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Langford Smithy Helped Build First Tractor

Many agricultural innovations have come from South Dakota. Farmers have equipment they believe can be improved, and with a little tinkering there’s a brand new product. Norman Olson, a Langford native, writes to us from Colorado this week to tell us about Will Mann, a Day County homesteader and mechanic who helped build the world’s first successful gasoline-powered tractor.

Mann worked with John Froelich, from Iowa. Froelich brought a threshing crew to Langford every year, and became intrigued by the problems his straw-burning, steam-powered rig presented. It was dangerous to burn straw in strong Dakota winds with little available water, so Froelich started tinkering with a gas-powered substitute.

In 1892, Froelich and a team of inventors including Mann finished a tractor that could move forward and backward. They used it to power a thresher, then brought it to Day County for 52 days of harvest that fall.

Unfortunately Froelich and Mann were ahead of their time. Froelich started a tractor company, but his new invention didn’t catch on until long after he left the company.

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Slim’s Pickings

Even if you didn’t grow up on a ranch, Slim McNaught’s cowboy poetry is bound to make you crack a smile. We wrote about his CD Reminiscin‘ in our current issue. One of the tracks is called “Tom Cat Wreck.” It’s the story of how McNaught once got bucked off his horse when a cat jumped from the haymow and dug its claws into the mare. That’s bad enough, but McNaught landed face first in a fresh cow pie.

Here’s a short excerpt explaining what happened when the ruckus caused other colts in the barn to bolt:

So I flopped back down, tryin’ to squirm into the ground,
’cause them colts was now trompin’ my frame
And to add insult to hurt, they pushed my face in the dirt,
right back in them cowpie remains.
Now, the skin has grew back and the breaks are intact
and the years have brought out the humor
But ’til that cat was gone, we did not get along
and if you hear I like cats, it’s a rumor.

McNaught lives on a ranch near New Underwood, where he operates a custom leather business. Here’s a link to his website.

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Traveling S.D.: 75 Years Ago

While researching a story for our upcoming issue, I’ve spent considerable time looking through the South Dakota guidebook compiled in the 1930s. The authors were writers struggling to find work during the Great Depression, so they joined the Federal Writers Project under the Works Progress Administration. They got to travel the state and write about what you could find. Sounds like a pretty good gig.

The pages are filled with interesting nuggets of South Dakota history. Here are a few examples:

  • When a writer passed through Corson County he found Sitting Bull Park on the site where the great Hunkpapa chief was killed in 1890. He noted that an Indian guide was available during the summer. Today, however, Sitting Bull’s great-grandson Ernie LaPointe reports that the only marker at the death site is one place by the state historical society, and that it can only be reached by four wheel drive.
  • The city of Woonsocket was in the running to be world headquarters for Post cereals. C.W. Post liked Woonsocket’s location in the heart of the grain belt, but city leaders were skeptical of the young man’s plan. Plus he wanted them to simply give him a piece of land for his factory. They passed, and Post took his idea to Battle Creek, Michigan.
  • The largest tree in the state was discovered on the Sutton Ranch in Sully County. The huge cottonwood measured 40 feet around at its base. A fierce windstorm later blew it down.
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Historic Farm & Prairie Protected

Former South Dakota Magazine editor Jerry Wilson made news recently when he and his wife, Norma, donated a perpetual conservation easement on their 143 acre farm to the Northern Prairies Land Trust.

The Wilson farm is located above the Missouri River valley in Clay County. A historic cabin is a part of the property. In fact, a few years ago Jerry recruited famed Arlington “barn straightener” Ray Christensen to help him fix the structure. Named the Severson Cabin, it is recorded on the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest existing house in Clay County. The Wilsons have also worked hard to restore native grasses, protect natural water sources and preserve wildlife habitat on the land.

Jerry — who continues to contribute articles for the magazine, thankfully — writes about the farm in his book Waiting for the Coyote’s Call.

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Bygone Days On Your iPad

By John Andrews

John Penor was a Perkins County rancher who took photos as a hobby. The historic images he captured around his hometown of Bison from 1907 to 1957 were published in a book in 2005 and are now available as an iPad application.

“It’s a voyage into South Dakota history,” says Zach Smith, who created the application with Penor’s great-nephew Steven Sebring. “It emphasized the story of the Penor family, but it also emphasizes the ways in which that part of the world was critical in the history of America.”

Sebring discovered hundreds of negatives in Penor’s home and created a book called Bygone Days in 2005. The iPad application of the same name includes photographs, early Black Hills film, newspapers and audio from an interview with Penor. Download the application here.

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Peregrine Reintroduction in Rapid City

Many will remember Mar/Apr 2009’s feature on Jane Fink Cantwell. Cantwell is the director of Birds of Prey Northwest, an Idaho organization devoted to helping raptors. She brought 20 young ospreys to Lake Yankton in the summer of 2008 and kept a watchful eye over them until the reintroduction program ended in 2010.

Cantwell is now getting ready for the reintroduction of 15 young peregrines in Rapid City. The first set of 35-day-old birds will be arriving the last week of May. The birds will be released from the top of the Assurant building and will be observed from the nearby Radisson roof top. Cantwell and other volunteers will track the fledglings and do their best to keep them out of harm’s way until they reach some level of independence in July.

Contact Cantwell on the Birds of Prey Northwest website if you are interested in volunteering with the project.

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A Fitting Honor for Joe Thorne

By John Andrews

Every time I return to Brookings, it seems my alma mater, South Dakota State University, has changed. On my last trip there to gather stories for a feature in our next issue, I saw the new Jackrabbit Village residential complex. Three new dorms in the formerly green patch near my old stomping grounds inside Brown Hall. Each is named for important alumni or faculty – Velva Lu Spencer (SDSU’s first Native American adviser), Cleve Abbott (first African-American varsity athlete at State from Watertown) and Joe Thorne.

Thorne could have been many things, including a star on Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers. But Thorne died in a fiery explosion near Qui Nhon, Vietnam in April 1965. He was just 24 years old and was the first South Dakotan killed in the Vietnam War.

Thorne was a high school football star at Beresford and became a strong fullback at State. He played on the 1961 conference championship team coached by the legendary Ralph Ginn. The Packers drafted him, and he attended a summer rookie camp in 1963. But when he didn’t show again, Lombardi called his home. Thorne’s dad told the coach that Joe hadn’t gone to school to learn how to be a football player. He had joined the Army ROTC on campus and felt obligated to serve his country in the military. Lombardi said he understood and invited Joe to call him after his military service was complete.

But a little over a year later, enemy ground fire pummeled the helicopter he was piloting over Vietnam. Another nearby plane also took a direct hit. Both crashed and exploded, killing nine men.

Consider yourself lucky if you’re living in one of the new halls. Their modernity and amenities far surpass anything else on campus. But take a moment the next time you step into Thorne Hall to remember its namesake.