Dakota Territory History, 1876-1884

This file was extracted from "The Province and the States", edited by Weston 
Arthur Goodspeed, LL. B., Editor-in-Chief, Vol. VI (1904), pages 295-306.

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CHAPTER V


Dakota, from 1884 to 1889

GILBERT ASHVILLE PIERCE, the eighth territorial governor of Dakota, was born at East Otto, N.Y., but moved to Indiana in 1841. About the time he had completed a two years course in the law department of the Chicago university, the Civil war broke out and be enlisted in the Federal army. He served successively as lieutenant, captain, assistant quartermaster, lieutenant colonel, colonel, and inspector and special commissioner of the war department. During this service he was at Paducah, Ky., Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Grand Gulf, and was with Grant's victorious army when it entered Vicksburg. After the war was over he served for some time at Matagorda Island, Tex., Hilton Head and Pocotaligo, S. C. Returning to his home in Indiana he was elected, in 1868, a memher of the house of representatives in the legislature of that state, and soon after the adjournment of the session was appointed finance clerk of the United States senate, where he served until 1871. Upon leaving Washington he entered the field of journalism, and from 1871 to 1884, except two years during which he was editor of the Chicago News, was associate and managing editor of the Chicago Inter Ocean. In 1884 he was appointed governor of Dakota, and served until 1887, when he was succeeded by Governor Church.  He continued to reside in the territory, and after the admission into the Union was elected one of the first United States senators from North Dakota. His term as senator expired in March, 1891, when he purchased a controlling interest in the Minneapolis "Tribune" and assumed the duties of editor in chief of that paper. His failing health compelled him to give up active work after a few months, and influenced by friends he accepted an appointment at the hands of President Harrison, as minister to Portugal, in the hope that the climate of that country would prove beneficial to him. The change however brought no improvement, and after a few months he resigned and returned to the United States.  He died at the Lexington hotel, in Chicago, Ill., February 15, 1900.

Several spirited county seat contests, in which much bad blood was engendered and resort to force and personal violence was had, had arisen in the territory. Among the most noticeable and important of these was the removal of the county seat from Big Stone City to Milbank, Grant county, in 1882-83. The question of the county seat had been submitted to the people at the election of 1882, and it was claimed on the part of Milbank that a majority of the votes cast was in favor of that place for county seat, which claim was denied by the citizens of Big Stone City and as they declined to give up the records, a number of citizens of Milbank, armed and organized, visited Big Stone City and undertook to take the records by force. The attempt was resisted by the citizens of Big Stone City. The governor was appealed to for assistance, and it looked for a time as though the matter might terminate in disastrous results; but it was finally taken into the courts and, after a long and expensive litigation, was determined in favor of Milbank, where the county seat has since been.

In December, 1884, a county seat contest came up in Spink county, that, for a time, threatened serious trouble. At the election in the fall, the voters decided in favor of changing the county seat from Ashton to Redfield. The records were moved from Ashton, but soon after a rumor became current that the Ashton people were forming a mob to take the records, by force if necessary, and return them to the former county seat. An injunction had been issued by the court against such a proceeding but the mayor of Redfield became alarmed and telegraphed the governor that an armed mob of five hundred people were preparing to carry out the threat. Governor Pierce asked the general commanding the department to send a company of regulars to Redfield, and ordered Colonel Tyner of his staff to notify the militia at Fargo, the governor's guards of Bismarck and the Edgerton guards at Yankton to hold themselves in readiness to go to the scene of the disturbance. He then telegraphed the mayor of Redfield asking for an exact statement of the situation, and to the mayor of Ashton requesting the people there to return to their homes and let the law take its course. After waiting for six hours, and receiving no answer from either mayor, the governor ordered the troops to Redfield. This was on the 10th of December. On the morning of the 11th the mayor of Ashton answered that, while the people of that town were indignant over the removal of the county seat, they were not armed and would not violate the law. The governor stopped the troops en route, and again telegraphed the mayor of Redfield, informing him of the nature of the reply received from Ashton. The mayor of Redfield still insisted that the troops were necessary and they were accordingly sent on, reaching Redfield Saturday noon. On Monday morning everything was settled by order of the court, and the militia returned home.

