The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1883-11-09
AN IOWA GIRL.
The Story of Belle Clinton. the Brave
Dakota Homesteader.
A Little sunny-Haired Lass Sue
Isl solution of One OF the
Serious Problems of
Life.
Nevada Ga.l RepresentatIve.


Belle Clinton's fame has touched two
oceans. To the people Of Nevada she is
known as Sallie Hambleton-tbe grave, gen
tie maiden who, since she came here a little
sunny-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 in the Methodist Sun
day school, the three RS in the old school
house, and the ologies were pursued at the
Agricultural college till broken health called
a halt. One long winter she studied this
problem Of her own. Given physi-
cal unfltness for the avocations by
which Iowa young women ordinarily earn
a livelihood, how is Independence to be Sc
curedl and in the following summer, 1850,
she set about its practical solution. An expe-
dition, inspired by her zeal, and consisting of
herself, her mother as %chaperon aud commis-
sary OF the party, her sister May, and two
young friends Of the finale persuasion" SGT
out in a prairie schooner for the great north
west. Two weeks Of journeying over a cir
cuitous route, brought them to the home of
her college classnate, 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 Mitchell, the mart
Of southeastern Dakota.
Near the residence of her friend Miss Ham
bleton selected her homestead and timber
lot, and in the land Office of Davidson county
entered her claim. After a weeks stay the
pioneer party returned, brown, vigorous,
and enthusiastic. The spring took our home
steader 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 became 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 Republican, to a seat
beside her in the railway car, and the two
friends discussed her experience as n home
steader until the train reached Nevada. The
main points of her experience were embod-
led In an editorial for the next issue of The
Republican. Eli Perkins was, at that time,
on a 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 para
graphs, or in his own fertile imagination,
deponent sayeth not; but true it is that in
his next published letter to The Chicago
Daily Tribune was incorporated, with slight
embellishments, the outline of the pioneer
girls doings- 1t was given as a railway con-
yersation between himself and miss Belle
Clinton, of Nevada, the smartest girl | met
in Iowa. In those days young lady home
steaders were rare, and the readers OF The
Tribune in this vicinity Immediately 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 ad-
dressed to Belle Clinton, and they were un-
hesitatingly assigned to Miss Hambleton
They hailed from all points from Maine to
California, a single mail often bringing half
a dozen. Before winter was over the num-
Der received had swelled to several hundred.
They were from old men, young men, wild
ows and maids, and with rare exceptions,
| were honest inquiries for information by
persons desiring to become homcsteaders.
OF course they were honestly and faithfully
answered, and with the opening of the spring
of 1882, a considerable number of Belle Clin-
toms correspondents became Dakota settlers;
and the influence on emigration eXerted by
the press report of her enterprise is iudi-
Gated by the fact that, on the strength of 1t,
one Greene county old German alone started
of sixty young men; "For," said he, "what
a girl can do, of course they cam In rec
ignition of her service the officers of the
Milwaukee railroad readily passed her over
their line; and the second six months, short
ened by a long visit from her mother, was
spent on the claim.
In April last the third half year of occupa-
ton was begun. The right of II brave, gentle
woman to strive honorably for Independence
had made her cabin a castle ~impregnable to
either open invader or secret foe; but destiny
no moat or fortress walls can stay. In an
| editorial room In San Francisco, II native OF
the city of brotherly love, whose kindred
were still beside the Schuylkill, prepared
copy for The Journal Of Commerce. His
home, the fireside OF a friend, was one day
broken up by death. Belle Clinton, the Iowa
maiden, pursuing a worthy purpose in a path
unbeaten by her sex, had been named in
numberless exchanges; and, in an hour OF
Loneliness, he sent her a word of encourage
ment. The kindly message drew a courte-
Gus response, and-it is the old, old story
thus started, the moving shuttle was unhin.
dered until it had woven fast two lives. In
June, after Mrs. Hambleton had Joined her
daughter in Belle Clinton's rustic shanty, the
prince first behold his princess face to face. "
His visit to Mitchell was followed by one to
her parental home; the engagement ring
ghttered on her finger, the Dakota claim was
proved up, and in the George Hambleton
cottage, in Nevada, rejoiced a reunited house
hold. A few weeks OF busy preparation fcl-
lowed, and then, September 4, the nuptials
were celebrated.
Belle Clinton's romance Is complete, and
from the mnrrige sacrament go forth Mr.
and Mrs. Robert Jarden.
Partisan ArtichoIxes.
[Boston Folio.l
4 H., eatbo .l,o,sf ,,,n aI,-,I. g...IF -