Pioneer Life

The Great Dakota Boom

The “Great Dakota Boom” (1878-1887) was a period of rapid settlement of the southern portion of the Dakota Territory east of the Missouri river. This was before South and North Dakota became states and after both the Black Hills Gold Rush and the Long Depression kicked off by the financial Panic of 1873. The period saw the region go from uninhabited prairie to being fully occupied with independently owned, newly created farms connected by a blossoming network of trains.¹ Ownership of the land went from public to private by way of the Homestead Acts. Herbert Schell, in his History of South Dakota, writes “It was possible for a settler to acquire possession of two and even, in some instances, three quarter sections [a quarter section was 160 acres]. The most common method was to file first on a pre-emption claim, acquire title upon the payment of $1.25 an acre at the end of a minimum period of six months, and then exercise the homestead privilege. If the homestead right was used first, five years of residence had to elapse before a pre-emption filing could be made, unless the homestead claim was commuted to a cash payment, payable after six months. … When the timber culture privilege began to be exercised after 1878, many settlers used it to acquire a second quarter section, whether pre-emption or homestead rights were used for the first claim. In some cases, a settler might resort to all three laws.”²

A wedding and a migration

In 1878, at the beginning of the Boom, John turned 21. He had been educated in the “common and select schools” and for three years he spent winters teaching school in Iowa and summers working the family farm in Wisconsin.³ Shortly after his birthday, in April, he came to Dakota Territory and filed his first claim – a pre-emption claim – about 20 miles northwest of the city of Sioux Falls in Taopi Township, Minnehaha County. According to Loren Amundsen’s research, John “built an 8’x10’ shanty, broke 20 acres of sod and spent ninety-days on the property as required by law.”⁴

With his pre-emption claim established, John returned home to Wisconsin where he and Paulina were married on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1878 in Cooksville, WI.⁵ After spending the winter in Wisconsin, the young couple returned to Dakota Territory early in 1879. While the rail network was about to expand rapidly, driving the Great Boom, at that time it only reached as far as Spencer, Iowa. The rest of the journey had to be made by teams and lumber wagons. On March 28th the couple returned to Taopi Township,⁶ where they established two new claims: a homestead claim on the NE 1/4 of Section 27 and a timber claim on the adjacent SE 1/4 of the same section. On the homestead claim, they built a 16’x24’ one room shanty, a barn and dug a well.⁷

This site would continue to be the Colton family home for the next century. Paulina was still telling an amusing story that happened to her this first year, fifty years later: “When the well was dug the geese got into it before it could be covered. Since [Paulina] was the only one small enough to get down the well she was let down on a rope. She recovered the geese but lost her wedding ring, which has never been found.”⁸

Most of these events would have occurred while Paulina – who was also 21 – was pregnant. John and Paulina’s first child, Charles, was born on October. 14th.

The great prairie fire of 1879

Ten days before Charles’s birth, on Oct. 4th, a large prairie fire swept perilously close to the young couple’s home, burning a strip more than 10 miles wide. Prairie fires were particularly dangerous at this time as there were no roads, farms or firebreaks to stop their progress. The dry grass of fall burned easily and, once a fire got underway, winds could push the fire across the country-side at speeds reaching thirty miles an hour.⁹

Here’s how Paulina told the story of the 1879 fire to the Argus-Leader, 52 years later (1931):

About noon we saw the smoke rolling up way in the distance. Before we had finished dinner we decided that the fire was too close for comfort. Mr. Colton and my father, who was visiting us at the time, rushed to the hay meadow, about a mile south of here, to try to check the fire there. But they soon found that it was hopeless and ran back to the buildings which were protected by a strip of plowing known as a fire-break.

In the meantime I had gone to the barn and had taken the horses out. I had seen that the fire was so ferocious that if the head fire should take a path in line with the barn it would easily jump the firebreak and destroy the barn in no time. Luckily for us the head fires struck to the east and to the west of our buildings. Our nearest neighbor was an elderly man by the name of Andrew Nelson. His sod house, which was thatched with slough hay, stood about a quarter of a mile northeast of our buildings — where the schoolhouse now stands. In spite of the firebreak which he had around the house, the flames from the head fire caught the thatched roof. My husband and my father ran to the aid of Mr. Nelson and started fighting the fire by throwing a pail of milk on the roof. “Old Andrew” as we called him, never did admit that throwing away a pail of perfectly good milk was the right thing to do. With the help of water from a well about ten rods away, the flames were soon extinguished and the prairie fire was about 20 miles farther on its way. The immediate scenery was pretty well charred for a while but we were extremely thankful to have escaped with comparatively little damage.¹⁰

Blizzards

Blizzards were another hardship of pioneer life. Schell writes that they were a “phenomenon peculiar to the Northern Plains” and that even when there were no blizzards, the winters were severe.¹¹ The book “The Long Winter” by Laura Ingalls Wilder describes her experience of the 1880-1881 winter in De Smet about 50 miles away from the Coltons’ farm. We don’t have any reflections about the Coltons’ experience during this winter, but it would have been their second since immigrating.

