History of the Territory This chapter is 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 7-8 Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net, 1999. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm History of the Territory by: Mrs. Leo Foster Mrs. Chris Willuweit Mr. Leonel M. Jensen By the treaties of 1851 and 1868, the area that is now Western South Dakota had been guaranteed to the Sioux. By an agreement with the Sioux made September 26, 1876, which was later formalized by the U. S. Senate, the Black Hills Region was opened to white settlement. By an Act of Congress approved March 2, 1889, and proclaimed by the President on February 10, 1890, the area between the White River and the Big Cheyenne River was restored to the Public Domain. It was some time after that, possibly as late as 1891, before the routine necessary to permit homesteading was completed. The land had to be surveyed and land offices set up, so there was some delay. In this way, the land adjacent to Wall was eligible to homesteaders in the 1890's but very few people took advantage of it. For a time there were no homesteaders but there were a few squatters or nesters who, for a time, built isolated shacks in defiance of cattlemen, among them Mike Quinn, Swinehart, Stucker and others. The land was almost all cattle range but a few sheep had been brought in. When homesteading did start there were instances of claim- jumping and unfair practices. The main land office was in Rapid City but there were sub-offices in the little towns along the railroad. The land office in Rapid City refused to take any claims presented in person until the morning mail was received from the East. In this way they prevented an individual from coming in on the morning train and filing on a piece of land that someone had filed on in a sub-office the day before. It was said, however, that there were sub-land commissioners who (for a price) could be talked into not getting the application mailed so that it would not be in Rapid City the next morning. Probably the first legal homesteader was Jess Borland, who had the logs for his house cut and ready on the west side of the Cheyenne river on the eve of the morning when homesteading was to be opened. At midnight, with some helpers, he floated the logs across the river and by sun-up had erected the walls of the house which later became the central building of the Frank Lee ranch. The year 1905 saw a great deal of homestead activity though it consisted mostly in the driving of stakes by men who returned later to build homes and establish residences. At that time there was a building on Lake Flat, built by Billie Kalkbrenner, who had already spent several years on a homestead just above the Cheyenne breaks east of the present railway bridge. This shack was the only one for miles around when active homesteading began. Homesteaders came into the community in a number of ways; by covered wagon, with teams and buggies, on foot, or on horseback. Louis J. Jensen started on a bicycle but finished up walking. In the spring of 1906 homestead shacks were built by the Pink family, including Bill, Sam, Lena, and Christena. They homesteaded a square section seven miles north of Wall. Within a few days Metzler and Dave Sims followed suit. Then in quick succession came: McDonnell, Alfs, Teuber, Harvey, Adams, Jones, Perkins, Melvin, Warren, Bert, Johnson, Gus Gustaveson, Pascoe, Gooder, Vaughn, Schmitten, Bloodgood, Parkins, Rotter, Kitterman, Kellam, Foster, Dartt, Powell, Sam Jones, Rafferty, Reed, Guy Polley, Scott, Renner, Mackrill, Klokie, Blair, John Mills, Havalind, O'Donnell, Goodsell, Todd, Hastings, Estes, Ellingson, Myers, Sorensen, Mousseau, Hendrickson, Crown, Sinclair, and others, all of whom were living in their shanties by the fall of. 1906. By that time nearly every quarter section had its family. There were three post offices in this territory at that time: Furnace, Smithville, and Dakota City. Some supplies were available at these centers: food, clothing and other commodities were mostly freighted in by wagon from Pierre and Rapid City. A stage line from Pierre to Deadwood touched at Smithville and another from Chamberlain to Rapid City at Dakota City. Coy Furnace and Billy Kalkbrenner located a majority of the homesteaders in 1906. After that, most of the homesteaders employed professional locaters from Pierre and Rapid City to find their boundaries. Snow and ice mark the first winter in the memory of the old-timers. Dave Sims tells of the storm of December 3, 1906, when 24 inches of wet snow fell in 24 hours. Two days later a chinook wind melted the snow to a heavy slush, which then froze and remained frozen until the first day of February 1907. At noon on that day, snow began to fall again, driven by a strong wind. Sims was caught in the blizzard while on his way home on foot from the Furnace post office, and was hopelessly lost when he finally ran into the fence on his own place. After three days of snow another chinook wind melted everything and the flatt became one huge lake. That was the last of the winter. The May 1st grass was knee-high on the prairie. [Photo - The building with the check above it is the first store in Wall. Owned and operated by Mr. & Mrs. Henry Mutchler.] [Photo - Mrs. Henry Mutchler and two of her daughters watching the track being laid into Wall, S. Dak. - 1907] [Photo - Train accident at Bull Creek Siding - 1907. Some men pictured are Mr. Kocher, Bill Lytle, Jim Renner, Amos Withen, Sam Hinman, Paul Brosser.] [Photo - Hinman family 1907 - Sam, Blanch, Melvin, Mary, Jenny and Sam.] [Photo - Mr. & Mrs. Charles Parr.] [Photo - Crystal Hinman and Dorothy Connolly] [Photo - Charles Albin and sister, Margaret Kellem] [Photo - Cliff Foster binding grain] [Photo - Baseball Team - 1923 Front row: unknown, Edgar Kellem, Unknown, Walt Kellem, Winnie Hinman, Melvin Hinman. Middle: Donner, Sam Hinman, Herb Kellem, unknown, Al Nystrom. Back row: unknown and Wes Bloom.] [Photo - Wall School Picture - Lillian Meyers, Ernie Hankens, Idella Frieke, Art Bergerson, Edith Sebade, Max Noe, Leone Bruce, Ellen Brennan, Herman Sebade, Miss Ellebrook, teacher.]