The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-07-30
WALKED $4,000 MILES.
Now He Starts From South Dakota
to the KIOndIke.

to the KIOndIke.
YANKTON, s. D., July 2S-James p.
Wftherspoon, OF this city. Is seventy
years of age, and he has walked $4,000
miles-more than twice the distance
| around the earth He has walked from
Yankton to Washington, d. c., and re-
turn He has made the round trIp tn
California three times, and twice walked
| 10 MS old home in Pennsylvania and
back. Now he has started to the Klon
olKe IN search Of a third fortune Two
of them he has spent
he went to Alaska last year, but being
ola ana not having the necessary funds
when he reached the British lines the
oIhcers refused to allow him to pass He
returned for the purpose of gathering to-
gether sufficient sum to satisfy their
demands; for, having been the original
owner of property In Yankton that is
now worth more than $5OO,OOO Jim
Wltherspoon Is not wholly without
means. He is the only living white man
who had been on the present site Of
Aankton previous to 1858, and his frame
house Is the first one ever erected in the
city.
Il am rather an old man to start for
the Klondike," said the old man. before
taking the train, but this is a familiar
business to me. They tell me that I'll
never get back, but I've been told that SO
many times, as I have started on other
journeys. that 1t has been an old story to
me for years. They tried to scare me In
that way when 1 took the Kansas for
tune-seeking fever in the fifties. they
told me the same thing when came up
here In 1858 among the savage Sioux ana
they repeated 1t when 1 crossed the plains
and the Rockies in the seventies to seek
my fortune in California I went over
the divide three times, and l heard the
same story every time. When I started
Tor the hlondike last year every one said
the same thing. But 1 did, and here L
am ready to start again. Coming back2
Or course, I'm coming back, and I'm go
Ing to bring enough gold with me to sur
prise the people of this lifeless old town.
People talk as If We're old, but feel
as as young as l did when came to this
hardly seems possible that all these
states, many Of them with populous
cities, have all grown up since l came
to this old capital of the Dakotas. am
the only living white man who had been
on the present site Of this prosy old town
previous to 1858. / can hardly realize
that the three white men that found
here then have long since passed away
found them living in q tent on yonder
bluff waiting for the federal government
to move the ,swarms of Sioux Indians
onto the Yankton reservation They
were waiting there so they could file on
the land as soon as the Indians left but
got the start on them.
10 you uOIlCei Ino lay -O1 this land
where Yankton Is located? Well, forty
eight years ago all this land was alive
with more than 5000 Sioux Indians, and
| the spot where We now stand was occu-
pied by the wigWam of the head chief
Of the Sioux, old fighting Strike Rec. He
was mighty chief in his day He came
by his name in a bloody war the Sioux
had recently had with the Rees In which
he had slaughtered a large number OF
the latter in a hand-to-hand contest with
his tomahaWk.
''You see, l had just come from Kan
sas where ! had sunk small fortune.
wanted to see something Of the world,
so In the early fifties 1 converted my
property into money and started over.
was then on. Everybody was rushing to
Kansas to make a fortune: I purchased
a large tract Of land and cast my lot
with the rest. The bottom soon fell out
of the boom, and that was followed by
floods that carried away my buildings
and crops. I had a chance to sell my
land saving about per cent of my
Investment, so [ sold out and, with many
others, came into the land of the Dako-
tas. c. b. Booge, who afterward be-
came one of Sioux City's real estate
on foot up the Missouri river. looking
for a good place to- locate. We found
Sioux City the head Of navigation and
village of scattered shanties containing
about 900 inhabitants.
"That place did not suit me, so, aft
er making several trips on foot and alone
up the river, looked over this bot
tom land back by yonder rise Of ground
and said: This is the place for a
town On making the acquaintance Of
the Indians 1 found that all the Sioux
chiefs had gone to Washington to ar
range for the ceding of the Yankton res
ervation to them. I remained on the
spot, and soon the Indians from all the
country around gathered here under
Strike Rec to be ready to move on the
reservation on the 18th of July.
1.-THE next day I filed on a tract OF
land lying just west of what is now
Broadway AS the settlers came pour
ing in and taking up village lots I found
myself a man of considerable means, but
1t has all long since gone and here I am
about to start out for the third time to
seek a fortune. 1 have done some trav-
cling in my time, and previous to 1880
did most of 1t on foot When proving
up on my town site claim in 1860 I FRd
some difficulty IN getting the patent, and
walked all the way to Washington and
back to settle the matter"