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Alcester’s Music Man

By John Andrews

DeeCort Hammitt organized the Alcester Community Band in 1921 and directed it for 25 years. Hammitt, an Alcester banker and musician, is best known for composing the state song, “Hail, South Dakota.”

WHEN DIGNITARIES GATHERED in downtown Yankton in November of 2013 to officially begin South Dakota’s upcoming sesquicentennial (125th birthday), students from the city’s elementary schools were on hand to sing our official state song,”Hail, South Dakota.” My daughter, Elizabeth, a student at Beadle Elementary at the time, was part of the energetic young chorus. I remember her singing snippets in the car rides to and from school or at home in the evenings and feeling glad that she was learning a bit of our state’s history.

This summer, we were all gathered in our living room. The television was on but not tuned to a program, which meant that after a certain period of inactivity it went to sleep and reverted to its screensaver. Photographs that we’ve uploaded to our Amazon account travel via a Fire Stick and appear as a slideshow during these entertainment downtimes.

As we watched the images roll past, we saw our daughter, dressed in the patriotic red, white and blue dress that my wife had sewn in advance of that gathering nine years ago. I recalled speeches by the governor and lieutenant governor and the swing band that played well into the evening. But Elizabeth remembered none of that.

“What was I even doing there, anyway?” she asked.

When I reminded her that she and her classmates were there to sing the state song, it didn’t jog a single memory.”Hail, South Dakota,” with its lines praising the”Black Hills, and mines with gold so rare,” and our”farms and prairies, blessed with bright sunshine,” was long forgotten.

*****

LAURA BAKER AND her siblings, Jane Allard and Mark, Kurt and Paul Hammitt, grew up immersed in the culture of the state song because it was written by their grandfather, an Alcester banker and musician named DeeCort Hammitt. The five of them grew up in Elk Point, where their parents, Howard and Dorothy Hammitt, had taken on the mantle of promoting the state song. Every spring, the Hammitts would give each graduating Elk Point High School senior a card with a two-dollar bill and a copy of the song. Dorothy called schools around South Dakota to make sure they all had the music and lyrics.”Everybody wanted a copy of it, and every school played it,” Baker says.”Community groups sang it.”

“I remember having to sing it when I was in school,” Allard recalls.”I don’t know when it started to fade away.”

In fact, that’s not something they thought much about until Howard Hammitt died in 2012 and his children found an assortment of photographs and clippings about their grandfather tucked away in the service station that Howard ran for decades. They began to learn even more about DeeCort (pronounced DECK-ert) and worried that his legacy as the man behind South Dakota’s state song might disappear.

Hammitt learned to play piano by ear and provided the sound for silent films shown in his family’s movie theater.

Hammitt was born in Spencer in 1893. His father, Franklin, started the town’s drug store in 1888 and worked both there and in Montrose. Franklin was preparing to move, buying a new house, drug store and theatre in Alcester, but he died in 1900, shortly after the purchases became final. His wife, Mae, and their five children still made the move. She hired a druggist and operated the movie theater, where DeeCort demonstrated his remarkable musical abilities to the rest of their new community. He had learned to play piano by ear and provided the sound for silent films.

Hammitt graduated from Alcester High School in 1912 and married Bessie Durkee from Alexandria in 1913. That same year, he composed a song called”The South Dakota Rag.” The Hammitts settled into life in Alcester, eventually raising 11 children. DeeCort worked at the McKellips family’s Alcester State Bank by day and served terms as the city treasurer and assistant postmaster. Music, however, remained his passion.

Hammitt formed the Sunshine State Music Company and continued writing music that found its way into the repertoires of bandleaders like Tommy Dorsey and Lawrence Welk. In 1915, the John T. Hall Music publishing company in New York selected his song”Don’t Take My Lovin’ Baby Away” as the winner in a nationwide songwriting contest with more than 1,500 entrants. Three years later, the Pace and Handy Music Company published a Hammitt song called,”I Want to Love You All the Time.” W.C. Handy, a composer and musician who often called himself”the father of the blues,” said it was one of the year’s best blues songs. His company advertised it as a”beautiful one-step ballad, different than the rest.”

Hammitt organized the Alcester Community Band in 1921 and directed it for 25 years. The group took regular trips to the Belle Fourche Roundup and played for President Calvin Coolidge when he and First Lady Grace Coolidge vacationed in the Black Hills in 1927. Hammitt wrote a piece called”The Roundup March,” and included special lyrics for Coolidge’s visit. The Alcester Community Band earned such a good reputation that it was chosen to represent South Dakota at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1933 and 1934.

