q&a
QUESTION: "Is the word 'we' a confusing and dangerous collectivist word?"

ANSWER: It certainly is because no one knows who we includes. Who has the authority to speak for other people? It is going back to primitive idea when the tribes didn't even have a word for I. It was always we.

When people use the word we in most cases they really mean the government, and oftentimes they do not even clarify wht government they mean. The word we is much more acceptable than government to most people who do not see the need of using mathematical words. More people are getting frightened of the government because it is taking away from each and every individual more and more of his rights to life, that is, the rights to make decisions.

Rose Wilder Lane said that we was a socialistic, collectivistic word -- so the next time you hear someone say we should do this and we should do that, etc., make them tell exactly what they mean by we. Whether they mean the government. And if they do mean government, which has nothing and is a pauper, how do they propose that the government will get the means to take care of other people, not only in this nation but also all over the world? The more we use the word we, the more we are confused.

--Pampa (Texas) Daily News, May 26, 1964, page 14
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:44 PM

 
fiat justitia, ruat caelum...

Anyone who has read the "Little House" books has heard of Robert Boast, Charles Ingalls, Jake Hopp, Eliza Jane Wilder, and Edward Brown. They all had claims within a two mile radius of De Smet.

If you've studied Laura Ingalls Wilder's historical "Little Town on the Prairie," you know that Sam Owen, George Masters, Chauncey Clayson, and Silliman Gilbert also had claims near De Smet. You might recognize some other names on the above map. I didn't include everybody, so just because there's no name on a quarter section, it doesn't necessarily follow that the land wasn't occupied during the LH years. It probably was.

Now, what about Charles Curtis, Newton Morse, Samuel Craig, Walter Sharp, and John Challice? They filed on claims in 1879 and 1880, almost all of which were within a mile of De Smet. They aren't mentioned in the "Little House" books, and few people have ever even heard of them or know why they are important.

These men and a half dozen others were part of what became known in De Smet as "the Cameron gang," a group of men who - through the land office at Mitchell, Dakota Territory - were given or purchased fraudulent land documents or counterfeit deeds for preemption claims. Their names were probably also fake.

In 1879, Sioux Falls attorney and land agent John D. Cameron (that was his real name) set up a complicated scheme by which he would print, fill out, advertise, and file paperwork for claims surrounding townsites up and down the new railroad line in Dakota Territory. They were dated to appear that first papers had been filed in Mitchell before or near the dates other men filed on the same lands through the Watertown or Yankton Land Office in the fall of 1879 or early winter months of 1880. This would allow time for the required six months to go by before preemption was possible, and still be timed to beat the rush of settlers in the spring.

Only very rarely did any of these land fiends ever see the land they had papers for, much less live on it or improve it. And since only a few legitimate settlers spent the winter of 1879-1880 near some of the new railroad townsites (such as Walter Ogden and the Ingallses at Silver Lake), there was nobody around to dispute any claim that these men had done so. They "witnessed" each other's claims, and nobody was the wiser.

Meanwhile, there were honest-to-goodness homesteaders -- such as Visscher Barnes, Horace Woodworth, Almanzo Wilder, Charles Ingalls, and Robert Boast, among others -- who had filed on claims but didn't spend that first winter on them. They built rough shanties and left a few personal belongings in place to show that they had been there and would be back. In some cases, a few acres had been plowed. Most wintered "back east," but arrived with their loved ones as soon as they were able to get there in the spring, ready to settle down to some serious homesteading. Men worked on their claim shanties, built stables, dug wells, started plowing, and planted gardens.

The plan was that members of the Cameron gang would show up in De Smet or whatever town their claim was near, holding a patent or deed in hand, and find some "claim jumper" on THEIR land! They would show that they had filed proper papers and insist that they had spent the winter there. They had witnesses; just look. They hadn't been gone long; they had only gone to fetch supplies. The land was THEIRS!

