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Brule City corrections
Located on the
big bend of the Missouri River south of present day Oacoma. By Ron and Charles
Harnett, 2000
Ron Harnett
PO
Box 6634
Sevierville, TN 37864-6634
1 March 2000
I write you regarding a
publication my father Charles obtained during his recent fact-finding trip to
Brule County. The publi-
cation is titled, "Maka
Teepee 1880 to Chamberlain 1980." The 1980 copyright is held by the Brule County
Historical Society
of Pukwana, SD.
Page 6 of this
publication, under the heading "Introduction", contains the following statement:
"It [Brule City] was sur-
veyed in late 1874 by D.
Harmon and S. E. Howard on SE 1/4 of Sec. 2 and the SE 1/4 of Sec. 3, town 102
and range
72." I regret to
inform you that this statement is mistaken in more than one way.
My father, brother, and I
have been engaged in continuing genealogical research, and this research has led
to the discovery
of information regarding my
great-uncle, Daniel Harnett. It was Daniel Harnett (not "D. Harmon"), who, with
E. C. Howard
(not S. E. Howard") laid out
Brule City. Also, the land descriptions (sections) are reversed.
These facts are born out
by A. T. Andreas' "Historical Atlas of Dakota", 1884: "In June, 1874, the town
[Brule City] was
laid out by D. Harnett and E.C.
Howard on the southwest quarter of Section 3, Town 102, Range 72." While
Andreas was
correct about Dan Harnett and
E. C. Howard, he was in-correct about the location of Brule City.
An original deed record
dated January 28, 1875 states: "Brule City is situated on the SW 1/4 of Section
2 and the SE 1/4
of Section 3 in Township 102,
Range 72, west of the fifth principal meridian, situated in the Territory of
Dakota." This state-
ment is confirmed J.M.
Winters, County Surveyor, on Nov 20, 1874.
The same deed record
(dated January 28, 1875) continues: Ed C. Howard (attorney-in-fact), Dan
Harnett, A.W. McFar-
land, S.K. Winne, Coonan &
McDonnell, and Henry Ford, "being the owners of the land contained in Brule City
and having
caused a survey of the same
to be made, and a map thereof to be drawn, and the blocks, lots, streets and
alleys to be marked
as shown by said map (on the
margin of which this is written), to the end that the same may be recorded and
henceforth be
deemed a town or a village by
the name of Brule City, and we do hereby set apart for public use as highways,
former all
the land included in the
streets and alleys as shown by said map. The disposition of the land as shown by
said map being with
our free consent and in
accordance with our wishes." (Notarized by District Court in and for Woodbury
County, Iowa.)
I bring these errors to your attention so that the
Brule County Genealogical Society can provide a more accurate history of the
beginnings of Brule City which may be relied upon, and enjoyed by, future
generations.
Sincerely yours,
Ron Harnett
Charles Harnett
3016 Hatcher Mtn Rd
Sevierville TN 37862
E-mail: cybnett@esper.com
February 15, 2000
Thanks a million for all
the good information you've provided on Chamberlain. My sons and I are going
over it closely for
useful info to add to Daniel
Harnett's biography. Your suggestions were all good ones. Probably most
productive was the
Cultural Heritage Center in
Pierre where I found original probate records that filled in a lot of missing
blanks in the story of
Daniel Harnett. Despite this
success, there's still a lot to do there ---
I suspect his purported suicide in Deadwood was more likely murder. He was
only 39, had lots of money, property, and
gold mines and was about to
close a big deal on one of them when for no apparent reason he suddenly decided
to end it all.
Unfortunately, he appears to
have made some bad choices for associates. I've uncovered evidence that there's
more involved
but it'll take a lot of
digging to prove it --130 years after the fact!
Incidentally, you might be
interested that Daniel Harnett is misidentified in one of the opening pages of
the book you lent me
--- as D. Harmon.
You may be familiar with
A. T. Andreas' "Historical Atlas of Dakota" (1884) where, after a nice
description of Brule
County (and Chamberlain), he
states: "The earliest settlements were made in the great bend of the Missouri
river, where a
town known as Brule City was
founded and became a considerable business point. "On the 2d day of august,
1873, D.W.
Spalding, M.F. Coonan, M.H.
Day, H.M. Leedy, C. McDonald, James and D. Harnett, J. McManus and E.C.
Howard, all
from Emmetsburg, Iowa [Daniel and
Howard were actually from Sioux City], via Yankton, with their own teams,
arrived and located at and near Brule City,
where they found one James Somers, one of those wandering characters who were in
the habit of forming matrimonial alliances
with the Indians and casting their lot with the red children of the prairie. He
was living on the site of the town, but how long he
had been there is not stated. George Trimmer and James Blankerton had also been
living for some time on Dry Island below Brule City.
"Spalding and his company
located claims in Towns [Townships?] 102 and 103, Range 72. After filing their
claims at the
land office in Springfield
they returned to the east, but came back in the following spring, about the last
of April, and permanently located in the county." [I doubt this last statement,
at least so far as James and Daniel Harnett are concerned --- James, my
grandfather, had a family in Springfield,
Illinois and Daniel was operating a successful business in Sioux City.]
Daniel made a number of
trips to the Brule City area, and on one trip laid out the streets. He and his
two brothers, Jonathan
and James filed claims there
but never settled so far as we know. They later sold their claims. Daniel was
looking into setting up
a ferry at Brule City around
1873-4 and was dealing in property around that time there, even though President
Grant decided
that the site lay on Indian
lands and ordered further settlement stopped [later rescinded].
Most of our information
has come from actual deed records and from articles about Daniel in the Sioux
City Times of that
period.
NOTE: Daniel's wife was
Emma Cartwright. They were married in Sioux City in 1867. We know virtually
nothing more
about her except she was
involved with him in many land transactions up to 1873 in Yankton. There's an
outside chance she
might have had kin in your
area.
Charles Harnett
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