The Squatter Government at Sioux Falls

W. W. Brookings

BY WAYNE FANEBUST

People began looking to the West while they were building the first towns and cities on the Atlantic coast. Everyone understood that they were facing a vast wilderness, fraught with danger unprecedented challenges. But for many people, the potential rewards outweighed the unknown threats. This eagerness for westward expansion was not lost on the many promoters and their schemes. Looking toward selling guide books and other materials needed for traveling, the schemers understood that both water and water power would attract those with adventuresome minds and ambitions.

One such man was Jacob Ferris who in 1856, wrote and published a book entitled Territories and States in the Great Northwest, that introduced thousands of curious people to the wonders of nature including falls of the Big Sioux River. Two companies, anxious to engage in town site speculation, were each very much attracted to the mysterious and far way falls, and having read Ferris’ book, both were soon on a collision course in an effort to get there first and claim the water power and the land surrounding it.

The first to arrive in the fall of 1856, were two men from the Western Town Company of Dubuque, Iowa. They claimed the falls for their company and had representatives there the following spring when their rivals from the Dakota Land Company of St. Paul, Minnesota arrived on the scene. Perhaps sensing the big prize had been fairly claimed, both town site companies set about the matter of town building. Each company having claimed 320 acres, the enterprising men had work to do. As such, Sioux Falls and Sioux Falls City were created separately, although they were destined to merge into one entity.

On the wild frontier, the need to feel safe and secure can hardly be understated. While a church or a school was often the first institution to be established in a pioneer settlement, putting together some rudimentary

THE SQUATTER GOVERNMENT AT SIOUX FALLS CITY

Originally part of Minnesota Territory, Sioux Falls City was founded during a time of widespread town site speculation on the frontier. In 1856 members of the Western Town Company of Dubuque, Iowa, arrived at the falls of the Big Sioux River and staked their claim under federal law. The following year, members of the Dakota Land Company from St. Paul, Minnesota, claimed adjacent land. Much of what is now downtown Sioux Falls was claimed by the two companies.

In 1857 the Minnesota Territorial legislature created Big Sioux County designating Sioux Falls City the county seat, and the business of government proceeded alongside the affairs of the promoters. All went fairly well until May 11, 1858, when Minnesota was admitted to the Union, leaving Sioux Falls City outside its boundaries and beyond the pale of law and order.

The settlers believed a new territory, popularly known as Dakota, or Dakotah, would be created by Congress forthwith. They wanted the capital located in Sioux Falls City and the key government jobs for themselves. Toward that end, a member of the Da-kota Land Company was sent to Washington, D. C., to act as a delegate to Congress. A printing press was hauled in from St. Paul and a newspaper, the Dakota Democrat, was established. Next, they issued a call for a “mass convention” to be followed by a general election. Some settlers argued that law and order was urgently needed to prevent Dakota from becoming the domain of outlaws.

An election was held and on October 12,1858, a squatter legislature

THE SQUATTER GOVERNMENT AT SIOUX FALLS CITY

convened. A code of laws was adopted, and a number of other bills were considered by the squatter legislators, acting with the utmost dignity in a frontier setting.

Legislation was subsequently introduced in Congress to create “Dakotah Territory.” A House bill es-tablished Sioux Falls City as the temporary capital and legalized the work of the squatter legislature. Unfortu-nately, however, it failed to pass, leaving the handful of Dakotans in legal limbo.

Undaunted, the sturdy pioneers held another convention at the “Dakota House,” near the site of this marker, followed by an election on September 12,1859. Voters again elected a delegate to Congress, a gover-nor and a legislature. Like their predecessors, the new squatter legislature worked with dedication and spirit.

Once again, however, their efforts were prema-ture. Congress was grappling with the thorny problems of slavery and states rights, and largely ignored the ambitions of the Dakotans. At long last, on March 2, 1861, Dakota Territory was created by Congress and the settlers were squatters no more.

DEDICATED IN 1994 BY THE MINNEHAHA COUNTY AND SOUTH DAKOTA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETIES, MINNEHAHA CENTURY FUND, AND MARY CHILTON DAR AND SIOUX FALLS AREA FOUNDATIONS

form of government was also an important priority. After all, the pioneers had lived under some form of federal or local government back East so law and order had become a natural part of their lives. Town site speculators had to convince would-be settlers that their town was safe and orderly, and soon after their plat maps were laid out with parks, streets and avenues, the business of setting up a local government was given prompt attention.

The settlement at the falls of the Big Sioux River was no exception, but the matter of establishing and maintaining authority was anything but routine. The town was founded through the combined efforts of the Western Town Company and the Dakota Land Company so it was deemed important that men from both entities hold positions of authority. At the outset, Sioux Falls City and other town sites along the Big Sioux River were a part of Minnesota Territory, but they were so far from the capital in St. Paul, that time and distance were serious issues.

The Dakota Land Company used its influence with the Minnesota territorial legislature and before the year 1857 ended, Big Sioux County was created and Sioux Falls City was designated the county seat. Not long after, Minnesota became a state, leaving many of the newly formed towns such as Medary (present day Brookings County), Eminija, and Flandrau beyond its borders, unorganized, and without law and order.

So with no legitimate form of government to guide them, the settlers became “squatters,” an uncomplimentary label that simply meant that these men had no lawful ability to hold political office. But the hopeful men--and their women waiting in St. Paul and Dubuque, where they enjoyed minimal comforts-believed that the federal officials would soon create Dakota Territory. Congress, however, was in no hurry to act so the ambitious speculators went about forming a “squatter” government. While their motivations were far from altruistic, this handful of hardy settlers proceeded as would any band of colonists, isolated in the wilderness.

