Page:A Brief History of South Dakota.djvu/114

108 offices and the control of the rich territorial contracts, such as for printing and Indian supplies. It was a far-reaching scheme in the hands of shrewd and intelligent men, who stood very high in the confidence of the political party then in power. They organized as the Dakota Land Company, and in the spring of 1857 sent a party of men, under the lead of Major Franklin De Witt, into the South Dakota country to claim the town sites. At Sioux Falls it was expected to establish the territorial capital, and there a city was to be immediately built. Governor Medary of Minnesota territory, a very influential politician, holding his appointment from the President of the United States and having large influence at Washington, was the president of the company.

Settlements were made at Sioux Falls, Flandreau, Medary (on the Big Sioux in the southern part of Brookings County), and Renshaw (on the Big Sioux, near the site of Estelline in Hamlin County); also at the mouth of the Split Rock River and near the site of Fairview in Lincoln County. When the settlers of the Dakota Land Company arrived at Sioux Falls, they found that a party from Dubuque, known as the Western Town Company, had preceded them and taken possession of the water power at the Falls, but they secured the upper water power and the two parties worked in harmony. Thus was made the first settlement in the Big Sioux valley. Governor Medary, in furtherance of their plans, immediately organized Big Sioux County and appointed for it a full set of officers, taking them in about equal numbers from the St. Paul and Dubuque parties.