But then, rather than trying to throw the poor, scared homesteader and his family off the land, they would decide to be magnanimous and offer to relinquish the claim in exchange for filing fees or some reasonable payment and they would just go elsewhere and take another claim. No problem; no harm done. In some cases, De Smet settlers were so scared that they paid what was asked. However, some were intimidated into taking out loans from banks back east in order to buy the land outright for the preemption price, or even more. After all, they had picked the spot because of its proximity to the townsite, and they wanted to live there. The land was sure to only increase in valuable.

The Cameron gang didn't reckon with De Smet attorney and Probate Judge, Visscher Barnes. One of the members of the gang just happened to try to take over Lawyer Barnes's homestead, and Barnes sought out and fought their ring-leader, John Cameron, for three years, traveling to the Department of the Interior and the General Land Office in Washington, D.C. Barnes took the case to the Dakota Territory Supreme Court.

And won.
- posted by pioneergirl at 8:56 PM

 
life at the depot
In March 1880, Revered Horace Woodworth, his wife, and four of their 11 children left Illinois, bound for Dakota. Just fourteen years old, son Jim had spent less than a year as an office boy for the Chicago & North Western Railroad, now he was being sent to be the depot agent in De Smet. Although Jim would "run" the depot, his father's name appeared on the books as the "official" agent. Later in life, Jim would admit that he was far too young to have taken on such a job, yet he held it until March 1883. At that time, he went to St. Paul to be the chief clerk at the general agent's office of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad.

The Woodworths arrived only shortly before the first train reached De Smet. An empty boxcar served as the first depot, with a packing crate as the platform. The new depot was in the process of being built, and not at the whim of the carpenters in De Smet. The C&NW Railroad had standard sets of plans for things like the coaling station, section house (what Laura Ingalls Wilder called the Surveyors' House), water tower, ash pit, platform, and depot.

Although there were many sets of depot plans on record - from simple to elaborate - those built in Dakota Territory in the early years were often a combination depot, freight room, and living quarters in one building. They were often variations on two main designs, called simply the Number One and the Number Two: a building 60 feet or more in length, with one story freight room at one end, with the office and waiting room(s) beneath a four or five room "home" for the station agent and his family above. A central bay with windows on three sided afforded a view up and down the tracks without having to leave the building.

The photo is of the first depot at Volga; the bay was on the other side of the building, facing the railroad tracks. You can see a sketch of the De Smet depot in the 1883 bird's eye view. See John Miller's Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little Town: Where History and Literature Meet, pages 19-20, at letter E.

According to early De Smet records, the depot living quarters were ~20 x 32 feet, meaning that the freight room and the office / waiting room below were each similar in size. Stairs to the living quarters were located in the office. One set of representative plans are shown at left. Since there are no existing photographs of the interior of the De Smet depot, it's possible that the layout varied from the arrangement shown. In the plans I saw, there was only a partial wall separating the kitchen and extra space, which I have shown as a dining room. Plan Number 1 differs only in that the overall size is smaller, and the stairs have a turn in them; they arrive between the kitchen and living room on a smaller, open landing.

In Little Town on the Prairie, we see the depot through Laura's eyes, when she and Mary Power attend Ben Woodworth's birthday party (see Chapter 20, "The Birthday Party"). The girls enter at the waiting room, then they pass through it (and the office) to get to the stairs.

At the top of the stairs was a "little hall" (enclosed landing). They would have gone through the living room to Mrs. Woodworth's bedroom, where they took off their wraps. Unless the rest of the guests arrived while Mary and Laura were primping, the text suggests an arrangement by which the girls can access the bedroom from the landing, then pass into the living room (swap the living room and adjacent bedroom locations).

According to the De Smet newspaper (January 1883), Jim was still in the habit of "shocking" visitors a year after Ben's party: Highly interesting experiments in electro-magnetism are conducted by Prof. James Woodworth, at the depot. They are most deeply interesting to the experimentee. The look of pained astonishment which he assumes is only equaled by the gentleman who discovers that some guileful plebian in whom he confided has worked on him a twenty cent piece for a quarter.

