History of SD Statehood

	This information appears in Chapter LXI of "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904), pages 335-337 and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Joy Fisher, http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031

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CHAPTER LXI 

STATEHOOD AT LAST, WITH DIVISION. 

	The new year dawned with statehood near at hand. The country had spoken in 
unmistakable terms upon this topic and congress hastened to do tardy justice.  
On the 14th of February the omnibus bill passed, granting enabling acts to South 
Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Washington.  South Dakota was to adopt the 
Sioux Falls constitution, with such changes as the progress of time had rendered 
necessary, but it was not to be altered in any vital part. Prohibition, minority 
representation and capital location were to be resubmitted to the people at an 
election to be held October 1st. The protection provided for the school lands 
were not only kept intact, but the South Dakota idea was enjoined upon each of 
the other proposed states.  The passage of the enabling act, while received with 
great satisfaction by the people, was not the occasion of much celebration. It 
came as a matter of course and the fireworks had been expended when the result 
of the election was known the previous autumn.

	The legislature convened on the second Tuesday of January and remained in 
session sixty days.  Smith Stimmel, a North Dakota man and cousin of James G. 
Blaine, was president of the council and Hosmer H. Keith, of Sioux Falls, 
speaker of the house.  Among the strong and well known South Dakotans in this 
session were Coe I. Crawford, K. C. Ericson, Robert Dollard, James Halley, A. L. 
Van Osdel, Frank R. Aiken, Joseph M. Greene, S. P. Howell, Harry Hunter, Frank 
A. Morris and A. W. Campbell. The session was a constant fight between the 
legislature and Governor Church, who exercised his veto power upon most of the 
bills which came to him, but which were passed over his head by the solons.  In 
anticipation of immediate statehood, very little was accomplished.

	President Harrison was inaugurated upon the 4th of March and seven days 
later he appointed Arthur C. Mellette governor of Dakota territory. During the 
winter a good many prominent Dakotans were assembled in Washington and a 
combination was entered into between Messrs.Moody, Mellette, Pettigrew, Edgerton 
and Gifford on these lines: Mellette was to be governor of the territory and 
state, Moody and Pettigrew were to be senators, Gifford, one of the congressmen, 
and Edgerton, judge of the federal court for the newly created district of South 
Dakota.  The agreement extended also to the principal appointive officers in the 
territory. Mellette speedily relieved Church and his famous cabinet and 
appointed J. M. Bailey, treasurer, J. C. McManima, auditor; Johnson Nickeus, of 
Jamestown, attorney general; superintendent of schools, A. Sheridan Jones; 
railway commissioners, Judson LaMoure, Harvey J. Rice and John H. King; public 
examiner, T. E. Blanchard, all of whom continued in office until the admission 
on the 2d of November.

	The election for constitutional delegates was held the second Tuesday in 
May and the Sioux Falls constitution was ratified by a large majority so that it 
only devolved upon the convention which assembled at Sioux Falls upon July 4th 
to change the name from  Dakota to South Dakota, make a new legislative and 
judicial apportionment and arrange for the division of the territorial property 
and debts with North Dakota

	No sooner was the enabling act passed than a fierce contest grew up for 
the location of the temporary seat of government.  Chamberlain, Huron, Mitchell, 
Sioux Falls, Redfield and Watertown entered the race, but Redfield withdrew 
before the election in favor of Huron. This fight was carried to the point of 
desperation and introduced a line of corrupt practices which was most 
demoralizing and from which the state was long in recovering.  Each town exerted 
itself to the utmost and spent money lavishly, involving heavy debts which are 
in some instances a handicap to this day.  Governor Mellette headed the 
Republican ticket and P. F. McClure, of Pierre, who had won prominence as 
immigration commissioner, was the Democratic candidate, Mellette winning by a 
majority of thirty thousand. 

	A vigorous campaign for prohibition was made and the separate article 
became part of the constitution by a majority of 5,724. 