So it was during the winter of 1857-58, while the combined population of Sioux Falls and Sioux Falls City was a mere sixteen, it had one official for every two citizens but no one complained about a top-heavy bureaucracy. And it is noteworthy that men from both town site companies were chosen to hold office. These men took their offices in December, and as winter was in full swing, very little of a political or official nature was done. All the energies and efforts of the colonists had to be applied to surviving their first Dakota winter.

Then in February of 1858, tragedy struck and nearly derailed all the speculators noble plans and ideas. It started when W. W. Brookings, who was managing the affairs of the Western Town Company, left Sioux Falls City on horseback one cold morning along with Smith Kinsey. The two men were on mission for their company. But it was an ill-timed move, for Brookings and his horse slipped through the ice while crossing the Split Rock River, and as a result, he could have easily frozen to death on the prairie. As it turned out Brookings nearly died at the town site. His friend, also from Maine, Dr. J, L. Phillips cut off both legs of his friend, about four inches above the knees. Brookings lived but he was disabled for the rest of his life.

Brookings and his colleagues had a die hard belief in their goals. Both town site companies persisted in the belief that if they stayed and built, others would join them. Their beliefs were given substance by news that the U. S. Senate passed the Homestead Act that would give 160 acres of land to the settler who lived on it and improved it. While some viewed this as a give-away, and a disaster to creditors, the land hungry saw it as timely deliverance during a depression. And while the House had yet to act in favor, the prevailing opinion held that it would do so at some future time.

A “Sioux Falls correspondent,” to the Washington Union urged the “sons and daughters of the east, of the middle, and southern sates...” to push “out into the undressed garden of the sunset land.” In a piece that could have been taken from a Dakota Land Company minute book, he called Dakota a land of “salubrious clime,” with “rich and inexhaustible soil.” He predicted that in a “year or two hence,” America would see on “the upper Missouri, and the Big Sioux and James Rivers, fleets of lofty steamers astonishing the natives with their shrill whistles,” and filling up the land with people and merchandise.

Support from a distant newspaper could only be encouraging to the hardy band of speculators. Soon a hierarchy of talent took to the fore. Artemas Gale, Alpheus G. Fuller, Charles E. Flandrau and Jefferson P. Kidder, emerged as leaders of the St. Paul company. Also noteworthy was that W. W. Brookings, Dr. J. L. Phillips and John McClellan took the reins of leadership for the Dubuque company. These men saw themselves as leaders and future office holders in the land they called Dakota.

They conducted “mass meetings” in Medary and Sioux Falls City, although the number of attendees was anything but massive. Nevertheless, it was reported that at a recent election held for Congressional Delegate, six hundred votes were polled in the Territory of which number Alpheus G. Fuller, Esq., received over five hundred votes. The “election” referred to above was held on October 13, 1857, although it was not an election in a true sense. In fact it was openly and shamelessly rigged. Three or four men would hitch up the wagons and travel out over the prairie. They would make various stops and set up “precincts,” and as there were far to few actual voters, they would down some whisky and write down the names of friends and relatives back east who, it was claimed, fully intended to someday move to Dakota.

When news of this “election” reached St. Paul, it drew friendly fire from a rival newspaper: the St. Paul Daily Minnesotian thoughtfully pointed out that “Dakotah” is a myth. It existed solely as a “popular assumption without any law to authorize or sustain it.”

Jefferson P. Kidder S. A. Albright, editor of “The Democrat”, Sioux Falls’ first newspaper

This was not meant to disrespect the popular Fuller, a successful St. Paul entrepreneur who migrated west from Connecticut. The writer of the article acknowledged the genuine need for representation in Congress by deserving people, but until Minnesota was admitted to the Union, the settlements in Dakota were merely a part of Minnesota Territory

Most historians agree that the leadership of the Dakota Land Company was consistently more forceful and powerful than their Dubuque rivals. In 1858, they convinced a veteran newspaper man named Samuel J. Albright to load up his press and take root in Sioux Falls City. Albright was only too pleased to be the first man to publish a newspaper in the fledgling town. He set up his press in a small stone building near the Big Sioux River and went to work in a manner that reflected his belief that he was on the ground floor of a dream enterprise that could only move up.

And while the creative and enterprising Sioux Falls boosters were asserting themselves most vigorously, another, equally determined group of men on the Yankton slope of the Missouri River put forth their goals. Led by John Blair Smith Todd, a brother-in-law to future President Abraham Lincoln, these men had their sites set on the big prize: the capital city of Dakota Territory, something that all knowledgeable men believed was destined to happen,

For Albright, Fuller, Todd and their fellow Dakota pioneers, there was much work ahead and the two camps---Sioux Falls and Yankton--were up to the challenge. The Dakota Land Company refused to let Fuller’s loss put an end to their plans for territorial dominance; they wanted the territorial capital too. As the speculators were unwilling to throw in the towel, they sent Jefferson P. Kidder to Washington, D. C., in 1859, hoping he would succeed where Fuller failed. Once again Congress was unimpressed. With sectional strife raging and a looming civil conflict on the horizon, the wishes of a handful of speculators in the far West were easy to ignore.

Suffice it to say at this point, Todd and his Yankton allies had been, in part, responsible for defeating Fuller, Kidder and the Dakota Land Company. But no one was ready to quit and all would be heard from again as the opposing groups struggled for control of Dakota’s political and economic destiny.