Hyde County, SD History - Books .....Chapter 2 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, 5:42 am Book Title: History Of Hyde County CHAPTER II Leaving now the monotony of county official proceedings (which, however, will be referred to again) we will mention in a lighter vein such scraps of history as tend to make up the unwritten record, but still area part of the county, and without which the history would not be complete. There is something peculiarly fascinating to early settlers, who make the first start in a new county who constitute what the poet calls "THE FIRST LOW WASH OF WAVES WHERE SOON WILL ROLL A HUMAN SEA." Its virgin and unbroken, soil lies in mute silence, so to speak, waiting for coming events. A few men come together attracted by what seemed to them the best of opportunities to be in on the .ground floor, and awaiting the results which are promising and alluring, and they are, for time brings settlement, cultivation of the soil, land values, and, under proper management, wealth to the early settlers. The immediate future growth of the county also depends somewhat upon the character of the men who make the first start. In some parts of the west the first organizers of counties, as in Northwestern Iowa, were grafters pure and simple. They had no other object only to organize the county, set in motion all the machinery of a county municipal government, have themselves placed in the various county offices, then grind out county warrants for the most exhorbitant expenditures and divide the spoils. Hyde County did not start that way. Whatever strife there may have been in the early organization, it was not for graft, although that species of plunder may after all, in a mild form, have crept in along some stages of the county's history, for men are weak, easily fall into temptation, when it pertains to money getting. But the county was not organized for plunder and the records of the county show that as a rule its affairs have been honestly managed, though now and then perhaps there has been some thoroughly dishonest official, for no county nor any other species of governmental existence can always be entirely free from them. The first year of the county organization, during the period of its double character, from November 1883 to September 1885, there was no other town in the county except Highmore and during that time there was little else to do except to join one faction or the other, each mingling with the other with such smiles and blandishments as they could command and carry upon their faces under a real feeling of hatred and dislike, which, however, never culminated in an outbreak of personal warfare, and after all the real humor of the situation would appear upon the surface, and show itself in various ways. There was but little work for the two registers of deeds, for there was but a small number of acres to be conveyed, most of the land then being owned by the United States government. But stiil there was some conveyancing and the parties m it, of the first and second part, in order to be sure of a legal record would pay double fees and the conveyance appear upon both sets of books. Some stranger appeared one day in town with a deed to be recorded, and on his way up street from the depot not knowing of the double headed organization inquired for the recorder's office, and was directed to the office of Recorder Perkins. He went there paid the fees and left his paper. At noon time when he was among the Ordway crowd he was informed that his deed had been recorded at the wrong place, that it was a fake shop and he had been swindled out of a dollar. Being a man of nervous and excitable disposition he hurriedly went to the Perkins office, demanded his deed and his money, and did this with the air of one who believed he had been swindled and was determined to avenge the offense and punish the offender. He was told, however, that he could have the deed when its record was complete, but the money would not be returned. Upon this he started in to be troublesome and belligerent, but a few of the boys being near by, he was hustled out into the street and threatened with a nest. He was a decent fellow, however, and when he learned the true situation of affairs he laughed over it, patronized both offices and later on had some of the individual members of both factions lined up together at the bar of John Zwight's saloon. What is now Holabird township was known at first as Hughitt township, though as a township it was not so designated, except as a school precinct. It was given the name Hughitt by the Ordway Board, December 3, 1883. But that locality to Highmore and the Ordway crowd, was the offending territory and constituted the contention over the county seat. But although it had assumed the name of Hughitt and became known as such, Highmore people, in the spirit of sarcasm and irony, designated that locality as "Gumbo Holler" and would convey to the mind of the outsider and the incoming settler the idea that the soil was nothing but gumbo and unfit for cultivation, which is not so, and which statement those same Highmore people would now refute with the most emphatic denial. But in the crisis of war, be it in the case of contending armies or in a bloodless strife, in a war of words, each side does not hesitate to blacken the reputation of the other, or to apply any kind of an offensive epithet with a large measure of expressive adjectives. During 1882 and on to nearly the close of the season, the government land in the vicinity of Holabird was without settlers. There were no filings in the Huron land office by homesteaders, indeed the outside world had