	Pierre was the successful aspirant for the temporary seat of government, 
receiving 27,006 votes against 14,014 for Huron, 11,970 for Watertown, 7,506 for 
Mitchell, 1,765 for Sioux Falls, and 2,414 for Chamberlain. 

	On the 15th of October the legislature assembled at Pierre and elected 
Gideon C. Moody and Richard F. Pettigrew senators and adjourned to await the 
proclamation of admission, which was made by President Harrison on November 2d 
and that day all of the state machinery was set in operation. A few days later 
President Harrison appointed Alonzo J. Edgerton judge of the federal district 
court for the district of South Dakota, a position he held with honor until his 
death in August, 1896. 

	Eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, the year of statehood, was probably the 
hardest year in the history of Dakota, not excepting the great grasshopper year 
of 1875. With that year began the period of reverses which cut our population, 
destroyed our credit and for a time made Dakota a name of ill repute. Several 
causes contributed to this situation.  A great drought came upon the land, 
practically destroying the crop.  In some localities the people who were 
depending solely upon the wheat crop were left absolutely destitute and 
dependent upon public charity. They were beginners in a new land, had not yet 
accumulated a surplus, and on the reverse were as a rule deeply involved in 
debt. The mistaken liberality of our exemption laws deprived them of credit, for 
as a rule they were among strangers and had not yet established credit through 
the proven rectitude of their lives and therefore had been compelled to mortgage 
their personal property to obtain money and if they had obtained title to their 
homesteads, in most cases they, too, were mortgaged.  Moreover a very large 
percentage of the homesteaders were not practical farmers, but had left 
professional life or positions in shops and stores to take the free land of 
Dakota.  Their sole dependence was the crop, and when that failed their 
situation was truly pathetic.  Thousands abandoned their homesteads, surrendered 
their mortgaged chattels and left the state, carrying with them a tale of woe 
which was disseminated throughout the country. The opinion everywhere was that 
Dakota was a failure. Of course interest upon farm mortgages was defaulted, 
bringing bankruptcy to the trust and mortgage companies who had negotiated them 
and in turn loss to the eastern banks and lenders.  During the palmy days of the 
boom many enterprises were undertaken in the progressive towns supported by 
eastern capital and these came tumbling about the ears of the projectors. All of 
these conditions contributed to bring about a situation of utter demoralization.

	The first necessity, however, was to provide food for the starving, and to 
this task Governor Mellette devoted himself with the utmost energy. To satisfy 
himself of the real need, he drove for many days among the destitute 
homesteaders, visiting them in their homes and drawing from them the reluctant 
story of their awful need. Learning of the necessity from his own observation, 
he called the people together in the larger towns and appealed to them to 
provide succor.

	It was little that could be done at home. Even the ordinarily well-to-do 
found their means taxed to the utmost to provide for their own. Governor 
Mellette then went to Chicago and other eastern points and appealed for 
assistance for the destitute, pledging himself that every dollar donated should 
go directly to the relief of the needy and that not one cent should be used for 
the administration of the fund.  The response was generous and all actual 
suffering was averted.  The cost of administering this relief fund, amounting to 
several thousand dollars, Governor Mellette paid from his own purse. 

	Governor Mellette's conduct, highly praiseworthy as it was, called down 
upon him the maledictions of the boomer element of the towns, who held him 
responsible for the ills that had befallen the state, and he was made the 
subject of shameful abuse, but he was not deterred from the performance of his 
plain duty though it cost him his political standing in the state.

	Aside from the statehood accomplishment and its incidental political 
features and the drought and its consequences, 1889 was uneventful. Railroad 
building was at a standstill and no new building of any kind was projected after 
the harvest time.  The general health of the people was excellent, a blessing 
that was duly appreciated in that year of the beginning of the dark age in South 
Dakota.

	On November 2, 1889, the very day of the admission of South Dakota, a 
proposition for which he had unwearily labored, Joseph Ward. president of 
Yankton College, died.  No other man has more strongly impressed himself upon 
South Dakota for good than he.