Jerauld County, South Dakota - The whole text, 1909 (part 2 of 10)

Benjamin Drake took the SE of 6 - 108 - 65 as a pre-emption claim in the spring of 1883. He put up a frame shanty and purchased a breaking plow, which nearly exhausted his ready cash. He raised a few acres of flax and by the first of September was in shape to go comfortably through the winter. But that morning he met with a disaster that changed the whole aspect of affairs for him. He had risen early as usual and built a fire in his cook stove. He then took the water pail and went to the well, which he had dug about forty rods from the house. As he started back with the pail of water a dense volume of smoke at the shanty told him it was on fire. The old man hurried as fast as possible, but before he reached the building the flames were bursting from the roof and sides. He lost all his outfit and had to build a sod house in which to spend the winter. He and his family worked hard for several years, but finally gave it up and moved to Minnesota, where they still live.

In the western part of 107 - 65 a Sunday school was organized with 26 members at the residence of Mr. Kendall on section 5, May 27th, 1883. M. D. Crow was elected superintendent, Mr. Kendall, assistant superintendent, Mrs. E. L. DeLine, secretary and treasurer, and R. S. Vessey, librarian. This organization was kept up until fall when it was merged in the Union Sunday school, held at the residence of Mr. J. N. Cross on the NE of 7.

The territorial legislature that closed on the 9th of March had passed a bill enabling the people located in the townships numbered 106, 107 and 108 of Aurora county to make a new county of the townships described therein.

At once interest centered about the new town located at the big spring. The few residences in the vicinity were thronged with settlers and prospectors. The dwellings of Hiram Blowers, R. S. Bateman and A. B. Smart, being nearest the townsite, became almost per force, regular boarding houses.

weekly newspaper, named "The Wessington Springs Herald.'' The first issue published on the 24th day of March was printed in the office of the Aurora County Standard, then located at Plankinton. The next two issues were also printed in Plankinton, and then the Herald printing office was located in a room in R. S. Bateman's house a few rods south of the Wessington Springs townsite. The first issue printed in the new location was run through the press on the 28th day of April, 1883, and contained

According to the law creating the new county, it could not take effect until the people residing in the proposed county should say by their votes that they desired the new political organization with the name as fixed by the legislature. The vote was taken on the 17th day of April and Jerauld county was born that day.

There has never been a time when the Dakotan has not felt an interest in politics. At this election one of the polling places was at the residence of I. P. Ray, in Franklin township. The result of the vote in that precinct was carried by L. W. Castleman that night to the residence of H. J. Wallace in Chery township.

On the day before the first issue of the Herald was printed in Mr. Bateman's house, a real estate firm by the name of Reed & Akin, began the construction of an office building on the south side of Main street, a short distance west of where the State Bank building now stands. It was moved across to the north side of the street a few weeks later and occupied by Drake & Magee, after Reed & Akin left the town, which occurred about the first of June. The Reed & Akin office was the first building to remain permanently on the townsite and at the time of its construction it was the only building on the original plat of the town. It now stands back of the office building of Ausman & Wallace and is used by that firm as a private office.

A few days later Mr. A. R. Powell, then a squatter in township 107 - 66, hauled a load of lumber from Planktinton for Lew Hoes and a Mr. Phillips, who formed a partnership and with the load of lumber erected a rough board shanty, with a board shed roof. The building was

In this building Hoes & Phillips opened a stock of groceries, which had been brought by Powell with the lumber for the building. This was the beginning of the commercial life of Wessington Springs.

A day or two after Hoes & Phillips put up their grocery "store," Mr. A. J. Wentworth built a shanty about where the stable of the M. E. parsonage is located. This building remained on the townsite but a

During the same month (April) the townsite company at that time composed of C. S. Burr, of Mitchell, and D. A. Scott, of Rockford, la., began active work to set the town on the way to a vigorous growth. A hotel was a first necessity and they commenced bringing lumber for that purpose from Plankinton, then the nearest railroad point. It was a long haul, the roads were bad, and no bridges between Plankinton and the Springs. The worst place on the road was at the crossing of the west branch of the F iresteel creek in Aurora county. The water was high and the creek bed soft.

To remedy this difficulty Mr. Scott brought out some timbers and planks and built a bridge over the stream. That was a great convenience while it lasted, but a few days after the bridge was constructed a heavy rain flooded the stream and the bridge disappeared completely and forever so far as Mr. Scott was concerned.

About the last of April a couple of gentlemen arrived from Ludlow, Vermont,, to look at the new town with a view to building a hotel. Mr. Scott at once offered them the lumber that he had brought, at what it cost him, and also offered to make them a present of the tree lots on the corner where the First National Bank now stands. The offer was accepted and work on the foundation of the hotel commenced at once.

By the first of May the cellar was ready for the stone masons to begin laying wall. Quite a crowd was standing about when Mr. Mark Scofield rolled the first stone to its place in a bed of mortar and one of the bystanders exclaimed, "By Halifax ! that's the first stone laid in mortar in the county of Jerauld." From that time the workmen rapidly pushed the work to completion.

On the 13th of April Mr. R. S. Bateman, who had been in Wisconsin soliciting funds for the erection of the church building, returned to the Springs and reported a successful trip. The matter being called to the attention of the townsite company, Messrs. Burr & Scott at once contributed five hundred dollars towards building the new church and also promised the society a block of lots upon which to build the edifice, a promise that was fufilled as soon as the preparations were completed.

April 22, 1883, two young men, quiet and unpretentious in demeanor, came into the little village at the foot of the hills, and soon became a part of the business life of the community. One of them, Mr. F. Drake, remained but a short time. The other, Mr. E. L. Smith, has lived in Wessington Springs more years than any other man. No man s handiwork has been felt in the now thriving city, to a greater extent than his. A carpenter by trade, Mr. Smith has been one of the few indespensible citizens of the place.

May 5th, 1883, Mr. T. R. Dunn, of the firm of Dunn & Hackett, arrived in Wessington Springs to prepare for opening a real estate office. Mr. Hackett remained in Mitchell a few days to close up some business he had there and to get a supply of blanks and others things essential for the office. In a few days the new firm procured a building that had been erected a short distance east of town and moved it onto one of the lots where Shull's drug store now stands. On May 19th their professional card first appeared in the Wessington Springs Herald. It was the beginning of an office maintained by Mr. Hackett for a number of years. The building was afterward moved across the street and now occupies a place in the rear of Hawthorne's restaurant.

Mr. Phillips remained in the grocery business with Lew Hoes but a short time and about the first of May sold his interest, which was small, to C. H. and H. C. Stephens. The new firm conducted the business under the name of Hoes & Stephens for a few days and then Mr. Hoes being compelled to go to Iowa for an indefinite stay, he sold his share to his partners, who continued the business for several months as H. C. & C. H. Stephens.

In the month of May Stephens Bros, began the construction of a store building, one and one-half stories high, that occupied their time during the following two months. By the fourth of July their building was so far along that they began selling goods over rough board counters. The upper story was made into one room, which was used as a public hall.

When Stephens' Hall was completed the church services were held in it instead of at Mrs. Riddle's house on section 8. Until the building of the First M. E. church the room over Stephens' store was the place for all public gatherings.

During the first week in June, 1883, E. B. Orr, who had purchased of Jack Sutley the stage line from Planktinton to Huron, began the erection of a livery stable in Wessington Springs near the present location of the residence of Geo. N» Price. While Mr. Orr was building his stable Silas Kinney was at work on a store and residence which still stands opposite Short's notion store. The Kinney building was completed and a flour and feed store opened in it the first week in July.

In the meantime work on the hotel was being rapidly pushed and on the 4th day of July the building was opened to the public. The following is an accurate description of the well known hostelry:

The main building was two full stories in height and was 24 - 60 feet in size. Above the second story was an attic, in which beds and cots were placed for use when the rooms below were all occupied, which was generally the case. The second story was divided into single and double sleeping rooms, so that with the use of beds and cots in the attic about seventy-five persons could be cared for at one time. At the rear end of the main building was the kitchen,- 12x24 feet in size. In the southeast corner of the main building and adjoining the kitchen, was the dining room and fronting on Main street was the ladies' sitting room, 11x20. The hotel office, 11x30, was in the northwest corner. The hall and stairway was located between the office and the ladies' sitting room, with doors leading into both and opening onto the Main street through the front door. A side door opening on to 2nd street was near the northwest corner of the office room. Two more sleeping rooms, designed for the use of the proprietors, were situated west of the dining room and south of the office. The hotel was heated with P. P. Stewart hard coal burners in the office and sitting room.

Connected with the hotel by a covered passage, in true New England style, was the hofel barn, 22x50, with an addition for stable room, 14x30.

In the month of June and the forepart of July the proprietors of the Wessington Springs Herald had a force of carpenters at work putting up the building used afterward by them as a printing office and bank. July 2 1 st the Herald was issued from its new office for the first time.