Scarcely had this trouble been settled when a similar situation arose in Roberts county, between the towns of Travare and Wilmot, rivals for county seat honors.  In this case the governor sent the adjutant-general to the scene, as a mediator, and the contest was settled through his efforts, Wilinot finally being recognized as the county seat.

By an act of congress the number of members in the territorial legislature had been doubled; the council having twenty-four members instead of twelve, and the house forty-eight instead of twenty-four. The sixteenth legislature, thus increased, was convened at Bismarck January 13, 1885, and remained in session till March 13. J. H. Westover was elected president of the council, and George Rice, speaker of the house. During the session about two hundred laws were enacted. The most important of the acts passed were those regulating primary elections; creating the office of commissioner of emigration; providing for the organizing of new counties; promoting the planting of forest trees on the prairie land of the territory, and providing for the maintenance and extension of state institutions. Bonds were authorized as follows: For the agricultural college at Brookings, twenty thousand dollars; for the deaf mute school at Sioux Falls, sixteen thousand dollars; for the insane hospital at Jamestown, sixty-three thousand dollars; for the normal school at Madison, thirteen thousand six hundred dollars; for the university at Grand Forks, twenty-four thousand dollars; for the university at Vermillion, fifteen thousand dollars; for the school of mines at Rapid City, ten thousand dollars. The last named institution was established by this session, and the bond issue for its benefit was made contingent upon the people of Rapid City donating not less than five acres of ground, in or adjoining the city, for a location.

Eddy county was created, March 9, from Foster county, and Carrington was named as the county seat of the latter. On March 12, Oliver county was created from a part of Mercer county, and Henry Sawyer, H. E. Fisher and Lewis Connolly were named as the first commissioners. Ward and Marshall counties were also established at this session.

On February 27, the president issued a proclamation throwing open to settlement the Crow Creek and Winnebago reservations, lying along the east bank of the Missouri, in parts of Hughes, Hyde, Hand, Buffalo and Brule counties. The Indian reservations in Dakota were fast becoming a source of annoyance, both to the settlers adjoining them and to the government. The Sioux reservation contained at this time about thirty-four thousand square miles, and it was being found out that an Indian cannot be civilized while he has such a wide range. Outside of the Sisseton Indians, little progress toward civilization had been made by any of the tribes in Dakota. During the year 1884 the 1,453 Indians on the Sisseton reservation raised 40,000 bushels of wheat and 30,000 bushels of oats and barley. These Indians were self-supporting; they lived in fairly good houses, and, of the 300 unmarried persons of school age, 215 were in school.

By the same congress that increased the membership of the legislature, two more judges, to be appointed by the president, were allotted to the territory. The supreme court in 1885, after the taking effect of this act, was as follows: Chief justice, Bartlett Tripp, who succeeded Alonzo P. Edgerton; associate justices, C. S. Palmer, W. H. Francis, William E. Church, William B. McConnell and Louis K. Church, Judges Louis K. Church and C. S. Palmer being appointed to the new districts established by congress.

The first territorial fair in Dakota was held at Huron in the fall of this year. It was a marked success, the displays of farm products, fruits, poultry and live stock being very creditable, and offering a great stimulus to stock raising, etc. The close of the year 1884 saw one hundred ninety-five banks in operation, with a combined capital of four million five hundred fourteen thousand dollars and a surplus of five hundred ninety-two thousand dollars. During the year railroads were completed from Jamestown, on the Northern Pacific, to Minnewaukon on the north, from the same point south to LaMoure, and a line from Yankton to Centerville.

The first report of the commissioner of immigration made its appearance in 1886. In this report the commissioner estimated the lands taken up for settlement, during the year ending June 30, at 4,000,000 acres, and the increase in population at 85,000. The total population of the territory was estimated at 500,000; the increase in the value of taxable property during the year, at twenty-four million dollars; 551 miles of railroad were built, bringing the total mileage up to 3,897 miles.

