1883 - A Year of Great Activity

	This information appears in Chapter LV of "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904), pages 313-318 and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Joy Fisher, http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm


CHAPTER LV

1883 - A YEAR OF GREAT ACTIVITY.

	Eighteen hundred and eighty-three will always be remembered as one of the 
periods of greatest activity in the history of Dakota, not only for the great 
extent of railroad building, of homesteading and town booming, but for great 
political movements which have left their impress upon the fundamental 
organization of the commonwealth. In that year, too, the capital was removed 
from South Dakota to North Dakota, an event which disturbed the relations of the 
two sections and did much to strengthen the sentiment for division. As vital as 
was the necessity for division; a necessity which was rooted in the inherent 
rights of generations yet to live; a necessity which looked ahead for hundreds 
of years and involved the equilibrium of the nation in the upper house of 
congress in the future time when the west shall equal the east in population; 
still it is most probable that but for the antagonisms which grew out of the 
capitol removal, the people would have grown weary of the long wait for 
recognition and accepted statehood as a whole.

	The season opened with the legislative session. Even before this the 
conviction had become deep seated among the people that Governor Ordway was "on 
the make." That he proposed to use his official position to further his own 
pecuniary interests and that conviction was strengthened almost every day he 
remained in office. In the organization of the many new counties, rumors had 
gained currency that the Governor was appointing boards of commissioner, 
foreordained to locate county seats at villages or upon lands in which his 
excellency's friends, relatives or business associates had a large interest.  
Therefore when the legislature convened and capitol removal began to be 
agitated, the belief that Governor Ordway would exert his official influence to 
direct legislation upon lines which would prove personally remunerative found 
general lodgment in the minds of the residents of the southern portion of the 
territory who were conversant with the trend of affairs.  The legislature was 
largely composed of adventurous and ambitious men, many of them but newly 
arrived in the territory and all of them exceedingly loyal to their home 
communities and feeling in duty bound to bring home something in the way of 
territorial institutions. One must take into account the unnatural condition 
which possessed the public mind in the Dakota of that day, due to the 
unprecedented development.  Established ideas of the relation of things were 
quite overthrown. Conservatism simply did not exist.  Hope, always a dominant 
factor in Dakota, was at that boom period simply boundless; and it was with 
these hopeful, adventurous, ambitious men that the thrifty governor apparently 
found his best opportunity.

	From the first day of the session there was talk of capital removal, and 
it was thought that Grand Forks would make a strong fight for the prize, but, to 
the surprise of everyone, George H. Walsh, the member from Grand Forks, 
introduced a bill removing the capital to Huron, and he made a persistent and 
consistent fight for its passage.  For some days it seemed that he might meet 
with success, but presently the other ambitious communities pulled themselves 
together and sent embassies to the capital to protect their interests.  
Bismarck, Fargo, Pierre, Mitchell and Sioux Falls were all represented and it 
soon became apparent that unless an equivalent in the way of the distribution of 
territorial institutions was made that no single town could get a capital 
removal bill through.  At this juncture Governor Ordway proposed that a bill be 
passed providing for the appointment of a commission to locate the capital at 
the town offering the greatest inducements in the way of cash bonus and land.  
This appeared to be an eminently fair proposition, placing all of the towns upon 
an equality.  The bill left the naming of the commission to the Governor, but it 
was amended upon passage to name the members, which were as follows  John P. 
Belding, of Deadwood; H. H. DeLong, of Canton; Alex. Hughes, of Elk Point; Alex. 
McKenzie, of Bismarck; George A. Mathews, of Brookings; C. H. Meyers, of 
Redfield; B. F. Spalding, of Fargo; Dr. Scott, of Grand Forks; M. D. Thompson, 
of Vermilion.   The bill provided that they were to consider no bid unless in 
cash or land it should be worth one hundred thousand dollars, which sum should 
constitute a building fund. There should be not less than twenty acres of land 
for a capitol site and the commission were empowered to locata the permanent 
capital and then proceed to erect a capitol building.  A great legislative 
combine was formed which resulted in the passage of the bill, but with it and 
incident to it a new penitentiary was located at Bismarck and fifty thousand 
dollars appropriated for it; a deaf mute school at Sioux Falls, at twelve 
thousand dollars; agricultural college at Brookings, thirty thousand dollars; 
North Dakota University at Grand Forks, thirty thousand dollars; Hospital for 
the Insane, Jamestown, fifty thousand dollars; endowment of the territorial 
university at Vermilion, thirty thousand dollars; improvements at the Sioux 
Falls penitentiary, thirty thousand dollars; and at the Yankton asylum, seventy-
seven thousand five hundred, for all of which bonds were authorized, making a 
total of three hundred and four thousand five hundred dollars.  When we recall 
that but four years earlier the public had arisen in indignation and had almost 
compelled the governor to veto a bill authorizing forty-five thousand dollars of 
bonds for the penitentiary and insane asylum some idea of the progress of Dakota 
may be obtained.  In addition to the foregoing this legislature located normal 
schools at Madison, Springfield, Spearfish and Watertown, but did not make 
appropriations therefor.  The law expressly provided that the capital commission 
was to meet at Yankton for organization and that the location should be made 
before July 1st.  It will be observed that the commission consisted of five men 
- a majority from eastern South Dakota, three from North Dakota and one from the 
Black Hills.  It was the purpose of the people of Yankton to enjoin the 
commission and attack its legality on the ground that the legislature had 
attempted an unauthorized delegation of power.  All of the able members of the 
Yankton bar joined in the preparation of the case and the temporary injunction 
was obtained from Judge Edgerton, who had but recently been appointed chief 
justice of the territory. The problem for the commission to solve was how to 
avoid the service of this summons and at the same time comply with the 
requirements of the law to meet at Yankton for organization.

