The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1900-01-25
Miller friends. ana 500 in cash each

Miller friends. and 500 in cash each
to pay the expense Of moving their
buildings to 81. Lawrence. This was
also declined and the fight went to the
polls.
The vote of 1000 In the county was
nearly equally divided between the two
towns, st. Lawrence receiving about
lC0 majority But as the law required
a twothir,ls majority for removal, Mil
Ter retained the coveted prize.
Each town had offered the county Il
court house, grounds and necessary
buildings free, and in consequence the
county to-day owns block of ground
ard brick court house, presented by
the citizens OF Miller, forever settling
the question of Hand county's seat of
government. TO which is also due the
very satisfactory fact to all taxpayers
that the county has no bonded indebt-
edness and it's warrants are cash.
This was the beginning of the end OF
st. Lawrence which is now rapidly
approaching the last act of n vanishing
city. From that time her energetic
citizens lost heart. They bonded the
town for artesian wells. but got little
water for their money. Gradually one
| man after another gave up the fight,
md moved away, and a couple Of years
| ago the town began going very rapidly.
| Buildings were emptiei, and after 4
| time came into demand by Miller peO-
| pie and farmers, and the business OF
| hauling buildings over the level prai-
| rie has been an important industry for
some time.
Hundred Buildings Moved.
Upwards of one hundred buildings Of
one kind and another have been moved
| from st. Lawrence, several were torn
| Town, including the opera house and
4 three-story hotel. and fire has re-
moved a number Of others. The town
! At one time had two Touring mills and
| eight or ten grain elevators, all doing
! IN active business. Two good newspa-
| pers furnished the lively literary end
| Of political and county seat campaig rs,
md over thirty business houses were
| actively engaged in commerce. From
l rustling western town of over 500
| people. ST. Lawrence has now declined
% village Of eighteen or twenty fam
| lies.
I In the complaint of st. Lawrence
tiled in the Gross case. the towns as
fcssed valuation i'm 1887 is given as
| S1O9,565 and in 1899 at S25,973, the
latter sum being just about equal to
he bonded and warrant debt The
! light before the state supreme court
vas to prevent entire dissolution of the
own and the .saddling Of this debt
| pom few adjoining farms, which
we're taken into the corporations some
ears ago to swell its facilities for
| }onding.
| Similar Incidents.
And this is no single event i'm the
interesting history Of this young COM
| 'ionwealth, upon whose praiiies towns
sprung up as If by magic between the
| Using and setting of sun. Like ex-
eriences are noted in many places.
aberdeen. the rustling metropolis Of
1orthern South Dakota absorbed Co
urubia, the once thriving city and
ouEty seat of Brown county
Faulkton, the present county capital
If Faux county, enacted a similar
lrama by absorbing LaFoon. now but
N ''irridescent dream" Of that coun-
RVS first seat of government. The
.ity of La Belle lie Beau a widely adj
Yertised town on the Missouri river in
| Walworth county, now has no place
pom the map. 1t was designed for the
,erritoral capital of Dakota by the
;anguine men who bought the land
rom the old French squawman lie.
peau. and who named it after his In
liam daughter IaBelle. Many similar
Instances could be cited throughout
he two states carved out Of territorial
| Dakota.
There is an eternal fitness in this re-
adjustment. The rllstling. energetic
aioneers of these prairies were states
men all. and city builders. Under the
impetus Of a boom in the early eighties.
he like of which no other agricultural
state ever experienced. and the bust
ness and political rivalries Of ambitious
men. two towns Were often made to
grow where but one could exist
The natural sequence is survival
IF the fittest when succeeding years
brought normal conditions, and in
many localities where two rival towns
were built close to each other, one Of
them has become but "reminiscences Of
early day expansion.