The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1911-06-01

"Hu was IioiouSuly urencned. With
the thermometer % degrees below
zero, the horrors of such a bath NAV
be imagined. 1t was only by means
of extraordinary effort that Mr.. Brook.
ings was enabled to regain the shore,
on reaching which, he found the only
way to prevent absolutely freezing
TO death was to run for his life, which
he did throughout that terrible night.
arriving at the Falls at nine O'Clock
the X morning, in a fearfully frog.
en- condition; so much so indeed as
to necessitate confinement to the
house for a period of six months"
In the autumn of that veal he tray.
elled across Iowa by OK team, visited
Philadelphia and recrossed Iowa in
midwinter. 1t was just after this hat
Moses K. Armstrong records first
meeting with Brookings, holding
down the townsite of Sioux Falls, and
cooking big pancakes or fapiacks in
a long-handled spider over an even.
ing camp fire."
In those years the Sioux Valley was
a no-man's land, without political ex.
istence; it had been cut Off from Min
nesota and no new territorial govern.
ment had been organized. The set
tiers persistently besieged Congress
until the organization of 1861 was Sc
cured. In this work Brookings was
effectively active, a member of the
squatter legislature, a member of the
council and president Of the same, and
for a time provisional governor. His
later service in the territorial legisla-
lures has been recorded. In these
years he made a favorable impression
upon his colleague Armstrong. who
distinguishes him by contrast from
the noisy, windy orators from Sioux
Falls" as n who watches sharply.
thinks much, says little"
After these public services were
ended Mr.. Bookings carried on a
real estate business in Sioux Falls
for some time, ultimately returning
to the East to live in Boston. In the
SOS he had ceased apparently to be
among the most influential. AT least
b Dollard, though he names
Brookings as a delegate to the State
constitutional Convention does not
include him among the few whom
he singles out as leaders. Gen. Read
lie thought Brookings inferior TO soma
or the other prominent men. Judge
stockings was not in my opinion in
any sence the representative men
mat Judge Moody was" Yet thus to
deny merit gives a sort of distinction.
as implying that popular opinion did
not agree with the d~etractor. This
opinion is expressed relative to the
congressional campaign of 1872, when
both Moody and Brookings were can
didates. Again Gen. Beadle thinks
Brookings was given too much credit
for his activities in securing the rail-
road from Sioux City to Yankton.
Yet he writes: Judge W. w. Brook
ings was not an able lawyer or Judge,
but was a very enterprising and active
of affairs, pushing private and
speculative enterprises until his
Judge Brookings never saw I believe
the fair city which bears his name.
Soon after his death, his widow, who
was living in Yankton, made as it
a pilgrimage here. It was on the
occasion of one OF the Farmers Ex-
cursions; it rained in torrents through
out the entire time the party were in
Drenched and draggled.
they found their way to the college;
but Mrs. Brookings was obliged to
spend her time in the library and
her impressions almost en-
tirely from the view Of the window.