	About the first of April the commission met in Sioux City, where it 
remained in consultation for a couple of days.  Meanwhile the officers from 
Yankton, armed with the injunction, were warily watching for an opportunity to 
catch the members within the jurisdiction of the Dakota court.  On the morning 
of the 3d of April, the members boarded a Milwaukee special train and made a 
quick run to Yankton, arriving there at 5:15 a. m.  When the train arrived 
within the corporate limits of Yankton it made a short stop, when Alex. Hughes 
called the board to order and an organization was promptly effected by electing 
Hughes president, Scott, treasurer, and Ralph W. Wheelock, secretary, and an 
adjournment was taken to meet at Canton that afternoon at two o'clock. The train 
then rushed on through Yankton at thirty miles an hour and the law had been 
complied with without interference.  They went on by way of Scotland and Marion 
Junction to Canton, where they met and opened the bids from the several towns. 
They were as follows: Aberdeen, one hundred thousand dollars, and one hundred 
and sixty acres of land; Bismarck, one hundred thousand dollars and three 
hundred and twenty acres of land, guaranteed to net three hundred thousand 
dollars; Canton, one hundred thousand dollars and one hundred and sixty acres of 
land; Frankfort, one hundred thousand dollars and one hundred and sixty acres of 
land; Huron, one hundred thousand dollars and one hundred and sixty acres of 
land Mitchell, one hundred and sixty thousand dollars and one hundred and sixty 
acres of land; Pierre, one hundred thousand dollars and one hundred and sixty 
acres of land; Ordway, one hundred thousand dollars and four hundred and eighty 
acres of land; Odessa, two hundred thousand dollars and one hundred and sixty 
acres of land; Redfield, one hundred thousand dollars and one hundred and sixty 
acres of land; Steele, one hundred thousand dollars and one hundred and sixty 
acres of land.

	After opening the bids and being banqueted by the citizens of Canton, the 
commission set out to visit the various candidates. It was a glorious junket.  
The board was banqueted and wined, speechified and shown every consideration by 
the towns and interested railroads until the 2d of June, when they stopped at 
Fargo to take the final vote.  At first Belding supported Pierre; Delong, 
Canton; Thompson and Hughes, Mitchell; Mathews, Huron; Myers and Spaulding, 
Redfield; McKenzie, Bismarck, and Scott, scattering.  Balloting continued about 
on this line for a long time, when Scott cast in his vote with McKenzie and 
Belding and Delong joined them. Bismarck now lacked but one vote and Hughes was 
not slow in providing it. To the end Meyers and Spaulding supported Redfield, 
Mathews, Huron, and Thompson Mitchell.  Belding, as a Black Hills man, desirous 
of having the capital at the most available point on the Missouri river, was not 
blamed for supporting Bismarck, but the people of South Dakota were violently 
indignant at Delong and Hughes, who they felt had betrayed them.  Later when it 
became known that Governor Ordway's immediate associates had large interests in 
Bismarck the conviction forced itself upon the South Dakotans that the plan from 
the outset had been engineered by Ordway and McKenzie in the interest of 
Bismarck and that Hughes and Delong had been placed upon the commission with the 
express understanding that they were to give Bismarck the prize. Ordway had 
already lost all respect from the South Dakotans, and to this day no other man 
is so thoroughly despised among the old timers of the southern part of the state 
as is Alexander Hughes, who at once took up his residence in Bismarck.

