History of Spink County, South Dakota

The reason for the picture of the phesant is because that is the State Bird of South Dakota.

WINTER OF THE DEEP SNOW In the fall of 1880 Spink County was a stretch of fertile prairie with only a beginning of improvements. There were in the county no railroads and no towns. There were some rail road grades and town sites that were not completed until the next year. The more than a hundred miles of live streams in the county had only one bridge and two ferries serving traffic. There were no developed highways. The roads were only trails that rambled over the prairies, many of them crossing streams at points that could be forded.

Nearly all of the settlers in the county at that time had located along the James River. A few had settled at the sites of Redfield and Northville, anticipating arrival of the railroad the next summer. Some of the settlers had their first residences in caves, and many had sod houses. Framed houses with lath and plaster were scarce in those days. The first general election was held in the fall of 1880 at which 245 votes were cast at three polling places, all on the James River. At Belcher's Ford, near the present town of Frankfort, 116 votes were cast, at Old Ashton 96 votes were cast, and at Foster City, 33 votes, totaling 245 voters going to the polls. Counting five persons to each voter then living in the county would bring the population to 1225. Assuming that some of the voters did not go to the polls, the population might be estimated as about 2000 people who endured the hardships of that worst of all winters.

The famous blizzard, which covered a great part of the northwest, began October 15 and raged for three days. That blanket of snow remained on the ground throughout the winter and was followed by other storms until eleven feet of snow had fallen. In February of 1881 there was a thaw and then a freeze up which put a crust of hard snow on the surface. This made travelling perilous for man and beast.

By midwinter food supplies, especially flour, ran low and with some settlers were exhausted entirely. Most of the settlers who had supplies on hand shared generously with neighbors who were in need. On many homesteads coffee mills were used for grinding grain into meal from which bread was made for the family table. History says that it was an all day job for one person to grind meal to feed a sizable family and save the members thereof from going to bed hungry.

Watertown and Huron were the nearest towns at which food supplies were available. At one time or other four horse teams hauling sleds were sent on hazardous trips for supplies. On breaking through the snow crust the horses' legs became gashed to the bleeding point. Grain sacks were then wrapped around the legs of the horses so that the trip could go on and supplies be obtained. The endless white glare of the snow caused many cases of snow blindness. Mail carriers were stranded on their routes for weeks at a time; delivery of mail was blocked. But the winter wore on and spring came. Then more settlers by thousands arrived and the development of the county was resumed with renewed vigor.

THE FIRST SCHOOL The first school house in Spink County was built on a one acre plot located on the NE corner of NW 1/4 Section 25, Twp.117, Range 64, acquired from the land of Phillip Runser Sr. The school house was built by Mr. Spicer of Watertown. A. Stanley Hall and Roswell Bottum were directors of the school. They engaged Mr. Hall's sister, Florence Hall to teach the first three months and the school was opened in July 1880. Other early teachers of the school were the Misses Georgia Ellis and Ada Draper.

Among the earliest pupils were Robert and Anna Runser, Robert Kneisel, William and Charles Baker, Robert Simmons, Lucy Tubbs, Charles and William Sweet, Lida and Ruth Bowman. This information is furnished by R.A. Runser, one of the first pupils in the school, living in 1933 at Foxboro, Wisconsin.

The first school house was occupied for school purposes nearly fifty years and then was replaced by a new school building on the same ground. The original building, still in good shape, was removed to a site on Highway No. 41, about midway between Ashton and Redfield and it is now occupied by the officials of Three Rivers Township and the Farmers Union.

TWO BLIZZARDS The famous and destructive snow storms of October 14, 1880 and January 12, 1888 were the worst storms in the history of the county and well earned the name of being real blizzards. I witnessed both blizzards and in the first one I drove for two hours with snow falling on me.

On October 15, 1880 I was in the town of Eden in Union County. On the morning of that day I started to take an all day drive in the county on business. The morning was mild and gave no indication of a storm coming, but it began to be cloudy in the middle of the forenoon. At noon I stopped at a farm about fifteen miles out from town, had the horses fed and took dinner with the farmer. During the dinner hour moist snow began to fall but did not seem threatening. I was in a quandry whether to go further in the country and finish the work office day or to return to town, but finally decided to return and it was well that I did so. The snowfall increased rapidly and became blinding. In the last two miles before reaching town I could hardly see the road or the horses, but I arrived safely about three o'clock in the afternoon. The storm went on and we guests in the over-crowded hotel were confined under the roof for three days.

The fury of the second blizzard, the one of January 12, 1888, was greater and more destructive of human beings and live stock than the first one. The weather was colder and the wind high. I was then at my home in Ashton. It was hazaardous to attempt the trip between my house and the office though it was but a few blocks. In the country so blinding was the snow that people were lost and perished within a few rods of their houses.