not been told of the opportunity to secure land there. Neither the railroad company nor hustling land agents had entered the advertising field to proclaim the virtues of this rich and uncultivated El Dorado, waiting there for incoming settlers. It was not until the following year, in 1883, when there was a rush of settlers to secure land in this part of the state and in that rush Hyde county obtained its share. Towards the latter 1 art of 1882, however, a few parties from Highmore interested in establishing a town where Holabird now is, made some filings there, and there was some bogus settling, so called, as there always is in a new country. Some fellow from the east conceived the idea that he could hold some of these quarter sections of land for speculation by placing shacks upon them and thereby deceive the incoming settler into believing that the land was legitimately settled upon. The shacks stood there (about a dozen of them) for a few weeks, when the real settlers made investigation at the Huron land office, and finding that no filings had been made, and knowing there were no occupants of the shacks, they then realized the true condition of affairs and decided to act. The result was that in a single night every one of these shacks disappeared, the next morning not even a single board was left, they were all gone as if the wings of the morning had borne them to distant lands. The speculative person who put them there never showed up, his scheme had been defeated, and he was silent, for complaint on his part would have brought about an exposure. The settlers who located in that neighborhood near the close of the year 1882 and in the early spring of 1883 were men who intended to establish a town, which afterwards was established by others and named Holabird. That town will be mentioned further on under its appropriate heading, as we are now referring to the early settlers. These settlers consisted of L. E. Whitcher, Quincy Stark, George Stark, A. B. Vines, Charles McElwain, A. B. Chrysler, John Stevenson and D. A. W. Perkins. Each had shacks of their own, but the main tabernacle where they counseled together and played seven-up was on the northwest quarter of section 10, Holabird township; there they were in frequent conference over the new town to be started, and the establishment there of the county seat. At one time they were about out of grub, not enough for another day, when Whitcher went to Highmore for a fresh supply. Soon after he had gone, omnious and threatening clowds showed up, the atmosphere and the temperature betokened serious weather, and in a few hours a first-class blizzard was sweeping the prairie, making it impossible for even a Dakotan to venture out of doors. There was serious alarm in the camp. They had reached about the last of the fuel, with about one more meal of flour pancakes, and now this blizzard of about three days prospective duration howling with mad frenzy about their single boarded habitation. The next day after dinner time—we say time, for they had no dinner—they heard shouting out of doors, and upon investigation they found Mr. Whitcher and James Ingram, along with a team and wagon and a small amount of supplies. These two were nearly perished, and it took some time to bring them around, but with fuel from their wagon, the room was sufficiently warmed to get them well thawed out. Theirs was a dangerous mission and it was a wonder they successfully performed it, but they felt the necessity of releaving their companions from their deplorable conditions. In the blizzard they were unable for some time to find the shack, and had they not accidentally come upon it when they did they must have perished in the storm. As it was they brought supplies enough to last through the blizzard. Their horses were stabled in an adjoining shack and the straw beds were emptied to get feed for the horses, such as it was. But the storm, after lasting two days and two nights, let up. and then all was serene again and everybody happy. Along about the time mentioned there was probability of quite a Chicago settlement. About a dozen soldier declaraty filings were made, but under these there were only two settlements. Norman Barney, of Chicago proved up on a claim there, also F. M. Barney and F. M. Smith. They did not remain, however, after final proof. W. B. Hamlin and Fred Lyman were among these from Chicago. Mr. Lyman was killed later on in the railroad yard at Huron, where he was employed. Mr. Hamlin now resides at Highmore. He arrived there in the spring of 1883. When the Holabird contingent, as before stated, were in their shack Mr Hamlin drove by with a load of goods and was looking for his claim. He stopped and inquired of the boys where the claim was located and the information was given him. After Mr. Hamlin drove away there was quite a discussion among them as to who that man was and what had been his occupation in life. One of them thought he was a farmer changing his location, another thought he was a storekeeper and had shifted to a government claim, but the rest insisted that he was a Presbyterian preacher and finally bet on it, but Mr. Hamlin afterwards decided against them. In the winter of 1882 and 3 coyotes were plenty and many of them were caught as traps were continually kept out, indeed by spring the main shack was about covered with coyote skins. One moonlight night they set two traps about six inches apart and placed a piece of meat between them, then watched out of the window for their game. The first coyote that showed up actually lay down on the ground, reached his paw between the traps and pulled the meat out and away from them, which