The Great Dakota Boom

There will always be questions and questions will always remain unanswered. The question is why Frank and Fannie Miles settled in the Dakota Territory sometime before 1880 and why they left. Frank and Fannie Miles are the great-grandparents of my wife, and the grandparents of Charlie Miles, Mary Van Huss, and Joan Smith. They are the great-great-grandparents of my children Hannah and Will Davis.

1880 US census, Dakota Territory, Virginia Township, Union County

The 1880 US Census records the fact that Frank Ottley Miles, his wife Fannie Brewster Miles and their one-year-old daughter Hattie lived on a farm in the southeast corner of Dakota Territory, Virginia Township, Union County. The farm was in the James River Valley north and east of Yankton. The census record is hard to read so I have cropped the image to reveal the names of Charles, farmer, age 27, Fannie, keeping house, age 21, and Hattie, age one. Hattie's place of birth is Dakota, so we know that the Miles family came to the Dakotas before 1879.

detail of 1880 US census

The land that the Miles family settled was formerly land owned by the Sioux. In 1858, the Yankton Sioux signed the 1858 Treaty, ceding present-day eastern South Dakota to the United States.

Middle Missouri River by Lewis and Clark, pub. 1814

Detail of Lewis and Clark map of the middle Missouri River, image from Wikipedia. The annotations states that between the Jacques [James] and Sioux rivers, "the different bands of the Sioux Indians meet each Spring to trade with each other and with white Traders who visit them."

Question: When did Frank and Fannie Miles arrive in Dakota territory?

In truth, I don't know. Nor do I know when they left, although I do know by the time of the 1900 census, the family moved on to Oklahoma where they again took up farming near Stillwater. The answer to both \questions should lie in the court records of the county where they lived. There the Register of Deeds would have recorded the Homestead claim that was filed, for a fee of $14, and the subsequent sale, when the family moved on to Oklahoma.

Question: What did Frank and Fannie find when they moved to the Dakotas?

The simple answer is not much. In 1880 there were few towns, few railroads, the James River Valley was just a flat fertile stretch of land that was eagerly sought by homesteaders. So eager were farmers for land in the Dakotas that between 1880 and 1890, the population of the entire Dakota Territory, both south and north, jumped threefold from 135,000 to over a half a million souls. They came, for the most part, with not much in their pockets. They through up simple frame house, or sometimes a sod house, where wood or money was scarce, and commenced to farm. To give one a sense of the magnitude of the land rush, consider that in 1880, when Frank and Fannie had already established their claim, almost 3 million acres were filed on. By 1884, this figure rose to over 11,000,000 acres. Read The Farmers' Frontier, 1865-1900, by Gilbert C. Fite, for a good discussion of the Dakota Land Rush.

Question: How did they fare?

There are no diaries or personal records of the young Miles family that record their years in the Dakotas. History records a great blizzard that first stuck in October of 1879 and continuing on throughout winter, dropping over ten feet of snow. School children were caught unawares by the sudden October snow storm and hundreds died of cold. The late spring that arrived eventually melted the snow and turned the flat James River Valley into an ocean of water. Still, new immigrants came. And those that survived the winter and the floods prospered in the early years. Bountiful rains throughout the early 1880's meant good crops, usually wheat, but also corn, rye, and barler, which allowed the farmer to earn a good living for his family.

By 1884, the Miles family had a new addition, a baby boy named Charles Dalles Miles. He was born in Sioux City, Iowa. That he was born there might suggest that the farm had been abandoned, or it might simply mean that Fannie had returned to Iowa to be near family or a hospital.

The Dakota land boom continued in 1885 and 1886 with new farmers arriving plowing up the tall prairie grass where buffalo once grazed and planting cereal grains instead. The year 1886 was to be a watershed, when drought again returned to the prairies and falling wheat prices aggravated plight of the farmer. In 1889, statehood finally came to North and South Dakota. Even then, by 1889-1890, the drought affecting the mid-west had become so bad that land that previously yielded 20 or more bushels and acre, were now down to 2 bushels or less. And, by the early 1890's, carloads of coal, food, and clothing was directed from the east to aid the struggling farmers and their families. Accompanying this natural disaster was the economic Panic of 1893. As a result of the bank panic, railroads which had been overbuilt, collapsed, banks which lent money on risky investments collapsed, wheat prices the source of the farmers income collapsed, mortgages were called, and farms foreclosed.The Panic of 1893 was, at the time, the worst depression experienced by the United States.