He also dabbled in radio, forming the Hammitt Radio Company in 1922, just two years after the nation’s first commercial radio broadcast originated in Pittsburgh. The inaugural program included a saxophone solo, a vocal solo, a men’s quartet and a poem recited by his son, Keith. Hammitt created weekly programs for several years, entertaining farmers within a 5- or 6-mile radius of Alcester.

A Chicago hat salesman eventually vaulted Hammitt to statewide prominence. Warner Putnam sold hats and other clothing around South Dakota. In 1941, he discovered that South Dakota did not have an official state song that could be performed at certain functions. He approached the Sioux Falls Argus Leader about organizing a statewide song contest.

The Hammitt brothers, from left: Ralph, Forest, DeeCort and Charles (Chick).

The newspaper assembled a committee of judges headed by Carl Christensen, a professor and band director at South Dakota State College in Brookings. Out of 158 entries, the judges chose six finalists including”Hail, South Dakota,” a renamed version of a Hammitt favorite.”When he read about the contest, he knew that ‘The Roundup March’ would be the perfect song for our state song,” Baker says.”It remained a very popular song with marching bands in the years after 1927. He got a lot of traction out of ‘The Roundup March’ right up until the contest.”

Ballots were printed in all South Dakota newspapers. Radio stations in the state’s largest cities scheduled 30-minute blocks on January 9 and 10, 1942, during which all six entries were played. South Dakotans sent their ballots to the Argus Leader, where staff tallied the results and declared”Hail, South Dakota” the winner. Gov. Harlan Bushfield presented Hammitt with an award for composing the new state song, and the legislature made it official in March 1943.

To honor DeeCort after the contest, he and Bessie were the guests of honor at the South Dakota Press Association’s annual banquet in Sioux Falls. The new state song was performed in public for the first time since the contest concluded.”While Hammitt was pleased with the honor and attention the song received, he said he simply wanted to promote the state he loved,” a newspaper reported.

DeeCort and Bessie moved to California in 1947, where he continued to write and publish music. He operated the C&H Music Store in Sacramento with his son, Orlin, until his death in 1970.

*****

TODAY, 48 STATES have at least one state song. New Jersey never adopted one and Maryland retired its state song,”Maryland, My Maryland,” in 2021 because of language that was deemed inappropriate. Tennessee has the most with 10, including”Rocky Top,” which you’re likely to hear throughout University of Tennessee football games. Other states have adopted songs from popular culture as well. In 1979, Georgia chose”Georgia on My Mind,” written by Hoagy Carmichael but made popular by Ray Charles. John Denver’s”Take Me Home, Country Roads” became a state song of West Virginia in 2014.”Home on the Range” is among Kansas’s three tunes, and Louisianans sing”You Are My Sunshine.”

But since 1943, DeeCort Hammitt’s”Hail, South Dakota” has remained South Dakota’s stalwart single tune, though there have been occasional challenges.”A couple of times they’ve tried to change the state song,” Allard says.”They wanted a newer, livelier and more modern state song. Mom would just send more copies to the legislature.”

While it may not hold the place it once did in the state’s popular culture, it remains an important part of certain musical catalogs. Terry Beckler is a music professor at Northern State University in Aberdeen and commander of the South Dakota National Guard’s 147th Army Band.”I’ve played the state song many times. It’s the last part of a march titled ‘The Roundup,'” he says.”By regulation, military bands should play the last 32 bars of ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’ following ‘Ruffles and Flourishes’ for a governor. In South Dakota, tradition has been to play ‘Hail, South Dakota’ instead. We’ve done this for every governor, as long as I’m aware.”

For that, the Hammitt family can be proud.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the November/December 2022 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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History Lives in Union County

By John Andrews

A granite block marks the spot of old Fort Brule in Union County.

It’s hard not to bump into history when you visit Union County in the far southeastern tip of South Dakota. It’s among the oldest counties in the state, one of 10 created by the first territorial legislature in 1862. It was originally called Cole County after Austin Cole, a member of that legislature, but strong Union Army sentiment during the Civil War led to the name change two years later when its boundaries were redrawn.

The military played a role in the early years of Union County. The Sioux City to Fort Randall Military Trail was put into use in 1859, and crossed into present-day South Dakota at Jefferson near a railroad bridge that spans the Big Sioux River, which serves as Union County’s eastern border. Though the trail itself has all but vanished, important stops can still be found between Jefferson and Elk Point along Highway 1B. Twelve Mile House, so named because it lies that distance from Sioux City, was a post office and stage stop as far back as 1861. The structure still stands, though it is unoccupied and deteriorating. Just 2 miles away is Fourteen Mile House, a log house built in 1861 by Frenchman Frances Reandeau whose name was carved on one of the logs. Originally a post office and hotel, it has been modernized and resided, and serves as a private residence today.