was such an act of cuteness and intelligence they had not the heart to shoot him, but many were shot as well as trapped. In the early days of the county, most of the settlers lived in shacks. Any kind of a habitation would do on the start, unless the settler was able to build extensively. The shack or shanty is exclusively a western institution, at any rate it was the settler's castle, and a shack was generally 8 by 10 with a shed roof, and tar paper covering. If anyone doubted the continuous residence, the shack was pointed out as the mute but convincing evidence of settlement. A stove pipe also projected through the roof, and this useful ornament would remove all doubt of the settler's good faith. Occasionally, when some shack was too long neglected, some mischevious or malicious fellow would appropriate it to his own use, and the settler, if he returned, would find his evidence of settlement removed. But among settlers it was regarded, if the claim was taken in good faith, as the sacred habitation, the legal improvement of him who placed it there, and it was not well either to molest or disturb it. Ofttimes the habitation consisted of a sod shanty, and sometimes a dug out, which was an excavation in the ground, a hole large enough to live in, covered to shed the rain. As the settler prospered, and as he possessed thrift and economy, he would "catch on, "and his pioneer structure would be succeeded by something more commodious. If a claim was too long neglected, it would often be taken by another, jumped as we called it, but jumping claims was then a disreputable, and sometimes a serious business, unless the settler had entirely neglected his duty, and paid no attention to the requirements of the law. There are a few shacks now, but in a few years we can say with the poet, "Good-by, old shack ; time's relentless rigor Has ground you up at last to shapeless dust; But faithfully have you performed your trust, And sheltered manly worth, and moral vigor." Along in the early days when money was scarce, and people hard up, the fuel question was quite a problem. It cost something to live through the winter and keep warm, and without coal or wood then something else must supply their place. Many people burned "Buffalo chips" and laid in quite a stock in the fall, but this method of heating was distasteful and unsatisfactory. If ever the mind of man is prolific with suggestions and theories, it is when necessity demands it. In casting about for something that would take the place of coal, there seemed to be nothing in sight, aside from the chips, but the prairie grass which was produced right here from the soil. This discovery of available fuel at our very doors went over the country like wild fire, and soon the horny hand of many a struggling homesteader was straining its muscles twisting the prairie grass into a compact form, so that it could be placed in the stove and answer all the purposes of fuel. The hay it was true, did considerable heating, but the twisting and firing up took about all the time one man could spare, and as women could not do the twisting, the head of the household had to practice, and perhaps improve upon the art with devoted industry. Ingenious ones entered the field of invention, and the brain of many an ambitious settler was racked with devices for twisting the stuff until the patent office at Washington was crowded with models, which each one furnishing them believed would revolutionize the heating forces of the world. One fellow's invention consisted of two upright pieces of wood, of sufficient height, manipulated the hay by hooks, and then a crank, which carried a roller catching the hay and winding it, until it was a solid stick of proper size for using. Fred Wareham spent many an anxious day and night over a hay burner, which, by new devices, he thought would revolutionize the whole system of heating, but at last he gave it up in despair and pitched the thing out in the back yard. One fellow who run for office in 1886 was nearly slaughtered in his election, because he was charged with being so "stuck up" that he would not burn hay. During those winters the shack with only room enough to live in, would be so filed with twisted hay, the inmates could hardly get around themselves, and the stranger who entered it would see no room for him. But in the time, the hay burner went out of use, the people of the county were "catching on" and money was on hand to buy the proper kind of fuel. In September, 1882, a prairie fire swept the county, but there being not much property in the county to burn, there was but little damage But prairie fires during the eighties were of common occurance, started principally from sparks thrown from the locomotive, which resulted in damage suits against the Northwestern Railroad Co., but owing to the fact that the losers were generally poor men the company settled the suits satisfactory to the claimants. July 26, 1886, a prairie fire started north of Holabird and swept on east and southeast and burned over in area what would be about one township, and more damage would have been done but for a rainfall the next morning, which put an end to the fire. As it was D. W. Peppel lost a barn and contents, eleven tons of hay, chickens, turkeys and some wheat in the field. John McGovern, seventy-five shocks of wheat: Peter Learn, three acres of wheat and John Tobin his house barn and grain, in fact Mr. Tobin lost about all he had. Other misfortunes which came to Hyde county are mentioned elsewhere. 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/chapter216nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/sdfiles/ File size: 17.5 Kb