The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1906-04-06
Brief Review of the Conditions
Under Which q Great State
Was Developed
RESOURCES AND ADVANTAGES
Hardships and Problems Which
Confronted EARLY Settlers in
Laying Foundation

Almost half a century has passed
since the first hOmesteaders settled III
South Dakota and began to win a live
lihood from tilling the soil. Therefore
it will be observed that agriculture
here is not longer an experiment. The
best testimonial to the success of it
lies in the fact that those who have
been here longest are the most attach
ed to the soil, the most loyal to the
state and the least inclined to 60 else
where of any class Of citizens.
1t is useless to intimate that pio-
neering in South Dakota has been free
from great hindrances. On the other
hand the settlers upon our soil have
been peculiarly beset by hardships.
Hardships of drought, of flood, of fire,
of frost and of grasshopper hordes, of
bad laws and bad methods, but they
have come through them all safely
and have reached an enduring pros
perity.:
The first attempt at agricultural
settlement in the state was made along
the Sioux river from Medary in Brook
ings county to Sioux Falls in the
spring of 1857. These settlers found
their labor rewarded with reasonably
good crops, but they were annoyed by
Indians until their settlements were
finally broken up in 1862. The settle
ments along the Missouri in Union,
Clay, Yanktou and Bon Homme coun-
ties date from the midsummer of 1859.
The settlers of that fertile region,
where for a quarter of a century crops
have been as certain as the planting,
were plagued with grasshoppers,
droughts and floods until in more than
n year the public was appealed to
for assistance to keep away the wolf
of starvation, but they stuck it out,
and have been rewarded with abund-
ant and permanent prosperity, homes
of the greatest comfort and all that
goes to make life enjoyable. To-day
these old settlers are gladly buying
and paying the cash from their saw
ings, all of the adjoining land they can
secure at forty, fifty, sixty and even
seventy-fve dollars per acre.
For nearly twenty years the settle
ments were confined to the Missouri
river valley and to the lower Sioux.
The great interior section of the state
remote from river or rail transporta-
tion, continued to be the home of the
buffalo, the Indian and the coyote, a
terra i%ncognito to the white man.
The discovery of gold in the Black
Hills in the middle seventies brought
vast throngs of men to pass over east
ern South Dakota in the race to the
mines. The more thoughtful of these
argonauts became impressed with the
fact that, however rich the diggings
might be, the fertile, richly erased
prairies were richer still, and out of
that gold rush came the railroad de-
velOpment which resulted in the great
homestead boom of twenty-five years
ago. 1t was an even ace between the
hOmesteader and the railroad. Like
magic the rails were laid into every
valley and into every coteau of eastern
Dakota. In a day the below of the
buffalo bull gave way to the neigh of
the iron stallion. In a twinkling
town took root, cities were born,
church spires shot upward, schools
were founded, merchandising wa in
full swing, farm and home and mart
were established, and between sno
and snow the wilderness of Dakota
was transmitted into a busy, populat-
ed community Of white people enjoy
ing all the conveniences OF modern
civilization.
The settlement of Dakota was in
truth n of the worlds greatest won
ders. Its like has not been, nor will
be.
What a happy, hopeful time it was.
The courage and hope in the hearts Of
those holnesteaders was Of the kind
that sustains the worlds winning ar
mics. 1t had it's heroes who were to
win glory; heroes who were to see VIC
tory and heroes who were to lie down
in death before the victory was won.
1t had its thousands with the true
soldier spirit, and it had it's other
thousands. untitled for hardship. nm
trained in agricultural pursuits and IN
every sense unequal to the demands
of the occasion. When the exaltation
of the first great impulse was gone,
the inevitable reaction came, and for
a long period Dakota went through a
trying out process which sifted the
people holding those with will, per-
sistence and energy to make their way
and eliminating the unfit. 1t was
natures universal process which re-