Pennington County Biographies - Part IV

	These biographies are from "Eastern Pennington County Memories", 
	published by The American Legion Auxilliary, Carrol McDonald Unit, 
	Wall, South Dakota and is uploaded with their kind permission. 
	Pages 106-134

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net, 1999. 

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Mr. and Mrs. Albert Winkawitsch

	My Dad, Albert was born March 18, 1886 near Hardin, Iowa. He had 
five brothers and four sisters. At the age of 12, he moved with his 
parents to Steen, Minnesota.

	My Mother, Olga Pien was born September 10, 1890 at Davenport, 
Iowa. She had three brothers and seven sisters. In 1900 she moved with 
her parents to Steen, Minnesota.

	On December 9, 1908 they were united in marriage. The next year 
my father operated a livery stable with his Father. Driving Salesman 
etc. from one town to the other with horse and buggy. Then after one 
year of farming near White, So. Dakota they moved west. They located on 
a farm 5 miles north and 1 mile east of Wall which they bought from 
George Scott. Their first home was a homestead shanty, but they later 
built new farm buildings.

	My parents had four children. Melvin was born August 22, 1910 at 
White So. Dak. Beatrice was born November 3, 1915. I, Orlin was born 
September 28, 1920 and Iona was born May 12, 1932 near Wall.

	My folks had an old spotted mare named Dollie that took all of us 
kids to school except my youngest sister, Iona. We rode 2 1/2 miles to 
attend the Lake Hill #39 School.

	The one thing that I remember as most exciting that happened when 
I was a boy from 8 to 12 years old was the regular trail the Indians 
took Spring and Fall was within a half mile of our buildings across 
Lake Hill and the Gibson place. These Indians were traveling from the 
Cheyenne Indian Reservation to the Pine Ridge Reservation. One time 
they set up camp half a mile northeast of our house. They put up their 
tents in a circle-built fires and camped over night. I hid out in our 
gooseberry bushes and watched. This trail can still be seen through the 
land that led them past a spring that was on the Gibson place.

	When the work was done, my Mother and Dad always enjoyed playing 
cards with the neighbors and attending the dances of the neighborhood 
which usually were held at the school houses. However, they had some 
barn dances at Charlie Hastings, Loda Sawvell's and Soren Sorenson's.

	The things that my folks talked most of were the 1930's, known as 
the "dirty thirties". The dust storms, and years without crops, and all 
the feed there was for the cattle was thistles. Then there were the 
severe winters, especially 1949.

	My folks retired and moved to Wall in March 1949. They purchased 
the house that was the former Methodist Parsonage. They celebrated 
their golden Wedding anniversary December 9, 1958.

	Melvin died August 17, 1934. Beatrice married Otto Smallfield and 
lives in Flandreau So. Dakota. They have six girls and two boys. Iona 
married Roy McGregor and they live in Rapid City. I farm 14 miles north 
of Wall.

	In July 1959 my Dad suffered a stroke, and died in Rapid City, 
January 8, 1960 at the age of 73.

	My mother enjoys good health and lives in Wall. She is happy to 
have her old friends and neighbors visit. She can walk up town for her 
mail and groceries and across the street to church. She also keeps busy 
doing beautiful fancy work.

[Photo - Mr. And Mrs. Albert Winkowritsch December 9, 1908]

[Photo - Albert and Olga on their Golden Wedding, Dec. 9, 1958]



Melvin Family

	Pat Melvin, his brother John, and half sister, Ida Reising (Mrs. 
Frank McDonnell) must have heard the call, "Go West Young People", for 
in 1905 they came from Huron to the Wall vicinity and filed on 
homesteads. These three people filed on adjoining claims and were able 
to build their shacks close together. They went back to Huron again and 
returned in May 1906.

	It took nine days to come from Huron in a covered wagon. Since 
there was no bridge over the river at Pierre it was necessary to make 
the crossing in a ferry.

	They arrived at their homesteads safely. The next day Pat and his 
sister, Ida, drove to Rapid City for lumber for their shacks and other 
necessary supplies. This trip took three days.

	Pat dug, the first shallow well on Lake Flat which furnished good 
drinking water for many homesteaders near by who hauled it in barrels 
on their wagons.

	Times were pretty difficult in 1911 because of the drought, so 
Mr. Melvin went back to Huron and worked as foreman on a ranch for two 
years. In 1913 he returned to his homestead and lived, north of Wall 
until his retirement in 1959.

	Pat Melvin was born at Cavour, South Dakota on March 6, 1883. He 
married Cecilia Delvoux on October 16, 1918. To this union were born 
seven children; Bernice (Mrs. 1. Meirose), Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 
Lyle Melvin, Rapid City, South Dakota, Jerome, Crescent City, Florida, 
Jim, Wall, South Dakota, Rose (Mrs. Tom McDonnell), Quinn, South 
Dakota, Maurine (Mrs. G. Willuweit), Quinn, South Dakota, and Cecelia 
of Wall, South Dakota, who lives with her father.

	Mr. Melvin was chairman of the School Board in his district for 
sixteen years.

	Mrs. Melvin passed away January 6, 1939, and is buried in the 
Wall cemetery.

	Pat moved to Wall in 1959 after his retirement.

	At eighty-two years of age Pat is hale and hearty and enjoys each 
year of his life.

[Photo Pat Melvin home north of Wall]

[Photo The boat the Melvin family crossed the Missouri River in on 
their way to their homestead near Wall.]

[Photo - The homestead shacks of John Melvin, Ida Reising (Mrs. Frank 
McDonald) and Pat Melvin.]

[Photo Pat Melvin, John Melvin and Ida Reising, (Mrs. McDonald) near 
their sod barn.]



Sam Jones

by Marion J. Jones

	I was about 2 1/2 years old when my father came overland by wagon 
and filed a claim on the original Alfonso F. Mills place, now occupied 
by Cyril Naeschers. Naescher's mother, if still living, remembers 
everything about the homesteaders. We moved over from Red Lake in Brule 
County by covered wagon. My father got credit from the storekeeper at 
Smithville on the purchase of lumber there for the claim shack. He had 
only $2.00. The channel of the Chey6nne was open so he unhitched the 
mules and led them across on planks and rolled the wagon across by 
hand.

	The first fall we came over, crossing the Missouri at Ocoma on a 
gasoline ferry. When the team, Flossie and Fanny, were hitched 
everybody had to be in the wagon because there was no stopping until 
they wore themselves down. Our father, Sam Jones, left mother, sister 
Irene, baby John, Grandfather John Brown and I at the homestead, while 
he returned to the Hawkeye Ranch south from Pukwana to husk the corn. 
Before he could return rations got pretty meager. I cried for "beet 
berries", beets my mother had canned in Brule County.

	One day a Miss Kimball who had a claim nearby came over and 
announced that she was going to Kadoka for supplies. Did we need 
anything? My mother told her we did but had no money and she said she 
would lend her money, so Mother went with her and brought back navy 
beans and other things we could consume. Then one day out of ten days 
of snowstorm my father came with plenty of food.

	John Brown and Annie Brown, our mother's parents, had a claim in 
the neighborhood. He was a coal miner born in Brinton Hall where Bonnie 
Prince Charlie was once incarcerated. He was one of the -original 
shareholders in Bedlington Cooperative Society in England, 1861. He 
came to America the next year.

	Parnell Sims, a boy who hung around the fire department in 
Oskaloosa where Sam Jones was the "chief", came to South Dakota with 
them and had a claim near us. He sold out and went back to Iowa, became 
a plumber, a free mason and reared a fine family.

	Dad would arise early, hitch the team to the running gears and 
head for the brakes of Bull Creek to cut timber, cottonwood and cedar. 
He got out enough red cedar posts to fence and cross fence the quarter. 
The first year he broke ninety acres with a walking breaking plow, four 
young crazy horses, in the tough nigger wool sod. We had a splendid 
crop the first two years, almost anything you could imagine.

	There was a neighbor, C. E. Haines, who had six daughters, who 
hauled wood with a cow and a horse. My father traded him a mule for the 
cow and had Ola Soma, the butcher in Wall, slaughter her.

	In the Spring of 1910, Alonzo F. Mills, a free mason, came along 
and bought the homestead. My father said he wanted to get us in school 
so he took the mail contract to haul mail the Star Route from Wall to 
Pedro. He missed one trip in four years, Bennie Hoffman will tell you. 
I only made one trip to Pedro. On the return, Mr. Torrence came back 
with us on his way to the fiftieth reunion of the G.A.R. at Gettysburg. 
He wore his blue uniform.

	I went to school in Wall from 1910 to 1915, had first Miss Lea 
Gro, then Georgia Anderson, Rapid City, Mildred Weaver, Fonda, Iowa, 
and Rachel Rudisill, 30 St. Joe Street, Rapid City for teachers. The 
principals were Frank Carey, George Mills, Clarence Mills, Elliott Ash 
Parker, (old lefty) and John Alvin Landers from Mississippi, a graduate 
of Valpraiso College.

	I peddled the Curtis papers in town until notified they were 
going to give the agency to Charlie Nippell, the pharmacist. I could do 
no more than tell the customers that I was quitting and take their 
subscription for $1.50, giving me a commission of 35 cents. I did not 
tell them too much. Then I had the Saturday Blade and Chicago Ledger, 
published by W. D. Boyce of Chicago, (the founder of Boy Scouts of 
America.) Jim Lecoa used to ask me if there was any discount for cash, 
but actually we little fellows would not know what he meant then, we 
were so seared and bashful. It took a long time to get over that. The 
Christmas programs were an ordeal.

	I'll never forget the day of the Reverend Harvey O. Ross' 
funeral, at school the little house out back had ice on the floor and I 
did not make it. I had to go home for clean up. Inez, my sister, caught 
me and took me into Mrs. Tony Madsens. Inez taught her first year of 
school at Pleasant View and stayed at Tom McDonald's.

	Garrison Culley Dean, a detective, was our neighbor. For the 
Anti-Saloon League, he closed most of the saloons west of the Missouri 
in the fall of 1914. They should have stayed closed.

	Charles R. Harbor had a saloon in Wall in 191011. He had some 
kind of argument with the bartender and got the 'ell beaten out of 
himself. He got so he had to take three shots of whiskey to keep one 
down. Dad went to see him the night before he left Wall. Blood dripped 
on the sheets from his veins. He said, "Sam, I am going back to old 
Ohio where the steamboat's whistles blow." His sister came to take him 
back and as the train rolled into Chicago, Charlie died.

	James Alburn, known as Si, was sent by his mother in Sioux City 
to Wall to get him out of town because of his liking for spirits. He 
got a monthly stipend that was always on occasion for celebration. Four 
years ago last July 10, he fell on the paving beside me and struck his 
head from a stroke.

	I remember Carroll McDonald, his father and mother and Mary. I 
remember my first hair cut by George Safkin, who was killed in France 
in the Canadian Army.

	I would give tickets to Mildred Overholt in school so she could 
win the piano to be given away by Joe Pierce. She won. We had sympathy 
for the motherless girl. She sat in front of me in Miss Rudisill's 
room.

	I struggled along with my mother's encouragement. I went through 
Iowa State College and became a veterinarian. I had much to do with the 
success of the Brucllosis program in Minnesota. Like Sam Jones, I never 
had any use for the graft connected with it and was ostracized because 
of it. I am crippled from a cow, kick while doing state work here. I 
get no compensation because I was ran over back in 1925 by a car in 
LaCrosse County.

	I was a First Lieutenant in the Veterinary Corps at Ft. Riley, 
Kansas, 1940-41. I arrived at Army and Navy General Hospital at Hot 
Springs National Park, Arkansas, July 3, 1941 and was assigned to 
Senator Harry S. Truman's table during the rest of his stay there. He 
is a fine old fellow. He asked me to come and see him but I have never 
gone.

	I remember eating wild onions at noon and having Georgia Anderson 
make me sit in the hall all afternoon and I remember the cow being 
upstairs in the school house.

	Wall won its only game in 1914 at Wasta, July 4 with Elliot 
Parker pitching. I looked him up in EauClaire, February, 1946. He was 
studying at the consistory in Eau Claire then. He had a music store and 
a game farm. He has since gone to Florida, I'm told.

	Mr. S. F. Kiddoo was in the bank at Wall when we were there. He 
became president of the Livestock Exchange National Bank in Chicago.

