VI (1904), pages 281-294.

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Dakota, from 1876 to 1884

DURING the years immediately succeeding the opening of the Black Hills country, 
little out of the ordinary current of events occurred in the older settlements 
of Dakota. As is usual in such cases, the general interest centered in the 
mines.  But this development of the mineral resources of the western portion of 
the Territory brought population, and many a man who failed as a miner became 
successful as a farmer, or in some other line of business.

In the campaign 1876, a wider interest was manifested in the question of 
dividing the Territory. On July 6, the Democratic convention was held at 
Yankton, and S. L. Spink was nominated for delegate to congress. This convention 
passed a resolution declaring that "we favor the organization of a new territory 
out of the northern part of Dakota, and believe such an organization will 
largely tend to enhance the interests of the people in both sections." The 
Republicans again nominated Judge Kidder, who was elected by a vote of 6,199 to 
2,413.  In the legislature the Republicans elected a majority in both house and 
council.

The most important act of the legislative session, in the winter of 1876-77, was 
the adoption of the report of the commission on revision and codification, 
appointed in January, 1876.  From the first legislature, in 1862, down to the 
close of the eleventh session, in 1875, each assembly had passed, amended, and 
repealed laws until a general lack of system prevailed when this commission was 
appointed. The code of civil procedure of 1862 had been repealed in 1868 and 
that of New York adopted, and the code of criminal procedure adopted in 1868 was 
repealed in 1873 and again adopted in 1875. A large number of special acts, 
conferring privileges or legalizing the performances of certain localities, had 
been passed during these first eleven sessions, and, in the enactment of laws of 
a general nature, but little attention had been paid to their relation to, or 
bearing upon, other laws already in force. All this mass of promiscuous 
legislation was classified by the commission into a political, a civil and a 
penal code.

All the laws relating to the government of the Territory under the organic law 
of congress; the powers and duties of territorial officers; the rights and 
privileges of municipal corporations, and management of public institutions, 
were now brought into an orderly arrangement and practical system for the first 
time. There laws constituted the political code.  The civil code em-braced all 
those statutes relating to persons and their relations, and to obligations of 
all kinds regarding persons and property, including private corporations. As a 
code of written law it was modeled after that of the New York code commission.  
In a more condensed form the civil code was enacted in Dakota in 1866; afterward 
it was amended and adopted in California in 1873.  By the penal code was made a 
classification of offenses in harmony with the latest and most approved 
legislative standards.  Provisions for the prevention of crime and penalties for 
the punishment of criminals are ample, and the language is divested of all 
verbiage. This code also had its origin in New York; California had revised and 
adopted it, and in an abridged form it had been adopted by the Dakota 
legislature in 1865. The adoption of the report of the commission now made the 
code complete.

On January 24, 1877, both branches of the legislature unanimously adopted a 
memorial praying congress to divide the Territory along the line of the forty-
sixth parallel. A similar memorial had passed two years before, with but one 
dissenting vote in the council. The senate of the United States passed a bill in 
December, 1876, to erect the Territory of Huron out of that part of Dakota north 
of the forty-sixth parallel, and this bill was pending in the national house of 
representatives at the time the territorial legislature passed the memorial 
above referred to.

Albeit the second session of the legislature had passed an act in 1862, locating 
a penitentiary at Bon Homme, no appropriation for a building had been made, and 
consequently none had been erected. With a steadily growing population, the need 
of an institution of this character became so pressing in 1877, that Governor 
Pennington made a contract, August 20, with the trustees of the house of 
correction at Detroit, Mich., for the safe-keeping of Dakota prisoners, at the 
cost of a dollar and a half per week for each of those whose terms were two 
years or less, and a dollar and a quarter per week for each prisoner sentenced 
for a longer term. This arrangement was continued until the Dakota penitentiary 
was built some years later.

