Tag: yankton

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We Weren’t First?

By Bernie Hunhoff

We started publishing this magazine before several of our staff members went to school, so it’s getting old — especially by South Dakota publishing standards.

Lots of magazines have come and gone. The earliest we’ve tracked was started by the legendary historian Doane Robinson right here in Yankton in 1898. He called it the Monthly South Dakotan. It lasted for eight years.

We have single copies of many other attempts. There was a Dacotah Magazine that began in Watertown shortly after Robinson’s Monthly failed. The state Chamber of Commerce tried a Sunshine Magazine in the 1920s.

Another startup failed shortly before we started in 1985. As I recall, the advertising sales director went to prison on a murder charge.

South Dakota isn’t the easist place to publish a magazine, but it has been fertile ground for us. Our advertising directors have stayed out of jail and our writers and photographers have shown great passion for the art of publishing a prairie and mountain magazine.

We are constantly on the lookout for other publishing brethren who may have preceded us, and today a reader sent us this image of a front cover of a publication. My guess is that it is a state agriculture department yearbook from the 1920s, but we would welcome any further input.

We would also be interested in identifying the pretty young model on the cover. Any leads?

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Fantle’s: The Big Store

By Bernie Hunhoff

Everybody loves America’s sweet downtowns. We love them in a Norman Rockwell way. They remind us that we once had the time and inclination to don a hat and jacket and stroll around, store to store, visiting neighbors and meeting newcomers.

Some of South Dakota’s downtowns are in a revival stage. Mobridge, pop. 3,500 or so, has an amazing Main Street, complete with a movie theater, clothing stores, a top-notch eatery painted purple, an excellent library and other amenities. Rapid City’s downtown was once considered off-limits to families after 5 p.m., but now it echoes with the laughter of children thanks to a visionary Main Street Square that attracts families and more than a dozen new shops that feature toys, outdoor gear, local foods, Native American art and even an English pub with appropriately-attired waitresses.

So downtowns aren’t dead in South Dakota. And the funny thing is that the come-back cities are doing what the Fantle/Levinger family did a century ago. They make shopping fun.

The Fantle family came to Yankton in 1893 and opened what was then called “The Big Store.” They suffered fires and setbacks, but they persevered well into the Wal-mart age because they loved their community and it showed.

In the 1930s, when nobody had any money, they served a two-cent lunch so nobody went hungry. They also featured 97-cent women’s frocks.

They held Watermelon Days every summer. One year, they served 2,780 melons so Harold Levinger (who married a Fantle) figured 27,800 people showed up because he got 10 slices to the melon. I don’t think he accounted for the kids who ate three or four slices each, but 27,800 sounded great at the Chamber of Commerce.

The Levingers and Fantles had a cafeteria, a stylish beauty salon, a big children’s store and the first elevator to carry people between Sioux City and Sioux Falls.

And they had a monkey. Everybody remembers the monkey. Every farm kid who came to Yankton wanted to stop by Fantle’s to pet the monkey.

Here’s another thing the Fantles and Levingers did: every time their city needed something, they were among the first to put up cash. Other families were equally supportive — certainly the Danforths, who owned the bank and a lot of downtown property, and of course the Gurneys who had the nursery. The Danforths, Fantles and Gurneys each put up $25,000 cash in 1921 to construct the Meridian Bridge because local leaders had grown tired of waiting for the state of South Dakota to build one. That same bridge is the city’s newest tourist attraction today, because it has been transformed into a pedestrian/biking trail.

After WWII, the Fantles gave 40 acres on the north edge of the city for a park. They did list some caveats. It had to have a pool for children, and it had to include a memorial to the soldiers who died in war. The park is a beloved place to Yanktonians today.

Many smaller retailers in the city also were generous with their time and money. And the employees of today’s chain retailers and box stores that have followed — some might say supplanted — the Fantles and the smaller mom-and-pop stores — surely try to contribute. Some have become important civic leaders.

But a town needs the likes of the Fantles, Levingers, Danforths and Gurneys to really grow. That’s as true today as it was in 1893. Rapid City and Mobridge have them. So does every other town in South Dakota.