	I met Joe Witten in Sioux Falls many years ago, and Wilbur L. 
Green in St. Paul, and Eskel and Malcolm Nilssen in Sioux Falls.

[Photo - Nellie Brown Jones and Sam Jones in the Gay Nineties.]

[Photo - Sam Jones]

[Photo - Inez and Sam Jones home one and a half miles north of main 
street.]

[Photo - Inez Jones on Major, one of the horses driven on the star 
route.]

[Photo - Henry Henriksen, about 1907 in Quinn.]

[Photo - Henry Henriksen and Lee Albin and their catch.]

[Photo Henry Henriksen and his work horses.]

[Photo - The four sons of Sam Jones in 1915.]

[Photo - Horse drawn well rig.]

[Photo - Mrs. Miller in 1933.]

[Photo - Mr. And Mrs. Henriksen - 1933.]

[Photo - Wall Grades 1, 2, 3 and 4 in 1920]


Henry Henriksen Family

by Hazel Henriksen

	Henry Henriksen was born in Denmark, and came to the United 
States when he was twenty-two years old. He worked in Milwaukee for a 
year or so, then came to Montrose, South Dakota. In 1907 he came to 
Pennington County and homesteaded on a claim north of Quinn.

	Carl Klingbile bought this farm in 1918 and later the Tiber 
brothers owned it.

	He often told of the hardships he had to get his stock moved from 
Montrose to Quinn. The railroad came as far as Midland. He walked and 
ran all the way to be in time to catch the train and beat it there. -
He, like all the other new settlers, was hard up as far as money was 
concerned. He talked of a man, who was a teacher, loaning him the money 
to get back to Montrose so he could ship his cattle and horses to 
Midland and bring them on to Quinn. He was forever grateful to this 
man. I only wish I knew who he was.

	He hauled the lumber from Rapid City to build his house and barn. 
The first barn was made of poles he cut on the creek and hauled home.

	He was a lover of nice draft horses and raised some for sale, 
Many years later when the Farmall came out he traded his big lovely 
horses for a tractor. This made his life much easier, but he was a man 
who never complained about work. He always worked hard.

	After ten years on his homestead he sold his land, cattle and 
horses to Carl Klingbile and walked away. Later he bought this land 
five miles north of Wall, where we live today.

	In 1921 he was married to Hazel Miller and I have lived on this 
farm ever since.

	I taught school for many years before and a year or so after our 
marriage.

	In later years Henry enjoyed fishing. He passed away in 1952 at 
the age of 78. We have all missed him so much. His son, Donald, and 
family now live here, too.



Sorensen Family

by Clifford Sorensen

	In the fall of 1907, my father, Soren Sorensen, came out here 
from Viborg, South Dakota, and filed on a quarter of land southwest of 
Wall. The land is now owned by Van Vlecks. That same fall he went back 
to Viborg to be with his family during the winter. The following spring 
of 1908 he moved out again, shipping by rail a carload of cattle and 
one car with horses, machinery and household goods. Lots of people 
shipping their belongings out west by freight would have a wagon box 
turned upside down in the car. At night they crawled inside for a bed. 
By day it was a good safe place to hide free riders. The brakemen soon 
caught onto the free riders, so they would give the "brakies" a tip of 
one or two dollars, and they would not bother the cars anymore that 
trip. I was ten years old when I came out riding in a box car, and I 
ducked several times into the wagon box so I would not be seen.

	My dad built a two room house on his claim. I remember at this 
time that there were lots of wild range horses. I liked the looks of 
them, having always lived in town. Some of the cowboys told me I could 
walk one down. One day I got a rope and started walking after one. I 
walked and walked until I became lost. I finally came to a homestead 
shack and the man took me home. My dad had been out looking for me. 
Needless to say, I did not catch a horse; but I had plenty of them 
later on in my life.

	After my dad had improved upon his land, he tried to buy more 
land; but he thought the price was too high. We moved back to Viborg in 
the fall of 1909. In the spring of 1912, we moved back out to Wall 
again and lived on my uncle L. B. Sorensen's land northwest of Wall 
until my dad bought a place six miles north of Wall.

	The years my parents and two sisters, Mabel (Jensen) and Florence 
(Teeters), and I lived here I remember the times when a caravan of 
Indians with their wagons, ponies and dogs would go by, coming from one 
reservation to another. I was about sixteen years old by then and I 
used to go out to the road and try to buy ponies from them.

	For entertainment all of us kids in the neighborhood rode 
horseback to country dances. Often as far as fifteen miles on 
horseback. If it was a real dark night, we danced until daybreak before 
starting home.

	We lived here until 1919 when my dad sold his place to Fred 
Mayer. He bought land three miles north of Wall and put up a new set of 
buildings. My parents lived here until they retired in 1948. 1 bought 
the farm from my folks in 1950.

[Photo - Mr. And Mrs. Soren Sorensen Homestead - 1908]



John Mayberry, Sr. Family

by Mary M. Sorensen

	My parents, John and Anna Mayberry, Sr., and we five children 
came out from Niobrara, Nebraska, and settled on a leased farm 
southwest of Wall known as the Hafner place. The year was 1927. My 
parents had homesteaded in Nebraska in the year 1892 in Knox County.

	The years were good to us until the drought came in 1930s. My 
mother passed away in 1934 at the age of 64. Several years later my 
father returned to Niobrara. He was a healthy, rugged old pioneer, 
reaching the age of 97 before he passed away.

	My parents raised eleven children. Two brothers, Ray and Charlie, 
have passed away. John, Jr. and myself still live in Wall; Anna (Green) 
lives in Rapid City and Emma (Baum) in Oregon. The others are scattered 
about the states.

[Photo - Herman Sebade, Sr., John Mayberry, Sr., Dan Kelley in front of 
the Schone Harness Shop.]

[Photo - Mr. And Mrs. John Mayberry Sr. and daughter, Mary, 1927.]

[Photo - John Mayberry, Sr., 93 birthday]



Clifford and Mary Sorensen

by Mary Sorensen

	In 1928, Clifford and I were married. We lived three years on a 
farm near Plankinton, South Dakota. Here our son, Milton, was born. We 
became lonesome for the West and returned here in 1931, just in time to 
be heckled by the dry years.

	Times were very hard on us, we had very little income. We bought 
and lived off 160 acres of land six miles north east of Wall. We had a 
nice bunch of cows when we moved back out here but during the dry years 
we had to keep selling cattle to buy hay till we were down to seven 
head of cows and owed the government a feed loan. Then Clifford decided 
to buy some sheep. We don't know whether it was changing over to sheep 
or what but from then on things began to get better for us.

	I washed clothes on a scrub board for several years using my own 
home made soap. My first washing, machine was the push-pull type, 
bought for six dollars from Rinehart's second hand store in Rapid City. 
We bought coffee beans and ground it in a meat grinder since we 
couldn't afford to buy a coffee grinder. I think coffee beans were 
about twenty cents a pound. We raised a few turkeys to help out and 
usually had a few to dress out in the fall, if we were lucky before the 
coyotes got them. The skunks raised cane with the turkeys also. I 
remember one night about ten o'clock the barking dog got us up to see 
what was around. We lit the old kerosene lantern and went out to where 
the dog was barking. We discovered a skunk in a barrel where a turkey 
hen was setting on eggs. Cliff told me that if you could get a skunk 
off the ground real quick that he wouldn't "spray". So while he held 
the lantern I grabbed the skunk by the tail, pulled him out quick and 
then said, "Now what shall I do?" Cliff suggested I hold him up while 
he got the gun and shot him. I didn't trust the skunk. So there in the 
dark of night with the dim lantern light we compromised and tied a wire 
in the skunk's tail and hung him on a wire fence. Then Cliff finished 
him off with the gun.

	During the depression in the thirty's, we were unable to buy 
tires and probably didn't have the money, if they had been available. 
When a tire blew out Cliff would patch the tube and lace the tire shut 
best he could with a piece of whang. We drove slow so as not to put too 
much pressure on the tire. One year we could not afford to buy the car 
license, which was five dollars for the car. So we sneaked into town in 
the evening and parked the car on the edge of town, would buy a few 
groceries and go right back home.

	I recollect boarding many of the teachers that taught Lake Hill 
school. Marjorie (Guethlein) Willuweit was paid about forty-five 
dollars a month. She paid us twelve dollars a month for board and room. 
Naida (Patterson) Greenwalt and Ruth (Marsden) Hanifin were other 
teachers that stayed with us.

	Our first daughter, Norma, was born in the farm home with Dr. 
Mills attending. Our second daughter, Donna, was born in the Wall 
Community Hospital. The hospital and doctor bill, with ten days 
confinement was only seventy-five dollars. This was in 1943.

	Mr. and Mrs. Claude Kitterman were our good neighbors adjoining 
our land. On Saturday nights the four of us and our children would 
drive with- team and sled if in the winter or team and buggy if weather 
was nice and go to country dances in some ones home or a schoolhouse. 
Claude always took his violin along as he was usually called upon to 
furnish the music. A hat collection would be taken at midnight. The men 
threw in twenty-five or fifty cents to pay for the music. The ladies 
brought sandwiches and cake which was served free to all.

	We lived on this place for sixteen years. We moved to the Old 
Sorensen place in the fall of 1948 and bought it the next year. We 
lived there until December of 1958 then we leased the ranch to our son, 
Milton, and wife, Mary Lou, who still live there. We built a new home 
in Wall where we now reside.

	Our daughter Norma married Donald Krebs of Quinn. They live in 
Rapid City and have three children, Greg, Peggy, and Danny. Their baby 
Lori died last year, 1964, at the age of seventeen months. Donna 
married John Gravatt of Wasta. They have a son Timothy born in 1964. 
They are living in Modesto, California.

[Photo - Mr. And Mrs. Soren Sorensen, Mr. And Mrs. Louis Jensen, Mr. 
And Mrs. Fred Batterman, Veona, Homer, Bertha and Leonel Jensen and a 
Batterman girl about 1915.]

[Photo - Front row, l. to r.: Tim, John, Donna Gravetts, Greg, Peg, 
Dan, Don Krebs. Back row: Mary Lou Sorensen, Norma Krebs, Milton, Mary 
and Cliff Sorensen.]


Clyde C. Rinehart

	Clyde C. Rinehart came to Wall July 3, 1911, in a covered wagon 
and two saddle horses behind. He lived in Wall until 1918, when he was 
married to Lucy Bielmaier and they moved to Rapid City. In 1919, he 
started in the auction business and for 44 years was a leading 
auctioneer in Western South Dakota. He was a pioneer in the development 
of the 4H Club and helped to build it to where it is today. He served 
the 4H Boys and Girls in everyone of their 37 years.

	In 1959, he was chosen as outstanding Man of the year in his work 
with the 4H., and was entertained at the State Fair and presented a 
plaque. The plaque now hangs in the new 4H building at the Pennington 
County Fair grounds. During his years in the Auction business, he 
established many records. He gave his free services to many 
organizations, churches, hospitals, Red Cross and American Legion. He 
gave services to 53 organizations, served the Baptist Church at Folsom 
41 consecutive years, Methodist Church of Oral 39 years, Congregational 
at New Underwood for 40 years, Viewfield Church for 27 years, 
Farmingdale Church for 20 years, St. Johns, Rapid City, for 22 years, 
the Presbyterian and Methodist at Philip for 9 years.

	On the 30th Anniversary of the Folsom services, the Ladies Aid 
gave a dinner in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Rinehart and invited 44 churches 
of different denominations to attend.

	It is hard for Col. Rinehart to pass a farm in a 50 to 100 mile 
radius of Rapid City and find one that he had not conducted a sale 
there at some time. The largest farm sale he ever had totaled 
$138.275.99. Mrs. Rinehart has clerked most of his sales.

	In addition to sales in South Dakota which were more than 5900, 
he has sold in Iowa, Wyo., Colorado, Neb. and Montana. Col. has been in 
failing health for more than two years, but is still in the business. 
Now he is associated with Russell Burmeister and Duane Keefler.


[Photo - Col. C. C. Rinehart at a farm auction]


S. M. Rinehart

by Elizabeth Anderson, daughter

	S. M. Rinehart came to Wall from Geddes in the fall of 1909 and 
built a house on a farm he purchased four miles north and 1 1/2 miles 
east of Wall. He returned with his emigrant cars in the spring of 1910.