In 1878 President Hayes appointed William A. Howard, of Michigan, governor of 
Dakota. He was a native of Vermont, being born at Hinesburg in that state, April 
8, 1813. He could trace his lineage back to John Henry Howard, who came to 
America and settled at Duxbury, Mass., in 1753. When he was about fourteen years 
of age, he was apprenticed to a cabinet maker, and the next five years were 
spent in learning his trade.  But he was too ambitious to spend all his life at 
a cabinet maker's bench. As soon as his apprenticeship was ended, he entered 
Wyoming Academy, where, during the next three years, he prepared for college. In 
1839 he graduated from Middlebury College, and for the next two years taught a 
select school in Genesee county, N. Y. From 1840 to 1842 he was a mathematical 
tutor in the University of Michigan. While thus engaged, he took up the study of 
law, and in 1842 was admitted to the bar.  Soon after being admitted, be formed 
a partnership with Alexander Buell, of Detroit, which partnership lasted until 
1848. In 1854 he was elected a representative in congress from Michigan, and was 
re-elected in 1856 and 1858. On the face of the returns in i858, his opponent, 
George B. Cooper, was declared elected, but Mr. Howard contested the election. 
The contest was not decided until May 15, 1860, when, upon the recommendation of 
the committee on elections, it was settled in favor of Mr. Howard.  While in 
congress, he served as a member of the Ways and Means committee, and, in 1856, 
was a member of the committee of which John Sherman was chairman, to investigate 
the Kansas troubles. Much of the report of this committee was written by Mr. 
Howard.  During the campaign of 1860, he took an active part as a public speaker 
in Michigan, and also in some other states. President Lincoln appointed him 
postmaster at Detroit in the spring of 1861, and while serving in this position 
he gave moral and material aid to the raising of troops for the Union army in 
the Civil war. After the expiration of his term as postmaster, he removed to 
Grand Rapids, Mich., where he served for some time as a commissioner of the 
Grand Rapids and Indiana railroad. He was also commissioner of the Northern 
Pacific railroad in 1872. In 1866 he went to Philadelphia, Pa., as a delegate to 
the historic National Union convention which assembled at that city in August. 
Always active in behalf of his party, he was a delegate to the Republican 
national conventions of 1868, 1872 and 1876. As leader of the Michigan 
delegation, in the convention of 1876, he threw the vote of his state to 
Rutherford B. Hayes at a time when many of the delegates were looking for a 
candidate upon whom a compromise could be effected. The result was that Hayes 
was nominated, and after his inauguration it is said that Mr. Howard was 
billeted for an important position in the foreign service, but in 1878 was 
influenced by Alexander H. Stephens to accept the governorship of Dakota. His 
career as governor of the Territory presents no startling features, because, 
during his administration, no startling events occurred. Although his 
appointment was in the nature of a payment of a political debt, his messages to 
the legislature and his reports to the Federal government show him to have been 
a man of wide information and fine executive ability.  Early in February, 1880, 
he went to Washington, D. C., and remained there until his death, which occurred 
on the 10th of April following.

In the campaign of 1878 the Republicans nominated Judge Granville G. Bennett and 
the Democrats, Hon. Bartlett Tripp for supreme justice. Both candidates had, two 
years before, been members of the commission to revise and codify the laws. The 
election resulted in favor of Bennett.

During the session of the legislature of 1879, the boundaries of several 
counties were changed to meet the demands of a growing commonwealth, and by an 
act of February 22, the counties of Brown, Aurora and Day were created.  
February 10, the legislature passed an act to reimburse Governor Howard to the 
amount of two thousand three hundred eighty-six dollars and thirty cents for 
money advanced to build the insane hospital at Yankton; and on the 22nd an 
appropriation of three thousand nine hundred dollars to furnish the hospital was 
made. On the same date the assembly made an appropriation of ten thousand 
dollars, or so much thereof as might be necessary, for the building of a 
penitentiary. On February 21 they passed an act authorizing the governor to make 
a contract with Iowa, Nebraska or Minnesota for the care of the deaf and dumb of 
Dakota. A resolution protesting against the admission of Dakota as one state was 
also adopted. 
The census of 1880 showed the population of Dakota to be 135,180, an average 
increase of a thousand a month since the census of ten years before. Immediately 
following the taking of the census, the agitation for division of the Territory 
became stronger than ever. Sometimes the sentiment was stronger in the southern 
part, sometimes in the northern, but from this time forward the question was 
almost continually kept before the people.

