TRIPP COUNTY TOWNS
Most of the towns in Tripp County were dreams, abandoned, not even a ghost town. But, the name stuck, becoming a name for mail delivery and a community. A school, church, postoffice/store and cemetery were often established. Through the years, they too were abandoned, but the community remained and identifies a particular area. Several of these communities are Carlock, Coburn, Colina, Clearfield, Danton, Dorian, Ideal, Jordan, Keyapaha, Komer, Lakeview, Linden, McNeely, Millboro, Pahapesto, Paxton, Shoemaker and Wewela. The government thought to assist the settlers in their new home by organizing federal townsites. There were four in Tripp County: Hamill, McNeely, Wewela, and Witten.
CARTER
The town of Carter was established and promoted by the Western Townsite Company with very high expectations. The town sat on a little hill in the valley of Deer Creek, which ended in Lake Westonka, the foot of the Red Hills. It was to be the gateway to the Rosebud. Carter was an incorporated town under the law of the state of South Dakota. When the first lots fwere sold on December 17, 1909, they brought the highest prices ever paid for vacant lots in any townsite in the Rosebud country, quite possibly in the state at that time. No lot was sold on main street for less than $1000. One of the many fine buildings in Carter was the Home Hotel, owned by I. T. Stone. It was one of the most elite hotes west of Norfolk, NE built at the cost of $15,000.
Excerpts from the Carter News May 26, 1910, it's first issue: " Haisch & Co. General Merchandise has it's 25X80 building ready for occupancy; Materials for the Carter State Bank building are on hand and ready; Ginter Brothers Bank building is almost ready for occupancy; Langworthy & Company have a big hotel almost completed; Zeller building can be occupied almost any day now; Howard Cooman's building will be underway in a few days; Done & Sears Lumber office is about done; C. E. Kautch shop is ready for occupancy; Carter State Bank is open for business in the H. W. Jordan & Sons building with J. W. Stewart, Pres.; Charles A. East, Cashier; E. A. Jackson and George W. Segrist, V.P.; Dance at the new hotel building on May 31, the day of the big lot sale; Segrist runs a news stand as well as being VP of the Bank and postmaster; Farmers State Bank, T. F. Harrington, Pres., E.V, Sundquist, cashier and S. R. Martain, assistant cashier. Dougherty was the blacksmith and guarantied his work. The James A. Smith Lumber Yard was open for business. Langworthy & Co. restaurant and saloon and the Zeller Saloon were willing to quench the thirst of all and sundry. High school pupils enrollen in 1920 were Lydia Kriz, Ethel Huddin, Erich Schlaikjer, Bessie Rains, Lucille Schaeffer, Orval Worcester, John McDonald, Gertrude Atwood, Elvira Klang, and Mildred Volkman. Carter, as other towns, planned on the Chicago Northwesten railway passing through; it did not. Carter gradually declined until now there is nothing but a few old boards and rocks where once a building stood.
COLOME
When the Rosebud Reservation was to be opened by the government for settlement, a quarter section allotment belonging to Mr. Chris Colombe was incorporated by William H. Tackett H.A. Slaufhter, Christ Colombe, and W. A. Meserve, into the Winona Townsite Company and recorded in Lyman County, South Dakota on June 2, 1908. Not long after Winona was plotted into town lots, the name was changed to Colome with the "b" droped to avoid confusion in spelling, although it was still pronounced the same to honor Chris Colombe who was a very colorful character born in the Dakota Territory. On March 1, 1909, the post office was established with the Chicago and Northwester Railroad company's first regular train entering town on November 28, 1910. Four passenger trains a day, two going each way, provided the fast growth of Colome. With the fast growth came the businesses. J. P. Sullivan, a carpenter, bought one of the first lots and began building. He was the first settler in the townsite corporation. Next, he built the Colome Times Building, the first general store and hotel. Other businesses followed; Tripp Hotel operated by Evans and Walters; Mr. & Mrs. J. W. Meloy operated a second hotel; a third hotel was run by Mr. & Mrs. Henry G. Sherman. Mrs. Libbie McCarville and Shorty McDonald had