Marshall County, SD History - Books .....Introductory Chapters 1886 ************************************************ 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 April 18, 2005, 7:58 pm Book Title: History Of Marshall County, Dakota HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. DAKOTA TERRITORY Contains an area of 150,932 square miles, and is considerable larger than the six New England States, with the great Empire State, New York included; it lies between 43 degrees and 99 degrees north latitude, and between 96 degrees, 25 minutes and 109 degrees west longitude. The great Missouri River, with its windings included, runs one thousand miles diagonally across the territory and navigable the entire distance. There are numerous lakes scattered throughout the territory, of which Devils Lake in the Turtle Mountain region is the largest. East of the Missouri River the country is a beautiful undulating prairie with the exception of the Coteau Hills. This magnificent agricultural region may properly be divided into two sections: the James or "Jim" River Valley, drained by the "Jim" River flowing south, and the Red River Valley drained by the Red River flowing north. The watershed of the continent dividing these streams extends through nearly the center of Marshall county. West of the Missouri River the country gradually becomes more elevated and broken and contains the Great Sioux reservation with an area of 22,000,000 acres of land. The Black Hills region in the southwest has an area of about 4,000 square miles and contains rich mines of gold, silver, tin, mica and coal. Harney's Peak is said to be about 5,000 feet high. HISTORICAL. About the middle of the seventeenth century French explorers passed through what is now Dakota, and again in the beginning of the present century Lewis and Clark explored this region. In 1809 one of the Astor's parties, conducted by Mr. Hunt on their way across the continent to the mouth of the Columbia River, ascended the Missouri River to the 46 degree parallel, where they procured horses from the Indians and traveled overland. Washington Irving gives a glowing description of this region in his Astoria and in 1835 gives it as his opinion that this magnificent country would ever be the home of Indians and outlaws because so far from civilization. Lord Selkirk, a Scotch nobleman of great wealth, purchased an immense tract of land from the Hudson Bay company in the first decade of the present century. He induced Scotch and Swiss colonists to settle these lands. He died before his colonization proved a success and most of the colonists emigrated to the United States. Pembina, one of the Scotch settlements, settled in 1812, proved to be on Uncle Sam's domain and is now included in Dakota Territory. In 1858, a few hardy pioneers had settled along the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers in the vicinity of Sioux Falls and Yankton. In 1861, Dakota was organized, and Wm. Jayne appointed first governor. The Minnesota massacre and Indian troubles in 1862 drove many settlers from their homes and general settlement was retarded by the rebellion and later by grasshoppers and drought. The Northern Pacific Railway commenced in 1870, affording an outlet for the Red River country developed that region with almost unparalleled rapidity and success. The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, and the Chicago and North Western Railroads, constructed in 1880-1, and considerably extended since then, opened the south half of the territory now containing a population of 263,533. GOVERNMENT. The executive branch of our government consists of a governor, secretary and marshal, all appointed by the president, for four years; the auditor, treasurer and superintenpent of public instruction are appointed for two years by the governor and council. The legislature consists of a council of twenty-four members and a house of forty-eight representatives. The district system of schools prevailed until 1883, when the township system was introduced. A county superintendent governs the school affairs of each county and issues four grades of certificates; 1st good for two years, 2nd eighteen months, 3d one year, and the probation certificate good for six months, and can be issued only once to the same individual. All candidates must be over eighteen years old. The following extract was taken from the Monthly Bulletin of the Commissioner of Immigration of January, 1886: SCHOOL STATISTICS. The Superintendent of Public Instruction, Hon. A. Sheridan Jones, has kindly placed at the disposal of this office, the following statistics, taken from his forthcoming annual report for 1885: Number of children ennumerated in Territory between 7 and 20 years of age 87,563 Number school children enrolled 69,075 Percentage of children of school age attending school 80 Number of male teachers employed 1,284 Number of female teachers employed 2,861 Total number of teachers 4,145 Average monthly pay to teachers $34.76 Whole number of school houses 2,729 Whole number of schools 3,279 Yearly receipts for school purposed, to June 30,1885 $2,141,756.79 Expenditures for common and higher