A Brief History of South Dakota/Chapter 18
CHAPTER XVIII
A CAMPAIGN THAT FAILED
As related in earlier chapters, the land now occupied by the state of South Dakota was acquired by the United States as part of the Louisiana purchase (1803) and was included in the territory of Missouri, organized in 1812. But this land remained the property of Indian tribes, and was not settled by white men for more than forty years. The part east of the Missouri River, meanwhile, was made successively part of Michigan territory (1834), Wisconsin territory (1836), Iowa territory (1838), and Minnesota territory (1849). The part west of the Missouri was included in the original limits of Nebraska territory (1854).
When it became apparent that the state of Minnesota was to be admitted to the Union with its western boundary as at present located, and not upon the Big Sioux River as had been anticipated, a party of democratic politicians at St. Paul, believing that a new territory would speedily be organized out of the portion of Minnesota territory not within the state boundaries, formed a company for the purpose of securing control of all of the desirable town sites and water powers in the proposed new territory, and for the purpose of securing the location of the territorial capital, with the expectation of securing the offices and the control of the rich territorial contracts, such as for printing and Indian supplies. It was a far-reaching scheme in the hands of shrewd and intelligent men, who stood very high in the confidence of the political party then in power. They organized as the Dakota Land Company, and in the spring of 1857 sent a party of men, under the lead of Major Franklin De Witt, into the South Dakota country to claim the town sites. At Sioux Falls it was expected to establish the territorial capital, and there a city was to be immediately built. Governor Medary of Minnesota territory, a very influential politician, holding his appointment from the President of the United States and having large influence at Washington, was the president of the company.
Settlements were made at Sioux Falls, Flandreau, Medary (on the Big Sioux in the southern part of Brookings County), and Renshaw (on the Big Sioux, near the site of Estelline in Hamlin County); also at the mouth of the Split Rock River and near the site of Fairview in Lincoln County. When the settlers of the Dakota Land Company arrived at Sioux Falls, they found that a party from Dubuque, known as the Western Town Company, had preceded them and taken possession of the water power at the Falls, but they secured the upper water power and the two parties worked in harmony. Thus was made the first settlement in the Big Sioux valley. Governor Medary, in furtherance of their plans, immediately organized Big Sioux County and appointed for it a full set of officers, taking them in about equal numbers from the St. Paul and Dubuque parties.
When Minnesota was admitted as a state in 1858, the commissioners of Big Sioux County at once appointed Alpheus G. Fuller as delegate in Congress from Dakota territory, but Congress refused to recognize him. The settlers, however, proceeded to organize a territorial
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Sioux Falls (Present View)
government. They elected a legislature, which convened and passed some memorials to Congress and declared the laws of Minnesota in force until others were provided. The legislature elected Henry Masters governor, and James Allen secretary of state.
In the spring of 1858 the Yankton Indians, under the lead of Smutty Bear, visited the settlement at Medary, drove the settlers away, and destroyed the improvements made there. The settlers at Sioux Falls, learning of this, hastily fortified themselves, making a really strong post which they called Fort Sod. Mrs. Goodwin, the first white woman to settle in Dakota, had arrived a few days before, and she made a flag to float over the fort, out of all of the old flannel shirts to be found in the settlement. Most of the movable property was taken inside the fort and there the settlers were confined for six weeks, until their provisions were almost exhausted and they were reduced to the severest straits, when Major De Witt arrived with supplies. Really they were in little danger. Smutty Bear moved down into the vicinity of Sioux Falls, and, finding the settlers so thoroughly fortified, went away to the James River without molesting them or even opening communication with them. But the settlers did not know this, and there were too few of them to venture out to find out what the situation really was.
The next summer the promoters, still hopeful, established a newspaper called the Dakota Democrat, of which Samuel J. Albright was the editor, and which they continued to publish for two or three years. In the very first issue of this paper is printed a poem by Governor Henry Masters, entitled "The Sioux River at Sioux Falls." The first verse reads:—
Thou glidest gently, O thou winding stream,
Mirroring the beauty of thy flowery banks,
Now yielding to our souls elysian dreams,
For which we offer thee our heartfelt thanks.
The high hopes of these people are revealed in the following extracts from the report of the Dakota Land Company for 1859. After describing in detail its several town sites, "Renshaw, at the mouth of the upper Percee; Medary, the county seat of Midway County; Flandreau, the county seat of Rock County; Sioux Falls City, established seat of government of Big Sioux County and the recognized capital of the territory, at the falls of the Big Sioux, the head of navigation on that river, and terminus of the transit railroad west; Eminija, county seat of Vermilion County, at the mouth of the Split Rock River and Pipestone Creek, on the Big Sioux, thirteen miles below the Falls, and at the more practicable head of navigation for large steamers; Commerce City, situated at the great bend of the Sioux on the Dakota side, halfway between Sioux Falls City and the Missouri, coal and timber plenty, at a point to which steamers of any class may ply at any stage of water," the report goes on to say that their men "have planted the flag of the Dakota Land Company on each valuable site from the mouth of the Sioux to old Fort Lookout on the Missouri, and on the James, Vermilion, and Wanari rivers. There are more than two thousand miles of navigable waters bordering and within the ceded portions of Dakota and this company has already secured the most desirable centers for trade and commerce and governmental organization on all these rivers."
A new election was held in the fall of 1859, and Judge Jefferson P. Kidder was sent to Congress as territorial delegate. A new legislature was chosen and Judge W. W. Brookings was made governor. But a change now came with which these heroic boomers had not reckoned and which was destined to bring all their plans to naught. The new Republican party was rising into power. Abraham Lincoln had won national fame and in the spring of 1861 was to become President of the United States. The influence of the Dakota Land Company in Congress was gone. Every condition upon which they had so surely, and with good reason, counted for the success of their enterprise was changed, and when Dakota territory was finally organized, the management of its affairs fell into entirely different hands, the capital was located at Yankton, the public printing and the Indian contracts were controlled by Republicans, and all the rosy-tinted dreams of wealth and power which had inspired the Dakota Land Company vanished into thin air. The settlement at Sioux Falls dwindled away and finally, as we shall learn, was wholly abandoned.