Great Blizzard of 1888

	This information appears in Chapter LX of "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904), pages 332-334 and was 
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CHAPTER LX

THE GREAT BLIZZARD OF JANUARY 12, 1888.

	The year 1888 will always be borne in mind by Dakotans as well as by the 
people of the entire west as the year of the great bizzard.  It fell unannounced 
on January 12th with a ferocity before undreamed of by the denizens of the 
plain. In the northern portion of the territory it began early in the morning, 
but in the central and southern portions it did not arrive until later in the 
day when people were scattered in their avocations, children were in school, 
farmers out with their stock, or enroute to or from market, and the resulting 
fatalities were fearful. It was a beutiful winter morning, warn, and gracious 
with soft, variable breezes - just such a morning as was calculated to draw the 
people into the open.  One moment it was bright, warm, glorious the next moment, 
and without the slightest premonitory warning, the terror fell with unexampled 
rage.  All attempt at description must be weak and inadequate.  For fifteen 
hours it continued, blinding, impenetrable, intensely cold, the atmosphere 
filled with needles of ice driven by a furious gale, accompanied by a deafening 
roar; then it was gone and nature smiled out again as bright and innocent as a 
morning in May.  One hundred twelve citizens of South Dakota perished in the 
storm and many others suffered extreme peril.  Minnesota, Nebraska and western 
Iowa suffered equally. 

	Notwithstanding the gathering of a good crop, a fair growth in population 
and the construction of the Elkhorn to Whitewood, the Great Northern into Sioux 
Falls and Huron and the great Sioux Falls boom, which eclipsed anything which 
had yet come to the new west in the way of town booming, the year was 
essentially a year of politics.  General Harrison had, above all others, been a 
friend of Dakota in congress and the leading men of South Dakota desired to show 
their appreciation for his efforts in our behalf, by giving him Dakota's support 
in the national convention, and in consequence a Harrison propaganda was 
undertaken in January. Colonel Moody of Deadwood, and Governor Mellette, of 
Watertown, were entrusted with the management of affairs by the Harrison 
managers, for Dakota as well as in adjacent states, and their work bore most 
effectively upon the result.  The Republican territorial convention for the 
election of delegates to Chicago was held at Jamestown, North Dakota, on May 
16th.  The divisionists dominated the convention absolutely. It was argued that 
if Dakota had her rights South Dakota would have two senators and two 
representatives, entitling her to eight votes in the national convention, and 
that North Dakota would be a territory with two votes, and it was therefore 
determined to elect ten delegates and send them to the Chicago convention and 
make a fight for their recognition. Ten delegates were therefore selected, whom 
it was known among the initiated would be for Harrison when wanted, but lest 
antagonism to their recognition be created by other candidates no reference to 
their views was made, nor was it possible to get an expression upon the subject 
prior to the balloting at Chicago. The South Dakota men upon this delegation 
were Gideon C. Moody, J. M. Bailey, T. C. Bogart, B. H. Sullivan, George W. Hopp 
and Colonel Plummer, then a resident of Brown county. They were promptly 
recognized at Chicago and ten votes accorded to Dakota, where but two were 
anticipated in the call.  The national platform also declared unequivocally for 
the division of Dakota and the admission of both sections. Pursuant to the non-
committal policy previously arranged, the Dakotans divided their vote equally 
among the candidates in the earlier ballots, but at the opportune moment united 
upon Harrison and gave weight to the impulse which soon resulted in his choice. 
Governor Mellette was chosen national committeeman.  The section of the national 
Republican platform relating to the Dakota question was its most extended 
expression upon any topic, and among other things said  "South Dakota should of 
right be immediately admitted as a state in the Union under the constitution 
framed and adopted by her people."

	The action of the Chicago convention put an end to all one-state talk from 
any source.  That utterance that "Dakota should be divided" was accepted as the 
inevitable and early action. 

	The Democratic convention for the election of delegates to the national 
convention at St. Louis was held at Watertown on May 3d.  It was the conclusion 
of a campaign for supremacy between Governor Church and his friends and Merritt 
H. Day, the representative of the old-line Democracy of the territory.  It was 
the most intense of all the political movements Dakota had known and was as 
furious in its way as was the January blizzard.  With all of the territorial and 
federal patronage at his control, Governor Church possessed an advantage which 
rendered him invulnerable, but the Day people did not give up the fight until 
repudiated by the national convention.  At Watertown there were so many 
contesting delegations that it is even now impossible to determine which faction 
had the legitimate organization.  Prior to the convention the central committee 
met and while Judge Bangs, the chairman, sided with Day, the majority of the 
committee favored the Governor's cause.  The committee resolved to make a roll 
of the delegates and to pass upon the prima facia qualifications of contestants 
for seats. This would place the control of the convention absolutely in the 
hands of the Church men. The call for the convention provided that the meeting 
should be held at Watertown, but did not announce where the convention should be 
held at Watertown.  The local committee had arranged to meet in the Armory.  
Promptly at the hour the Church men assembled at the Armory, but Day had passed 
the word around among his friends and they met at Music Hall, where they were 
called to order by Chairman Bangs.  Another member of the committee called the 
Armory convention to order.  Intense excitement pervaded both meetings, 
crimination, and recrimination, villification and personal abuse filled the air; 
for hours chaos reigned.  The address to the people issued by the Day meeting, 
an arraignment of Governor Church and his administration, was a philippic which 
may be regarded a classic in political literature.  Aside from patronage, the 
dividing principle between the faction was the question of the division of 
Dakota, lint in the excitement both factions left all reference to that vital 
subject out of their platforms.  The Church convention sent Col. William R. 
Steele, of Deadwood, and George H. Megguire, of North Dakota, as delegates and 
the Day faction chose Mr. Day and Judge Bangs.  At St. Louis the Church men were 
admitted, as a matter of course.

