The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1899-08-17
SALE OF HUBERT GuLCH.
An Early rIark of Civilization III
Hand County.

On Saturday Levi Hubert completed
the sale of his gulch home IN lll-0o TO
J. Il. Brundidge, OF O'Brien county, Iowa,
for $4,000. Mr.. Hubert is one OK the
earliest pioneer settlers of Hand county
at least there is no record OF a PRIOR set
tlemsnt. His gulch is located III the
Washington Hills, III township III, range
IS. afterwards named Hubert in honor
Of it's pioneer settler, and comprises
half section Of the hills, Including the
gulch which is aboat one mile long ana
contains forty acres OF timber, Here Mr..
Hubert has lived for twenty years, and
he has disposed Of the property In order
to move to Washington to ootain school
advantages for his family of seven chill
dren who know no other home than that
so singularly fashioned by nature i'll one
Of the lannon's found in the rolling,
broken country lying southeast of Miller
fifteen miles and described on the map
as Wessinsion Hills. Mrs. Hubert is the
daughter of Geo. Harris, another early
settler of the same township.
In the spring of 1880 Levi Hubert and
two Young companions, Munyon ana
Rocks, left Coldwater, Mich, to come
west and grow up with the country.
Hearing of ''the land Of the Dacotahs.
where every prospect was said to please
and man alone was vile, they started over
the Milwaukee road and landed at Nit
chell. From there they drove northw est
until they found the gulches in the Wes-
sington hills, IN March, 1880, AS they
were looking for stock ranch, they PICK
ed out the Hubert gulcL on account of
it's water and advantages for stock.
They hauled lumber from Mitchell to
build house, and put up stock sheds out
of logs cut in the gulch. At this time
there WAS no settlement any where near
them, the C. & n. w. road being built
only to Volga, coming on west the sum-
mer and fall Of 1880.
Their first start IN stock was 200 head
of sheep and 100 head OF cattle, which
they ranged over the hills and IN the val :
Ievs that summer, putting up what they
supposed to be plenty of lay for the
coming winter of 1SS0-1SS1. But that
was the winter of the greatest SHOWS in
this section known to white men, and
has been described somewhat in notes of
early history published IL the PRESS.
The winter was SO severe that these hardy
pioneers lost the greatest share of their
stock.
On January &c. 1881, a bitter cold day.
Munyon left the gll ch house to bring in
the cattle. The stock came IN during the
evening, but HGlbert and Rocks never
saw their companion alive again. They
found his dead body the next day about
II miles from the house, lying ON the
prairie, near cattle path. The presump-
ton was that he had been taken sick sud-
denly, perhaps with heart trouble, and
bad died OH the prairie, His remains
were taken to Sioux Falls and shipped
back to his home in Michigan.
On January 2S. the big SHOWS began,
according TO Mr.. hulbert's record, viii h
agrees with that of Chas. Sheppard, Sec
ton boss at st. Lawrence, whose expert
ence was published two years ago. 1t
may be noted here that that historical
sketch contained ho reference to the
Hubert gulch people, who were proba-
bly, unknown to Mr.. Sheppard, but who
undoubtedly had many interesting ex-
periences in tn ose early days.
In 1883 Mr.. Hubert bought out Rocks.
and the latter located near Huron, where
be died couple of years. The new
owner of the galch will move into il soon
with his family and engage in the stock
business.