Bridge at Iverson Crossing

Telephone. - In March, 1882, the Northwestern Telephone Exchange Company was org-anized with a capital of ten thousand dollars, with a view of establishing a telephone system in Sioux Palls. The instruments arrived the September following, and soon after a telephone system in the city was an accomplished fact. In July, 1883, this company transferred its property to the Erie Telegraph and Telephone Co., a New York corporation. There was quite a war between this company and the city authorities during that year, an account of which will be found in the chapter devoted to the incorporation of the city of Sioux Palls.' It was only a short time before the property was transferred to the Northwestern Telephone Exchange Co., and under its managment the system in Sioux Palls has been greatly improved. During the spring of 1895 this company extended its line to Dell Rapids, and on the 21st day of June of that year the first message was transmitted from Dell Rapids to Sioux Palls by George D. Sherman, then manag-er of the company at this point. In 18%, lines were extended by the same compan}^ from Sioux Palls to Valley Springs, Hartford, Humboldt, Montrose, Salem, Canton, Worthing, Lennox and Parker. The system was completed to Brandon and Valley Springs during the first week in October, 1896, and to the other towns above named, on the 12th day of the same month. On the 3d day of March, 1897, the long distance telephone service of this company was completed, and Sioux Palls for the first time was placed in telephone connection with St. Paul, Minneapolis, Winona, La Crosse, Pargo and Grand Porks. The event was made memorable by an entertainment given by the company to the people of Sioux Palls, at which time they enjoyed the novelty of listening to music furnished by orchestras in Minneapolis, Winona and Pargo. In the fall of 1897, this company, having purchased the Iowa Telephone Company's line connecting Elk Point and Vermillion with Sioux City, extended its line from Canton to Sioux City, and from Vermillion to Yankton, and in September, 1898, extended the line from Yankton to Parker.

Passage source: History of Minnehaha County, South Dakota. Containing an Account of Its Settlements, Growth, Development and Resources ... Synopsis of Public Records, Biographical Sketches .., published 1899.

Hospitals. - A hospital was established in the city of Sioux Falls during- the fall of 1888. It was located on the east side of the river, and was principally the work of the Rev. Frederick Gardiner, then rector of the Episcopal church in Sioux Falls. But there was not at that time sufficient interest taken in such an enterprise to make it a success, and after a few months the project was abandoned until the summer of 1894, when a few g-entlemen of Sioux Falls and vicinity conceived the idea of establishing- a hospital in the city. It was incorporated June 14, 1894, and was called the Sioux Falls Hospital. The first directors of the corporation were B. H. Lien, A. Christopherson, J. W. Jensen, A. Mikkelsen, Rev. N. Boe, A. Hovde, M. D., G. Bie Ravndal, C. G. Leyse and G. H. Kiland of Sioux Falls, J. A. Blilie of Flandreau, E. Dale of Spink county, John T. Lee of Brandon, and R. Malmin of Yankton. The capital stock is S10,00(), divided into shares of SIO each. The Seney residence property in the northwestern part of the city was leased and comfortably and appropriately fitted up for hospital purposes, and opened to the public the first week of September following-. At the expiration of the lease in the fall of 1896, the Cameron residence on Dakota avenue was procured, and the hospital removed to that place. Dr. Zetlitz has had g-eneral charg-e of the patients from the first, but the hosj)!- tal is open to all physicians of the city. It has been well conducted, and is now recog-nized as one of the established institutions of the city of Sioux Falls.

Passage source: History of Minnehaha County, South Dakota. Containing an Account of Its Settlements, Growth, Development and Resources ... Synopsis of Public Records, Biographical Sketches .., published 1899.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Sioux Falls City - 79,863 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.