Paulina did share an anecdote from the blizzard of 1888, which was probably the worst blizzard experienced by Dakota Settlers and was called the “school children’s blizzard” because it came on suddenly while many children were still in school.¹² On her 75th birthday, Paulina recalled, “On the day that the blizzard of ‘88 struck, Mr. Colton had gone to Sioux Falls. It was feared for a time that he might be out in the storm, but a searching party which was sent out for him the next day found that he had reached Sioux Falls safely before the storm struck.”¹³

News Nugget: John shoots himself in the leg

On Aug 23, 1887 the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader reported another interesting event that happened to John while traveling.

Ex-County Superintendent J. E. Colton was driving from Taopi township to Hartford yesterday and was amusing himself by shooting at gophers by the wayside. While re-loading his pistol which was a 22 caliber, it was accidentally discharged, the ball striking Mr. Colton’s leg just above the knee. Mr. Colton went on to Hartford and telgraphed for Dr. LeBlond but the telegram was so worded that the doctor understood the man to be at Mr. Colton’s farm in Taopi. He made an effort to reach the operator at Hartford, but that dignitary was out on a hunt and after an hour’s fruitless efforts the doctor left for Taopi. Arriving there he found that the man hurt was Mr. Colton and that he was at Hartford. To Hartford the doctor wended his weary way, calling down all sorts of blessings on the negligent operator’s head. He reached Hartford about 4 o’clock this morning. An effort to find the ball was unsuccessful and it now looks as if Mr. Colton would have to carry around with him some cold lead for the rest of his life. The pistol is the one with which a son of W. H. Nelson injured himself some time ago. Dr. LeBlond reached home at 10 o’clock this morning after a sixty mile drive when a forty mile drive would have done just as well. He says Mr. Colton will be all right in a day or two, but he won’t stack as much on the health of the Hartford operator if he should happen to catch him out.¹⁴

Trees

One of the reason prairie fires and blizzards were so severe is that there were very few trees in the Dakota Territory when the Coltons arrived. On her 75th birthday, Paulina reported, “that when she came to South Dakota one could seed [sic] for miles and still not see a tree. One page from Mr. Colton’s dairy [sic] humorously recounts a trip to Sioux Falls by lumber wagon. He mentions the fact that it rained while they were on the way but that they did not run for the nearest tree because they were afraid that they would have to run too far. Mrs. Colton explains that at that time there was only one tree between their home and Sioux Falls. Now the trees which Mr. Colton planted are from 80 to 100 feet high and one cannot look out over the country in any direction without seeing groves.”¹⁵

These were the same cottonwood trees which John planted to receive his timber culture claim. Two years after Paulina told her story, one of these cottonwood trees had to be removed. It was three feet in diameter, 100 feet high and had a reach of 80 feet.¹⁶

Farming

For at least two decades after their migration, the Coltons were known as sheep farmers. In 1891 the Argus-Leader described John as “probably the most extensive sheep raiser in the county.”¹⁷ Also in 1891, after selling 184 sheep in Sioux City, IA, the local paper wrote that, “The sheep were raised and fed by Mr. Colton on his farm in Minnehaha county and plainly showed the adaptability of South Dakota for the sheep industry when in the hands of intelligent persons. Mr. Colton has handled sheep more or less for the past ten years, and always found them profitable when handled properly.”¹⁸ Marjorie Becket, one of the Coltons’ grand-daughters reported that John and Paulina “shipped in fine Merino sheep (a breed especially good for its wool).”¹⁹

It was South Dakota’s soil, weather and grasses which made it well suited to raising sheep. West of the Missouri river, sheep were herded on ranges. East of the Missouri, where the Coltons lived, sheep were more commonly found on farms where their feed could be supplemented by farm crops during the winter when the grasses were dormant.²⁰ In the spring of 1889, John had the best season I have a record of, selling both the wool and mutton from at least 353 sheep.