	The Democrats held their congressional convention at Jamestown on July 
11th.  The Day faction, by this time thoroughly humbled, made no disturbance and 
James W. Harden, of Jerauld county, South Dakota, was nominated for delegate 
practically without opposition. 

	The Republican congressional convention met at Watertown on August 22d.  
Judge Gifford was a candidate for renomination.  At Sioux Falls, Melvin Grigsby 
and Cornelius S. Palmer were candidates.  Senator Pettigrew favored Grigsby and 
he secured the support of Minnehaha county. Hugh J. Campbell was the candidate 
of the radical "We are a state" element and George A Mathews, of Brookings, was 
the candidate of the element in the party who had been lukewarm in support of 
division.  North Dakota supported Harrison Allen, of Fargo.  Judge Palmer, 
having a few votes outside of Minnehaha county, continued in the race. Judge 
Gifford was much the strongest of any single candidate and in a way the 
situation resolved itself into Gifford against the field.  There was a contest 
from Lawrence county between what were known as the Moody faction and the 
VanCise-Bullock faction, and the organization of the convention was dependent 
upon the settlement of this contest.  After the temporary organization two days 
were occupied by the credentials committee in taking testimony in this contest 
and their report was finally made favorable to the Moody faction, but the 
VanCise people carried the fight upon the floor of the convention where, after a 
long session, occupied by the most excited and eloquent speech making which ever 
entertained a Dakota convention, the result was rendered in favor of Moody's 
delegation.  Seventeen ballots were required to make the nomination, which fell 
to George A. Mathews by a consolidation of the central and north Dakota 
strength.  In the campaign which followed the moral influence of the Farmers' 
Alliance was thrown to Mr. Harden, upon the tariff issue, nevertheless Mr. 
Mathews was elected by more than thirty-five thousand majority.

	The result of the national election was a source of great rejoicing in 
Dakota and was heralded with fireworks, booming cannon and general 
jollification.  Dakota had been one of the issues in the nation, discussed from 
every stump and the people at home realized that the end of serfdom, as it was 
called, was near at hand.

	During the year, a bill having passed congress to give South Dakota an 
additional judge, L. W. Crofoot, of Aberdeen, was appointed to the position and 
John E. Carland, of Bismarck, was chosen to succeed Cornelius S. Palmer.

	In the month of March a sensation was created by the marriage of Cora 
Belle Fellows, a young lady of good family from Washington, D. C., to a half-
blood Indian named Chaska, at the Cheyenne river agency.  Chaska, or Sam 
Campbell, was uneducated and bore a not very good character and the marriage was 
a seven-days' wonder throughout the land.  The yellow journals of the cities 
gave up columns of space to it.  As might have been expected, no happiness came 
of it and Mrs. Campbell died, heartbroken, a few years later, Chaska having 
forsaken her to take up with a dusky belle of the tribe.

	In February a vein of natural gas was opened at a depth of one hundred 
feet at Ashton.  It was piped into the hotel owned by Samuel W. Bowman there and 
it gave a satisfactory heat and attracted wide attention, yet the possibilities 
of it were not realized and no effort made to further utilize it.  Presently the 
hole caved in and no attempt was made to reopen it, but in the light of later 
developments in the state it is probable that supplies sufficient for heating 
and lighting purposes exist there.

	The crop was very good and, all things considered, 1888 was one of the 
good years which the territory enjoyed. Prices were improved and the people were 
contented and prosperous, and the prospect for division and immediate admission 
to statehood made them feel as if a new lease of life had been given them.

	In December President Olson, who had made a grand success of the State 
University at Vermillion, came to his death in the fire which destroyed the 
Minneapolis Tribune building.  He was calling upon the editor in the fifth story 
when the alarm of fire was given and found egress by the stairs or elevator cut 
off.  With others, he hastened to the fire escape at the end of the hall and 
while descending it was struck by the falling body of another victim and hurled 
to the pavement.