Nearly all of the lumber used in the construction of the various buildings in Wessington Springs and vicinity was brought with teams from Plankinton. In many places, where the trail crossed the streams and draws it was in dangerous condition. Especially was this the case at the

On the 15th of May, 1883, Mr. H. Blowers, who had been elected a road supervisor before Jerauld county was born, called on the neighbors and spent the day in rolling stone into the streams and making it passable. That was probably the first "road work" done in the new county.

About the first of June word was received that the lumber for the church had arrived at Wessington station on the C. & N. W. Ry. Hiram Blowers and R. S. Bateman at once went to that place to receive and unload the material. They met a great many people going to or from the station, and among them Mr. Jefferson Sickler, then living at Wessington Springs. Mr. Sickler had with him a wagon and a yoke of oxen and they induced him to haul a load of the lumber home for them. That was the first load of material hauled for the church in Wessington Springs. On the 5th of June Blowers and Bateman came in with two more loads. The church building committee then got together and selected the block upon which the Willard Hotel is situated as the site for the church. There the lumber was unloaded and preparations made to commence work on the foundation, but at the request of the townsite company the location was changed to the block south and to it the society received a deed from the company.

It was a long ways to haul the lumber and the roads, in places, almost impassable. Yet the frame of the structure was up and inclosed in July and on the 26th of August the cornerstone was laid. The ceremony of laying the stone was conducted by the pastor, Rev, J. W, P. Jordan, assisted by Rev. J. G. Campbell. The sermon was preached by Rev. W. H. Hoadley of Huron.

A "mite society" had been organized by the ladies of the church and on the evening of the 29th of August they held, in the church building, their first sociable.

In July Mr. Chas. E. Bourne, of Boston, Mass., purchased a one-fourth interest in the townsite, and was henceforth identified with the growth and development of the town.

In the early spring Jefferson Sickler put up a rough board shanty, 16x32, a little south of where the Kinney store was afterward built, and E. L. Smith and F. Drake later put up another small shanty west of the creek and both of these buildings were used as temporary residences. But the first permanent residence in the town was built by R. M. Magee, in August, on the north side of the creek. That little house is still standing on the ground where it was built and is a part of the residence of Mr. James Barr.

Two lots east of Morse & La Point's store, E. H. Ford built a small room that was used for millinery, restaurant, printing office and other purposes in the years that followed.

The post office building, west of the Herald office, was completed the fore part of November, and on the 5th of the month Postmaster Barrett moved the office into it from his farm at the mouth of the gulch.

At the same time J. F. Ford and I. N. Rich began the construction of a law and real estate office, which is now used by Hermsen for a barber shop.

But other matters besides the erection of buildings occupied the attention of the people of the town of Wessington Springs and the county generally.

Among the immigrants to the new county were a large number of the survivors of the Civil war. Of these veterans fifteen met in Stephens' Hall in Wesington Springs on the 16th of June, 1883, to take steps toward the organization of a G. A. R. Post. J. M. Spears was chairman of the meeting. The other present were P. R. Barrettt, C. W. P. Osgood, W. T. Hay, C. T. Hall, T. V. Donovan, H. C. Stephens, C. D. Brown, J. H. Woodburn, J. G. Good, Wm. Taylor, C. H. Stephens, Jno. R. Francis, Jas. T. Ferguson, and C. M. Chery. At this meeting it was decided to organizes G. A. R. Post, to be named in honor of Gen. E. O. C. Ord, of Pennsylvania. A charter was applied for and granted. The organization was completed on the 25th of August with H. C. Stephens, commander, and C. W. Hill, adjutant.

One of the things most desired by the people at the Springs was school privileges for the children. To meet this necessity Miss Jeanette Richardson organized a school in September, which she taught several weeks. The author has been unable to learn in what room this school was held, nor who were the pupils that attended it.

For several years the people of the Territory of Dakota had been asking congress for division into North and South Dakota and the admission of both into the Union as states. In the spring of 1883 a large number of the advocates of division and admission living in the south part of the territory, assembled at Huron and issued a call for a constitutional convention to meet in the city of Sioux Falls on the 4th day of September, 1883. In that call Jerauld, being an unorganized county, was allowed but one delegate to the convention.

A call for a mass convention of the voters of the county was published July 2 1st to be held on the 25th of the same month at Stephens' Hall to consult as to the best method to secure representation in the Sioux Falls convention. As Jerauld county had not been represented in the Huron meeting no one had been appointed to call a meeting of the voters of the county, so this notice was simply signed "By Request."

At 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the day appointed (Wednesday) 24 voters met in the hall. Mr. R. S. Bateman was made chairman and C. W. McDonald, clerk. The matter before the meeting was fully discussed and at length it was determined to proceed to the election of a delegate. The vote was by ballot with the following result:

The constitutional convention met in Sioux Falls on the 4th of September, 1883, and perfected an organization. Bartlett Tripp, of Yankton, was made chairman. In the appointment of committees the member from Jerauld county was made chairman of the committee on printing.

A gentleman named George Whalen appeared to contest the place from Jerauld county. His notice of contest was presented by A. Converse, a member from Sanborn county. The matter was referred to a committee of three, who reported that grave irregularities existed in the selection of both delegates and therefore it was recommended that both delegates be seated, giving Jerauld county two representatives. A. C. Mellette moved that both be seated with the right to half a vote each. Neither plan was adopted, and Mr. Whalen retired from the convention, leaving Mr. McDonald to perform his duties without further annoyance.

People generally throughout the territory gave but little attention to the doings of the convention. Yet some of he leaders of certain movements brought forward their ideas and forced them upon the attention of the delegates.

At the 4th quarterly meeting of the M. E. church at Wessington Springs, held on Sept. 16th, for the year 1883, the services were held in the new church. Rev. McCready, of Huron, delivered a stirring temperance address, and at the close of the meeting a petition was circulated and extensively signed asking the convention in session at Sioux Falls to incorporate prohibition in the constitution they were framing. This petition with another asking for equal suffrage, was given to Mr. Converse to be presented to the convention. The petitions were duly presented, but both were rejected.

The constitutional convention of 1883 concluded its labors by the appointment of a committee in each county having authority to call an election, at which the people could adopt or reject the proposed constitution. The committee for Jerauld county were C. W. McDonald, chairman, and J. F. Ford, secretary.

No. 1 - All of township 108 - 63 and that part of 108 - 64 lying- east of the bed of the Firesteel Creek from the point where it crosses the south line of the township, and thence north through the channel of said creek, to the east line of section 16, thence north to the county line. Election to be held at the house of Mr. Stewart. No judges named.

No. 2 - All of township 107 - 63 and that part of 107 - 64 lying east of the Firesteel Creek. Election to be held at the residence of W. P. Pierce. No officers named.

No. 3 - All of township 106 - 63 and that part of 106 - 64 lying east of the Firesteel Creek. Election to be held at the house of John Ahlers. Judges, Joseph Steichen, Henry Walters, Samuel Swenson.

No. 4 - All of township 106 - 64 lying west of the Firesteel Creek and the east half of 106 - 65. Election to be held at the house of T. K. Ford. Judges, T. K. Ford, S. S. Moore and John Phillips.

No. 5 - All of township 107 - 64 lying west of Firesteel Creek and the east half of 107 - 65. Election to be held at the Herald office in the village of Wessington Springs. Judges, H. C. Stephens, P. R. Barrett, Hiram Blowers.

No. 6 - All of township 108 - 64 lying west of precinct No. 1, and the east two-thirds of 108 - 65. Election to be held at the house of W. N. Hill. Judges, H. A. Miller, Jesse Simons and H. J. Wallace.

No. 8 - The west one-half of towship 107 - 65 and all of 107 - 66 and 107 - 67. Election to be held at the house of John Sullivan. Judges, Mr. Pryne, Samuel Marlenee and W. Crittenden.

No. 9 - The west one-half of township 106 - 65 and all of 106 - 66 and 106 - 67. Election to be held at Crow Lake post office. Judges, S. H. Melcher, Mr. Jones and Joseph O'Brien.

To get the constitution before the voters and do the work necessary to be done before the day of election a constitutional executive committee was appointed, composed of C. W. McDonald, chairman; J. F. Ford, J. M. Spears, Geo. Whalen, John Sullivan, C. W. Hill and R. S. Bateman.

Prior to the call of the election a number of the prohibitionists of the proposed state met at Huron and organized a temperance party and named it "The Prohibition Home Protection Party of South Dakota." This meeting was held on the 10th day of October. A platform was adopted and a committeeman appointed for each county, Rev. J. G. Campbell being named for Jerauld county. Many prominent members of the new party advocated opposition to the adoption of the proposed constitution, because of the defeat of prohibition and equal suffrage. No opposition was made in Jerauld county, however, and the election came on without any strenuous campaigning.

All the work in connection with the proposed constitution had been done without authority of law and neither the members of the convention nor the election officers received any compensation for their services, nor were they reimbursed for their expenses.

