Small War - 1902 Union County vs. Turgeon

Small War

This is an interesting tale about a Turgeon family from Sioux City, Iowa.  All Turgeons are related to the Smith family.  However, before we begin this tale we must start from the beginning.  Turgeons have been living in the Union County, South Dakota/ Sioux City, Iowa area for many years.  In 1862 Ferdinand Turgeon enlisted in the Dakota Battalion  Dakota Cavalry.  He moved to Union County from Bellechasse County, Quebec, which is the same area where our Turgeon and Patry relatives lived.  Ferdinand appears to have disappeared after the war was over.  Ferdinand may have moved to St. Onge, South Dakota. The events which follow make for a good movie plot.

Amazing how many Turgeons have drowned over the years (see article below).  They must be horrible swimmers!  The following article describes an 1873 drowning incident.  Adler (or Adelore) Turgeon, described as deaf and dumb, witnessed his brother’s drowning. He also participated in the ‘Small War’ with Union County in 1902. 

 

 

The Missouri River’s ebb and flow caused a lot of bad blood as this left land ownership up in the air.  In 1896 Mrs. Adams asked the court to grant her ‘land’ which appeared after the river shifted course.  The South Dakota courts in 1896 agreed with Mrs. Adams and gave her this land, but there were ‘squatters’ who did not see eye to eye with this ruling.  Mrs. Adams requested a restraining order against the Turgeon family.

Sioux City Journal
June 5, 1896

Mrs. Adams' river Lands

ASKS A WRIT OF INJUNCTION

“The Union County river bed land trouble is beginning to assume a definite form.  The matter has been carried into he courts by Mrs. S. S. Adams, who alleges she owns the land in controversy.  She has filed suit in circuit court, sitting in Union County, South Dakota, asking a writ of injunction restraining A. Summerville, E. Marsh, V. Turgeon, N. Turgeon, A. Turgeon, C.W. Turgeon, G. W. Crane, John Smith and C.N. Holden from interfering with her possession of the land, and committing what she alleges to be waste and trespass on the property. ... There is considerable hard feeling between the parties to this suit, and warrants are out for the arrest of two of the squatters, who drove two of Mrs. Adams' men off the land, and they are still in possession.”

Antonio Turgeon had his own trouble with the law as described in the 1896 articles below.  Corn prices were in the gutter and ‘N. Turgeon’ decided to sell it on the street.  He found a buyer and they agreed on a price.  The buyer told Turgeon to deliver his corn to 515 West 7th Street where the corn was unloaded and placed in a storage building.  Turgeon asked for his money and the buyer told him he would have to follow him to W.P. Keefe’s office who would pay him.  Upon hearing Keefe’s name, Turgeon went back to the storage building and began loading corn back onto his wagon.  Turgeon was arrested, tried in court and lost his case.

 

 

Turgeon anger seethed for five years as they believed Mrs. Adams cheated them out of their land.  The whole episode boiled over once Mrs. Adams leased her land out to other farmers.  Finally events exploded violently in 1902.

 

The Turgeons wanted for Resisting Officers During Which a Fight Ensued.
Close Question as to Whether or Not Trouble Occurred on Nebraska Soil.

Special Dispatch to the World-Herald.
Lincoln, Neb., June 20, 1902

“Lieutenant Governor Steele, acting governor in the absence of Governor Savage must decide whether the fierce fight which occurred May 8 between the Turgeons and South Dakota officers was Nebraska or South Dakota side of the state line.  A similar question propounded the governor of South Dakota was decided in favor of South Dakota.

The question arises by the presentation of a requisition from the governor of South Dakota, asking that the Turgeons, who are now in Nebraska, be arrested.  Their crime, if they committed any, was in resisting South Dakota officers.  The trouble all originated over a title and location of a certain piece of land that the Turgeons declared belonged to Nebraska. While their opponents declared it belonged to her neighbor on the north.

