Marshall County, SD History - Books .....Curiosities Of Dakota 1886
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Book Title: History Of Marshall County, Dakota

CURIOSITIES OF DAKOTA. HOW THE PIONEERS ADAPT THEMSELVES TO 
CHANGES IN PROFESSION.

[Blunt, D. T., Correspondence to Chicago Inter-Ocean.]

    The District Attorney of Potter county runs a milk wagon during vacation.

    A physician formerly of Union City, Ky., spent his first few months here as
a day laborer while he had two diplomas hanging up in his room.

    A man who had a jewelery store in Leadville, Col., came to Blunt, and
finding two jewelers here bought out a meat market and ran it for nearly a year
successfully.

    A graduate of a Pennsylvania college who had read law two years got his
first start in Wessington sawing wood at a hotel. He is now a grain and coal
dealer.

    A young man who spent four years at West Point Military Academy was a runner
and night clerk at a hotel here during the summer.

    Two of the lawyers here spent their first summer in Dakota working as
carpenter. One of the keenest, but not the best lawyer in Huron, came here as a
stage driver, and drove the stage from Mitchel to Huron till the land office was
moved to the last-named town.

    The District Attorney of Sully county spent his first three months in Dakota
working at printing.

    The fiercest prohibitionist in this town ran a saloon here during his first
eighteen months.

    A family whose members spent their summers on their claim about ten miles
from here, and do good farming, traveling during most of the winter, giving
dramatic and elocutionary entertainments.

    Four drummers who are on the road almost constantly have their families on
homestead claims in this vicinity. During seeding and harvesting time some of
them spend a vacation here, and1 in the tan-colored blouse and overalls look the
genuine farmer. When those seasons are over they shave, put on appropriate garb
and are hardly recognizable.

    The District attorney for this county painted his way out here in the employ
of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway.

    A preacher of the M. E. Church, recently licensed, built the skating rink in
Canning, this county, sold patent rights, ran a barber's shop here and in
Canning, and a meat market here, and then a dray line. Now he has a circuit in
Sully county.

    A man who kept a restaurant and boarding house in St. Lawrence proved to be
a preacher of the "Christian" denomination, and is now president of a college of
that sect in Clifton, Sully county.

    A Presbyterian missionary, who was sent out from Pennsylvania opened a
harness shop in St. Lawrence and worked at the bench for a year.

    The junior partner of a recently dissolved dry goods firm, though not
bankrupt, stepped upon a dray within a month after going out, and is now a
drayman. He has been a farmer, merchant, and druggist.

   A man who spent two years in attending medical lectures "at Galesburg, Ill.,
runs a dairy near here.

   A Potter county man, for a couple of years united the offices of Presbyterian
preacher and hotel-keeper.

    In the last Sully County Watchman there appeared side by side the law-card
of "A McFall, late of the New York bar," and a paragraph that of A. McFall has
taken a sub-contract for carrying the mail between two Dakota points.

THE LITTLE SOD SHANTY ON THE CLAIM.

AIR—" Old Log Cabin in the Lane."

I am looking rather seedy now while holding down my claim,
  And my victuals are not always served the best, 
And the mice play slyly 'round me, as I lay me down to sleep,
  In my little old sod " shanty " on the claim; 
Yet I rather like the novelty of living in this way,
  Though, my bill of fare is always rather tame, 
But I'm happy as a clam, on this land of Uncle Sam,
  In my little old sod " shanty " on the claim. 

CHORUS.

The hinges are of leather and the windows have no glass,
  While the roof lets the howling blizzard in, 
And I hear the hungry coyote, as he sneaks up thro' the grass,
'Round my little old sod " shanty " on the claim.

But when I left my eastern home, so happy and so gay,
  To try to win my way to wealth and fame, 
I little thought that I'd come down to burning twisted hay
  In my little old sod "shanty" on the claim. 
My clothes are plastered o'er with dough, and I'm looking like a fright,
  And everything is scattered 'round the room, 
And I fear if P. T. Barnum's man should get his eyes on me,
  He would take from my little cabin home.

CHORUS—

I wish some kind hearted Miss would pity on me take,
  And extricate me from the mess I'm in, 
The angel—how I'd bless, if thus her home she'd make,
  In my little old sod " shanty " on the claim; 
And when we'd make our fortunes on these prairies of the west,
  Just as happy as two bed bugs we'd remain, 
And we'd forget our triles and our troubles as we rest,
  In our little old sod " shanty " on the plain.

CHORUS—

And if heaven should smile upon us, with now and then an heir,
  To cheer our hearts with honest pride to flame, 
O, then we'd be content for the years that we have spent
  In our little old sod "shanty" on the claim, 
When time enough had 'lapsed and all those little brats
  To man and modest womanhood have grown, 
It won't seem half so lonely when around us we shall look
  And see other old sod shanties on the claim.

FUEL.

    The Indians haul consderable wood from their reservations and sell it in
Britton, where settlers can purchase it from $5 to $7 per cord; soft coal cost
at Andover from $7 to $9 per to, owing to the quality, and hard coal about
$12.00. We are in hopes to be able to get coal cheaper. These prices appear
high, yet compared with wood in other states, and the labor required to cut and
split it we prefer coal, and so do our wives, because they dont have to cutit(?)

ORGANIZATION OF MARSHALL COUNTY.

    Marshall county was originally a part of Day county. In March, 1885, the
legislature passed a bill to divide Day county and create Marshall county north
of the township line of 124, and to be divided by a vote of the people, May 2d,
1885. Division was carried by a large majority, although there was bitter
opposition in the southern part of what is now Marshall county. The bill
provided that Marshall county shall assume the Day county indebtedness in
proportion to the assessed valuation of the new county in 1884, which was
one-third, and in the final adjustment of affairs between the two counties,
Marshall county assumed a debt of $7,000. Marshall county cast 600 votes last
year and, according to the June census of 1885, has 2,187 inhabitants. The
assessed valuation of 1885 was $400,000 in round numbers. Governor Pierce
ordered an election, July 22, 1885, to elect officers and locate a county seat.
The county seat was located at Britton.


Additional Comments:
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY, DAKOTA.
ITS TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY, SKETCHES OF PIONEER SETTLERS, WITH THE NAMES
OF ACTUAL SETTLERS, WHERE THEY ARE FROM, AND WHERE THEY LIVE; ALSO THE MILITARY
AND SISSETON RESERVATIONS.
BY
GEORGE HICKMAN.
BRITTON. DAK.: J. W. BANBURY, PUBLISHER. 1886.


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