Description and travel books in the Chilson Collection

Fraser Harrison, British writer and author of Infinite West: Travels in South Dakota will speak on “A Visit to Yankton, the River City” at the W. H. Over Museum in Vermillion at 7:00 PM on Monday, June 17, 2013. In honor of his visit, I present the following travel and description books from the Chilson Collection. These books were written with a different purpose in mind. They were meant to entice emigrants to buy land in the territory.

Armstrong, Moses Kimball. History and resources of Dakota, Montana, and Idaho: to which is appended a map of the Northwest. Yankton, Dakota Territory: G.W. Kingsbury, 1866.

Foster, James S. Outlines of history of the Territory of Dakota, and emigrant’s guide to the free lands of the Northwest. Yankton, Dakota Territory: M’Intyre & Foster, printers, Union and Dakotian office, 1870.

Armstrong, Moses Kimball. Information circular on Dakota Territory. Its location, soil, climate, public lands, rivers, forests, minerals, markets, schools, churches, society, towns, cities, thoroughfares, navigation and rairoads [sic]. Isssued [sic] annually from [sic] the land and title office of M. K. Armstrong, Yankton, Dakota Territory. [Sioux City, Iowa]: Sioux City Register printers, 1870.

Cross, Fred J. The free lands of Dakota; a description of the country; the climate; the beautiful valleys, and ocean-like prairies; the crops; the land laws, and the inducements offered to immigrants. Yankton, Dakota Territory: Bowen & Kingsbury, printers., Press and Dakotaian office, 1876.

Real Estate Association of the Corn Belt of South Dakota. A brief description and a few testimonials concerning the corn belt of South Dakota. Yankton, SD: Press & Dakotaian printers, 1893.

Batchelder, George Alexander. A sketch of the history and resources of Dakota Territory. Yankton, SD: Press Steam Power Printing Co., 1928. Reprint of 1870 original.

Military Collections

Corporal Walter Kasten, 1918, France. Image from Digital Library of South Dakota.

The following collections in the Archives and Special Collections have content about the U.S. Military.

Army Specialized Training Programs – WWII

Austin, Horace – Civil War

Beede Family – 1^st Dakota Calvary

Bellamy, Paul E. – Spanish-American War

Burton, Frederick – WWII

Civil War Diary, Union Soldier, 1861-1863

Civilian Aeronautics Administration, USD Training Program, 1939-1945

Educational Media (Ed. Media) – VHS tape of “Citizenship, Leadership, and Character: The Korean War Generation, Then and Now” September 24, 2001

VHS tape of “Vietnam Experiences” April 27, 1995

Foss, Joseph Jacob - WWII

Frost, A. S. – Spanish-American War

Moses, Lloyd Roosevelt Command Papers – Korean War and WWII

National Archives Tribal Records – WWI, Drafting of Indians 1918 and Indian Regiment 1918

Vietnam Veterans, South Dakota Oral History

Check also our collections on photographs, publications, organizations, USD presidents, other USD administrators,  alumni, and South Dakota politicians.

South Dakota State Historical Society Conference

I recently attended the South Dakota State Historical Society 2013 History Conference. There were many great papers, but the one that stands out in my mind used maps plus a diary as primary resources. Graham Callaway talked about G.K. Warren’s 1856 maps of the Missouri River. These maps were only available at the National Archives, but are now published in the book by W. Raymond Wood and Graham Callaway from the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Hutton, a member of the expedition, also kept a journal of the expedition to map the river. Information from the diary helped the authors to interpret some of the symbols on the maps. There are 39 maps depicting the Missour River from what is now the Kansas-Nebraska border to the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. Of special interest to me was the map showing the Vermillion area.

Ella Deloria

Ella Deloria (1888 or 1889 – 1971) was born on the Yankton Reservation. She was “a teacher, speaker, author, and researcher in linguistics and anthropology” (Murray 1974, viii). She was associated with the University of South Dakota from 1961 to 1964 (Murray 1974, 146-149).