If my memory is right these two storms were the only ones ever occurring in the northwest entitled to the name of blizzard, if the amount of destructiveness is considered. Other storms have been severe but fortunately not of the intensity of the two genuine blizzards.

GENERAL BEADLE MENANCED BY DRIFITING GOOSE General W.H.H. Beadle, a civil engineer, was appointed Surveyor General of Dakota Territory by President U.S. Grant. In June 1873 he was with a party of six men surveying along the James River (they called the Dakota for its entire length).

While in the vicinity of the junction of Turtle River and Snake Creek with the James River, about the center of the present Spink County, they were met by Drifting Goose at the head of 130 to 140 Indians, with squaws among them, and ordered to deliver their teams and wagons to the Indians and then get out of the country. There was some parleying and offering of food and tobacco to the Indians but they refused it. Suddenly an Indian grabbed the bridles of a team and attempted to lead the team away. General Beadle seized the Indian and hurled him staggering to the ground. When the Indian got to his feet he looked into the muzzle of Beadle's shotgun which was loaded with buckshot. Standing at the side of the general and facing the Indians were his men with guns aimed at the group of Indians who hesitated and refrained from displaying their guns.

The teams were then started away from the Indians, Beadle and his men walking backwards in the rear of the teams, and facing the Indians with guns aimed ready to fire. The general cautioned his men not to fire unless he gave the words. In this way the party escaped without a conflict and resumed work of surveying in another part of the river valley.

That meeting with the Indians was extremely dangerous though not a gun was fired. If either party had begun firing General Beadle and his men undoubtedly would have been massacred as they were outnumbered many times over by the Indians.

THE INDIAN CAPITOL OF DAKOTA AND THE FAMOUS COUNCIL STONE It would seem that Dakota Territory had three capitols, one after another. First there was the Indian Capitol situated on the banks of the James River within the present boundaries of Spink County, according to Indain tradition; second, the white men's capitol at Yankton on the Missouri River at the south boundary of the territory; and third at Bismark, on the upper stretch of the Missouri in the northern part of the territory. The following quoted letter by attorney John J. Cushing of Ashton fully describes the Indian capitol. It is likely that General Beadle named the Council Stone the Indian Capitol in his conversation with Mr. Cushing. The Council Stone was situated on land that afterwards became the homestead of Louis Kneisel, the SW 1/4 Sec.23, Twp.117, Range 64. The stone was afterwards removed, probably by vandals. This historic site is close to a present school in Spink County. _______________________________________________

Ashton, S.Dak., special correspondence to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 5, 1883. Yesterday, in company with General W.H.H. Beadle, your correspondent visited the famous Council Stone a few miles south of this city. This is the spot where the various tribes of Southeastern Dakota met annually or oftener and held their councils of war and peace, and therefore may properly be termed the Indian Capitol of Dakota. It is probable that the location was chosen on account of its accessibility, scenery, and other natural advantages, and to the observing traveler it is evident they could not have made a better selection. Notwithstanding this was once the Indian Capitol of Dakota our late capitol commission refused to visit the historic spot or even to consider its claim for the honor of the first capitol of Dakota, and the spot which marked it will always remain a place of interest for the historian, tourist, and antiquarian. The famou Council Stone is a smooth oviate-diameter shaped black boulder about six inches one way, and eleven inches long, and stands in the center of the council chamber. The council chamber consists of stones placed around a circle, about fifteen feet in diameter, the ground scooped out so that the Indians could sit around in a circle, with their feet inclined towards the center. This chamber is capable of seating some twelve concillors; seven of whom would be a majority. As there were so many tribes in the valley at the time when those legislatures met, it is probable that each tribe had one representative in the council. The scenery around the old council stone is unequalled in the James River Valley. Standing on the left bank of the river where the river makes a curve to the southeast, upon a high bluff is this famous council stone. For miles up and down the valley the view is unobstructed, and the many windings of the James River Valley, with the trees along its banks, the large fields of ripening grain, the several towns to the north and south, and the Wessington Hills to the westward, allvisible, it presents a picture beyond description. To the east a short distance are the Dirt lodges, once the homes of the Indians bearing that name. It was just opposite this council stone that General Beadle and his party of surveyors so narrowly escaped being massacred by the Indians in June 1873, and yesterday was the first time that he had visited the spot since. Until the last two years the Indians have returned once a year and removed the weeds and grass from around the council stone. Since then it has been neglected, and a few years more the Indian Capitol of Dakota will be known only in history. - John J. Cushing

DIRT LODGES It appears that in timbered regions, such as along the James River, the Indians had a way of building winter quarters of poles sided and roofed with sod. Such structures were known as dirt lodges. From the best information obtainable it seems that there were two Indian camps or villages in the county of the dirt lodge type. At a very early date a village named Dirt Lodges was established on an elevation of the prairie a short distance east of the James River near the present northern boundary line of Spink County. The village was built and occupied for a long time by outlaw Indians. The location was directly east of Duxbury Station, or Bright P.O., on the Milwaukee Railroad. The latest Indian occupants of this neighborhood were the Sioux Chief Drifting Goose and his tribe.