schools, year ending June 30, 1885. $1,814,212.40 Cash, balance on hand. 327,544.39 Total to balance receipts $2,141,756.79 The foregoing shows how the great cause of popular education goes marching on in Dakota. The census for 1885 shows a population of 415,278, an increase of 207 per cent, in five years. The Statehood movement, inaugurated in 1885, so far is a dead letter. Congress has failed to recognize us as a State, for no valid reason known to us. The Democratic administration seems determined, in spite of our half million inhabitants, to keep us out of the Union. SOIL AND CLIMATE. The productive soil and healthful climate of Dakota are now so well known that it would be superfluous to make remarks concerning them; but will let Col. Donan tell the story. The reader may modify it to suit himself. COL. DONAN'S SPEECH. The following characteristic speech was delivered by Col. Donan at a dinner given by the Clover Club of Philadelphia, Pa., on the evening of the 15th inst., and will be pursued with pleasure by all Dakotaians: [Philadelphia News.] The man sitting next to Col. Burr was called upon, and after standing the chaff for ten minutes, struck out boldly and made, an address so brimful of sense, nonsense, aptness and keen appreciation that everybody listened: " Why, in such an assemblage of brilliant and famous men in every department of intellectual life," said he, "I should be called upon to speak passes my comprehension. It can only be because you only wish to use my homeliness and clumsiness as a black velvet background on which the gems of your wit and grace and eloquence shall, by contrast, sparkle the more dazzling. I am a plain, horny-handed son of toil, a simple oat raiser on Devil's Lake, Dakota, and I know of no better theme on which to talk, in my rustic, frontier fashion, than the great region of the far northwest, that sends through me, its unworthy representative, its greeting to your famous Clover Club." (Cheers.) Dakota's wildest blizzards, as unenlightened down-easters, including some Philadelphia newspaper men, who should know better—sometimes term them, are used by gentle mothers to lull their babes to sleep. The sun shines ever with a mellow splendor that calls to mind the far-famed Happy Valley of Rasselas, and there is just enough frost in our winters to turn the elm leaves golden. No summer drouths or winter floods spread devastation over the fields and the hopes of our husbandmen. No army worms or grasshoppers sweep those fertile plains and valleys with nibbling desolation. No hailstorms rattle their destroying musketry upon the grains and fruits and plate-glass window-panes of that Elysium, except now and then just enough to furnish business to our ambitious young home. Hail Insurance Companies. Bananas bloom in November, and young oranges are dug the day before Christmas. Raisins, striped stick-candy, tin horses and gunjun-rubber dolls ripen just in time for Santa Claus' peddler wagon, with his reindeer team, and little round stomach that shakes when he laughs like a bowl full of jelly. " Spring roses blooming on the plain, gentle Annie for New Year's posies, and potatoes grow as big as beer kegs—I suppose most of the members of the Clover Club have some idea of that standard of measurement—at the roots of every tuft of prairie grass. Cabbage-heads, of full Congressional and Senatorial size, give forth the fragrance of the jessamine and honeysuckle to humming birds as large as canvas-back ducks, and clad in all the prismatic glories of the aurora borealis. We hatch our own wild geese—and I think I have occasionally seen some of their descendants as far away from home as Philadelphia— of such dimensions that tenderfeet are liable to mistake them for winged hippopotami, on lakes of never-freezing rosewater and cologne. We wall up for wells the holes from which we pull, with steam derricks and Corlis engines, our radishes and beets, and make cowsheds and circus tents of our turnip-rind. Blizzards, tempests, tornadoes, hurricanes and rascally political breezes come to that modern Eden only as dimly-understood wailings from distant regions and people who do not know enough to find their way to the sole remaining quarter-section of Paradise in all the western world. " This glorious Dakota land, through me, invites the Clover Club to come and see her. If you should make her a summer visit, we will turn her whole 153,000 square miles of domain into vast clover-patch in your honor. Every stalk shall be ten feet high, every blade " four-leafed " for luck, and every head shall be heavy laden with the sweet honey and fragrance of welcome, and a royal western hospitality only surpassed on earth by that of our own deservedly famed Clover Club." HO! FOR DAKOTA! NANCY ANN. Say, Nancy Ann! Let's sell the farm and to Dakota go, We certainly can't come to harm where land is free you know. Just at the present, Nancy Ann, our homestead here will bring Enough to pay the mortgage off. Dod gast the pesky thing! Go, fetch that sock from 'tween the ticks; let's see how much we've got Laid by to reach that next note with; five hundred to a dot! Besides, we've got the team, you know, and