The Chilson Collection contains the following books that she authored, coauthored, or edited:

Boas, Franz and Ella Deloria. Dakota grammar. Sioux Falls, SD: Dakota Press, 1979.

Deloria, Ella Cara, comp. Dakota texts. New York: G. E. Stechert, agents, 1932.

Deloria, Ella Cara, comp. Dakota texts. New York: AMS Press, 1974.

Deloria, Ella Cara, comp. Dakota texts. Vermillion, SD: Dakota Press, 1978.

Deloria, Ella Cara. Deer women and elk men: the Lakota narratives of Ella Deloria. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992.

Deloria, Ella Cara. Ella Deloria’s The buffalo people. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994.

Deloria, Ella Cara. Ella Deloria’s Iron Hawk. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993.

Deloria, Ella Cara. Speaking of Indians. New York: Friendship Press, [1944].

Deloria, Ella Cara. Speaking of Indians. Vermillion, SD: Dakota Press, 1979.

Deloria, Ella Cara. Waterlily. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988.

She wrote several articles for the Museum News, which were published by the W.H. Over Museum at the University of South Dakota and are in the Chilson Collection:

“The Origins of the courting flute,” 1961.

“Easter Day at a Yankton Dakota church,” 1962.

“Some notes on the Yankton,” 1967.

“Some notes on the Santee,” 1967.

She also did several oral history interviews with the South Dakota Oral History Center at the University of South Dakota:

Loder, Richard, interviewer. “Oral history interview with Ella Deloria, Wallace Eagle Shield, and Sophie Many Deeds,” 1969. AIRP 383.

Loder, Richard, interviewer. “Oral history interview with Ella Deloria and J. Jeston,” 1969. AIRP 443, 444, and 445.

Some of her unpublished papers are at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. Other unpublished papers were at the University of South Dakota, and then moved to the Ella Deloria Archives in Chamberlain, South Dakota. See
http://zia.aisri.indiana.edu/deloria_archive/index.php
.

Biographies:

Medicine, Beatrice, and Sue-Ellen Jacobs. “Ella C. Deloria: the emic voice.” In  Learning to be an anthropologist and remaining “Native“: selected writings. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001.

Murray, Janette K. “Ella Deloria: a biographical sketch and literary analysis. ” PhD diss., University of North Dakota, 1974.

Persistence pays and Dallas High School students from 1915

X. L. A. Society, 1915, Dallas High School, Dallas, South Dakota
Fourth row [back], left to right: Peterson, Lewis, Nichols, Basil Hodson, Jansen, Watt
Third row from front, left to right: Lang, Ryokowska, Rudolph, Ticknor, Lancaster, Meyer, Whitt
Second row from front, left to right: DeVorss, Lewis, Pederson, Craven, Lona Wilson, Buroh, Olson
First row [front], left to right: McDowell, Weaver, Alta Wilson, Peterson, Jacobson

I have been working to identify these two photographs on and off for four years, if not longer, when I get a free moment or two.  Haunted by their faces, so familiar, and intrigued by the background studio setting that appears nowhere else in the collection, these photographs have stumped me for a while.

For the longest time my student assistants, coworkers and I have been trying to unlock the “XLA” clue on the banner. No national organization fit. No local organization fit.

All came together this past week.

According to the stamp on one of the photograph’s window mounts, Green was the photographer and the studio was located in Gregory, SD. Using They Captured the Moment: Dakotas Photographers 1853-1920 by Robert Kolbe and Brain Bade [Chilson Collection F651 .K54 2006], I discerned that Green was in business from 1911-1918.

“Why was this photograph in our collection?” “Why would USD students travel to Gregory, South Dakota to have their portraits taken?” Things were not making sense.

Then I zeroed in on the banner initials “DHS.” “What cities were close to Gregory?” “Dallas High School?”

Our Chilson Collection carries a book called Dallas, South Dakota: The End of the Line published by the Dallas Historical Society [Chilson Collection F659 .D15x D35].

From that moment on, things could not have been simpler. With book in hand, I turned a page and found a reproduction of the only high school annual in the entire publication. The annual was from 1915 and after the first few pages of advertisements, there was Walter Frankenfeld listed as the instructor for “Commercial and Athletics.” There were also portraits of several of the students in the photographs that I could use to match up.