	The Rineharts had six children, four moving to the Wall area, a 
daughter, Myrtle (Mrs. L. A. Rovaart) homesteaded four miles east and 1 
1/2 miles North of Wall in 1906. Clyde and Roy lived in Wall and 
Elizabeth (Mrs. A. S. Anderson) in Philip and two sons. Dick and Harry 
lived near Des Moines, Iowa.

	Mrs. Rinehart died in 1919 and Mr. Rinehart remained on the farm 
until 1932 when he moved into Wall where he made his home until death 
in 1941 at the age of 84 yrs. 6 months.

	It was not an uncommon sight for farmers and ranchers for miles 
around to see Mr. Rinehart astride his saddle horse followed by a pack 
of hunting hounds and possibly a couple of coyotes thrown at the back 
of his saddle.

	Many of his friends and neighbors became interested in the sport 
and joined him on his hunting trips. Some of them were Herb Kellum, Roy 
Schull, Stanley Gould, Albert Worden, Cliff and John Foster. He rode 
the breaks of the Cheyenne river until past the age of 76 when his 
health forced him to quit riding. Col. C. G. Rinehart died on July 28, 
1965 following a long illness.

[Photo - S. M. Rinehart and Albert Worden]

[Photo - S. M. Rinehart and Stanley Gould]

[Photo - S. M. Rinehart]


Mathew J. Smith

	Amanda C. Gulk and Mathew James Smith were married in Sioux 
Falls, S. Dak., on March 17, 1908. They immediately moved near Quinn, 
S. Dak. where they homesteaded. On November 11, 1909, they had a 
daughter born, Viola Mae and on October 30, 1911 they had a son born 
Mathew Thomas. Shortly after his birth they moved to a ranch north of 
Wall, S. Dak. where they lived until the spring of 1918 when they moved 
to a farm 6 miles from Nemo, S. Dakota. Viola and Tom attended the 
school north of Wall for one year, On July 4, 1949 they had another 
daughter born, Mary Helen. In September of 1925 they left the farm and 
moved to Rapid City. Amanda Smith died on April 1, 1948. Mathew J moved 
to Newell in 1951 with his daughter, Viola. He died in Newell on 
February 21, 1956. The daughter Viola Mae was married to Thomas 
DeGarlais on May 9, 1936 and they had 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls. 
Mathew Thomas married Lillian Grippentrog from White, S. Dak., in July 
of -1936 and they have one adopted son. They are living in Lakelend, 
Florida. The other daughter, Mary Helen, married Everett LaCroix of 
Rapid City in February of 1938 and they have 13 children, 6 girls and 7 
boys and live in Rapid City, S. Dak.

[Photo - Mr. And Mrs. Matt J. Smith, Viola and Tom - 1948]


Benson Family

by Harold Benson

	My dad, Jess Benson and mother, Stella Brosius, were both early 
day homesteaders in eastern Pennington County. Ed Dartt, John Moler, 
George Anderson, Otto Alfs, Clen Benson, all came from Halt County, 
Nebraska. My mother came from Bloomfield, Nebraska.

	In 1906 my dad, Jess Benson, homesteaded the place now owned by 
Osburn Kitterman. He lived in a dug-out until he got his homestead 
shack built. In 1907 my mother, Stella Brosius, homesteaded a few miles 
southeast of my dad's homestead. Her brother Paul Brosius homesteaded 
the quarter next to my mother's. A year later my mother's folks 
homesteaded the place where Les Renner now lives. It was after my 
mother's folks built their new house that my mother and dad met.

	My uncle, Clarence (Clen) Benson, was told by another homesteader 
that a fellow by the name of Mutchler had a store a few miles southeast 
of my uncle's homestead. This is where the town of Wall now stands. As 
Dakota City was the closest store before this, the homesteaders went 
there for supplies. Now my uncle decided to find this new store, so set 
out across country on horseback. He came upon my mother's homestead 
shack. Upon seeing this strange cowboy riding in, my mother locked the 
screen door and talked to him through the locked screen door. My uncle 
inquired as to the location of the Mutchler store. As he was about to 
leave he told my mother to come over to Cedar Butte the next Sunday as 
they were having a ball game. Then my mother said her folks would like 
to have a dance in their new house if they could find someone to play. 
My uncle (Clen Benson) said he and his brother (Jess Benson) both 
played for dances and would be glad to play for their dance if they 
could find the place. My mother set a date for the dance and said they 
would hang a lantern in the windmill tower. On the night of the dance, 
my uncle and Dad had no trouble finding the right place. This was the 
way Mother and Dad met and were married in 1910.

	During these homestead days, my dad had a narrow escape from 
death. His mother had sent him canned fruit and jelly from Nebraska. He 
had just unpacked these items and set them on the table. A severe 
thunder storm was coming up and as it was almost supper time, my dad 
decided to cook supper. He built a fire and was standing by the stove 
coaxing the fire to burn. At the first sound of thunder his dog wanted 
in the house so my dad let him in. The dog went behind the stove and at 
that moment lightning struck. The lids were blown off the stove, boards 
were ripped from the floor and the table with the fruit setting on it 
was upset, breaking the jars of fruit and jelly. The dog behind the 
stove was killed. My dad, although dazed, was able, with the help of a 
neighbor by the name of Butler, who lived across the road from my dad, 
to put out the fire that followed.

	My dad and mother were married in 1910. They built a small two 
room house, part of which is now Osburn Kitterman's house. These were 
trying years and my dad and mother would go back to Nebraska in the 
fall in a covered wagon. My dad would pick corn all fall and winter. In 
the spring, they would go back to their homestead and with the money my 
dad made picking corn, he gradually stocked his homestead. It was while 
my folks were in Nebraska that my sister, Evelyn Benson, was born. My 
brother, Arnold and myself were both born in the house where Osborn 
Kitterman lives.

	I can remember many exciting things that happened when I was a 
small boy. The morning the Babcock Hotel burned at Wall, my dad and Ed 
Dartt rode into Wall on horseback. The flames were visible from our 
place.

	I can remember our very dear friends, Agnes and Mike O'Donald. 
Otto Alfs lived with his sister, Agnes, so his house being vacant made 
a good place to have dances. One night the whole neighborhood were at 
Otto's house to a dance and a bad blizzard struck. Everyone had to stay 
all night. The grown-ups danced all night with their overshoes on. The 
small children, including myself, were carried over to Agnes' house and 
put to bed. The next morning the storm let up so the men got the teams 
and sleds and we all went home.

	My uncle, Clen Benson, did a lot of breaking prairie. He was a 
blacksmith, too, and sharpened lays for the neighbors. He also hauled 
freight between McLaughlin and Rapid City. McLaughlin was a railroad 
camp, as the Northwestern Railroad was being built at this time. It was 
my uncle, Clen Benson, that roped the calf in the article written by Ed 
Dartt. My uncle didn't live on his homestead too many years. He went 
back to Nebraska and farmed a few years before moving to Norfolk, and 
there, was a contractor. He still lives there. A lot of my information 
about these homestead days comes from him.

	Jess Benson died in January of 1956 and Stella Benson died in 
1960. They are both buried in the Lakeside Cemetery north of 
Wicksville. Clen Benson is retired and lives in Norfolk, Nebraska.

[Photo - Paul and Stella Brosius Homesteads]

[Photo - Home of Elwood Brosius; Les Renner's present home.]

[Photo - The new house of Jess and Stella Benson after their marriage 
in 1910; now a part of Osborn Kitterman's house.]

[Photo - Ed Dartt, Jess Benson and Clarence Benson]

[Photo - The Jess Benson Ranch]

[Photo Threshing in 1909]



Alfred Whitwer

1910 HOMESTEADER

	Alfred Whitwer and Mary (Yenglin) Whitwer moved to their 
homestead northeast of Wall in the fall of 1910. They brought with them 
their three children--Violet--David and Etta. Their fourth child, 
William Harold was born on the homestead in 1913.

	In 1914 they returned to Tilden, Nebraska. They returned to a 
farm north of Wall in 1926. This time they lived on the farm until 
1936. Following the death of Mrs. Whitwer, Alfred Whitwer once more 
moved to Tilden, Nebraska where he lived with his mother. Violet 
Whitwer Miller died July 6, 1960. Etta Whitwer Kleinschmit lives at 422 
La Cross St. in Rapid City. David Whitwer lives in Wall. Alfred Whitwer 
died in 1947.

	The picture is the wedding picture of Alfred Whitwer and Mary 
Yenglin.

[Photo - Wedding picture of Mr. And Mrs. A. A. Whitwer.]

[Photo - L. to r.: Louie and Vince Heitman, Fred and Oscar Teuber, Mrs. 
Alvina Teuber Pollard, Bernard Teuber, Alfred Whitwer and Melvin 
Johnson.]

[Photo - David Whitwer's tractor and Teuber Bros. Threshing machine - 
1932]

[Photo - Teuber Brothers combines; first to be owned in this area. They 
were operated by Oscar Teuber and David Whitwer, 1936]



William Harold Whitwer

	William Harold Whitwer was born on the Whitwer homestead 
northeast of Wall, April 1, 1913. He was a graduate of the Wall High 
School in 1931. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II. 

	William Whitwer and eight of his comrades died together on a 
subchaser in August, 1943. The bodies which could not be identified 
individually, were placed in a cemetery in Palermo, Italy. The latter 
part of November 1949, the bodies were returned to Louisville, Ky. and 
were buried at Zachary Taylor National Cemetery. Mrs. Violet (Whitwer) 
Miller attended the services and returned with the American flag which 
had draped the casket.

[Photo - Draped caskets of men who died at sea. William Harold Whitwer 
was one of these men.]


Anton 0gerli

	Anton Ogerli was born in Neuendorf, a little village nestled in 
the Swiss Alps. His father died when he was an infant and he was raised 
with a large family of older brothers and sisters by his widowed 
mother. Upon reaching young manhood he graduated from an agricultural 
college and served for some time in the Swiss army where he was a guard 
on the German border of Switzerland. He worked for a time on a 
government farm which supported one of the country's institutions.

	Upon the death of his mother and a while later his older sister, 
Tony, without ties and being a young adventurer, decided to come to the 
great land of opportunity, the United States of America. He came alone 
and landed in this strange new land without a friend to meet him and 
with the handicap of not being able to speak a word of English, Tony 
relates that a fellow traveler pointed to a landmark and said, 
"church", the first work of English he learned.

	Tony left the east coast and started working his way across the 
country. Dairying is what he knew best and he worked for some time in 
Wisconsin milking cows for long hours each day, He continued on to Iowa 
and from there boarded a train to "anywhere" on the west coast, He 
found himself in Washington state where he worked for some time in the 
lumbering business.

	In about the year 1924, Tony came to look at some land near Wall. 
While here he stayed with Father Connolly. After another trip to Iowa 
he come back and purchased a farm about 3 miles northwest of Wall. When 
at last he found his "home", Tony went about the serious business of 
farming. He built a sturdy set of farm buildings and purchased some 
beef cattle.

	Tony was well known for his good practices in farming and 
livestock raising. He had the latest in machinery and was one of the 
first in the area to start the practice of summer fallowing which made 
this western country productive despite the lack of moisture. Tony 
raised beef cattle until the "thirties" when he was forced by the 
government to sell. Tony said this was a stroke of luck in disguise as 
it was then he started to raise Corriedale sheep which he built up into 
one of the finest herds in the country. He could always boast of a 
large wool clip each spring and he sold many for breeding stock.

	His Brown Swiss cattle were one of the only registered herds in 
the west country and people came from all over the United States to 
purchase these for breeding stock also.

	In the early 40's Tony bought additional land from his neighbor 
across the road, Ira Buikstra. At one time he had most of this land 
under cultivation. Later as his health started failing he returned a 
large part of this land back to grass.

	Tony raised many turkeys, ducks and chickens. During the thirties 
he would take whole pickup loads of dressed ducks or turkeys to Ilapid 
City where he would sell them to the Alex Johnson Hotel.

	Tony liked to hunt and fish. He owned a valuable collection of 
firearms. One of his regrets was that he was so tied down with his 
livestock when he was younger that he didn't get to go on the hunting 
and fishing trips that he so enjoyed.