restaurants. Five lumber yards supplied the town with lumber: Nye, Schneider, Jenks Company with V. S. Warner as manager; Von Seggern Bros. with Lawrence Ludden as manager and Victor Oxford as bookkeeper.; Dek-Harris Lumber Yard managed by Ona O. Gaskill; Floete Lumber Company with Paul Bingham as manager; and the Montgomery Lumber Company managed by Thomas Hayes and Art Hickman. The banks were Bi-Metallic with C. W. Marley, John Knecht and L. W. Marley; the Tripp County State Bank with Val Fetzner and H. M. Sowden; the South Dakota Loan and Trust Company run by Don Shepherd and Orville Bowersox. General merchandise stores were operated by John McGhee, Fred Sinkler, Charles Pohl, John, Emanuel and Charles Noziska, and John E. Tackett, a post trader at the Santee, South Dakota Indian Agency. Colome had two drug stores. One operated by pharmacists, Frank Chamberlain, Jr. and his father; the second by Buck Nelson. Three saloons were in business. The Dubuque Brewing company of Dubuque, Iowa was managed by Nick Stodden. William Miller and Don Cameron owned the other two saloons where John Koester and John Getz were bartenders. Livestock buyers were A. B. Gable, Scott Bowling, Don Hall and O. W. Munson. Pat London, the auctioneer, through his humorous dialogs and the ability to judge the value of livestock, merchandis, machinery and property of all kinds, rapidly became famous throughout the territory. North Livery Barn, was run by Charles and Matt McLaughlin and the South Livery Barn by Frank and Clarence Wood. Two unmarried ladies, Miss Ellie McHenry and Miss Elizabeth B. Bradley, set up real estate and insurance offices, one on each side of the street. Early doctors were Dr. Albert P. Kimball, Dr. Zimmerman and Dr. Schaeffer. The postmaster was Henry Lemberg. The culture of the town was provided by the "Colome Opera House" One of the citizens that shaped the history of Colome was Chris Colombe. His father was an early French settler and his mother the daughter of Pierre Dorian, who founded Fort Pierre. Chris, a tall, good looking, half breed, was a rancher and one of the most colorful characters born in the Dakota territory. He was a true cowboy, skilled with a horse, rope or gun. If you were his enemy, he would fight one man or a dozen; if you were a friend, he was remembered as having a big heart, giving his last dollar to someone in distress. He was comprehended as a cold-hearted gambler; his nod was worth thousands. Chris became the richest and most influential man of the Rosebud. On trips to town, Chris would give his young son bank checks previously signed with no dollar amount on them and he could buy anything he wanted.
HAMILL
Wamblee was the original name of the area and is thought to be the name of the Government issue station which was at that site. Next, it was named Gould by the Federal government in April 1909, after a store owner. On May1910, a Post Office was set up on the west side f No Moccasin Creek and the name was now Roseland after the wild roses that covered the area. This name lasted a year and had to be changed once more because of the confusion in the postoffice department between Rosebud and Roseland, so it was named Hamill. Hamill is located twenty-two miles northeast of the county seat of Winner and was a trading center trading center of the northeast part of the county. It overlooks No Moccasin Dam. In 1909, when the town was first started, the stores were all operated out of tents. Some of the stores at Hamill were Duncan & Stewart, Gilman Gilbert Store, Condon Store and Meat Market, Hamill Grocery and Dry Goods, Brecht's Drug Store, McClintock's Lumber Yard and Cooley's Station. Williams's Livery Stable took care of the homesteaders horses and Mrs. Williams served meals in their home which joined the livery barn and Wash Leedom's Blacksmith Shop. Mrs. Hugh McEachran and Mrs. James McManigal were often called in to care for the sick or deliver a new baby. Hamill's postoffice is still in operation, surrounded on main street by the abandoned, falling apart buildings of earlier years. A small grade school building now serves the students, setting along side the vacant, big red brick school that served both high school and grade school. Three churches have endured through the years and still hold services; Westminister Prebterian, Lutheran and Catholic.