The De Smet depot burned to the ground in April 1905. It was replaced with a smaller, one-story depot. Jim Woodworth went on to become Vice President of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:03 PM

 
pride & prejudice

Tonight, while watching Pride & Prejudice on television, I read some of the letters pertaining to the publication of the "Little House" books. On 22 December 1936 Ida Louise Raymond (at the time, she was assistant to the editor, Harper & Brothers' Department of Books for Boys and Girls) wrote to Laura Ingalls Wilder the following:

"I am in a little trouble about the illustration [for On the Banks of Plum Creek]. I am sure you will agree with me that Helen Sewell must continue with the series. Unfortunately, however, she was in a very bad automobile accident a short while ago and is still suffering from shock, and unable to use her eyes for very long at a time. She came to see me the other day to say that although she is fonder of your books than any others that she illustrates, she felt that she simply could not get this done in time unless she had someone to help her. She would like to have a Mildred Boyle (who has done some most attractive work, of which I enclose a sample) work with her on the research and some of the backgrounds. Miss Sewell would do the figures, and the jacket and frontispiece would be entirely her work. Miss Boyle's name, however, would have to appear on the title page as collaborating with Miss Sewell.

I do hope this is all right with you because, frankly, I see no way out of it..."

My research assistant, Iris, tells me that I have been known to say that Miss Boyle began to help Miss Sewell because she (Sewell) had been hired to illustrate the Merrymount Press "Limited Edition Club" edition of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, released in (February?) 1940.

I haven't been able to find any other information about Helen Sewell being in a car accident circa 1936, nor about her being hired to do the (42?) illustrations for Pride & Prejudice and that was the real reason she needed help with "Little House."

Something to wonder: was it car accident or other job, or perhaps both? At any rate, I can't help but look at Sewell's P&P illustrations and think LH.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:44 PM

 
wilder women on npr
Judith Thurman was interviewed on NPR by host, Linda Wertheimer. Transcript and link to audio HERE.
- posted by pioneergirl at 4:09 AM

 
blizzard
A hundred years ago, Reverend Edward Brown ruminated over the origin the word blizzard, meaning the weather-related one, a current topic of discussion in De Smet:

I was amused that the attempted explanation of the origin of the word "blizzard," that it originated in the Sioux Indians pronouncing the word blistered, and on a man's frozen face, "blizzard." I have only to say that the writer is not less than half a century behind the times. Fifty years ago I used to hear the word in southern Ohio, among people of Virginia and Maryland origin, applied to a blustering wind. A braggadocio of a man was also called a blizzard. The memorable storm that rose in Illinois and swept through Indiana, Ohio, and down Lake Erie, rolling up great tidal waves and doing immense damage to the shipping at Buffalo, Nov. 17 and 18, 1842, was called by the people of Indiana, where I then lived, a blizzard. The word is old, and as far as this country is concerned, of southern rather than western origin. We shall doubtless have to go back to Europe for the origin of the word. Probably it came from Ireland.

The word, however old it may have been in the 1880s, had not made it into the Webster's Unabridged Dictionary currently in use at Laura Ingalls Wilder's De Smet schoolhouse, nor was it included in the 1897 edition!

The Dairy Queen Blizzard® debuted in 1985, selling more than 175 million of them that first year. DQ® sold me one tonight.

As I sat there enjoying the tasty treat, I started thinking. Wouldn't it be great if the De Smet Dairy Queen could sell a "Hard Winter Blizzard®" even if only during pageant weekends? Maybe one containing gingerbread bits, with optional chocolate on top. Chocolate, you know, only adds to the goodness. And what about serving it in a souvenir tin cup for an extra fee?

