After the Fairfax town site was rejected by the land office in the summer of 1897, the disputed land embraced an eighty-acre tract lying south of the town. According to The Omaha Daily Bee of June 5, 1897, “Upon it is a cemetery, which was set aside for burial purposes many years ago.”
Those who filed the application for the townsite relinquished all claims to this tract of land. Subsequently it was filed upon by a homesteader who permitted his cattle and horses to graze among the graves and destroy the headstones. Those who had relatives buried there attempted to secure the homesteader’s consent to have the burial ground kept solely for that purpose. He refused their request. Interested parties wrote to attorneys to see if there was some way of compelling him to respect the dead. It was decided that nothing could be done.
It is thought that the burial ground that was a portion of the tract of land which the homesteader acquired is now the Highland Cemetery. It is directly south of town and at one time would have been within the city boundary. Keri Grim and her staff in the Register of Deeds Office have been very helpful in providing me with historical records for all of the cemeteries in the county. The Cemetery Board purchased the East half of the Cemetery in 1900 from Julius Nactigal for $100. The West half of Highland Cemetery was purchased from Mr. Oelrich for $1,000.
There were several hundred settlers who selected quarter sections in 1890 that was not surveyed until 1897. Only then were they able to file their claim in Chamberlain.
On these claims the Land Commissioner made a decision in early 1898 that “one who has resided upon a tract of unappropriated land continuously for the period of five years without any filing for the same, may, in accordance with the ruling of this office under the act of May 14, 1880, make a homestead entry for the land and give notice on the same day of the intention to make final proof, and after legal publication of said notice, make final proof the same as though his entry had been made at the time of establishing residence upon the land.”
Finally, the homesteaders got a break. They were able to secure their home and in addition to that they saved seventy-five cents an acre. Had they been able to file their claim when they originally settled in 1890, they would have been required to pay $1.25 per acre. At the time they filed their claim in 1898, the required payment was fifty cents per acre. They saved $120 ($3,762 in 2020) by not being able to file their claim until seven years after they selected their homestead.
In January of 1898 the papers told the story that preliminary steps had been taken to organize Gregory County and that a merry war was in progress between those who favor the movement and those who oppose it. At the time the population of the county was about 2,000. There were many children of school age who were denied educational facilities because the county was not organized and it was impossible to organize school districts. The state statute made it mandatory for the governor to organize a county upon petition of 150 legal residents of that county.
The Omaha Daily Bee of March 10, 1898 contained this story from Chamberlain: “It is announced here that Governor Lee will tomorrow visit Fairfax, Gregory County, to hear arguments against and in favor of the proposed organization of that county, which lies in the Chamberlain land district. Considerable bitterness has developed between those favoring and those opposing the organization.”
That same newspaper on March 31, 1898 reported the results of that earlier meeting in Fairfax:
“A meeting was held at which those favoring and those opposing organization made addresses, and considerable bitterness between the factions is said to have been shown. The sentiment of the people living in the town of Fairfax and vicinity is strongly in favor of organization, while the chief opposition comes from the town of Bonesteel. When the county is finally organized the strife between these two towns for the location of the county seat will be as bitter as any of the now famous county seat fights in Kansas.”
In August of 1898 Gov. Lee had authorized the organization of Gregory County and an election would be held on the 23rd of that month. Finally, county officers and the location of the county would be determined! Bonesteel and Fairfax were the rivals.
A number of South Dakota weeklies in early September of 1898 reported that Fairfax had won in one of the hottest county seat fights in the history of the state and Gregory County was organized. The winning margin was twenty-nine votes and it was probable that the matter had not yet been permanently settled.
Perhaps to improve its image, Bonesteel in the summer of 1899 organized a “law and order league.” The goal was to put a stop to the vile language and rowdyism on the streets and in the business houses of that community.
It wasn’t until April of 1902 that the issue of the location of the county seat fight in Gregory County once again made the headlines. The Madison Daily Leader on April 12th reported that: “An old fashioned county seat fight is promised in the near future between Fairfax and Bonesteel in the new county of Gregory west of the Missouri River. Fairfax is in the southern part of the county and Bonesteel, nearer the center, wants it badly.”
The Mitchell Capital reported that Bonesteel would provide a site and courthouse at no cost to the taxpayers of Gregory County if the county seat was located in that community. The contest promised to be full of the usual frontier incidents that go to make up a county seat fight.
Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory-Times Advocate on January 6, 2021