Overlooked Anniversaries

 

Some recent anniversaries received little or no fanfare. Maybe it takes a history nerd to give a darn about the birth of Dakota Territory, but it’s probably the reason I noticed. I’ve read and gathered enough material about the affair to realize it makes for interesting reading.

     The first important date, March 2, 1861, was when President James Buchanan signed the document that created the Dakota Territory. In two days Buchanan would leave office and we can imagine he wanted to clear his desk. Speculative frontier land companies had eyed the vast territory that was not attached to any existing state but was considered part of the Yankton Indian nation. They lobbied the U. S. Congress to annex the land in 1859 in accordance with a treaty signed with the Yankton nation.   

     Settlers had  started occupying the land, but without a government to legalize any dealings or provide protection, they were on their own. Land speculators needed to make commission on sales and it became important to organize a legal territory run by a governor and a representative body. So 160 years ago, the president’s signature established Dakota Territory. 

     How long the unsigned document sat on Buchanan’s desk is not known by this writer, but two days later, March 4, 1861, it became the new President Abraham Lincoln’s responsibility to get the new territory up and running. But he couldn’t afford to devote any time to it, he was knee-deep in the looming Civil War where shooting began one month later. He needed to appoint a governor to handle the details. 

     Lincoln passed over his wife’s cousin J. B. S. Todd who presumed to become governor and instead appointed his personal doctor, Dr. William Jayne to take the reins. It was Jayne’s  responsibility to choose the new territory’s temporary capital and chose Yankton. When he arrived in the new city, he found a rustic log cabin the only dwelling available. It doubled as a dwelling and executive office which he had to share with the attorney general W. F. Gleason. Gleason, unhappily outranked, was given the job of emptying the slop bucket each day and tidying up the place.

    A backstory explains a bit why Yankton was chosen. The aforementioned Todd was one of those speculators who had lobbied in Washington to get Dakota Territory approved, and on his terms. He had invested in the new townsite of Yankton and wanted to see it develop into a city. The president’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, yielded some influence in the matter. She could hardly be ignored, since Jayne and her husband the president were personal friends. He found it appropriate to yield to her desire in the matter of a capital city.

     The governor, attorney general, and the other territorial officials all came from citified backgrounds and wore fitted suits, collars, and ties. But upon arriving in Yankton they were met with shock. The rough-and-rowdy collection of inhabitants displayed all matter of clothing, had never visited a barbershop, and wore sidearms and knives hanging from their belts. Drinking and brawling were commonplace, and one writer stated the town was, “wide-open, red-hot, and mighty interesting.”

     A representative government was intended. To achieve that Governor Jayne ordered a census be taken and hired six census-takers who rode north as far as Pembina and westward to wherever inhabitants could be found. After comparing their notes, they declared that 2402 whites and mixed bloods lived here. There may have been more, but Metis and other half-breeds were out hunting and couldn’t be found. They did not count Indians. 

      Governor Jayne used the count to divide the area into legislative districts, appoint judges, and order an election to find representatives for their districts. Doane Robinson, an early historian from South Dakota, wrote in 1905 that the new legislature convened on March 17, 1862, with nine senators and thirteen house members in attendance. He gave them credit for being very capable, but also saw them “careless, carefree, happy-go-lucky” people.  

     This legislature’s first important task was choosing a permanent location for the capital. The cities of Bon Homme, Vermillion, and Yankton all wanted it and some wild political and physical fighting ensued. To simplify the affair, consider the speaker of the house George Pinney and the wishy-washy part he played. He succeeded in raising the ire of many and opponents set out to humiliate him by throwing him through a window. He quickly pleaded with the governor for protection who in turn called out Company A of the Dakota cavalry. Pinney sensed too much pressure and finally resigned.

     The person who had agreed to throw him out the window was the sergeant-at-arms James Somers, “a noted desperado of the Dakota frontier.” He did not forget his promise to get physical with Pinney and later in the day when Pinney entered the saloon, he encountered Somers in there. Somers was strong and picked him up and carried him over to a closed window and threw him out. Pinney was seen wearing the window sash around his neck as he landed.

     Yankton ended up with the territorial capital, but Vermillion did all right after being awarded the university. We do not need to look far to find the wild and woolly west. It was right here in our state history.