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M.Q. SHARPE HOUSE -AKA- LOWER BRULE AGENTS HOUSE The files of the Lyman-Brule Genealogical Society contain an abbreviated history of the Lower Brule Agency and the Sharpe house by Ben Brave. Brave wrote: "At the time (1878), the agency (located at the mouth of American Creek) consisted of numerous frame houses, and episcopal church and Mission house, some shops, warehouses, and a post trader store. Among the structures was a main house, residence of the agent, known as Atey Yapi Oti, or Father’s Dwelling Place. In Atey Api Ote many treaties and business affairs took place." Brave’s talk of treaties was confirmed by a report to "Citizen Sharpe" written by the State Historical Society in 1946. In a letter to the Society, Gov. Sharpe requested information about the buildings located at the former Lower Brule Agency. In a report of Indian agents in Dakota Territory 1876, the Historical Society found this notation: "On the 25th of April 1876, a contract was entered into for the erection of agency buildings at the site of the new agency at the mouth of American Creek and on July 22, 1876, the above buildings consisted of an agent’s house, two employee’s residences, one mess house, one school house and one warehouse were completed and accepted at a cost of $6,370." Supplementing this information is the Report of the Sioux Commission of 1876 giving an account of the signing of the Black Hills Agreement by the Lower Brules after they had met in Council. The delegations met in both the agent’s house and the school house. The Historical Society report includes an excerpt from the treaty: "Witness our hands and seal at the Lower Brule Agency, Territory of Dakota, this 24th day of October, A.D. 1876. Signed: Iron Nation, et al. (Note: Chief Iron Nation was inducted into the SD Hall of Fame in 2006). According to the treaty report, the paper was "attested by Henry E. Gregory and I.D. DeRussy, Capt. 2nd Infantry U.S.A.; Samuel D. Honman, Chief Interpreter; and the Indian interpreter, Zephir Rencountre, the father-in-law of Ben Brave." From this information, the State Historical Society deduced: 1. The house at the Lower Brule Agency site was built in 1876; 2. It was the school house or the agent’s house. To his conjecture, the researcher added to Sharpe: "This is merely a supposition." In Brave’s account, in the years that followed the treaty signing, the reservation was opened to settlement and the agency was moved to Lower Brule. "When the agency was moved most everything was moved from the Atey Api Ote and the building was sold to the highest bidder, Mr. Luke Hayes. Mr. Hayes sold it to Mr. Kennaston who moved it to Oacoma. Later it was remodeled and was the residence of Judge and Mrs. William Williamson and later the home of M.Q. Sharpe, future governor of South Dakota." The final paragraph in Brave’s history of the house notes: This is perhaps the oldest and best known house and worthy of recognition in Lyman County. Information taken from Oacoma Centennial Book (SD Archives), Chamberlain Register William Williamson (Former house owner) William Williamson was born in New Sharon, Iowa and moved with his parents and three brothers to Dakota Territory in 1882. His father, a Norwegian immigrant, homesteaded near Mitchell. There were six children in the family at the time of William’s mother’s death. In his second marriage his father fathered six more boys and girls. William worked for a farmer in the vicinity of his home when he was still quite young. Later he sold books to farmers to finance his college education at the University of South Dakota. He finished law school as an honor student. For a time he taught school and with a brother edited a small newspaper, The Prairie Sun. Oacoma was still the county seat of Lyman County when Williamson became States Attorney and later circuit judge. He opened an abstract company, the Lyman County Abstract Company. In 1920 he was elected to the U.S. Congress from the West River district. During his tenure of six terms he sponsored numerous bills in the interests of farmers and with Senator Norbeck secured appropriations for the carving of Mt. Rushmore. Later he held the office of president of the Mt. Rushmore Memorial Commission. When he was defeated in 1932 he moved to Rapid City and opened a law office. Before long he received an appointment as legal counsel for the state Public Utilities Commission and served in that capacity for several years. A group of acquaintances asked him to join them in setting up the Rushmore Life Insurance Co. in Rapid City. He served as vice president and attorney of that company until his retirement. In his late nineties he died in a Custer, S.D. nursing home where he lived with his wife Clara.Info from CAHPA files, Biography provided by Congressman Williamson’s daughter, Gertrude Williamson Hunt. _________________________________________ In a letter from the National Archives and Records Service |
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