	In the fall of 1961 failing eyesight and poor health forced him 
to sell at auction his machinery and personal items. On April 1, 1964 
he sold his farm and herd of sheep to a close neighbor, William J. 
Bielmaier. June 11, 1964 Tony purchased a one-way ticket to Switzerland 
and returned to the land of his birth where he is residing with his 
nephew, Bruno, in the same little village which he knew as a youth.

	Tony had many, many good friends and they remain with memories of 
their many wonderful visits. His home was always open to them and they 
were royally treated with his good Swiss cheese, his homemade wine and 
sausage (which were his pride and joy). He enjoyed visiting in town 
with the many tourists that passed through Wall and many he has kept up 
correspondence with.

[Photo - Now, just as it was then - the village of his birth.]

[Photo - Anton Ogerli, an adventurous young man.]

[Photo Tony's Brown Swiss]

[Photo - Tony Ogerli and his sheep]

[Photo Tony and an antelope he killed.]


William Jr. and Emma Harnisch

by Esther Haefs

	Mr. and Mrs. William Harnisch and their five older children 
Mathilda, Melvin, Wilma, Margaret, and Helen moved to western South 
Dakota in March of 1929.
	Mrs. Harnisch and the children came by car. Mr. and Mrs. Anton 
Harnisch and their children, Anton Jr., Helen, Warren, and Carl. August 
Harnisch came with them, with August and Anton each driving a car. They 
spent the first night with their new neighbors, the William Gibson's, 
and the William Beckers. They got as far as the Albert Winkowitsch 
place and got their cars stuck and had to be taken by horseback to the 
place.

	Mr. Harnisch came later by train bringing the livestock and 
furniture.

	They purchased the Grady place six miles north of Wall. Our 
nearest neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Fred Mayer who lived on the place 
south of us, and Mr. and Mrs. Len Hastings and Rose Todd who lived 
north of us.

	They endured the hardships of the 1930s as did everyone else. 
Droughts, grasshoppers and dust storms were some things everyone 
experienced.

	Mr. and Mrs. Harnisch were married in Clayton, South Dakota on 
June 14, 1916. They were blessed with nine children: Mathilda, now Mrs. 
Le Roy Campbell living in Wall, Melvin, and Wilma living at home with 
their mother, Margaret, now Mrs. John Buckles living in Vernal, Utah, 
Helen, Mrs. Earl Stovek, living on a ranch near Philip, Esther, Mrs. 
Elry Hoefs, living in Wall, Lenard, living in Seattle, Washington and 
working with Boeing, Alice, Mrs. Richard Schumacher, living in Seattle, 
Washington, and Mildred living at home. They have eight grandchildren 
and five great grandchildren; Claramae Campbell White who have two 
boys, Kevin Dale and Kyle, Marjorie Campbell Van Vleck who has three 
children, Tammy, Timmy, and Troy, Beverly Campbell, Debra Haefs, 
William (Billy) Slovek, Mary Margaret, Alan, Dean, and Dale Warren 
Buckles.

	Mr. Harnisch passed away in October 1957. Mrs. Harnisch and her 
three children still live on the home place.

[Photo - Mr. And Mrs. William J. Harnisch, June 14, 1916.]


Della and Rufus Campbell

by Marjie Van Vleck

	My grandmother, Della Bedford Campbell, came to South Dakota from 
Hope County Nebraska in the fall of 1906. Her homestead was northwest 
of the Cedar Butte school. She came by train with her father, Will 
Bedford, and John Moler Sr. They helped build her one room homestead 
"shack" and the few items she needed to furnish it.

	Among the things she brought with her, were dishes brought over 
by her mother from the old country and books which she used when she 
taught school. There was only one building on her 160 acres. She never 
broke any of the land nor did she have livestock. She was the first 
teacher of the Cedar Butte school in 1906.

	Since she had no livestock her only way of getting around was on 
foot unless the neighbors stopped and picked her up. I recall, grandma 
saying, that the first years on the homestead were hard and lonely but 
the neighbors were all wonderful.

	Grandfather, Rufus P. Campbell, came from Crawton, Nebraska in 
1906 and homesteaded north of Wall. Two brothers, Ed and John and one 
sister Ina also homesteaded here. Ed's homestead was across the creek 
from grandfather's and was added to grandfather's 160 acres in 1910 
when Ed passed away. John homesteaded in the Huron area but later 
returned to Nebraska. Ina homesteaded north of grandfather. She stayed 
there for a year and then returned to Nebraska also. Grandfather was a 
member of the Cedar Butte Literary Society and a member of the school 
board for many years.

	Grandfather and grandmother married in 1908 in O'Neill, Nebraska. 
They lived on grandpa's homestead and later moved grandma's "shack" on 
to it. In 1929 they added a couple more rooms. The original house is 
still on the farm but has been remodeled several times.

	Grandmother's land was sold to Mrs. Deal first, later to Otto 
Alfs and now belongs to Mr. Gail Dart.

	They had one son, Leroy Bedford Campbell born in 1911. He went to 
school the first four years at Cedar Butte and completed grade school 
at the Hill Side School. He graduated from Wall High School in 1931. 
Some of his early memories include being strapped to the back of a cow 
and sent into the breaks to bring the cows home each night. Grandpa and 
grandma sold the homestead to George Bryan in 1946 and moved to Wall 
where they bought the Campbell Cabin Camp.

	Grandfather passed away in 1950 and grandma operated the camp by 
herself for two years, and then sold it to Elmer Estes and retired.

	Mathilda Harnisch and LeRoy Campbell were united in marriage on 
Sept. 17, 1939 in Rapid City, South Dakota. They moved to the farm 
which had originally been the Claude Goodsell homestead. The original 
house is still on the farm but has been added onto and remodeled 
several times. My folks lived and farmed this place for 24 years until 
September 1963 when they leased it to Dennis Foster and moved to Wall.

	There are three girls in our family. My oldest sister Claramae, 
Mrs. Robert White, has two sons. My youngest sister Beverly graduated 
from Wall High School this spring; and myself, Marjorie, Mrs. Richard 
Van Vleck have two sons and a daughter. We have some wonderful memories 
of our childhood on the farm.

	Grandmother never changed her style of dress. She always wore 
them to her ankles. Those who knew her will remember her in a sun 
bonnet working with her flowers. She did a lot of fancywork and her 
homemade paper flowers brought pleasure to many. She was always active 
in church affairs. In the early years she taught Sunday School. She was 
a member of the Royal Neighbors Lodge for over fifty years and was also 
an active member of the Rebeka Lodge. Grandmother passed away in 1958. 
Although she's gone she left us so much, her faith in God, her love for 
others and her appreciation of the beauty of nature. Because she was 
our grandmother we have wonderful memories and a strong heritage.

[Photo - Della Bedford Campbell at her homestead shack]

[Photo - Homestead Shack of Rufus Campbell]


Henry Heutzenroeder Family

[Photo - L. to R.: Carl, Henry Jr., Henry Sr., Rose, Elsie, Mary and 
Molly Heutzenroeder - 1908 on Cow Creek.]

[Photo Bottom row: left to right: Frank Henry - Henry Heutzenroeder, 
Jr.; Henry Heutzenroeder; John Goethel; Jacobs; Carl Heutzenroeder; 
John Slofeldt; Grandpa Ouch; Mr. Feeken from Crete, Nebr. Left to right 
- Johnny Baldwin, Rose Heutzenroeder, Louella Goethel; unknown, Katie 
Feeken, Elsie Heutzenroeder Carstensen, Madge Goethel, Feeken girls, 
Goethel Twin (Midge). Left to R - Mrs. Arthur Baldwin, Ruth Goethel, 
unknown, Mrs. Goethel, Mrs. Frank Henry and baby, Mrs. Mary 
Heutzenroeder, Mrs. Feeken.]


	In the winter of 1907 Henry Heutzenroeder and Charlie Alexander, 
a veterinarian from Bloomfield, Nebraska came to Wall and filed on land 
known as Cow Creek and Cow Flatt.

	In the following spring the two families loaded all their 
possessions into an immigrant car, and moved to north of Wall.

	After staying a few days in town and buying some provisions 
father moved us to a homestead shack owned by a train conductor out of 
Chicago by the name of Jones.

	We lived in this shack until father laid up a sod house (picture 
included). This work progressed slowly; for cattle roving the prairies 
at will, rubbed down the walls at night. And the sod blocks had to be 
replaced the next day. This was our home until late that fall, when 
father built a frame house about 16x2O. Here we lived for about a year. 
It was sold to a family from Crete, Nebraska. This was called a desert 
claim, to the original homestead of Henry Heutzenroeder.

	My sister Rose was six, I (Elsie) was 8, an older sister Molly 
was 18 and brother Cal 16 and Hank 20. This being our ages when we came 
to Wall.

	Father worked the fields with 2 black mules. The first crop was 
corn.

	There was no church close so Sunday school was held in various 
homes on Sunday afternoons.

	The first school I attended was in the same Jones shack and was 3 
months in duration. The teacher was Henry Junge.

	After selling another house was built on the original homestead 
and he lived there until 1915, selling out to Matt Smith.

	The next two years we rented the Baldwin farm and Sawvell farm. 
By now it was 1917. In 1918 father bought the Jones place and lived 
there until 1922. At this time mother and father moved to Rapid City 
and bought the Rochdale Rooms. Here they remained until father died in 
1938.

	Mother and Henry Jr. are dead. Carl lives in Salem, Ore. Molly 
(Mrs. Herman Ballard) and Rose live in Santa Rosa, Calif. Emil and I 
have lived on this ranch near Owonka for 28 years. We are semi-retired 
and the active work has been taken over by our son Donald, his wife 
Virginia and their three children.

[Photo - Hauling water in the dry 30's]

[Photo - Taken about 1908. Some in the picture are Gail Lewis, Soren 
Sorensen, Henry Heutzenroeder, Sr., Art Baldwin and Henry Sebade.]


The John Garrett Family

by Emma Garrett

	Mr. and Mrs. John Garrett and their three sons, Fred, Everett and 
Leolan, moved from Lebanon, South Dakota to their homestead at Wall in 
the fall of 1908. They bought a one room shack from Tony Madison where 
they lived until their one and a half story 16 by 16 foot home was 
completed. They later added the Madison shack as a bedroom. Fred and 
Everett went back to Dow City, Iowa to stay with their grandparents and 
attend school the first winter. They returned to Dakota the following 
Spring. The family milked from 18 to 20 cows to keep the wolf from 
their door. The chicken house was built of sod and finding rattlesnakes 
when gathering the eggs was a common occurrence. Sod was broken and 
barley was planted also some squaw corn. They used roasted barley for 
coffee. They hauled their daily supply of water from a spring half a 
mile away on the Johnny Dovenberger place, their closest neighbor. The 
Garretts and the Paulsens attended the same school with Dr. Mills as 
their teacher.

	The Garretts went back to Iowa in 1911 renting their land to a 
neighbor. Everett came back to South Dakota in the 30's. He married 
Emma Peterson of Dow City, Iowa and brought her to live on the land 
homesteaded by his parents. They have one adopted son Darrell. Everett 
and Emma moved to Rapid City where he did carpenter work until he 
bought a farm and moved back to Iowa where they now reside. Fred and 
his wife, Anna, and Leolan and his wife, Ella also live near Dow City.

[Photo - Mr. And Mrs. John Garrett, Mr. And Mrs. Conrad Jensen and Mr. 
And Mrs Fred Paulsen.]

[Photo - Mr. And Mrs. John Garrett, the Fred Paulsens and Mr. And Mrs. 
Conrad Jensen and their families.]


The Will Kitterman Family

by Ed Dartt

	The Will Kitterman family came to Pennington County from Winford 
Miner County, South Dakota. They had lived in Indiana and Minnesota 
before coming to South Dakota. Will Kitterman came out and filed on a 
homestead in May, 1906. They came out to establish residence in the 
fall of 1906 with a caravan of eight covered wagons consisting of the 
Will Kitterman family with two wagons, Steve Albin, two wagons, Asa 
Kellem, two wagons, Mark Bradshaw and George Kitterman, one wagon each. 
They were all coming out to establish residence on their homesteads 
except George Kitterman, Will's son, who filed after arriving.

	The Will Kitterman family had twelve children. They first lived 
in a large dugout with a frame roof, but soon built a frame house. 
George built a house and moved onto his homestead in the spring of 
1907. The lumber for the houses was hauled from Rapid City at a cost of 
$15.00 per thousand feet. Will Kitterman obtained two quarters of land 
and developed a farm until 1926, when he died suddenly of a heart 
attack.