Some farmers, like the Miles family moved on, some adjusted by changing their farming practices, resorting to livestock, irrigating, or just plain luck of a fortunate rainfall, bringing in a crop. But all those families, like the Miles family demonstrated a desire to make something of nothing, to settle down and create a new life.

Read:
1.  History of Union County, Dakota Territory
2.  History of South Dakota, pub. 1915
3.  Digital Library of South Dakota
4.  History of Dakota Territory, by George Kingsbury, pub. 1915.
5.  A History of Union County, South Dakota, to 1880

Beaumont, Kansas

Beaumont, Kansas was once a stagecoach stop on the route between Fredonia and Wichita.

In 1879, it was there, at the top of a steep grade at the northeast corner of Butler County, bordering Greenwood County, that Edwin and Emma Russell built the Summit Hotel. The hotel remains, now rebuilt and renamed the Beaumont Hotel.

The name of the stagecoach line eludes the records - there were many that operated in Kansas after the Civil War, including: The Butterfield, Southwestern Stage Company, the Fort Scott Stage Company, the Southern Kansas Stage Company, and others. Skyways. The stage itself was pretty much the way it is depicted in old western movies, a rocking cradle pulled by four horses. On top rode the driver and one carrying  a shotgun for protection.

Those extolling Kansas and its climate wrote:

The climate is good. The atmosphere is clear and dry and of remarkable purity. Winters are said to be dry and very short, and cattle can graze out nearly the whole year. The heat of the summer is moderated by the pleasant zephyrs which continually sweep across the broad prairies.

 
Winfield Messenger, August 30, 1872.

Southwestern Stage to Winfield, Kansas

Those who knew the truth, mostly kept it to themselves. But Kansas in the early years was subject to prairie fires, drought, locusts, and the vicissitudes of life.

Read a bit of Mark Twain's Roughing It, an account of his trip by stagecoach.

The Frisco

In 1885, the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad, better known as the Frisco, established Beaumont as a railroad town with a water tower and engine house. For a short time afterwards, it was a collection point for cattle shipped back east.

Beaumont, Kansas Railroad terminus 1918

Today, the railroad is gone, as are most of the cattle, and many of the people who serviced the railroad and the cattle industry, but Beaumont continues on as a private airstrip for pilots who want to fly in on the week-end.

Charles D. Miles

Charles Dalles Miles, born in Ohio, July 1852, is the father of Frank O. Miles, and grandfather of Mary Miles, who is the wife of Robert (Bob) Van Huss.

Charles, like the majority of males in the United States in the second half of the 19th century, was a farmer. He first tried his luck in the Dakota territory around 1890, then, sometime later, moved on to Oklahoma, first near Stillwater and Payne County, then near Morrison, Autry Township, Noble County. He then moved to Arkansas before returning to Oklahoma, to be near his daughter Hattie. He and his wife Fannie May (Brewster) Miles are buried in the nearby Morrison cemetery.


Little is known of Charles other than the few facts that can be gleaned from the four US census records where his name appears. These records are from the following decades: 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920 (the records of 1890 were destroyed in a fire). Even though Fannie died in 1935 and Charles in 1943, I have found no other records for them.

1880

The census record of 1880 reveals that Charles, then aged 27 and his wife, Fannie M., 5 years his junior, were living in the territory of Dakota. Statehood would not come until 1889. The census records the location as Virginia Township, Union County. The location is just north of Sioux City, Iowa and near the present town of  Hawarden, South Dakota. See Map. Charles and Fannie had, at the time, one daughter, Hattie F., who was then only one year old. Charles farmed while Fannie kept the house.

The other few tantalizing facts revealed by the census include Charles' place of birth, Ohio, and those of his father and mother, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Fannie's place of birth was Kansas, and those of her father and mother, both of New York.

US Census 1880 for Frank and Fannie Miles

The young Miles family had to endure the Hard Winter of 1880-1881. Snow fell in October and over the succeeding months, accumulated to over ten feet. When  a late spring finally arrived, the snows melted turning the flat prairie into a giant lake.

