Individual Details

The Story of Ben Ash

The story of Ben Ash, the patriarch of South Dakota's pioneers, is more than a record of one man's personal experience in developing a new country. He was a colorful character with a vivid personality, who would have been an outstanding individual anywhere.
Benjamin Cowden Ash was born December 19, 1851, in White County, Indiana. At the age of five he was brought by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry C. Ash, overland to Sioux City, Iowa, which was then a small village of log cabins. This was the headquarters for a group of French fur traders who carried on their trade with the Indian tribes to the northwest. The father, Henry Ash, built a log hotel which he operated for three years. Then, he became restless and decided to move on. Negotiations were underway between the government and the Yankton branch of the Sioux Nation to permit white men to settle a portion of the Indian Landd. The Indians were reluctant to give up the land, but eventually an agreement was reached. Henry Ash was employed by General J. B. S. Todd. He assisted in establishing a new townsite that became the city of Yankton, and eventually the first capital of Dakota Territory. He acquired a plot of ground upon which he built a crude log cabin. It was here that he moved his family on Christmas Day, 1859. Mary Reynolds Ash, Ben's mother, was the first white woman in the Yankton area. In addition to rearing several children, she had the task of establishing a new home in a different locality every few years. She, also, had the job of cooking and housekeeping at the new hotels which her husband built.
Like most pioneer boys, Ben matured early. At the age of nine, he was exploring the area. He played with Indian children so he learned the Indian language. He and his sisters and brother attended school wherever it was held. Ben herded dairy cows for his father. In this way, he earned money to buy a team and wagon which he used to haul water for the townspeople before wells were dug.
During the Civil War when Ben was 11 years of age, an Indian problem developed. Since most of the younger men were in the Army, the settlers in the Yankton area had to look out for themselves. They built a stockade around the Ash Hotel so that they would have protection for the Minnesota Indians. Ben accompanied a 13-year-old Indian boy who was attempting to track a group of Indians who had supposedly killed a white family in Nebraska. However, a severe rainstorm washed away all of the tracks so the search was abandoned.
Since Ben had a horse and buggy, he hired out to drive the U.S. Marshall around the area. He was an errand boy and later helped with government surveys. He trained, traded and sold horses. With the earnings from his many jobs, he bought a parcel of land. This he divided into lots and sold, giving warranty deeds. No one seemed to know or care that a teenage boy could not legally transfer land titles… At age 17, Ben was appointed U. S. Deputy Marshal, and served in that capacity for seven years… In 1872, when he was still under 21, he took a crew of 21 men 450 miles up the river from Yankton to Apple Creek, which became the site of Bismarck. He and his crew built a warehouse and office of logs for Burleigh and Keith, who had the contract to build 50 miles of railroad bed to the east. After the warehouse was built, Ben stayed on to run the commissary for the construction company. That fall, he returned to Yankton to resume his job as deputy marshal. In the spring of 1873, General Custer and his troops arrived in Yankton. Ben hired out as a teamster for the overland trip to Fort Lincoln. He was later hired as the Seventh Cavalry wagonmaster, and went on the expedition into the Yellowstone country, as far as the Musselshell River, and back to Fort Lincoln. This was called the Stanley Expedition of 1873, and was partly to show the flag and to protect the railroad crew surveying in the area.
That fall, the country was in a severe financial slump known as the Panic of 1873, so Ben was happy to return to his old job as deputy marshal at Yankton for the winter. During that time, he served warrants on six men and took them with their guns and ammunition from Flandreau, S.D. to Fargo, N.D. to appear in court. At the end of the court term, he was hired by General Custer to search for grain that was disappearing from the cavalry stores. Ben located the Bismarck business that was stocking the grain for sale, but he insisted that the cavalry had to sign the complaints against the thieves. Ben did not like undercover work.