By September, 1883, a number of Sunday schools had been organized in the county, and on the 6th of the month a county picnic was held at the grove by the big spring. As it was the first gathering of its kind in the county the author has taken the time and space to insert the program in full :

Program

This was followed on Nov. 2, 1883, by the organization of a County Sunday School association with M. D. Crow, president; T. L. Blank, secretary, and R. M. Magee, treasurer.

In September, 1883, a further change was made in the Wessington Springs townsite company by the addition of Mr. P. R. Barrett, who sold to D. A. Scott the 480 acres farm at the mouth of Barrett's gulch for S1.000 and an undivided one-fourth interest in the townsite.

When the first settlers in the three eastern townships of the county located there it was expected that he James river division of he C. M. & St. P. would meet the Southern Minnesota branch of the same system at Milwaukee Junction, a little town that had been platted by parties, not connected with the railway company, about five miles northeast of Woonsocket.

They did not know that townsite companies, organized among the officials of the road were platting the townsites in the name of the company and that private parties who platted land were given no consideration whatever.

All through the spring and early summer of 1883 there were rumors of the extension of the line north from Letcher, but where it would go no one could even guess. In the fore part of June one of the Plankinton papers stated that the line would run northwest from Letcher, passing about six miles east of Wessington Springs. It was not until about the first of August that the public became appraised of the course the extensions would take. During that month the company platted the town of Woonsocket in Sanborn county and in September Alpena was platted in the northeast part of Jerauld county.

Before the surveyors had completed the work of platting the town of Alpena, a house mounted on four wagons and drawn by eight horses appeared in the southeast, coming across the prairie from the direction of Milwaukee Junction. As the moving building approached, the clear notes of a cornet floated out on the evening air. When the teams had reached a point near what is now the main street of the town, one of the teams hesitated and seemed about to stop. At that instant a voice, that for two decades drove things in the village and county, roared out "gedap." It was the first word spoken in the town by an actual settler. The teams were finally halted and two men - the one with the cornet and the one with the voice - stepped to the ground and became from that moment the first settlers of the village of Alpena.

The building rested on the four wagons until the next morning when the surveyors marked out a lot on the south side of main street and then the structure was placed on its temporary foundation. It stands on the same spot to this day.

L. N. Loomis and Wesley L. Davis, the two men who arrived in the building from Milwaukee Junction at once engaged in the real estatebusiness. One of their first moves was to purchase a printing office outfit, which they hauled from Letcher with a span of horses and on the 19th day of September they issued the first number of the Jerauld County Journal. The paper is still in existence, but now under the name of the Alpena Journal, being the oldest publication in the county.

Within a few weeks after Loomis & Davis placed their office on the townsite, other buildings arrived from Milwaukee Junction, which town had by this time disbanded, so to speak, part of it going to the new town of Woonsocket.

W . L. Arnold, who had been in the mercantile business in the now deserted village in Sanborn county brought to Alpena a store buildingwhich he used that winter for a store, and in which Mr. Jessup, the first postmaster in Alpena, opened the post office about the middle of December. The building has since been used for a drug store, first by Dr. D. F. Royer, until February ist, 1891, and then by W. W. Hillis.

Isaac Pearce, who owned a claim a mile south of town,- built a resi dence and restaurant combined on the south side of Main street and began doing business in November.

About the same time F. W. Whitney opened a hardware store in the building now occupied by Grant Anderson on the northeast corner of Main and 2nd streets.

Soon after the completion of the railroad into the town D. F. Royer and Wm. Walcott started a lumber yard which they continued as partners until the spring of 1884 when Royer drew out and engaged in the drug business.

In the township 107 - 63, a cemetery was located at the northeast corner of the NW quarter of section 4, then known as the Whiffin claim. Here Dr. Whiffin was buried in the fall of 1883, being the first burial in the township. A lady named Quiven was also buried in that cemetery, but in 1884 an acre was platted in the southwest corner of section 33 and both the bodies moved there. The new burial ground was named Fairview Cemetery, and is controlled by a corporation known as the Fairview Cemetery Association.

In September, 1883, a postoffice named Starkey was established on the NE of 35-107-64, with Wm. Morrill as postmaster and supplied by the route from Mitchell to Elmer. Morrill retained the office but a few weeks and then turned it over to Ed LaRue, who took the office to the NW of 31-107-63, but soon resigned and James Johnson was oppointed. Johnson kept the office at the same place and opened a little candy store

The location of the new town over the line in Sanborn county was a great convenience to settlers in the east half of Jerauld county. As soon as the new town became a fact a petition was circulated in Wessington Springs and vicinity asking for a daily mail connection.

On October 10th, 1883, E, B. Orr put on a stage line between Wessington Springs and Woonsocket, and on the 25th of the same month. A. Peck, of Woonsocket, put on a competing line.

Farmers began hauling their produce to Woonsocket before a warehouse or elevator had been built. The first load of grain taken into the new town was a load of flax by Rev. J. G. Campbell. The man who had located there to buy grain was out of town that day, but Mr. Campbell chanced to meet John T. Kean, a lawyer, who purchased it rather than see the first load of grain brought to the town hauled away again.

Part Two

Many years ago when Dakota Territory began to take political shape the part now known as Jerauld county was in the western part of Buffalo county, which embraced the country west of Minnehaha and north of Yankton counties.

In 1873 the legislature created the county of Wetmore, including in it the west half of what is now Miner county, all of Sanborn, all of Jerauld, except the three west townships in range sixty-seven, and the north tier of townships in Aurora county. Wetmore county was never organized and in 1879 it was cut up into smaller political subdivisions, the present boundaries of Jerauld county being attached to Crogin county to form Aurora.

The creation of the county of Jerauld was an incident of the capital light that for several years was waged with great bitterness and much of political intrigue between Yankton and Bismarck in the old territorial days.

One of the methods to secure votes in the territorial legislature of 1879, 1881 and 1883 upon the questions involved in the relocation of the capital, was the creation of new counties and naming them in reward for political service rendered by the persons whose names were bestowed upon the various political subdivisions.

In some instances the opposite course was taken and a county would be threatened with aitnihilation (as in the case of Davison county) in the hope of whipping an obstinate member into line.

By an act approved February 22, 1879, the boundaries of the county of TLanson were extended to include the county of Davison, the latter county was abolished and the county of Aurora was created.

By this act Aurora county extended from Douglas county on the south to Beadle and Hand counties on the north and included all of > townships ioi, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 and 108, and ranges 63, 64, 65 and 66.

In the organization of Aurora county, Mr. Alden Brown, now in the Soldiers' Home at Quincy, 111., but then a resident of the northwest quarter of section 6 - 107 - 64, was appointed superintendent of schools. Mr. Brown served but a few months and resigned. At the instance of Mr. Smart the board then appointed C. W. McDonald, of section 13 - 107 - 65, to fill the vacancy.

Another act approved March 1st, 1881, made Hanson county extend only to the James river, on the west, while the east line of Aurora county was made the new west line of Hanson county, but leaving the balance of Aurora county the same as designated by the act of 1879. This act, however, provided for a vote of the people of Davison county on the matter of annexation.

By an act approved March 9th, 1883, the last day of the session, a new county was created by dividing Aurora county on the line between townships 105 and 106. The new county was made to include townships 106, 107 and 108 from south to north, and ranges 63, 64, 65, 66 and 67, from east to west. The new county was named Jerauld, the name of a member of the territorial council from Lincoln county.

The act made provision for an election on the question of division to be held in that part of Jerauld county taken from Aurora, which election was appointed by the law for the 17th day of April, 1883.

The act also provided that the commissioners of Aurora county should appoint judges of such election and establish precincts therefor. Provision was also made for publication of notices of said election in paper to be designated by the Aurora county commissioners.

After the creation of Brule county in 1879, Buffalo county was attached to it for judicial purposes. At the next session of the territorial legislature, 1881, an act was passed authorizing the filing and recording of deeds and mortgages, taken in unorganized counties in the county to which they were attached for judicial purposes.

As Buffalo county was then attached to Brule for judicial purposes, the deeds and mortgages and other conveyances of Buffalo county lands were placed on the record books of Brule county at Chamberlain.

In accordance with the act of March 9th, 1883, the commissioners of Aurora county caused notice of the election for April 17th to the published in the Wessington Springs Herald and also in the Aurora County Standard. Precincts in the proposed new county were established and judges appointed as follows:

No. 1 - Townships 107 and 108, range 63 and the two east tiers of sections in township 107 and 108, range 64. Polling place, house of I. P. Ray. Judges, J. W. Whiffin, Hiram Fisher and I. P. Ray.

No. 3 - Township 108, range 65 and 66 and township 107, range 65, with the four west tiers of sections in townships 107 and 108, range 64. Polling place, Elmer P. O. Judges, C. W. Hill, Chas. W. McDonald and A. B. Smart.

The election was a victory for the new county. The vote was for division, 149; against division 25. In Wessington Springs precinct division lacked but one vote of being unanimous.

