Rivers and Plains Papers of the Fortieth Annual DAKOTA CONFERENCE A National Conference on the Northern Plains Compiled by Lori Bunjer, Harry F. Thompson, and Arthur R. Huseboe The Center for Western Studies Papers of the Fortieth Annual DAKOTA CONFERENCE A National Conference on the Northern Plains “Rivers and Plains” Augustana College Sioux Falls, South Dakota April 25-26, 2008 Complied by Lori Bunjer Harry F. Thompson Arthur R. Huseboe Major funding for the Fortieth Annual Dakota Conference was provided by the South Dakota Humanities Council, Loren and Mavis Amundson, Tom and Elaine McIntosh, Richard and Michelle Van Demark, Mellon Fund Committee of Augustana College, Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission, Jamie and Penny Volin, Blair and Linda Tremere, Rex Myers and Susan Richards, and the Center for Western Studies. The Center for Western Studies Augustana College 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface .......................................................................................................................................................... v Amundson, Loren John Edmund Colton, Founder of Colton.......................................................................................... 1 Anderson, Grant K. South Dakota’s First Presidential Visitor........................................................................................... 5 Browne, Miles A. Riverboating with Abraham Lincoln ................................................................................................ 19 Dalstrom, Harl A. Upstream Metropolis: The Missouri River System and the Making of Greater Omaha................... 25 Gasque, Thomas J. River Names: Our First Signposts .................................................................................................. 35 Goertzen, Kelly Ann Becoming Lillie Hays: Letters from a Missionary Woman.............................................................. 45 Gremmels, James Two Women on the East Side of Sioux Falls.................................................................................. 51 Hayes, Karen J. and Robert E. Genealogy Can Be Challenging and Rewarding ............................................................................ 59 Huber, Mark Bridging the Sheyenne Valley: Rise of the Hi-Line ......................................................................... 70 Huseboe, Arthur R. “After the most severe year of drought and devastation” − The Five-college Appeal to Homestake Mining............................................................................................................................................. 80 Johnsson, Lillian The Homestake Mine Meets the Hope Diamond: Another of Deadwood’s 1001 Tales .................. 87 Kilian, Tom Omaha I: A City Lost in Time......................................................................................................... 92 Larsen, Lawrence H. and Barbara J. Cottrell Omaha-Council Bluffs, the Kawsmouth, the Council Bluffs, and the Steamboats........................... 97 Lee, Shebby Lewis & Clark and the American Fur Trade.................................................................................. 103 -iii - Mashek, Carol Martin The History of the Minnehaha County Historical Society, 1927-2008, Part 1: 1927-1939 ............ 111 Oyos, Lynwood E. Impact: The Air Base and the Sioux Falls Community, 1942-1945............................................... 123 Rahja, Jean Ellen Florence Blackmore: London to Dakota Territory ............................................................... 138 Rusch, Arthur L, Vermillion – Before the Flood ....................................................................................................... 151 Steensma, Robert C. A Love Song for the Prairie: Wallace Stegner’s Wolf Willow ........................................................ 166 Sunde, Rasmus The Stavig Letters ........................................................................................................................ 172 Timm, John Saving the Future: Governor Mellette Saves Governor Elrod’s Life.............................................. 179 Volk, David Draftee: A High School Teacher Goes To War............................................................................ 188 Volk, David Mystery of the Round Rocks......................................................................................................... 