History seekers can head 5 miles north of Elk Point on Highway 11 to the junction with Highway 50, another important site in Union County and South Dakota history. St. Paul Lutheran Church, built in 1863 and the first Lutheran church in the Dakotas, stands 1 mile west. Less than a mile to the east is the site of old Fort Brule, built in 1862 following the Dakota Uprising in Minnesota. Finally, just a half-mile north is a memorial to Norwegian novelist Ole Rolvaag, the author of Giants in the Earth who worked as a farmhand in Union County after his emigration in 1896.

The 14-mile house is one of several points of interest along the old Sioux City to Fort Randall military trail.

There are also historic places in Elk Point, such as Edgar’s Soda Fountain inside Pioneer Drug. Kevin and Barb Wurtz have been serving ice cream sodas, sundaes, phosphates and other old fashioned treats there for 25 years. The soda fountain made its debut in Centerville in 1906, where it served up ice cream at the local drugstore for nearly 50 years. When pharmacist Edgar Schmiedt, Barb’s grandfather, retired in the 1960s, he put the old fountain in storage. He gave it to Barb and Kevin, and in appreciation they named their Elk Point store in his honor.

Farther south at Jefferson, you’ll find tangible historic reminders of the strong faith that Dakota homesteaders possessed. Grasshopper swarms destroyed thousands of acres of crops in the 1870s and not only ruined farmers but also entire towns. Father Pierre Boucher was determined that town of Jefferson would not meet the same fate. He announced during Mass one Sunday in the spring of 1876 that he intended to lead a spiritual retreat to rid the territory of grasshoppers. The next morning, Protestants and Catholics alike met 2 miles south of Jefferson. Bearing a cross, Boucher led the group on an 11-mile pilgrimage. They placed crosses at four points, plus another in the cemetery at Jefferson. Not long after, dead grasshoppers were found near the Big Sioux and Missouri rivers.

Edgar’s Soda Fountain serves ice cream and other cold treats.

The old wooden cross in town stood until decay finally claimed it. A replacement was built in 1967, and can still be seen outside St. Peter’s Catholic Church. Other crosses are found 4 miles northwest of Jefferson on County Road 1B near the Southeast Farmers Coop Elevator and another is near the corner of 330th Street and 480th Avenue west of Jefferson.

The Adams Homestead and Nature Preserve in the very southern part of the county mixes history with outdoor adventure. Stephen Adams homesteaded on the property in 1872. His granddaughters, Mary and Maud Adams, donated the 1,500 acres to the state in 1984, wanting to create a peaceful place where visitors could recharge. In addition to its restored homestead buildings, the acreage includes 10 miles of trails that wind through prairie, stately stands of old cottonwoods and along the Missouri River valley.

The tiny hamlet of Nora was never a big town, but its historic general store draws hundreds of people during the holidays. Mike Pedersen set up an old pipe organ in the store in 1989, and hosted a party for the neighbors. People have come ever since for his holiday sing-alongs held the three weekends after Thanksgiving.

The original grasshopper crosses were erected in 1874 in a faithful attempt to ward off the insects. Replicas stand in Union County today.

The Nora store officially closed in 1962. Pedersen lived in the back room from 1973 to 1985 while seed corn was stored up front. He now lives in the storekeeper’s house next door. On sing-along weekends, Pedersen plays the organ and leads carols at the top of his lungs. Neighbor women bring cookies, and Pedersen makes coffee and cider. Guests select the tunes, Pedersen plays them, and when his fingers get tired he makes room for somebody else.

The town of Alcester also has a musical connection to South Dakota history. DeeCort Hammitt was a teller at the Alcester State Bank in the 1920s, but his real love was music. He led the Alcester Town Band, which entertained President Calvin Coolidge during his summer vacation at Custer State Park in 1927. They went to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 1934 as the official agricultural band. He wrote and published many songs, including “To a Prairie Lullaby” for Lawrence Welk, who often played at The Ritz, a dance hall near Beresford, in the 1940s. But Hammitt is best remembered for composing South Dakota’s official state song, “Hail South Dakota,” in 1943.

Thousands of cars zoom through Union County every day on Interstate 29. But it’s worth it to get off the interstate and spend a day driving the rural roads, because Union County packs a lot of history into 467 square miles.

Editor’s Note: This is the 28th installment in an ongoing series featuring South Dakota’s 66 counties. Click here for previous articles.

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The Makings of a Town

By Bernie Hunhoff

Dick Hughes and his sons Barry (center) and Todd (left) operate Pete’s Produce.

Small businesses add flavor to a small town, and Alcester is a good example. Hanging near the front door of Pete’s Produce is the head of a moose shot in 1929 by the store’s namesake and founder, Pete Hughes, who bought furs, sold baby chicks and bought eggs from local farmers. Today, Pete’s is a hardware and feed store.