The result of the election was certified to the territorial secretary at Yankton and on the 30th day of September, 1883, the governor appointed Hiram D. Fisher, of 107 - 64, Almona B. Smart, of 107 - 65 and Samuel H. Melcher, of 106 - 66, commissioners to organize Jerauld county. The commissions were sent by mail to Mr. Melcher, at Crow Lake, who forwarded the commissions for Smart and Fisher to them at Wessington Springs by T. H. Null.

In the division of the county of Aurora the old organization retained all the property and assumed all the debts. Jerauld county started without debt and without money.

There is no record showing when the commissioners of the new county took the oath of office, or that they ever qualified in the legal sense of the word as officials. But, be that as it may, they met at the residence of A. B. Smart near Wessington Springs and organized on the 9th day of November, 1883, by electing Mr. Smart chairman of the board. Mr. Smart was made chairman because of his experience as a member of the board that organized Aurora county.

The first motion made and carried after organization was to the effect that at the close of this first session, the board adjourn until the first Monday in January, 1884, which would come on the 7th of that month.

Some time prior to the organization of the board, Mr. Charles W. McDonald had been appointed by Judge A. J. Egerton to be clerk of the district court for Jerauld county. Mr. McDonald now appeared before the board and filed his bond, upon which appeared the names of Peter R. Barrett and Robert S. Bateman as sureties. The bond was approved November 9th, 1883. Mr. McDonald continued to hold this position until the admission of South Dakota as a state in 1889.

On this 9th day of November, 1883, at the evening session, R. Y. Hazard, of 106 - 66, was appointed to be the first school superintendent of Jerauld county. This appointment was made at the instance of Com. Melcher. A candidate in opposition to Mr. Hazard was a man named J. T. Johnston, of township 108 - 66, who was elected to succeed Mr. Hazard at the first regular election for county officers held in November, 1884.

A number of private or subscription schools, had been held in various parts of the county in the two previous years, but upon Mr. Hazard devolved the responsibility of organizing the public school system for the county. It is to be regretted that full records were not kept and preserved.

Aside from organizing and approving Mr. McDonald's bond as clerk of the district court, but little was done during the first day, of an official character, the members of the board putting in most of the time in talking over the work before them in a commendable desire to get a full understanding of their duties.

Now that we have reached the point, after which these three commissioners must always hold an important place in the history of the county, it is proper that they, individually, be given a more extended notice than it is our intention to give to persons, in the preparation of this chronicle. We shall hereafter write of persons only in connection with events.

Bowdoin College, Maine; and also in the Vermont Medical College. He graduated M. D. at Dartmouth College, November 6th, 1850, and began practice of his profession as house surgeon of the City Hospital in South Boston, remaining there during the winter of 1850 - 51. May 7th, 1861 r he was made assistant surgeon of the Fifth Missouri Volunteers and served with that regiment at the battles of Carthage, Mo., Dug Springs and Wilson Creek. Surgeon Melcher remained on the battlefield of Wilson Creek until all the other Federal officers had left, and obtained from the Confederate General Price the body of General Lyon, commander of the Union forces in that engagement, who was killed there, and brought it to Springfield, Mo., accompanied by a Confederate escort, furnished by the rebel General Rains. The term of service of the regiment, which had enlisted for three months, had now expired and Mr. Melcher volunteered to remain in Springfield as a prisoner to care for the wounded Union soldiers, numbering over 500, who had been brought there from the Wilson Creek battlefield. The people of Springfield generously furnished provisions and supplies to the wounded of both armies until Surgeon Melcher obtained the things needed from the headquarters of the Union forces at Rolla. He was at his post in the hospital on the 25th of October, 1861, when Fremont's bodyguard, under the gallant Major Zagonyi, made its memorable charge into the city of Springfield and drove out the confederate forces. The wounded survivors of that battle were gathered at the court house, made as a hospital, and on the morning after the fight Mr. Melcher, assisted by a soldier from the 1st Iowa V. I. and another from 1st Missouri V. I., raised the stars and stripes over the old court house, which still stands in the center of the square.

In November, 1861, Surgeon Melcher removed all the Wilson Creek wounded to St. Louis and on Dec. 4th, 1861, he was made brigade surgeon of the First Brigade Mo. S. M. Vol. He was now assigned to hospital duty in St. Louis on the staff of Gen. Schofield, and in the spring of 1862 he at one time had charge of the three most important hospitals in the city. For his efficient services in the supervision of these hospitals he was made the recipient of a testimonial from the Western Sanitary Commission and honorable mention by the Surgeon General of the United States. He was then made a member of the commission to examine candidates for appointment as surgeon of state troops. Mr. Melcher was commissioned Colonel and organized and equipped the 32nd E. M. M. In October, 1862, he was stationed at Springfield and organized the medical department there. On the night of January 7, 1863, Col. Melcher organized a force of the convalescents under his care, chained three old iron cannon on wagon wheels and during the 8th rendered great assistance to Gen. Brown in driving back the rebels under Marma- duke. Vol. 2, part 2 of the Medical History of the War of the Rebellion contains an account of an operation performed by Surgeon Melcher upon Gen. Brown, who was wounded in the defense of Springfield, January -8th, 1863. He was made lieutenant colonel of the 6th cavalry Mo. S. M. Vols. in 1863, and in 1864 he was aide de camp on the staff of Gen. Pleasanton during the Price raid in Missouri. His last service in the army was as post commander at Jefferson City, Mo. He was compelled to resign because of injury to his sight caused by a bursting shell at the battle of Springfield, Jan. 8th, 1863, and which has since resulted in total blindness.

Mr. Melcher has been a member of the I. O. O. F. since February 10, 1892, and now has a fifty-year veteran jewel of the order. He is a member of the G. A. R., of the Society of the Army of the Frontier and a Companion of the Military Order Loyal Legion of the United States.

Hiram D. Fisher was born in Hermon, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., Oct. 14, 1847. Later in life he became a resident of Rockford, Iowa, and in 1883 moved to Jerauld county, D. T. His education was obtained in the common schools. Sept. 12, 1885, he married Mrs. Wilma Pinkman. Mr. Fisher moved back to Rockford, Iowa, in 1889, where he resided until his death, .June 26, 1906.

Almona B. Smart, chairman of the board, was a Methodist minister, who had graduated from Boston University. He had been a sailor before the mast and as such visited many parts of the world. From education and observation he had become a bitter opponent of the liquor traffic in all its forms as well as of all other kinds of vice. As a member of the board of commissioners of Aurora county he had kept that county free from saloons and been at all times a tireless and vehement worker in the cause of temperance. In his work as a minister he seemed to feel no fatigue, but filled appointments at Plankinton, Mitchell, Huron, Miller and intermediate points, as well as at numerous dwelling houses in his home county.

These were the men upon whom was placed the burden of creating a county out of the raw material at hand. They represented three utterly distinct types of men.

Smart was a man of much learning, possessed of great tenacity of -opinion and a disregard of public clamor that has at times made him unpopular with the people. Yet, probably no other man has done so much for the general welfare of the county, intellectually and morally, as he.

Looking back at their work, across the vista of twenty-five years, though it shows crudeness in places, yet, in view of the many perplexing and annoying occurrences that beset them, the political edifice they reared - temperate, moral, out of debt and never bonded - looks well beside its fellows.

On the second day of the session at the instance of Mr. Fisher, J. F. Ford was appointed clerk of the board to serve until such time as a register of deeds should be appointed, the law at that time making that officer ex-officio clerk for the county commissioners.

On the same day the commissioners gave the first order for county supplies. It was an order to Perkins Bros., of Sioux City, for blank books to the amount of $282.00, or at such sum as any other "legitimate house would furnish them," and for four seals at $4.00 each ; all to be paid for with county warrants, payable when there should be a sufficient surplus of money in the county treasury. The warrants were taken at par.

During this second day's session a letter from E. S. Waterbury was read and placed on file, expressing concurrence and asking that the portion of Buffalo county annexed to Jerauld by the last legislature be recognized in the organization of Jerauld county.

The board finshed the appointment of judicial officers for the new county, except probate judge, on the 10th day of November, 1883, by giving J. M. Spears the office of sheriff.

The board took up the subject of bridges on the 2nd day of the session, and authorized Commissioner Fisher to construct a bridge on the line between sections 14 and 23 in 107 - 64, at a cost to the county not to exceed $100.

The second meeting of the board was held on the evening of the 17th of November, 1883, when Mr. Melcher and Mr. Smart chanced to meet in the office of Dunham & Ingham, publishers of the Jerauld* County News, in what was then known as the Applegate building, later as the Woodburn Hotel, but now as the old Carlton House. Mr. Smart acted as both chairman and clerk at that meeting.

Nothing of importance was done that evening but the next day Mr. Fisher being present a meeting was held in the office of McDonald & Bateman with Mr. Ford as clerk. At this meeting Mr. Smart was authorized to construct a bridge to cost not to exceed $75 across the gulch on the line between sections 17 and 18 - 107 - 64. The board numbered the bridges to be built as follows :

A petition was read from the people of Buffalo county and the western part of Jerauld county asking for the appointment of a probate judge from the wesjtern part of the county.

