Jerauld County, SD News.....On Board Train October 14, 1887
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Wessington Springs Herald October 14, 1887
On Board Train, En-Route for Home

    I am homeward bound after traveling under all kinds of emergencies from a
richly upholstered car on down to a dray; and speaking in churches, school
houses, hotel dining rooms, depots, furnished and unfurnished, double parlors of
private dwellings, and on the depot platform, but always to appreciative
audiences. After getting back to my mail I found two calls awaiting me from
Bowdle and Bangor, Walworth Co. Had to ride 22 miles to get to the train,
because I failed to make connexion. Bowdle honored me with the largest audience
the temperance cause has conferred. They are becoming aroused upon the question.
Mrs. Woolbridge had preceded me, Mrs. Ralch followed.

    We held a mothers' meeting, which was attended by ladies who have never
shown an interest heretofore, and one saloon was closed the day I left. I was
the guest of our former presiding elder, Rev. Wm. McCready, who with his noble
wife, is doing grand pioneer church and temperance work. After bidding adieu to
the white ribboners at the depot at Bowdle, I soon had the pleasure of meeting
the Band of Hope, which stood upon the depot platform to greet us, Mrs. Anna
Ralch came in from the south on one train, and I from the west on the other. It
looked like "war times", as the young soldiers stood there in line with banners
waving in the breeze, as we walked down the line of the brave young soldiers,
who had patiently kept in line for half an hour, waiting for the arrival of the
trains.-The passengers took deep interest in the proceedings, and prohibition
was the theme on every tongue, and so it is everywhere we go.

    The trains are crowded with passengers on a prospecting tour to that new
northern terminus of our railroad, which has opened up and called "Eureka." It
is common occurance for 80 teams with loads of grain to be seen every day
standing in line, waiting their turn, and some days as high as 200. A gentleman
on the train returning from there told me that he saw 15 families sheltering on
the north side of a barn, as that was the only shelter which could be provided
for them until their homes could be built. This new town is some 30 miles north
of Roscoe and is opening for business, as it will supply a large scope of
country. The only bad feature is the bad water, and in fact I find but few
places in all my travels but which suffer from the same cause, consequently I
have come to the conclusion that we are wonderfully blessed in that respect.

    I found considerable excitement at Mina, where a saloonist, backed by a
wholesale dealer in Aberdeen had applied for a license. The commissioners being
interviewed the same day by temperance men, representing truth and sobriety, the
right to run a murder mill was denied. The rum-seller made threats of vengance,
and attempted to carry them out at our meeting, but the audience was too much
for them, and they retired from the scene without further damage than
considerable noise on their part. The encouraging outlook is the fact that the
majority of the depot agents with their wives are staunch prohibitionists; they
being mostly people just beginning life, gives promise of a high standard of
morality for Dakota's future.

    At Millard, the station agent and his wife on short notice gathered an
audience that filled the waiting room. They have also arrested a would-be
saloonist and closed his business. Home-sick and weary, our courage failed to
respond to the cry from Gettysburg, in Potter county, "Come over and help us,"
even to the extent of disposing of our ticket, until, when the train was in
sight, the personal appeal of a resident was more than we could resist, and,
after traveling four hours and a half, found myself within twelve miles of the
Big Muddy, and within half a mile of the town, almost as famous as its historic
namesake.

    It was the 8:30 p. m. train, which set me out half a mile from town, and all
outdoors dark as midgnight, and I wondering what disposition was to be made of
my humble self, as I stepped down and out into the darkness, when the light of a
lantern flashed into my face, and the pastor of the M. E. church, and
Gettysburg's most noted M. D., introduced themselves to me, and piloted me to
the buss which carried me to the residence of my professional brother whose
lively accomplished wife welcomed me at the door, marching me at once to a
bountifully spread table. It was tempting, but owing to the fact that the
audience was waiting, the train being behind time, I hastily swallowed half a
cup of tea, and hurried to the hall, where I soon forgot hunger, fatigue, and
homesickness, as I looked into the kind, earnest faces upturned to mine, as I
tried in my simple way to tell the truths of temperance, as related to health
and home. Potter county pleaded for a week from me, but home duties and our
coming county convention pressed heavily upon me, so I refused new engagements
and cancelled old ones, until a future day.

    Gettysburg is also a new railroad terminus, the train having only been
running there a week. No doubt but there of a bright future for the place, as it
will soon become a cross-railroad, and was already a nice village before the
advent of the railroad, and if those whom I met are representatives of the
majority, they are greatly blessed in their citizens.

    Saloon-keepers are under arrest there also, who in revenge disfigured the
horses of those who were instrumental in attempting to enforce the law and
protect the vote of those who said last fall that Potter county wanted no share
in blood money. They completely demolished the mane, and shaved the tail of a
family horse of Dr. Landies, the staunch temperance doctor, of whom the citizens
are so proud, and well they may be. His wife has just completed the Chatauquan
course which reminds me to ask, why Wessington Springs cannot have a circle?

    With a hearty hanh-grasp and a Godspeed from the temperate as well as the
drinking class, I am yours, "homeward bound,"

                                     Mrs. Nettie C. Hall



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