On September 22, i886, a Republican convention was held at Yankton and Oscar S. Gifford was again nominated for delegate to congress. A week later the Democratic convention met at Aberdeen and nominated M. H. Day. At both these conventions resolutions favoring a division of the territory were adopted. At the election 104,811 votes were polled; 39,046 north of the seventh parallel, and 65,765 south of it. Gifford was re-elected delegate.

In December, i886, President Cleveland appointed Judge Church, of the territorial supreme court, governor of the territory, and early in the succeeding year he was installed into the office. Michael L. McCormack was appointed secretary.

Louis Kossuth Church was born at Brooklyn, N. Y., December 11, 1846. He was the son of Rodney F. Church, and a grandson of Capt. Samuel Church of the continental army.  His great grandfather, Timothy C. Church was also in the continental army, with the rank of colonel. Governor Church was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn, and the Hudson River Institute of Claverock, N.Y. At the age of twenty-two he was admitted to the bar, and by energy and a close application to business soon succeeded in building up a lucrative practice. For three successive terms, 1883-84-85, he was elected a member of the New York legislature. In 1885 he declined a nomination for a fourth term, as well as a nomination for state senator. He was appointed associate justice of the supreme court of Dakota, by President Cleveland, in November, 1885, and in December the following year was appointed governor, to succeed Governor Pierce. When he was appointed to the territorial supreme bench in 1885, he took up his residence at Huron, where he lived until he became governor and to which he returned after he retired from the governor's office in 1889. In 1890 he removed to Seattle, Wash., and again engaged in the practice of law.  He died at Juneau, Alaska, November 23, 1897.

On January 11, 1887, the seventeenth legislature was convened at Bismarck. George A. Mathews was chosen president of the council, and George G. Crose speaker of the house. At the close of the session, in March, the bonded indebtedness of the territory was one million ninety-eight thousand eight hundred dollars, nearly one-half of which (five hundred thirty thousand one hundred dollars) was authorized by this legislature for improvements and additions to educational, penal and benevolent institutions. The bonds were distributed as follows: Agricultural college, Brookings, fifty-four thousand five hundred dollars; deaf mute school, Sioux Falls, twenty-three thousand dollars; insane hospital, Jamestown, one hundred fifty-three thousand dollars; insane hospital Yankton, ninety-two thousand five hundred dollars; normal school, Spearfish, twenty-five thousand dollars; normal school, Madison, thirty-five thousand eight hundred dollars; penitentiary, Sioux Falls, fourteen thousand three hundred dollars; school of mines, Rapid City, twenty-three thousand dollars; reform school, Plankinton, thirty thousand dollars; university at Vermillion, thirty thousand dollars; university at Grand Forks, twenty thousand dollars.

A new capitol commission to have charge of the building and grounds at Bismarck was created. The capitol without the north and south wings, as originally planned, had been accepted, and even then the territory had to assume about seventy thousand dollars of unpaid bills. Authority was given to the commission of 1887 to sell lots from the three hundred and twenty acres donated by the people of Bismarck, until enough was realized to liquidate this outstanding indebtedness.

This legislature passed acts providing for a well commissioner in each county, and for drilling artesian wells at public expense; protecting the use of irrigating ditches; permitting cities and municipal corporations to issue bonds for school houses and public buildings; creating the office of county auditor, and providing for paid fire departments in towns and cities. Pierce and Church counties, named in honor of the two latest territorial governors, were created by legislative enactment, March 11, and Pierce county was organized the same day.

On May 30 bids for the sale of bonds authorized by the legislature were opened. It was found that the best bid offered a premium of about one-half of one per cent. Five sixths of the bonds to be sold had four and a half per cent interest, and the remainder five per cent. This was the first time in the history of the country that a territorial bond bearing less than five per cent sold at a premium.