I'm sure things like that have to go through corporate offices and rarely happen, but it's fun to think up marketing schemes that you just know - as a diehard "Little House on the Prairie" fan - would sell like hotcakes. See? There's another one. Why couldn't the Oxbow sell Almanzo's buckwheat pancakes, a hearty-appetite portion served beneath a blanket cake, with country ham on the side? And don't forget the maple syrup...
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:55 PM

 
looking for gold
In These Happy Golden Years (Chapter 13, "Springtime"), Laura Ingalls Wilder's uncle, Thomas Quiner, tells the family about his 1874-1875 Black Hills expedition to look for gold. While most of the story follows other accounts of the trip fairly well (those of David Aken, Annie Tallent, Thomas Russell, etc.), I do wonder why Laura (or Uncle Tom?) changed a couple of things.

Although Wilder wrote that the Gordon Stockade at French Creek "and everything in it" was burned to the ground by the cavalry at they time they evicted and arrested the Gordon party, the stockade was left intact. The oxen weren't killed, either, but they did "disappear," and it was suspected that they ran off. As you can see in the 1876 photograph at left, the stockade was still standing. And if you visit Custer State Park - you know, when you go to Keystone next month to see the Little House on the Prairie television cast reunion - you can see the recently renovated replica stockade.

But what happened to Uncle Tom after he left the Black Hills? Wilder's story abruptly ends with the stockade going up in smoke, and Tom being marched out on foot, a prisoner. The action is compared to the Ingallses being forced to leave Indian Territory in Kansas.

The truth is that the members of the Gordon Party were held only a short time in Wyoming, then paroled. They were met by Charles Collins, one of the group's organizers, and he accompanied the party to Sioux City, Iowa, by way of the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad.

Elaborate preparations were made for the reception of the party in Sioux City. According to the newspapers, at least a thousand men were gathered at the depot "to welcome the original Black Hillers back to Sioux city." As the train rolled into the station, a band played and cannons were fired, while the crowd struggled with each other for a first sight of the heroes." (Sioux City Weekly Journal, May 6, 1875) A hollow square was formed by members of the uniformed fire department (to represent the Gordon Stockade), in which the Black Hillers - with rifles in hand - took position. Was this the source of the photo of the party featured in David Aken's book?

The fire chief spoke. The mayor spoke. The men were compared to Sherman and his march to the sea; they were said to be brave and heroic; they were said to have opened the way up to settlement of the Black Hills. Almost before the party broke up and headed to the hotel for a fine dinner, other larger groups were already organizing to head to the Black Hills to seek their fortunes.

Hadn't the Gordon expedition been illegal? The Black Hills were sacred lands belonging to the Sioux, and there was a treaty in place, denying access to the white man. Of course, this hadn't stopped General Custer from going to the Black Hills in advance of the Gordon Party, and Custer had miners and engineers in his party who did find gold.

Everybody knows "what happened next," but don't you ever wonder what might have been the result had the Gordon Party been made an example of, and treated like the criminals they really were?
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:58 PM

 
governor of orleans, american remount stallion


I was contacted recently by Lillian Smith, a Morgan Horse historian in Oregon. In 2005, Smith published American Morgan Horse - U.S. Army Remount Stallions, and she graciously shared with me both her knowlege and information from the American Morgan Horse Register and U.S. Government publications about remount stallions. Last week, I tracked down several books and dozens of articles on the subject.

I felt like I spent this weekend on a horse and yet I never left the house. Almanzo Wilder's involvement with the American Remount Association and the Morgan stallion, Governor of Orleans, is only a small bit of a much larger picture. This is one of those Laura Ingalls Wilder tangents that I found both fascinating and almost impossible to rein in (pun intended). Fort Robinson, here I come!

I have read (in Barbara Fogel's "Little House Morgans" article for The Morgan Horse, October 1992, for example) that Almanzo Wilder bought Governor of Orleans. My mistaken belief that Almanzo indeed owned the horse must have been why I saw brought and read bought in other publications (such as William Anderson's A Little House Sampler) that clearly do not say that the horse was Almanzo's property. Almanzo Wilder did not own Governor of Orleans. He never did.

Governor of Orleans was foaled in 1914; his sire was Ben Lamond 3000 and his dam was Maid of Orleans. You can see his pedigree HERE. The breeder was Joseph Battell (1839-1915) of Middlebury, Vermont. Battell was a philanthropist who edited the American Morgan Horse Registry and is credited with saving the breed loved by Almanzo Wilder, also donating his horse farm to the federal Morgan horse breeding program.

