IN CHARLES MIX COUNTY There were a few settlers in Charles Mix County in 1858, engaged in contracting in connection with Fort Randall. In 1861 the population was about fifty, among them F. D. Pease, E. M. Wall, Felicia Fallas, Colin Lamont, John Mallert, E. Fletcher, G. A. Fisher, Joseph Ellis, Joseph V. Hamilton, Colin Campbell, William Bartlett, Abel Forcess, John Archambault, Paul Harol, Napoleon Jack and Cardinelle Grant. Grant, reputed to be the first white settler in Dakota, was born in Canada in 1765. Hamilton was a son of Major Thomas Hamilton of the United States Army, and had been a sutler at Fort Snelling and Fort Leavenworth, built in 1827, and was known as Major Hamilton. He was credited with saving the life of General Kearney and 100 soldiers, who had appeared unarmed at a council with the Indians. Discovering a purpose to massacre the whites, Major Hamilton seized a flaming fire-brand, mounted a keg of powder, and told the Indians that unless they immediately threw down their arms he would fire the powder and destroy all, both whites and Indians. The Indians threw down their arms and the council proceeded without further danger. THE PONCA AGENCY This agency was the first settlement west of the Missouri River. Among the settlers at the Agency and in the vicinity, 1858 to 1861, were J. Shaw Gregory, James Tufts, Robert M. Hagaman, Peter Keegan, Jonathan Lewis, Harry Hargis, Joel A. Potter, George Detwiler, Robert Barnum and Charles McCarthy, who as sheriff of Burleigh County was drowned by breaking through the ice on the Upper Missouri, in 1875. Gregory was a son of Rear Admiral Francis H. Gregory, and a man of ability. Gregory County was named for him, and Potter County for Joel A. Potter. The Bijou Hills were named for Antoine Bijou, an early trader in Charles Mix County, according to some authorities, but old settlers in the vicinity declare the hills were named "Bijou" because of a great number of crystals of gypsum sparkling in the sun, and visible at a great distance on the steep rain-washed surface of the blue clay, which forms the bulk of these elevations. Bijou, meaning jewel in French, would naturally suggest itself for a name to the French voyageurs on the river, who could easily gather the crystals from the blue clay along the bluffs when boating. DAKOTA TERRITORY PROCLAIMED The settlers at Sioux Falls having proclaimed the unorganized territory, left out when Minnesota was admitted, a new territory to be known as Dakota, a mass meeting was held at Sioux Falls, September 28, 1858, and it was ordered that a meeting should be held on the fourth day of October for the election of two members of the Council and five members of the House of Representatives. An election was held and the alleged legislature met and elected Samuel Masters governor, and passed a memorial to Congress for recognition as a territory. A year later another election was ordered, to elect a delegate to Congress and the various county officers and members of the Legislature. At this election an alleged vote of 1,689 was cast for Jefferson P. Kidder, and 147 for Alpheus G. Fuller, for delegate to Congress. Congress refused to recognize the organization, and it was questioned whether there were that many people in the territory. The Federal census of 1860 gave the number as 2,128, of whom 1,600 were in the Pembina district, largely mixed-blood Indians, while an enrollment under the direction of the Governor of Dakota, in 1861, showed a population of 2,376, of whom 603 were in the Red River district. The persons taking this census were Henry D. Betts, Wilmot W. Brookings, Andrew J. Harlan, Obed Foote, George M. Pinney and J. D. Moore. The settlements were known as the Red River district, embracing Pembina, St. Joseph and other adjacent settlements, population 603; Vermilion and Big Sioux districts, with settlements at Brule Creek, 47; Point on the Big Sioux, 104; Elk Point, 61; Vermilion, 265; Bottom and Clay Creek, 216; Sioux Falls district, 60; Yankton district, 287; Bon Homme district, 163; Western district, with settlements at Pease