BLACK HILLS PIONEER / SPEARFISH 125th ANNIVERSARY
Page 12
September 2013
September 2013
BLACK HILLS PIONEER / SPEARFISH 125th ANNIVERSARY
Rose Hill Cemetery
Spearfish Normal School once home to KKK fraternity
By Adam Hurlburt Black Hills Pioneer
The KKK marches on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. in 1926. Courtesy photo
Historian Charles Rambow poses with Lead’s 20s-era KKK charter and a vintage KKK robe and head found in a Rapid City attic. Pioneer photo by Adam Hurlburt
The Ku Klux Klan exploded in America in the 1920s after the release of the film “Birth of a Nation,” which portrayed the hate group as heroes. While the Klan of the 1800s focused its hatred on blacks, the Klan of the 20s expanded its hate to nearly all foreigners as well as Jews and Catholics. By the middle of the 1920s national KKK membership estimates ranged from three to eight million Klansmen. With estimates that high it should be no surprise that the KKK were not only active in South Dakota, but active in the Black Hills. Rapid City-based historian Charles Rambow began researching the Ku Klux Klan in the Black Hills in 1971 when he discovered that his grandparents had been members of the Sturgis Klan. This came as a disturbing surprise to Rambow, who went on to teach history at Sturgis High School for 34 years. He knew his grandfather as a “quite respectable” county judge, but he also knew he was vehemently anti catholic, which made him a perfect candidate for the Klan, whose recruitment campaigns were particularly effective in rural areas, where fear of urbanization, industrialization and the unknown were easily capitalized upon. “They would arrive in the community and suggest that if you had any ills, any problems in the community, the Klan would solve any problem that you might have,” Rambow said. While Rambow’s research shows the largest and most active Klan in the Northern Hills was in the Lead-Deadwood community, there was an active Klan in Spearfish in the 1920s. Rambow said as far as he knows the Spearfish Klan was “not particularly vi-
olent.” Black Hills State University, then known as the Spearfish Normal School, however, was home to an active Ku Klux Klan fraternity. That fraternity held two large, public cross burning ceremonies on a pine-covered hill just south of the school in 1925 and 1926. Rambow said the president of Spearfish Normal at the time, E.C. Woodburn, was not too keen on the KKK and spoke out publically against the group. This put him in a dangerous situation. One afternoon in 1925 the KKK attempted to retaliate while Woodburn was away at a meeting. Several Klansmen from the Spearfish Normal Klan fraternity drove up to Woodburn’s house, poured gasoline on his garage, and made the sign of the cross in gasoline on his yard, connecting it to his garage. The Klansmen threw a torch on the cross, but Woodburn’s neighbors, who’d been startled by the commotion next door, were able to put out the fire before it reached the structure. Woodburn didn’t stop speaking out against the Klan, Rambow said, but the Klan didn’t pester him any further. Rambow said the last cross burning he knows of in Spearfish occurred in 1927 near the present day location of the Spearfish Holiday Inn — two black families called this area home, at the time. Rambow isn’t certain whether this cross burning was to intimidate these black families or simply to carry out the Klan’s agenda. Regardless, the Klan was losing its grip on rural America by this time, hemorrhaging membership and moving underground. “When publicity was out there about the violence, threats and intimidation by the Klan then people began taking a second look at it and wondering, ‘do we really want this in our community,’” Rambow said. “And with that people began to drop out of the Klan.”
