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SOME PIONEERS _and_ PILGRIMS
ON THE PRAIRIES OF
DAKOTA
OR
_From the Ox Team to the Aeroplane_
Edited and Published by
REV. JOHN B. REESE, A.M., B.D.
Assisted by
H.B. REESE
MITCHELL, SOUTH DAKOTA
AUGUST, 1920
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Occasion, Scope and Purpose of Record.
II. Prying Open the Door to the Dakotas--Treaty of '58.
III. The Second Coming of the Norsemen to America. The First
Settlement on the Missouri Bottom, 1860.
IV. First Settlement and Settlers of the "South Prairie,"
67-71. A Memorable Trip in Search of Work.
V. The Settlements on Turkey Creek and Clay Creek, 70-71.
VI. The Great Immigration of 1880--Causes.
VII. Landing at Yankton, Getting on the Land, and a Hard
Struggle to Live.
VIII. The Pioneer Mothers and Their Share in the Privations.
IX. Indians as Visitors and Guests.
X. The Great Snow Winter of 1880 and the Flood of '81.
XI. Beginning the Grapple with the Earth.
XII. Bird's Eye View of the Settlements in 1880-3.
XIII. The Prairie Fires--The Annual Terror of the Settlers.
XIV. The Great Blizzard of '88.
XV. When the Fathers and Mothers of Today were Boys and
Girls.
XVI. Religious Movements and Workers Among These People.
XVII. A Daughter Settlement.
XVIII. Looking Down the Trail to the Years Ahead.
GREETING
There has been an often expressed desire on the part of the sons and
daughters of the immigrant pioneers that those brave men and women of
a generation ago who left home, friends, and the graves of a hundred
generations of ancestors, to go to a land which they knew not, there
to toil and sacrifice that we, their children might have a better
chance, should not be forgotten. For their lives went into the deep
and often overlooked foundations, material and spiritual, without
which our larger opportunities and comforts of today would be
impossible. Like the pioneer Abraham they had a large faith and went
out in search of a Promised Land, not knowing what would be in store
for them, for they saw it afar off. Like Moses, most of them died
without themselves enjoying the fruits of the land or seeing the
promise fulfilled.
How little the young people of this generation can appreciate the hard
toil, and even less, the heartaches and the tragedies which were the
price paid by our fathers and mothers, for our better future! It has
been the fashion of some small and provincially minded "Americans" who
constituted themselves, as it were, into the original and only
Americans, to sneer at the immigrant, to affect certain superior
"airs" in relation to him. This self-appointed superiority, however,
did not seem to bar them from taking undue advantage of him because of
his lack of knowledge of the new country and its ways and methods. How
little this class of self-appointed Americans were capable of
understanding, not to speak of appreciating, the physical and mental
contribution, not to speak of the moral and spiritual--the soul--which
these immigrants brought to the land of their adoption. They
established schools for their children, meeting in private houses
before there were any public schools. They built churches for the
worship of God while they themselves still lived in shacks and
dugouts.
So it is in response to this widespread desire, among those of the
second and third generation from the pioneers, that this rich heritage
of deeds and ideals, handed down to us by our brave and forward
looking fathers and mothers, should not be forgotten but handed down
in memory as an increasing inspiration and just pride in the lives of
their children and children's children, that we are moved to write
this record. For already I hear the tramp of countless numbers and
many generations of the children of these pioneers. For them I compile
these incidents of the settlers' first experiences with the new land
and write this narrative. For if there is any reward which our fathers
and mothers would ask of us, in return for giving up almost everything
on our behalf, it would be just this: Remembrance and a little
appreciation--understanding.
As to the origin, scope and plan of this narrative, this explanation
should be made:
The real mover in getting this narrative started is my brother, H.B.
Reese. He has also collected a part of the materials used and written
out some of it. In editing and incorporating this material and other
contributions into the book, I have made a free translation of it and
also made changes and additions here and there as seemed desirable.
As to the scope and plan, especially as to the particular persons
included or left out, the question will no doubt arise in the minds of
some readers: "Why are just these individuals named and not others who
were equally worthy and whose experiences were no less interesting?"