There are too many coincidence of name to mention them all. But, it seems appropriate to say a little about General Nelson Miles. As Nelson Miles was originally from Massachusettes, it is unlikely that there is any direct family connection.

Following General Armstrong Custer's defeat at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876, General Nelson Miles was dispatched to track down Sitting Bull. The cause of all the trouble was the discovery of gold in the Black Hills of the Dakota territory. The Sioux naturally resisted the white man's incursions and war followed. The area where Charles and Fannie settled was the historic home of the Yankton Sioux.


1900

The census of 1900 places the family in Stillwater, Okalahoma, in Payne County. Frank and Fannie are now 47 and 42 years old, and one son, Frank O. Miles, age 16, born in Iowa, lives with them. (Note, the census record incorrectly lists Charles' father as being born in Ohio.)  Eleven year old Hattie is missing from the census. Son, Charles is helping on the farm. Charles owns his farm, but it is mortgaged to the bank.

US Census 1900, Frank and Fannie Miles

1910

Ten years later, when the census of 1910 is taken, the Miles family has moved to Noble County and Autry Township. Charles and Fannie are now aged 52 and 47; and, the household has again changed. Both children, Hattie and Frank are now gone. But there is the mysterious appearance of four new individuals. These are daughter, Elsie M. Duree, age 28, divorced;  granddaughters Alpha A. and Hattie O., ages 7 and 5, and a hired-man, Sirie Crits, age 21.

Now I said that both Hattie and Frank had left the household, but then, who is Elsie M. Duree?  And how is it that the 1910 census says that Charles and Fannie are only 5 years older than the 1900 census? Shouldn't they be 57 and 47, respectively?

One has to be mindful that census recorders can err. Then too, we all like to lie about our age, and shaving five years off is not an uncommon thing.

The bigger mystery for me is, "Who is Elsie M. Duree?"

Hattie, Charles and Fannie's daughter, was 31 years old in 1910. She appears on another 1910 census record, and married to Allison (A) A. Hileman. Hattie died and was buried in the Morrison cemetery in Oklahoma alongside her husband.

[Charles Dallas Miles and Frances May Miles are also buried in the Morrison cemetery.]

Could it be that Elsie is a third child?

The 1910 census records that Fannie had four children, three of whom were living at the time the 1910 census was taken. Don't know, but this is the first and last time Elsie's name appears. Need more research.

US Census 1910, Frank and Fannie Miles

1920

By 1920, Charles and Fannie, now living alone and listed at the ages of  66 and 62,  have moved on to Esculapia Township, Benton County, Arkansas. Charles is still farming.

US Census 1920, Charles and Fannie Miles

1940

The 1940 census records that Charles Miles, age 86, was living with his daughter Hattie, age 61, and her husband A.A. Hileman in Otoe, Pawnee County, Oklahoma. [I haven't seen the record.] The reference to Otoe, an Indian tribe related to the Sioux, fuels the family lore that the Miles family is part Indian.

Morrison Cemetery

The Morrison cemetery records Fannies's death as 1935 and Charles in 1943.

Frank Miles in the 1920's

I have already written that Frank Miles went to the oil fields in French Algeria where he met his wife to be, Maria Llabres. They married and,

"...in November of 1925, Frank, his wife Maria, and baby son Charles left Bordeaux [France] for New York aboard the French liner Le Bourdonnais. They settled in Spring Township, Butler County where they remained for the rest of their lives raising their three children Charlie, Joan, and Mary. Maria would remain on the farm with one exception, a trip that she took with her daughter Mary in the late summer of 1954 when she traveled back to France and Algeria to visit relatives."

Arriving as they did in 1925, the small Miles family just missed the devastating tornado of 1924 which struck Augusta Kansas.

Augusta tornado 1924, Bob Bergman

No luck in identifying the nature of the Snodgrass building. A Snodgrass genealogy lists R.L. Snodgrass of Augusta, Kansas, but identifies him as a farmer.

The Miles family grew up near the small community of Haverhill. The son Charlie and the two daughters to come, Joan and Mary (born Mary Maria Miles in 1931), went to school in Leon, walking the dirt road two miles there and back each day. Frank continued to work as an oilman, but it is unknown which company he worked for. It could have been for any of the several refineries in El Dorado, but then it could have also been for one of the three refineries in nearby Augusta.

