fred dow and the surveyors' house
I'm becoming even more familiar with Fred Dow's family. There are all sorts of "things" written (even by Mr. Dow himself) that say that the Surveyors' House was located on his claim. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my brain around that one, and I'd like to be convinced, I really would. The land in question is the SE 27-111-56. It's north of Silver Lake, a half mile east of original De Smet, and the railroad tracks run through it. The original town's 4 blocks are in the SW 27.

The story is that Fred Dow filed on his claim in June 1879 [correct; he first filed on June 3], and that he went home to Minnesota, then returned in April 1880 to find a house on his claim [the Surveyors' House] with a family [the Ingallses] living in it. Mr. Dow said that he returned in April to "establish residency" on his claim and to build a sod shanty. The trouble is that his claim was a tree claim - meaning there was no residency requirement. Of course he could live there, though.

Also, Fred Dow is on the Minnesota census for (June) 1880, along with his parents. So. Did he "establish residency" then go back to Minnesota shortly afterwards? His father, James Dow, filed on a tree claim to the east of his son's, but he relinquished it to his son in 1882, and it became Fred Dow's preemption.

The rest of the story is that supposedly Mr. Dow was sought out at his home in Minnesota and asked if he would "sell or trade" his land so that the town site [that would be De Smet] could be located there. He said no. The townsite was platted in September 1879. You just wonder how "they" found him in Minnesota...

It ended up that the town was built on the homestead filed on by Richard Pope, but his is a name you never hear.

Where I have a hard time with all this is that De Smet history tells us that the Surveyors' House was moved into town years later. But when? There's a plat map from the early 1880s and it doesn't show a house on Fred Dow's tree claim at all. But it shows a house on Robert Boring's homestead claim to the south. To the south of Fred Dow, and the land that actually includes the north shore of Silver Lake. So I have a hard time understanding how the Surveyors' House could be on a tree claim with no house, and on the north shore of Silver Lake when the north shore isn't part of the land in question.

Fred Dow is worth studying, and so are his brothers. One was Edwin Dow, who married Frank Cooley's sister. Another was James J. Dow, who was the superintendent of the blind school in Fairbault, Minnesota. James Dow had a daughter named Mary Amelia. Fred Dow married Mary Glover, and her siblings were some of Laura Ingalls' students in the Wilkin School; Mary was no longer attending school in 1885. Nate Dow and Fred Dow shared a common Dow ancestor 7 generations back.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:59 AM