Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-10-29
AN IOWA ROMANCE.
Sallie HambIeton, Otherwise Belle CIin.
ton, and Her Dakota Homestead.

Ne1Qdd (Id.) RepreseRtdtiUe.
Belle ClintOn's fame has touched two
oceans. To the people of Nevada she is
known as Sallie Hambleton-the grave.
gentle maiden who, since she came here
a little sunny y-haired lass in the parental
ark, has glided quietly among us from the
door of her fathers pretty cottage in Linn
street. The catechism she learned i'm the
Methodist Sunday school, the three RS in
the old school house, and the ologies
were pursued at the Agricultural Col
lege till broken health called
halt. One long winter she stu
died this problem of her own. Given
physical untitness for the avOcations by
which Iowa young women ordinarily earn
livelihood, how is independence to be
secured: And in the following summer,
$780, she set about its practical solution.
An expedition, inspired by her zeal, and
consisting of herself, her mother as cha
perOn and commissary of the party, her
sister May, and two young friends of the
''male persuasion" set out in a prairie
schooner for the great Northwest. Two
weeks of journeying over a circuitous
route brought them to the home of her
college classmate, near a station which
was ringing for the first time with the
Shrek of the locomotive. This was the
nucleus of the now booming city of Mitch
ell, the mart of Southeastern Dakota.
Near the residence of her friend Miss
Hambleton selected her homestead and
timber lot and in the Land office Of David
son county entered her claim. After a
weeks stay the pioneer party returned,
brown, vigorous and enthusiastic The
spring took our hOmesteader again to
Mitchell and she supervised the building
of her Shanty, the breaking stipulated bY
law and the planting of her timber. Her
cabin was supplied with such comforts as
circumstances allowed and the place be-
came known to passers-by as ''the school
ma'am's claim; where the flowers grow"
just before thanksgiving of that year she
rolled the stone against the door of her
cot and turned for winter shelter toward
the old rOOf-tree. At Boone, chance then
led the senior editor of the REPRESENTATIVE,
then pencil pusher of the Boone ReDubH-
cdl to a seat beside her in the railway
car, and the two friends discussed her eX-
perience as hOmesteader until the train
reached Nevada. The main points of her
experience were embodied in an editorial
for the next issue of the Republican. Eli
Perkins was at that time on q tour which
included several towns on the line of the
Northwestern. Whether he caught Miss
Sallie's story from her own lips or others,
found it in the Republican paragraphs. or
in his own fertile imagination, depOnent
sayeth not; but true it is that in his next
published letter to the Chicago Ddilu
Tribune was incOrDorated, with slight
embellishments, the outline of the pioneer
girls dOings. 1t was given as a railway
conversation between himself and S'MISs
Belle Clifton, of Nevada, the smartest
girl i met in Iowa." In those days young
lady hOmesteaders were rare, and the
readers of the Tribune in this vicinity inn
mediately referred the alias to Miss
HambletOn. Eli Perkins letter was
copied by the press in the East as well as
in the far West.
In December letters began to arrive adj
dressed to Belle Clinton, and they were
unhesitatingly assigned to Miss Hamble-
ton. They hailed from all points from
Maine to California, a single mail often
bringing half a dozen. Before winter
was over the number received had SWelled
to several hundred. They were from old
men, young men, widows and maids, and,
with rare exceptions, were honest in
quiries for information by persons de-
string to become homesteaderS. OF course
they were honestly and faithfully an
swered, and with the opening of the spring
of 1882 a considerable number of Belle
ClintOn's correspondents became Dakota
| settlers, and the influence on emigration
eXerted by the press report of her enter
prise is indicated by the fact that, ON the
strength of it, one Greene county sturdy
old German alone started off sixty
young men; ''fOr," said he, "what girl
can do, of course they cam" In recog-
milton of her service the officers of the
Milwaukee Railroad readily passed her
over their line; and the second six months,
shortened by long visit from her mother,
was spent on her claim. In April last
the third half year of occupation was be-
gun. The right of brave, gentle woman
to strive hOnOrably for independence had
made her cabin a castle impregnablc to
either open invader or secret foe; but
destiny no moat or fortress walls can
stay. In an editorial room in San Fran
cisco, a native of the City of BrOtheriy
Love, whose kindred were still beside the
SchuylkiIl, prepared ''cOpy' for the Jour
nal of Commerce. His home, the tireside
of Il friend, was one day broken up by
death. Belle Clinton, the Iowa maiden,
pursuing worthy purpose in
path Hnbeaten by her sex, had
been mapped in numberless eX-
I changes, and, in an hour of loneliness,
he sont her a word of encouragement.
The kindly message drew a courteous re-
spOnse, and-it is the old, old story-thus
started, the moving shuttle was un-
hindered till it had woven fast two lives.
In June, after Mrs. Hambleton had Joined
her daughter in Belle Clinton's rustic
shanty, the prince first beheld his princess
face to face" His visit in Mitchell was
| followed by one to her parental home; the
engagement ring glittered on her finger,
the Dakota claim was proved up, and in
the George Hambleton cottage, in Nevada,
| rejoiced a reunited household. A few
weeks of busy preparation followed, and
then, September 4, the nuptials were cele-
brated. Belle Clinton's romance is COM
plete, and from the marriage sacrament
go forth Mr.. and Mrs. Robert Jarden.