	The children: George was married just prior to coming out. Minnie 
married Ed Dartt in 1908; Linnie married Harrison Scott; Gladys married 
a rancher's son, who is now Dr. Lee, and they live in Custer, South 
Dakota; Hobart married Dorothy Moler and lives in Custer, South Dakota; 
Claud married Gretchen Beldon and moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he 
died in 1957; Florence married Omer Morehead and lives at Spearfish, 
South Dakota; Leon married and lives in Utah; Violet married Cliff Doud 
and they live at Rapid City; Bert married after going to California, 
where he now lives. John, the cowboy of the family, is single and now 
works on a ranch at Enning, South Dakota. George lived on his homestead 
and developed a farm. The Lake Flatt School house was on this 
homestead. He moved to town in 1944. He has worked at Cliff Is Service 
Station a number of years. His wife passed away about 1958. George has 
made it to the Black Hills for deer hunting season until the last two 
years. He still keeps up on his fishing. A number of the local 
businessmen were bragging about their big catches when one of them said 
"how about you George, didn't you catch anything worth mentioning." 
"No", said George, "The last one I caught wasn't big enough to bring 
home so I got Howard Bryan and Charley Strandell to help me throw it 
back in."

	Mrs. Will Kitterman and Hushel lived on the homestead alone for a 
few years then moved into Wall, where they lived until Mrs. passed away 
and Hushel died a few years later.

[Photo - Mr. And Mrs. George Kitterman on claim - 1908]


Alex M. MacGregor

	Alex M. MacGregor homesteaded ten miles northwest of Wall on 
April 27, 1906. His Homestead was the northeast quarter of section 4, 
1N, 15E. He had come by stage from Yankton, S. Dak. by way of Sioux 
City, Iowa, Norfolk and Chadron, Nebr. to Rapid City, S. Dak. His 
brother George had homesteaded on the southeast quarter of section 29, 
2N, 15E. about a mile northwest of him a few months earlier. Both Alex 
and George stayed for the required year to "prove up" on their land by 
building fences and breaking ground. The fence that Alex put in is 
still there except for one side, George's has been all removed as the 
fields grew larger. During the year they were here both of them played 
on the Cedar Butte baseball team along with Ed Dartt, John Moler, Mike 
O'Donnell, Jess Benson and several others. Alex only played as a sub. 
Part of this year Alex worked as cook for the crew building the 
railroad from Wasta to Wall, their camp was just east of the Cheyenne 
River. Another brother Granade MacGregor homesteaded just west of 
George in the southwest quarter of section 29.

	After "proving up" on the land Alex went back to Yankton and went 
to college for three years where he was Captain of the football team. 
He went to Santee, Nebr., as Boss Farmer on the Indian Reservation for 
five years. During this time he was married to Dora May Simpson of 
Geddes, S. Dak., on October 9, 1912. She had also attended college at 
Yankton and taught school in Geddes.

	In 1909 he purchased 160 acres of land in section 29 from John 
Grandgenet who was known as Dutch John. This land was on the edge of 
the canyon and had a very good spring which was unusual in this area 
where water was very scarce. This spring is still running and supplying 
water for 3 houses and yards as well as the stock on Merritt 
Patterson's place.

	In 1914 Alex bought his brother George's homestead and in March 
of 1917 he came back to Wall to make his home. He moved his homestead 
shack and that of his brother Granade's together making a three room 
house, later he built another room onto this. In May of that year his 
wife and two small daughters, Margaret and Evelyn, arrived in Wall by 
train, and drove across the open country in a wagon to, the farm. This 
was certainly a different kind of country than they were used to, there 
were no trees in sight while at Santee the yard was completely shaded.

	In February of 1918 another daughter, Iona, was born with only a 
neighbor lady, Mrs. Albin, attending. Dr. Heinneman at Wasta had been 
called and he rode the six miles across the canyon on horseback but he 
arrived a little late.

	In 1918 J. W. Simpson and his wife came out from Geddes and built 
a house on the land next to their daughter and son-in-law. Alex's 
brother, Granade, started the house then when his father died in July 
he returned to Yankton and didn't come back to Wall. Simpsons had to 
find another carpenter to finish their house.

	Nearly every Sunday the MacGregors drove four miles to the Cedar 
Butte School to attend Sunday School. Whenever possible they had a 
visiting preacher but usually it was just Sunday School. Sunday seemed 
to be a good day to fix fence in decent weather so when Alex spent the 
day this way, his wife would hook up the saddle horse to a one horse 
buggy and take the girls to Sunday School. She served as superintendent 
and class teacher for several years. She and Floyd Morgan changed off 
as superintendent. There was nearly always a good crowd as almost 
everyone in the country came and very seldom did any family go home by 
themselves. Many times two, three or even four families would all go to 
one home where the women would start from "scratch" and get dinner for 
all. In later years Floyd Morgan started a young people's orchestra 
that played for Sunday School and special meetings. Although Mr. Morgan 
didn't play any of the instruments himself, he managed to explain to 
the young folks how each one should be played. Some of these young 
people were Lyle, Gale and Helen Dartt, Margaret and Betty Morgan, 
Howard and Ferne Anderson.

	Besides the regular hardships of the times, Alex had a lot of 
medical expense. His wife had arthritis and they went to many doctors 
hoping for help. In the summer of 1921 they left Margaret and Iona with 
their grandparents, took Evelyn and baby Alora, who had been born the 
December before, and went to Rochester, Minnesota, for several weeks. 
There Dora went through the clinic and had her tonsils out, but they 
couldn't do anything to help her arthritis. It was terribly hot all the 
time they were gone and when they got back home all the crops had 
completely burned up.

	The following summer three of the neighbors took Evelyn, Iona and 
Alora while Margaret stayed to keep house for her father and Dora went 
to Hot Springs to try hot mineral baths. These did seem to help some, 
so that fall the girls and their mother moved to Hot Springs where 
Margaret and Evelyn went to school until Thanksgiving time. After that 
Alex took the two older girls to Platte to stay with Dora's aunt and go 
to school. Dora's cousin at Minnekata took. Iona and Alora, and Dora 
went into the hospital for the rest of the year. When school was out in 
the spring the family all came back home and from then on there was 
hired help when possible, otherwise they just got along as best they 
could.

	There was no school for Margaret to go to when she was six except 
Cedar Butte which was four miles away, so she was a year late starting 
school. The next year a court action opened Hillside School for six 
pupils-John and Jake Krammer, John, Helen and Elsie Thomas and 
Margaret. Their teacher was Mrs. Nina Heutzenroeder. The school was 
held in the hay loft of a barn on the John Campbell place. This was 
used for two years then the house on the same place was repaired and 
one room used. This building is now the office of Irene's Cabins in 
Wall.

	During the next few years Alex bought several more pieces of land 
near his. In the summer of 1928 the crop prospects were very good so 
the MacGregors made plans to build a new house about a half mile east 
of their present one. One day in the latter part of June Alex and his 
brother-in-law Martin Rice, who, was visiting from Kansas, staked out 
the house. That night there was a terrible hail storm leaving the 
fields as though they had been mowed. This was really a hard blow since 
one of the reasons for wanting a new house was that they were expecting 
a new baby in the Fall. Dorothy was born in November and while she and 
her mother were in Rapid City some remodeling was done to try to make 
the house nicer. Margaret, who had gone to High School in Platte the 
year before, had to stay home to take care of her mother and the baby. 
Mrs. MacGregor was not able to even pick the baby up from the bed, all 
she could do was to hold her on her lap after the older girls had 
bathed and dressed her.

	Mrs. J. W. Simpson had died the summer Dora was in Hot Springs, 
after that Mr. Simpson rented his place for several years then finally 
sold it to Oscar Mills. In the fall of 1929 Alex bought this place and 
moved the family into the new house just before Thanksgiving. That year 
they had hired a girl and both Margaret and Evelyn attended High School 
in Wall.

	For the next several years J. W. Simpson made his home with his 
daughter and since he had lost his eyesight he had to be cared for as 
well as Dora and Dorothy. This made it almost impossible for the family 
to find hired help so the girls took turns staying home from High 
School.

	Margaret finished High School in three years and went to Summer 
School in Spearfish. That fall she was married to Floyd Parkin and they 
lived in the little house as Floyd worked for Alex. During the summer 
of 1933 Floyd, Peg and their son Buryle moved to Lodi, California, 
where Floyd had relatives. He became a carpenter and they are now 
living at Santa Barbara where he is a contractor. They have two sons 
Buryle and Ronnald and three grandsons,

	Evelyn graduated in 1933 after staying home the last half of her 
sophomore year, then she stayed home the next year so Iona and Alora 
could go to High School, In 1934 she attended Black Hills Teachers 
College at Spearfish, and was married in October of that year to 
Merritt Patterson. She taught school for the next five years while 
Merritt worked on the railroad at New Underwood and for Alex on the 
farm.

	Iona finished High School in 1936 and then went to the National 
School of Business in Rapid City. Here she met Roger Wagner of Huron 
who was attending the School of Mines. In the summer of 1938 after 
Roger graduated they were married, and went to Boston, Mass. where he 
worked for General Electric. After working for the same company in Bay 
City, Michigan and Schenectady, New York, they moved to Washington, 
D.C., where he works for the Navy Department. Roger and Iona have two 
sons, Roddy and Kenny, also two grandsons and two granddaughters.

	In 1938 Merritt and Evelyn took her mother, Alora and Dorothy to 
live with Floyd and Peg in California. After that Alex made his home 
with Merritt and Evelyn. In 1940 after school was out they moved from 
the little house to the big house and in 1941 their twin sons Gene and 
Dean were born.

	Alex spent the summers in S. Dak. and the winter in Calif. for a 
few years, however Floyd and Peg had moved into a smaller house and it 
was hard to find a place for Dora and the girls to stay. For a while 
they got an apartment but it was too much for Alora to do the work at 
home and go to school. They found a widow lady with a large house who 
took them in for a while but finally the girls got an apartment and 
their mother had to go to the hospital. Alex decided to buy a house and 
hired a couple to do the work.

	In the winter of 1948 Dora had pneumonia and shortly after that 
developed dropsy, She passed away at her home on April 9, 1948, and was 
laid to rest in the lovely Lodi cemetery. She had enjoyed the trees and 
flowers of California so much after the bare plains of South Dakota. 
Although she had been bedfast for eighteen years, she was always 
cheerful and enjoyed having visitors very much. This was another reason 
she had liked living in Lodi her last ten years.

	The next three years Alex spent mostly on the road going from one 
daughters to another, from California to South Dakota to Washington, 
D.C.

	Alora had gone to High School two years before going to Lodi, and 
Dorothy had finished the fifth grade.

	They both finished High School and Alora worked for one of the 
newspapers and then for a large fruit packing company. In 1944 she was 
married to John Lerza, whose family were grape farmers and packers. 
John worked with his father while Alora was bookkeeper for the company. 
John and Alora had two children, a daughter Marsha and a son John. In 
1962 John suffered a heart attack and wasn't able to do much 
afterwards. In the summer of 1964 he had another attack and died. Alora 
bought a house near her father where she can help care for him, and she 
runs a music store. She has worked quite a bit with music, she has had 
several songs published and has several religious songs on record by 
Polly Johnson and Mary Jane who worked with her. Alora's daughter 
Marsha is attending college in Sacramento, California, and her son John 
is at home.

	After Dorothy finished High School in Lodi, she drove to Stockton 
to the College of the Pacific for two years. The year after her mother 
died she spent one semester at Yankton College, Alex had always wanted 
one of the girls to go to his old college. She couldn't get the 
subjects she wanted at Yankton so the second semester she went back to 
Stockton. Also there was a young man there named Tom Smith whom she 
later married. Tom worked as a soil analyzer for the Gerber Baby Food 
Company and they lived in the Bay area around San Francisco until 1964. 
They now live at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where Tom is assisting with the 
construction of a resort housing development. They have three daughters 
and one son.