Thoen Stone
Cashner traveled East looking to authenticate the Thoen Stone by verifying the existence and story of R. Kent, who supposedly was a member of the party mentioned in the stone’s inscription. Cashner was able to locate a letter from Kent to his family in which he’d said he “found all the gold he wanted” and would be headed home soon. An article was soon published in the Detroit Free Press. Soon after the article was written Cashner received a message from Harvey Brown Jr., of Michigan, who thought one of the men in the party was his half uncle, Thompson Brown, who’d headed west in 1832 with another man and hadn’t been heard from since. Frank Thomson’s 1996 book “The Thoen Stone” contained several interviews with miners from the Black Hills gold rush in which they claimed they were shocked to discover what appeared to be the remains of a long abandoned mining camp near the place the Thoen Stone was discovered. The book also contains interviews with Native Americans, who confirmed that several
groups of miners were killed in the early 1800s to keep “the white man from learning of the rich gold deposits” in the Black Hills. The authenticity of the Thoen Stone is still dabated to this day. The Thoen stone reads: “Came to these hills in 1833. Seven of us Delacompt, Ezra Kind, G.W. Wood, T. Brown, R. Kent, Wm King, Indian Crow. All de[a]d but me Ezra Kind Killed by ind[ians] beyond the high hill. Got our gold June 1934. Got all the gold we could carry our ponies all got by Indians I have lost my gun and nothing to eat and Indians hunting me.” Today, the original Thoen Stone is on
Pioneer photo by Heather Murschel
Spearfish Valley
Fertile soil sows seeds of rich history Since the township was first settled in 1876, the fertile soils of Spearfish Valley have afforded fresh produce to provide a necessary food supply in the Northern Hills. Today, during the summer months, Evans Lane is still flourishing as truck farmers work the fields and sell the fruits of their labor at farmers’ markets and stands that line the highway. That area, historians say, was the first area of town settled and is the reason Spearfish exists. This is because, as Spearfish was experiencing an influx of visitors, thousands of people were traveling to Deadwood after word spread that gold had been discovered. With so many people setting up camps and staking ranch claims, Spearfish Valley was essentially the bread bowl for the mine
because it provided nourishment to this new, developing area of the Black Hills. Historical records state the first settling of Spearfish Valley occurred on May 20, 1876 when a group of Montana residents made the expedition to the Black Hills. Robert H. Evans, a self-taught hydrologist, realized that if he created a series of ditches, Spearfish Creek could provide irrigation to the farms. According to documentation, M.G. Tonn, who owned a ranch in that area, was also involved in creating the tributaries. Longtime Spearfish Valley residents can often be heard sharing memories of the groves of apple trees, fields of wheat and fruit crops that filled the area, busy with farmers, ranchers and prospective shop-
History of infamous message remains mystery to some The story of the Thoen Stone has been one of the longest debated historical items in the history of Spearfish. The Thoen Stone tells the story of seven men traveling through the area in the 1830s that were never seen nor heard from again. More than 50 years later, Louis Thoen and his brother found a sandstone slab covered in mysterious etchings on Lookout Mountain. The etchings are popularly thought to be a troubling message from a traveler from that party in the 1830s, one Ezra Kind, who said his party was murdered by Native Americans. The stone ominously read that Kind was being hunted as he scrawled these desperate inscriptions. Many people believed the stone was a hoax planted by someone hungry for attention. They believed that no one being actively hunted by Native Americans would take the time to carve a message into solid rock, especially when there was a good chance it would never be seen. A Spearfish businessman named John
Page 13
pers looking for the fruits of their labor. But, everyone knew the most important aspect of the valley’s success came down to water. The 1930s were dry, and without the water the farming would have ceased completely. Thankfully the Evans-Tonn ditch still provides the water essential to irrigate the few farms that are left. As generations grew up and moved away from home, valley residents began to see those homesteads turn into housing developments, and it all just seemed to gradually change over time. Those few farmers left, many say, are much appreciated by locals as they will be carrying on the historic tradition of Spearfish Valley as it sows through the future, creating yet another chapter in history.
Nestled on a serene hilltop overlooking the mouth of Spearfish Canyon is the final resting place of many Queen City residents. The 30-acre lot, once called Spearfish Cemetery, was renamed Rose Hill Cemetery to honor the woman who worked so hard to preserve the cemetery’s beauty, and to ensure it remained a memorial to lost loved ones. Rosa Driskill, the “Original Rose” of the cemetery, as she is sometimes revered, was born Rosa Lee Davis on Sept. 15, 1866 in Montgomery County, Mo. She later married Jesse Lincoln Driskill, also of Missouri, and the couple traveled west in search of a new life together. Driskill’s husband became a pioneer cattleman in northeastern Wyoming and founded the T+T Ranch on Beaver Creek in 1882, near the Belle Fourche River. He was also a member of Captain Seth Bullock’s Cowboy Brigade and traveled with the group to Washington, D.C. to ride in Teddy Roosevelt’s inaugural parade in March of 1905. The Spearfish Cemetery opened in the late 1800s. Although the couple had seven children, Driskill still dedicated much of her time to push the care of the cemetery, leading to efforts to improve and maintain the grounds. Driskill and a group of local women cleaned up the cemetery and kept the rose-adorned lot lovely. When Driskill died of blood poisoning on Oct. 10, 1907 at age 41, her burial location was not a question. She was buried in the cemetery at plot B-8-8-1, laying to rest the “Original Rose” of Rose Hill. Today, more than 5,000 people are interred at the cityowned Rose Hill Cemetery.
Pioneer photo by Heather Murschel
Pioneer photo by Heather Murschel display at the Adams House and Museum in Deadwood while a replica sits on a hill on the north edge of Spearfish, in the figurative shadow of Lookout Mountain. Lore lives on as many assume the “high hill” that those interviewed had referred to was in fact Crow Peak.
Then & Now
Pioneer photo by Josh Larson As part of the 125th Anniversary, the Leland D. Case Library provided historic photos of Spearfish in order to showcase the changes to many historic sites over the years. Pictured at left is a tornado that came through Spearfish in 1954, and at right is a photo of Lookout Mountain today.