IDEAL
Ideal received it's name from the first homesteaders in 1909, who met and decided to name the neighborhood Idal, as they thought it was the ideal place to live. Ideal never developed beyond a post office/store combination, which was a gathering place for visiting for many years. Later, the post office was moved next to the Presbyterian Church a mile west, leaving the original site of Ideal with a few empty houses and a faded dream. Postmasters over the years were John Katt, Sigrid Bondesson, Florence Patrick, Mrs. Ray Snow, Robert Patrick, H. P. (Pat) Dixon, Florence Anderson, Mrs. George Beardsly, Genevieve Frank, Wilma Calhoon and Judy Lantz. Early homesteaders and pioneers in the Ideal Community were William W. Lenker, Ed and Nels Anderson, George Mayes, S. L. Davis, Archie M. Bice, Watkin J. Vanneman, Elof N. Lantz, Clyde Calhoon, Archie Frantz, Ed Habegar, John Hau, August Nelsen, Carl Christensen, Marten Jorgensen, Sr., Ed Johnson, F. Frank, Edward Brown, J. Hazard, W. A. Auston, Samuel A. Pinkerton, Geo. Goolsby, Casper T. Schueth, Adolph Nelsen, R. J. Hampson, A. G. Ivers, Henry Miller, J. Auble, T. C. Hurd, E. C. Collier, J. C. Brown, C. L. Heller, Wade, W. C. Chancelor, L. E. Lang, J. W. Peckman and O. C. Knapheide. Today, Ideal is considered by locals as the "Village". The post office sets next to the Prebyterian Church and across the road to the west is the Ideal Hall and brick high school/grade school building, still being used by grad school children. Across the road to the south on Tribal Land is the Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, Holy Spirit Indian Cemetery, Guild Hall and the "Village" whre a large number of Native Americans live. Some of the early families were Thunder, Eagle Hawk, Old Lodge, Felix, Bear, Gunnysack, Bad Hand, Winterchaser, Red Horse Plenty Horse and Stands.
LAMRO
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who owned the Bluefront Livery pictured above. |
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Lamro was the first town in Tripp County, incorporated in 1907 by Oliver Lamoureaux with the help of two associates, called the Lamoureaux Townsite Company. The town was platted and sold. A courthouse and school and many business buildings were built up in the summer of 1909. The postoffice was established October 31, 1907, with the name spelled Lamro, which sounded the same but was easier to spell. Lamro, in June 1909, was the temporary county seat. In 1909, it's population was 750.
The railroad failed to connect with Lamro going to the new town of Winner. There was much feuding and actual fighting between the tow towns for the position of county seat. Winner won the county seat and eventually, Lamro moved her buildings to Winner. The post office was discontinued in 1911.
Some of the first businesses to move to Winner were Lamro State Bank, Kisling Store, Sas and Kechmar, Smith and McGreevy, Hall and Grieves, S.N. Opdahl and Jay Weaver. Others buildings moved to Winner from Lamro were the jail and the Palace Hotel. The businesses moving to Winner were located at the north end of Main Street. Keeping at least a small remainder of who they were and that it was not a friendly move. In 1910, the court house was moved and placed on the NW corner of Madison and Third Street in Winner.
Judge Witten was the agent in the Governmet department which set aside certain sections of land known as government town sites. One was on the north half of section 2-100-78, later named in his honor.
Old Witten had its lot sale June 7, 1909. Doing business in Witten were: Wells Hardware, Vanderzee and Bailey Hardware, Robertson General Store, Atlas State Bank, Farmers State Bank, S. D. Ewing Store and Fred Rahn Ford Agency.
Hostile competion existed between Witten and Red Hill, a town just a short distance from Witten. Red Hill was platted three months before Witten and the organizers of Red Hill were determined to draw the area farm trade away from Witten.But most of the farmers were doing business in the town of Witten. In the end the business men in Red Hill decided to join Witten. It was a peaceful move with the Witten people helping move the buldings into Witten.
Red Hill businesses were the Farmers State Bank, Hollinbeck Grocery and Meat Market, two lumberyards, George McDonald and Frank Mauler each had a livery stable, two saloons and several small offices.
The railroad missed Old Witten by a few miles. If the railroad would not cometo them they would go to the railroad. They moved lock, stock, and barrel, and called it New Witten. Gradually the new was dropped and it became Witten once again. The Chicago-Northwestern railway ended at Witten. It became another town fading away to time, with empty, deserted buildings and a few residents.
Photographer: Rodney Key
Winner, the county seat of Tripp County, in the heart of the Rosebud country, took it's name in 1909 because they thought it would win the right-of-way to the Chicago & Northwestern railroad. At a town meeting held to decide on a name for the new town, E. G. Barnum told the meeting to be careful about what name it was given because he thought it would win the railroad. Therefore, it should be a good name. Claude Maule said it was then decided to name the town Winner, which was the luckiest of all towns in Tripp County.