Governor of Orleans was most likely donated to the American Remount Association, founded during World War I to supply the United States Army with fit animals, and most noted for supplying registered stallions to farmers and ranchers owning suitable mares in order to encourage the production of more and better light horses suited for the military.

From 1923-1925, Governor of Orleans was leased by Almanzo Wilder from the federal government through the Fort Robinson (Nebraska) remount facility. For a $25 fee, Wilder agreed - in writing - to provide for the stallion (including medical attention) in exchange for the right of the Army to buy any colts born to Wilder's suitable mare(s) when they were three-year-olds. Almanzo could keep any filly foals, and also was allowed to charge $10 for each mare belonging to others and bred to Governor of Orleans. 1923 seems to have been the first year that Morgan stallions were distributed in Missouri. It may also have been the first year that Almanzo Wilder participated in the remount program.

According to Almanzo Wilder, Governor of Orleans sired 23 colts in a single year. It is not known how many were from Almanzo's mare(s) and may have been purchased by the Army, but oral history has always said that Almanzo did sell them horses. But according to Almanzo and others, the main reason the program was so important was that it allowed horses of excellent bloodlines to breed with Ozark farm horses.

"What we hope to do is to improve the quality of Ozark horses by an admixture of Morgan blood," Wilder told the assistant editor of the Missouri Ruralist, George Jordan. "For many years we have been attempting to breed an ideal Ozark horse, and this has been helped to some extent by a few drafters and some coach horse blood. On many farms there are fine mares weighing from 1,110 to 1,350. But in many cases the quality is lacking. The Morgan has that quality. It means good feet to withstand the stony roads and fields. It means an exceptionally good back. And there must be ability to pull, yet serve our purpose for road uses—and this ability must be backed by a willingness to go into the collar. A horse must have sense as well as weight, and the Morgan, I'm convinced, has more intelligence than any breed of horses I have ever known."

And, added Gordon, "the Morgan is a horse you can love." Anybody who has read Farmer Boy can certainly agree with that.
- posted by pioneergirl at 7:20 PM

 
rose wilder lane, by herself
Rose Wilder Lane (daughter of "Little House on the Prairie" author, Laura Ingalls Wilder) has apparently enjoyed considerably that thing the psychologists call "contact." Here is her record indicating "contacts": Born in South Dakota; moved to Minnesota, moved to Florida, moved to Missouri, adopted California, now lives in New York City; has earned her living since she was twelve years old, as check girl in a telegraph office, clerk, telegraph operator, telegraph office manager, stenographer, advertising writer, patent-medicine space-buyer, seller of land in California, newspaper writer, magazine writer, novelist. (1920)
- posted by pioneergirl at 5:46 PM

 
an. old. man.

In a moment Pa came back and hurriedly put on his overcoat and his mittens while he said, "We've got a neighbor I didn't know about last night. An old man, sick and all alone. I'm going out there now, I'll tell you all about it when I get back." - Laura Ingalls Wilder, By the Shores of Silver Lake, Chapter 15, "The Last Man Out"

Charles Ingalls was 43. Horace Woodworth was 53.

I am 54.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:12 PM

 
borrowed names, and late-night bits
To be released March 16, 2010 (and ready to pre-order on amazon): Borrowed Names: Poems About Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C. J. Walker, Marie Curie, and Their Daughters by Jeannine Atkins (New York: Henry Holt and Co.).

You can read Atkins's blog HERE.

I couldn't sleep last night, so I spent a few hours adding articles and this dissertation to my Laura Ingalls Wider - Rose Wilder Lane bibliography. At some point, I'll have to force myself to do some filing; I seem to have adopted a system that can only be called piling. It reminds me of a story about my great-grandmother, who used to stash the daily newspaper beneath the cushion of her rocking chair after she finished reading it. She dealt with them only when her feet no longer touched the floor, but at least she dealt with them...

