Fort Pierre Deadwood Trail
The Fort Pierre-Deadwood trail was approximately 200 miles long, with a system of roadhouses and stations set up along the way. The trail was first used by American Indians, fur trappers, the U.S. Cavalry and eventually freighters. The trail operated as a stage line between Fort Pierre and Deadwood from 1876 to 1908.
Fort Pierre-Deadwood Wagon train in late 1890s. SD State Museum. |
The Trail is of interest to the Smith family as our Turgeon ancestors rode this trail on wagons similar to those shown on the left.
|
While Deadwood eventually did connect to the world via rails in 1890, much of the goods in the town continued to be brought in on coaches drawn by horses, mules or oxen. Many of these goods came in on the Fort Pierre-to-Deadwood trail, the Interstate 90 of its day.
The trail connected the Black Hills with the Missouri River. Passengers, supplies and cargo were all carried across the vast western Dakota prairie to the mining camps and towns strewn throughout the Black Hills. Many stage companies formed to meet the ever-increasing demand for transportation in western South Dakota.
Turgeon "Mule Train"
Abraham was the first of the Turgeon boys to come to Dakota Territory and was hired by the U.S. Government to freight goods from White Swan to Wheeler and to Deadwood and Fort Laramie, Wyoming. In 1878 he hired his brothers, Onesime, Louis, and Phillip (Phileas) to drive for him the ox drawn freighter wagons. While Abraham was the eldest at 31, Phileas was only 16 years of age; but jumped at the chance to come to Dakota Territory from Canada.
Abraham Turgeon was born October 25, 1847 in Beaumont, Belle Chasse County, Canada. As the eldest of the boys to venture form Quebec, he arrived at Boston, Massachusetts where he learned the blacksmith trade which he followed for several years in Boston. He came to Dakota Territory in 1865 and relocated to Fort Sully on the upper Missouri River where he engaged in cutting wood and transporting supplies to the government post. At some point, he was granted the right to manage the U.S. freight run from White Swan, Wheeler to Fort Pierre and to the Black Hills. As he needed men to run the supply train, he summoned his brothers from Canada - Louis, Ludger, Onesime, and Phillip to drive the slow ponderous oxen freight wagons for him. In addition to transporting federal supplies, the Turgeons hauled personal goods and resold them in the Hills for personal profit. The transportation charge to hual goods was $6 per hundred pounds. While Abraham had married a Sioux woman, they had to be alert against hostile Indians. At night the train was corralled and men were selected to guard the encampment. When the brothers were not freighting, they worked together to cut wood to supply Fort Randall.
Their sisters Laida, Oralee, and Auror came to the United States with their brothers and later married: Laida to a Turgeon, Oralee, a Culet, and Auror a Labracque.
White Swan, Dakota Territory
White Swan, Chief of the Minneconjous. |
The Turgeons settled around the White Swan area because it was one of the largest military posts in the area. Fort Randall was garrisoned by four companies of United States troops, and across the river was a post office, along with a few homes, called "White Swan." Several miles further up the river was Wheeler. It is in this area that the Turgeons first settled in the Dakota territory. Fifteen miles north of Fort Randall was Harney City, which is where the Cheyanne River Agency was located. and became a major frontier trading post and steamboat landing. In 1870, Harney City had roughly 200 white citizens made up of merchants, herdsmen, "wood hawks" and others. This town was described as the "wildest frontier town in the country." |
The township of White Swan comes from the family name of the Minneconjou chiefs, specifically White Swan the first. By the time the Turgeons came to the territory, they would have only known of his sons Little Swan (Swan II) or Paul Swan (also known as White Swan).
SWAN Magaska. Also translated as White Swan. Family name of a lineage of prominent Minneconjou leaders during the nineteenth century.
SWAN I (c1790?-1866). The Lakota wintercounts first mention Swan in 1824-25 when he lost 20 horses killed by a jealous tribal member. One of his daughters married fur trader Thomas Sarpy who was killed in 1832 when a candle was knocked over into a keg of gun powder and blew up his trading post on Rapid Creek. By the 1860s, Swan was recognized as one of the six hereditary chiefs of the Minneconjou, together with Brave Bear, Makes Room, White Hollow Horn, Black Shield and Lone Horn. White Bull later recalled that of these leaders, Swan “in particular hated the whites,” apparently beginning with an incident in which drunken soldiers looted his lodge. He fought Americans in a number of battles later in his life. Shortly before Swan died in 1866, he warned those gathered: “Friends, you must look out for yourselves and protect your people. Try to kill white men, for the white men have come here to kill you.”
The Turgeon Pioneers
From "Standard Atlas of Charles Mix County," published 1906 by Geo. A. Ogle & Co., page 55.
The Turgeons came into the country in 1878 and 1879. Abraham, since deceased, and Francis arriving first, soon followed by Onesime, Louis and Phil. As soon as they were well located they engaged in ranching, and have acquired extensive tracts of land. Phil Turgeon, who was so well and favorable known among the pioneers, was drowned some years ago in the Missouri, but Louis and Onesime still reside on their farms. Onesime Turgeon was one of the pioneers in sinking a large artesian well, which he is still using to drive he saw mill, threshing machine and other farm machinery.