By an executive order of June 27, 1879, the president set apart, as a 
reservation for Drifting Goose's band, townships 119, 120 and 121 north of range 
63. This reservation lay on both sides of the James river, a little distance 
south of Aberdeen.  Drifting Goose and his band never occupied the reservation 
thus established, and it was restored to the public domain, by order of the 
president, July 13, 1880, under the same order that part of the Fort Berthold 
reservation, between the Little Missouri and Heart rivers, west to the Montana 
line, was also restored to the public domain.

From February 5 to June 24, 1880, George Harper Hand, secretary of the 
Territory, was also acting governor. He was born in Ohio, in 1827. At the age of 
sixteen he went to Wisconsin, where he afterward studied law in the office of 
Edwin Wheeler at Oshkosh. In March, i858, he married Miss Helen M. Ketchum, of 
Portage, Wis.  Mr. Hand enlisted in the Chicago Board of Trade battery in 1864, 
and served till the close of the war.  He was appointed United States district 
attorney by President Johnson in 1867, and went to Yankton. Upon retiring from 
the office of district attorney, he formed a partnership with G. C. Moody, for 
the practice of law, but was soon appointed register of the United States land 
office.  In 1874 he succeeded Oscar M. Whitney as territorial secretary, and was 
reappointed in 1878.  He was one of the delegates to the first constitutional 
convention, at Sioux Falls, September, 1883, and was a consistent advocate of 
division. After the Territory had been divided, and South Dakota had been 
admitted as a state, Mr. Hand returned to the practice of his profession. Hand 
county, S. D., was named in his honor.  He died at Pierre March 10, 1891.

Nehemiah G. Ordway, the seventh territorial governor of Dakota, assumed the 
duties of the office June 24, 1880.  Governor Ordway was born at Warner, 
Merrimac county, N. H., in November, 1828. As a boy he attended the common 
schools and was engaged in mercantile pursuits until 1855, when he removed to 
Concord.  The following year he was appointed sheriff of Merrimac county.  In 
1861 he was appointed general agent of the postoffice department for the New 
England States, with headquarters at Boston, Mass.  Beginning with the thirty-
eighth congress, he served for ten years as sergeant at arms in the national 
house of representatives.  In 1875 he was elected a representative in the New 
Hampshire legislature, was re-elected in 1876 and again in 1877. During this 
period he was also elected a member of the State Constitutional convention, and 
served as a member of the tax commission to revise the tax system of New 
Hampshire.  He was elected to the state senate in 1879, and upon the death of 
Governor Howard was appointed governor of Dakota for a term of four years.

Richard F. Pittigrew, Republican, was elected delegate to congress in 1880, over 
M. L. McCormack, the Democratic candidate, by a vote of 18,909 to 9,182.

The fourteenth session of the legislature was convened on the 11th of January, 
1881, and remained in session until the 7th of March. George H. Walsh was 
elected president of the council, and J. A. Harding, speaker. Considerable 
attention was given, at this sitting, to the needs of the Territory in the way 
of penal, charitable and educational institutions. On February 17, the 
legislature approved an act authorizing a bond issue of fifty thousand dollars 
for the construction of a penitentiary at Sioux Falls, and making an 
appropriation for the removal of the prisoners from Detroit, Mich. Another bond 
issue of forty thousand dollars, for building an insane asylum at Yankton, was 
authorized, by the act of February 21, and an appropriation of thirty-three 
thousand dollars for maintenance of the institution for two years, was voted. 
Normal schools were located at Alexandria, Madison, Spearfish and Watertown, 
conditioned upon the citizens of these several towns acquiring and donating 
suitable locations for the schools, without expense to the Territory. At 
Alexandria, 160 acres were asked for by the act; at Madison, 160 acres; at 
Spearfish, 40 acres, and at Watertown, 80 acres.