there's the brindle cow, There's Cherry, too; and Crimple-horn—your heifer, too, I vow. Four fair-to-middlin' shoats we've got of chickens sev'ral score, Of wagons, plows and harnesses, we don't need any more. About a car load, take them all; of things we need to take, With what we'd pack in chests and trunks, a fair outfit would make. Now let's look back a dozen years and see how much we've gained, How working, slaving, we have pinched, how ev'ry year we strained To meet the payments on this land, the interest as well, And still we lack a thousand cool, those mortgage notes will tell. Two hundred dollars in a year is all we've ever made, Above our interest and our bread, and that has only paid But just one note of all the ten, as each year came and went, While scarce a nickel or a dime have we for pleasure spent. We've rose and went to bed at night exactly with the sun I've milked the cows and ploughed the land, and you have wove and spun; We've read the country newspaper each Sunday afternoon, And tho't we'd got the latest news from both earth and moon. But while we've milked and ploughed, and wove and spun our lives away, The mighty West developing, has grown on day by day, Till regions that when we were young, were marked as "unexplored," On maps we studied, now are States, with splendid records scored. The Mississippi river now no longer marks the place Where Indians and white men met in bloody death's embrace, Instead of that, an hundred leagues now fairly intervene, Between,the banks and solitude, as reading here I've seen. Somebody, wife, has sent me this, a paper from out West, And here's a map came with it too, to help explain the rest. Law sakes alive! Why Nancy Ann! This map here makes it out, That there's as many States out West as down East hereabout. They've railroads, towns and villages, as thick out there as here, I do declare! Why, Nancy Ann! We've been asleep I fear, Why, there's Dakota as I live; three hundred miles or more Beyond St. Paul, that used to be almost unknown before. Dakota has its railroads too, its cities and its towns. As thickly sprinkled over it as spots on Barnurn's clowns. Then j-u s-t s-e-e h-e-r-e! This paper says, 'Free homes to all who go," And live five years on land out there! That's cheap enough I know! Then for two hundred dollars more, it says that any man Can get himself another farm. Let's go there, Nancy Ann! We'll get us half a section there, worth half a county here. And what is better we will have no mortgages to fear. We'll keep the money in the socks, and tell old Gripper Hart, That he may foreclose on this farm next pay day. Then we'll start For Wonderland, where farms are free, where farmers are not slaves, Where we can own the land we till, at least enough for graves. I'm sick of working day and night to fill some other purse, The East is not the place for us, Dakota can't be worse, So pack the traps, dear Nancy Ann. I'll go and see old Grip, And tell him where we're going to, and then to—let'er rip. MARSHALL COUNTY. Marshall County lies just south of the 46th parallel of north latitude, the proposed line of division between North and South Dakota, and west of the Sisseton and Wahpeton Indian Reservation; is bounded on the south by Day County and on the west by Brown County, and is included in the Watertown U. S. Land District. Marshall County is twenty-four miles long from north to south, and twenty-four miles on its north boundary line, and thirty miles wide on its south boundary line, making an average width of twenty-seven miles. This area gives us 648 square miles or 414,720 acres of land. Although a small county, it is about one-half the size of Rhode Island. The above estimate includes the military reservation. TOPOPRAPHY. The western half of the county lies in the "Jim" River Valley and is comparatively level, while the eastern half lies on a plateau and includes a part of the Coteau Hills, which are rather broken and stony and extend from southwest to northeast, making an angle of 90 degrees in Pleasant Valley. Windy Peaks in Victor township are said to be 2,026 feet above sea level. Although the hills are stony and broken in localities, there are many excellent pieces of farming lands and meadows and numerous coulees or gulches containing timber and springs. WILD ANIMALS. The buffalo, once so numerous, has long since disappeared, and his skeleton only remains to point to his existence. A few antelope and deer still remain in the hills; foxes, coyotes, wolves, badgers, skunks, jack and cotton tail rabbits, gophers, squirrels and field mice include all of the native animals, large and small. Rats have as yet failed to put in their appearance. BIRDS AND FISHES. The following is a list of birds noticed by the writer: The osprey eagle or fish-hawk, swans, pelicans, cranes, wild geese, brants (a small species of the goose), ducks, mud hens, curlews, prairie chickens, owls, hawks, crows, wood-peckers, blackbirds, cow birds, meadow larks, robins, king-fishers, wild pigeons, plovers, snipes, and apparently two species of snow-birds, and the bobolink, or rice bird; the wild canary or yellow bird is ft und in the timber. Mr. Owens, of Waubay, has