Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-06-19
INTERESTING LETTER FROM GID
He Tells of the Canton Colony in Big Butte County an'
How He and Norman Rogers Found a Wildcat
and Skeered a Blueracer Snake.
On the Claim, Butte County, S. ID.

June l3, 1908.
Editor Leader: To fulfill a promise
made when | left Canton, | will now
at least endeavor to do so by writing
| the Leader a letter.
Perhaps no one city and county has
furnished so many settlers for this
section than has Canton and Lincoln
county. but as Butte is large enough
to make ten or twelve counties as
large as Lincoln, there is room for
more. The county will no doubt soon
be divided, in fact Lennon IS now
making an effort to have this north
| east corner cut off with the county
seat located in that thriving young
city. Lennon has had a remarkable
growth, having reached the proper
tiOns of city since the Pacific Coast
extension of the Milwaukee road
reached there last fall. The town
has recently been Incorporated and
bids fair to become one Of the most
important points on this new line OF
road.
Coming south and little west OF
| Lennon about sixteen miles, we hnd
the old town of Seim, situated on a
beautiful spot near the junction OF
the north and south forks OF the
Grand river. While Seim was once a
more important point than it now is,
it still enjoys good trade, being on
the main trail leading south to Mead
Ow and on to Belle Fourche. 1t has
a post office, store, hotel and lodging
Accommodations and many traveller
| puts up here for the night Since
Lennon has sprung into existence,
Sem has lost great deal of its for
mer trade.
| Continuing on south five to eight
miles is where the Canton colony has
seen fit to cast it's lot with the home
steaders First we come to the claims
of Jas A. Carpenter, Vollie Nichols
and Floyd J. Milliman. Farther
down the main trail we find L. b..
Tillotson and family, the Misses Fred
ericka, Annabell and Harriet Keep
and Mr. John Keep. Grandpa }. b.
Shedd and Claude Shedd are located
directly north of Miss Nora Oliver,
Miss Marjorie Clark, A. Fl. Pelton
and the writer. All these people
seem to be getting along nicely, al
tho they had great deal to contend
with at first such as bad weather, but
all we're here in due time to begin
their residence on their hOmesteads
as required by law.
We understand that there are many
others from Lincoln county recently
located farther south near Meadow.
While Meadow is practically a new
town, it is growing rapidly. 1t has
now post office, grocery store, dry
goods store. hardware, meat market,
pool hall, drug store, hotel and res
taurant, lumber yard, feed stable,
feed store, blacksmith shop, news
paper and branch of the u. S. Land
Office. A brother of your townsman,
Mr.. Hvistendahl, is publisher of the
paper as we'll as a lawyer. Meadow
ties are enthusiastic over the belief
that they too will have railroad at
some not very distant date-the Min
neapoliS & St. Louis-which was eX-
tended as far west as LaBeau on the
Missouri river last year. Should this
road build west thru this country it
will be the means of opening up an
other fine territory, which at present
is too far from either the Milwaukee
or Northwestern roads.
To the east Of us about ten miles is
the west line of the Standing Rock
Indian reservation, which will likely
be opened for settlement the coming
year. With the opening of this terri
tory and the establishment of regu-
lar land Office at Lennon, that city
will now come to the front rapidly.
Butte county is correctly named, as
it is a county of buttes. The land is
all rolling, more or less, and at dis,
tance miles away may be seen the
real high buttes rising above the roll
ing prairie land. But it seems nc
matter how hilly the land may be
there is an abundance of grass, which
has provided feed for large herds
of stock for years, and enriched many
rancher But the large rancher will
soon have past into history, as the
land is rapidly being taken up and a
great many homesteaders are fenc
ing. This procedure is very annoying
to the ranchers, but they have had
their day They are now all reduc
ing their herds.
On account Of so many fencing, it
necessitates the changing of the ole
trail, which heretofore followed the
most accessible route, and the main
trail is gradually being crowded tc
the township and section lines ir
many places.
On this trail where there is contin
uous travel we meet all kinds of peo
Pile with all kinds of modes Of travel
from the automobile down to the
! primitive OK team. We remenb Der Of
seeing oxen hitched up with yoke
before, but here we had an opportuni
!; ty Of seeing them harnessed like
horses, with brides and bits and driv
en- with reins.
Il Occasionally queer character il
imet and some amusing incident