and Hamilton, 181; Fort Randall, 210; Yankton agency, 76; and Ponca agency, 129. The census in the Pembina district was not accepted as correct, for the reason that the greater part of the settlers were out on their annual hunt at the time it was taken. The census of 1860 showed 84 horses, 19 mules, 286 milch cows, 318 oxen, 338 other cattle, 22 sheep and 287 swine within the limits of Dakota, and the following farm products, viz.: 915 bushels of wheat, 700 bushels of rye, 250 bushels of oats, 280 bushels of peas and beans, 9,489 bushels of potatoes, 1,670 pounds of butter, 1,112 tons of hay, 20 gallons of maple syrup. When Dakota Territory was organized, in 1861, gold was discovered in Montana, and that fact added to the push of immigration, and to the alarm of the Indians and the need of protection for settlers. Kansas was literally bleeding in the strife between the pro-slavery and free-state elements. CHARLES F. PICOTTE Perhaps no name deserves more consideration in the early history of the Dakotas than that of Charles F. Picotte, son of Honore Picotte and the daughter of Two Lance, known to the early settlers of the Missouri slope as Mrs. Major Galpin, a full-blooded Sioux, her father a brave and influential chief. When eight years of age young Picotte was placed in charge of the Rev. Father Peter John DeSmet, the Belgian missionary, who sent him to a boarding school at St. Joseph, Mo., where he remained fourteen years, acquired a liberal education in French and English, and, returning to his tribe at twenty-two, was employed by his step-father in trade with the Indians. FIRST DAKOTA POST OFFICES An examination of the records of the Post Office Department shows the following facts relative to the establishment of early Dakota post offices: Pembina, 1855, Joseph Rolette, postmaster; Sioux Falls City, then in Nebraska Territory, James M. Allen, June 15, 1858; J. L. Phillips (Joseph B. Amidon, assistant). June 6, 1861; Sioux Falls, James Andrews, June 24, 1867; St. Joseph (now Walhalla), Charles Grant, January 20, 1855; Medary (Midway County), John W. McBean, January 6, 1857, succeeded by Gustave Kragenbuhl, August 3, 1857; Greenwood, Alexander H. Redfield, September 29, 1859, succeeded by Walter A. Burleigh, June 28, 1861; Fort Pierre, Edward G. Atkinson, September 7, 1855; Niobrara, Bonneville G. Shelley, March 10, 1857; Ponca Agency, J. Shaw Gregory, March 14, 1860, succeeded by John B. Hoffman, July 31, 1861; Vermilion, Hugh Compton, March 25, 1855, succeeded by Samuel Mulholland, April 17, 1860; Yankton, Downer T. Bramble, April 17, 1860; Elk Point, Eli B. Wixon, July 9 1860; Fort Abercrombie, Jesse M. Stone, August 9, 1860; Bon Homme, Moses Herrick, October 2, 1861, succeeded by Richard M. Johnson, December 17, 1862; Fort Randall, John B. S. Todd, January 18, 1857, succeeded by Jesse Wherry, September 29, 1861. J. Shaw Gregory became postmaster at Fort Rice, established January 8, 1866. CHAPTER XV DAKOTA PIONEERS THE CEDED LAND IN DAKOTA-THE UPPER MISSOURI RIVER TOWNSITE COMPANY YANKTON FOUNDED THE TREATY OF 1858-THE FIRST CABIN HOME—COL. ENOS STUTSMAN-MOSES K. ARMSTRONG THE FIRST SURVEYS DAKOTA TOWN SHIP LINES AND SECTION LINES-THE HOMESTEAD LAW-THE FIRST LAND OFFICE THE FIRST LAND ENTRY-THE PEMBINA SETTLEMENTS-THE CUSTOM HOUSE-WILLIAM H. MOORHEAD JOSEPH ROLETTE AND THE MINNESOTA CAPI TAL BILL-SETTLEMENTS NEAR FARGO-THE FIRST FLOUR MILL-THE FIRST FARMS IN THE RED RIVER VALLEY-OTHERS IDENTIFIED WITH DAKOTA PRIOR TO 1861-DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN THE BLACK HILLS-THE PICOTTES, GALPIN, PARKIN AND GERARD-IRON HEART: A TRAPPER'S THRILLING EXPERIENCE-MAJ. JOHN CARLAND. "Westward the course of empire takes its way The four first acts already past. A fifth shall close the drama with the day: -Right Rev'd George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne. This mystical verse is from lines "On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America," by Bishop Berkeley (1684-1753), contemporary with the great poets Pope and Swift and deservedly as popular, who, in the hope of Christianizing