“Walter Frankenfeld?!”

Herman Walter Frankenfeld served as registrar at the University of South Dakota from 1926-1964. I turned back a few pages and read:

March, 1914, M. I. Ellis was hired as superintendent of schools at a salary of $1,200.00 per year. Walter Frankenfeld was hired as commercial teacher and coach at $75.00 per month. “Frankie” was rehired the following year, then went to war, and returned after the war and taught two more years in Dallas, where he met and married his wife, the former Ruth Patrick, who taught in Dallas High School. After leaving Dallas he went to the University of South Dakota where he served as registrar until his retirement.

Deeper into the reproduced yearbook, there was the photograph shown below with everyone identified. A few pages more and the other photograph presented itself also with students identified.

I learned the X. L. A. Society was founded in 1911 by Superintendent Barr:

…with Miss Henderson as sponsor. Florence Watwood was the first president and during the year much rivalry was evident between the two societies in the way of tearing down the pennants of one another and painting the interiors of the school building with their respective colors……

During the present year the members of the society have progressed rapidly along literary lines. Superintendent Ellis arranged a competition between the two societies [X. L. A. and Geilik] for better programs given during the winter months. After much hard work on the part of both societies the X. L. A. ‘s were victorious by a small margin.

The membership has increased from twenty to the present number of thirty.

We know from alumni records that Katherine Ellis (Kositsky), Earl Halverson, and Edward Prchal attended and graduated from the University of South Dakota. We also know that Frankenfeld held a long tenure here. So we have a glimpse of pre-University of South Dakota days for these folks – two photographs taken in Gregory, South Dakota.

All these years the answers were as close as the Chilson Collection. The one and only yearbook reproduced in the Dallas Historical Society publication held all the answers.

Class in Commerce, 1915, Dallas High School, Dallas, South Dakota
Back row, left to right: Earl A. Halverson, Jansen, Ward Evans, Basil Hodson, Edward Prchal, Lewis, Earl Evans, Logerwell
Front row, left to right: Katherine Ellis, Cunningham, Lona Wilson, Professor Walter Frankenfeld, Frances Ticknor, Pederson, Blanche Meyer

Bill Nye: The Western Writings

Bill Nye. There’s a name that automatically brings back memories. No, not Bill Nye the Science Guy, but don’t worry… I was fooled too! I stumbled across this story while rambling through the Chilson Collection. The voice and history of the Western enthusiast, Edgar Wilson Nye, more commonly known by his pseudonym Bill Nye, comes to life in the story Bill Nye: The Western Writings, written by David B. Kesterson. Bill Nye may have been humorous, but his goal was not to promote science like the one of this era. He was a journalist, writer, and an advocate of the West. He gives interesting, and contrasting, insights on life in the West, being witty as well as satirical in the stories he spun. Founder of the Laramie Boomerang, a newspaper that still exists in his beloved Wyoming, Nye went on to become well known for his comical tales that always seemed to hide another meaning behind them. Bill Nye: The Western Writings reveals the life journey of a writer who loved the West, but acknowledged its faults with humor to cover his tracks. He lived during the time of the “Wild Frontier,” the infamous Jesse James, the humorist and realist Mark Twain, and renowned poet James Whitcomb Riley and either had influence or direct contact with all of these recognizable symbols of America. Not only did Nye indulge in promoting the West, while broadcasting its faults, he would go on to become an advocate for women’s suffrage. Bill Nye’s biography takes an interesting perspective on life of the West among many other outlooks on life in general. This is one of the many treasures that can be found in the Archives and Special Collections, one just has to keep an open mind to what they are looking to discover!

Works Cited

Kesterson, David B. Bill Nye: The Western Writings. Boise: Boise State University Western Writers Series, 1976. Print.

Celebrate Preservation Week

For quick tips on how to save your audio tapes, books, film and home movies, data, textiles, documents, slides, photographs, and scrapbooks, go to http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/preswk/quick-tips.