Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-08-03

Mrs. II. L. Blank, 1913 Jefferson street.
Fraternal feeling toward pioneers
impelled ne to visit them. l found him
81 years of age. active, hale and hearty,
social and prolific with incidents of
pioneer days,
A native Of Posey county, Ind, in
1927, when 9 years old, with his par
ents, he went to the lead mines near
Mineral Point, Wis. The trip was made
down the Ohio and up the Mississippi
IN a fat boat so crowded with house
hold goods and live stock of immi-
grants as to make travelling disagree
able and uncomfortable. While going
up the Mississippi the boat became dis
abled and was laid up for repairs two
weeks. The passengers were landed on
what is now the Iowa side of the riy-
er, glad TO escape their oVercrowded
quarters, so he may be rightfully cited
as a pioneer of the state. He resided
in Wisconsin until 1850, when, with his
family, he started for California, but
stopped for the winter at KaneSyille,
now Council Bluffs, with the Mormons.
During the winter he went on a hunt
ing trip n~orthWard and discovered the
Little Sioux river. He decided the
country there was good enough for him,
and in the spring of 1861 went back,
made a claim, lived in a tent while he
built q log cabin, the first in what is
now Woodbury. county, and became the
first white settler.
In 1856, having heard of the new
town of Sioux City. he concluded to go
and look at 1t. OF hat he said:
After looking at a site / decided to
move there, and in the summer went
over to cut hay and put it up, to feed
my oxen while l cut logs for a house
during the coming winter. / drove into
Sioux City along a ridge between the
Floyd and Missouri river, thinking l
could get down near the point, but
1t was too steep. I, turned back n
finally about 8 o'clock got to DR.. Cooks,
who kept a kind of stopping place in
a hewed log house, which stood on the
east sid of Perry creek, near the
mouth. The next day / made orange
ments for my hay and returned home.
The next winter l went back, chopped
down trees on the Nebraska side of
the river, there being none suitable on
the east side, n my little boy with
an OK hauled the logs on the ice to
where I wanted to use them. The
next spring in 1856, I went over with
Abe Livermore, James McGinn, an
Irishman n one other man TO hew
the logs and build the house. Abe
made the shingles by hand out of
black walnut. Jim and | sawed the
boards for the %sheathing with q whip
saw from maple logs, enough to cover
a house 16x20. The first sawed lum-
Der made in that country. The flooring
was shipped from st. Louis and cost
ON. III Aldy" i IIONeu NY WIFE IN
four children into the completed house.
I can now only conjecture where it
stood but 1t was on the second bot
tom and about two blocks from the
Missouri river. l took in a few board
ers and some transients, land specula-
tors. free with their money. the land
Office being nearby, and the house was
always full. At the end Of six months
l sold out TO judge Moore. one Of my
boarders for $500. a. n. White had
a presumption claim for 100 acres where
the city now is. ana some ore he'd to
live on it. he offered ne q ten acre in
terest in it and the use Of Il new frame
house If | would take il nnl board him.
/ accepted the offer lac in the fall.
On the Sth of January nv second
daughter was born. the third white
child born in Sioux CITY. During the
summer of 1851 several frames for
houses We're brought in and nut I'm.
one large one was put UP By q man
named Benhan, and furnished for a
hotel, which he named the Pacific. soon
after Judge Moore traded the town Of
Niobrara, which consisted Of a lot of
stakes driven in the ground, and env-
eral imposing plats, for the hotel and
me to run it a wear for a
rental of $1,000. No papers We're drawn
Tor transactions in those good old days.
"A mai was almost insulted if asked to
sign a note. a man whose word was
not as good as his note was very much
looked down upon.
Experiences With Indians.
Asked if he had any experiences with
Indians, he replied:
Yes, | read your sketch of Mr.. 7. s
Polk in the Register and leader sew
eral months 6 in which you stated
that you met lnk-pa-Gu-a-tah at Wa
DashaW a short time before the Spirit
Lake Massacre. l think you are mis-
taken, for he camped on my place in
woodbury. county, n went from there
10 peterson, then to Spirit Lake, where
the killing commenced. / traded with
MIN and his TRIBE for three successive
winters, they camping on my claim not
1ar from my cabin, two miles north of
where Smithland now is in Woodbury.
county The second cabin 1 built is still
standing, and is preserved by the
Woodbury. County Old Settlers associa-
ton.
In my dealings with Ink-pa-du-a-tah
l found him perfectly honest, a good
neighbor and true friend.
In the spring OF 1856, after Sioux
City was started, / moved there to send
my children to school. I rented my
farm to Mr.. Livermore. and when the
Indians came down the next fall, as
usual, they found me gone, and the new
settlers did not want them there. A
company OF white men formed and
went to Ink-pa-du-a-tah'S camp while
the men were out hunting (some were
hunting with BOWS and arrows) and
there We're nineteen guns left in the
camp. When the white men appeared,
the squaws and children took to the
woods, The white men tore down the
tepees, took the runs and ammunition
and went home, intending, it was said,
to go back later and return the guns
and tell the Indians what they wanted.
They evidently did not understand In
dian nature. for when they went back
the next morning, the Indians were
gone, having moved in the night.
"Insulted n injured, as they felt, 1t
was no wonder the Indians concluded to
borrow some white mems guns i'm the
same way theirs had been borrowed. At
Cherokee they went into the houses and
took the guns and some provisions, nut
hurt no one. They then went on to the
next white settlement. Peterson, twelve
miles. where they took more guns and
provisions; then on w to Spirit Lake,
where, at one OF the first houses, the
people We're scared, and a nan shot an
Indian. Then the fighting and killing
BEGAN.
1T was, and still is, hard for me to
realize that my old friend and neigh
Dor. whom / never knew guilty of a
mean act. could have sanctioned the
cruel, bloodthirsty deeds committed
during the horrible Spirit Lake mas