	Alex had rented his farm to Merritt and Evelyn in 1946 and then 
in the fall of 1951 he sold all of his land to them. In November of 
1951, he married a life long friend of Dorals, Martha Solverson, whose 
husband had died a year before Dora passed away. Alex and Martha made 
the trip to South Dakota for the Tenth of July celebration in 1952 to 
visit old friends and to clear up the last of his business matters. 
Alex came back once more in 1958 with his son-in-law Roger Wagner, who 
had driven out to California on business. Alex spent a few days 
visiting the few old friends that were still living and then went back 
to Lodi by plane, his first plane ride. He was eighty on the 12th of 
August 1964 and gets around quite well. He isn't allowed to drive a car 
any more but Alora is close enough so she takes him and. Martha where 
they need to go.

	Alex's land and the land that had been J. W. Simpson's plus some 
which Merritt bought from Oscar Mills are now combined to make the 
Patterson's place. Dean and Gene are both married and live on the home 
place working with Merritt. There are two younger sons, Dale and Gale, 
who also plan to come back to the farm after going to college as Dean 
and Gene did. They all plan to work together on this farm which 
includes the land which had belonged to their grandfather, Alex 
MacGregor.

[Photo - Alex MacGregor's House in 1917]

[Photo - Mrs. MacGregor in doorway, then Margaret, Alex, Evelyn and J. 
W. Simpson in 1917]

[Photo - J. W. Simpson's house, just completed. Mr. Simpson and Dora's 
cousin, Mae Gadient of Minnekata, S. D.]

[Photo - Margaret and Evelyn MacGregor. The building behind is John 
Grandgenet's homestead house.]

[Photo - Margaret MacGregor, John and Jake Krammer, John, Helen and 
Elsie Thomas at Hillside School.]

[Photo - Margaret, Evelyn, Iona and Alora MacGregor in 1923.]

[Merlin, Margaret Morgan, Margaret MacGregor, Betty Morgan, Evelyn 
MacGregor and Iona MacGregor.]


[Photo - Merritt Patterson Place - 1957]


The John Moler Family

	In the spring of 1906, John Moler, in the company of Will Bedford 
and others, left O'Neill, Nebraska to come to this new territory that 
they were hearing such wonderful things about.

	John filed on his claim and set about building a home for his 
family that was still in Nebraska. He made three trips, by team and 
wagon, to Rapid City for lumber. He built what he considered, quite a 
snug, warm two room house. While he was building he lived in the wagon 
box which he had removed for the running gears and placed on the 
ground. With the canvas cover it made quite a summer home.

	In April of 1907 Mr. Moler shared an emigrant car with W. Dartt, 
J. Benson, and J. Bemmish and brought his household goods and wife 
Minnie and two small children, Carrie and Alvin, to South Dakota. The 
train came as far as Wasta and from there they hired a team and buggy 
to take them across the river. It was getting late in the day by the 
time they reached the east side of the Cheyenne and hoping to hold on 
to civilization a bit longer Mrs. Moler decided they should spend the 
night at the Orton Reed place and continue to their new home by 
daylight the following, morning. Mrs. Moler admits that even by 
daylight she wasn't very thrilled over her new home. After spending the 
first night in their claim shack they arose to find the floor covered 
with snow and Mrs. Moler was more disheartened than ever. Though John 
thought he had built it very tight and secure the South Dakota wind 
managed to sift flakes through the tiny cracks.

	Min and the children returned to Nebraska in the late summer and 
John went to the eastern part of the state to harvest. He came back and 
spent the winter alone. In October 1907 Dorothy was born and the 
following spring Min and the three children returned to Lake Flatt.

	In 1912 Loyal was born and in 1915 Molers lost a son, Delos, when 
he was quite small.

	The older children walked to Lake Flatt school and had fun 
visiting their neighbors. Carrie recalls she and Dorothy started to 
Fosters with a birthday cake. They were riding their horse and he 
bucked them off, cake and all, only a short distance from home.

	In 1920 John bought Butlers' house and added three more rooms to 
their home. By this time two more girls had been added to the family, 
Elva and Lila (Tiny). In 1923 the youngest Moler child, Billy, arrived.

	In 1945 when Elva's husband, Frank Hindman, went into the service 
they bought a house and moved it on the place so Elva and her family 
would be near her folks while he was away. In 1947 they moved to Wall 
and Billy bought the house where he, his wife Donna (Lurz), and 
children, Pam and Kieth now reside.

	Elva and Frank have seven children, Ardie (Crawford), Jerry, in 
the navy, John, Cliff, Terry, Troy and Mark at home. Carrie and Osborn 
Kitterman have three children, David and wife, Barbara (Crawford) and 
children, Steuart, Susan and Mary Jo live on the farm. Shirley and 
husband, Chuck Crawford, live in Deadwood with their three children, 
Greg, Tim and Judy. Another daughter, Dorothy (Crawford) passed away in 
1962 leaving one son, Tony. Boyd and wife Ann (Klapprich) live in Wall 
with four children, John, Jim, Jeff and Jean. Dorothy and husband, Hobe 
Kitterman, live at Custer, South Dakota. They lost their eldest son, 
Douglas, in a school bus accident in 1930. Gene and wife, Gladys 
(Lynch) live in Arizona with two sons, Rodney and Dayton. Ardith 
Doughty lives in Custer with her five children. Iris Juntunen lives in 
Kingsman, Ariz. with her husband, Stan, and three youngsters. Lila 
(Tiny) Trask works for West River Electric in Wall, with Ronnie, Bob 
and Barbara at home and Bill and wife, Pat (Patterson) and son; Bud and 
Lila and husband Leo Thiele and four children all live in Rapid City. 
Loyal and wife Helen (Trask) live in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Alvin 
works for Summit Construction at Rapid City, South Dakota.

	Grandma and Grandpa Miler have twenty-one grandchildren and 
thirty-two great grandchildren.

	John and Min are one of the very few couples that still reside on 
their original homestead. They have added many acres to those first few 
they filed on so long ago. Due to ill health the farming operation was 
turned over to Billy several years ago.

	Mr. and Mrs. Moler are always eager to visit with friends and 
neighbors when they stop to call, so drop in any time.


The Osborn Kitterman Family

	I was born to John H. and Cora L. Kitterman on August 18th, 1898, 
in Walker, Missouri. Being the oldest of five kids in the family my 
first term of school was in Missouri. One thing that I remember very 
well about going to school in Missouri was a hornets nest along my way 
to the school house as I gave it a poke one morning. They sure put the 
go on me.

	In the spring of 1906 we moved to Howard, South Dakota. We lived 
there until in September of 1907 when my dad decided to come west. So 
Mother and us kids took the passenger train and Dad came with the 
emigrant car heading for Wall, South Dakota.

	When we got to Pierre there was no bridge across the Missouri 
River, so we crossed on a boat to Fort Pierre. The railroad was just 
completed between Fort Pierre and Rapid City. We got on a train made up 
of emigrant cars and one passenger car, which was loaded with all kinds 
of people coming west. I remember some cowboys that were playing poker, 
they had a bottle and were having a high time.

	When we got to Wall one of my uncles, O. E. Butler met us at the 
train. Wall was a booming town with buildings going up on both sides of 
the street.

	We stayed with my Uncle Will Kitterman until we got a house built 
on my dad's homestead which was ten miles north of Wall. The country 
was all prairie and no roads, just claim shacks now and then. We had a 
lot of hard work and not much to do with to get ready for winter.

	I never got to go to school that first year. The next year 
myself, one brother and one sister started to school. We had two and 
one-half miles to walk. We went to the Cedar Butte School but when it 
was stormy we didn't go to school.

	In 1911 it was so dry the grass didn't get green until the last 
of August, so my dad and brother, Wade, went with some of the neighbors 
to Valentine, Nebraska to put up some hay for the winter. I stayed home 
to look after the cattle and help Mother around the place.

	There was at least half the people that left the country that 
year. The Indians were no trouble then but the mosquitoes gave us a 
battle. They got so thick at times we had to cover our heads with gunny 
sacks.

	When I was 16 years old I started working out. I worked at 
anything I could get to do. In the fall of 1917 1 ran the separator for 
Dave Sim's threshing machine, it was a steam outfit. I got $8.00 a day 
which was big wages them days.

	In the spring of 1918 I took 125 cows and steers of my dads, and 
50 steers of W. J. Naeschers and went up on Cow Creek. to herd as it 
was open range. In August after I got the cattle located I came back 
and ran Dave Sim's thresher again. That fall when the threshing was 
done I went back up on the creek and wintered the cattle.

	In the spring of 1919 I filed on a homestead of 320 acres on the 
same creek. One afternoon I was sitting in my shack and Matt Foley rode 
up. He was camped on the Smith place a mile west of me. We talked 
awhile then Matt asked me to move over with him as he was batching, 
too. So I tied my bed roll and what dishes I had on my horse and moved 
in with Matt. We had a lot of fun batching as neither was a very good 
cook. I remember one day we thought we would cook some rice. We had a 
four pound sack so we poured it in a pan, it didn't look too big but 
when we got done cooking it we had every pan and pail on the place full 
of rice, so we ate rice for awhile. I stayed with Matt that summer. In 
September we gathered the cattle and I moved my dad's back to the home 
place and Matt moved his back up on Elk Creek, north of Rapid City, to 
his ranch.

	The latter part of September I started working on the O. S. O. 
Ranch, for a man by the name of C. J. Sprague. He lived in Rapid City 
and had a foreman on the ranch by the name of Myron Westland. They ran 
400 head of cattle and 1200 sheep. My job was to ride after the cattle. 
They could range about ten miles out of camp so I was in the saddle 
most of the time, until in February when we got them all gathered and 
went to feeding hay.

	The winter of 1919 was a very long hard winter, it started to 
snow the middle of October and was very cold and stormy until spring. 
After I got the cattle all gathered I started feeding. I handled about 
500 tons of hay, all with a pitchfork that winter.

	Frank Cottle had a store and post office, called Smithville, just 
across the Cheyenne River. I went over there about every day to get the 
mail and supplies for the ranch. When the ice went out of the river 
about the first of March it got pretty high at times so I would swim my 
horse across which sometimes got to be a little rough.

	About April 15th, Sprague leased the ranch to a man by the name 
of Arza Roberts, so Westland went to Montana. After that I started 
working for Pennington County running a Caterpillar tractor building 
roads. I worked that summer and in the fall of 1920 1 started working 
at Wasta on the old highway called the Black and Yellow Trail, which 
was all done with horses.

	In the spring of 1921 I came back home and helped Dad. In August 
that year I hired out to the Sunny Side Threshing Co. I ran their 
engine through threshing, I put in eighty days threshing that fall. In 
the spring of 1922 1 ran this same engine breaking up new farm land and 
when threshing time came I went back to threshing again. I think I have 
threshed for every farmer north of Wall.

	In the spring of 1923 I bought a farm known as the Jess Bensen 
homestead. I have lived there ever since. I was still batching when I 
moved on this place, so I thought it was about time I was making a 
change.

	The John Moler family lived just a little ways west of me. They 
had a daughter by the name of Carrie, who I thought was pretty nice. I 
knew she was a good cook as I had eaten several meals with them. So 
that winter Carrie and I started going together. I had bought a new 
Model "T" Ford car which made going a little better.

	So on October 23rd, 1924 we got in the Model "T", went to Rapid 
City and were married. We started housekeeping, having a hard time 
getting started as money didn't grow on bushes like it does nowadays. 
Carrie's folks had come up to this country from Nebraska, to homestead 
in 1906 when Carrie was two years old. She has one brother older and 
two brothers and three sisters younger. They all grew up on the same 
place and attended the Lake Flatt School.

	Carrie being from a pioneer family didn't expect to have things 
too nice, so we got along with what we could afford. The farming was 
done with horses until in 1928 when I bought my first tractor and 
started to expand a little. In 1930 I bought my first combine, then in 
1934 the drouth and grasshoppers set in so we had hard times until 
about 1940.

	I think it was in 1934 that I traded my homestead on Cow Creek to 
Taylor Shull for two wild horses. I sold one for $10.00, the other one 
I never did catch so I didn't get much for 320 acres. It was rough 
grass land. We are still living on the place that I bought in 1923.

	I served on the Cedar Butte schoolboard 15 years, on the Township 
Board 30 years, on the Eastern Pennington Soil Conservation board of 
supervisors 12 years and on the local committee for the Farm Program 
about ten years, which made me extra work.

	In 1927 George Anderson and I bought a threshing machine 
together, which we operated until about 1940 when all the grain was 
combined.

