Fort Hale - Fort Hale Officers Quarters 
                    a.k.a. / Hotel Taft

A mix of fact and fantasy are commonplace when sharing the history of community landmarks. The Fort Hale/Hotel Taft saga is almost an exception. So much of the history is documented, that little is left to fantasy.

The original two-stories were built in the mid 1870s at the Fort Hale Military Post, northwest of Chamberlain. As officers quarters, it commanded top rank among the 40 buildings at the Fort.  Lumber for the buildings was brought up the Missouri River from St. Louis.

General Ulysses S. Grant, before he was president, conducted meetings in the building. General Sherman visited his officers at the Fort Hale quarters.

When the government abandoned Fort Hale, E.B. Taft became the owner of the building. The building was dismantled and brought down the river to Chamberlain. From there, the trek continued to Pukwana, where it was stored for a few years. When Taft realized the business potential in Chamberlain, it was rolled on logs to its Main and King streets location.  Here, a basement and first floor were added, developing it into a three-story hotel.

"A royal banquet, with everyone invited," was part of the gala opening celebration for the Hotel Taft, February, 1891. The Taft was a nationally known community landmark at that location for 98 years. Many notables, including Theodore Roosevelt, were guests at the hotel. The basement was set to accommodate the entry of the hotel's horse-drawn carriage, serving guests that arrived by riverboat or railroad.

E.B. Taft died in 1929. Mrs. Taft continued to operated the hotel until her death in 1937. The hotel added a dimension of service as a makeshift hospital during the typhoid epidemic of 1933.  The Taft children sold the hotel to F.D. Molumby, who later sold it to E.L. Jones.

In 1943, the Hotel Taft was sold to Carmen and William Wilbur who owned and operated it 20 years. The Wilburs were responsible for modernizing the hotel with baths and telephone service to each room. The Wilburs sold the hotel in 1962. The interim owners included Guinevere and Theo Smith, Roger Kelly and Bert Hauk. A local bank took over the building in 1982. In 1984, the bank sold it to Henry Hardesty, who had plans for restoring it, but they never materialized.

Dale Porter, a franchise holder for the McDonald's Corporation, bought the property in 1988. Realizing the historic value, Porter offered the building to any group that would move and preserve it. Recognizing the importance of restoring and preserving this historic dual service landmark, a group of local people took ownership. This history-minded group formed the Chamberlain Area Historical Preservation Association, Inc.

The Hotel Taft was moved to its new location at I-90 Exit 263 on March 29, 1989. The move was funded by contributions from interested citizens. The new location offered the beauty of the cedar covered hills on the south and the Missouri River on the west. The dream of multi-utilization for the restored Fort Hale/Hotel Taft included a museum, mini shops offering South Dakota made products, office space, meeting rooms, a restored officers quarters room, and a restored hotel room and lobby, with the possibilities being endless.

Those possibilities were never realized. Early on the morning of Saturday, August 18, 1990 the Hotel Taft burned to the ground after much controversy in the community regarding the project. Unfortunately another piece of history bit the dust that day.

INTERESTING FORT HALE HISTORY

MURDER... A Soldier at Ft. Hale Shoots and Kills One of His Comrads

The quiet routine of government post life was badly ruined at Fort Hale, Saturday, about 12:15 p.m.

Charles Boykin, private, Co. E. 25th Infantry, shot and killed Sergeant Robert Willis, of the same company, in the barracks of Co. E.

Boykin is about 38 years of age, and has a wife in Charelston, S.C., Willis was 45, and single.

About an hour previous to the shooting, Willis and Boykin got into a quarrell at the post trader's store. Willis, with but little or no provocation, knocked Boykin down twice, and called him a d_____ s______ etc., and said he would kill him.

The guards came and arrested both of them. Sergeant Willis was discharged by the commanding officer. Afterwards, Boykin went to the commanding officer, and cried and begged to be released, and he was released by said officer. He immediately went to the barracks or quarters, and shot the sergeant with an army Springfield rifle, caliber No. 40.

Sergt. Robert Willis was sitting down in his room cutting up meat for his eat, when Boykin came to the door and shot him through the left artery, touching the shoulder blade and passing out below it, the ball ranging downward. Corporal Allen and Corporal Payne were present in the room with the sergeant when he was shot.

When he was shot, he sprang to his feet, and, with a loud cry, said "O Lord!" He went to his bed and got on top of it, took his gun out of the rack and sprung the chamber, and searched for cartridges, but found none. Corporal Payne went to him and grasped the gun, and tried to take it from him. He raised off of the bed upon his feet, and then he fell upon his knees, when Corporal Payne succeeded in getting the gun away from him, he raised and grasped the gun again, and gave the corporal a hard tustle to get it away, but did not succeed. The corporal called him by name two or three times, and he gave away and dropped on his knees again, and was laid on his back on the floor.

He did not speak at all after his first outcry, until he reached the hospital. He was unconcious and only spoke a few times. He died at 1:15, in just an hour from the shooting.

Charles Boykin was arrested and brought to Chamberlain for a hearing before J.A. Stroube, United States Commissioner. At the hearing Judge Stroube held the defendent to answer to the grand jury, and committed him to the Yankton jail. They all accord to Senator Goodykoontz the fact that he made a strong speech and a very able defense and succeeded in establishing facts enought to prevent a conviction for murder.

 Above Newspaper article taken from The Chamberlain Register dated April 12, 1883.

EVACUATION OF FORT HALE

Fort Hale was established about ten years ago and was formally evacuated as a military post Tuesday, May 19, 1884. The officers and men embarked on the steamer Gen. Terry, together with their commissary stores. There were eighty-five enlisted men of the companies E and G, 25th U.S.A. Infantry. Lieut's. McMartin and Green acting as captains, with Capt. Scherly senior in command. They have five car loads of commisary stores, including a large amount of vegetables belonging to Capt. Schurley, which he was prudent enough to take along. Extra passenger coaches had been here for some days awaiting their coming.

The abandonment of Fort Hale is bad military management. There is no place in the entire United States where a permanent military post is any more needed in the years to come than in the vacinity of these permanent Indian reservations. Crow Creek and Lower Brule north, Rosebud and Pine Ridge south, makes it contiguous to all, and it don't even take a military man to see its accessibility.

The river and the railroad makes it accessable and gives it cheap freights. We trust that the department will re-establish it, not that there is the lease danger, neither is there at Snelling or at any of the posts, but if there is any at all then one ought to be here.

Above Newspaper article taken from The Chamberlain Register dated May 22, 1884..