HORSE DRAWN STREET CAR LINE in Sioux Falls

BY WAYNE FANEBUST

By mid-1880s, Sioux Falls was putting on metropolitan airs. Although it was a town with just a few thousand people, its citizens referred to their “metropolis” as the “Queen City.” It was actively challenging Yankton, the “Mother City,” as the leading town in Dakota Territory. Sioux Falls considered itself to be the best of Dakota and demanded respect accordingly.

The town enjoyed a building boom in 1886, with several new city blocks and fine residences going up. Sioux Falls had been blessed from the beginning with a fine location, but it was its people that made it stand out among western communities. Led by a group of aggressive, ambitious businessmen, the town became a model for growth and enterprise in the Northwest.

By 1886, Sioux Falls had a waterworks, telephones, gas heat and electric lights. It also had a small packing plant, a polishing works, several thriving stone quarries and a number of wholesale houses. Town lots that sold for $80.00 in 1878 were selling for $800.00, its unpaved streets were muddy when wet, but never mind for men were busy looking back upon their frontier experiences while enjoying the landmarks of progress. Old photographs from the 1870s were hunted up, passed around and used to measure the rapid growth of the city.

Two and three story brick and stone buildings had replaced the frame structures along Phillips Avenue, and the residential section on the bluffs featured homes that were praised for their style and luxury. Notwithstanding all these desirable features, something was missing: Sioux Falls had no form of public transportation. But that was soon to change for a horse-drawn streetcar line was just around the proverbial corner.

Sioux Falls’ biggest and most enthusiastic booster was R. F. Pettigrew, who had pitched his tent on town site dirt in 1870. Along with other leading citizens, “Frank” Pettigrew promoted the creation of a streetcar line that would inch its way around the town by way of horses and mules. It was a part of Pettigrew’s master plan that included another railroad and a variety of manufacturing plants that would employ men and utilize local produce. All this would encourage population growth and increase the value of real estate.

After months of discussion, the city council granted a franchise to D. Elwell, who was the manager of the Queen Bee Mill. Elwell failed to take any steps toward building the line so the council looked to Pettigrew. He accepted the challenge and boldly stated that “I am willing to put in one mile of the line each year for three years,” and added that “we will want Phillips Avenue.” And while he approached the project with some caution, everyone knew that when Pettigrew wanted something, he wanted it desperately.

It took him about two weeks to commit to the project that he wanted to build for the benefit of the city as whole. But then out of nowhere, he had competition in the person of George Higgins from New York City. Higgins was an unknown quantity, who refused to post a bond, and was easily outgunned by Pettigrew, the home town entrepreneur. Under City Ordinance Number 41, Pettigrew got the green light and he formed a corporation called the Sioux Falls City Street Railway Company with a capital stock of $150,000.00. The ordinance allowed the company to operate the line by horse or electricity, so long as it was in operation by October 1, 1887.

Pettigrew had almost total control over the project and was determined to build it and have it up and running on time. Not long after he was granted the franchise, he posted a $5,000.00 bond and he was off to Chicago to buy materials. But not before he hired an Omaha contractor to do the construction. Soon the dirt was flying. Meanwhile the cars were being made in Waterloo, Iowa. He wanted to model his line — the first and only in Dakota Territory — after the one in Winona, Minnesota.

The line started at the intersection of 6th Street and Phillips Avenue next to the Milwaukee Railroad depot. From there, it ran south on Phillips to 11th Street where it turned west to Summit Avenue. Only one mile was scheduled for 1887. An enthusiastic Pettigrew said that the venture wouldn’t make a profit during the first year of operation, nevertheless he said: “I will be willing to sink the expense of running the line just for the fun of hearing the bell ring as the cars roll up Phillips Avenue.”

On November 3, 1887, the horse-drawn street car made its first run. Patronage was surprisingly good and the first day’s revenue was $16.30. Thereafter receipts averaged about $15.00 per day as people seemed to be attracted by the newness and novelty of it all. Cars carried 12 to 15 passengers and the fare was 5 cents, although some folks didn’t understand the coin box and put in too much money. To Pettigrew the cars were his “beauties,” and, along with the horses and mules, were garaged at night at a facility on

11th Street, across the street from the present day Washington Pavilion.

If Pettigrew wasn’t impressed with the income potential from his street railway, he surely understood what its operation would mean to real estate values. Having public transportation through the developing residential areas of town was certain to make the new neighborhoods attractive to prospective buyers. The real estate firm of Pettigrew and S. L. Tate was going great guns, capitalizing on the sharp rise in the value of Sioux Falls real property. They could afford to tinker with something like a street railway when their land sales profits were so high. The streetcars brought status to the city, added to the speculative fever, and were a source of pride for Pettigrew and Tate.

