Wolsey and the Railroad
articles copied from PAYDAY
Roger Kasa and Wolsey Centennial book
by Donna Kowalke
The history of the railroad in South Dakota and a tribute to its employees was written by the late Mildred McEwen Jones in 1970.
The booklet, on loan from the Dakotaland Museum, reports that a round-trip from Huron to Chicago, Ill. cost $24, or $15 for just one way. As the railroad was built across SD, the bridge across the Missouri River between Pierre and Fort Pierre was constructed in 1907 or 1908. The entire line from Pierre to Rapid City was opened in 1907.
Much of the research for this information was done by Mrs. Jones, with help
from B.A. Richardson of Huron. Richardson gave the following dates:
Tracy to
Dakota Line - Dakota Central, 1879
Dakota line
to Volga, 1879
Volga to
Pierre, 1880
Ordway to
Columbia, 1882
Watertown to
Redfield, 1882
I Iroquois to
Hawarden, 1883
Centerville
to Yankton, 1885
Columbia to
Oakes, ND, 1886
Red field to
Faulkton, 1886.
Doland to
Verdun
Mankato to
New Ulm, Minn., 1900
Among the people who the men and kept a dairy. They worked two months and 18 days, from April 7 to July 25, 1880, laying the track into Huron.
Jones writes: "Charley kept a detailed account of the cost of feed and his expenses during that time."
She also notes that Charley Bonesteel bought the meat from the Baums and left a record in the Huron Public Library. The railroad was laid as far as Volga June 5. When the Joys came May 10, 1880, the track was as far as De Smet. The Joys, who had the first grocery store in Huron, claimed there was not water fit to drink until June 5.
It is further noted that Violetta McDonnell Stahly states that her parents came June 6 - the first family to arrive. They came in a covered wagon and crossed the James River on a boat.
Also, Niel McKay carried railroad officials Aug. 10, 1880. At that time the road was finished five miles west of Huron. They tried to average three miles a day. "I think it was finished to Pierre Oct. 15 when a bad snow storm hindered their planned celebration," she writes. "This snow stayed on all winter and they had the worst winter ever reported as far as I know - at least they were not prepared for it and it seemed worse."
She continues, "Trains didn't run for months and had it not been for Baum's wheat crop, many would have starved. Coffee mills were running night and day and many boiled the wheat without grinding it. Evidently the train got to Mitchell and De Smet some times as people walked there for flour."
"No wonder there were horse thieves," she writes. "They may have kept people from starving - who knows?"
Jones writes that many people walked 100 miles for a sack of flour. "I've counted 403 that lived in sod houses - no lumber until the railroad came," she writes. "Let's honor the men who helped to keep the trains running through the years."
She also offered a few interesting notes on early section men: Pat Burns had charge of Wessington to eight miles this side; then Sam Hartzell to four miles this side of Wolsey; then Bill Farrell who roomed with Dick Sears, on to Huron.
"I sat on Bill's lap 78 years ago when he used to stop at the junction to warm his feet so I know Rev. Layhe, Wolsey, roomed with Ernest Whithoeft, who was a section man. Other section men were Phil Gascoigne, who lived in the first house in Broadland and went from Broadland to Hitchcock."
Other early employees were Albert Maass, who lived in Yale and Tom Costello, who worked out of Cavour.