Hyde County, SD History - Books .....Chapter 1 Organization Of County 1908 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 7, 2010, 5:41 am Book Title: History Of Hyde County CHAPTER I Organization of the County Hyde County was organized in 1883. This was when there was only one Dakota and under a Territorial form of government, but soon after there was a division of the Territory, which resulted in the two states of North and South Dakota. The organization of the county was brought about upon presenting to Governor N. G. Ordway, the governor of the Territory, a petition setting forth that the county contained one hundred and fifty inhabitants, and asking that he proceed as an executive duty to organize, the county. The law at that time provided that when such a petition was presented to the governor, he should act upon the same by appointing three commissioners, whose duty it would be to locate the county seat, and also to arjpoint the necessary officers to manage the county business. The law has since been changed, now providing that instead oi appointing commissioners, the governor issues a notice calling an election by the people of the county, and fixing the time for the same, at which election the electors choose their county officers who hold until the next general election, and also at the same election, there is selected the location for the county seat. When the petition for organization was, presented to the governor he acted upon it, and right there we drifted unexpectedly upon the shoals and quicksands of contending influences, brought about by county seat rivalries, and by the governor's own act, who manifested a selfish interest in the organization itself. The governor had made some deal whereby he was to be benefited by the location of the county seat at Holabird, and to carry out that deal he was to appoint as commissioners L. E. Whitcher, John Falde and A. E. VanCamp, giving the Holabird location two commissioners votes, for, as Mr. VanCamp was the owner of the Highmore townsite,his vote was not expected for Holabird, nor was it needed. At this stage of the proceedings it became known that the governor had changed his own views as to the county seat location, and was in favor of a site two miles east of Holabird upon land belonging to J. S. Harris, and he expected that his appointees would carry out his wishes, but he soon learned that Mr. VanCamp and Mr.Falde would vote for Highmore, and thereby defeat the Harris scheme. Accordingly after the commission to the three men above named had been issued and placed in the post office at Bismark for transmission to Highmore, the governor revoked the commission to John Falde and appointed in his place Geo. W. Dunham, and upon that act a case was brought to settle the question as to which held legally the office of commissioner, whether it was John Falde or Geo. W. Dunham, but the case never reached a hearing as a settlement of the matter was had later on. In the meantime the conflict over this one commissioner resulted in two separate organizations, each having two commissioners, that on the Ordway side being L. E. Whitcher and Geo. W. Dunham, and on the other side A. E. Van Camp and John Falde. The Ordway organization held their meetings on the west side of town at the office of E. O. Parker. Their first meeting was on the 5th day of November, 1883, at which time L. E. Whitcher was elected chairman of the Board and J. S. Harris secretary pro tem, and thus organized, the following named officers were elected by the Board: J. S. Harris, register of deeds; J. F. O'Donnell, Sup't of Schools; James H. Lynch, sheriff; O. C. Cole, county judge; W. W. Kingsbury, assessor; A. H. Everhard, treasurer; D. L. Cadwalader, surveyor; Peter Learn, coroner; and N. F Bates, John C. Stoner, Sr., and G. L. F. Robinson, Justices of the Peace. The Board fixed the amount of officers bonds, also voted to defer action on the county seat location until there was an expression by the people. At a meeting of this Board, held Nov. 14, 1883, they took a fling at the other organization in the following resolution: "Whereas, one John Falde, of Hyde County, S. D., has and at present is acting or purporting to act as a commissioner of Hyde County without having been duly commissioned or qualified according to law, and, whereas the said John Falde together with one A. E. VanCamp, a commissioner of said County of Hyde, have proceeded to the organization of said county and the appointment of officers therefor, which said organization and appointments are bogus and contrary to law, and whereas; the further action of said parties in representing themselves to be such authorized commissioners will be of great and lasting detriment to the said County of Hyde. Therefore Resolved, that the chairman of this Board, L. E. Whitcher, be instructed to procure proper counsel, and inaugurate the necessary legal proceedings to test the validity of their said claim, and enjoin their further proceedings." At this time there were two newspapers published in Hyde County, the Herald and the Vox Populi, both of which refused to publish the proceedings of this Ordway Board, so that at their meeting Dec. 25, 1883, they authorized the clerk to post copies of the proceedings in three public places in the county. On May 5, 1884, Geo. W. Dunham resigned as county commissioneer, which left Mr. Whitcher to run