The Mobridge news. [volume] (Mobridge, Walworth Co., S.D.) 190?-1917, 1914-04-24
WHEN SOUTH DAKOTA
ACQUIRED STATEHOOD
BY Doane Robinson, State Historian.

oOulH JCdhOlo was JUN AlbO liz ~
ion of state on November >, 1889, in "A
period of unusual depression. The
great Dakota boom OF the eighties had
worn itself III and the reaction had
come. The law of the survival OF the
fittest was doing its work, and weak.
lings were struggling back Ito live
with wife's folks" and the tales Of the
~hardships of pioneer life which they
were carrying with them were having
their injurious effects upon the publi,
mind. The crops Of that harvest wei
exceedingly poor, money was clos .
and times hard. The general depre.
sion which came upon the business o
the country from 1885 to 1889 was still
felt. That year the Sioux had relin-
quished their lands between the Chey
enne and the White rivers, and they
were beginning to rue their bargain.
About all of the railroads demand
ed by the development of the c%ountr,
up to that date, had been constructed
and there was no forward movement
anywhere along the line.
The tried u pioneers, however,
were filled with rejoicing at the end Of
the territorial regime. 1t had been a
time Of political dependence, not con
ducive to the development of robust
citizenship, and far-seeing men hailed
with JOY the approach of the time when
Dakotans should assume the response
bility of their own affairs. All of the
present day educational and benevO-
lent institutions were inherited from
the territory except the Aberdeen and
Springfield normal schools, the school
for the blind and the school for the
feeble minded, but they were yet n
their swaddling clothes, badly equipped
and unprepared for the real work they
were destined to do. Not much ad-
yancement was made during the first
year of statehood; a second year OF
short crops followed, and i'm the au-
tumn of 1890 the Messiah Wan with
the western Sioux still further inter
fered with immigration, and though
1929 We're fine crop years, COndi-
tons had 40 more than reached nor
NAL when the awful financial cata-
Clysm Of 1898 overwhelmed the country
and was especially hard upon the from
tier, and, to add to our woes, on Jan
uary /, 1895, the state treasurer alb
seconded with every dollar in the treas
ury. At that time corn and oats were
worth s cents per bushel in the local
market, and butter 10 cents per pound
in New York, but nevertheless 1905
marks the turning OF the tide and good
crops and mending prices followed
through a long period of years. The
pioneers who had survived the ordeal,
too, were men and Women whom moth
ing could daunt. They had been tried
by fire and proven themselves the fit
test Of the fit. They are the solid
foundations upon which the subse-
quent remarkable prosperity Of South
Dakota has been based. In 1889 the
state began business in the main part
of the old capitol erected as a free
gift by the people of Pierre, Only a
few of the chief officers were accom-
modated. Today she has a capitol
comparable with the best.
The state university had three small
buildings, now it has nine attractive
ones.
Then the state college was crowded
into two buildings, now its campus is
covered with every desirable facility;
a dozen or more buildings, with barns
and warehouses galore.
The other institutions were all
meanly houses and cramped for space;
I oil ora nn,r p,fDr+ &, I1,y rrD,i1ol
Then the state debt was 81, 100. Now
it is negligible.
Then the bank deposits were five
millions, now they are one hundred
million.
Then our annual product was worth
$75,0 Doc 900, o it is worth two hun
dred million.
Then we had no school fund. now
that fund totals eleven million dollars.
Then the average family was mean
ly housed and without modern com
forts; today the average home is filed
with every comfort.
Starting under the depressing con
ditions above enumerated, South Da-
kOta has come through a quarter Of a
century of development such as has
rarely If ever before been exDer,.
enced by a commonwealth. While dou
bling her population she has augment
ed her wealth ten times and her re
serve funds twenty times.
Materially, ed~ucationally, morally, In
comforts and in progress. we have
made long strides from the taw-maYi