Dakota Diary - 14 - Banks and Music

Monday June 18th, 1883

After a good night’s sleep and a large breakfast, I asked George how we could get ahold of the lawyer I knew our Pa had known - Mr. John Stoyall. He gave us the address, and we thought that we could call in and make an appointment to see him as soon as we had called in at the bank.

I decided I needed to do an update on our spending to date, and also a forecast of how much we were likely to need over the next few weeks. When we arrived in Bismarck, we already spent $127.10. For the hotel for a week, and our meals and incidentals like the cab and church collection and meals, we have spent another $15. Assuming that we will have to pay for most of our meals, and another week at the hotel I reckon that we will need approximately $25 a week. We still
have $50 of our original money, so I thought it best we keep our money from Mr. Bennett safe in the bank, so we don't spend it, as we will need to buy our tickets home with that, and might want some of it for a trip to the Badlands.

We walked back down to Main Street, stopped at the First National Bank with our two checks from
Mr. Bennett. When the bank clerk saw one was for $100, she looked surprised, but asked us how we wished to have the money. We asked her if we could open a temporary account to keep it in. She said we would have to see the bank manager. After a few minutes a man appeared and asked us to step into his office.

“Hello, I am Mr. Asa Fisher, the manager here. I understand you wish to open an account with us.”

“My sister and I are visiting in Bismarck, but we don’t know for how long. We wish to make a trip to the Badlands, and possibly other trips around the area. We were given those checks by a friend, Mr.
Bennett of the New York Herald.”

“Why was he giving you checks? Do you work for him?”

“He has been our sponsor, as he was employing our father, who then was killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Perhaps you knew him - Mark Kellogg.”

“Mark Kellogg was your father? I never knew he had kids. Of course, I knew him. He banked here, and we spent many a night drinking together at the bar. He was a fine man. And might I ask what you are doing here in Bismarck?”

“We just came because we felt we wanted to know more about the place he worked and the people he knew and see the things we was so fond of. That is why we want to go to the Badlands - he wrote in his dispatches of how beautiful and wondrous they are and we thought we would like to see them for ourselves. Mr. Bennett agreed and gave us this money for our trip.”

“And are you working for him for this money, or was it a gift?”

“Most of it was a gift, but he has also given us a letter of introduction, and said that if we found
any material to write about, he would be interested in seeing it. He's paid us for two articles we did on the Wild West show. That is what the $20 is for. We thought we might write about the new bridge
that is almost built.”

“Well, certainly you can see and write about the bridge if you want to. It is quite a feat of
engineering and will be the means of joining the Northeast to the Northwest, as you know doubt already know. But as far as your idea of going to the Badlands - that’s not the sort of place for two girls to go on their own. That's still very much a wilderness area. It isn’t at all developed.”

“Perhaps we could go to a specific place there. Is there a hotel that you could recommend?”

“Well, I do have one suggestion that just might work. I have recently met a man called the Marquis de Mores who is in the process of building a huge house there for his wife. He is French and she is from New York and I think his wife will be finding the place a bit strange. Maybe they could put
you girls up for a night or two and that would give some company for his wife. And he just might be interested in the idea of you girls writing an article about the place, in order to bring in more people.
Leave it with me, and I will contact him and see what he thinks of the idea. Where are you girls staying?”

“At the Merchants' Hotel, just down the road.”

“Right. Well, first of all, you can, of course, open an account with us. It won’t get much interest in the few days that you are around here, but as you say, it means your money is safe, and you can easily come in and draw out small amounts when you need them. And I'l get back to you in a couple
of days when I've heard from this friend, if that idea suits you all right.”

“Yes, indeed. That sounds like a very interesting arrangement. Thank you very much.”

“Well, very pleased to meet you lovely ladies. I will have the girl at the desk open an account for you.” And he stood up and shook hands with both of us.

He came out and had a few words with the cashier, and she gave us a form to fill out.

On leaving the bank, we had a short walk up the road and down a few streets to get to Mr. Stoyall’s
office. His secretary said that he was free at 4.30 that afternoon, so we planned to go there after we had been to visit with Sister Ida.

Sister Ida was very pleased to see us. The nuns lived in a very plain house, with her having to share her very small bedroom with the only piano so when she took children for piano lessons, she had to
make up her bed to look like a couch.

We told her it was likely that we would be engaged for a performance sometime while we were in
Bismarck, probably some piano playing and some singing, and asked her what she would recommend that would suit the people of the town.