Oil derrick circa 1920

Photograph from Kansas Memory - Mr. Eliga Carter at Gordon oil field, El Dorado, Kansas.

There is precious little to know of the decade of the twenties. Today, one traveled from Wichita to Augusta in fifteen minutes, but the trip took planning. Not until 1924, was a two lane brick road laid between Wichita and Augusta. Beyond that to Leon and Haverhill where the Miles lived, and to Beaumont, where the Van Huss family lived were dirt roads, impassable when it rained.

The 1920's were a time of change for cities. The streets were paved, and street lights put in. Small grocery stores popped up. Many a lad got his first job stocking shelves with goods and carrying out bags for customers. State law closed businesses on Sunday. Local bands provided weekend entertainment.

Cinemas came to town in the 20's. And the popular movies of the 1920's were such fare as "The Perils of Pauline" and "Buck Rogers" and westerns, like those of William S. Hart and Tom Mix. Not until 1927, did talkies first appear with Al Jolson in the "Jazz Singer."



Cars which had only made their appearance 20 years earlier, now edged out the horse and buggy on the streets and roads. In 1927, Henry Ford watched the 15 millionth Model T roll off the assembly line. It sold for a whopping $260. The oil industry that Frank Miles worked for, would fuel the growth in automobile transportation.

Maria Llabrés

Maria Llabrés

Maria Llabrés

Well no, actually, the picture is not of Maria Llabres, but her daughter Joan. And aren't our children a reflection of ourselves in a younger time?

Majorca 1895

Maria Llabrés was born in 1895 on the island of Majorca. Her parents ran a hotel, whose name is lost to posterity, in the resort of Soller. The port of Soller and nearby city of the same name, lie on the southern coast of Majorca. The city is nestled in a wooded valley, famous for its oranges and ancient olive groves.Curious as to what Soller looks like, check out  this blog.

Though the name of the Llabrés family hotel is lost, there is a Fonda Llabrés Hotel in Soller, just off of the main plaza. The hotel is run by the Llabrés family.

Porto Soller Mallorca

Image posted on the internet by several users.

Watch an amusing video on Majorca (Mallorca).

A postcard tour of Mallorca

Source: youtube.com via Mallorca on Pinterest

In 1891 disease destroyed Majorca’s vineyards. Grapes were decimated and the island's main source of income collapsed. From 1891 to 1895, Majorcans emigrated in great numbers. In 1895, Spain was ruled by nine year old King Alphonso XIII and his mother as regent. In 1898, Spain was defeated in the Spanish-American War.

Algeria

The Llabrés family name appears to be Spanish, and there is no explanation of how it became French. But we do know that the Llabrés family went to French Algeria where they took to farming near the town of  Bône, tha ancient city of Hippo, where St. Augustine lived in Roman times.


Kansas

In 1920, Frank Miles, a young oil worker from Kansas, came to Algeria. Frank and Maria met, fell in love, married, and returned to Kansas where they raised a family of two girls and a boy.

Joan is the one in the picture.

1954 Mary Maria Miles

Mary Maria Miles

The year is perhaps 1954.

What was happening?

Dwight David Eisenhower was elected President the previous November and warned of becoming embroiled in a land war in Vietnam. The French who colonized both Vietnam and Algeria were in for a tough year.

Roger Bannister ran a mile in under 4 minutes.
Ten years later in 1964, Jim Ryan would be the first high schooler to break the 4 minute mile mark at East High in Wichita, Kansas.

The Supreme Court handed down the landmark Brown vs Topeka Board of Education decision. The Tonight Show starring Steve Allen debuted. And the comic strip Peanuts is first shown in print.

Somebody owned a 1949 - 1954 series Chevrolet truck, but the owner is unidentified. Studebaker was the leader in trucks. Unlike Chevy and Ford, the Studebaker 1949 2-R Series featured vent wings, dual windshield wipers, right and left sun visors and arm rests, a cab light that operated automatically with the door, along with dual foot-controlled ventilating air scoops.

Somebody (probably not Mary for she is not dressed for the occasion) caught a big catfish. The Kansas record is 123 pounds, but we don't know how much this one weighed.