seen a few quails, =but is of the opinion that the climate is too severe. Of the above list only the prairie chicken and snow-bird remain during the winter. Robins are only occasionally seen. This is truly the sportsman's paradise in the spring and fall; ducks and geese come in swarms, and in their nights from the lakes to the valleys afford fine shooting. The lakes are well stocked with pickeral, perch and catfish, and in the summer time the lakes on the military reservation are favorite resorts for fishing parties, who usally camp there several days. REPTILES. The writer has observed only harmless snakes, such as are common to Iowa and Illinois, but not so plentiful. Lizzards, swifts and turtles are occasionally seen. Batrachia, frogs and toads are not very numerous, while the large bull frog, of our boyhood days in eastern states, is wanting. FOREST TREES. Box-elder, ash, bur-oak, elm, iron-wood, quaken asp, bass-wood, maple, willow, butternut and cotton woods are native trees. The box-elder, when planted on our prairies, grows rapidly and is a hardy tree; it is the favorite for tree-claims. The ash is hardy, but much slower growth. SMALL FRUITS. Currants, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, wild cherries, plums, crab apples and grapes are abundant in the timber gulches and ravines. There is no reason why the above named fruits will not yield abundantly when cultivated in our gardens. CLIMATE. Perhaps more has been said concerning the climate of central Dakota which is applicable to Marshall county, than any other territory or state in the Union. Eastern newspapers seem to have a stock of Dakota "blizzards" ready for immediate use, and from time to time let them loose—on their readers. This is an injustice to us Dakotaians, and to the patrons of such newspapers. The writer can but give his observations and experience, covering a period of five years in the territory. Spring usually sets in about April 1st, and frequently seeding commences two weeks sooner. The summers are truly delightful; the nights are always cool, and a blanket does not come amiss during a heated term, when our eastern friends are seeking for a breath of fresh air. Our horny-handed sons of toil can peacefully slumber, and arise refreshed the next morning. The fall weather, always fine, usually extends into November, and sometimes lingers later. During the winter we never have rain nor sleet, so common in milder latitudes, and detrimental to stock. The thermometer may go down into the twenties or thirties, yet man or beast will not suffer from the cold. The dry cold atmosphere is not so penetrating as the damp cold of Iowa and Illinois. The winter of '81-2 was especially fine with little or no snow and continual sunshine. March 21st the writer was caught in a "blizzard" on his way to Huron. It impeded all railway travel for several days, and was severe on immigrants and their stock; in a few days, however, the snow had disappeared and some seeding was done the latter part of March. The winter of '82-3 was a severe one so far as snow is concerned, still there was no suffering nor loss of stock. '83-4 gave us plenty of the beautiful snow and cold weather, yet fifty teams were out every day hauling lumber to the embryo city of Britton. '84-5 was cold with but little snow and cattle were out feeding nearly every day. Last winter we had a few occasional cold snaps but little or no snow to speak of. As to the healthfullness of our climate there is no question. Invalids from other states coming here in delicate health usually regain their old-time strength if not already too far gone. There is generally less snow here than in Iowa or Minnesota; on the 16th of October, 1880, there was a terrible snow-storm in Iowa, while in the valley here, prairie fires were burning. Mr. S. A. King, of Lowell Township, was at the time in Oak Gulch, in Day county, where some snow fell, and could see, in a westerly direction, the flames for miles, leaping skyward. In Iowa there was considerable loss of live stock caused by this early "blizzard." SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS. The prevailing soil of Marshall county is a dark calcareous loam with an intermixture of clay abounding in mineral salts and organic matters, better known as vegetable mold. In some localities there is an admixture of black sand which, however, is earlier soil, and apparently as productive as the heavier soil. The subsoil is a heavy clay, and all together the writer has never seen better and more productive soil than we have here. The wild grasses grow to perfection in our latitude and are the most nutritious in the world. There are varieties of native grasses—gramma or buffalo grass soon disappears after settlement; bunch grass and blue joint prevail. Native grass cut for hay will winter stock better than tame hay in the eastern states. The years of 1884-5 were productive ones; the yield of wheat varied, due no doubt to the manner and time of breaking the prairie the previous year. The yield of 25 bu. and even more was common, while the average was, perhaps, about 17 bu. per acre; oats yields from 30 to 100 bu. per acre, the yield