The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-11-05

he was an active Greenbacker under the
| leadership of Jesse Harper, during the
memorable greenback craze, and is SIM
| liar in characteristics and political ten
| denotes to Donnelly. of Minnesota, and
| Weaver, Of Iowa. He very naturally
| fell in with Populistic theories in this
state, and in the senatorial campaign
| Of 1891, when the Populists elected Hon.
| James H. Kyle to the United States sem
| ate, King himself received some sixteen
votes for the United States senate. In
1886 he was elected state senator by the
| Populists of Hand county.
| The long struggle between Miller and
| st. Lawrence began in 1882 by St. Law
renee parties attempting a coup upon the
! AIillers. Henry Miller, the father, had
| located a forty-acre half-breed Sioux
! scrip, and his two sons filed on quarter
sections of government land adjoining.
! The St. Lawrence statesman placed con-
! tests on these two government claims
! the object being to prevent the Miners
! proving up and obtaining government
! title to the land.
IT was discovered that the transfer of
| Sioux scrip, which was purchased of a
! Chicago agent, carried no power of at
torney with it to Henry Miller. Hence
after filing the scrip a deed from the
! haIf-breed, Alexander Du MERGE, to whom
the scrip was issued by the government
! would give legal title to the land. Then
! began an interesting search for the In
dian, Du Merce, to obtain his signature
/ to power Of attorney or a deed. The Mil
! lers won, locating the half-breed near
/ Devils Lake, now in North Dakota, and
! Henry Miller obtained q power Of attor-
| ney, upon which instrument all original
transfers Of property in Miller We're
made The Miller boys won also on their
| government entries, and both plated ad-
ditions to the first forty acres.
/ This was followed by efforts Of each
town to have Gov Ordway, of Dakota
territory, organize the county of Hand
! and select the county seat. Gov Ordway
came TO the scene Of contest, looked the
! field over, and selected a man known to
/ be for Miller, and one equally sure for
! st. Lawrence, as county commissioners
| to organize the county and locate the
! nuch-desired county capital. For Miller
/ he selected G. l. Livingstone, now of
! Pella, To-, and for st. Lawrence Hon.
! J. N. King. The third member of the
beard was Frank G. Wilkins, Gov. Ord
ways own private secretary, who thus
/ held the nicely adjusted balance of pow
er with either of the other two COM
missioners, and could determine the
county seat at will. The first meeting
of this board was held on the prairie farm
| of G. w. Livingstone, seven miles from
! either town.
1OOG111 W HE PULLS.
But both towns mistrusted this deal,
and after several meetings of the board
| and a great dear of wfre-pulling the mat
| ter was fought out at the polls in the
fall of 1882, Miller winning by a small
majority. st. Lawrence at the time
! claimed the election was won by fraud
in the colonization of about twenty-five
cowboys and tough characters from
Pierre and Fort Pierre, who, 1t was
charged, had been held in Miller for a
period of thirty days so that under the
law they would become legal voters
1t might be noted here as a political
coincidence that Henry Miller, who 10
Gated the town Of Miller, and G. w Liv-
ingstOne, as we'll as J. NJ. King, the con-
tending commissioners, were old green
hackers in Iowa and Illinois, first taking
active part after coming to Dakota in
the councils of the Republican party, and
all afterwards becoming leaders in the
Populist party. To these active, brainy
men, with their ancient greenback teach
ings, is largely due the fact that Hand
county became a veritable hot house for
the propagation Of Populism.
But the first political activity Of these
men was in a county fight, in 1882, be-
tween two factions of Republicans, which
each called a county convention, one at
Miller and the other a St Lawrence, the
factions sending a double header dele
CATION to the territorial convention at
Grand Forks, one for Senator Pattigrew,
who wanted q reelection as delegate to
congress, and the other for Hon. George
H. Hand, after whom the county was
named.
The 1882 election, which gave Miller the
county seat, did not settle the question,
however. Under the pressure of early
boom" days, both towns grew and pros
pered, St Lawrence reaching a popula-
ton Of over 800 and Miller 500, both doing
| a business equal to towns of that many
thousands back in the states
| The history of these rival prairie towns
! ever within easy sight of each other, is
one Of contention and feud in business,
! politics, fraternal societies, and even in
! the churches up to 1888, when St Law
! renee started out with a petition to the
! board of county commissioners asking it
| to call for another vote upon relocating
the county seat. A petition of 800 names
of Hand county voters was secured and
laid before the county board This was
| followed by a remOnstrance from Miller
containing about as many signers as the
st. Lawrence petition, hundreds of men
having signed both papers, their sigma
lures on the remonstrance representing
men who had Changed their minds
about relocating the county seat.
A county seat fight, and there have
been number Of them in Dakota, is the
most intensely bitter contest that men
engage in. 1t is red-hot state. capital
fight drawn down and condensed into
the boundaries Of a single county, where
men pass each other with ill-conceaIed
anger in word or look, and where single
word may be echoed in a rapid and
earnest gun play" and this one between
| Miller and st. Lawrence was no exception
| to the general rule.
A BITTER FEUD.
Among the prominent characters taking
| part in this bitter feud was Hon. A. D
| Hill, Democrat and banker in Miller
I afterwards appointed receiver of the
| United States land Office at Huron bv
! President Cleveland. He became q. part
! owner of the townsite of Miller, but is
now resident of Seattle. Wash.
! One of the most prominent workers in
behalf of st. Lawrence was Hon. J. H
Baldwin, state engineer of irrigation I'M
! der Gov Mellette and Gov. Sheldon. He
is now a resident Of Miller having moved
his buildings from st. Lawrence to the
county seat. For many years Mr. Bald
| win had charge of the townsite affairs
| of st. Lawrence, and was perhaps the
most persistent worker in that towns
| interest.
Another prominent actor upon the St