Walsh county was created February 11. On February 16 the counties of Forsythe 
and Custer were consolidated under the name of the latter; Morton county was 
created, and the name of Gingras county changed to Wells.  Two days later Griggs 
county was established, as was Dickey county on March 5.  Several other counties 
were created during the session, but were afterward discontinued as distinct 
organizations.

The question of division came up again in this legislature, and a memorial 
praying for a division of Dakota into three territories passed both branches, 
with ten negative votes in the house and three in the council.

The spring of 1881, is memorable in the annals of Dakota for the great ice-gorge 
and flood that devastated the valley lands of the Missouri and its tributaries. 
From Vermillion to Mandan scarcely a hamlet escaped. For ten days the Missouri 
valley between these points was covered with water filled with huge cakes of 
floating ice.  Sunday, March 27, was the warmest day since the preceding autumn. 
All day the snow melted rapidly and every one felt that a break-up was imminent. 
But none was prepared for the terrible and far reaching destruction which 
followed. Nineteen years had passed since the great flood of 1862, and a large 
majority of the people of Dakota had come to the territory since that time. They 
had heard from the Indians and old settlers, tales of high water in the 
Missouri, but these stories had never made a very deep impression. Now they were 
to be awakened by an awful experience.

About four o'clock that Sunday afternoon, the ice began to give way, and in a 
few moments the whole channel of the river was a solid mass of ice floes, some 
of them fifty feet square.  One of these huge cakes struck the steamer Western, 
lying at the Yankton landing, and made such a break in her side that all efforts 
to keep her from sinking were futile. At Vermillion the break-up commenced about 
midnight. Church bells were rung to alarm the people, and in a little while the 
streets were full of people hurrying to the bluffs to escape the rapidly rising 
waters. Monday morning it was hoped that the worst was over.  But it had not yet 
begun. All day Monday and Tuesday, the water continued to rise slowly, the whole 
river being filled with great cakes of ice. About five o'clock Tuesday 
afternoon, March 29, the great gorge formed a few miles below Yankton, and 
during the night was extended up the river for thirty miles. Wednesday morning 
hundreds of people gathered upon the banks of the stream to witness the 
impressive spectacle. The noise of the grinding ice had ceased and an ominous 
stillness hung over the great mass that the people were waiting, and yet 
dreading, to see give way. Those who had gone through similar experiences in 
former years, fearing the worst, utilized the moments in making preparations to 
save themselves, and such of their possessions as they could, from the flood 
that they now knew was certain. About noon a low rumble, like that of distant 
thunder, was heard, and a slight tremor was noticed in the body of the ice pack. 
The gorge had broken. In an incredibly short space of time the millions of tons 
of ice were in motion. As the ice moved out, the pent up waters that had been 
held in check by the mighty gorge, swept over the valley. Houses, out-buildings 
and steamboats became mere playthings for the raging torrent. At Yankton the 
three steamers, Butte, Black Hills and Helena, were thrown together by the 
resistless power of the flood, and were almost completely broken to pieces by 
the floating ice.  The Peninah and the Nellie Peck, two of the largest steamers 
on the Upper Missouri, were picked up like pieces of cork, and carried nearly a 
half mile out upon the prairie where the Peninah remained after the waters 
subsided. When the gorge broke, the ice was carried around the settlement on 
Green Island, opposite Yankton, rendering escape impossible.  As the waters rose 
every building on the island was demolished and several lives were lost.

Another gorge was formed near the same place, Sunday, April 3, and the water, 
which had fallen somewhat, began to rise again.  This gorge held firm until late 
Tuesday afternoon, April 5, when with a mighty crash it gave way all at once, 
and in a few hours the flood was at its height and sweeping everything before 
it. Gorges were also formed in the James and Vermillion rivers, and the valleys 
of these streams, for miles, were completely inundated.  As the waters abated 
great piles of ice were left deposited in the fields, and weeks elapsed before 
they were entirely melted away.