The answer is simply this: This particular group and their experiences
are best known to us, while that of others is not so well known. Then,
too, the necessary limitations of space because of the costs involved,
compel us to leave out much of which we have, or could get sufficient
knowledge to use. Lastly, we present this work on the theory that the
people, incidents and circumstances here included, represent the
ordinary immigrant's experiences and thus serve to give a fairly
correct view of pioneer days as a whole. So if some reader should have
a feeling that such and such names or incidents should have been
included, remember this omission is not because other names may not
have been equally worthy, but rather that because of limitations of
space and knowledge we had to choose a few as types and
representatives of all the rest. The individual names of these
pioneers will all too soon be forgotten in any case. But these
pioneers as a class and their deeds, I trust, shall never be
forgotten. So kindly remember that tho your father and mother, dear
reader, may have been among the first settlers of the region here
described and otherwise also closely connected with the group here
mentioned, and still their names are not included, yet their lives are
included. For the life we attempt to reproduce in picture here with
its hardships and adventures, was the life and sacrifice of them all.
You may in many cases substitute almost any pioneer name, and the
picture of the period would be essentially correct. So, then, this is
written in honor and memory of them all, the un-named as well as the
named.
Thus, then, to all the sons and daughters of the Viking pioneers of
the prairie who between the years of 1859-1889 took up the hard
struggle with untamed nature on the far-stretching prairies of Dakota
and Minnesota, I humbly dedicate this memorial. To all the brave men
and women who bore the heat and the brunt of those days of toil and
hardship, we, their children, together offer this little tribute of
our love and remembrance.
JOHN B. REESE,
April 21, 1918. _Mitchell S.D._
CHAPTER I
PRYING OPEN THE DOOR INTO THE RICH LANDS OF THE DAKOTAS
Previous to April, 1858, Dakota Territory for a century or more had
been the hunting ground and undisputed possession of the Yankton
Sioux. However, for some years before this date many adventurous,
enterprising members of the white race in the adjoining states of
Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, had cast covetous eyes across the
borders. Not a few even followed their eyes and entered in spite of
the prohibition of the government and the hostilities of the Indian.
Many more, encamped along the borders were watching the negotiations
between the government and the Yanktons, eager and alert to step over
the line the very instant the door should be opened.
According to the available data on the Indian history of this region,
previous to 1750 it was occupied by the Omahas, who held the Big Sioux
and James river valleys. These were driven out about 1750 by the Teton
Sioux, who came previously from the woods of Minnesota. The Teton
Sioux also engaged the Rees, then having strongholds on the Missouri,
especially in and around Pierre, and after a forty years' struggle
drove them north to Grand River and then to where their remnants are
still found in the vicinity of Fort Berthold, North Dakota.
At this time of the Treaty, this region was held by the Yankton and
Yanktonais Sioux, who had been driven from western Iowa by the Ottos
about 1780 and had settled the lower James River Valley.
The first attempt at a settlement at Yankton was made in the spring of
1858 by one W.P. Holman, his son C.J. Holman, both of Sergeants
Bluff, Iowa, and Ben Stafford, together with four or five others from
Sioux City. In anticipation of an early treaty these men came up on
the Nebraska side of the river and, crossing over at Yankton, built a
camp. But about a month later the Indians, jealous of their hunting
grounds and suspicious of the designs of the intruders, drove them
back across the river.
The next May, however, on the strength of a false rumor that the
treaty had been ratified, these men floated logs across from their
Nebraska camp, working all night, and next day laid twelve
foundations. The following day construction of the first log cabin was
begun. But before this could be finished some seventy-five Indians
appeared and began to hurl the newly founded city of Yankton into the
river. It was fortunate, as Mr. Holman, who was one of the party,
suggests, that the new settlers had left their guns on the other side.