	It will he recalled as an incident in the location of the capital at 
Yankton in 1862 that the Territorial University was located at Vermilion by act 
of the first legislature. It is one of the ironies of history that the first 
legislative endowment of the Territorial University was an incident of the 
removal of the capital from Yankton.

	The history of the university after its location really dates from April 
30, 1881, though ten years earlier an attempt to get a legislative appropriation 
for its support had failed.  On the date above named, April 30, 1881, a meeting 
of the citizens of Vermilion was held at the office of Judge Kidder to form an 
association for the erection of a building in which to open the University of 
the Territory of Dakota, and for the purpose of conducting such university after 
the building is erected. This meeting elected a board of trustees, consisting of 
Jefferson P. Kidder, president, John L. Jolley, Darwin M. Inman, Frank N. 
Burdick, Richard F. Pettigrew, Bartlett Tripp and John R. Wilson, the latter of 
Deadwood.  The meeting adjourned to May 9th of the same year, when articles of 
incorporation were adopted. Though a good deal of investigation was done and an 
unsuccessful attempt made to secure a land grant, nothing was accomplished until 
the 9th of February, 1882, when the county commissioners of Clay county passed a 
resolution submitting to the people of Clay county the proposition to vote ten 
thousand dollars in bonds for the purpose "of aiding in the construction and 
business of the University of Dakota." The election was held March 18th after a 
hard campaign, and the bonds carried by a vote of eight hundred and eleven to 
four hundred and nineteen, and the bonds were sold for a net proceeds of nine 
thousand dollars.  With this money the first building was erected upon plans 
made by W. L. Dow, the well-known architect, and was completed in the spring of 
1883. The academic department of the university, however, was opened on October 
15, 1882, under the direction of Dr. Ephraim Epstien, a former Jewish rabbi of 
great learning, but at that time affiliating with the Baptist church, with 
thirty-five students in attendance.

	With this plant - a building under construction and a school actually in 
operation - the people of Vermilion went before the legislature of 1883 and 
asked for an appropriation.  Dr. F. N. Burdick was the Clay county councilman 
and Darwin M. Inman, representative.  They devoted all of their attention to the 
interests of the university, and while it is probable that they would have 
obtained recognition in any event, the captal removal proposition made their 
work easier and the appropriation of thirty thousand dollars was an incident of 
that memorable  combination. Thus it came about that the project received that 
public recognition which made it a child of the state.

	In the same wise was the Agricultural College founded at Brookings. James 
O. B. Scoby, president of the council, was the representative of Brookings 
county in that famous last legislature at Yankton, and early identified himself 
with the removal proposition and as the fruit of his effort obtained the 
appropriation for thirty thousand dollars, which became the foundation of the 
Brookings institution, which was opened a year later. 1883, too, stands as the 
initial year of the great movement for the division of Dakota territory, 
although, as we have seen, the subject had been continually agitated since 1872.  
However, it was not until the capital removal iniquity aroused the people of 
South Dakota that any positive state-wide movement was undertaken.