Another village of dirt lodges was located in the center of the county about three miles northeast of the junction of Turtle River with the James River.

ABIGAIL GARDNER RESCUE TABLET At Spirit Lake, Iowa, in the spring of 1857, renegade Indians, after massacring white settlers at that place, kidnapped Abigail Gardner, a girl in her teens, and brought her out to the James River in Dakota. They camped on the river within the boundaries of the present Spink County. At this point friendly Indians rescued Miss Gardner and she returned to her home at Spirit Lake.

The Daughters of the American Revolution have erected two monuments commemorating the rescue of Miss Gardner. A concrete marker was built at the point on the river where she was rescued. A second monument of granite and concrete with bronze plate was placed a short distance west of the river on Hightway No. 41, about three miles north of Redfield. The inscription on this tablet read:

ABOUT ONE MILE EAST OF THIS SPOT ABBIE GARDNER WAS DELIVERED TO HER RESCUERS ON MAY 30, 1857, AFTER EIGHT-THREE DAYS OF CAPTIVITY AMONG THE SIOUX INDIANS FOLLOWING THE SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE IN IOWA

THIS TABLET PLACED BY CHARLOTTE WARRINGTON TURNER CHAPTER DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

ARMADALE FUR POST In 1832 an Indian fur trading station was established by William Dickson on the James River in the northern part of what is now Spink County. This station was known as Armadale and was an important fur trading post down to the time the district was surveyed and the Indians removed. Indians frequently had villages or camps adjacent to fur trading stations. The usual accompaniement of an Indian camp sprang up at Armadale.

The prevailing opinion seems to be that fur traders were the earliest introducers of civilization to Indians, but that view is not supported by the records of history. At too many fur trading posts the abnormal thirst of Indians for liquor was catered to and the Indians while drunk gave up their furs far below value. The primitive integrity of Indians was demoralized by fur traders. Hence the traders could not reasonably be called civilizers. The earliest actual introducers of true civilization were the frontiersmen. Indians got the benefits of civilization from missionaries, not from liquor-dealing fur traders.

AN INDIAN SCARE George Bowman, early settler and one of the first board of county commissioners, told a story of an Indian scare in which he was a witness. There was with a group of prospectors from Boston approaching the James River a vainglorious individual by the name of James Fox, who imagined he had scouting ability. He was armed and togged out as a scout.

Indians at that time in the region were peaceful and on friendly terms with the whites, but some of the Boston party had fears. Anticipating that they were in the vicinity of Indians, Fox went ahead to do some scouting. He disappeared behind an elevation on the prairie, but in a short time came running back all out of breath and was only able to gasp "Indians!" Another party was sent out to reconnoiter and over the brow of the hill they discovered a tent and standing in front of it a white man who proved to be George Bowman.

***I found this paper amongst my grandmother's things. I am not sure if it is all fact or not. I can only offer it for the use of others. Some of the things stated I was able to check out and those were actual facts. Again, I am not stating that this is absolute fact!***



SOME GREAT LINKS

The A.N. CLAUSEN FAMILY
1905 photo and some history.
THIS IS US!!
Come and meet Dean and Karla.
MY GUESTBOOK
Let us know what you think, and if you have any other information.
MORE OF OUR BABIES!
If you like the felines of the world, come and meet our special "kids"!
KASEY
Our blue and gold macaw! He is the biggest baby we have!
KIRA'S HOME
Come and visit one of my friends that has a really cool site!
LUTHERAN ROOTS GENEALOGY EXCHANGE
Great site if you are Lutheran or are from Lutheran Roots!
GENEALOGICAL DATABASE INDEX
Just what it says, and more!
FAMILY TREE MAKER'S GENEALOGY SITE
Working on your family tree? Check this out!
SPINK COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA, GENEALOGY
A link to some further info and sites for South Dakota genealogy.
TIME PASSAGES GENEALOGY OF THE DAKOTAS
Just what it says. More great info on the great Dakotas!
SDGENWEB ARCHIVES COUNTY SELECTION
A great resource to check things out by county in South Dakota
CYNDI'S LIST OF GENEALOGY SITES ON THE INTERNET
A great place to find just about any genealogy link that you could possibly imagine!
KINDRED KONNECTIONS
More genealogy info and great links.
OUR HUMAN KIDS
These are pictures of two of our six children!!

Karla Poulos

dean_karla@geocities.com

Homosassa, FLORIDA