FIRST -- Meeting of Dakota Territory Legislature, Yankton SD USA
N 42° 52.276 W 097° 23.430
14T E 631462 N 4747776
Yankton was the first Capital of the newly-designated Dakota Territory, and remained so from territorial organization in 1861 to a "capital removal commission" hijacking in 1883. The first meeting of the Territorial Legislature happened in 1862
Waymark Code: WM17G0K
Location: South Dakota, United States
Date Posted: 02/15/2023
Views: 0
This South Dakota state historical marker stands in a leafy park in downtown Yankton, SD.
The marker reads as follows:
"FIRST TERRITORIAL CAPITAL 186101883
Dakota Territory, extending N to Canada and W to the summit of the Rockies, a fourth larger than Texas, was created March 2, 1861. Lincoln appointed William Jayne Governor and he arrived at Yankton June 8th. Dakota had 2,326 white citizens; the first legislature met at Yankton on March 17, 1862 and after a lot of legislative jockeying, Yankton was named permanent capital on April 8, 1862. It so remained, capital, "mother City," steamboat town and railhead until 1883. Then Alexander Mackenzie came down from the North with a handful of votes and reputedly a satchel full of money. He parlayed these assets into a capital removal commission. The law required that they organize at Yankton. They did, on a Milwaukee train passing rapidly through town late in April. Aspirants were Aberdeen, Bismarck, Canton, Frankfort, Huron, Mitchell, Odessa, Ordway, Pierre, Redfield and Steele. The Commission passed among these towns in a glorious jamboree and then met at Fargo on June 3rd and decreed Bismarck as capital. Governor Ordway and Senator, later Territorial Attorney General Alexander Hughes were credited as Mackenzie's most effective allies. Yankton resorted to the law but the Supreme Court rejected their appeal. Governor Pierce completed the move to Bismarck and Yankton has a fine historic site a few rods north of this marker and a bitter memory.
Erected 1956 by Hotels Charles Gurney and Nancy."
FIRST - Classification Variable: Person or Group
Date of FIRST: 03/02/1861
More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]
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