from "Dakota" (1885)
compiled by O. H. Holt
History of Beadle County
Beadle county is situated in the James River Valley, toward the southeastern part of Dakota, and about equidistant from the Minnesota State line and the Missouri river. It comprises thirty-five congressional townships, equal to 1,360 square miles, or 806,400 acres. It is traversed, north and south, by the James river, which, with its feeders, Pearl, Cain and Shue creeks, thoroughly drains the county.
The surface, with the exception of the river bottoms, is gently undulating prairie, broken in some instances by elevations.
The soil is principally a black, sandy loam; the subsoil a whitish, sandy clay, impregnated with lime and magnesia, making it strong and fertile. Boulders are scattered about the surface in some portions, and are also found at considerable depths in the subsoil. These rarely form an impediment to cultivation, and are exceedingly useful for building purposes. Lake Byron, in the northeastern part of the county, is a fine sheet of water, covering an area of about 1,000 acres.
The county was first settled in 1879. The Chicago & North-Western Railway traverses the county from east to west through the central portion, and its Columbia branch, running north, divides the northern portion into nearly equal parts. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway is built through the western part, north and south.
The population of Beadle county is about 10,000, and consists mostly of Americans, with some Germans, and a sprinkling of other nationalities.
The soil is exceedingly rich and fertile, wheat, corn and the small grains yielding abundantly. Garden vegetables are very prolific, and many of them grow to an enormous size.
Huron, the county seat, is a city of remarkable growth, and is, indeed, one of the most populous and important cities in all Dakota. It was ushered into existence, on paper, in June, 1880, and is at the present time a city of 3,500 inhabitants. Situated near the bank of the far-famed "Jim" river (properly James, or Dakota), in the very heart of a country whose superior, as regards fertility, does not exist, and at the junction of three important lines of railroad, which reach, with their connections, thousands of miles into all points of the compass, it would be an almost utter impossibility for Huron to be less than great. It is often said that a town, to be of healthy growth, must not improve and enlarge more rapidly than the settlement of the surrounding country. This is a fallacy as regards Huron. The society of Huron is suggestive of an eastern city, inasmuch as it is composed of eastern people of culture and refinement. Six houses of religious worship, all superior in architectural design, occupied by large congregations of Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, Catholics and Lutherans, demonstrate to an observer the excellent religious status of Huron. The educational advantages here attained are excellent. A graded school, consisting of four departments, erected at a cost of $10,000, with an enrollment of nearly 300 pupils, is of interest in this connection. Worthy of especial mention are the public institutions of Huron. The new court house, in course of erection, is perhaps excelled in beauty and convenience by none in the Territory. Its cost, complete, will be $50,000. The Chicago & North-Western Railway Company have recently finished at this point an eating house, costing in the neighborhood of $22,000. The machine shops and roundhouses of this railroad are very extensive and complete, and employ a large number of skilled artisans n the building and repairing of rolling stock. Aside from these, Huron has the United States Land Office. The Surveyor-General of the Territory has headquarters here; a United States Signal Service Office is here quartered; a telephone line is in active operation, reaching several miles into the country, and a complete system of water works, put in in the spring of 1884, at a cost of $30,000, supplies the city with closely filtered water from the James river. The hotel accommodations are good. The newspapers of Huron are above the average, and the dealers, who represent nearly every line of trade, are all prosperous. Aside from the retail trade, jobbing is quite extensively carried on and will undoubtedly increase. Taken in all, Huron is a place of great possibilities. That it will always be of vast importance as an agricultural centre there can be no reasonable doubt.
Wessington, Wolsey and Cavour are also flourishing towns on the line of the Chicago & North-Western Railway, and are growing rapidly.