Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-09-23
old TINES N TERRITORY.
Col. John r. Hanson, One Of the First
4 Settlers of Dakota Territory,
A Guest in the City.
Game to Yankton in 1858, When the
First Settlement Of the Territory
was Begun.

EgEWgE-I. E |
was Begun.
Among the guests in the city is Col.
John R. Hanson, of Yankton, S. o., one
of the first settlers in the territory Of
Dakota. Col. Hanson came to Dakota
in 1858, and has een the territory
grow from a waste of prairie lands,
given over to the Indians and the buff
falo, to two states having a. population
of nearly a million people, and one of
the great agricultural regions of the
west. To the Tribune last night Col.
Hanson talked interestingly of the
early days, and of the great develop
ment of Dakota. II came to the ter
1itory in 1885," said Col. Hanson.
w came up on the Nebraska side of
the river, and during the first winter
camped on the Nebraska. side of the
river. opposite Yamkton. That was
the year the Indians of the territory
made peace, and coded a, large territory
to the government. The settlement
Of Dakota may be said to have begun
in 1859. after the treaty of peace was
signed. There were very few settlers
in the territory at that time. There
were a few who came up to take up
land. There was also a small settle
ment at Sioux Falls, men who settled
in the vicinity Of the falls. They re-
manned there until the Minnesota mas
sacre of 1862, when the Indians came
over into Dakota and drove most of the
settlers out, including the Sioux Falls
settlement. We gathered together the
few settlers there were about Yamkton,
built Notifications, and stood the In
dams off,
"The settlement of the territory
grew gradually. In our first election
for delegate to congress we polled from
100 to $50 votes. There were a few
claims taken about Yankton, and in
| Clay and Union counties. A number
of those old settlers are living in the
territory yet, and the great number of
them are wealthy. Their land is
worth $50 an acre, and comprises some
of the finest farming lads in the coun-
ktry." s. -,
l ~
Col. Hanson was for, four years In
dian agent for the various tribes OF
Indians in the northern part of the
temitoly. His headquarters were at
Fort Sully, and the Indians who roamed
in the vicinity of Fort Rice, and be-
tween the Cannonball river and the
Black Hills were under his jurisdiction.
Col. Hanson has been over this same
country in the past few weeks, look
ing UP some land for purchase, and
remarks the different conditions, with
ranches scattered Through the country
and thousands of acres of rich buffalo
grass. once the hunting ground of the
great Sioux nation. "There is a
great future for North and South Da-
kota," said Col. Hanson. ''With the
vast immigration into the two states
in the past few years and the new
farms being opened up, as well as the
settlement being made in portions of
Canada, which were formerly thought
uninhabitable, this country will be-
come the great backbone of the nation.
We have been accustomed to think the
regions north of us to be regions of
very YER winters, but l can remem
ber in the early days that when the
Indians went to hunt buffalo in the
winter they went north, showing that
the winters there were milder than the
regions more to the south of us.
What is to be the future of the
country west of the Missouri is an in.
teresting cushion. 1t will always be
a great stock country, although the
scarcity of assured water supply in
some places will be a handicap.
Through South Dakota we have re-
claimed much of the country that vas
dry and arid by means of artesian
wells. I believe if artesian flows
could be established in the country
west of the niver., it would be a great
thing for settlement, as ranches would
not then be forced to depend upon
water frontage. In South Dakota we
sink inch and inch and a half wells al
a very small cost and they will supply
a large amount Of water
Col. Hanson is accompanied on his
trip 10 the city by H. Keyes of Yank.
ton, a wealthy business man of thai
place. He came to the territory with
General E. A. Williams, and was witt
DR.. w. A. Burleigh, when the N. P
was built through the country around
Bismarck.