Wilmot Wood Brookings (October 23,1830 –June 13,1905) was an American pioneer,frontier judge,and early South Dakotan politician. He was provisional governor of the Dakota Territory,and both the cities of Wilmot and Brookings as well as the county of Brookings,South Dakota are named for him. [1] [2]
Brookings was born on October 23,1830,in Woolwich,Maine,to Abner and Susannah Bayley Brookings. (The 1860 Dakota Territory census lists his birthplace,possibly incorrectly,as North Carolina). Brookings attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick,Maine,graduating in 1855. He married Clara Carney of Dresden,Maine,and went on to teach at Litchfield,North Anson,and Wiscasset before being admitted to the bar in May 1857.
Brookings moved to Sioux Falls,Minnesota Territory on August 27,1857,where he helped pioneers organize a county government (Minnehaha County). The county appointed him district attorney.
In February 1858,Brookings rode a horse from Sioux Falls to the Yankton area during a blizzard. His horse slipped and fell into Split Rock Creek in the freezing weather. Brookings made it safely to Yankton,but his wet legs had suffered such severe frostbite they both needed to be amputated. He spent the rest of his life using a pair of squeaky,wooden legs that caused him discomfort and sometimes made walking difficult.
When Minnesota was admitted to the union in 1858,Sioux Falls became part of the newly forming Dakota Territory. Though Dakota Territory did not officially form until 1861,an interim provisional government formed in January 1859 and elected Brookings to the upper house of the interim territorial legislature. That legislative body later appointed Brookings Governor of Dakota Territory. However,the federal government refused to acknowledge either the provisional government or its territorial governor (his term lasted until March 2,1861) as official. When the region finally did become an organized territory in 1861,Brookings was elected to the Territory Council for two years and later served three straight terms as a representative from Yankton County. In 1864 he served as territory speaker of the house and was appointed superintendent of the U.S. Military Wagon Road from Minnesota to Montana in 1865.
After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln,territory Republicans opposing Lincoln's Democratic successor Andrew Johnson nominated Brookings as their congressional delegate,on an anti-Johnson platform. Brookings lost to fellow Republican Walter A. Burleigh.
Brookings served on the Territorial Council from 1867 to 1869,including a stint as council president in 1868. He also served as district attorney for Yankton County from 1867 to 1868. In 1869 President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Dakota Territory. Brookings served in this capacity through 1873. Between 1883 and 1885 he worked as a member of South Dakota's constitutional convention.
On July 3,1871,Brookings County was formally organized and named after him. The city of Brookings,South Dakota was also named for him,though he only ever visited the town twice. In 1871 Brookings helped organize the Dakota Southern Railroad,and spent the next ten years serving as an executive for the railroads that would eventually become part of Chicago,Milwaukee,St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. Brookings was among the first to ride a locomotive into Dakota Territory when the first Dakota Southern train entered the region on October 1,1872.
In January 1885,Brookings bought and became editor of the Sioux Falls Leader newspaper (which later merged with the Sioux Falls Argus and became known as the Argus Leader ). Brookings also served as president of the Minnehaha Trust Company,Director of the Sioux Falls National Bank,National Realty Company,and Safe Deposit Company.
Brookings died riding a streetcar in Boston,Massachusetts,on June 13,1905,while on a return trip from visiting his hometown in Woolwich,Maine. He is buried in Yankton,South Dakota.
Brookings is a city in and the county seat of Brookings County,South Dakota,United States. Brookings is South Dakota's fourth most populous city,with a population of 23,377 at the 2020 census. It is home to South Dakota State University,the state's largest institution of higher education. Also in Brookings are the South Dakota Art Museum,the Children's Museum of South Dakota,the annual Brookings Summer Arts Festival,and the headquarters of several manufacturing companies and agricultural operations.
Yankton is a city in and the county seat of Yankton County,South Dakota,United States.
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2,1861,until November 2,1889,when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.
Walter Atwood Burleigh was an American physician,lawyer,and pioneer. He represented the Dakota Territory as a non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives.
Joseph Henry Bottum was an American politician. He served as the 27th Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota and as a member of the United States Senate from South Dakota.
The South Dakota Supreme Court is the highest court in the state of South Dakota. It is composed of a chief justice and four associate justices appointed by the governor. One justice is selected from each of five geographic appointment districts. Justices face a nonpolitical retention election three years after appointment and every eight years after that. The justices also select their own chief justice.
John L. Pennington was an American politician and newspaper publisher. He was an Alabama state senator,and the fifth Governor of Dakota Territory.
John Blair Smith Todd was a Delegate from Dakota Territory to the United States House of Representatives and a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
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This article deals with the history of Sioux Falls,South Dakota.
Interstate 29 (I-29) is a north–south Interstate Highway in the midwestern United States. In the state of South Dakota,I-29 traverses on the eastern side of the state from the Iowa border near Sioux City to the North Dakota border near New Effington. On its route,I-29 passes through western portions of Sioux Falls,the state's largest city. It travels 252.5 miles (406.4 km) in the state,the longest stretch of any of the four states through which it passes. I-229,the highway's lone auxiliary route in South Dakota,serves as a bypass around southern and eastern Sioux Falls.
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Frank M. Ziebach was a political figure in the Dakota Territory during the territorial period from 1861 to 1889. He was a pioneer newspaperman,founding a number of newspapers in the Iowa and Dakota Territories,including the Yankton "Weekly Dakotan" in 1861,which is still published today as the Yankton "Press and Dakotan". He was known as the "squatter governor" of the Dakota Territory. Ziebach County,South Dakota was created in 1911,and is named for him.
Joe Kirby was a self-educated son of Irish immigrants who became an important figure in South Dakota history. He helped shape South Dakota law in its formative years,started one of the preeminent law offices in the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries where numerous future lawyers and judges got their start,founded Western Surety Company and participated in the creation of several other businesses.
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Sioux Kingsbury Grigsby was an attorney and politician in the United States state of South Dakota. Grigsby was born into a prominent pioneering family,Kingsbury family in South Dakota and set up a law practice which he would maintain for over 60 years. Grigsby served as state representative,state senator,and Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota from 1945 to 1949.
The 1900 South Dakota gubernatorial election was held on November 6,1900. Incumbent Governor Andrew E. Lee,a Populist elected under Fusion with Populists,Free Silver Republicans,and Democrats,opted to run for Congress rather than for a third term. Former Sioux Falls Mayor Burre H. Lien won the Fusion nomination and ran against former Lieutenant Governor Charles N. Herreid. However,despite the closeness of the 1896 and 1898 elections,the Fusion's luck ran out;Herreid defeated Lien in a landslide to reclaim the office for the Republican Party.
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