We went through the lists of our favorite composers and then she came up with an idea. "You should play something that is familiar - and then, something that is impressive."

“For my piano solo, I probably should do something they already have heard. I thought perhaps
Moonlight Sonata, or the Minute Waltz.”

“Well, I think you couldn’t go wrong with Beethoven’s work - but only give them the first movement. They won’t be too comfortable with the rest of it - and then you could do the Minute Waltz as well. And remember that any little details you can put in as an introduction will add to the
audience’s enjoyment. Did you know that Chopin meant that piece to represent a dog chasing his tail?”

We both laughed and admitted we hadn’t heard that.

“And what for the singing part then?” asked Sister Ida.

“We have a real interest in the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, since we went to their premier of Pirates of Penzance in New York in 1880. Their latest one, called Iolanthe, has some very catchy songs in it.”

“I don’t think that would be very good for these people here. Maybe in the East, where they have some experience of Gilbert and Sullivan, it might be okay, or maybe for your music students, but it will not mean much to these people. I think you should include something very rousing and patriotic,” she said, “as it is around the 4th of July. How about 'Battle Hymn of the Republic'?. You, Cora Sue, could sing the verses and ask the whole group to join in on the chorus. And I think that
you can never go wrong with Stephan Foster. Which of his do you like best?”

“Oh, I really love 'I Dream of Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair.'”

“And perhaps, if they want an encore, you might do 'Beautiful Dreamer'. And you could tell a bit
about his life, and about Julia Ward Howe who wrote the Battle Hymn. You might as well get some practice in for teaching music.”

“By the way, Sister Ida, we wondered if you could tell us anything about the local priest. Why
should someone from Switzerland be here in Bismarck? I know he is not regularly here any more, but I thought it was unusual. There aren’t many Swiss people in town are there?”

“No, but there are a lot of Germans - and the Swiss speak German. He has an interesting
background, and has worked in all sorts of places. You girls might be interested to know that he is a good friend of Sitting Bull.”

“I do think that just about every place we have gone, someone there is Sitting Bull's friend. He
certainly must be a remarkable man.”

“Well, I will give you a quick sketch of Father. He is a Benedictine monk and when he came to the States he went to the monastery in Indiana. They send missionary priests all over, but many of them went to Dakota Territory to convert the Indians. The main church to start with was
in Yankton, and the man who was in charge is now Bishop there - Bishop Marty. Well, our priest was sent to Standing Rock in 1876, right before the troubles that your father was involved with and the first thing he had to do was learn the Indian language.. But he only spent 15 months there and although he enjoyed the work, he had many different points of view from the others who he was working with, so it was decided he would be better off in doing parish work. So then he came to Bismarck in 78 to help the priest here and in 81, he went back to Fort Yates for awhile.”

“So, tell us more about his experience with Sitting Bull?”

“I really need to give you some background. Sitting Bull had sworn to kill the first white man he saw, and still the priest, alone, went to the mighty chief amidst 5,000 war-inflamed Sioux  and through him a treaty of peace was signed on July 2, 1868, by Sitting Bull and all the chiefs.

“And in 1870 the Sioux chiefs asked that Catholic priests be given them for the instruction of
their children.  And after the troubles Sitting Bull and his followers went to Canada, and it was through our now bishop Marty, who went to see him, that he finally agreed to come back.

“Upon his return Marty said he believed Indians there would be far better off following the chase and thus providing for themselves than being imperfectly and expensively fed in idleness on some reservation. He decided that the Indians should be taught practical skills that would help them make their own way in a white man’s world.

“Our Father John Chrysostom went back to Standing Rock and took over charge of the Indian
training farm school and was regarded by everyone as an efficient administrator.

 “It was a year later when the Indians finally returned and, Father Chrysostom found all of them, and especially Sitting Bull, very friendly to himself and the other priests."

“Did Sitting Bull become a Catholic, then?”

“No,  it was impossible for Sitting Bull to have been accepted by the Church because of his bigamous marital relations.”

Having thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon, we thanked Sister Ida, said that we would see her next
Sunday at Mass, and went back to the hotel to get ourselves together before our interview with the lawyer.

At 4.30p.m. we arrived at Mr. John Stoyell’s, office. 

“I am so pleased to see you girls and let me tell you right now much I enjoyed working with and
knowing your father. But I get the impression that it is something serious that you have come to discuss with me today.”

