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 SOUTH DAKOTA

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SOUTH DAKOTA

equal portions having quite distinct, soil characteris- tics; the portion east of the river being glacial clay, and the portion west being iu part covered with a tenacious clay formed by the disintegration of Fort Pierre Shales, and the remainder with Laramie loam eroded from the western mountains. The population numbers 583,888 (1910) and is chiefly of American origin. The chief foreign elements are German and Scandinavian. There are about 18,0(K) Sioux Indians residing upon lands in severalty in the state.

Resources. — Agriculture is the chief resource and the main products for 1910 were:

Corn .54,0.50,000 bushels— 82 1 ,620,000

Wheat 46,720,000 " — 41,581,000

Oats 35,075,000 " —10,522,000

Barley 18,6.55,000 " — 10,633,000

Rve .59.5,000 " — 363,000

Flaxseed 3,300,000 " — 7,557,000

Potatoes 2,420,000 " — 2,057,000

Hay ... 2,7.50,00 tons — 19,000,000

The Black Hills region is rich in minerals and gold mining is an important industry. There are exten- sive lime and cement works in the state and con- siderable stone quarries. The mineral product of 1909 was as follows: gold, 86,447,093; mica, -Sl,- 000,000; lime, cement and other minerals, and stone, $2,552,917. In 1910 the value of gold produced fell to $5,187,070. Manufacturing is but little developed. Flour milling and the manufacture of butter in creameries are the leading industries. The last figures are for 1905 when the total product of manu- factories was $13,085,333, of which S2,182,53 was produced by creameries and $6,519,354 by flour mills. A considerable wholesaling is done from Aberdeen, Sioux Falls, Watertown, and other points. Agricultural products in 1909 shipped to markets outside the state returned $123,706,000. South Dakota is well provided with railroad communica- tion for intra state and interstate transportation, the total mileage (1910) being 3953 miles.

Education. — The public education system is correlated from the common schools through the high schools to the state imiversity. For the main- tenance of public education in the state, Congress granted a total of 3,.531,174 acres of land. About one- eighth of this has been sold for the sum of $7,725,637, which returns an annual revenue of interest and rent- als of a half million dollars. The school fund is most carefully guarded by the constitution and laws. It is believed the ultimate school fund will maintain public edvication without taxation. The total ex- penditure for public school purposes (1909) was $3,152,000.09. There were 169,706 persons of school age (between 6 and 21 years), of whom 121,165 at- tended school in 1909. There were then 4358 school- houses and 5555 teachers. The state universit}-, located at Vermilion, was first opened and endowed by the territory in 1SS2. It has colleges of letters, arts and sciences, law, medicine, engineering, and music, each presided over by a dean under the general direc- tion of the president. There are 48 members of the faculty and 445 students. The State College of .\griculture and Mechanic Arts, located at Brookings, is supported jointly by the Slate and Federal govern- ments. It w;ia opened in the autumn of 1884. There were fortv-three members of the faculty and 525 students (1909).

Tlie State maintains four normal schools, located respectively .it .Madison, Spearfish, Springfield, and Aberdeen; the latter institution h-as industrial features. The .'>iate jikewi.se maintains a school for the deaf at .Sioux Falls, for the blind at Gary, and for the feeble-minded at Hedfield; the training school for incorrigible boys and girls is at Pkankinton. The schools for the deaf, blind, feeble-minded, and in- corrigibles are under the supervision of the State XIV.— 11

Seal of .South D.\kota

Board of Charities, but the university and other schools of higher education are under the State Regents of Education. Several religiou.'< denomina- tions maintain colleges in the state; the Baptists at Sioux Falls, the Catholics at Chaml)crlain, the Con- gregationalists at Yankton and Redlield, the Scon- dinaviiui Lutherans at Canton and German Lutherans at Eureka, the Mennonites at Freeman, the Methodist Episcopals at Mitchell, the Presbj'terians at Huron. The Episcopalians maintain a seminary for young ladies at Sioux Falls, and the Free Methodists have a seminary at Wessington Springs. The Catholic Church has academies at Aberdeen, Bridgewater, Bristol, Dell Rapids, Elkton, Epiphany. Farmer, Turton, Hoven, Howard, Jefferson, Kranzburg, Marion, Milbank, Mitchell, Parkston, Salem, Sioux Falls, S t u r g i s, Tabor, Vennilion, Webster, Woon- socket. Water- town, Yankton, and Zell. The Scandinavian Lu- therans have a normal school at Sioux Falls. Co- lumbus College, the Catholic in- stitution at Cham- be r 1 a i n , w;is founded in 1909, when Bishop O'Gorman pur- chased from the Federal Government the plant of the Government Indian School, but very shortly after the establish- ment of the college the main building was burned. A reorganization was effected in time to reopen with the regular college year for 1910-11.

History. — Civil. — The first settlers within the pres- ent boundaries of South Dakota were French fur traders, who estiiblished a fur post on Cedar Island in the Missouri River thirty miles below the present capital in 1796. The next year a second post was established at a point near the present Greenwood post office in Charles Mix County. These posts were discontinued after several j-ears, but in 1817 Joseph La Frambois established Ft. Teton on the present site of Ft. Pierre and the settlement at that place has been continuous since. The first agricultural settlement was made at Sioux Falls in 1857. Owing to the hostility of the Indians, settlement was slow until the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874, and until that time was confined to narrow strips along the Mi.ssouri and the Lower Big Sioux. About 1877 began a great influx of homesteaders, and within five years most of the land east of the Missouri had been settled upon, and all of the chief towns date from that period. The Constitution of .South Dakota was made by a convention authorized by the terri- torial Legislature, which met in Sioux Falls in Se)>- tember, 1885. This Constitution w-as revised to meet certain requirements of the Enabling Act of 1889 and a<lopted by the people on 1 October, 1889.

Ecclesiastical. — The first Catholics to come into South Dakota were probably the men of Charles Pierre Le Sueur, who visited the Sioux Valley in 1800. The Verendrye brothers were here in 1745 on an exploration trip and were accompanied by a priest. In June, 1812. Father Ravoux of St. Paul made a trip to the Missouri River to baptize the families of French Catholics living at Fort Pierre. In 1,S45 Father Ravoux visited Vcrnulion for the same pur- pose. In 184S Father DeSmet came among the Indians of the Dakota country and laboured with them until his death, about 1,S6I'). Father DeSmet was assisted in his work among the Dakotaa by