Faulk County, South Dakota - Chapter 1: Introductory, 1909

Chapter 1: Introductory

It is not our home and immediate surroundings that are to be considered in the making up of actual and prospective conditions from a financial, social, political and moral standpoint; but the civil government, the national and state organizations, the higher powers, to which we are to look to guide and protect us.

While among the youngest of the states. South Dakota occupies the fore-front in actual wealth and material prosperity. In 1889 she exchanged her territorial relations with one general government for those of equal sovereign statehood in the Great American Republic. With an area of 76,000 square miles, divided almost equally east and west into two parts by the Missouri river, (with the except tion of the famous Black Hills country, which contains one hundred square miles located in the south-western part of the state, of the richest mineral deposits on the face of the globe), the entire state with a soil of unsurpassed fertility, with climatic conditions superior to all its surroundings, underlaid by the greatest artesian basin in the world, furnishing an inexhaustable supply of water for any and all purposes, when and wherever wanted; it needs but time and an intelligent appreciation of its wonderful resources to secure a world-wide reputation that shall secure an agricultural population second to no state in the union. With a population of only six to the square mile it produced in 1901; Wheat, 35,000,000 bushels, valued at $18,000,000.00

South Dakota now ranks among the states of the Union; Third in the production of corn, third in the production of wheat, first in the production of flax, fifth in the production of barley, oats and rye, eighth in the production of wool, tenth in the production of live stock, and actually produces more wealth in proportion to its population than any other state in the Union, as is proven by government.statistics and other reliable data.

The climate is free from malaria, mild, invigorating and healthful, for which reason the death rate in the state is the lowest in the Union. The summers of South Dakota are moderate, without any excessive heat, the most delightful season of the year being the beautiftfl autumn, and the winters are so mild that the live stock are grazing on the range all winter without shelter of any kind.

The annual mean temperature of the state for the 3'ear 1906, determined from forty-three stations having a complete record, was 45 degrees. Wheat growing is, and must continue to be, one of the important branches of farming and is carried on at the present time with great profit. The crop for 1905 averaged fifteen bushels par acre. While South Dakota is sadly deficient in lumber for building, purposes, the deficiency is largely made up in the vast deposits of material for the best Portland cement, which can be utilized in the erection of more permanent and cheaper buildings, when durability is. taken into consideration.

With her vast deposits of coal and the introduction of alcohol for the purpose of light, heat and power, a better and a more desirable supply is at hand.

The following statistical record of 1906 ought to find a place in the permanent record of the production of wealth supplied to the world in one year. The following is an official report, viz:

No more convincing proof of the prosperous condition of any state can be produced than her bank resources, together with the valuation of all classes of property. The banks of South Dakota have $70,198,433.62, and a total valuation of all classes of property of $260,630,977.00; but the true yaluation is estimated at a billion of dollars.

South Dakota has no bonded debt and the limit of tax levy cannot exceed 2 mills to the dollar, as provided by the constitution. The rate of taxation in South Dakota is lower than in any of the Northern states.

Educational Advantages

South Dakota is the best equipped state in the Union for educational purposes. She is proud of her common schools. Where there are children to go to school, teachers are provided and school houses built: The school law contemplates that every child in the state shall receive the benefit of a common school education and makes liberal provisions to attain that end. It provides for the transportation to school of all children li\nng at an unreasonable distance from schools. Free school books are furnished, and libraries are also provided. Two sections of land in each township were set apart for school purposes by the general government, which assures a very low rate of taxation for the common schools. With four normal schools, one at Aberdeen, one at Madison, one at Spsarfish and one at Springfield, and a school of Mines at Rapid City, a State University at Vermillion, and an Agricultural College at Brookings, the supply of teachers should be equal to all demands.

colleges at Mitchell and Hot Springs, Congregational colleges at Yankton and Redfield, Presbyterian at Huron, the Baptist at Sioux Falls, the Scandinavian Lutherans at Sioux Falls and Canton, and the Episcopalians at Sioux Falls. The Roman Catholics have well equipped academies at Aberdeen, Sturgis, Elkton, Marion, Vermillion and other points, and the Mennonites at Freeman.

The population is cosmopolitan, being composed, as reported by the census of 1905, of 33,473 Scandinavians, 17,873 Prussian Germans, 12,365 Russian Germans, 22,144 Canadians, 5,564 settlers from England, Scotland and Wales, 3,298 Irish, 1,566 Hollanders and the balance of the population, Americans.

By occupation the people are engaged as follows: Eighty-two thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven are farmers, of which 57,288 own their own homes; 16,821 are engaged in domestic and personal service, 15,247 are in trade and transportation: 14,327 follow mechanical pursuits, and 7,877 are in professions. There are over 150,000 school children enrolled in the public schools of the state. Three fourths of the farmers own the land they till, a most gratifying and satisfactory^ fact from a financial standpoint. Seventy-eight per cent of the population are native born.

The state of South Dakota has provided liberally for her most unfortunate class, the insane, as well as to guard society from the most vicious element of the population. The hospital at Yankton has large, well constructed buildings where these unfortunates are well cared for. The Northern Hospital for the insane and feeble-minded has been erected at Redfield, where a certain class of the insane are cared for. The penitentiary^ at Sioux Falls is a modern structure, well suited for the purpose for which it was built and is under the best possible regulations. The state reform school is located at Plankinton. Its equipment consists of several large buildings, suitably furnished, and a 640 acre farm. The deaf mute school at Sioux Falls and the asylum for the blind at Gary are also well equipped institutions. The Soldier's Home at Hot Springs, with its well constrijcted buildings, is an institution of which the state can well be proiid.

The people of South Dakota are congenial and hospitable, and as a class, morally, socially and intellectually, w^orthy and reliable. South Dakota as a state in the American Union, stands in the front rank and is one to which citizen of Faulk county may well feel proud to own .allegiance.