The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18
WHERE TIE TOWNS
 GROW UP FAST
South Dakota Booster Carries
 News Down East
SHOWS THEM LIVE ONE
Years Ago, New It's the Warm est Member of the
 Cow Belt


 Three years ago Lennon, s. D., was not on the map, but according to Editor Thomas Potwin, who owns the Perkins County Signal, which he publishes there, since that time 1t has grown to be the metropolis of northern South Dakota, with a population of 200o, three banks and a s25,o00 school house. In the last election it helped Perkins county give the biggest republican majority of any coun- ty in the state.
 Editor Potwin is not a South Dakotan by birth He came originally from with In ten miles of Hartford. Conn. It was only in 1903 that he followed the setting sun and landed in Aberdeen, S. D. There he began to grow up with the country, and out there the country sets a fast pace. according to MT. Potwin. He him self has accumulated some wealth and family since leaving the old farm. MT. Potwin Is authority for the state ment that there is no peculiar signih- canoe in the name of this newest metrop- oils. He calls especial attention to the fact that there are two ms in the mid dle of the word-
 He is the first historian of Lennon that has arrived in the east, is MT. Pot win. The town, by the way, had its third anniversary last month. Until four years ago, according to MT. Potwin. the whole region thereabout was entirely un- developed, The place is on the North Dakota border, about seven miles west of the strip of Indian reservations that take up the middle of the state, just west of the Missouri and for years was mere
 ly stock country.
 Listen to His Song 'The town,' said MT. Potwin, was named after George E.. Lennon, who was noted character of the range coun- try for 25 or 30 years. He was an inn mense shipper, and as such came to know well the officers of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul. That road was trying to carry it's Puget sound ex tension west of the Missouri river, but did not seem to be able to find a way be- cause the river up there shifts a great deal. Lennon saw the officials in Chi cago and agreed to show them the best point at which to cross, and when they named the town they called it after him.
 You can get some idea of the business that's being done in the place from the fact that two of the banks have deposits approximating $50000o each and the other about $125000. There are two news papers. and attached to mine Is a pretty good sized job printing plant, which does
 an immense business. That is going to
 be a great agricultural country, and just
 now it Is in a period of transition ''No, the town has never been shot up. A lot of cowboys came in during the early days, but they had to behave them | selves. We are 160 miles from any other | important town and the places of busi- ness have a large country trade. The town has been settled largely by people | from Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Min nesota. When the new settlers began to | come in a lot of the old ranchmen thought they would emigrate to Canada, but after going up there and spending some money in looking around they came
 back. Other people who had taken home. steads near Lennon went up to Canada to look around, but they, too came back, saying Canada didn't look good to them,
 and settled on the land they had taken up.
 Tn Lennon and the suburbs we have
 over 200 children of school age, which is pretty big number for a new town.
 The school building Is modern in every
 respect and there is g high school course of study which graduates into any of the leading universities. The town boasts
 Of seven or eight big general stores in addition to numerous small ones, and they draw trade from 40 to 70 miles
 away, people coming In to buy supplies for a year at a time.
 Automobiles? You'd be surprised at the number. Last summer an inventory
 was taken of the automobiles in the town and 1t was either 62 or 63. We have an
 automobile stage line running from
 Lennon to Bixby. The town came to
 be settled In this way:
 How the Town Started About year before the railroad went through people heard 1t was going to pass through that part of the country somewhere, and they made a rush out there and lived in tents and temporary shacks until the town was laid out by the land company When the sale of lots took place on October 3, 1907, over s60 900 worth of lots were sold. The first build ing put up was a general store, and
 then followed the three bank buildings. Now we have a lot of fine residences of
 native stone. The printing plant which now own was then located at a little
 place called Sim, where it had been set
 up in a log cabin. was not In Lennon at the start, but when I heard about it I went up and bought the plant from it's owner.
 There Is a good advertising business out there from provng-up notices. When
 homesteader proves-up he has to have his application published 30 days in ad- vance and the legal rate for this notice is S650 Sometimes these notices fill a whole page in my paper. The newspaper out there is usually about the first thing that strikes a town after the postoffice. There are any number of villages from 50 to 200 or 300 inhabitants that have their own newspapers.
 Tale of Bison
 "The county seat of Perkins county iSs Bison, and thereby hangs a tale Bison is about 50 miles from anywhere, but il is about as near the geographical center Of the county as you can get. Perkins county, by the way contains over 31OO square miles, which means that 1t is big ger than some eastern states In the January following the sale of town lots in Lennon the fight took place for the location of the county seat. Lennon was on the extreme border of the coun- ty, but its publc-spirited citizens knew of no reason why it should not be the county seat Besides they thought they could out-vote the rest of the county Well they got surprise. They had no idea of the numbers of people that had
 been coming in to settle in the lower part of the county. Many of them hadn't
 been there long enough to have ac- quired the right to vote, but this proved no hindrance and in the voting Lennon
 lost by just 13.
 .'Feeling ran high about that time and there was talk of many things that would be done, and contest was actually stsrted after the election. but the people of Lemmon got together and decided hot Eant In fight