At the meeting on the 8th of January, 1884, the first bill against the county was presented by W. J. Williams. It was $15.00 for hauling the lumber and making approaches for the bridge, authorized on the 10th of November to be built across the Firesteel Creek. Warrant. No. 3 was afterward issued for this account.

At the adjourned meeting on the 7th day of January, 1884, the board adopted the proceeding of the meeting held on the 17th of November and made the minutes of that meeting a part of the record.

With organization came a multiplicity of matters, great and small, to vex the minds of the county commissioners, and arouse the good, or ill will of people interested, according to the success or failure of their wishes. The offices were to be filled and for each of several positions there were numerous applicants. The county seat must be located temporarily, and for this there were two candidates, Wessington Spring and Templeton. Then in the former place there were several parties, each wanting the county building located on their particular piece of property.

The Wessington Springs Townsite company, through one of their number, Mr. D. A. Scott, now of Sioux Falls, went before the board and offered office rooms for county officers free of rent for one year, if the commissioners would locate the county seat temporarily at Wessington Springs, and making the further offer that if that place should be made the permanent location they would then give a block of lots for county buildings and supply the buildings with water.

J. N. Cross of Templeton, sent in an offer of "the use of two' spacious rooms, provided with stoves, for six years, and two blocks of lots to be selected by the county commissioners," if the county capital should be located on his farm, the NE quarter of section 7 - 107 - 65 (Media). In the spring and summer of 1883 Mr. Cross had erected a large two story grout building, and it was in this structure that he offered the rooms. On January nth Mr. Cross increased his offer to "every third block to be platted on the N half of the NE quarter of section 7 - 107 - 65, onehalf to be delivered for immediate use and the balance when the county seat should be permanently located on that tract. The offer was never accepted, and inasmuch as the large grout building tumbled to a heap of ruins three years later it was probably wise to reject it.

The matter was made more complicated, and the inducements of the various offers somewhat lessened, by various propositions from other parties, some with objects to be gained and some without. Among the latter was one from McDonald & Bateman, publishers of the Wessington Springs Herald and proprietors of the Jerauld County Bank, offering "the use of their printing office and banking rooms" in the building later used by C. W. England for a confectionary and tobacco store and now by Earl Howthorne as living rooms in connection with his restaurant, for use of the clerk of the district court and the county commissioners free of rent, and furnish lights and fuel for one year. As Mr. McDonald had secured the office he desired, and Mr. Bateman was not a candidate for anything, it is difficult to see any private gain for them in the acceptance of their offer.

J. F. Ford, a candidate for register of deeds, "offered the county commissioners the use of his office, rent free, for one year." His office was about one-half of the building in which Hermson's barber shop is now located. The commissioners availed themselves of this offer for a few days and held their meetings in Mr. Ford's office until February 19th, 1884, but without indicating at the time of acceptance who would be their choice for register of deeds.

O. V. Harris, another candidate for that office, offered to perform the duties of register of deeds for the year 1884, for no' other compensation than that for recording instruments and furnish rent, lights, fuel and stationery for the county.

Commissioner Smart now submitted a proposition on the location of the county seat, which was "to furnish land and material for court house to be built of granite, sandstone and limestone, if court house was located on the SE quarter of SE quarter of section 12 - 107 - 65.

On January 10th the board took up the subject of school townships, numbering them and defining their boundaries. This duty seems to have perplexed and bothered the commissioners as much as any other matter that occupied their attention. The territorial law required school townships to correspond with congressional townships except in case where natural obstacles rendered such a course impracticable. The Firesteel Creek was looked upon by the board as such an obstable. \et this does not account for all of the actions of the board in creating school townships.

The next day, January nth, the county seat matter again came up. George R. Bateman and Hiram Blowers, who owned a tract of land north and east of the town, offered the county forty acres, if the court house should be located on the property, and all the stone needed to be delivered within one mile of the building. This offer was filed with the others and entered in the minutes of the meeting.

At the meeting on January 12th the subject of appointing an official county paper came up. There were then five newspapers in the county: The Buffalo County Herald, published at Sulphur Spring; The News, published at Waterbury; the Wessington Springs Herald, and the Jerauld County News, published at Wessington Springs and the Journal, published at Alpena.

McDonald & Bateman, publishers of the Herald, at Wessington Springs, offered to publish the minutes of the board meetings without cost to the county, if their paper should be made the official paper. The offer was accepted.

Saturday afternoon, January 12th, the county seat problem was again brought forward, this time in a definite proposition. Commissioner Fisher voted for Wessington Springs and Commissioner Melcher for Templeton, the name given to> the postoffice located on Mr. Cross' farm, before mentioned. The vote being a tie the chairman declined to vote on the question until Monday, that course being in accordance with the law of the territory and now, also, of the state. There was no doubt as to how Mr. Smart would vote, so when in Monday's session he voted with Mr .Fisher for Wessington Springs, no one was surprised or disappointed.

January 14th, 1884, was a day that has never been surpassed in the history of the county in political interest. The board had announced that on that day they would listen to representations, from the different candidates for the various positions to be filled by appointment. The candidates were on hand - all in person and some with attorney, also - and the day was given up to speech making, or essay readings as the reasons why this one or that one should be appointed were laid before the board. No one but the commissioners then knew that the members of the board had held a secret meeting a few evenings previously in the northwest corner room on the second floor of Tarbell's hotel, in which they had agreed upon the candidates that should be appointed.

Among the candidates who appeared before the board that day were several who subsequently became prominent in the affairs of the county and state.

For the position of register of deeds were J. F. Ford, now of Los Angeles, California; T. L. Blank, now a civil engineer of Des Moines, Iowa; O. V. Harris, B. F. Swatman, J. R. Francis, afterward justice of the peace, and for many years district attorney and probate judge; T. H. hull, for some time attorney for the state board of railroad commissioners, and now practicing attorney at Huron, and A. N. Louder, now a merchant at Presho, S. D.

bor treasurer the candidates were E. \r. Miles, elected state senator in the statehood movement in 1885, P. R. Barrett, postmaster at Wessington Springs and W. J. Williams.

1 he candidates for county surveyor were H. J. Wallace, afterward county surveyor, county treasurer and state surveyor, and J. M. Corbin, for many years a popular instructor among the Indians at Pine Ridge and Rosebud agencies.

This performance was for some time referred to as "the county's literary entertainment." At its close the board adjourned without announcing any appointments.

The next morning, Jan. 16th, the board announced the appoinment of R. M. Magee, of the firm of Drake & Magee, attorney for Jerauld county without salary. The only compensation Mr. Magee ever received from this appointment was $6.00 on February 6th and $10 on May 2, 1884, as fees for consultations.

On the same day a petition signed by 26 electors of townships 108 - - 66 and 107 - 66 was presented to the board by I. N. Rich, asking that those two townships be made into one school organization. Another petition was presented that day by Mr. Dean of 107 - 66, asking that that township be made a school township by itself. This petition was signed by 42 electors. The petitions were filed and action on them deferred.

E. S. Waterbury and C. V. Martin of Crow township, appeared before the board on the 17th and protested against the plan adopted by the commissioners in fixing the boundaries of the school townships. They asked that for the west side of the county, at least, the school and congressional townships should embrace the same territory. The board then took ur> the subject of school elections and commencing with 108 - 67 the northwest corner township, they changed the school township lines. The fol-^ lowing is the substance of the order made January 17th.

No. 7 (108 - 65 and 4V2 tiers of sections on the west side of 108 - 64) - Judges, E. V. Miles, Wm. Hawthorne and Jorgen Hansen. Polling place the office of Ford & Rich in Wessington Springs.

No. 10 (108 - 63 and 1% tiers of sections off the east side of 108 - 64 - Judges, Chas. Eastman, Jos. Moore and Wm. Arne, at the office of L. N. Loomis in the town of Alpena.

No. 11 (107 - 63 and 1% tiers of sections off the east side of 107- - 64) - Judges, Owen Williams, W. P. Pierce and Henry Kineriem, at residence of Wm. Houmes.

The commissioners also named the election clerks for each township, but their names were not entered in the book containing the records of the commissioners' proceedings. The clerks named by the board were as follows :

The affairs of the county now reached a condition where it was necessary that the various county offices should be filled and on the i8th of January the following appointments were announced:

At this meeting a bill for $6.25, express charges on the supplies received from Perkins Bros., ordered Nov. 10, 1883, was presented by C. W. McDonald and allowed. For this bill warrant No. 1 was issued. It was cashed by Mr. Melcher at par and was paid and cancelled a few weeks later and is now in the possession of Mr. McDonald.

"On motion the combined proposition of Mrs. R. J. Smart and A. B.. Smart and D. A. Scott on the part of the townsite proprietors and Hiram: Blowers and George Bateman was accepted," but the acceptance does not. appear of record.