By the proclamation of President Arthur, February 27, 1885, the Crow Creek and Winnebago reservation was restored to the public domain, and opened to settlement. A large number of white settlers went into the reservation and established homes. Early in 1887 President Cleveland, acting upon the advice of the attorney general, revoked the order, and the settlers were ordered to vacate. This order wrought a great hardship on many innocent settlers, and a large number refused to leave the fruits of their two years' labor until they were driven out by the military. General sympathy was awakened for these unfortunates, and the question of Indian reservations was brought to the front. The great Sioux reservation, between the Missouri river and the Black Hills contained more than twenty-two million acres; nearly nine hundred acres for every man, woman and child in the allied tribes. Upon the assembling of congress, in December, 1887, petitions and memorials were presented from the people of Dakota, praying for a breaking up of the great reservation, or, at least a settlement of the question in some way that would protect the homes of the settlers. In response to these requests, congress passed an act on the 30th of April, 1888, providing for the purchase of more than ten million acres, by the government, at fifty cents an acre, and the remainder of the great reservation to be divided into several smaller reservations. A commission was created to secure the assent of the Indians, and the president appointed R. H. Pratt, Judge Wright and William Cleveland as the commissioners. All through the months of August, September and October this commission held councils with the various tribes at the agencies, but accomplished nothing. A majority of the Indians wanted one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. By the terms of the act the consent of three-fourths of each tribe was necessary to make it effective. The commissioners found it impossible to secure the consent of anything like this number, so the act became inoperative. Some of the Sioux chiefs were taken to Washington, where a number of conferences were held with the secretary of the interior, but no agreement was reached.

Meantime the agitation was kept up by the people of Dakota, so that congress passed another act, approved on the 2nd of March, 1889, providing for a second commission. On this commission the president appointed ex-Gov. Charles A. Foster, of Ohio, Hon. William Warner, of Missouri, and Gen. George A. Cook. They reached the reservation in June, and, after nearly three months, were successful in obtaining the consent of the necessary three-fourths of the Indians to break up the reservation. By the treaty entered into with the commissioners, the Indians were to receive one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre for all the land sold to actual settlers during the first three years after the taking effect of the act; seventy-five cents an acre for the next two years, and fifty cents an acre thereafter.

About eleven million acres were opened to settlers, west of the Missouri river, in the counties of Hettinger, Martin, Wagner, Choteau, Rinehart, Delano, Scobey, Sterling, Ziebach, Nowlin, Jackson, Stanley, Pratt and Presho.

By the same act the residue of the reservation was divided into six smaller reserves, and an agency was established for each The Rosebud Sioux occupied all between the White river and the Nebraska state line, east of the one hundred first meridian to the Missouri river, except the military reservation of Fort Randall. Directly west of the Rosebud reservation lay that of the Pine Ridge Sioux, extending west to the one hundred third meridian, north on this meridian to the south fork of the Big Cheyenne, east to White river, and down White river to the one hundred first meridian.

The Standing Rock Sioux were given a reservation lying west of the Missouri and south of the Cannon Ball river. The southern boundary was formed by a line beginning at the Missouri river, at a point ten miles north of the Moreau or Owl river, and running due west to the one hundred second meridian, which formed tile western boundary.  South of this reservation, extending to the Cheyenne river, and from the one hundred second meridian east to the Missouri river, were the Cheyenne River Sioux.

North of Presho county, west of the Missouri a small reservation was set apart for the Lower Brules, and on the east side of the Missouri, directly opposite, was the reservation of the Crow Creek Sioux.  By a proclamation, February 10, 1890, the president declared the reservation broken up and the lands ceded by the treaty of 1889 opened to settlers. The reservations, as established by the provisions of this act, remain practically as they were set out in 1889.