“Mr. Stoyell, before our dad died, he wrote a letter to our grandmother, telling about the
forthcoming trip, and he said that he had bought a stake in a gold mine - which he couldn’t afford to work. And he talked about other investments he had in a coal mine which he said should bring in
enough money to pay for our education. But when he died we got nothing. Do you know if he made a will?”

“No, I certainly don’t know that he did. It wouldn’t have been in character with him. He would
have trusted, first of all, that he would have no need for it, and secondly, that his friends would do him right after the event, if he should die.”

“But why has nobody sent us the deeds for the gold stake or the coal mine? Why has nobody made
any effort to find us and tell us what he left?” asked Cora Sue.

“Well, how do you know that they haven’t? Maybe they didn’t know where to contact you.”

“We know that somebody in town had our address, or else they wouldn’t have been able to telegraph
us about Pa when he died.”

“And we know that Colonel Lounsberry knew about us because it was he who told Mr. Bennett to
give us some money.”

“Who told you that?”

“Well, nobody told us exactly. We were given some papers relating to our Pa’s columns when we
visited the New York office, and in amongst them was a letter from Mr. Lounsberry to Mr. Bennett telling him that it was up to him to support us poor orphans in some way - as he - Mr. Lounsberry had done allthe providing for Pa - giving him a horse and such for the journey. But he made no effort to contact us.”

“Are you sure about that? You were pretty young. Maybe he tried to contact your grandma?”

“No, we had a long talk with her about it. She knew that Mr. Dunn had been given some stuff after Pa died - things he had had with him on the Far West - but when she wrote to Mr. Dunn and asked for them to be sent to us - he never replied.”

“Have you asked him about it?”

“He says he never got her letter.”

“That might be true.”

“He looked like he was lying.”

“Well, I have a feeling that there were some things that came back. I think there was a case that had some old clothes of your pa’s in it - and I expect that there was no reason for them to keep it. Probably, they just threw it all away.”

“Why didn’t he say that then? Why did he deny that he had anything at all?”

“Maybe he was embarrassed. Do you want me to talk to him and see if I can get any more out of him? I can do it without saying your girls asked me to. If he still does have the stuff, do you want it?

“Yes, we do, and we wanted to ask you if there is anyway to force him to give it to us. It should legally be ours.”

“Well, the law doesn’t really always work like that. If there was no will - and I am pretty sure there wasn’t - then the only thing that we know that your Pa really want you to have was those gold mine and coal shares, as he put that in writing. If we could find what happened to those, you might have a case for trying to force the person involved to give them back to you - or at least their value if he had sold them.”

“Would they have been worth a lot?”

“Possibly. I don’t really know the details of how much he bought but I can remember him talking
about buying them. Now as far as his clothing goes - and I believe there were some of his bits of writing, too, brought back - it would have been given to anybody who had some sort of claim of friendship on him. And then it would be up to them to do with it what they will. They wouldn’t be compelled to try to find his next of kin - not when it was something of no commercial value.”

“But it would have great value for us. We have nothing of our Pa except that one letter he wrote to
Grandma before he left.”

“Well, leave it with me. I will try to winkle out whether the Dunns had it - and whether they
still have it - or whether they threw it away. They would have that right, you know, but I expect they would be very embarrassed now to admit that to you, now that they have met you.”

“But his writing - was that given to them too?”

“No, I have a feeling that Colonel Lounsberry was given that - and probably used it when he
wrote up the story of the battle. So you will have seen the words, if, as I am sure you have done, you've read that last report. But again, according to law, if your Pa was working for Mr. Lounsberry, then the work that he did would rightfully belong to his boss. He would have no need to tell you of it - or to share it with you - and certainly you would have no claim to get it from him.”

“Our grandma thinks maybe he is keeping it because it says something that would discredit Custer
and that bit of the war.”

“Well, she can believe what she likes - and she might be right - but that bit of writing is not
yours to demand to see - and if Colonel Lounsberry wants to throw it away, or hide it - or keep it for posterity - that is his business and up to him alone. But as I said, there is a hope that maybe I can
find out more about the gold claim for you - and possibly, if the clothes are still in existence, the Dunns would let you have them. So leave it with me. Why don’t you come back to see me again, say on Friday afternoon? If I haven’t got anything more to tell you, I'll send a message to your hotel - you're at the Merchants' Hotel on Main, aren’t you?”

“Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Stoyell. See you then."