Combined Proposition

Hiram Blowers offers to give two lots to the county to be selected by the commissioners and another to be selected by himself. George Bateman offers to give one acre on one of the two corners nearest the townsite, or anywhere along the west line of the NW quarter NE quarter section 18, township 107, range 64, to be selected by the commissioners.

Proposition of Smart and Scott - The blocks and lots to be given are to be platted and numbered so as to make block A as the court house block located north of black 2, SW of equal size with it the south part and block 4 and block 5 in the townsite of Wessington Springs to be given by the townsite proprietors and the north part of block C together with block i and three on the SE quarter SE quarter section 12, township 107, range 65 as designated by the plats shown in connection with> the proposition offered, the stone with which to build the buildings, granite; limestone, sandstone, to be given by A. B. Smart and Mrs. R. T. Smart, all this property used only for the purpose of providing the county with a proper set of county buildings. These buildings to be built as soon as practicable in the judgment of the commissioners.

Provided, that if any part of the above specified gifts are ever used for the purpose of buying, selling, manufacturing or using intoxicants as a beverage or in any way helping the same, then, in that case, such part shall revert to the original donor.

January 26th the board estimated that the cost of running the county one year would be between $500 and $1000, and instructed the chairman and clerk to see what arrangements could be made to get banks or individuals to cash warrants for current expenses. Though no arrangement was perfected, it is probable that the effort kept the county warrants at a reasonable discount.

The board now began to look about for a building to be used by the register of deeds for an office, and for general county purposes. The chairman was authorized to receive sealed bids for the construction of a building 12x20 feet in size, with 8 foot ceiling.

On Feb. 4th the first petition for civil township organization was presented by a number of the voters of township 108 - 65. The petition was filed and never heard of again.

An order made by the commissioners on the 5th day of February established the road districts of the county to correspond in size and number with the school townships and appointed road overseers for the different districts as follows :

As the time for the school township election approached the matter of providing for it occupied the attention of the board. Twelve ballot boxes were ordered made and distributed to the various precincts. Ballots also were ordered printed and paid for by the county. No one seemed to think but that the county having ordered the election and furnished the boxes, was logically bound to provide the ballots. So McDonald & Bateman were paid five dollars to print 1000 ballots 3x4 inches in size containing the following printed form:

They had no thought that they were applying the fundamental principle of a system that in a few years would be in use throughout the nation.

The cattle industry of the county had by this time become so important that the stockgrowers desired the appointment of a branding committee. The board named R. S. Vessey, Joseph O'Brien and the register of deeds, who entered upon their duties at once.

During this day's session, Feb. 5th, the first negative vote by a member of the board was cast by the chairman on the proposition to instruct the deputy register of deeds to transcribe records of the commissioners' proceedings into the book procured by the county for that purpose. The motion carried by the vote of the other members of the board.

At this time there was located on the ground now occupied by the Oliver hotel, a small building, about 14x20 feet in size, built by private subscription in the summer of 1883 for school purposes. This building was offered to the county at cost by the builders on the 5th day of February, 1884. On the 6th the commisioners closed a deal for the structure and the school which was then in progress was moved to the residence of Hiram Blowers, a short distance northeast of town. This was the first building owned by Jerauld county and since then no rent has been paid for court room, or offices for public officials.

On the same day a resolution introduced by Mr. Melcher was adopted unanimously that no saloon license should be issued during the existence of that board. The same policy was pursued by each succeeding board until 1887, and has been the general policy of the county ever since. The prevailing sentiment of this people has been that any community that depends for its prosperity upon the establishment of resorts of vice and crime, has something inately wrong in its make-up.

The register of deeds moved into the school hhouse immediately after its purshace by the commissioners and on the 19th day af February, 1884, the board held its first meeting there. This meeting was a special one called by the county clerk for the purpose of appointing a surveyor, Mr. McFarlane having declined the position.

The next meeting of the board was on March 5th for the purpose of canvassing the returns of the elections held in the various townships on the 23rd of February. The following is the result in the various townships :

No. 1. - Director, W. S. Scofield; clerk, J. M. Corbin; treasurer, Ambrose Baker. All the officers were elected without opposition. Name, Marlar, 13; Rock, 8. The township was named in honor of Wm. Marlar, one of the first settlers in the township.

No. 2. - (The board made the following minutes) : The election was declared void on account of returns, showing that Henry E. Merwin had served both as judge and clerk of election; also the returns show that there is a tie in the choice of name for the township and by affidavits received at this office the clerk elect in township No. 2 was not eligible. Therefore the board desires that the people settle these questions.

No. 3. - J. A. Riegal and D. B. Paddock each received five votes, but Paddock declined and Riegal qualified as director; clerk, H. A. Frick; treasurer, J. Long. Name, Lake ,5; May, 2; Alexander, 2; Banner, 1; Freemont, 1.

No. 4. - Director, O. O. England; clerk, Wm. Murphy; treasurer, C. G. Smith. Name, Harmony, 12; Richland, 5; Clyde, 1. The name was proposed by J. H. Shepard, who at that time had a pre-emption residence on the northwest quarter of section ten of that township (108 - 66). Quite a little friction had developed among the settlers of that precinct in which lived a good many Quakers. The name "Harmony" appealed to their love of peace and good will and most of them cast their votes accordingly. It was afterward learned that Mr. Shepard had proposed the name in honor of his home postoffice in Chautauqua county. New York.

No. 5. - Director, I. Byam; clerk, B. R. Shimp; treasurer, Samuel Marlenee. Name, Pleasant Valley, 15; Maud, 10; Minnie Todd, 3; Todd, 1 ; Minnie, 1 ; Columbia, 1 ; Excelsior, 1. The township was named "Pleasant Valley" because of the fact that it lies across one of the most beautiful and fertile valleys in the whole territory. The territorial auditor, when the name was certified to him, rejected it as too long, and the board struck off the word "Valley" and christened the township "Pleasant," by which name it has since been officially known.

No. 7. - Director, W. T. Hay; clerk, G. W. Bartow; treasurer, E. W. Chapman. Name, Dale, 29; Chery, 14. The name was suggested by Andrew Mercer, who with several other settlers had met at the residence of H. J. Wallace on the morning of the election to talk matters over. During the talk a little boy in knee pants was playing about the house. Mercer inquired the name of the boy. Being informed that it was "Dale" he remarked, "Boys, that's a good name for our township," and the name was adopted. The boy was Dale C. Wallace, afterward treasurer and still a resident of Jerauld county.

The name was derived from the famous springs that flow from the foot of the hills. Who named the springs is not known. Wessington was a trapper who visited the hills and was killed in 1862 by the Indians in the grove by the big spring. Mr. Cross, after qualifying resigned and on the 24th of April Mr. Hazard appointed K. S. Starkey in his place.

No. 9. - Director, Samuel Moore; clerk, Wm. R. Day; treasurer, Chas. Walters. Name, Viola, 22; Butler, 19; Sabrina, 1. The name adopted was in honor of Mrs. Viola Moss, a sister of Rev. J. N. Smith.

No. 10. - Director, Walt Suerth; clerk, Rueben J. Eastman; treasurer, L. N. Loomis. Name, Alpena, 51; Newside, 3; Newark, 1. The township was named from the village located there.

No. 11. - Director, Joseph Doctor; clerk, David M. Black; treasurer, W. P. Pierce. Name, Franklin, 27. The name is in honor of Mr. L. E. Franklin, one of the early settlers.

After completing the canvass of the returns the board of commissioners ordered a new election for district No. 2, to be held on the 18th of March, 1884, but made no appointment of officers of election. Polling place again designated as Herring & Rice's store in the town of Waterbury.

Another special session of the board was held on the 27th day of March for the purpose of settling with C. J. Anderson, register of Aurora county, who had been employed by the board to transcribe the records of Jerauld county property from the books of Aurora county

By April 8th five separate petitions had been received by the register of deeds, from people in the eastern part of the county, asking for reorganization of their school townships on the lines of congressional townships. It was apparent that the plan adopted by the board was not at all satisfactory and so the petitions were granted and the following order was made:

"The nine school townships east of the line between ranges 65 and 66 be made into nine school townships, according to congressional lines, except 8 and 14, and numbered as follows :

The other six townships east will retain their names and numbers and the superintendent will fill the vacancies according to law, as they may occur.

On the same day, April 8th, it being found necessary to fix the salary of the county superintendent, an order was made giving that officer a salary of $200 per year and paying him for work that he should do, besides.

The returns from the second special election in school township No. 2, held on March 18th, having been received, the board counted the votes and declared the following result :

Probably because of some possible error in the election, all of the above named officers were appointed to their positions by the county superintendent, May 27th, 1884.

The county organization had now been in existence three months and the machinery was in fair working order. Nearly all the officers had been appointed and qualified. On April 9th J. O. Gray, J. P., residing in Alpena township, made the first quarterly report one case, and a fine of $1.00 collected. This was the only money collected in court for disobedience of the law, that year, and in fact the justices of the peace of the county have not in all the 25 years of the county's existence imposed fines enough payable to the county to pay for the books bought for their use by the county, during its first year.