191 -iv - PREFACE Entitled “Rivers and Plains,” the Fortieth Annual Dakota Conference examined the varied historical and literary responses to river transportation and related issues on the Northern Plains. Held April 24-25, 2008, this was the second in a series on transportation, following the 2007 conference on railroads. The Annual Dakota Conference: A National Conference on the Northern Plains is dedicated to examining contemporary issues in their historical and cultural contexts. It is a signature event of the Center for Western Studies, which provides programming in Northern Plains studies at Augustana College. Travel on the Northern Plains by river allowed for communication and trade among villagers, such as the Oneota at Blood Run on the Big Sioux River, the Sioux on the lower Missouri River, and the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara on the upper Missouri River. Canoes and bullboats, technologies favored by indigenous peoples, gave way to the keelboats, mackinaws, pirogues, and steamboats used by Euramericans. Steamboat transportation on the Missouri River is largely responsible for the rise of mixed- blood societies identified by Dr. Herbert T. Hoover in A New South Dakota History as Missouri Valley Culture. Thanks, especially, to featured humanities scholars Allison Hedge Coke, University of Nebraska at Kearney, and L. E. Bradley and Brian L. Molyneaux, both of the University of South Dakota. We are pleased to acknowledge the continued support of the South Dakota Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and additional support from Loren and Mavis Amundson, Tom and Elaine McIntosh, Richard and Michelle Van Demark, Mellon Fund Committee of Augustana College, Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission, and other donors. Thanks to each presenter and session chair, whose dedication to research and writing makes this conference possible. Please note that not all papers presented at the conference were submitted for inclusion here. Harry F. Thompson, Ph.D. Dakota Conference Director The Center for Western Studies -v - JOHN EDMUND COLTON Founder of Colton Loren H. Amundson John Edmund Colton was a seventh generation descendant of progenitor George Colton, who emigrated from England to Longmeadow, Massachusetts, in 1644. John's parents, Melzar and Melvina Colton, settled in Wisconsin. Both were teachers and his father also farmed. John was born in 1857. After receiving a teaching certificate in 1875, he taught for three years in Iowa. In April 1878 he chose to seek his fortune as a homesteader in Dakota Territory, and stopped at the end of the trail some 20 miles northwest of Sioux Falls City in Minnehaha County and filed a pre-emption claim to 160 acres of land on the NW ¼ in Sec 23. After he built an 8'x10' shanty, broke 20 acres of sod and spent ninety days on the property, as required by law, he returned to southern Wisconsin where he married Paulina J. Miller that November 28 in Rock County. The newlyweds returned to the area in March of 1879 and established their homestead on NE ¼ of Sec 27 and a timber claim homestead on SE ¼ Sec 27. Here they built a 16'x24' one room shanty, a barn and dug a well, all before son Charles M. was born in October. During the ensuing years, Melzer Glenn 1883, Frederick 1884, Ethel 1887, Ruth 1889, Hattie 1891, Aura 1894, Helen 1897 and Esther 1900, would be born. Several of John Colton's siblings soon followed them to the area: brother William O. and his wife, Ellen; sister Mary; sister Melvina and her husband, F.E. Tobie. All were trained teachers who taught in the school system as it developed. The first school district was organized in 1879 with J.E. Colton elected president; he also served as supervisor for many years and for two terms as Minnehaha County Superintendent 1882-86. While superintendent, J.E. edited and published The Minnehaha Teacher for school personnel and patrons throughout the county. School was first taught in the fall of 1880 in a sod house on NW ¼ Sec 26 owned by homesteader Andrew Nelson, with Ellen Colton an early teacher. The first frame school house was built in 1884 some three blocks northwest of the sod house in "Original Colton." This sod house on the homestead was later purchased by Paulina Colton's father, and was located in the same block in "Newtown Colton" where a second and larger frame building was constructed in 1904 for District 62. Some high school subjects were taught in 1904-05 and a two year high school was established in 1907 but discontinued in 1909 for a few years due to lack of students. Seven students later became the charter high school graduating class in 1917. This frame building continued in use until a new brick school, also built on the same block, greeted students for the first time on Veterans Day of 1924 and operated throughout the history of Colton High School. The creation of Tri-Valley High School by Colton, -1 - Lyons and Crooks in 1967 opened to a new rural school complex between Colton and Lyons, leading to gradual reduction in usage of the venerable building in Colton until it fell into disuse at the end of the century and finally