	The movement for division and statehood had its conception at a 
Thanksgiving dinner given the home of Rev. Stewart Sheldon, in Yankton, in 
November, 1879.  Among the guests were Governor Howard, Hugh J. Campbell, W. H. 
H. Beadle and Dr. Joseph Ward, and they were aroused to begin an active 
propaganda for division and statehood by a proposition then being quietly 
agitated to sell all of the school lands to a great syndicate for about two 
dollars and twenty-five cents per acre. General Beadle then announced his belief 
that every acre of the school land should be held until it brought at least ten 
dollars per acre, and a tacit agreement was then made that the subject should be 
agitiated until a thorough ten-dollar sentiment was impressed upon the people.  
From that time General Beadle devoted himself to this work, while General 
Campbell and Joseph Ward agitated for the division of the territory to the end 
that a more compact and therefore a more representative commonwealth be created 
where the tendency and temptation to corruption and graft in government should 
not be so possible.  They, with others, were tireless in this work from that 
date and many citizens' meetings were held at Yankton and various other 
localities where the matter was discussed.  Finally the agitation resulted in 
the calling of a delegate convention which met in Canton June 21, 1882.  Ten 
counties were represented and strong division and admission resolutions passed 
and an executive committee, consisting of Joseph Ward, Newman C. Nash, Wilmot 
Whitefield, S. Fry Andrews, Willis C. Bower, F. B. Foster and J. V. Himes, was 
appointed to direct the movement. This committee secured the passage of an act 
by the legislature - the last at Yankton - of a bill providing for a 
constitutional convention for the south half of Dakota territory, but Governor 
Ordway, who had no notion of permitting his opportunities to be curtailed in 
this manner, promptly vetoed the bill. At this date probably seventy-five per 
cent of the inhabitants of South Dakota had not resided in the territory to 
exceed three years and half of them only from one to two years and they had not 
yet become imbued with the political necessities of the situation, but the 
action of the Governor and the action of the capital commission aroused even the 
newcomers and when the executive committee, appointed at Canton, issued a call 
for a delegate convention to meet at Huron on June 19th, to devise a plan of 
action, the response was general, every county being represented with an able 
and enthusiastic delegation. One hundred eighty-eight delegates were present.  
B. G. Caulfield, of Deadwood, was president and Philip Lawrence, now of Huron, 
secretary.  This was one of the strongest bodies of men ever assembled in 
Dakota.  It acted with calm deliberation and sagacity which encouraged all the 
friends of the movement.  Its deliberations resulted in the adoption of an 
address to the people and the passage of an ordinance calling a constitutional 
convention to meet in Sioux Falls in September.

	This  convention consisted of one hundred fifty delegates duly elected at 
a regular election held on Wednesday, the 1st day of August, and pursuant to the 
Huron ordinance met at Sioux Falls, at noon on September 4, 1883. Judge Bartlett 
Tripp was elected president. It embraced in its membership most of the names of 
South Dakotans who are best known for wisdom and public spirit.  It adopted an 
excellent constitution, which was submitted to the people at the election in 
November and was carried by a vote of twelve thousand three hundred thirty-six 
to six thousand eight hundred fourteen.  An executive committee was elected to 
press admission upon congress consisting of such men as Bartlett Tripp, Hugh J. 
Campbell, Gideon C. Moody, Arthur C. Mellette and many other representative men 
who carried the constitution to Washington and urgently presented the claims of 
Dakota to statehood, but without avail.

	Eleven counties were organized by Governor Ordway during 1883 and there 
was more or less scandal connected with each case.  They were Butte, July 11th; 
Campbell, November 6th; Edmunds, July 14th; Faulk, October 25th; Jerauld; 
October 1st; McPherson, November 3d; Potter, November 6th; Roberts, August 1st; 
Sanborn, June 23d; Sully, April 4th and Walworth, May 5th.  It was claimed that 
the Governor made corrupt bargains for the location of county seats and an 
indictment was found against him for the offense in the federal court, but he 
succeeded in having the information quashed and the case never came to trial.  
The procedure in these cases was about as follows:  An application and petition 
for organization would be presented to the Governor for organization, by the 
settlers within a county, when some gentleman would appear in the county 
claiming to have great influence with the Governor.  He would look the county 
over first ostensibly to satisfy himself that the petition was bona fide.  Then 
he would examine into the eligibility of the various sites for the county seat. 
After some days he would begin to hint to interested parties that he might be 
able to assist them in landing the prize if sufficient inducement was offered.  
This hint would be offered to each of the candidates and then he would play one 
against the other for the best offer. This usually consisted of a certain number 
of town lots adjacent to the court house site.  In several instances half of the 
entire town site was secured. When the best possible bargain had been struck he 
would recommend to the governor three men for county commissioners, known to be 
favorable to the town offering the best terms, and invariably the virtuous 
governor appointed the men recommended by this trusted advisor.