At this session D. W. Spaulding of Brule county, presented his bill for transcribing the records from that county for the part of Buffalo that had been annexed to Jerauld. The amount was only $15.75. The records were now all "at home," but unprotected against fire. The commissioners realized the necessity for a safe place in which to store the records. A safe was purchased and Commissioner Smart employed to "bring it to Wessington Springs from Huron. The board was urged to select a permanent location for the county buildings and proceed with the erection of a court house with vaults at once. Numerous proposals had been received and more offers were made. In one case the county was offered land to the amount of five thousand dollars if the court house should be located on the tract offered. Of course, the commissioner scould do nothing about a final location, of the buildings until after the November election, at which time the county seat would be permanently fixed.

Four candidates for the location of the county seat were before the people, Wessington Springs, Templeton, Waterbury and Crow Lake. Mr. Ingham, who had purchased Mr. Dunham's interest in the Jerauld County News, moved the paper to the Templeton postoffice and began urging that location for the seat of county government.

In the spring Mr. Ingham sold the paper to J. E. McNamara, of Bock Rapids, Iowa, a man of considerable ability as a writer. The greatest drawback to the Templeton candidacy was the want of water. All the water for use at the postoffice, store, and dwelling had to be drawn nearly a mile from a well near the south line of the section on M. D. Crow's homesetad. Mr. J. N. Cross, the owner of the Templeton quarter water. D. O. Hewitt, who owned a well augur, bored several holes a "hundred feet deep and Wm. Skinner and Joe Collier, with carefully selected twigs, "witched" for water, but of no avail. All the holes ^vvere dry.

As a last resort the advocates of Templeton for county seat abandoned that place and had a town surveyed on the SW of 24 in township 107 - 66, which they named Lyndale, in honor of the man who permitted them to offer his farm for county honors. The Jerauld County News was moved to the new location and Mr. H. A. Robinson of Logan township, put up a store building and opened a small dry goods and grocery store. The people were small in numbers but great in enthusiasm. Had the people of the west side been united the result might have been different, but with three candidates in the two west tiers of townships the contest could hardly be a successful one.

In view of all the county seat agitation it was idle to think of locating the county buildings until after the people had decided the matter.

The two officers upon whom fell the most arduous labors were the assessor and school superintindent. The latter was untiring in his efforts to perfect the school system of the county. The townships had to be organized, the officers instructed in their duties, under a system new to them, as well as to the county superintendent, bonds were issued, school houses built, teachers examined, schools supplied and opened and a thousand unmentioned little things that enter into the duties of that office, even in normal condition, multiplied incessantly in the establishment of an entirely new system. Add to all this the many neighborhoor quarrels over school locations and the employment of teachers that were sure to bring upon him the censure of all but one faction, if he interfered, and of all, if he did not, the criticisms of political rivals and factions - for politics was "red hot" in those days - and only the experienced can even imagine the trials Mr. Hazard encountered.

During the fore part of May, 1884, Mr. Wilson appointed as deputy assessors, B. F. Gough, of 106 - 64; M. D. Crow of Media, and George G. Strong, of 107 - 66. Every quarter section was visited, all improvements inspected, town lots examined and a valuation, necessarily arbitrary, placed upon all. The work was done and the records of the equalization board show less of complaints than any other assessment in the life of the county.

At the April session, 1884, the board fixed the compensation of the register of deeds for performing the duties of county clerk, now called county auditor, at $200 per year.

One of the greatest troubles of all countries, new or old, is the roads and of this the first board of Jerauld county commissioners had their share. It was the desire of this body of men to plan and carry out a system of highways. Mr. Smart remarked that all roads should "lead to Rome. Mr. Melcher responded that "Crow Lake is as much Rome as Wessington Springs." The result of this undercurrent of strife between the two commissioners was that two systems were started, having two central points in the county. Mr. Fischer was satisfied if he could get a road near his farm in 107 - 63. This satisfied Mr. Smart, for it made Wessington Springs the west end of that road. The only town in Mr. Fischer's part of the county was left to get on as best it could without official representation on the county board.

The road district overseers that had been appointed on the 5th of February had done nothing because of a misconception of the law then existing, that section lines were not highways until so declared by the county commissioners. By the time the board met in April the melting snow, full-running streams and numerous water holes over the county, caused a deluge of petitions for established roads and bridges.

The bridge authorized on the second day of the first session of the board, Nov. 10, 1883, had been built and short approaches made, but it was found that in that case as in nearly all others the building of a bridge, while essential, is but a small part of the work necessary to a good crossing of a stream. A high hill, or bank, on the east side of the Firesteel creek must be cut down and a long stretch of turnpike made on the west side.

On the 8th day of April, 1884, the commissioners appointed Wm. Hawthorne, Elza J. Meutzer and J. M. Corbin viewers to report on the most practicable route for a road from Wessington Springs to Waterbury. The county surveyor was ordered to find the most practicable place for a crossing of the Firesteel creek. The next day Messrs. Melcher and Fischer, with Surveyor Wallace, Sheriff Spears, Postmaster Barrett, E. B. Orr and Silas Kinney went to the Firesteel and examined the section line between sections 14 and 23, where bridge No. .1 had already been constructed. There they met Messrs. Nave, Haven and Rumberger, from the Woonsocket board of trade. They found bridge No. 1 surrounded with water, but unapproachable because of the soft condition of the water-soaked approaches. After floundering through the mud and water on this line they examined the one a mile further north. This looked as bad as the other and they decided to do nothing until the surveyor had submitted his report.

The next day the surveyor was ordered to survey crossings on Sand Creek on the line leading to Alpena from the west between section i and 12 - 108 - 64, also the crossing on the line between 26 and 27 - 108 - 63, > also the crossing of Long Slough between sections 10 and 3 - 108 - 63. He was also instructed to go to 106 - 66 (Crow Lake) and survey a crossing of Smith creek between sections 26 and 27.

On May 1st the surveyor reported on the first three of the crossings. He said the crossing between sections 1 and 12 - 108 - 64 required a bridge 64 fee;t long and would cost about $275. That the bridge between sections 26 and 27 - 108 - 63 should be 60 feet long and would cost about the same. He reported that in the long slough the citizens had already put up a bridge twenty feet in length, but that 890 cubic yards of grading was needed.

The 3rd of June the board had another meeting at which on motion of Mr. Melcher, Messrs. Smart and Fischer were appointed a committee to examine the proposed Sand creek crossings, and intermediate points,, to report at the July meeting. There is no record of any report having been made, except to number the bridge between 10 and 11 - 108 - 63 as No. 8. On July 10th O. F. Woodruff, who owned a farm on the south side of Sand creek, appeared before the board and urged the immediate construction of the bridges across that stream in accordance with the numerous petitions that had been filed.

A few days later, July 16th, Commissioner Fischer was authorized to build two bridges across Sand creek, one between sections 1 and 12 - 108 - 64 to cost not to exceed $100, and one on the line between sections.

20 and 21 to cost not to exceed $150. He was also authorized to put in a bridge across the Firesteel on the line between sections 26 and 35 - 106 - 64, to cost not over $100.

The greater part of the July session was devoted to the subject of roads and bridges. Many section lines were declared highways and some were vacated, some of the "legal advisers" of whom the board had many, contending that all section lines had been made highways by acts of congress and the territorial legislature. In 106 - 67 (Logan) the following lines were vacated : Commencing at the quarter stake between sections 33 and 34 running north one and one-half mile to the northwest corner of section 27; also commencing at the southwest corner of section 28, running east one and one-quarter miles. In lieu of the highway soi vacated a new one was established as follows : Commencing at the southeast corner of section 33, running north one-half mile to the quarter stake between sections 33 and 34, thence east one-quarter mile, thence north on the 80 rod line and one and one-half miles to the intersection with the east and west road.

On the 16th of July the viewers of the Waterbury road having reported, the following record was made : "On motion the report of the road viewers on road from Wessington Springs to Waterbury was accepted and a road, 66 feet in width, ordered established." This does not seem to have settled the matter, however, for a year later, July 9th, 1885, we find the county commissioners again considering the best route for a road over the Wessington hills.

On July 7th, 1884, the board made an order making the boundaries of road districts identical with the school townships and appointing overseers as follows :

The returns having been received from the special election held April 26th, 1884, in the three school townships numbered 13, 14 and 15 (Chery, Media and Anina) the board on the 1st of May resolved itself into a canvassing board. The results in the different townships was :

Name - Chery, 17; Turtle Valley, 15. The name was in honor of Mr. C. M. Chery, a veteran of the civil war, one of the early settlers of the township and a man respected by all who knew him.

the township upon the county commissioners. When the matter was brought up the next day Commissioner Melcher remarked, "Four and four make eight and one is nine, let's name it Anina."