the thing alone until June 13, 1884, when Wm. Fankboner was appointed in Mr. Dunham's place. This board continued its meeting until September 2, 1884, which was the date of its last meeting, and on this same date, Sept. 2nd, a settlement having been made between the two separate organizations, the real legal commissioners met for the first time and organized. During the existence of the Ordway Board, they fixed the salaries of their officers, ordered supplies, established school and road districts, fixed the amount of liquor license, and indeed seemed to go on with the county business all right, except, we judge, must have been hampered for finances, as there is no account of any money received by their treasurer, no report by him and no account of disbursements. THE OTHER Having in the preceeding, mentioned what we have designated as the "Ordway Board," we will now refer to the "Other" of this double headed organization. This Board also met Nov. 5, 1883, on the east side of Highmore town. There were present as commissioners A. E. Van Camp and John Falde. Mr. Falde was elected chairman and D. A. W. Perkins, clerk pro tem. The following county officers were then elected by the commissioners: D. A. W. Perkins, clerk and register of deeds; Lincoln Davis, sheriff; J. T. Haight judge of probate; L. C. Hadley. treasurer; D. C. Cadwalader, surveyor; E. E. Christie, coroner; A. N. VanCamp, Sup't of Schools; N. M. Jacobson, assessor; and G. L. F. Robinson, A. B. Coplin, Robert Stewart, N. M. Jacobson, Justices of the Peace. The board then fixed the location of the county seat at Highmore The bonds of officers were fixed, and afterwards filed and approved. At their meeting held Nov. 10. 1883, they took official notice of the Ordway organization in the following resolution: "Whereas, one L. E. Whitcher was, as we believe, appointed one of the commissioners of Hyde County, and who has habitually and wilfully neglected his duty as such commissioner, not having met with this Board at all, therefore Resolved, that the county clerk be authorized and instructed to take such legal proceedings in the name of the county for the removal of said Whitcher as the law provides, and to employ counsel in the prosecution of the case as may be required." Soon after the passage of this resolution the clerk reported that he had secured the services of Gamble Bros., of Yankton, as such counsel. This Board also established roads and school districts, purchased supplies, allowed bills and transacted the county business in a regular way and in about the same manner as the Ordway Board did. They also fixed the liquor license and under their administration three licenses were issued, which placed in the county treasury the sum of $327.81, which amout was counted out to the Board by Treasurer Hadley at their last meeting, thereby enabling the officers appointed by this Board some pay for their services, a privilege not in the power of the Ordway Board, for their treasury was empty. The last meeting of the commissioners of this organization was Sept. 2, 1884, the same date of the last meeting of the Ordway commissioners and as the clerk has it in his minutes, "This wound up their earthly career." Both of these organizations having on that date retired from business and on both sides their appointees to office having resigned, there was by this surrender of both organizations created the real legal organization of the county. The Legal Organization Resignations having been made by all of the county officers appointed by the two separate organizations heretofore mentioned, this cleared the way for the two legal commissioners, L. E. Whitcher and A. E. VanCamp, to come together and form the new Board, whose legality as the Board of Commissioners of Hyde County could not be questioned. Accordingly they met on the 2nd day of September, 1884. L. E. Whitcher was chosen as chairman and E. O. Parker as clerk. They being fully organized appointed the following county officers; E. O. Parker, register of deeds; Charles H. Price, probate judge; John F. Goudy, treasurer; B. D. Foster, coroner; D. L. Cadwalader, surveyor; Charles P. Jones, sheriff; Cora M. Shober, Sup't of Schools; Charles S. McGill, assessor, G. L. F. Robinson, George Close, John C. Stoner, Sr., E, J. Quinn, Justices of the Peace, and E. J. Mix, Quincy Stark, Charles H. Lynch and James B. Newell, constables. On the 4th day of September, 1884, this Board made their first levy for taxes as follows: Territorial purpose, three mills; Interest on Territorial Bonds, three-tenths of a mill; ordinary county revenue, six mills; bridge fund, one mill; road tax, one mill. At their next meeting, September 8, they levied a poll tax on all male persons between twenty-one and fifty years of age; one dollar and fifty cents on every elector for support of schools, and also for support of schools two mills on all taxable property. At this same meeting the Board allowed its first bill, being $4.50 to reimburse L. E. Whitcher money expended for chairs to be used in the court room for Justices of the Peace. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF HYDE COUNTY SOUTH DAKOTA FROM ITS ORGANIZATION TO THE PRESENT TIME BY JOHN B. PERKINS 1908 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/sd/hyde/history/1908/historyo/chapter115nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/sdfiles/ File size: 11.1 Kb