	This season there was a general rounding out of the railroad systems. The 
Northwestern built its line from Iroquois to Hawarden and from Brookings to 
Watertown. The Milwaukee completed its line between Mitchell and Aberdeen and 
began operations on from Aberdeen to Ellendale, and from Milbank to Wilmot and 
beyond.  The harvest was very satisfactory, but the market was unspeakable.  The 
price in the general market was very low, but in the new markets of Dakota, 
unregulated by law, and many of them in the control of unscrupulous dealers, 
imposition in both grade and price as well as in dockage and weight were common 
practices until frequently the homesteader received practically no return for 
his hard labor. These abuses led to organizations among the farmers which 
eventually led to the organization of the Farmers' Alliance and the enactment of 
stringent railway and warehouse laws.

	The only noteworthy political change of the year was the appointment of 
James M. Teller, of Chicago, to succeed George H. Hand as secretary.

	Of course Yankton did not give up the capital without a struggle. In an 
action brought to test the legality of the commission Judge Edgerton held the 
commission invalid and all of its acts void, on the ground that the legislature 
had no power to delegate such functions to a commission, but he was overuled by 
the supreme court upon appeal and so the capital was permanently located at 
Bismarck.

	On the 2d day of October Judge Jefferson P. Kidder died, while on a visit 
to St, Paul. He was one of the strongest men of the territory. He was a native 
of Orange, Vermont, where he was born June 4, 1818.  He was a member of the 
legislature and lieutenant governor of his native state, and while yet a young 
man removed to St. Paul.  His hasty trip to Dakota and his election to represent 
the Sioux Falls government in congress in 1859 will be recalled.  He held 
commissions from President Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes and Arthur as judge of 
the supreme court of Dakota territory, covering the period from i865 to his 
death, except four years, from 1874 to 1878, which he served as delegate in 
congress. He was a man of strong principle, sympathetic nature, strongly 
attached to his friends and to his family.  His ability as a fair and 
incorruptible judge, together with his other qualities, won for him a high 
position in the history of Dakota.

	Stephen W. Duncombe, register of the Aberdeen land office, died on October 
8th. Mr. Duncombe was appointed to the position from Michigan the previous 
winter and had made few acquaintances in Dakota.  He was forty-three years of 
age at his death.  The President appointed Charles T. McCoy, of Bon Homme 
county, to the position made vacant by Mr. Duncombe's death, which was a 
variation from the carpet-bag rule then prevailing.  The appointment of McCoy 
was particularly offensive to Governor Ordway, who made a vigorous fight against 
his confirmation and succeeded in holding the nomination up for several months. 
Ordway claimed great influence with the senate, openly declaring that he had 
personal knowledge of compromising matters affecting enough of the senators to 
determine their action upon any matter in which he was interested, but in spite 
of his pull McCoy was confirmed, after a thorough investigation by a senatorial 
committee. The particular charge urged against McCoy was complicity in one of 
Ordway's county organizations in Douglas county. In 1880, when Governor Ordway 
was new to the territory, a man named Brown from Iowa, upon false 
representations about the population of Douglas county, obtained from Ordway 
commissions for county commissioners to organize said county.  There probably at 
that date was not a single bona fide resident of Douglas county.  Ordway always 
claimed he was imposed upon and it is doubtless true. Brown and one or two 
fellow conspirators went into Douglas county and organized the county and also 
school districts,  and issued a large amount of bonds ostensibly in payment of 
supplies, for building bridges, school houses, etc. This was at a period when a 
county was settled up in a night and by next week was living like an old settled 
community with all the activities of society thoroughly organized.  At this time 
McCoy was conducting a bank in Springfield and a considerable quantity of these 
fraudulent Douglas county warrants were offered to him and he negotiated the 
sale of them to his customers. As soon as the fraudulent nature of these 
warrants was discovered and exposed through the efforts of Maj. Robert Dollard, 
McCoy, to protect his customers, recalled every dollar's worth which he had 
sold, in so doing bankrupting himself. Ordway urged before the senate that McCoy 
was a partner to the fraudulent transaction, but he was vindicated by the senate 
committee and confirmed.  This victory was magnified beyond its merits by the 
people of Dakota and was the subject of general rejoicing.