The naming of townships was again before the board on the 7th of July. The territorial auditor to whom the names had been certified, had for various reasons rejected several and the commissioners were instructed to substitute. They named 106 - 66 Crow Lake, instead of Custer; 107 - 66 Pleasant, instead of Pleasant Valley; 106 - 67 Blaine, instead of Lincoln; 106 - 67 Logan, instead of Lake; 107 - 65 Media, instead of Center.

In the summer of 1883 John Lawton settled on the NW quarter of section 20, in Harmony township. With him was his wife and five children. In the fore part of April, 1884, several members of the family were taken ill. The disease soon developed into diphteria. The house was the ordinary claim shanty, everywhere found in those days and the means of caring for the sick were extremely limited. Because of the dangers of spreading the terrible contagion the neighbors shrank from visiting them. Almost alone and unaided the mother saw her husband and children sicken and die. A young man named Anson Beals, living on the NW of section 30, of the same township, with a courage that won the admiration of all, gave his entire time to caring for the stricken family. He cared for the living and buried the dead. When the malady had run its course five new made graves, but a short distance from the shanty, marked the resting place of as many members of the family. May 1st, the matter being brought to the attention of the board of commissioners, Mr. Fischer and Sheriff Spears were appointed a committee to investigate the case and make report. They reported on the 9th that they had inspected the premisses and found that all of the members of the family . were dead but two, Mrs. Lawton and one little girl had escaped the disease. They had instructed Anson Beals to burn the building and contents, which had been done. They estimated the property to be worth $50. The board issued a warrant to Mrs. Lawton to compensate her for the loss of the property. At the special session on the 2nd of June, 1884, the board ordered a war- rant for $35 drawn "in favor of Anson Beals as a partial recognition of his heroic services in caring for the Lawton family" and on Nov. 14 following the board rebated his tax for that year for the same reason. Neither the warrant nor the rebating taxes was intended as compensation for an act of such unselfish heroism, but only as an expression of the appreciation by the public of what the young man had done.

On June 4th the commissioners appointed a board of insanity, composed of H. M. Rice, probate judge; A. M. Mathias, physician, and M. C. Ayers, lawyer. The appointment of this board was occasioned by the mental derangement of Emer Berjelland of Blaine township.

One of the most important sessions in the history of the first board was the one which began on the 7th day of July. In addition to road and bridge matters that occupied so much of their attention, the commissioners had before them the work of equalizing the assessment of the county.

The board of equalization was formed on the second day of the session, Mr. Smart continuing as chairman. The first act of the new board was to exempt from taxation the property of Lettie Berjelland, whose husband had become insane.

Much of the land was still held under homestead pre-emption or timber culture entries and was not assessable. In the four villages of the county the most of the lots shown by the recorded plats were held by the townsite owners. In Wessington Springs, at the time of assessment, but 60 lots had been sold, the balance being assessed to Scott, Burr, Bowen and Barrett.

The highest assessments in Alpena on town lots were on two lots, $350 each ; one being lot 7, block 8, owned by the railway company, and the other lot 14, in block 3, owned by F. W. Whitney.

In Wessington Springs the highest assessment on a single lot was $625 on lot 16, block 9, owned by Sarah L. Barrett. Lots 12, 13 and 14 In block 11, owned by L. H. Tarbell, were assessed together at $2300.

The record shows that in Logan, Crow, Marlar, Harmony and Chery the board reduced the valuation of land owned by non-residents io per cent and that owned by residents 20 per cent.

On Sept, ioth the board fixed the polling places and appointed the election judges for the first general election in the county. Again there was a complete change in the boundaries of the election precincts. The' numbers were dropped and the precincts were designated by the names adopted for the school townships. Each precinct was named from the township in which the election was held. For this election the precincts and officers were as follows :

* Blaine - and all of Viola lying east of Firesteel creek, at residence of Joseph Steichen. Judges, J. M. Wheeler, C. C. Wright and M. W. Young.

Franklin' - and all of Wessington Springs, lying east of the Firesteel creek, at residence of Wm. Houmes. Judges, Owen Williams, Wm. J. Houmes and W. P. Pierce.

Wessington Springs - All that part of the township lying west of the Firesteel creek, also the east one-half of sections i, 12 and 13 of Media and all that part of Dale township lying west of the Firesteel creek, to be held at the court house (register of deeds office) in Wessington Springs. Judges, Wm. Hawthorne, M. C. Ayers and E. V. Miles.

Dale - All that part of Dale and Chery lying east of the Firesteel creek, at residence of A. Mercer. Judges, A. Mercer, E. A. Palmer, O. W. Richardson.

Acting on the advice of the attorney general of the Territory, the board on the 6th day of November fixed the length of the terms of their successors, giving the one receiving the highest number of votes the three year term ; next two years and the lowest one year. This gave Mr. J. E. Sullivan the long term and Mr. Fischer the short term.

The organization of the county was now complete. Nothing remained for the first board to do. On the 3rd day of January, 1885, the outgoing board settled with the treasurer and made report as follows:

While the county commissioners were striving to frame a county government other things were being done within the county that were of at least equal importance.

On the 28th of September, 1883, a meeting had been held at the instance of Mr. A. B. Smart, to offer inducements to the M. E. church of Dakota Territory to locate their university at Wessington Springs. The matter was earnestly considered and a proposition made, but other towns and cities were in the field to get the much desired institution and Wessington Springs failed to secure it.

In the fore part of November a move was made to get the Erie Telephone Co. .to put in a line from Wessington Springs to Woonsocket. This also failed.

About the first of September, 1883, the townsite company began putting in a system of waterworks connecting the big spring with Main street. The pipe ran east from the spring and entered 2d street south of the Applegate building and then north along the east side of 2d street to the middle of Main street. This work was completed about the middle of November. A pipe coming out of the ground at the end of the> system made a very pretty fountain that for two years poured a constant stream. In a few weeks after fountain was establisred a mound of ice was formed that almost rendered the street impassable. A large reservoir was made and walled up with stone where the spring came out of the hill. A dam was put across the lower part of the pond and under it the pipe ran that carried the water to the village. A sluiceway at the top of the dam carried off the surplus water in a pretty cascade into the little creek that ran down through the grove. The low bushes and underbrush were cut out of the grove, rustic seats built and bridges put across the stream. In this way the company made the beginning of what they intended should be one of the most beautiful parks in the territory. For a number of years the grove about the spring was the spot to which all picnic parties came from all parts of the county.

In October, 1883, Rev. J. G. Campbell, then one of the ablest preachers in the territory, was made pastor of the M. E. church as Wessington Springs. Religious services were thereafter held in the church building, although the seats were made of boards.

Strenuous efforts were made by the community for fitting Christmas festivities. On the 24th of December the church chairs arrived and put in place for the people who that evening attended the Christmas tree exercises in the new church. The new church building was dedicated Sept. 7th, 1884. The dedicatory sermon was preached by Rev. I. N. Pardee. The building was entirely paid for when dedicated. The ladies' mite society had bought, and paid for a carpet that cost $44.25 and had also purchased a new organ upon which they had paid $28.79. The building committee that had charge of the church construction was C. W. McDonald, president of the board of trustees, and R. S. Bateman. The church trustees at this time were Lucius T. Tarble, Chas. W. McDonald, Silas Kinney, R. S. Bateman, Harry Russe, F. T. Tofflemier.

Other churches were organized in the county in 1884, one being the M. E. church at Alpena and the other the Friends church in Harmony township. The names of the charter members of neither of these organizations seem to be obtainable. The church at Alpena was incorporated Tune 2 1st, 1884, under the pastorate of Rev. O. E. Hutchins. Rev. L. C Burch received the conference appointment for this church in October. 1884.

At Waterbury and Sulphur Springs the religious services were conducted by Rev. John Cooley, C. V. Martin, Wm. Paganhart, S. F. Hunt- > ley and others. The Methodists and Presbyterians each had a church organization at Waterbury, but the records seem to have been lost. Neither society had a church building. The Sulphur Springs church building which had not been completed was moved to Waterbury, finished and made a public hall. This occurred in the early part of 1884 and ended the church history of Sulphur Springs.

In the Young settlement in Blaine township near Parsons a Sunday school was organized on the 20th of April, with Mr. I. Young, supt. ; Fred Kieser, asst. supt. ; Henry Wilson, sec. ; D. W. Young, treas.

In Anina township a Sunday School was organized August 10th, 1884, at the residence of Mr. Williams, with Gordon McDonald as superintendent.

In Wessington Springs township a Sunday School was conducted at the residence of Mrs. Williams on the east side of Firesteel creek, until in October, 1884, when it was changed to the home of Wm. Hawthorne.

An organization by the name of Eden Valley Sunday school in Alpena township, was conducted there the winter of 1884 - 85. The society had thirty members.

In Chery township, after the school houses were built, a Sunday school was organized by T. L. White, Mr. and Mrs. Kinney, Mr. and Mrs. Georgia, Mrs. Townsend, Ed Linn, W. R. Lanning and others, at the Kinney school house. After the organization of the Sabbath school religious services were held at this school house regularly with preaching by Mrs. Huntley, I. N. Rich, F. M. Brown and others.