For had they had their arms they would hardly have been able to submit
to the destruction of their town without a fight, and if it had come
to a fight the Indians were as yet too many. As it was, the intruders
resorted to diplomacy, and by much "fine talk" succeeded in saving
most of their belongings as well as of the construction and in holding
their ground. The next day a feast was promptly made to Chief Dog's
Claw and his warriors, and as is always the case with men, red or
white, this feast had the desired effect, at least for the time being.
The log house was built altho subsequently burned in October, 1858.
The first permanent buildings, as far as we can ascertain, were those
of the Frost, Todd Co. Trading Post. There were, of course, Indian
tepees scattered over the present city and vicinity of Yankton, but
these appeared and disappeared again with the movements of their
inhabitants. There was also about this time a cabin built on the east
side of the present James River bridge by J.M. Stone, who operated a
ferry boat.
It is stated by the late Mayor J.R. Hanson of Yankton, who came to
Yankton with a party of pioneers from Winona, Minnesota, in 1858, that
more than one hundred locations of 160 acres had already been staked
out in the vicinity of Yankton on his arrival. These, of course, later
had to be filed on in the regular way when the land became legally
opened to settlers.
As already indicated, the treaty for the opening of this land for
settlement was at last arranged in 1858, but it was not until July 10,
1859, that the land was legally opened for settlers by ratification of
the treaty. On that very date the streams of expectant immigrants,
waiting on the borders of Nebraska and Iowa, poured in like a flood
and the towns of Vermilion, Meckling, Yankton and Bon Homme were all
founded in a day. On the 22nd of July Elk Point was first settled.
[Illustration: THE OLD SOD SHANTY ON THE CLAIM, NEAR ARMOUR, S. DAK.]
An interesting story is told of the long extended Indian pow-wows and
the fiery harangues on the part of the chiefs before they finally
relinquished their ancient camping ground and the graves of their
fathers on the present site of Yankton. The government had made
tempting offers in the way of regular rations of food, blankets and
many other commodities, not to speak of money and large reservations
of land to be guaranteed for the exclusive possession of the tribe.
These immediate benefits and creature comforts made a powerful appeal
to the common crowd among the Indians. This faction was led by Chief
Struck by the Ree, who was friendly to the Whites. The other chiefs,
however, many of whom were shrewd and able men and thought with their
heads rather than, as the crowd did, with their stomachs, keenly
realized what the little act of signing this treaty involved. They saw
that it meant that when they should fold their tepees and journey
westward this time they could never return. They knew that it meant
the final abandonment of their immemorial hunting grounds and the
beautiful camping site of Yankton with the graves of their fathers,
to the pale faces who would come in like a flood and once in they
could no more be turned back than the tides of the sea. In many and
prolonged councils these chiefs, such as Smutty Bear and Mad Bull, had
pressed upon their people these and other considerations against the
signing of the White man's treacherous papers. With burning words of
appeal, now to this motive now to that, with stinging rebuke of those
who would so lightly sell out their birthright and ancestral heritage,
as well as that of their children and the unborn generations to come,
they spoke with an eloquence which seemed for the time to stir and
elevate even the craven spirits of those who had favored the treaty.
But just at this point, when it looked as tho the treaty would be
rejected and the Indians would stay where they were, a government boat
carrying large supplies of food and other desirable commodities
whistled down the river. The word was soon passed that these treasures
would be taken up the river some thirty miles to their new home near
the present site of Springfield, and be distributed to the Indians in
case they would now vacate and carry out the treaty. The temptation
was too great. All the oratory was forgotten in the prospect of food,
clothing and glittering spangles. There was no more argument. The
tepees with strange and significant rapidity and universality began to
come down and get loaded. The travaux, loaded with the whole household
belongings and also in some cases with children, began to move
silently but surely toward the West, heading for the rendezvous
appointed by the steam boat people. Deserted by their people, the
chiefs, realizing that they were face to face with an irresistible
tide and were fighting a hopeless fight, followed their people with
sad and bitter spirits as they all trekked toward the setting sun,
never more to return to the rich valley and far-flung prairies of the
lower Missouri. Before the vanquished and vanishing Indian had gotten
out of sight over the hills the eager White man was moving in.