Jerauld County, SD History .....Chap 20; Part 2 ************************************************ 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 sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 28, 2005, 11:40 pm Chapter 20. The local papers at Wessington Springs on the 28th day of January, 1887, published a short notice calling a meeting to be held at the M. E. Church on February 5th to consider the matter of securing the location of a Free Methodist seminary at Wessington Springs. The meeting was not largely attended. It had been called at the instance of Rev. A. B. Smart. Mr. John Chapman was elected chairman of the meeting and Albert Gunderson, secretary. A committee was appointed whose duty was to solicit aid toward securing the location of the school at the county seat of Jerauld county. The committee was composed of M. D. Crow, I. S. Binford, T. K. Ford, A. B. Smart, S. F. Huntley and J. O. Gray. But few of the men appointed to that committee were present at the meeting which named them, and Mr. Smart was requested to notify them of their appointment. There is no record of any meeting of that committee and in all probability none was ever held. But be that as it may, its working force was the man who called the meeting on Feb. 5th. In this opportunity Mr. Smart saw the fulfillment of a plan conceived, evolved and worked out to the minutest detail, during the years of his middle life. It was this scheme, that had beckoned him, with all the learning got at two colleges, from both of which he had graduated with honor, to bring his family away from the intellectual and social culture of New England, to "set his stake" in an uninhabited wilderness. For this he had braved everything, privations and hardships in common with the poorest and most ignorant settler, and disappointments. But few can imagine the eagerness throbbing in his brain when he asked the newspaper man to publish the call for the meeting. To him it meant the achievement of an ambition, to this people it meant the acquisition of possibilities that might never be offered them again. Of all those present he alone was the man who could do. Yet he was neither made presiding officer of the meeting nor chairman of the committee. Another date was set, Feb. 12th, at which the committee should report. Because of a storm the meeting to be held at that time was postponed until the 19th. On the 19th of February the location committee of the church met at Mitchell to discuss the site for the school. Mr. Smart was there. Men from several cities and towns were there urging the advantages they could offer to the committee. Many places could offer more of population and greater wealth, but Jerauld county had an asset that was worth more in the mind of the committee than all else and that was its strong moral and temperance sentiment. Alone Mr. Smart made the fight and won. He got from the church committee a conditional location of the institution at Wessington Springs. True, those conditions were hard for a town of less than 200 population, but he had won in the first move and felt sure of success. A sub-committee of three members, with full power to locate the school if the conditions were obtained was appointed at Mitchell. This committee was composed of Rev. J. B. Freeland, G. C. Coffee and A. W. Hayes. This committee met at the Springs on the 22nd, Mr. Smart was there. He secured donations of land amounting to nearly 5000 acres, giving a large part of it himself. The plan of the church was to make the school preparatory, collegiate and theological. On the 25th of March Mr. Smart published a notice to all students of the county who had passed the grades of common schools to call on him before arranging to go away to school. The purpose of this notice was to interest the boys and girls, and through them, the parents of the community, in the proposed home school. About the midle of April the location committee made their final demand. It was that in addition to the land already pledged the people should raise for the school $2,000 in cash. A. B. Smart and C. G. Coffee were apppointed a committee to solicit subscriptions. To men less in earnest, or less determined, the task set before them would have seemed impossible. They were asked to get for the school, in absolute gifts a sum of money equal to about one-twelfth of the total assessed value of all the personal property of Wessington Spring's township. On the 31st of May Mr. Smart reported to the full church committee at Mitchell, and was rewarded with the permanent location of the school at Wessington Springs. The grounds of the seminary campus were surveyed Sept. 1st on the tract at the foot of the hills donated to the school by Mr. Smart. During that week the trustees of the school held a meeting in Wessington Springs and selected the spot upon which to erect the seminary building. At this meeting they let the contract to Wm. Bremner, of Harmony township to build the foundation wall to be 40x60 feet, and 11 feet high, 2 1/2 feet thick at the bottom and two feet thick at the top. In the rear of this wall an addition must be built, 16x 24: the whole to be completed in five weeks. They arranged to open the school on Nov. 8, 1887. Later it was found necessary to change the date of opening the school to Nov. 15th. When the wall was completed a roof was put over the main building and the addition, and covered with tar paper. The structure, when completed ready for the first term of school, (they didn't call it "semester" in those days) had very much the appearance of a farm shed for animals. —so much so that for several years it was referred to by the students as "the sheep shed." It was necessary to again put off the day of opening. The faculty secured for the seminary was Rev. J. K. Freeland, principal. Mrs. J. K. Freeland. Preceptress, Miss Mary Freeland, teacher, and Mrs. A. B. Smart, teacher of music. The board of