Mrs. S. S. Adams is the owner of a farm on the north side of the river.  She has held peaceable possession ever since 1876.  In 1897 a considerable piece of land was added to hers by the action of the river.  Whether this action was sudden or gradual is a question that is answered according to the point of view.  Naturally, Mrs. Adams declares it was gradual.  The Turgeons declare that it was sudden.

EXERCISING DOMINION

At least it was not long after Mrs. Adams secured her new possessions that the Turgeons began exercising dominion over it.  The difference grew and finally "Fred" Turgeon was arrested and released only after a perpetual injunction had been issued against him by the South Dakota courts enjoining him from in any way interfering with Mrs. Adams.  Shortly after this he tore down one of her fences, and was again arrested, this time on the charge of contempt of court.  He was sentence to a term in jail, but managed to make his escape.

Meanwhile Mrs. Adams had leased the premises to Alvin Griffith and Homer Robb.  The South Dakota officers rightly guessed that "Fred" would go back to the land and cause more trouble, so Sheriff Lewis M. Lewiston, Deputy Sheriff Samuel Halliday, adjourned to the scene of prospective trouble.  Together with Mr. Griffith they concealed themselves in a bunch of bushes on the Dakota side, while Robb went on with his work.  The Turgeons, three in number, soon appeared and trouble began.  The officers walked out to the brothers and demanded their surrender, but a bullet was the answer.

SMALL WAR.

A small war then began, in which each of the Turgeons was hit.  C.W., or "Fred," as he is called, received a bullet in the abdomen from a revolver.  Vollair C. and Adelore were each hit in the legs, but the trio managed to get back to ground admittedly in Nebraska.  There they were safe from the Dakota officials.  Mr. Griffith had a bullet through his hat.

Governor Savage at once issued a requisition on the governor of South Dakota for the arrest of Lewiston, Halliday, Griffith and Robb, but his request was politely turned down on the theory that the crime, if one was committed, was in South Dakota and not in Nebraska.  On the same theory, the arrest of the Turgeons is requested.”

A news article identifies the wounded Turgeons as Fred Turgeon, Valaire Turgeon and Adelor Turgeon.  Although this incident occurred in 1902, a second news article dated 1905 shows the Turgeons were finally thrown in jail for trespassing on this disputed land.

 

 

 

The Carrollton Sentinel; June 20, 1902
The Bullets Flew Thick and Fast

“Mrs. Turgeon, aged 70, mother of the men, and Fred Turgeon's wife took part in the battle, and the old woman was suffering Thursday night from a blow in the face. ... Fred Turgeon was shot in the left side, the bullet passing through his body and being extracted from between the ribs on the right side.  Thursday night he was in much pain and could not talk, but Dr. George Schott, who went out from Sioux City and attended the three men and their mother, said he thought the case was not dangerous.  Each of the brothers was shot in the right leg midway between the thigh and the knee.”

 

The Turgeon boys exhausted their ammunition and holed up in their home.  The women fought the Sheriff and his deputies with clubs before they were subdued.  The map below shows terrain changes in the Missouri River area near Sioux City, Iowa.  The Turgeons claimed these changes did not gradually occur over many years, but changed quite suddenly.

 

                                

 

It was this change in the Missouri River’s course which caused so much trouble.  The Turgeons were not going to abide by any South Dakota court judgment.  They were prepared to fight for this land, which they believed they owned.

The two articles below show Nebraska and South Dakota disagreed on who was at fault.  Nebraska Courts initially sided with the Turgeon family on this matter, and South Dakota courts sided with Mrs. Adams.  Consequently, the Nebraska Governor asked SD Governor Herreid to extradite the Union County Sheriff for unlawfully shooting the Turgeons on Nebraska soil.  Governor Herreid denied Nebraska’s request.

 

 

AFTERMATH

Not much was written about these Turgeon boys after the 1902 incident.  We did find the mother’s 1922 obituary which shows this family still lived in Sioux City.  In 1906 the Nebraska Supreme Court reversed itself and based its new ruling on Common Law.  This ruling upheld South Dakota’s eviction of the Turgeon squatters in 1902.