A Brief History of South Dakota/Chapter 32

by Doane Robinson

CHAPTER XXXII

THE GOVERNORS

During the old fur-trading days the burgeois, or managing officer of the American Fur Company, who resided at Fort Pierre, was the self-constituted chief executive officer of the Dakota country. By common consent he had the powers not only of a governor, but of a magistrate as well, and he tried men for petty offenses, committed them to the guardhouse for punishment, or imposed other punishments upon them, and in the case of high crimes sent them in chains to St. Louis for trial. William Laidlaw was the man who, for the most part, exercised this function for a long period of years.

When the Louisiana purchase was made, in 1803, jurisdiction over the northwest country was, for a time, conferred upon Indiana, and General William Henry Harrison was the governor. After Louisiana territory was organized, Captain Meriwether Lewis was for a time its governor, and after Louisiana territory became Missouri territory Captain William Clark held the same office. But of course these men had little governing to do in the Dakota country. This is true also of the governors, respectively, of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, whose territorial limits included the east half of South Dakota at one time or another.

When the settlers organized at Sioux Falls in 1858, immediately after the admission of Minnesota, Henry Masters, a lawyer, native of Maine, was made governor. He held the office until his death one year later, on the fifth day of September, 1859. No record is left of his executive acts. Samuel J. Albright was elected as Masters's successor. Albright was a newspaper man and promoter; he was speaker of the House of Representatives and preferred that position to the governorship, and so declined to qualify as governor, and the legislature elected Judge W. W. Brookings to fill the vacancy. Both Masters and Brookings were governors only by common consent, as Congress had not yet organized the territory; but Judge Brookings continued as the nominal governor of Dakota until the appointment of Governor William Jayne, by President Lincoln, in April, 1861.

Governor Brookings was a lawyer and a man of large ability. He came to Dakota with the Dubuque colony in the summer of 1857, and was soon made the general manager of the companies' interests. He was a man of great energy, and being misinformed that the Yankton Indians had relinquished their lands to the government, he started in the winter of 1858, from Sioux Falls, to claim the town site at Yankton. When he started, the weather was warm, the snow had melted, the streams were swollen, and he soon became thoroughly wet. Before night, however, a terribly cold storm set in. He found himself freezing, and the nearest point for help was back at the settlement at Sioux Falls. He turned back with all haste, but before he reached the Falls he was very badly frozen, and it soon became evident that the only

Albright	Brookings
Jayne	Edmunds

DAKOTA GOVERNORS

hope for his life lay in amputating his limbs. Among the settlers was a young physician, Dr. James L. Phillips, recently graduated, but he possessed no surgical instruments. He amputated the legs of Mr. Brookings with a common handsaw and butcher knife, and successfully nursed him back to health; and Brookings lived to become one of the most useful citizens of the territory. The first railroad in Dakota territory (1872), from the settlement at Yankton to Sioux City, was promoted and built by Judge Brookings. He was for four years a justice of the Dakota Supreme Court (1869-1873). His death occurred at Boston, in June, 1905.

Dr. William Jayne, the first legally appointed territorial governor (1861), was at that time a young physician at Springfield. He had attracted the attention of President Lincoln and was employed in his family. Jayne was ambitious to get into politics, and Lincoln sent him out as governor of Dakota. His official conduct appears to have been wise and honest, but at the second election he determined to become a candidate for delegate to Congress, and made the campaign upon the Republican ticket against General J. B. S. Todd, the non-partisan candidate. Jayne secured the certificate of election, but the conduct of his campaign was a territorial scandal, which must always reflect upon his good name. Todd contested Jayne's election and secured the seat. Jayne never came back to Dakota, but returned to Springfield.

Dr. Jayne was succeeded by Newton Edmunds (1863), a citizen of Yankton. Governor Edmunds was one of the wisest and most practical executives Dakota has had. His administration occurred during the trying time of the War of the Outbreak, and he believed that negotiation and not gunpowder was demanded to settle the disturbance. He was strongly opposed by the military department, and not until he carried his views directly to President Lincoln, in the spring of 1865, was he able to get a respectful hearing. President Lincoln at once agreed to the views advanced by Governor Edmunds, and assisted in putting them forward. The result was the end of the war within a few months. When Governor Edmunds came into office, it was the practice to grant divorces by act of the legislature. He vetoed all divorce bills and put a stop to the scandalous practice. He had the utmost faith in Dakota, even in its darkest days, and did much to assist and encourage the settlers in building up homes, and establishing themselves in farming and stock growing.

Andrew J. Faulk, a Pennsylvanian, followed Governor Edmunds (1866), and held the office during the administration of President Andrew Johnson. He was a gentleman of culture and great affability. There was little to demand a particular executive policy during his administration, but his conduct was marked by wisdom and honesty.