With the revenue derived from the sale of bonds, two new wings were added to the insane hospital at Yankton, in 1888. While the work was in progress, charges of irregularity were made against the trustees of the asylum. Governor Church, in September, suspended from their duties a majority of the board, pending an investigation by the public examiner, and on the 2nd of November, after the investigation was completed, removed the suspended members for official misconduct and neglect of duty. Then the remainder of the board resigned, but the governor appointed a new board of five members and the work, which had been delayed by the investigation of the trustees, was pushed rapidly forward. The old board sought redress in legal action, but the courts sustained the governor.

A Republican convention met at Watertown, August 23, 1888, to nominate a candidate for delegate to congress.  This convention was in session three days before a nomination was made. On the seventeenth ballot, George A. Mathews was nominated over Oscar S. Gifford. The platform adopted by this convention was a severe arraignment of Governor Church, charging him with prostituting the office to gratify personal ambitions; that he encouraged large and foolish appropriations; that his appointees were his personal retainers who lacked fitness for the positions they occupied, and that the governor maintained a perfect indifference to the wants of the people whom he ruled.

Up to the year 1885 party lines had never been very closely drawn in Dakota. Party names were there, and candidates were known as Republican and Democratic, but, for all that, party organizations were loosely constructed. Local interests were placed above party considerations in territorial legislation, and it was no uncommon thing to find legislators of both parties leagued together to secure some institution for their part of the territory. With the inauguration of President Cleveland, party lines became more sharply defined, and political contests were conducted according to partisan methods. Governor Church was the first Democratic governor of Dakota. Being a partisan it was natural that, in the administration of territorial affairs, he should seek to secure some advantage for his party. To this cause is probably due much of the censure bestowed upon him by the Republican platform of 1888.

Two Democratic conventions were held this year, and two candidates for delegate were nominated. The first of these was at Jamestown, July 11, where J. W. Harden was named as the congressional candidate, and the second at Grand Forks, September 21, which nominated W. R. Bierly.

The presence of two Democratic candidates in this campaign was the outgrowth of a factional fight, one faction being led by Governor Church and the other by M. H. Day. The first open hostilities between these two factions occurred at the convention at Watertown, in May, to select delegates to the national convention. The Day adherents were in a minority and refused to join with the followers of the governor. They held a convention of their own, selected delegates to the national convention, and appointed a committee to collect evidence upon which to impeach Governor Church. When the national convention met, the Day delegates were refused recognition, and this led to the Grand Forks convention and the nomination of Bierly. At the ensuing election Mathews received 70,215 votes, Harden, 40,846 and Bierly, 1,753.

The eighteenth, and last, territorial legislature of Dakota met at Bismarck January 8, 1889, and adjourned sine die March 9. Smith Skimmel was elected president of the council, and Hosmer H. Keith, speaker of the house.  One of the first acts passed was to provide for an election, to select delegates to a convention at Grafton, on the second Tuesday in May, to frame a constitution for North Dakota. The act was rendered inoperative by the passage of the enabling act by congress, February 22.

In June, 1887, the university buildings at Grand Forks, were destroyed by a storm. The people of that section of the state raised a fund by private effort, and rebuilt the university.  The legislature of 189 passed a bill authorizing a bond issue of twenty-two thousand seven hundred dollars to reimburse the citizens of Grand Forks for the advances thus made. Bonds to the amount of forty-five thousand dollars for the purpose of building and furnishing a soldiers' home at Hot Springs were also authorized.  They passed acts accepting and legalizing the "Code of Compiled Laws of 1887;" authorizing towns and cities to aid in the construction of railroads; prescribing qualifications for voters, the requirements being fixed by this act at one year in the United States, six months in the territory, three months in the county, and thirty days in the precinct; limiting the legal rate of interest to twelve per cent, and providing for the construction of artesian wells, and irrigating ditches from the same, the cost to be paid by abutting property.