In June of 1911,the rails for the coming railroad were laid across Winner's main street. Two gold spikes had been obtained for the occasion and were driven in by F. M. Ziebach, the mayor, and Don Sinclair, the postmaster. The first passenger train arrived in Winner on Sunday evening, July 2, 1911. It was to arrive at 9:15 p.m. Yes, it was late by half an hour! The train had 56 passengers aboard. The Winner brass band, along with the entire town and everyone for miles around were at the depot when the train arrived. The first agent was H. B. Mosher and the first operator was E. B. Hill.
The battle for the county seat was next on the agenda. Winner, Colome and Lamro were on the ballot. November 11, 1910, the canvassing election board reported the official results: Winner 1553; Colome 1079; Lamro 151; Spoiled 66, Total votes cast 2849.
This was a night to be remembered. Winner people came with their teams and wagons to Lamro to get the records from the old court house there. The Lamro people resisted and the fight began. The people of Winner finally triumphed, each book was fought for piece by piece. The books not entirely destroyed were thrown into wagons and men jumped on top to fight the others off. The books were so badly mixed up that they were never fully separated. January 15, 1911, the Auditor and Treasurer records were burned in a fire which destroyed the temporary court house in Winner. At the investigation it was the opinion that the fire was the work of incendiaries. The new $200,000.00 court house was built when A. G. Ivers, John G. Mackaman and O. E. Farnsworth were the county commissioners. The people of Lamro, in the end, gave up and there was a great rush of moving their buildings to Winner. Large steam engines and as many as 74 horses at a time moved the buildings.
At the November 11, 1910 election in Winner, the following officers were elected:
Spring of 1911 brought the start of a building explosion to Winner. Work was done to the Butterfield and Barnum building and to The Superior Lumber and Coal Co. Will Fulwider erected an automobile garage, and the Heckman Furniture Co. and B. A. Krueger's Restaurant were renovated. Three saloons were licensed to Guy Sleezer, F. C. Thomas and Joe Koch. New homes were also being built by Louis Vlasak, Leroy Micholson and Charles Rose.
The first telephone office was in the post office on East Second Street, which Don Sinclair, the postmaster, took care of. Later, Miss Olive Pitchford, "Big Sis", was the manager in the first telephone office on East Third Street.
Other early businesses in Winner were:
Some of the names of the first citizens were: Backus, Brown, Dad Burpee, Brownlow, Cameron, MaryJ. Campbell,Callendar, Davies, Elwell, Fulwider, Geurtin, Gardner, Haisch, Hannet, Kell, Lannon, Maule, Shorty McDonald, Mosher, Meredith, McLine, Omstead, O'Halleran, Rose, Robertson, Julius Sandoz, Dr.Snook, Russ Read, A. B. Smith, Sterns, Stutzman, Speidel, Geo. Tritle, HarryVoltz.
All towns have their unique characters. Winner's was Ben B. Butts. He and his wife came to Winner in 1919. He began his business in a piano box in the corner of the livery barn where he worked. He would buy gloves, honey and overalls. He would ask the livery customers if they wanted to buy gloves, if they did he would pull a pair out of his pocket. If they did not, he would show them his other merchandise. Later, after he had enough money, he moved into a little building a block off main street and down the alley. As his inventory increased, he would add to his building. His store was unpretentious in appearance; the large interior was a scene of activity every day of the week. Little effort was put into the appearance, the stock was arranged principally for convience.
Because he bought in carload lots and sold them at a cut price, he was called "the outlaw dow the alley" by competitors. Ben adopted the name "The Outlaw" for his store. His motto was "We Buck Em All". Later, the building was destroyed y fire and rebuilt into a modern department store and is still doing business as "The Outlaw Trading Post" with several large chain companies owning it through the years. By 1920, the homestead lands had changed hands many times and less tha 25% of the original homesteaders were living in the Winner Area.
Last, but certainly not least, the beautiful Ringneck Pheasant must be mentioned, for it made Winner famous. In September 1913, Tripp County's allotment of 12 pheasants arrived from the State Game and Fish Commission. The consigment came to Mitchell and McLain of the Lamro State Bank. They turned them out along Dog Ear Creek. From that small allotment, Winner has become known as the Pheasant Capitol of the World. The ringnecks bring thousands of hunters to the Winner area each year and provide a large income for both the town people and the farmer/rancher.
Submitted by Lucille Crouch Garrick
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