During the spring of 1874, General Custer told Ben that he wanted to take the Seventh Cavalry on a "vacation" field trip, and that if he got permission from Washington, he planned "to slip into the Black Hills". Years later, Ben said he believed that Custer never hinted in his request what he planned to do. A prospector from Montana, "Hank" Ross was living in Bismarck at the time. Ben suggested to Custer that he would take Ross along to the Hills. After the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, he became known as "Horatio Nelson Ross" and was given credit for the gold discovery. When Custer returned to Bismarck with his troops, everyone in the area got the gold fever.
The boosters of the town wanted to publicize Bismarck as the "jumping off place" for the Black Hills Eldorado. They wanted someone to make a trip to the Hills to bring back reports of gold and some gold dust to prove the discovery. Ben said he would go for just a grubstake if one other man would go along. S. C. Dodge, a dairy man, agreed to go along. On Ben's 23rd birthday, December 19, 1874, the men crossed the river on the ice and went up the Heart River. Their trip was illegal so they traveled on the ice for several miles to avoid being seen by the soldiers at Fort Lincoln. Their team of horses were well shod. Their first night out, two men with a team of mules and a third man on horseback, caught up with them. These men, Stimmy Stimson, Ed Donahue, and Russ Marsh, insisted upon going along. Ben was the only experienced plainsman in the crowd. He knew the watershed of the Missouri River, which is a series of parallel streams about 25 miles apart. He knew that the Black Hills were somewhere off to the southwest. They were a small group traveling in the dead of winter, so their trip was much different from the one which Custer took during the summer with his troops. The trail they made became the "Bismarck-Deadwood" freight road. On Christmas night, they camped on the Moreau River. The next day when they came up out of the river onto the divide, they sighted the Hills still 100 miles ahead. They felt they were "there". (This is where the "Trail Blazers Monument was dedicated in July, 1949.) Four days later, they reached Bear Butte Valley, where they came upon Custer's trail and began to follow it through the Hills. They went through the sites of Fort Meade and Sturgis and to the vicinity of Hill City. Here they found 20 miners from Cheyenne working in their shirtsleeves in an unfrozen creek. They were getting out placer gold with a sluice box. Ben bought $150 worth of dust to take back to Bismarck to support the gold boom story. They went on through the Hills to the site of Custer where they found a few prospectors and came upon the Gordon Party. They saw Mrs. Tallent, Mr. Gordon and Mr. Witcher. Upon their return to their camp in the Hill City area, they met a "lousy" character wearing dilapidated buckskin clothes. He wanted to go back to Bismarck with them, and promised to guide them out of the Hills by a better route than the trail they had made from Bear Butte. They came down to Rapid Creek to what is now called Gleghorn Springs. Both Ben and Mr. Dodge decided that they would start a ranch there in the spring. When they reached Bear Butte, they hit their own trail and went back to Bismarck where they arrived on January 20 to a very warm welcome.
Although there was as yet no Indian treaty to open the Hills for settlers, there was supposed to be one in the making. Ben and Dodge were determined to go ahead with their ranching project, but Custer persuaded Ben to stay in Bismarck until after the grain theft trials were over, Ben agreed to stay so he sent a man known a "Deaf George" along to care for the cattle he was sending with Dodge. They joined with some gold seekers heading for Deadwood, and left Bismarck in April guided by California Joe. The cattlemen left the miners who were headed for Deadwood, and made it to the bigsprings on Rapid Creek. Dodge found that a calf was missing so he went back to try to find it. He did not return and the next day his body was found riddled with arrows near where the National Guard Camp now is.
Two other men were killed a few days later, and their cattle were run off by the Indians. Deaf George escaped down the creek, hiding during the day and walking at night. He met a freight outfit which took him to Fort Pierre. From there he took a boat up to Bismarck to break the news to Ben.