John A. Burbank, of Indiana, followed Governor Faulk (1869). He did not secure the general confidence and coöperation of the people. His administration covered a troublous period during which General McCook, secretary of the territory, was killed, and very strong factional feeling prevailed throughout the territory.

John L. Pennington, of Alabama, was next appointed governor (1874). He was bluff, strong, and practical, and made a good executive. He died in 1900 at his Alabama home.

William A. Howard, of Michigan, was the next governor (1878). Howard was a very efficient, far-sighted, and capable man. He was advanced in years and hoped to make his administration of Dakota affairs the crowning act in a long and useful life. He impressed himself for good on most of the affairs and enterprises of the territory, but at the beginning of 1880 he died and George A. Hand, secretary, became acting governor for a period of six months, until the appointment of Nehemiah G. Ordway of New Hampshire, who served for four years, with small satisfaction to the people.

President Arthur selected Gilbert A. Pierce, of Illinois, to succeed Ordway (1884). Pierce was a veteran of the Civil War and a newspaper man, having been connected editorially with the Inter-Ocean from its foundation in 1872. He was a popular and conscientious governor, who did much in the interest of safe and conservative management during the period of the great Dakota boom. He was afterward United States senator from North Dakota, and was appointed by President Harrison United States Minister to Spain. He died in Chicago in 1902.

Governor Pierce resigned as governor of Dakota territory in January, 1887, and was followed by Governor Louis K. Church, under appointment from President Cleveland. Church was the only Democrat who was

Faulk	Burbank
Pennington	Howard

DAKOTA GOVERNORS

governor of Dakota territory. He was appointed from New York, where he had been a member of the legislature while President Cleveland was governor of that state, and where, in coöperation with Theodore Roosevelt, he had rendered much assistance in bringing about the legislative reforms of Cleveland's administration in New York. His position in Dakota was a trying one. The territory and the legislature were overwhelmingly Republican, and the Democratic party, too, was divided into two strong factions. Under these circumstances Governor Church's administration fell in troublous times. He was not tactful in getting along with his opponents, but his honesty and good intentions were never questioned. He died in Alaska in 1899.

Arthur C. Mellette, of Watertown, South Dakota, was the last governor of Dakota territory, having been appointed to that position by President Harrison at the very beginning of his administration (1889). Mellette was a man of large ability and strict integrity. His administration as governor of Dakota territory was very brief, as the territory was divided and both states admitted within a few months, and little devolved upon him but the exercise of great care in the separation of the affairs of North and South Dakota. He was elected the fifth governor of South Dakota, and his administration covered the first three years of the life of the young state. He was a stickler for economy in public affairs, believed in small salaries for public officials, and demanded the most rigid honesty in all of his appointees. The period of his administration was marked by the great drought of 1889-1890, which

Ordway	Pierce
Church	Mellette

DAKOTA GOVERNORS

brought so much hardship to the new settlers, and by the Messiah Indian War. In the establishment of the precedents which were to guide his successors in office, as well as in the general administration, he was wise and prudent. He died at Pittsburg, Kansas, in 1896, and his ashes repose in the cemetery at Watertown.

Charles H. Sheldon was the second state governor (1893). Mr. Sheldon was a farmer, residing at Pierpont in Day County. He was a public speaker of great ability and of very pleasing address. He was reëlected in 1894 and died soon after the close of his second term.

Andrew E. Lee followed Governor Sheldon (1897). He was the only Populist to occupy the position. Governor Lee was a trained business man of strict integrity, and he tried to carry his business methods into the administration. He was governor during the Spanish War and rendered the state excellent service in providing for the equipment of the state's quota before it was mustered into the federal service.

Charles N. Herreid was elected governor in 1900. His administration fell in the pleasant years of great national prosperity in which South Dakota led. The state has known no better period, and the tact and wisdom of Governor Herreid contributed to that end.

Samuel H. Elrod, succeeded Governor Herreid in 1905. He filled the office wisely and acceptably, and was followed in 1907 by Coe I. Crawford, during whose term many progressive laws were passed for the regulation of corporations and the prevention of corrupt practices in politics.

Sheldon	Lee
Herreid	Elrod

SOUTH DAKOTA GOVERNORS

Crawford

Robert S. Vessey succeeded Governor Crawford in 1909, and Crawford was elected United States senator.

Each of the governors of South Dakota has been supported by an efficient corps of state officers, all of whom have made creditable official records, except William W. Taylor, state treasurer in 1891-1895. At the end of his term he found himself about $150,000 short in his accounts, and
Vessey upon the advice of a firm of Chicago attorneys, he carried away the remainder of the state money, aggregating $367,000, in the belief that the state would compromise with him. Finding after several months that a compromise could not be effected, he surrendered and served a term in the penitentiary.