the Indians, made a futile attempt at settling and establishing a college in Newport, R. I., in 1729. These lines are illustrated in the capitol at Washington, the national seat of government, by a large painting that represents a party of immigrants among the mountains, making their journey under the greatest difficulties. The women and children and old men are in wagons drawn by oxen and horses, the men and boys on foot or riding horses and mules. There is courage, resolution and bravery shining in every countenance which compels admiration for the heroic party from all observers. Sixty years ago this painting was true to life! It was then a realistic portrayal of the popular method of going West. THE CEDED LAND IN DAKOTA The ceded land in Dakota left in unorganized territory by the admission of Minnesota to the Union, May 11, 1858, extended from the present boundary of Minnesota to the Missouri River, where it is touched by the Iowa line; up that stream to the mouth of the White Earth River and thence north to the international boundary, and this tract became attached to Nebraska until the creation of Dakota in 1861. THE UPPER MISSOURI RIVER TOWNSITE COMPANY-YANKTON FOUNDED In February, 1858, the Upper Missouri Land Company was organized for the purpose of taking possession of townsites on the Missouri River, by Capt. John B. S. Todd and associates, including D. M. Frost, Louis H. Kennerly, Edward Atkinson, A. W. Hubbard, J. K. Cook, Dr. S. P. Yeomans, and Enos Stutsman, secretary. The treaty with the Yanktons of April 19, 1858, ratified March 9th and proclaimed March 31, 1859, as described in Chapter XIV, was made possible by the activity and influence of this company among the Indians as well as at Washington. Members of the committee in charge of the treaty, were Charles F. Picotte of whom special mention has been made-William P. Lyman, Zephyr Rencontre and Theophile Brughier. Picotte was granted a section of land by the treaty which was chosen at Yankton. Other locations were made by employes of Frost, Todd & Co., in the interest of this townsite company, and the first surveys were made in accordance with their suggestions. A like grant was made to Rencontre, half a section to Paul Dorain and quarter sections to certain half breeds. THE FIRST CABIN HOME Aware of the purpose of the Missouri Land Company to gain possession of the townsite at Yankton, C. J. Holman, his father, W. P. Holman, Johnson Burritt, Gilbert Bowe, Harry Narvea, Stephen Saunders and others, came to Yankton in March, 1858, and built the Holman cabin, which was abandoned after two attacks by the Indians, upon the advice of the military authority; no treaty ceding the Indian lands having been negotiated at that time. This party was supported by Charles F. Booge, John H. Charles, Billis Roberts, Benjamin Stafford and others, of Sioux City, Iowa. The Holman cabin was the first improvement made at Yankton. Early in April, 1858, George D. Fiske and Samuel Mortimer came to Yankton, representing Frost, Todd & Company, who as licensed traders, claimed the right to remain on Indian lands. C. J. Holman returned in May and built another cabin, and though opposed by both Indians and the traders, was suffered to remain. The Fiske settlement is recognized as that of the first white person to establish a permanent home in Yankton. The trading post was built in July, 1858, under the supervision of William P. Lyman, the Picotte grant was surveyed by George M. Ryall, of Sioux City, at that time. James M. Stone, running the ferry at the James River crossing, selected land adjoining the Picotte tract, which lay next east of the Todd tract, the original townsite at Yankton. The settlers in Yankton County in June, 1858, were George B. Fiske, Samuel Mortimer, William P. Lyman, Samuel Gesou, A. B. Smith, Lytle M. Griffith and Frank Dupuis. The treaty ceding the Indian lands having been negotiated in April, 1858, Hon. Joseph R. Hanson reached Green Island, Neb., opposite Yankton, in August, 1858, and began a period of watchful waiting for the opening of ceded Vol. I-15 |