Ben was now 24 1/2 years old. He had been engaged to Sarah Brisbine, a school teacher, for eight years. She was the daughter of a judge at Yankton, S.D. They were married in October, 1876 by Reverend Joseph Ward, founder of Yankton College, and went back to live in Bismarck. Three sons were born to them. In 1879, Ben disposed of his property in Bismarck. He and his family moved down the river where he was one of the founders of the new town of Pierre, S.D. Here they lived for 30 years. Ben was elected Sheriff of Hughes County for two terms. He was Indian agent on the Brule Reservation for five years, and during that time he bought the Quarter Circle W Horse Ranch on the Moreau River a few miles downstream from where he and his friends had camped on Christmas night in 1875. Later, he moved his cattle to the ranch and built it up into a "big outfit" called the C Cross. The last foreman of the Quarter Circle W horse ranch was Jerry Dwyer when the ranch was sold in 1903. Ben purchased large herds of cattle and placed them on the ranch, with Ed Delehan of Pierre as foreman. He kept a regular crew of cowhands, a cook, a horse wrangler and line riders who rode the ranges from upper Rabbit Creek, south and east to where Faith, S.D. is located, and east to the Reservation line. Some of the best known men who worked for him were: Joe Garner, "Tex" Brown, "Red" Reynolds, Ted Butler, "One-eyed" Miller, Standish and Walter Smith, Buck Tinnan, Tom Birdwell and his pardner, "Nigger Bill", the cook, "Cimmaroon" and "One Arm" Scully. These men were all good friends of Ben. The large ranch continued in operation until 1908, even though it suffered great losses because of severe winter storms.
With the coming of the homesteaders, Ben's cattle herd was cut to the number that could be handled on the home ranch. He had built a good frame house and his family had moved out from Pierre. At the time when the cattlemen began turning to sheep, Ben also went into that business. He began making investments in new towns along the railroad. He and his ex-foreman, Ed Delehan, established a bank in Faith, which later became the Stockman's Bank, and he purchased a hardware store in Isabel, S.D., which was operated by his sons, Bine and Paul. His oldest son, Harvey, died during the winter of 1916-17 when he was thrown from his horse and froze to death. After that, Mrs. Ash could not bear to live on the ranch. In 1917, they had a livestock sale and moved to Sioux Falls, S. D. There, Ben was one of the founders of the Sioux Falls Stockyards. His sons were in the commission business there. Ben and his wife made their home at the Cataract Hotel. After the sons moved to Florida, Ben and his wife spent part of their time there. In 1919, Ben came back to the ranch to try to sell it. However, times were hard after World War I, and no land sales were being made. On October 12, a severe blizzard hit the west river area with snow 12 to 20 inches deep. Ben Ash was stranded in Faith along with Frank Ackerman, a man from Rapid City. When the storm ended, they were among the first to venture out, in a Model T Ford, headed for Rapid City. This was Ben's last trip to Faith and to his old ranch on Rabbit Creek. The fences, corrals and buildings gradually deteriorated. The big house was moved away, and the logs of the original Quarter Circle W headquarters disappeared.
After the death of his wife in 1930, Ben returned to South Dakota, the state that had so long been his home. He spent some time in Rapid City where he had hoped to go into another business venture. However, this was not easy because he was an old man and almost blind. He looked forward to the day when he could have the cataracts removed from his eyes, but the surgery had been delayed too long. . . In 1932, in appreciation and a reward for his long service to the United States Government, he was invited to spend the remainder of his life in the Old Soldier's Home in Hot Springs. Although he was almost blind, he remained in good health until his last short illness. He was always cheerful and enjoyed having old friends come to visit him. He died in April of 1946 at the age of 94 years and three months. He is buried in the Veterans Home Cemetery, and his grave is marked by a standard Army-type headstone. Ben Ash, from first to last, a builder of civilization, the finest type of man, a westerner and an American.

Note: Shortly before Ben Ash died, he was talking to Fred Jennewein of Bison, who was an old range rider. He told Fred that when he got his eyesight back and could do something, he was going to go up on the divide south of the Moreau River where he and S. C. Dodge and the others had come on December 26, 1875, and see to it that a monument was erected to the memory of S. C. Dodge.
This monument was erected and dedicated in 1949.

Information for this article was taken from:
Ben Ash Trailblazer- Clara B. Lobdell
Congressional Record Appendix- A7602 August 21
South Dakota Historical Collections-
Volume XXIII 1947

Spouse	Sarah Awilda BRISBINE (1855 - 1931)
Child	Harvey Reynolds ASH ( - )
Child	Brisbine Clay ASH ( - )
Child	Paul Byford ASH ( - )