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Old Iron Rolls On

Nostalgia: Harmless Enough

The Tri-State Old Iron Association’s sixth annual tractor parade was held July 12-14, under the sponsorship of “Your Big Friend” WNAX Radio, a farm station that was broadcasting farm markets before the M Farmall was created. Yankton’s Paddlewheel Park was home base for the 180 tractor owners. Photos by Bernie Hunhoff.

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Discovered: A Missing Governor

By Bernie Hunhoff

Governors come and go. We don’t pay a lot of attention to them when they’re gone, and that’s especially true of John Pennington, the fifth governor of Dakota Territory.

But he deserves better treatment.

Pennington wasn’t perfect, but he should be judged and remembered in the perspective of his era.

He was an Alabama newspaperman during the Civil War. When he realized that it wasn’t going to end well for his beloved South, he began to suggest editorially that perhaps peace wouldn’t be a bad thing. That infuriated many of his readers. I’ve heard second-hand that even some of his own descendants are still embarrassed by his writings.

But Ulysses S. Grant liked the editorials, and he rewarded Pennington in 1874 by appointing him Governor of Dakota Territory. The 45-year-old journalist arrived in the young riverside capital city of Yankton, anxious to help create a new civilization on the prairie. Those were exciting times. Railroads were developing at break-neck speeds. Gold was waiting to be mined in the Black Hills. Homesteaders were flocking to the countryside and new towns were springing up everywhere.

Unfortunately, a “Yankton Gang” was already entrenched in the city and Pennington became part of their shenanigans. For example, Pennington County was created — named after the new governor — and Yankton officials were appointed to the county offices under the theory that the Black Hills crowd was still too raw to run a fair election. Some of the county officials didn’t even travel West ot serve; they just named deputies to do the work.

But Pennington loved Dakota. In fact, he argued against dividing it into two states. He tried to create some fairness for the Native Americans, argued on behalf of farmers in fights against the railroads and initiated an aggressive anti-grasshopper program (if you think that sounds silly, think how popular it is to fight pine beetles today.)

And he loved Yankton. He built a modest mansion at 3rd & Pearl (now the home of South Dakota Magazine for the past 27 years) and several other houses and structures. He was reappointed governor in 1876 — a rare occurrence because most governors quickly grew unpopular — and after leaving the post in 1878 he continued to live in the city, even resuming his journalism career in 1885 with a weekly newspaper. His wife died in Yankton, and Pennington eventually returned to Alabama as an old man.

That was the end of the story as we knew it until this month when Gary Conradi, a retired Sioux Falls businessman and avid historian, stopped by our offices. Conradi is collecting information and photographs on all of Dakota’s governors. All of the territorial governors (and many of the state’s early governors) are buried out-of-state.

Conradi searched long and hard for Pennington’s grave, and finally discovered it in Oxford, Alabama, a town very near to Anniston. He couldn’t find anyone who would admit to being Pennington’s relative but he did bring back pictures of the modest gravesite. There is no mention or marking of his service to Dakota Territory or South Dakota.

Pennington County old-timers are probably pleased about that.

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King of the Prairie Waters

By Bernie Hunhoff

Noted historian George Kingsbury lumped farm immigration, gold discoveries and — yes, believe it or not — catfish as three important factors to the settlement of Dakota.

In his book History of Dakota Territory (Vol. 1, p. 165), Kingsbury wrote, “in the opinion of many of the early settlers the food problem would have been a very serious one had it not been for the abundant supply of this best of all fishes right at the threshhold of the settlements.”

Kingsbury noted that catfish was somewhat out of favor at the time he wrote the book (about 1915). “It is occassionally remarked in these later times that the people of Dakota are not acquainted with the edible merits of this excellent fish, but send to eastern and western markets for an inferior article, while they have such an inexhaustible supply here at home.”

Immigrants to South Dakota make the same discovery today, according to a story in our May/June 2012 issue in which we feature Ukraine-born Nata Jones, who came to Yankton and enthusiastically took to catching and grilling Missouri River catfish.

Nata married a local fellow and instantly appreciated the smalltown atmosphere in Yankton. She hailed from Chernivtsi, a city of 240,000. “Everybody is so friendly and smiling. You don’t need to worry about nothing,” she told us in a delightful Euroopean accent. “If something happened, everybody would help me.”

