The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-06-17
OLD SETTLERS
HAVE BIG TIME
ANNUAL REUNION OF PIONEERS
WAS HELD IN BRoOklNGS
YESTERDAY
EX-SENATOR PETT|GREW CHIEF SPEAKER
Talks Are Also Given by Other Pion-
eers-Good Program Of Sports Is
Carried Out-The Details

The annual Brookings County Old
Settlers Reunion was held here yester-
day and there was a good crowd and
a good time, in spite of the weather
man. The day was cold, with a chilly
wind from the west, but it warmed
up some in the afternoon and made 1t
more comfortable for the crowd. The
day was a most enjoyable one and due
honor was paid the pioneers who did
so much to make Brookings county
and South Dakota what they are today.
At noon a picnic dinner was held at
the pavilion, where the old timers
gathered to renew acquaintanceship
and talk owe the experiences of the
early days.
The afternoon program was held in
the pavilion and was presided over by
II. /. Stearns, president of the Old Set
tiers association.
The first speaker was Hon. G.. A.
Mathews. n of the pioneers who has
made Brookings county history. Mr..
Mathews made his usual good talk,
%recounting many incidents of pioneer
days.
While Mr.. Mathews was speaking
President Stearns noticed Martin and
Cornelius Trygstad sitting in the au-
dience and he insisted that they take
seats on the platform, and they were
given a rousing ovation by the crowd.
The Trygstad brothers were the first
white settlers Of B~rookings county,
coming here in 1869 when this Sec
ton was nothing but a wilderness. Yes
terday was the 10th anniversary of
their arrival in Brookings county.
The chairman read a letter of re-
gret from John T.. Diamond of Mime
apolis, n Of Brookings cOunty's plon-
GERS, who had promised to be present
and make an address. Mr.. Diamond
regretted very mich that he could not
be present and sent greetings to the
pioneers.
Judge Sherwood of this circuit was
the next speaker and he made a splen-
did talk. The Judge said that he walk
ed into Dakota Territory t~hirty-four
years ago this summer with seven dol
lars and a half in his pocket and he
still had the half. That fall he came
to Brookings county and secured the
position of superintendent of the Volga
schools, and he was not only superin.
tendent but principal and teacher, in
fact the judge said that he was the
whole works. Among his pupils were
Mrs. V. L. Mccoy and Mrs. H. F. Har-
oldson, now of Bookings, but of
course, said the judge, they were very,
very young at that time. The Judge
told of his ambition to be a lawyer
and of how he had taken as his models
Natwick e Diamond and Mathews e
Scobey, the pioneer law firms of Brook
ings county. Judge Sherwood paid a
fine tribute to the pioneer men and wo-
men who had endured the privations
of the early days and built up a splen-
did commonwealth. The Judge said
that he had been in every part of this
country and in no other place did the
nan of ordinary means have a better
opportunity than right here in South
Dakota.
The next speaker was r. F. Petit
grew of Sioux Falls, former United
States Senator from this state and
M Of South Dakota's early pioneers.
Mr.. Pettigrew told of surveying Brook
ings county in 1870 and said that at
that time the Trygstad brothers and
Messrs. Jermstad and Thompson were
the only settlers here. He gave much
interesting history Of the early days,
including incidents of the early politi-
cal scraps. Mr.. Pettigrew said that at
M time he represented B%rookings
county in the territorial legislature,
the strip Of counties along the Sioux
Valley having but one representative.
Getting down to the present day Mr..
Pettigrew said that there was urgent
need Of a new constitution that would
give government of the people, for the
people and by the people. He would
have a state legislature that contained
no lawyers. in fact he would just about
put the attorneys out of business. He
closed with an earnest plea for more