# A Brief History of South Dakota/Chapter 20

CHAPTER XX
THE NEW TERRITORY IS BORN
On the second day of March, 1861, Dakota territory was born. It included the area now occupied by North Dakota and South Dakota, and extended westward to the Rocky Mountains. One of the last official acts of James Buchanan, President of the United States, was to sign the bill creating it a free territory. And among the first acts of Abraham Lincoln as President, was to appoint his old neighbor and family physician. Dr. William Jayne, of Springfield, Illinois, first governor of Dakota territory.
It rested with the governor to determine what point in the territory should be temporary capital until such time as the legislature should select a permanent seat of government; therefore there was great rivalry among the little towns in Dakota territory to secure the favor of the new governor. In due time Governor Jayne met the other territorial officers in Chicago, and together they journeyed out to Dakota. It was reported, by a swift messenger, that Governor Jayne was driving out from Sioux City to look over the Dakota towns before he determined upon the temporary seat of government, and the enterprising town of Vermilion energetically prepared a great banquet in his honor.
​Presently a carriage containing two well-dressed gentlemen was seen approaching the village from the east, and a committee of citizens went out to meet it and welcome the new governor; the two men were invited to accompany the committee forthwith to the banquet hall. There they partook of a fine dinner, and several hours were spent in speechmaking.
The guest of honor thanked the people sincerely for the courtesy, spoke of his good impressions of the community, and declared his intention to settle among them. This declaration was greeted with hearty cheers, but at that moment three or four carriages containing a large party of well-to-do people drove through the village, stopping only for a moment, and then driving on toward Yankton. Some one brought word into the banquet hall that Governor Jayne and his party had gone through to Yankton without giving Vermilion an opportunity to show him honor. Then the chairman turned to the guest at the banquet and asked him his name. He said it was G. B. Bigelow, and he was much surprised to know that he had been mistaken for the new governor of the territory, supposing that he had met only the usual hearty welcome which the new towns of the West held out to intending settlers. Sorely as were the people of Vermilion disappointed, their sense of humor was too great to permit them to mourn long over the laughable mistake. "Governor" Bigelow lived with them for many years and in the fullness of a ripe old age died among them, respected by every one; but Yankton became the temporary and the permanent capital of Dakota territory.
​After setting up his headquarters at Yankton, Governor Jayne had a census taken, which showed 2402 white people in Dakota territory; and called an election for the choice of a delegate to Congress and members of a legislature. Then he returned to his home in Illinois to remain until the following year. Captain John Blair Smith Todd, recently resigned from the United States Captain J. B. S. Todd Army, was elected delegate to Congress. The Weekly Dakotian, which still survives as the Press and Dakotan-Gazette, was established at Yankton on the 6th of June, 1861, and the Vermilion Republican was established in July of that year.
By proclamation Governor Jayne called the legislature to convene at Yankton on March 17 (St. Patrick's day), 1862, and he returned to Dakota in time for that event. There were nine members of the council and thirteen members of the house, and seldom has a more remarkable body of men been gathered together. This territorial legislature was at once named "the Pony Congress" ​and is so known to this day. The members were mostly young men, many of them possessing great ability, and well educated; but they represented, too, the careless, carefree, happy-go-lucky life of the frontier.
The location of the capital was the matter of most importance. Bon Homme, Yankton, and Vermilion were all candidates for that honor. The Yankton men, shrewd politicians that they were, before the organization of the legislature offered to John H. Shober, of Bon Homme, the presidency of the council and to George M. Pinney, of Bon Homme, the speakership of the House, in consideration of which Pinney and Shober were to give up the ambitions of Bon Homme to be the capital and were to support Yankton for that honor, while the territorial penitentiary was to be located at Bon Homme. Upon this understanding both houses of the legislature were organized. James Somers, a noted desperado of the Dakota frontier, was made sergeant-at-arms of the House.
When the people of Bon Homme learned of the trade by which their prospects for the location of the territorial capital had been defeated, they brought such pressure to bear upon Speaker Pinney that, when the bill came up for final passage in the House, having first gone through the Council all right, Pinney left the speaker's chair and moved to substitute Bon Homme for Yankton in the bill. This motion was defeated; he then moved to substitute Vermilion for Yankton, and the motion prevailed.
When Pinney was elected speaker, he had agreed in writing to support Yankton for capital; his perfidy ​filled the Yanktonians with righteous indignation, and they therefore sought the best means to humiliate him. At the suggestion of some of the citizens, Sergeant-at-arms Jim Somers agreed, at the following session, when the bill was to come up for reconsideration, to take the speaker forcibly from his chair and throw him through the window, out of the legislative hall. Somebody talked about the conspiracy, news of the plan came to Pinney's ears, and he appealed to the governor for protection. Company A of the Dakota cavalry had recently been organized and was stationed in town, and the governor promptly ordered a squad of soldiers to go into the hall and protect the speaker in the discharge of his duty. Having thus obstructed the conspirators' plan for revenge, Pinney sat through the session of the day, but the opposition to him was so great that he was compelled to resign.
Jim Somers, however, could not be kept out of his fun. That evening Speaker Pinney stepped into a saloon on Broadway. Somers and a party of his cronies were standing at the bar. As Pinney approached the bar Somers caught him in his arms, carried him across the hall to a closed window, and threw him out. The speaker carried the sash with him and alighted on the ground outside, wearing the sash about his neck.
Second Schoolhouse in the Dakotas, at Vermilion, 1864
It was the middle of May before the Pony Congress adjourned, and the closing scenes beggared everything in the way of coarse fun and horseplay which has characterized the many succeeding sessions. The weather was fine, and for three days and nights before the end the members indulged in a continuous open-air carousal. One of the incidents of those jocund days is thus described by Hon. Moses K. Armstrong, who was a member of the house of representatives: "I happened to cross the street one morning at the peep of day and there I beheld, beside a smoldering camp fire, two lusty legislators, Malony and McBride, holding a kicking cow by the horns, and a third, John Stanage, pulling his full weight at the cow's tail. On either side of the heifer sat Councilmen Bramble and Stutsman, with pails in hand, making sorrowful but vain attempts at teasing milk enough from the quadruped to make their final pitcher of eggnog. Off on one side sprawled the corpulent Representative Donaldson, convulsed with laughter, and in front of the scene stood the eloquent lawmaker Boyle (afterward justice of the Supreme Court) with hat, coat, and boots off, making a military speech, and imploring the cow to give down in behalf of her country."