	After all the hardships, dry years, grasshoppers and hard 
winters, I still think we have one of the best countries in U.S. to 
live in.

	We raised a family of four children during these hard years.

	David, who married Barbara Crawford; has three children, Stuart, 
Susan, and Mary Jo. David operates the home place, he and his family 
live here by us.

	Shirley, who married Charles Crawford; has three children, Greg, 
Tim and Judy. Their home is in Deadwood, South Dakota.

	Dorothy, now deceased, married Earl Crawford. They had one son, 
Tony and their home is in Wasta.

	Boyd, who married Ann Klapperich, has four children, John, Jim, 
Jeff, and Jean and their home is in Wall.

[Photo - The Osborn Kitterman Family]

[Photo - Osborn, his dad and Uncle Ben - 1918]

[Photo - Anderson and Kitterman threshing rig 1927]



Mr. and Mrs. John H. Kitterman

by Ruth Albin

	Cora L. Wade and John H. Kitterman were united in marriage 
October 6, 1897, at Walker, Missouri. They moved to Houstonia, Montana. 
The year of 1905 they left the State of Montana for the State of South 
Dakota with their four children, two boys and two girls, who were 
Osborn, Ruth, Wade and Gladys. They lived on a rented farm south of 
Winfred, South Dakota until the fall of 1907. Orvel, a son, was born 
there at Winfred. John came west to Wall, South Dakota, of Pennington 
County in the. spring of 1907 and filed on a homestead 9 1/2 miles 
north and west of Wall. In September of that same year he moved his 
family and a team of horses, three milk cows, some chickens, household 
furniture, and some machinery out to his homestead. With the help of 
his brother Will Kitterman and two brothers-in-law, Charles Sheren and 
Orlie Butler, they put a shed up for the family to live in while the 
house was being built. The shed they lived in was later used for a barn 
for the stock.

	Their children went to the Cedar Butte school. They walked 3 1/2 
miles to school. There weren't any graded roads nor fences. So anywhere 
anyone could get with a team and wagon they made their own trail.

	Those days everything was done with man power and horse power. 
Sometimes going was pretty rough but they made it and were happy.

	As time went on things changed so farming was done with tractors 
and big machinery. They raised all their children to maturity, Osborn, 
Ruth, Wade and Gladys were married. Wade passed away in the year of 
1943 leaving his wife Linda and a son and daughter.

	Osborn married Carrie Moler, October 26, 1924. To this union four 
children were born, two boys and two girls. Osborn lives two miles 
south of the Cedar Butte School on a farm which one time was Jess 
Benson's homestead.

	Ruth Kitterman and Lee Albin were united in marriage on February 
14, 1918. They lived on a farm 1/2 mile east and north of the Cedar 
Butte School, and to this union five children were born, three girls 
and two boys. Iva, Beulah, Dale, Gladys and Robert, all grew up to 
maturity. Dale was killed by a tractor November 15, 1946. The girls are 
all married. Robert is at home. Lee's left the farm 1949 and moved to 
their home in the town of Wall.

	Gladys Kitterman and Clair Lanning were united in marriage on 
October 2, 1928. To this union three children were born, two girls and 
one boy. Velma, Eva and Kenney. All grew to maturity and are married. 
Kenney is in the Navy.

	Orvel Kitterman is a bachelor. He stayed at home and helped John 
with the farm and ranch until John had a stroke on November 4, 1948 and 
passed to the beautiful beyond at the age of 72 years.

	Then the ranch was sold to William Naescher Jr. and Orvel moved 
to the town of Wall. Cora is making her home with Ruth and has ever 
since John's departure. She is 90 years old. She has been confined to 
the wheel chair 8 years the 27th of June 1965.

[Photo - Kitterman's first house in western South Dakota, taken about 
1907.]

[Photo - Cora Kitterman, age 90]


Ed Dartt's Homesteading

by Ed Dartt

	In April 1906 Will Dartt, Otto Alfs, Emil Anderson, Leon Sargent, 
Jess Benson and Myself boarded the train at O'Neill, Nebraska and came 
to South Dakota, to take homesteads. We arrived at Rapid City early in 
April and found a locater, Tony Madsen, who took us out to Lake Flat. 
He had a rig to haul all of us. We were two days getting out, one day 
selecting homesteads and two days getting back. We stopped at a road 
house overnight in going out and in coming back and camped out the rest 
of the time. We got back to Rapid the evening of April 9 and filed in 
the morning of April 10. We also selected homesteads for Clarence 
Benson and John Moler, who came to Rapid and filed immediately after we 
got home. Clarence Benson and myself fitted out covered wagons, loaded 
our belongings in and came right out to the homestead. I remember among 
our traps we each had a breaking plow. We were nine days on the road 
camping out of course all the way. When we neared our destination we 
ran onto a post office called Furnas. There we got our bearings and 
were directed towards the only landmark I could remember, Cedar Butte. 
We crossed the country without roads and camped overnight by a lake on 
the Will Dartt homestead. The next morning I was able to show Clarence 
his homestead and to find my own.

	We made a dugout in the gulch on the Jess Benson place sodded it 
up a little and stretched a wagon cover over it. This was our living 
quarters, we set the other wagon covers off for sleeping quarters. 
Clarence Benson, Otto Alfs and myself lived there during the summer 
while we were building our homestead shacks and breaking some prairie 
in order to hold the homesteads.

	Being used to milk with some of our eats, we saw a holstein cow 
among the range cattle. We tied up her calf by the camp and when she 
came into feed it we appropriated to our use what the calf didn't need. 
Otto happened to be in Wasta one day and while talking with Jim Cox, 
Jim learned where he lived. He said, "I hear someone up there has one 
of my calves tied up and is milking the cow." Otto says, "Y-E-S, we 
have." Jim said, "Well, when you get there with her, turn her loose."

	I planted sod corn and some squash on what land I got broken up. 
I don't remember picking any corn, I suppose the range cattle got it, 
but I raised a lot of, squash. I piled them by the haystack and covered 
them with hay and having more than I could use I gave them to 
homesteaders who would come after them. One day Mrs. George Kitterman 
and Minnie Kitterman drove in with a light buggy. Mrs. George Kitterman 
asked if they could have some squash, I had never met them. They told 
me who they were. I learned afterwards that Minnie said she wouldn't 
ask that young man for squash. I loaded in a generous supply for them. 
About two years afterwards Minnie Kitterman became Mrs. Ed Dartt. I 
suppose she thought land that would raise good squash would make a good 
home and she surely helped to make it one. We lived on the homestead 
and developed it into a farm. I taught school five years during the 
winter, to help carry us through the dry years.

	One time our family and the Will and John Kitterman families were 
at the O. E. Butlers for Thanksgiving dinner. While we were at dinner 
some riders came by and said there was a coyote on the southeast 
quarter section. Will and I each had a greyhound there and the riders 
took the hounds and went around the coyote. My hound was fast but 
hadn't ever had hold of a coyote. Kitterman's hound was experienced but 
not fast. I unharnessed one of my horses and started to ride east on 
the section line. By that time the hounds were bringing the coyote 
right toward me and I could see all the action.

	My hound caught the coyote and upset him but wouldn't take hold 
of him so the coyote ran again and the hound upset him. Then the coyote 
ran right up to the Butler house. The door was open but he didn't go 
in. He ran across the doorstep and out past the barn into a gulch north 
of the barn. My hound probably threw him or turned him in the gulch for 
he came right back toward the barn. My bird dog was in the wagon and 
got around to jump out to meet the coyote head on. That stopped him 
until the hounds all caught up and with two hounds, the bird dog and 
the women from the house carrying brooms, mop sticks and rolling pins, 
that coyote got an awful killing!

	We weathered the ups and downs as all other homesteaders did.

	Otto Alfs is now living in a Lutheran Old Age Home in Sioux 
Falls, Clarence Bensen lives at Norfolk, Nebraska, Emil Anderson went 
back to Sweden, Leon Sargent lives at O'Neil, Nebraska.

	Will Dartt and Jess Bensen have gone to the land from which there 
is no return.

[Photo - Ed Dartt's Homestead House]

[Photo - Ed Dartt and son, Norris]

[Photo - Present home of Burle Dartt]


Dartt Family

by Ed Dartt

	I was born in Holt County, Nebraska, December 22, 1881 and 
married to Minnie C. Kitterman April 10, 1908 at Wall, South Dakota. 
Four boys and one girl were born to us. They all finished high school 
at Wall. Lysle, Gale and Helen went to college at the State University. 
The boys graduated there. Helen quit after two years and took up a 
nursing course at Denver. She nursed there a while, then went to 
Helena, Montana and was at the head of the pediatrics department there. 
She was married there and then moved with her husband to Missoula, 
Montana. Lysle works in the post office at Wall and helps to run the 
bowling alley, of which he owns an interest. Gale teaches in the Wall 
High School and operates a section of land which he owns North of Wall. 
The other boys Burle and Norris: Burle attended school at Springfield 
two years and Norris at Spearfish one year, both taught school a few 
terms. Burle owns and operates a farm or ranch of 1440 acres. He lives 
on my original homestead. Norris is a carpenter and works at building 
about Wall.

	We lived on the Homestead until 1942 when we moved into Wall. My 
wife contracted a heart disease, and after a lingering illness passed 
away in April of 1959. I still live in my residence in Wall. Norris 
lives with me when he is working at Wall. I busy myself working at the 
Wall Drug Store during the summer months, otherwise I am pretty much 
retired. I don't regret having homesteaded in Pennington County, and 
probably will occupy my last six feet of claim here.

	I am still kicking around- getting in the way, and having fun 
with the boys as much as I can.

	I played baseball with the Wall team July 10, 1907 when the town 
lots were sold to move the town to east of the railroad tracks, and 
have attended every anniversary celebration each year on July 10th 
since then.



Robert F. Lewis

by Fred Lewis

	My father, Robert F. Lewis and I came to Rapid City I believe it 
was the spring of 1908. He had intended to come down to Quinn to visit 
his uncle, F. F. (Frank) Furnas. Although,) the Northwestern Railroad 
was completed from Pierre through to Rapid City. They had not started 
running trains yet, and the only way to get to Quinn was by freight 
wagon or stage, which took considerable time and the weather was 
unsettled with the possibility of being laid up in a storm. Instead of 
coming to Quinn by wagon he decided to go further west by train and 
went on to Oregon. He registered at various land drawings the 
Government was having in Montana, Idaho, and other places.

	Not being lucky in any of the land drawings we came out to Quinn 
from Sioux City, Iowa the spring of 1909. Coy Furnas, a son of Frank 
Furnas was postmaster at Quinn, and was also a locator for persons 
wanting homesteads. Most of the homestead land had been filed on by 
this time, however my father with the help of Coy Furnas was able to 
find a quarter section one mile north of the O'Neil store and Post 
Office, which he filed on. We built a 10x12 homesteaders shack as they 
were called in those days. In the summer months my father would go to 
the eastern part of the state and work in the harvest fields and husk 
corn then come back and stay on the claim during the winter months, as 
one had to establish a legal residence here in order to hold the claim.

	I went to school at the Creighton School two and one half miles 
northwest of where we lived. I would walk to school most of the time, 
as there was no barn at the school then to stable a horse and during 
the winter it was too cold to leave a horse tied up outside all day.

	In the winter of 1915, W. W. (Bill) Parris who ran the Creighton 
store and Post Off ice, decided to move and quit the store business and 
resigned the Post Office. My father put in an application and was 
appointed postmaster. He built a small store building and moved the 
Post Office from its present location two miles east to where we lived. 
The next year he built a larger building and ran a store and the Post 
Office until 1923. In 1921, he bought his first tractor, a Fordson. In 
the meantime, he had also bought more land, and by 1923 he was farming 
about four hundred acres and decided to quit the store business and 
resigned the Post Office.

	John Clarin was appointed Postmaster and moved the Post Office 
back two miles west where it now is. In 1928, I married Eunice Wood and 
lived on the home place until 1930, when I took the Star Mail Route 
from Wall to Pedro, and moved to Wall. Later, I operated a filling 
station in Wall, and in 1933 my father came into Wall and lived with us 
and helped me run the filling station. He passed away in 1952 at the 
age of ninety-four. In 1947, I sold my filling station and moved to a 
farm about two miles northwest of Wall, where we still live.