Early in the session committees were appointed to investigate the conduct and expenditures of the boards of trustees of each of the two insane hospitals, the reform school, and the Bismarck penitentiary. These committees ascertained, that the per diem and mileage of the reform school board for the preceding year amounted to five thousand five hundred and eight dollars, of the Bismarck penitentiary six thousand nine hundred and thirty-six dollars and of all the boards included in the investigation thirty thousand and seventy-seven dollars. The committees of investigation reported that no actual frauds had been disclosed, but that the trustees of the institutions had been guilty of reckless extravagance, and recommended the passage of a bill to protect the territory from such prodigality in the future. As the members of the boards and other officials investigated had all been appointed by Governor Church, he took umbrage at the reports of the committees and relations between him and the legislature became somewhat strained. Of the one hundred twenty laws passed during the session, thirty-five were passed over the governor's veto, and a number became laws by limitation, without the executive approval. Among the bills vetoed were the soldiers' home bill and the general appropriation bill. A new tenure of office bill providing that the terms of all appointees should expire ten days after the governor making the appointment went out of office, or until their successors might be appointed, was passed. A memo rial to President-elect Harrison, referring to the governor as dictatorial, undignified and extravagant, failed to pass; but, as soon as General Harrison was inaugurated, a majority of the legislature (forty-five out of the seventy-two) joined in sending a telegram to the new president, asking for the immediate removal of Governor Church. Before any action could be taken by the president, the legislature adjourned.

Immediately after the adjournment of the assembly, Governor Church proceeded to make appointments to all the territorial offices, appointing the same men that had been rejected by the legislature while it was in session. Notwithstanding the tenure of office bill which he had approved, Governor Church issued commissions to his appointees for two years. The secretary of state refused to sign and seal these commissions, and while affairs were in this shape Governor Church was removed by President Harrison, and A. C. Mellette was appointed in his stead.

Arthur C. Mellette, the last territorial governor of Dakota, was of German-French extraction. His father was a Virginia farmer until the year 1830, when he emigrated to Indiana, settling in Henry county. Here Arthur was born in June, 1842.  Indiana, at that time, was a comparatively new country. As yet not a mile of railroad had been built within its borders. The population was Sparse, and opportunities were limited. Making the most of such opportunities as came his way, young Mellette worked on his father's farm, and attended the district school in the little log school house during the winter months, until he was eighteen years of age. In the fall of 1860 he entered the Indiana University at Bloomington, took the classical course and was graduated in June, 1864. Upon leaving college he enlisted as a private in Co. H, Ninth Indiana infantry, and served till the close of the war. When the war was over he returned to the university - this time to the law department where he took the regular course and, upon his graduation, was admitted to the bar. In 1868 he was elected prosecuting attorney for Delaware county, Ind., and in 1870 was chosen a member of the house of representatives in the Indiana legislature  For some time after this he was engaged in editing the Muncie Times, the leading Republican paper of Delaware county. In 1878 he decided to go west, and that summer located at Springfield, Dak. Soon after taking up his residence in the territory he was appointed register of the general land office. Two years later he removed to Watertown.  He was a member of the provisional constitutional convention in 1883, from Codington county, and was elected provisional governor in 1885. Congress failed to authorize the admission of Dakota at that time, hence he did not enter upon the duties of the office. At the general request of the leading citizens of Dakota, he was appointed governor by President Harrison, to whom he was a personal and political friend, and after the division of the territory was elected governor of South Dakota in 1889, and re-elected at the general election in 1890. Luther B. Richardson was appointed to succeed M. L. McCormack as secretary, and an entirely new set of territorial officers followed. J. M. Bailey, Jr., was appointed treasurer; J. C. McManima, auditor; Johnson Nickens, attorney general; Leonard A. Rose, superintendent of public instruction; Frank H. Hagerty, commissioner of immigration; Judson La Moure, H. J. Rice and J. H. King, railroad commissioners.

The supreme court consisted of Bartlett Tripp, chief justice, Charles M. Thomas, Roderick Rose, William B. McConnell, John E. Carland, James Spencer, and Louis W. Crofoot. Judge Carland resigned in March, and Frank R. Aiken was appointed to fill the vacancy. These judges remained in office until the fall of 1889, when Dakota was admitted into the Union as two separate states, and the long cherished hopes of the people were at last realized.