The three southeastern counties of Dakota were the greatest sufferers. There the 
population was more dense, and they were so situated, topographically, that they 
received the full force of the flood. The loss to buildings and live stock was 
large, and from 3,000 to 5,000 people were rendered homeless. Railroad 
Communication was cut off, and many were threatened with actual starvation.  In 
this emergency Sec'y George H. Hand telegraphed April 11, for help. The next day 
he appealed to President Garfield for assistance, and the secretary of war was 
ordered to furnish rations from the army and Indian supplies until further 
orders.  Captain Wheeler, acting under the orders of Gen. A. H. Terry, issued 
rations of clothing to a large number who had lost nearly everything they 
possessed. On April 14, a meeting was held at the governor's office, and an 
address to the general public, asking for aid, was prepared for publication. 
This address was signed by George H. Hand, territorial secretary; J. R. Sanborn. 
mayor of Yankton; Rev. Joseph Ward; ex-Gov. Newton Edmunds and Hon. Bartlett 
Tripp. The charitably inclined people responded liberally with donations of 
food, clothing and money, all of which were carried by the American express 
company at greatly reduced rates. Altogether more than 78,000 rations were 
issued, but with the coming of spring the people ceased to bemoan their 
misfortunes, and, with the characteristic determination of the true western 
pioneer, went to work to retrieve their losses.

One of the earlier legislatures passed an act locating a university at 
Vermillion, but nothing had ever been done toward its fulfillment.  In March, 
1882, at a special election, the voters of Clay county declared in favor of a 
county bond issue of ten thousand dollars to erect the buildings.  This was the 
first systematic effort toward the establishment of what is now the University 
of South Dakota.

An organization known as the "Citizens Constitutional Association," called a 
convention, to meet at Canton, June 27, to take some action toward securing the 
admission of Dakota as a state. At this convention ten counties were 
represented, and the general expression was in favor of dividing the territory 
along the line of the 46th parallel, the erection of a new territory out of the 
northern part, and the admission of the southern portion.  An executive 
committee of seven was appointed, and the name of the organization was changed 
to the "Dakota Citizens League."

The executive committee was made up as follows:  Wilmot Whitfield and Joseph 
Ward, of Yankton county; N. C. Nash, of Lincoln; S. F. Andrews of Turner; W. C. 
Bowers, of Minnehaha; F. B. Foster, of Hanson and J. V. Himes, of Union.

Shortly after this a Democratic convention was held at Mitchell.  W. R. Steele, 
of Deadwood, was nominated for delegate to congress, and a resolution favoring a 
division of the territory on the 46th parallel and the retention of the name of 
Dakota for the southern part was adopted. J. B. Raymond was nominated by the 
Republicans to oppose Mr. Steele.  Mr. Steele, however, declined to run, and W. 
W. Brookings was substituted by the Democratic territorial committee.  At the 
ensuing election the Republican candidate was successful.

As previously stated the legislature of 1881 authorized a bond issue of fifty 
thousand dollars for a penitentiary at Sioux Falls. Work on the building was 
delayed by the great floods, so that it was November 17, 1882, before the board 
accepted it as complete. On November 22, Governor Ordway issued a proclamation 
declaring the prison ready for occupancy, and notified the sheriffs of the 
several counties that, after the expiration of thirty days, all persons 
sentenced to the penitentiary should be taken to Sioux Falls. A week later the 
governor ordered the removal of twenty-nine prisoners from Detroit, and upon 
their arrival at Sioux Falls, they were set to work on the penitentiary and 
grounds.

On December 21, 1882, the president ordered a reservation between Bottineau and 
Rolette counties, set apart for the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians.  
This reservation contained 720 square miles, being 24 in extent from east to 
west and 30 miles from north to south.  Canada formed the northern boundary. The 
greater part of it was restored to the public domain by the executive order of 
March 29, 1884.

