The list of post offices established in Dakota Territory up to the close of 1874 indicates the progress of white settlement of Dakota up to that time.  In Charles Mix County, post offices had been established at Greenwood, White Swan, and Platte Creek.  In Todd County, post offices had been established at Fort Randall and Ponca Agency.  A post office had also been established at Crow Creek in Buffalo County.

The Daily Press and Dakotian began its career at Yankton as a morning newspaper on Monday, April 26, 1875.  It was the first daily paper to be published in Dakota Territory.  Today, one-hundred and fifty years later, it is independently owned and still going strong!

Dakota Territory was thinly populated, while Yankton was a town of about three thousand citizens.  As a business proposition, there was no such inducement as would justify the publishing of a daily paper at Yankton with the telegraphic news at a cost of $150 a month ($4,304 today).  But there was an early future that seemed to justify the project, in which the community of Yankton as well as the territory was vitally interested.

This promising future was based on the early opening of the Black Hills country to white settlement.  The United States Government was about to conclude a treaty with the Sioux Indians who held the title to the hills.  Custer had made an exploring and investigating visit there the previous year.  He found the country rich in natural resources, including gold and pine forests.

As the people of Dakota became apprised of this, they very properly assumed that there would be a large immigration to Dakota.  There were visions of prosperity on a large scale in the minds of our pioneers.  Word came from hundreds of organizations forming for the purpose of going into the gold region.  As a rule the majority would come by way of the Missouri River route.

Yankton people and interests had been working to secure the lawful opening of the Black Hills country for over ten years, having information from the most reliable sources that gold was abundant in the region.  Its early opening to settlement promised great benefit to the commercial interests in Yankton.

It was the nearest railroad point to the Black Hills, and steamboats were then carrying passengers and freight to all points on the upper river including Fort Pierre where stage lines and freight trains would connect, and make the overland distance of 150 miles to Rapid City, in much less time than it could be made by any other route.

The entire trip overland from Yankton could also be made through a country abounding in wood, water, and grass the entire distance.  Yankton had been well advertised as an outfitting point and there was a substantial expectation that there would be a large immigration of settlers by the Yankton route.

This was the situation, and the business and growth that would come to Yankton as a result of the immigration to the gold fields was the chief factor in encouraging the establishment of the Daily Press and Dakotan at that time.  Considering the number of individuals who were in a position to assist the paper, support from the local community was very liberal and cheerfully given.

Yankton, however, did not secure the advantage and benefits of the location and facilities available at the time.  The immigrants did not come in overwhelming numbers.  The Hills had not been lawfully opened.  The army guarded the reservation, and during 1875 arrested and turned back a large number that attempted to invade the Indian domain.

Competition sprang up.  The Union Pacific Railroad made Cheyenne, Wyoming, an outfitting point, and a first class daily stage line was put on the route from Cheyenne to Custer City.  The railroad at Bismarck had the advantage of being north of the Great Sioux Reservation.

The Daily Press and Dakotan, however, managed to maintain itself, but was more a source of expense than profit.  In October, 1875, it changed from a morning to an evening paper.  This change resulted in the saving of telegraphic tolls which helped in making it a profitable enterprise.

At the time, many newspapers in the area contained the following:

“The Daily Press and Dakotan has been changed to an evening paper.  This is sensible as the Sioux City Journal covers the field pretty thoroughly for a morning paper leaving a fair opening for a well managed evening daily at Yankton.  The new arrangement will materially reduce the cost of publication both in composition and the cost of telegraphic news.”

It again revived the morning issue in 1876, but returned to an evening newspaper after a few months trial, and continued to be an evening paper long into the future.

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone.  Days later, he made the first ever telephone call to his partner, Thomas Watson.

In 1915, the first transcontinental telephone call was made between Bell in New York and Watson in San Francisco.

 

Author Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on March 12, 2025