From the 1980 Children's Literature Association Quarterly (Winter 1980), I found an interesting bit to ponder. Rosa Anne Moore had proposed three new articles: (1) One about the publication of Little House in the Big Woods; (2) one about Almanzo Wilder and Laura's aunt, Martha Quiner; and (3) "a critical assessment of the rhetoric and art of the "Little House" books, especially comparing them to the now-forgotten work of Rose Lane who was so instrumental in their writing."

Moore was given a grant of $1000 to work on the articles, the money providing travel to California to interview Norma Lee Browning, a trip to San Francisco to examine the manuscripts at the Pomona Public Library, a trip to Pepin to gather information about Martha Quiner Carpenter, a trip to De Smet to gather details about Almanzo, and a trip to Arkansas to interview friends of Rose there. (I assume she meant Ethel and Paul Cooley.) Moore intended to combine the three articles into one book. She published three articles, covering two of her proposals.

Why was the book never published? And an article about Almanzo Wilder and Aunt Martha? Curious!
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:45 AM

 
why now?
Reading Judith Thurman's praises-for and rehashing-of William Holtz's Ghost in the Littlehouse (see sidebar link) made me wonder... Why is Thurman interested in Laura Ingalls Wilder now? Why jump on the Little House bandwagon now? Why Holtz?

After all, Holtz (the book and the man are inseparable in the brain beneath this bonnet) is something that Laura Ingalls Wilder researchers and enthusiasts of a certain age pretty much tired of dissecting and discussing over a dozen years ago, because HELLO! Of course Rose had a hand in the "Little House" books, and we're okay with that. Is it all the press for Little House on the Prairie, the Musical? Melissa Gilbert's The New York Times best seller, Prairie Tale? Or did Auntie Evelyn read "Little House" to young Judy and send her bonnets and tin cups and show her where butter comes from? (Okay, I don't know if they're related, but award yourself a few bonus points if you know who I was talking about.)

What I really want to know is if Thurman has the scoop about a definitive adult Laura Ingalls Wilder biography in the works; you know, one that is based on primary research for a change. I call myself a full-time Laura Ingalls Wilder researcher, but lord knows I veered off that track ages ago, and I rarely dabble in the Rose Wilder Lane world because there are plenty of others out there who do. (I also run with scissors and don't play nicely with others - scourge of collectivism and all that...) These days, I deal in "Little House" minutiae, A-Z: just how sick was Horace Woodworth; Minnie Johnson had how many children; what color was Big Jerry's other shirt?

But really? A book? With new information? And sources? Please say it's so!
[update: Read the questions submitted to Thurman, and her answers HERE.]
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:14 AM

 
a boy named jean
Laura Ingalls Wilder introduced readers to her cousins Lena and Jean in By the Shores of Silver Lake. Lena, with her snappy black eyes, curly black hair, and spirited black pony, is every bit as exciting as the day she and Laura spend together on the prairie, and readers are always curious about Lena. What happened to her? Did she marry a railroader? You can read about Lena and other members of her family HERE.

Then there's Jean, "only a little boy" who tries to scare the girls by howling outside their sleeping tent. Lucky he misbehaved, because it's Lena's threat of "telling what you did" that allows Laura to have a turn riding on Jean's black pony.

The last one sees of Jean, he's riding away from Silver Lake camp before sun-up, with a wagonload of stolen scrapers and plows. What happened next?

Laura's cousin Jean was actually August Eugene Waldvogel (he tended to spell his name Waldvogle), called Gene. When he left Silver Lake, Gene had only recently turned eleven, and he and the rest of the family were headed south to Sioux Falls, not west to Oregon as Laura had guessed.

Gene became a farmer, and with eight sisters and a step-father who drank too much, he must have had to do a man's job at an early age. The family wandered around a bit after leaving Silver Lake, but eventually they settled in Dakota City, Nebraska, where Hiram Forbes filed on a claim. Henry and Polly Quiner live nearby, and Gene attended school, with his cousin Louisa as his teacher. When Lena married, Gene went to work for his brother-in-law's family, and he eventually had a farm of his own. It was next to Lena's.