During the fifteenth session of the territorial legislature, which began January 
9, 1883, and ended March 9, many bills were introduced in both branches, 160 of 
which became laws by executive approval or limitation. Among the most important 
of these were the acts creating a tax commission to look after inequalities in 
assessments, the sequestration of property and delinquencies; creating the 
office of attorney general and defining his duties; an educational bill adopting 
the civil township system, and the bill providing for a commission of nine 
members to select a new location for the capital.

On February 26, an appropriation of seventy-six thousand six hundred twenty-five 
dollars for the current and contingent expenses of the penitentiary was made; 
and an issue of thirty thousand dollars worth of bonds for permanent 
improvements at that institution was authorized.

The next day a bond issue of twenty-five thousand dollars was authorized for the 
benefit of the agricultural college at Brookings, and on March 9, the last day 
of the session, an act providing for an issue of fifty thousand dollars worth of 
bonds, for the building and equipment of an insane hospital at Jamestown was 
approved by the governor. On the same day five thousand dollars for a building 
and two thousand dollars for maintenance was voted to each of the normal schools 
at Madison and Spearfish. They passed other acts on the same date to establish a 
reform school at Plankinton, but made no appropriation for its support; a deaf 
and dumb asylum at Sioux Falls, for which bonds to the amount of twelve thousand 
dollars were afterward authorized, and an agricultural college at Fargo, 
conditioned upon the people's donating forty acres of land for a site.

Sargent county was created March 3, from the southern part of Ransom county; 
Fall River county, south of the Black Hills, was established March 6; Steele, 
Towner, McLean and Roberts counties, were established March 8, and Benson, 
Nelson, Sanborn, Jerauld and McIntosh, March 9.

The bill providing for the removal of the capital was approved March 8, and Milo 
W. Scott, Burleigh F. Spaulding, Alexander McKenzie, Charles H. Myers, George A. 
Mathews, Alexander Hughes, Henry H. DeLong, John P. Belding and M. D. Thompson 
were appointed commissioners to select a new location. Each member of the 
commission was placed under a bond of forty thousand dollars, and was to receive 
six dollars a day for his services, provided that the total cost of the 
commission should not exceed the appropriation of ten thousand dollars. Acting 
upon the hypothesis that rivalry among the different cities wanting the capital 
would secure a liberal donation, the bill provided that the commission should 
receive a grant of not less than 160 acres of land for a site, and one hundred 
thousand dollars in cash for the erection of buildings, from the city where the 
capital was to be located. The final report of the commission was to be made not 
later than July 1, 1883. On the 2nd of June the commissioners decided in favor 
of Bismarck, located on the Missouri river, at the crossing of the Northern 
Pacific railroad, the 4,000 people of that city offering a cash donation of one 
hundred thousand dollars and a grant of 320 acres of land.

Work was begun on the new capitol in August, and on September 5, the cornerstone 
was laid with appropriate ceremonies. Among the distinguished guests present 
were ex-President Grant, Baron Von Eisendecher, the imperial German minister, 
and Henry Villard, president of the Northern Pacific railroad. After the stone 
had been lowered to its position, Governor Ordway read the following 
testimonial, which was afterward presented to the German minister:

"TO HIS EXCELLENCY, PRINCE OTTO BISMARCK, CHANCELLOR OF THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT:

"We believe that this greeting will be welcome, coming from a distant land, 
where so many Germans have found prosperity and happiness, and where your name 
is honored by all men, and from a city which bears that name, and which has 
become a center of commerce and civilization, and the capital of a great 
Territory. Proud of our city's name, we are confident that our future career 
will not be unworthy of your Highness, whose brilliant services in war and peace 
have achieved unity for the German people and greatness for the German Empire. 
With sentiments of profound respect we subscribe ourselves your Highness' 
Obedient Servants."