The summer of 1954, Mary and her mother Maria made a trip to France on board the S.S. United States.  The two of them would first visit relatives in Paris, France before traveling on to Bone, Algeria to visit other relatives. Mary is rescued while swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. The Algerian revolt broke out in November of that year. Her relative who saved her from drowning is killed during the war.

Mary Miles married Robert G. Van Huss in December of 1954.

Maria and the Lapins

Lapins by Theodore de Banville

Lapins

Rabbit

Les petits lapins, dans les bois, Folâtrent sur l'herbe arrosée Et, comme nous le vin d'Arbois, Ils boivent la douce rosée. Gris foncé, gris clair, soupe au lait, Ces vagabonds, dont se dégage Comme une odeur de serpolet, Tiennent à peu près ce langage : "Nous sommes les petits lapins, Gens étrangers à l'écriture,  Et chaussés des seuls escarpins  Que nous a donné la nature. Nous sommes les petits lapins. C'est le poil qui forme nos bottes, Et, n'ayant pas de calepins, Nous ne prenons jamais de notes. Et dans la bonne odeur des pins Qu'on voit ombrageant ces clairières Nous sommes les petits lapins Assis sur leurs petits derrières."

Little bunnies in the woods, Frolicking on the watered grass And, as we the Arbois wine, They drink the sweet dew. Dark gray, light gray, milk soup, These vagabonds, which emerge Like a scent of thyme, They take a little like this speech: "We are the little bunnies, Strangers to writing, And like stockings to the shoes That nature gave us. We are small rabbits. This is the hair that makes up our boots, And, having no notebooks, We never take notes. And in the sweet smell of pine Seen shading by these clearings We are small bunnies Sitting on their little behinds. "

The other day, Joan told the story that follows about her mother Maria and the rabbits. The poem has little to do with the story, but I thought it set the mood. But, before I tell the story of Maria and the rabbits, a little story about how Maria came to live in Kansas.

Joan and Mary's mother was Maria Llabres. She was born in 1895 in Sóller, Majorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands that lie off the southeastern coast of Spain. Maria's parents ran a small hotel whose name is lost to posterity. (A hotel, the Fonda Llabres can still be found in Sóller, but there is no known connection.)



This photo of Fonda Llabres is courtesy of TripAdvisor,

Sóller is the real thing, a popular tourist destination and quaint Majorcan town near the sea, embraced by the Tramuntana mountains and surrounded by dense woods. Then, it was an out of the way seaport that exported wine, the island's main crop. The 1890's experienced a devastating disease that devastated the vineyards. Likely because of this, the family would move to Bone, French Algeria.  Maria grew up and in the early 1920's met a young oil worker from Kansas by the name of Frank Miles. They married, lived in Algeria for a couple of years. A son, Charlie, was born. But soon the young family returned to El Dorado, Kansas. Frank worked on the oil fields until he retired. In the meantime, Joan, then Mary, were born.

Joan's Story - Maria and the Rabbits.

The family of five lived on a small farm along Haverhill Road. It was four miles to Leon, the closest town. Joan and Mary grew up during the worst years of the Great Depression. Times were tough.

Living on a farm, Maria's English never became polished, and even 50 years later, when I met her for the first time she still spoke in broken English with a French word thrown in here and there.

The story that Joan told was about Maria and the rabbits, or in French lapins. Being French, Maria loved to hunt rabbits. Rabbits were a welcome addition to the dinner table. Lapin a La Cocotte - rabbit stew with a bit of bacon, some onions and parsley, bay leaves and thyme for seasoning is a tasty fair. Add a little red wine to the stew, which Maria loved and it was heavenly. To hunt rabbits Maria took her shotgun into the fields. One day Maria brought home a pair of rabbits, brown and grey, and plump, just right for a rabbit stew or a rabbit pie. Maria had brought the rabbits into the kitchen and she was preparing to skin them when there was a commotion in the front yard of the farm. An old Ford pickup truck screeched to a halt. A thick cloud of dust followed the farmer who got out of the truck and angrily went to speak with Frank. It seems that Maria in her rabbit hunt had accidentally shot through an open window of the farmer's house. The shotgun blast had come within a whisker of the crib where his infant child was peacefully sleeping.

Frank was able to eventually soothe the anger of his neighbor and send him on his way. As for Maria, she would continue to hunt her lapins, only not so close to the neighbor's house.