Around 1893, Gene married Marie Harmon. They had three children born in Nebraska: Earl Eugene (1894), William Wesley (1896), and Velma (1898). Gene and Marie were later divorced, and she married Edwin Gilbert.

Around 1904, Gene moved to Washington County, Colorado, where he filed on a homestead, the NW and SW quarters of Section 17, Township 1, Range 51 West. After his step-father died in 1906, Gene's mother Docia joined him in Colorado, and she filed on a homestead claim adjoining Gene's.

Gene married Leora Hinton. They had three children: Ernest (1920), Robert (1928), and Laurence (~1930). Gene died December 24, 1945, in Colorado.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:14 PM

 
bounty
As if land laws pertaining to homesteads, preemptions, and tree claims weren't already hard enough to understand, there's another way men, women, and even children were obtaining "free land" in the Dakotas: bounties.

Each officer and private, either in the Army or Navy, who shall have enlisted since the 12th of April, 1861, and remained in service for not less than ninety days, and then been honorably discharged, shall be entitled to receive a bounty warrant for 160 acres of land, to be selected from any public lands duly surveyed and subject to sale; and further provides that every officer and private who shall have been mustered into service prior to August 1, 1861, and shall continue therein until the extraordinary forces are disbanded, or who shall have been previously honorably discharged (referring to the volunteers for three years or the war) shall be entitled to receive a warrant for 320 acres of land, to be selected in a similar manner.

In 1872, Congress passed a law stating that Union soldiers who had served for ninety days and were honorably discharged, even if they had made a homestead entry prior to June 22, 1874, for less than 160 acres, should be entitled to a soldier's additional homestead entry, without the requirements of residence or cultivation. Originally this right was personal and non-assignable (meaning, only the soldier himself could take advantage of the bounty), but it was soon decided that widows and even minor orphan children of soldiers could do so.

This was totally different from the law by which Union soldiers could deduct time served from their 5-year residency requirement. Under the bounty law, one applied to the Commissioner of the General Land Office at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., providing information as to their previous homestead filing and military service. They presented their paperwork at any land office, picked out the land they wanted, paid the filing fee, and they were immediately land owners, entitled to a patent, free and clear.

According to the War Department in 1861 - based on the numbers of Union soldiers then serving - over a hundred million acres of land would be needed for the bounties to the troops already raised. Of course the public domain was ample enough to furnish a half section of good land to every man. After people started taking advantage of the soldier's bounty, however, it was determined to be a poor boon to the soldier, because not one in a hundred of those who received bounty warrants under the law actually settled upon their land as a farmer.

It was more of a boon to land dealers and speculators, who immediately offered fifty or seventy-five dollars per claim (sometimes as little as 1/4 of what the land sold for at the Dakota preemption price of $1.25 per acre), often buying land the seller had never seen or had any intention of visiting. In many cases, it was the speculators who rounded up former soldiers and helped them file for their bounty, with immediate resale part of the deal.

The original four blocks comprising the town of De Smet was part of a soldier's additional bounty, as was the 80 acres to the north, and the quarter section surrounding Silver Lake on the south, west, and northwest. All three parcels were claimed on August 5, 1879, at the land office in Yankton.

As I've blogged before, the town of De Smet was supposed to be located a half mile to the east of its current location, due north of Silver Lake. The residence portion of town was supposed to be to the east, with a lovely view of the lake. Thomas Brown had been given an 80-acre railroad grant for the townsite to be built just north of the tracks, but the rest of the surrounding quarter section was a tree claim filed on by James Dow in 1879. It became his son Fred's tree claim the following year. The Dows were contacted about giving up land to be used in connection with the town, but they refused.

Luckily, the men who obtained their soldier's bounty land to the west were glad to part with theirs. But wouldn't De Smet have been a pretty place if it had actually been built overlooking Silver Lake!
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:59 PM