The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1921-06-30

my sister take the adjoining quarter
section" and l determined then and
there to run for the legislature that
fall, intending to go to the legislature
and pass a bill to create two new
counties, the counties now called Lake
and Moody, out Of Minnehaha and
Brookings, and to locate two new coun-
ty seats, thus making Sioux Falls Sc
cure as the county sea of Minnehaha
county, leaving Dell Rapids as near
the north line Of the county as we
were the south line.
SO I left my surveying party in
charge Of one man who was a compe-
tent surveyor, and l came down to
Sioux Falls.
When l arrived at Sioux Falls /
found o. B. Iverson who lived at the
crossing of the Sioux river straight
east Of Sioux Falls about six miles,
and Ole Sampson, who lived about
twelve miles from Yankton, and they
told me they were on their way up to
Brookings county; that they were sup
porting Moody for congress and that
they were going to vote the railroad
employees who were building the
Northwestern railroad from the west
line Of the state of Minnesota to the
Sioux river, in order to secure a land
grant, and they wanted to know IL l
thought there were any voters up
there. told them not very many and
that l didn't think it was worth while
to bother with them, but they said
they were going up to Brookings coun-
ty, and have the county commissioners
of Brookings county organize election
precincts and appoint judges Of cleo
ton, and they were going to poll that
railroad vote somewhere in the neigh
borhood Of three hundred in number.
Well" / said, Il will have nothing
to do with it. / don't believe 1t is
worth while, but If you are going to
poll the vote, and I ami running for
the legislature on an independent
ticket, it may deprive me If the votes
are cast against me, of a certificate
Of election" and l said, Have you
your tickets?" They said, Eyes, we
have the tickets all printed. We are
supporting Moody for congress. He
Is the regular republican nominee and
! Sphinx Is running also as a regular re-
publican nominee, and Armstrong Is
running as a democrat" said, Let
me see your tickets" and they showed
them to me, but my name was not on
them, and l said TO them, Let me de-
stroy these tickets and get new ones
printed just like them with my name
in the place Of the republican who is
on the ticket from this locality" who
I think was Doctor Roberts" They
consented. So l destroyed their tick
cts and went to the Paragraph Office
and had tickets printed to take the
place. And that is the Deuel. county
fraud which was such a prominent fac
tor in our politics for many years.
| received the certificates Of cleo
ton, but l would not have received it
If | had not received those railroad
votes, because l lacked thirty or forty
votes according to the returns from
the rest Of the district.
l went over to Yankton and took
my seat in the legislature, but Doctor
Roberts contested my seat, and after
a great deal Of wrangling a combina'
ton was formed between the Brookings
faction of the republican party. and the
democrats, and they threw me out of
the legislature. The next day a com
bination was formed between the
Moody republicans and the demo
Gratis, and they put me back into the
legislature, and in a day or two the
democrats effected a combination with
the Bookings republicans, and for a
consideration they again threw me
out Of the legislature, and Judson La
Moure, a tall, raw-boned F%renchman
from Pembina near the British line,
who had been a member Of the legis-
lature from that locality ever since
Dakota was a territory, came around
to me and said after they had twice
put me out, that II they tried to get
me in again he would throw me out
of the second story window. I said,
La Moure, If you are going to do that
I won't try to get back and I kept
my promise with La Moure. but Sc
cured the passage Of a bill to divide
Minnehaha county and Brookings
county and create the two new coun-
ties of Moody and Lake, and when
the governor appointed the commits
sioners to organize those counties, he
appointed men who located the county
seat Of Moody county On my brothers
homestead.
The people most interested in keep.
ing alive the talk about the Deuel.
county fraud, were my political enc.
mics in Sioux Falls and the proprie-
tors of the town of Dell Rapids that
had lost the county seat, and that IS
the Deuel county fraud.