But the 1890s were hard on farmers. A series of droughts that had started in the mid 80s continued through the 90s. Moreover, the long depression started by the return to the gold standard in 1879 was exacerbated by the great panic of 1893. Farmers could expect lower prices for their goods due, in part, to the increased production from all the new farms. This in turn made the farmers susceptible to higher interest rates on the short-term loans necesssary to fund seasonal farming.²¹ While I don’t know for sure whether these factors affected the Coltons’ farm business, the 1890s did seem to see the Coltons switch away from farming towards more industrial, commercial and even political pursuits.

News Nugget: John’s shot leg requires surgery

On Jan. 4, 1893 the Argus-Leader reported that John’s injury from shooting himself in the leg had finally required surgery:

J.E. Colton, ex-territorial senator and superintendent of schools, had the main artery of his left leg cut and tied up today. Mr. Colton some four years ago was bring a load of wool to town, and was amusing himself by shooting gophers, when he accidentally shot himself in the leg. The ball passed so close to the main artery that it became inflamed and made walking impossible. He has lain at the Phillips house for the past two weeks, and today Drs. Brown & Tufts performed an operation on the injured member. The fleshy part of the leg was cut, and the main artery severed. The ends of the artery were tied with silk cords, and the gash in the flesh sewed up. It is thought that Mr. Colton will be able to walk in a few weeks.²²

Taopi Township

By the time the Great Dakota Boom ended in 1887, the vast spaces of wild prairie of the Dakota Territory had been divided up into private ownership along the lines of the counties, townships, sections and quarter sections, etc. of the Public Land Survey Sytem. From their first claim shanty, for as long as they and their children lived, the Coltons continuously occupied a portion of Section 26, Taopi Township – Township 104N, Range 51W. But their ownership – and their family’s ownership – of the surrounding land fluctuated. The map below gives a snapshot of what that ownership looked like in 1893 — fourteen years after the Coltons’ migration and four years after the surrounding state of South Dakota entered the union.

On this map you can see:

1. The Taopi Post Office, operated by the nearby Goddard family, from which the township gets its name. There was also a store here and settlers from miles around brought their eggs and home churned butter to trade for groceries at this store.²³
2. John Colton’s original homestead and timber claims on the two eastern quarters of section 27. You can see the location of the Colton’s first home as well as the grove of Cottonwood trees John planted to establish the timber claim.
3. Additional quarter sections owned by John in section 20 and 19.
4. According to Loren Amundsen, John’s initial pre-emption claim is in the NW 1/4 of section 23. I’d like to confirm that isn’t a typo for section 20.²⁴
5. S.H. 62 is a frame school house built in 1884 near the site of Andrew Nelson’s old sod house²⁵. In 1893, that quarter section was owned by Paulina’s father, Charles Miller II (b. 04 Oct 1823).
6. Quarter sections owned by John’s brother, Will. His wife, Ellen, was the first school teacher.
7. One quarter section owned by “M. Colton.” John’s sister Melvina Jerusha (Colton) Tobie (b. 11 May 1865) and her husband, Frank Edgar "F.E." Tobie (b. 24 Sep 1863) also lived in Taopi Township for a time.²⁶ I suspect this quarter section belonged to them in 1893.
8. An additional quarter of section 27 owned by John. John sold this section to his brother-in-law F. E. Tobie just after this map was drawn.²⁷

Old Settlers

In the same year as the map above was made, Minnehaha county held its second annual “Old Settler’s Picnic”. The picnic took place in “Goddard’s Grove,” a common gathering place for the farmers of the area across from the Taopi Post Office. According to Charles Smith in his “Comprehensive History of Minnehaha County,” published in 1949, “the day was ideal, and several hundred people gathered for the event. One hundred and sixty feet of table had been arranged for the occasion. These were laden with an abundance of the ‘good things of the land’, but there were half enough tables to accomodate the picnickers.”²⁸ John was elected secretary, so I imagine that the Coltons were there and were active participants. Although subsequent years picnics were held elsewhere in the county, John served as secretary again in 1894 and 1895²⁹. He is also recorded as speaking at the 1895³⁰ and 1896³¹ meetings. John, in his mid to late thirties, was by no means old at this time. The primary criteria to be an “Old Settler” was that you had to have settled prior to 1880. The picnics were yet another testament to the vast changes that had occurred in the area starting around the same time as the Coltons’ migration.