Brief History of SD, 1900 This information appears in Chapter LXXII of "History of South Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904), pages 388-389 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 LXXII THE END OF THE CENTURY. The year 1900 found South Dakota making great forward strides. The people were awake to their opportunities. Several years, in which every citizen was pocketing more new wealth than were the people of any other community anywhere, were having marked effect. Debts which but recently had appeared insuperable were wiped out like magic. The Dakotans were coming to their own. The products of the farms and pastures were becoming enormous. The gold mines were doubling in the output of bullion. The flow and thrill of prosperity was felt on every hand. The people were becoming ambitious. The previous year they had reached out and brought to Sioux Falls the national convention of butter makers. A vast concourse of experts in one of the leading industries and the hospitality be stowed upon them had carried the fame of South Dakota throughout the land. This success whetted the appetite for other similar victories. When the national committee of the Populist party assembled to determine the time and place of the national convention to nominate candidates for president and vice-president, South Dakota was on hand and, in spite of tile derisive smiles of the big convention cities, actually landed the prize, and the convention met at Sioux Falls on May 9th and there placed Mr. Bryan in nomination. It was a great meeting of all the strong and representative men of the party from every state. and Sioux Falls splendidly entertained them. On the 23d of May the Republican state convention met at Sioux Falls, and elected delegates to the national convention and placed in nomination a full list of state officers. Charles N. Herreid received the unanimous nomination for governor, as did Charles H. Burke and Eben W. Martin for congress. The Republicans, now thoroughly aroused in opposition to Senator Pettigrew, due to his conduct in the previous presidential campaign, were determined to prevent his return to the senate by the next legislature. Emiel Brouch, George Rice, Louis L. Lostetter, A. H. Betts, Charles B. Collins, Marcus P. Beebe, James Halley and Granville G. Bennett were sent to the national convention at Philadelphia. The management of the campaign was entrusted to Frank Crane. The Democrats met at Chamberlain June 6th and sent to the Kansas City convention George W. Mathews, Stephen Donohue, Steven Keenen, Thomas W. Taubman, True W. Childs, John J. Conway and Charles S. Eastman and John R. Wilson. The Democrats and Populists fused at Yankton on July 11th, nominating Burre H. Lien for governor and Andrew E. Lee and Joseph B. Moore for congress. They placed their campaign in charge of John Pusey and Don Medbury. No such campaign has before been made. National attention was called to the fight upon Senator Pettigrew, who had become particularly obnoxious to the President and Senator Hanna, and both parties thronged South Dakota with their most eminent men. United States senators and men of national repute were nightly out in schoolhouses all over South Dakota. Mr. Bryan made a tour through the state, talking to immense audiences, and Mr. Roosevelt, vice-presidential candidate, and Mr. Hanna at different times toured the state. For a long time the chances seemed evenly balanced, but toward the end the Republican advantage became apparent and the result was an overwhelming victory for that party, the average majority being about fifteen thousand. The legislature was one hundred and seventeen Republican to fifteen fusion. The railways this year began again to extend their lines, the Milwaukee building one hundred miles from Yankton to Platte and fifty miles from Bowdle to Evarts. The Northwestern also threw a spur into the state at Astoria. The citizens of Watertown this year erected in honor of its Company H, which served with great distinction with the First Regiment, a fine monument, which stands in courthouse square and is highly creditable to the patriotic spirit of the people of the place. On the 30th of June the Cataract Hotel, at Sioux Falls, burned. It was one of the best known hostelries in the country. Fortunately there were no fatalities. Among the prominent South Dakotans who died during this year were Phil K. Faulk, a brother of the governor, who died on March 27th. Mr. Faulk was a lawyer and a member of the first state legislature and held many offices at Yankton. He lost an arm in the battle of the Wilderness. Territorial Governor John L. Pennington died on July 9th. He was governor from 1874 to 1878 and left an enviable record for honesty and good business judgment as an official. Father Pierre J. Boucher, the first Catholic priest to establish himself permanently in Dakota and build a church there, died on July 22d, at the age of eighty years. Martin Charger, a Christian Indian, claiming to be a grandson of Captain Merriweather Lewis, and famous for leading the "Fool Soldier band" of young Tetons to the rescue of the Shetak captives, died at his home at Cheyenne river agency on August 27th, fifty-nine years of age. On August 25th William F. T. Bushnell, of Aberdeen, publisher of the Dakota Farmer and a founder of the State Agricultural and kindred societies and a leader in the temperance movement, died while upon a vacation to Colorado. He was in the prime of life and one of South Dakota's most useful citizens.