depending on the variety and the soil; barley and rye yield largely; corn of the early varieties matures, while dent corn does well some seasons; pumpkins, etc., grow to perfection. The prices have been discouraging, ranging from 50c to 75c per bu. At present the price is lower than for years. The yield of cereals and vegetables is simply incredible; all that is necessary is to take a hoe and tickle the soil, and behold, you have a head of cabbage; and potatoes that weigh 2 lbs. each; beets weighing 24 lbs. each, or three of them, to the bushel and no Dakota lie either. HOW SETTLERS ESTABLISHED HOMES. The establishment of a home by pioneers in this 'country is an entirely different affair compared Avith the pioneer settlement of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. Here the immigrant ships his stock and household goods to the nearest railway station, where he desires to locate. If the land is not surveyed he becomes a "squatter" and files when the land comes in market. If already surveyed he makes his filing or settles and then files. Settlers generally build according to their means. Houses built of sod are comfortable and cheaply built, but require so much labor that but few are built except great distances from the railroad. Many settlers' homes are cheap but comfortable frame houses, sometimes sodded up on the outside; others have large and expensive dwellings that would do credit to any eastern old settled country. Usually the settler puts up a cheap building which answers all purposes until he can build a better one, which is now being done by most of our settlers. Many claims were taken, by single men and young women who put up a cheap shack, broke a few acres, and at the expiration of six months made final proof, borrowed all the money they could on their claims and then bade adieu to Dakota, while others secured homesteads, pre-emptions and tree-claims. We are, however, pleased to state that all of our actual settlers are improving their farms and making comfortable homes. It is a common sight to see oxen and horses hitched to a breaking plow turning over the sod, while harvesting, mowing, and even threshing has been done with oxen. In the fall the sod is again turned over and called backsetting; the next spring this is sown to wheat, oats, etc. The settler can raise a paying crop of flax on the sod the first year, which frequently yields fifteen bushels per acre. Thus in two years the Dakota settler can make a better farm than a life time will make in the timbered regions of the eastern states. In less than two years all the choice claims in Marshall county were taken, and since then the hills have gradually been settled, until now there is not a vacant piece of government land fit for agriculture in the county. In the fall of 1882 the writer traveled from Mr. Hammond's, just over the line in Day county, to Ft. Sisseton, without seeing a single shack or human being, the entire distance of twenty miles, and predicted that the hills would not be settled in twenty years and afford fine range for stock. To-day it is all settled to the reservation, and many are anxiously looking for the opening of the military reservation. WAGES, HARVESTING AND THRESHING. Farm hands generally receive $20 per month, while laborers during harvesting and threshing receive $2 per day. Servant girls command from $3 to $5 per week and are scarce. The cutting of grain is all done with twine binders, requiring nearly two pounds per acre, and twine worth from 12c. to 15c. per pound. Threshing is done with steam threshers, using straw burners, and thresh from 1,000 to 1,500 bushels per day. Many threshers furnish their own crew and board them, carrying a tent with them, and thresh for 8c. per bushel; the above way looks like a circus. STOCK-RAISING. Stock-raising is already receiving considerable attention throughout the county. S. A. King, of Lowell township, is one of the largest, and is satisfied that our grass and water produces the choicest of butter and unsurpassed beef, and that cattle can be as cheaply raised here as in Iowa; in fact cheaper, because the value of land is less. Mr. Linse, of White township, has, on a small scale, manufactured some excellent cheese, and finds a ready and good market. Thomas Appleby, in Pleasant Valley, has a herd of two hundred head, the most of which belong to settlers, and are brought there to herd; they are in splendid condition. Cattle are taken in the herd May 15, and the herd breaks up October 15. Many settlers have pastures, and stock-raising will eventually take the lead. More horses are raised each year, and it is well worth a day's journey to see Greenhalgh & Brunskill's horse ranch; for description see Waverly. Hogs fatted on ground barley and oats make the finest pork in the world, and farmers are generally raising their own pork. Stock appears to stand the dry cold winter weather all right and keep in good condition. 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. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/sd/marshall/history/1886/historyo/introduc109gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/sdfiles/ File size: 26.9 Kb