And the catfish? “I fished in the Ukraine, too, but this is a little bit different here.” She and her husband, Brad, use stink bait to lure the whiskered bottom feeders so famous for their ability to smell.

South Dakota has Blue Catfish, Channel Cats and Flatheads. All can grow to immense proportions, but today’s intensive fishing — and perhaps the damming of the Missouri — might be resulting in fewer giant cats. The record Blue was a 97-pounder caught in 1959 and the biggest Channel was a 55-pounder caught way back in 1949.

However, Davin Holland of Tabor caught the state record Flathead (63.5 lbs.) just six years ago in the James River near Yankton. Cats are found in rivers, lakes and ponds across our state.

“For scores of years, the early traders subsisted almost exclusively on a diet of buffalo and catfish,” wrote Kingsbury a century ago.

Throw in a few tomatoes, morel mushrooms and wild asparagus and it doesn’t sound like a bad way to eat in South Dakota.

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East River Branding

Branding calves is a ritual on most West River ranches. However, East River cowboys and farmers in Yankton County enjoy an annual branding near Utica because Newt Hicks — born and raised West River near Philip — married Carol Tacke, a Utica farm girl, many years ago and brought his branding irons when he came to corn country. Here are scenes from this year’s roundup.

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Gideon Moody: Scrupulous Senator, Knife Fighter

By John Andrews

Don’t let anyone tell you that Facebook and Twitter are worthless wastes of time. As it turns out, you can learn a lot about important figures in South Dakota history through social media. For example, this week I learned that one of the most scrupulous politicians in South Dakota history was once prepared to plunge a bowie knife into a fellow legislator.

My research into the life of Gideon Moody began a few days ago when a friend posted this to his Facebook and Twitter accounts:”Apparently, the gov of Indiana recently described a famous duel w bowie knives involving former SD Senator Gideon Moody. Anyone hav details?”

My friend was referencing a speech delivered by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. The fight Daniels alluded to involved Moody, and occurred while the Republican served in the Indiana state House of Representatives in 1861.

In his History of South Dakota, state historian Doane Robinson explained that the issue was states’ rights, an especially hot button topic in the months preceding the Civil War. One legislator attacked the governor and Moody came to his defense so vociferously that he was challenged to a duel using bowie knives. They crossed the border into Kentucky to consummate the challenge and were promptly arrested and fined $500 each. The bowie knives remained in their sheaths.

Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us that Moody was willing to fight. Duels and other physical confrontations were common solutions to problems among men, particularly politicians, in the 19th century. Stories abound involving territorial legislators engaged in barroom brawls in Yankton over disagreements large and small.

It appears Moody’s fighting spirit (at least in the physical sense) abated when he came to Dakota Territory with his family in 1864 to supervise construction of the Sioux City to Fort Randall military road. When he discovered the road could be built for far less than the money already appropriated, he paid the farmers he had recruited to work on it double the money originally intended. It raised the ire of the federal government, but he earned the respect of thousands of South Dakotans.

Moody served in the House of Representatives, was a judge in Deadwood and became one of our first U.S. Senators in 1889. He cultivated an unparalleled reputation for honesty. During one court case in Deadwood, litigants worried over the trial’s probable outcome against them tried to find someone who would bribe Judge Moody. They found an old law partner of Moody’s from North Dakota and brought him to town. When he heard their plan, he shouted,”My God, men! Do you expect me to tackle that man on any such proposition? Why, I should be in the penitentiary in 48 hours. If that is what you got me here for, I might as well leave for home on the coach tomorrow.” And he did.

When he faced defeat in his bid for re-election to the Senate in 1891, several legislators suggesting supporting Moody in exchange for certain privileges.”He told them that if one dollar were used in buying a vote for him he would refuse to qualify for the office or accept it, and more, that he would assist in prosecuting both the man offering the money and the man accepting it,” Robinson wrote.

Moody ultimately lost the election. He practiced law before moving to California in 1900. He died four years later.

Were all our founders so bold? Watch Facebook and Twitter and maybe you’ll find out.