LATE COMERS TO LAKE FLAT

Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Smith

	While we have lived in South Dakota for a period of 37 years last 
March 1st, we do not consider ourselves "old timers" just replacements.

	We first came to Eastern Pennington County in the fall of 1926 
when we visited Anton Oegerli and Miss Fox, with whom we had formerly 
been acquainted at LaMars, Iowa. We brought out a two-wheel camp 
trailer which furnished sleeping quarter's for our family of four, 
Wendell one year and Louise three years, while we helped Tony and 
Matilda build their new house. Wild ducks were very plentiful that fall 
and very often Tony and I and one of the carpenters from Rapid City, 
Will Hughes, would get up at 3 A.M. to go duck hunting. Usually we 
would bring back the bag limit of fine Mallards, Canvas Backs or Teal. 
My! but they tasted good.

	After the house was completed we journeyed home via Hot Springs, 
Gordon, Nebraska and Winner. We always remember when we were passing 
through some very desolate reservation country we became rather 
uncertain as to whether we were on the right road. As we proceeded we 
came to a ravine and a small rickety bridge. On the side rail of the 
bridge painted in crude letters with red paint was a huge arrow and the 
words, "This Way to New York". Since Iowa was in that general direction 
we kept going after enjoying a good laugh at the sign.

	Needless to say we surely enjoyed our visit and liked the 
country, the climate, and the hospitable people very much. Also since 
our family at LaMars thought I was taking school teaching far too 
seriously and recommended a change, we decided to come out and try 
farming. We bought our place, originally 400 acres from Captain 
Geissler who had been a ferry-boat pilot at Yankton for many years. We 
built the house and barn in the fall and winter of 1927 and moved the 
family from LeMars in the spring of 1928. There was only a two wire 
fence around the S. 1/2 of Sec. 22 when we bought the place. Our third 
child, Margaret, was born in June 1929.

	We had scarcely become well settled and had built up very little 
feed and grain reserve when the stock market crash in the fall of 1929 
ushered in the great depression also a long period of drouth and 
grasshoppers. As everyone well knows the 30's were very tough years for 
all concerned but we hung on and survived like the rest. We are 
especially grateful for W.P.A. work, for the A. A. A. farm program, and 
Federal Land Bank and for the leniency of our many creditors.

	Our place became known as "The White House on the Hill" and it 
seemed to be the most convenient place for all the stranded tourists to 
come for help. Some were out of gas, some had mechanical trouble but 
most often at night they would get in the ditch because of too much 
moonshine and would have to be pulled out. In spite of this it was nice 
to live on a good road and watch the tourists and trucks go by. The 
state snow plows kept the road open in winter and we could always get 
out. Even in the great Blizzard of 1949 we thought we were completely 
snowed in by sundown of the second day, but a seeming miracle happened 
in the night. The wind switched to the northwest and, thanks to our 
diagonal drive we could drive out to the highway the next day without 
shoveling when the previous evening it was full of drifts three to four 
feet deep., After the road was blacktopped in the fall of 1936 tourist 
traffic really stepped up. Ted Hustead's ice water Drug Store signs 
were also a big factor. I well remember working several days one winter 
along with the Naescher boys packing ice for Wall Drug. At the time I 
was very glad to get the work, and now, looking back, feel quite proud 
to have had at least a small part in helping Ted and Dorothy to get 
started. The new road (Interstate 90) passes our house at quite a 
distance and now we feel more or less "out in the wilderness".

	Speaking of the "white house on the hill" reminds me of an 
incident about which the neighbors still "kid" us considerably. Our 
roof was leaking and not being financially able to reshingle, I climbed 
up on the roof with a long extension ladder to patch up some bad spots. 
Fortunately I secured a safety rope at the peak of the roof which I 
kept wrapped around one leg while patching the holes. A big black cloud 
came up and it looked very much like rain, so I worked feverishly to 
get as much done as possible. Well  I worked a bit too long. The wind 
came up with a sudden gust and down went my ladder. It would have taken 
me off too had it not been for the safety rope. It did blow down our 45 
ft. wind charger tower and took an empty steel granary - then oh how it 
rained. Hanging firmly on to the rope, I managed to scramble to the lee 
side of the dormer on the south roof and tucked myself under the 
cornice so as to escape much of the force of the wind and driving rain 
mingled with some hail. There I stayed until the shower was over. The 
women folks (my wife and Margaret) were worried about me and kept 
calling in the attic to see if I were still on the roof. I could not 
hear them for the roar of the storm. Of course they were glad I had not 
fallen from the roof, but couldn't raise the big ladder to get me down. 
Fortunately there are two windows in the dormer which can be opened 
from the inside, so I crawled through one of them and got down.

	We will also always remember the visit of the seagulls one year 
during grasshopper days. We had winrowed a small field of tall rye west 
of the house. Huge flocks of sea gulls would fly in and light on the 
rye winrows in such numbers that they literally covered many of them 
giving them the appearance of long straight snowdrifts. After gorging 
themselves with hoppers they would rise like a cloud, almost darkening 
the sun, and fly over to Oegerlis pond for water. There they would 
disgorge themselves of hoppers and come back to the rye field for more. 
After a few such excursions the field was pretty well rid of the pest. 
They didn't seem to eat the rye at all; but did shatter out some with 
their feet. It is authentic history that seagulls saved the crops from 
the Morman Crickets around Great Salt Lake, but this experience made 
that story far more real to us. At any rate those gulls were certainly 
beautiful to see.

	All in all Western South Dakota has been very good to us and we 
surely respect the real pioneers who came before us and opened up the 
country, making it such a pleasing place to come and live. Some of our 
near neighbors aside from Oegerlis, already mentioned, when we first 
came to Lake Flat Township were Ira Buikstra and John P. Schell to the 
east, Harold Welsh, Charlie McDonald, and Fred Batterman lived farther 
west on the highway. To the north, Wylie Blanchard lived in the Gail 
Lewis house and worked the K. P. Peterson land until the house burned 
and they lost their youngest child. Then Mr. Peterson built a new house 
farther east on the county road. Marion and May Huffman lived on what 
is now the Doland Patterson place. The Frank Graham farm east of 
Huffmans was occupied a short time by Bob Allread family before he went 
to work for Homestake. North of Huffman's, Harrison Scott lived on part 
of what is Osburn Kitterman's place. South and east of Oegerli's Earl 
Curtis lived on what is now the Wm. Bielmaier place and John and Bessie 
Bielmaier were on the Al Nystrom place known then as "Town View Farm". 
Eugene Miller later bought the Gail Lewis place where W. Blanchard 
lived when the house burned. They were all fine neighbors who were 
always willing to help a green family from Iowa to get acquainted with 
South Dakota ways and climate.

[Photo - These three pictures are typical of early day farming 
methods.]

[Photo Breaking the Virgin prairie land]

[Photo Earl Shaffer's Hay Wagon]

[Photo - Grain Field on the Earl Shaffer farm.]

[Photo - Threshing at the Wood place.]

[Photo - Haying Crew at Earl Shaffers]

[Photo - The old time threshing rig. Note the horse drawn grain wagon 
in the background. The threshing machine was owned by August Kramer, 
his helper was Irving Paulsen 1915.] 

[Photo - Cedar Butte Bible Class. Alex MacGregor in front row with fur 
cap. Margaret and Evelyn with J. W. Simpson at other end of row.]


Fred Pascoe Family

by Mrs. Pascoe

	My husband, Fred Pascoe, and I came to South Dakota in the spring 
of 1908. We had two small children, Bonita, almost three and Homer, a 
year and a half old. Our daughter, Hazel, was born in August of that 
summer, the first baby born in Quinn.

	Fred, Harry Packman and a Mr. Nelson had made a trip to the area 
earlier. Packman started a restaurant, Nelson went into the hardware 
business and Fred filed on a homestead about thirteen miles northwest 
of Quinn on Lake Flat.

	When Fred brought us out we made our home with Packman's while he 
built a house. In the fall when the house was finished, we moved it to 
the homestead and settled down to make a new home.

	Quinn, at that time was a busy, growing town. There was a grocery 
store, Balches, Smith's drygoods store, August Safkin's barber shop, 
Nelson's hardware store, Strasser's rooming and eating house, a bank, a 
large stockyard, the post office with Coy Furnas as postmaster, and a 
school. There were other places, too, but I cannot remember them all.

	Water was a big problem. At first everyone got water from a 
spring out east of town. When the spring went dry we got water from any 
available source. It was hauled in in barrels, a muddy white liquid 
that had to be settled then dipped off the sediment and boiled before 
it was safe to use.

	The prairie where the homestead was located was very different 
from anything I had ever known. It was so wide and lonesome but still 
it was beautiful. Every quarter section in the area had been 
homesteaded. Most of our close neighbors were bachelors, George Shaefer 
joined us on the west with Manny Owens south of him.

	To the east was Gus Johnson; he was joined on the north by Carl 
Gustafson, all bachelors. To the south of us was Harry Gooder's 
quarter. Harry was a bachelor but he had a sister Elta who rode a horse 
and often visited at our place. This pleased me as there were very few 
women in the country.

	Water was a problem on the claim, too. We hauled water from the 
Springer place to the west of us. The summer of 1909 we put down a deep 
well and got an abundance of cold, soft water. We lived on the claim 
long enough to prove up and get a deed to the land. We put in many 
improvements and fenced the place. We had more neighbors as time went 
on.

	In 1911 there was a drought and most of the settlers left the 
country. We were among them. With a wagon and a surrey loaded with our 
personal belongings we started for eastern Iowa, our former home. 
Knowing that we would be unable to buy supplies during the early part 
of the trip, we fried down a quantity of meat, put it in large earthen 
jars and sealed it with lard. We tied a crate of chickens onto the end 
of the wagon so that we would have some fresh meat, too. We also lashed 
two big barrels of water to the sides of the wagon. Then we locked the 
door, loaded the four children into the rigs and started out. Orma, who 
had been born in January of that year, was our fourth child.

	The long trip is one I'll never forget. We drove day after day 
through the dust and the heat without seeing any living thing except an 
occasional band of wild horses.

	At Fort Pierre so many other wagons were ahead of us that we had 
to wait two or three days for our turn at the ferry. There was no 
bridge across the Missouri at that time. It took a little over four 
weeks to make the trip to Marble Rock, Iowa, our former home.

	We lived in Marble Rock for four years where Bonnie, Homer and 
Hazel started to school and the twins, Donald and Donivan, were born.

	In 1915 we moved back to South Dakota and again took up life on 
the homestead. Many things had changed. New families had moved in and a 
school was established less than two miles south of our place. We got 
our mail on the Wall route and Wall became our shopping center.

	Eula was born in July, 1917, and in August of that same summer 
Fred died very suddenly. The great kindness of the people in the 
community helped us through those first hard months. I stayed on the 
place and kept the family together. In some ways life was very 
difficult but there were many compensations. We had our own milk and 
meat and butter and eggs. The children had their riding horses and 
other pets. We were within walking distance of school and drove to 
Cedar Butte to attend Sunday School and Church service.

	The neighbor children and ours hunted and played ball in the 
summer and skated and had sleigh rides in the winter. In the evening I 
read aloud to the children and we enjoyed many good books. The County 
Judge who probated Fred's estate and whom we never met, used to send 
the children books from his own library. And the circulating library 
from the state was available to anyone who wrote for them.

	We all worked together at doing chores and as much of the farm 
work as we could handle. I have always felt that our dependence upon 
one another made our family a very close-knit unit.

	In, 1929 when the twins were ready for high school I moved to 
Wall. In 1936 after Eula had graduated from high school and Bonnie, 
Homer and Hazel were married I moved to California and have made my 
home in Lodi ever since. My four daughters, Eula (Mrs. Kenneth) Parkin, 
Orma, (Mrs. Dewey) Pritchard, Hazel, (Mrs. Howard) Parkin and Bonnie, 
(Mrs. Melvin) Tivis all live in Lodi as does my son Donivan. Homer 
still lives north of Wall and Donald lives in Quinn. I have 24 
grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren.

	California is now home to me but I have many happy memories of 
the years I spent in South Dakota and each time that I return there it 
is a pleasure to visit old friends and their families.

[Photo - The Pascoe claim shack - Homer and Bonnie in the door - 1908]

[Photo Ella Pascoe holding Hazel; Homer in wagon; Bonnie standing, on 
homestead.]