trustees was composed of Rev. J. B. Freeland, president; Rev. C. G. Coffee, secretary and financial agent; A. W. Hayes, treasurer, and W. S. Chamberlain, Rev. A. B. Smart, I. N. Rich, and D. M. Lewis. The formal opening occurred on the 29th of November, 1887. The faculty and trustees were there and many of the people of Wessington Springs. The first hymn sung in the new school was old "Coronation." The occasion was, of course, given over mainly to speech-making. The prophecies of success made that day have been more than realized in the years that have followed. One of the most fitting things done that day was the tendering of public thanks, unanimously by a rising vote, to A. B. Smart for securing the location of the seminary at Wessington Springs. On December 1st, 1887, the following named students were enrolled: Miss Mary Piper, Miss Lulu Smart, Miss Edith Thomas, Miss Alice Fear, R. C. Smith, J. W. Osborne, W. E. A. Thornton, W. B. Wilson, J. E. Bremner, H. C. Fear, Alfred C. Thompson and Dale C. Wallace. A few days later, Dec. 17th, the "Alpha" literary society was organized. The legislature of 1887 passed an act providing for a vote on the subject of division of the territory, the election to be held on the usual election day—the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. A non-partizan delegate convention had been called to meet at Huron in July, and on July 7th a mass convention was held at the court house in Wessington Springs to elect representatives from Jerauld county. Chas. Davis of Alpena was made chairman and B. B. Blosser, secretary of the meeting. Delegates to the Huron convention were selected as follows: D. F. Royer, B. B. Blosser, W. R. Day, J. W. Harden, B. R. Shimp. At Huron a division campaign committee was appointed for Jerauld county, composed of John Chapman and H. A. Miller—one democrat and one republican. The county committee had but little to do, for the sentiment in favor of dividing the territory and admitting it into the Union as two states was nearly unanimous. But another matter that interested the people more than division was coming up for settlement at the election on the 8th of November: The petition with 471 signers asking for submission of the local option question was not forgotten. Under the law the commissioners were bound to submit it, and the temperance people began to prepare for the contest. At that time Mrs. Nettie C. Hall was president of the county W. C. T. U. and Mrs. E. V. Miles was at the head of the Pioneer W. C. T. U. Both were well qualified to conduct a contest such as was before them. They had the advantage of the campaign and the victory of two years before. Practically the same methods were used. A law and order league was formed with I. N. Rich, of Harmony township as president. During October prohibition meetings were held in all the townships of the county. A lodge of the I. O. G. T. was organized at Wessington Springs with a large membership. It was named "Haddock Lodge" No. 190. The officers were: A. Sturgis, C. T.; Lillian Bateman, V. T.; J. G. Campbell, Chap.; B. B. Blosser, Sec'y.; Eva L. Hawthorne. A. S.; Maude Campbell, F. S.; Mrs. Mary Bateman, Treas.; Nate Spears, Sen.; H. P. Campbell, Guard; E. S. Campbell, Mar.; Minnie Shryock, Ass't. Mar.; Mary Williams, R. S. C. T., and Mrs. J. G. Campbell, L. S. C. T. The election for 1887 was called by the county commissioners, Oct. 5th. The precincts, for some unknown reason, were made the same as those for the school election in February, 1884. A county commissioner was to be elected in the 2nd district, then composed of Anina, Media, Chery, Viola and Wessington Springs townships. A republican convention to nominate a candidate was called to meet Oct. 29th. It was a delegate convention and nominated Alonzo Converse, of Anina township. On the surface everything seemed to be satisfactory. The candidate was known to be both honest and efficient. He had been identified with the "bolting" movement of 1886. On the evening of the 5th of November, but two days before election, a party of politicians gathered in the office of the True Republican at Wessington Springs to discuss the situation, and devise ways and means to encompass the defeat of Judge Converse. The first essential, of course, was an opposing candidate. After much discussion they decided upon Mr. John Grant, a farmer, living a mile south of Wessington Springs. Mr. Grant had not been in any way connected with either faction, but was known to be a firm believer in Republican principles. They determined to make him their candidate and take the chance of his accepting the office if elected. Then the work was laid out for each man to do. The party broke up near midnight and some of them got scarcely a wink of sleep until the polls were closed on the next Tuesday evening. The democrats had not put up a candidate and the fight was wholly among the republicans. The supporters of Mr. Converse were not thoroughly aware of the move until late Monday morning. By that time nearly every man, democrat as well as republican, that could possibly be induced to refrain from voting for the regular nominee had been seen. The result was the election of Mr. Grant by a vote of 129 to 100, and the election of almost the entire democratic ticket a year later. On the questions of division of the territory but few votes were cast against the two-state plan. On the sale of liquor in the county the vote was a surprise. In the various townships the result was as follows: For the Against sale. the sale. Alpena 21 48 Franklin 1 32 Elaine 17 14 Viola 9 33 Wessington Springs and part of Dale 1 64 Chery 10 29 Media 2 27 Anina 0 44 Crow Lake 12 21 Pleasant 6 38 Harmony 6 30 Alarlar 9 22 Crow 6 25 Logan 9 12 Totals 109 439 Additional Comments: From "A History of Jerauld County; From the Earliest Settlement to January 15, 1909" by N. J. 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