In the spring of 1888, Pettigrew and Tate donated four acres of land on the southwestern edge of Sioux Falls for the location of the Norwegian Lutheran Normal School, now Augustana University. Pettigrew announced that along with the donation, he would extend his streetcar line “right up to the college door” on Summit Avenue. By summertime 1888, four cars were in operation with two more scheduled to be added, and as a bonus, stoves were promised for a warmer ride in winter.

Sioux Falls enjoyed a record year in 1888 as public-spirited citizens vied with one another

HORSE-DRAWN STREETCARS

At the urging of the Sioux Falls City Council, in March of 1887, Richard F. Pettigrew agreed to build and operate the city’s first public transit system. After the city council granted him a franchise, Pettigrew, who was a pub-lic-spirited civic leader and a visionary entrepreneur, imme-diately set out to construct a horse-drawn streetcar line. He had committed to build at least one mile of line each year for three years. He formed a corporation called the Sioux Falls City Street Railway Company with a capital stock of $150,000. As company president, Pettigrew had complete control over the venture. He was enthusiastic because the line would bring prestige to the city and raise real estate values, including his property.

The line started at the intersection of 6th Street and Phillips Avenue, running south on Phillips Avenue to 11th Street, then west to Summit Avenue. Pettigrew conceded that his line might not be profitable, but that he would build it for the city he loved and “for the fun of hearing the bell ring as the cars roll up Phillips Avenue.” On Novem-ber 3, 1887, the horse-drawn cars took the first passengers along Phillips Avenue, then just a dirt road. The cars, built in Waterloo, Iowa, carried up to 15 people. The fare was 5 cents. At first there were plenty of passengers because it was a new and novel experience. A stable was built on 11th Street and Main Avenue for the horses and streetcars.

In 1888, the line was extended south on Summit Avenue toward the town of South Sioux Falls, Pettigrew’s new industrial

HORSE-DRAWN STREETCARS

suburb. Four cars were in operation with two more scheduled to be added, along with a promise to install stoves for warmer winter rides. A year later, the line reached the area and terminated at the Buffalo House Hotel. The line also brought summer excursionists to “Pettigrew’s Pasture” near the hotel. It was a 60-acre menagerie of plains animals that included buffalo, prairie dogs, and deer.

Unfortunately, by 1889 the economic fortunes of Sioux Falls began to sag, and investors grew wary as the new decade began. By the fall of 1893 the entire nation was in the grip of a severe depression. By this time Petti-grew was a United States Senator with important connec-tions. But Pettigrew’s plans and projects, along with those of his fellow Sioux Falls boosters, were either slowed or stopped.

The horse-drawn streetcar line became a victim of the hard times. It was operated haphazardly during the depression years, and, as it was not making a profit, Petti-grew and his partners refused to put money into improve-ments or extensions. Employees who continued to work on the line were allowed to keep whatever money they took in from passengers. Finally the line ceased operation altogether in mid 1896, and three years later the cars and barn were sold and the tracks were torn up.

over plans for new city blocks. Proposals, blueprints and designs were flying around like paper airplanes. Real estate often sold at exorbitant prices, as if there wasn’t enough to go around.

It seems as if Pettigrew was pumped up as never before and his ambition seemed limitless. After the streetcar line reached the new college on Summit Avenue, it was extended further south to a new suburb called South Sioux Falls. Here Pettigrew and his allies set out to build factories that would make useful products by utilizing local produce and hiring local men. A menagerie with buffalo and other indigenous species, called “Pettigrew’s Pasture” became a local destination and a three-story hotel named the Buffalo House Hotel became the dominant feature of the new community. And of course, the streetcar line carried people to and from the hotel.

Everything seemed to be going well for Pettigrew and his associates, but what they needed was a crystal ball, for unknown to the giddy investors, hard times were coming like a cloud laden with staggering losses.

In 1893, events in the east triggered an unprecedented financial collapse called the Panic of 1893. South Sioux Falls, which had been incorporated as a city, saw its factories fail. During the oppressive winter of 1893-94,

Pettigrew was forced to play spectator to an avalanche of ruined companies.

In the wake of the depression, the horsedrawn streetcar line limped along haphazardly after Pettigrew and Tate quit putting money into it. As it couldn’t support itself, service was cut back and employees were laid off. Those that stayed on were allowed to keep whatever money they made. After plodding along without direction and profit, the cars quit altogether by mid-1896, during the height of the great depression. In 1899, the cars and barn that housed them were sold and the tracks torn out, thus ending a short, but colorful chapter in local history.

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That’s what Jenny Downey thought, anyway, until - after 24 years in Sioux Fallsshe and her husband Neil moved to Brandon.

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