Dakota Territory History, 1884

	This information appears in Chapter LVI of "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904), pages 319-321 and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Joy Fisher, http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031

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CHAPTER LVI

1884--A FEATURELESS YEAR. 

	Dakota territory held its own in 1884.  The homestead and town boom 
continued with little abatement, but boom had become the normal condition and 
attracted little attention.  By this lime the Northwestern and Milwaukee Railway 
systems were completed essentially as they are today.  The Milwaukee had 
extended west from Aberdeen to Ipswich, the gap on the Jim valley line had been 
closed the previous year, and there remained to construct only the Madison-
Harlem line and the recent extensions.  The Northwestern was even more complete 
that the Milwaukee and has since done little east of the river except the 
Gettysburg and the Yankton extensions. In the year under discussion the 
Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern, now a part of the Rock Island system, built 
into Watertown, making a junction there with the Pacific division of the 
Minneapolis & St. Louis.

	Pierre had become the chief entry way to the hills and the traffic by 
means of stages and bull trains was very great. In the hills placer mining had 
begun to subside, but the mother lode had been uncovered and the substantial 
beginnings had commenced in the modern process of manufacturing gold, though as 
a matter of fact the most sanguine had not realized the great possibilities of 
this industry as it has since been developed.  Nevertheless the Hills were then, 
as they have been at all times since 1876, one of the reliable and unfailing 
elements in the upbuilding and prosperity of Dakota.

	This was only a fairly good season for the farmer, the first season since 
the beginning of the boom whence the pinch of drought had been felt.  There was 
as yet little diversity of crops. Wheat was the main, and in most cases the 
sole, dependence.  There was very little live stock. Markets continued bad, and 
had the new Dakotan ever learned the trick of despondency the autumn of 1884 
afforded him an opportunity to put it into practice, but the all-abounding 
Dakota hope tided him over and there was no real hard-ship.

	This was the year of the great Spink county war.  The county seat was 
located at "Old Ashton," near the Dirt lodges east of the Jim river. Redfield 
and Ashton were rival candidates for the permanent location. The election showed 
that Redfield had a majority of the votes, but Ashton contested the point, and 
on the night of December 6th citizens of Redfield visited Old Ashton and 
breaking into the vault at the court house carried away the county records.  
This high-handed proceeding inflamed the people of the Ashton country and some 
six hundred of them proceeded to Redfield to recover the records. They were 
armed and the people of Redfield prepared for defense, at the same time securing 
from Judge Seward Smith, of the third circuit, an injunction restraining the 
removal of the records from Redfield. An agreement was reached by which Ashton 
and Redfield maintained a joint guard over the precious documents and a few days 
later Judge Smith dissolved the injunction and ordered the records returned to 
old Ashton. When the excitement was at its height Governor Pierce ordered a 
company of militia from Fargo to proceed to Redfield and maintain the peace. The 
trouble was over before the militia arrived.

	It was a political year from the beginning. The feeling against Governor 
Ordway was intense and early in January a petition to the President was 
circulated and generally signed asking for his removal for corrupt practices.

	On February 21st Cornelius S. Palmer, of Yankton, was appointed judge of 
the third district to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Kidder.  
Congress created a new circuit and Judge Seward Smith, of Des Moines, Iowa, was 
appointed to preside over it.

	The territorial Republican convention to elect delegates to the national 
convention at Chicago was held at Huron on April 23d.  It was filled with 
contesting delegates, for Dakota was simply swamped with a wealth of statesmen, 
whose fitness had to be tried out at each occasion.  The proceeding bordered 
upon the disgraceful, but the final result was very satisfactory.  Col. John L. 
Jolley, of Vermilion, and N. E. Nelson, of Pembina, were chosen as delegates, 
and Byron E. Pay, of Volga, and W. J. Wallace, of Jamestown, as alternates. They 
were instructed to support James G. Blaine for the presidency and Robert T. 
Lincoln for vice-president.  John E. Bennett, of Clark, was chosen national 
committeeman.

	The Democratic convention also met at Huron and elected Frank M. Ziebach 
and M. L. McCormack as delegates to Chicago to the convention that nominated 
Cleveland for his first term. Merritt H. Day was chosen national committeeman.  
In the territorial condition great importance was attached to these 
committeeships as in a large measure they were the dispensers of party 
patronage.

	On the 25th of June the President appointed Gilbert A. Pierce to succeed 
Governor Ordway and the rejoicing in Dakota was unbounded. The celebration of 
the Fourth of July immediately following was made an occasion of thanksgiving 
and general jubilation over the deliverance. Nineteen years which have since 
elapsed have done little to alter the bad opinion in which Governor Ordway was 
held by the people he governed. It was the prevailing opinion that he was a man 
of some ability, thoroughly unscrupulous. For months leading newspapers had 
opened their editorial paragraphs with the exclamation, “Ordway must go!” and 
when the welcome news came that his successor was appointed they exclaimed 
“Thank God Ordway has gone !" 

	The Republican convention for the nominationi of delegate to congress was 
held at Pierre, September 17th. John B. Raymond was a candidate for re-election, 
supported by North Dakota delegates, generally.  South Dakota presented four 
candidates, Oscar S. Gifford, of Canton, Arthur C. Mellette, of Watertown, 
Samuel McMasters, manager of the Homestake mine, and Junius W. Shannon, of 
Huron.  The first ballot showed their relative strength to be:  Raymond, one 
hundred seventy-three; Gifford, eighty-nine; Mellette, forty—eight, and Shannon, 
nineteen, with twenty-eight scattering votes. On the eighth ballot the South 
Dakota men under the lead of Mellette threw their strength to Gifford, 
nominating him by a vote of two hundred twenty-six to one hundred sixty-five.  
Mellette was made chairman of the committee.

	The Democrats held a harmonious convention at Sioux Falls on October 1st 
and nominated John R. Wilson, of Deadwood.  Mark W. Sheafe and Maris Taylor 
received complimentary votes.  Darwin M. Inman was re-elected chair-man of the 
committee, which was really the important feature of the convention's action. 

	This year saw the first electric lighting in Dakota, a street system 
having been inaugurated in Sioux Falls.

	On September 3d the cornerstone of the Methodist Dakota University was 
laid at Mitchell and on September 11th the foundations were laid for the 
Episcopal All Saints' School at Sioux Falls.

	The abuses of grain grading and transportation, together with the 
unprecedented low price, led to active organization among the farmers. At this 
time the movement called the Farmers' Protective Union had no political 
significance. In addition to the grading and transportation questions matters of 
farm economy were discussed in the meetings which were held very generally 
throughout the state.

	The treaty for the opening of the great Sioux reservation which had been 
negotiated the previous year by a commission headed by Governor Edmunds was 
rejected by congress, delaying the opening for several years. Possibly no one 
other event has done so much to retard the development of South Dakota as the 
failure to ratify the Edmunds' treaty.  The two great railways then, as now, 
were at the Missouri, waiting to cross over as soon as the lands were open to 
settlement.  In that era of boom and railroad building, there is scarcely a 
question that, had the reservation been opened, the Northwestern and Milwaukee 
would both have crossed the prairies to the Hills before the end of the year, 
and the story of South Dakota would have been quite altered. Failing in this, 
the Northwestern sought an entrance to the Hills by the Nebraska route and by 
the time the lands were opened in 1890 the boom was over and gentlemen's 
agreements and mergers of interests had quite changed conditions with the result 
that at this late date the two ends of South Dakota lack direct connection by 
rail.

	Isaac Stockwell, an old and prominent resident of Yankton, died on 
Christmas eve.