“We still have a lot of smaller farmers and some who raise livestock,” says Barry, Pete’s grandson.”That’s who we’re here for. We are starting to see the bigger operations, too, but they don’t like to farm our rolling hills.”

The rustic wood floors and high, ornate ceiling would be the envy of a big-city, upscale coffee shop. But this is the real thing; little has changed since Pete hung the moose on the wall.

“There are not too many places left in a town of 800 where you can get a bolt or an extension cord or some wire or get an old electric fencer fixed, plus get fertilizer and feed for the critters,” says Maggie Gillespie, an Alcester business woman and farmer’s wife.

The current operators are Barry and his brother, Todd, and their dad, Dick. All three are avid deer hunters, their whitetail mounts hang near grandpa’s moose.

The Hughes family’s deer trophies hand inside the grocery store alongside Grandpa Hughes’ moose mount.

Pete’s isn’t the oldest business in town. That honor probably goes to the Alcester Union, the weekly newspaper started 125 years ago. Paul Buum, the editor and publisher, is another fan of Pete’s.

“I’ve known the Hughes family my entire life,” he says.”Good people. I don’t remember much about Pete because he passed away when I was pretty young. Dick served as fire chief for many years, and Todd served as chief for 28 years. He decided to step down about three years ago and I was elected chief. Barry is my assistant chief.”

Alcester State Bank, a year younger than the newspaper, has been operated by the same family since 1919 when E.F. McKellips came to town — but not continuously. The bank closed during the Great Depression, costing many local citizens their deposits.

But E.F. became a legend when he later re-opened the bank and worked day and night for 20 years until he had repaid every depositor. Two generations later, people still talk about it.

E.F.’s son Roger, now retired, was a popular silver-haired Democratic leader in the state legislature for many years and a gubernatorial candidate in 1978. Today, Roger’s son Gary heads the bank, which employs 27 people.

Two manufacturing plants, Alkota Cleaning Systems and Custom Coils, provide more than 150 jobs. They and the bank are all on Iowa Street, a one-way north-south avenue.

“We don’t have a stoplight, but we have a one-way street,” laughs McKellips.”It was just a way to add parking and keep the cars moving. I don’t think anyone’s ever been arrested for going the wrong way.” Neither will you be ticketed for parking in the center of Second Street, the main boulevard. It’s a tradition dating back longer than anyone can remember.

One of the bank’s most interesting workers was DeeCort Hammitt, a teller who made change by day and played music into the wee hours of the morning.”He came home from the bank and beat the piano half to death, clean up to midnight when his wife would finally have to hit him on the head and tell him to come to bed,” says Bob Hammitt, a nephew.

Dan Avery (pictured with his children Shoshanna and Benaiah) and his family run a pasta factory in Alcester.

DeeCort led the Alcester Town Band. In 1927, he and the band entertained President Calvin Coolidge at Custer State Park. They went to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 1934 as the official agricultural band. He wrote and published many songs, including To a Prairie Lullaby for Lawrence Welk, who often played at The Ritz, a dance hall near Beresford, in the 1940s. DeeCort is best remembered for composing South Dakota’s official state song, Hail South Dakota, in 1943. He and his wife, Bessie Jane, raised 11 children (including six sons who served in WWII), and many of them had musical talent.

Alcester’s newest business is Dakota Earth, a pasta factory operated by Dan and Elizabeth Avery and their children. Pasta and noodle making was just a family hobby until two years ago, when the Averys started selling garden produce at farmer’s markets. Elizabeth suggested that they sell pasta in the off-season.

“We went to the Vermillion Farmer’s Market hoping to sell 10 bags and we sold 70,” Dan says. Last year, operating out of the family kitchen, they moved 30,000 bags. Pasta supplies and equipment were taking over the house, so this summer they bought an empty furniture store on Main Street and began a remodeling project. Soon they’ll have a retail shop, factory space and offices.

Dan hasn’t had time to study why their Dakota Earth products are so popular, but he believes its because the company is small enough to monitor the freshness and quality of the ingredients, and”my wife is brilliant at knowing just how to make the flavors come out.”

Italian tomato basil is a favorite, along with spinach garlic and sweet red onion. Four regional distributors are hungry for the factory to reach full speed; one says it’ll take all they can make, but first the family has to finish remodeling. McKellips’ bank handled the financing, and Pete’s Produce is also helpful.

“I bought a screw gun there the other day, and later I checked the price on Amazon. Pete’s was five dollars cheaper. I was sold. You’re my hardware store now,” he said, looking out the factory window and across the street.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the November/December 2013 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.