Scanned from History of Dakota Territory
Mr. Brookings started for Sioux Falls in the employ of the Western Town Company, as an ox teamster, or in western parlance, "bull whacker." He arrived at Sioux Falls in company with nine others, who constituted all the white population of Dakota, on Aug. 27, 1857. Beginning in 1858 the Western Town Company began making substantial improvements. W. W. Brookings was appointed general manager and built a sawmill, a cornmeal grist mill and a stone dwelling. The Western Town Company also built a large stone store building and a second stone building which was used for a printing office. [1] A story which epitomizes the pioneering spirit of the day is retold in Doane Robinson"s book History of South Dakota ;Judge Brookings was traveling to the Yankton area on business in January of 1858, a rumor having reached him that the Indians had relinquished title to the land between the Sioux and the Missouri, set out to claim the most eligible town sites on the Missouri, There had been a winter thaw and the streams were swollen. When they reached the Split Rock they found it out of banks and got very wet in crossing. That night a severe blizzard struck and they attempted to return to the Falls, as the nearest place of safety, but before arriving at the settlement his feet were severely frozen. Due to lack of attention and prompt treatment, gangrene resulted and as a last resort, in order if possible to save his life, amputation of both legs below the knees was re sorted to. This was done by Dr. Phillips, a young physician with no other instruments than a large butcher-knife and a small tenon saw, and without anesthetics. Marvelous as it may appear, the patient, lying on a bed of buffalo robes, in his floor less cabin, with none of the surroundings of civilization and comforts not only survived the shock of the harsh surgery, but entirely regained his health and
afterwards became one of the foremost citizens of Dakota.[2]
[1] (Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory 1915)
[2] (Robinson 1904, 168)
[1] (Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory 1915)
[2] (Robinson 1904, 168)