He Paid for Reneging

     With pen in hand, President James Buchanan signed a bill establishing Dakota Territory on March 2, 1861. President Abraham Lincoln took office just days later and found himself facing an impending Civil War.  Needing to free himself from the business of the new territory, he quickly named an acting governor, his friend Dr. William Jayne.

     Jayne’s task was large, even to the point of naming a temporary capital city. He chose Yankton; the new legislators would choose the official capital when they were seated and in session. 

     Other cities desired the capital city designation, a fact which caused some behind the scenes maneuvering. The speaker of the house, George Pinney, promised to support Yankton’s bid, but infighting caused a stalemate. He switched his support to Vermillion which infuriated some colleagues to the point of threatening to throw him out the window, a threat prompting his quick resignation. Afterwards, he made the mistake of entering the saloon where a few other legislators had gathered.

     History records the time when Frank Ziebach looked up from his printing press and glancing through the window spotted an astonishing scene. A man had come crashing out the window of the saloon across the street and sat there disentangling himself from the sash and shaking shards of glass from his clothes. In the gaping window frame a man stood with a clenched fist shouting something similar to “that’s what you get for reneging on a promise!” He may even have added, “Your word’s no good and if you want more of it, just git back in here!”

     Pinney stood brushing himself off and knowing he couldn’t go back in there started walking away, but the men standing at the doorway were coming after him. He pulled a small pistol from his coat pocket, cocked it, and held it in the air.  Their look at that pistol and the set of Pinney’s jaw was enough to dull their ire. This event capped twenty days of rancor since the legislature finally named Yankton as the official capital of the territory. 

      Ever the newsman, Ziebach picked up a pad and pencil and ran to the saloon for the story.

He had come from Sioux City to Yankton just a few months before after rolling overland for three days in two wagons loaded with printing equipment. He never dreamt he’d find such a great story as this in a little frontier town. His first question would have been an easy one, “Who pushed that man out the window?”

     Ziebach recognized the House sergeant-at-arms, Jim Somers, pointing at his chest, who said, “I did and I’d do it again! Some wanted to do that when the House was in session, then backed off when he resigned.” Editor Ziebach replied, “That was when the House was in session but we’re here in a saloon. Would you comment?”

     “I’m on my own time and when he had the guts to come in here I thought it was a good opportunity to get it done. If he didn’t want to face up to it, he should’ve stayed out.”

     Dakota Territory suffered through a painful birth. When Governor William Jayne arrived in Yankton, he found an undeveloped city with primitive amenities. His office consisted of a two-room cabin, the back room of which served as a bedroom that he had to share with Attorney General William E. Gleason. Since the A. G. was outranked by his roommate, one of his duties was to clean the cabin and empty the slop buckets.

     The newspaper office, too, was a log cabin structure where Ziebach printed The Daily Dakotian with his Washington Hand Press. This particular machine’s very portability enabled Ziebach to bring it in a wagon, just as hundreds of other would-be publishers did across the country as settlements spread westward. 

         As for George Pinney, it was probably lucky that the men who’d taken a notion to continue harassing him backed off at the sight of the pistol. Pinney moved to Helena, Montana and proved he would use it because in an altercation he had with a former lieutenant governor from Wisconsin named Beall he shot and killed the man.

     We don’t know who stood the expense of repairing the window, whether it was the man who threw him out or the owner of the bar, but it’s a good guess that Pinney didn’t. This event capped twenty days of rancor since the legislature finally named Yankton as the official capital of the territory.

     In the long run even though Vermillion was not awarded the capital site, it profited more than Yankton did because it received the nod for the the establishment of the University of South Dakota which still stands as a successful institution of higher learning; furthermore, Yankton is no longer a capital city.