This testimonial was dated~ at Bismarck, signed by the mayor and members of 
the city council of Bismarck, and by Governor Ordway. In accepting it Baron Von 
Eisendecher said:

"Mr. Governor: I accept this token of esteem for the German Chancellor, with 
gladness and pride.  I am glad as the representative of him, in accepting this 
testimonial, and proud in having been chosen as such. I shall not fail to send 
the document to Prince Bismarck at once, and I will assure you that he will feel 
highly honored by the handsome remembrance from the city which bears his name.  
I can only wish for your city that you will make its name sound as well in your 
own land, as the name of its father sounds in ours."

Short but felicitous speeches were made by General Grant, Henry Villard, and 
several of his party.  The following letter from Prince Bismarck was received 
some weeks later:

"Foreign Office, Friedrichsruh,
Oct.27, 1883.
"In response to the address of the 5th of September last, so highly 
complimentary to myself, I would express my heartfelt thanks.  I wish the young 
city, whose career I shall follow with the greatest interest, the rapid 
development which its fine situation, and the energy and intelligence of its 
citizens give reason to anticipate.
BISMARCK."

As is usual in such cases the removal of the capital caused ill feeling in some sections of the 
territory.  Immediately following the passage of the bill, indignation meetings were held in several 
South Dakota cities. At all these meetings resolutions denouncing the legislature for passing and 
the governor for approving the act were adopted. This feeling of disapprobation reached its 
culmination, when, on Septemher 11, Governor Ordway issued an order for the secretary, treasurer 
and auditor to remove their offices to Bismarck. The auditor complied, but the secretary and 
treasurer peremptorily refused. The matter was at once taken to the territorial district court, and, on 
September 15, Judge Edgerton decided the appointment of the commissioners illegal. Thus matters 
stood until the following May, when the full bench of the supreme court reversed Judge Edgerton's 
decision. An appeal was taken to the supreme court of the United States, where the decision of the 
supreme court of the Territory was sustained, and Bismarck became the capital.

One effect of the removal of the capital was to strengthen the sentiment in 
favor of a division of the Territory. This was particularly true of the southern 
part, where those who had previously held to this view now bestirred themselves 
to action, and those who had been indifferent now joined the divisionists. (See 
Chapter on division and admission.)

The year 1884 was one of the most prosperous in the history of Dakota. The tax commission 
reported the value of all property in the territory to be sixty-nine millions one hundred fifty-four 
thousand nine hundred and nine dollars.  Nearly 2,500 miles of railroad were in operation, 122 
miles of which, between Fargo and Ortonville, were built during the year. The amount received in 
taxes from these railroads was one hundred twenty-seven thousand three hundred and thirty-six 
dollars. Enumerations showed that there were in the Territory 77,499 children of school age, more 
than 50,000 of whom attended school. The number of teachers employed was 2,911, receiving in 
wages three hundred ninety-four thousand seven hundred and eighty-five dollars. Altogether the 
cost of the common and normal schools and the university amounted to one million seven 
hundred forty-eight thousand five hundred and sixty-two dollars. More than 500 
school townships were organized, and six hundred forty thousand dollars, in 
round numbers, was expended in the erection of new school houses. Gold shipments 
for the year amounted to four million five hundred thousand dollars, and the 
shipments of silver to two million dollars. And this, too, at a time when the 
principal silver mine was closed by litigation. Mica shipments for the year 
averaged about three thousand dollars a week.  A steady tide of immigration was 
flowing into the territory, and the outlook was more hopeful than in any 
previous year.

A Republican convention was held at Huron April 23, to elect delegates to the 
Republican National convention at Chicago in June. A second Republican 
convention met at Pierre, September 17, and Oscar S. Gifford was nominated for 
delegate to congress.

The Democratic convention met at Sioux Falls and nominated John R. Wilson for 
delegate. Both parties declared in these conventions in favor of dividing the 
territory; the Republicans on the forty-sixth parallel, and the Democrats on the 
seventh standard parallel.

At the election, on the 4th of November, seventy-eight organized counties 
were recognized; 86,703 votes were cast, Gifford receiving 71,579 and Wilson 
15,124.

Governor Ordway's term, for which he was appointed, expired in June, and he 
was succeeded by Governor Pierce.