No, there weren't any James Fenimore Cooper Indians in the Dakotas 60 years ago", declared Jesse W. Sweet, 605 South Spring, describing his first impressions of Sioux Falls. Mr. Sweet has spent the greater share of his 83 years within a 20 mile radius of the city. In 1870, when I came to Sioux Falls, the Indians would come and go as naturally as anybody else. Nobody was afraid of them. Only a few of them could speak any English; the others used a kind of sign language helped out by a few words they had managed to pick up. Indians of those days were treated just about like anyone else. Local merchants trusted them for goods. Indians drove some of the freighters which brought in goods from Yankton, Sibley and other points. They were reasonably well-behaved and showed no sign of fight.

They saw the superiority of the white man's ways and had already begun to adapt themselves. I'm afraid they weren't very stylish at any time, however. The women wore a dark skirt, rather full around the shoulders. The men made themselves a kind of overall out of worn out grain sacks. Both men and women wore leather moccasins. They never dressed their hair, which fell, black and greasy, over their shoulders. Bathing was considered somewhat reprehensible, and they hardly ever got themselves laundered except by accident .Mr. Sweet came to Sioux Falls in July, 1870. Taking up a claim a mile and a quarter North of Ellis, He broke 15 acres of prairie for himself the first year. For six years he lived in a dugout in the side of a hill.

Dugouts were not exactly luxurious", Sweet declared. "They were made by digging into the side of a hill and then by erecting a kind of shed in front of the hole. In winter the snow would drift right over the top and cover the entire dugout up. "How did the inside of a dugout look in those days? Not very inviting, I'm afraid. In the middle, of course, would be a stove. Then we had rough benches along the walls and a homemade table placed somewhere handy. The bed was along one side, with the head in the corner. It was made by driving short stakes in the floor and nailing crosspieces from them to the wall. At right angles along the crosspieces poles were laid - these were the springs. On top of the poles a straw tick was spread, then the blankets.

For illumination some of the settlers used kerosene lamps or lanterns, but others could not afford such splendor. Some grease in a saucer with a cloth tied to a button for a wick was good enough for many of us. ~Johnny cake and milk were the principal items on the diet list in early days, according to Mr. Sweet. The settlers lived on pancakes -- great stacks of them -- soaked in grease and a syrup made from brown sugar, which could be purchased in Sioux Falls for five cents a pound. Whenever they bought meat, they demanded side cuts with a maximum of fat. Settlers living near the city drove in every ten days or two weeks to replenish their supply of provisions. Sioux Falls, when Mr. Sweet arrived 60 years ago, had but five or six building, and these were of log or stone construction. The first frame building was not erected until more than a year later. Dirt roofs were the rule on all structures. Eighth and Phillips was the commercial center of the town.

There were no bridges, and the river had to be forded. Main avenue was an interesting possibility of the future. Phillips avenue undulated like the track of a roller coaster; there was a big hold, not filled in 'till much later, at the corner of Tenth street. Pioneers in South Dakota, judging from Mr. Sweet’s vivid descriptions, must have been a sturdy lot. Natural hardships confronted them at every turn. "In 1873 a horde of grasshoppers passed through, eating everything in sight", Mr. Sweet said. "You could stand in a field of grain and watch the heads drop off the stalks one by one. The hoppers would cut the heads from the stalks at their slimmest point, just beneath the head. They spoiled whole cornfields by eating the silk off of each ear of corn; they wouldn't bother anything but the silk. "Grasshoppers traveled with the wind. I remember awakening early one morning to find my fields covered with them. Then a strong northwest wind started to blow and in an hour they were all gone. The pests would usually arrive at harvest time, sometimes a little earlier.

Breaking the open prairie in the '70s was a difficult proposition. Two oxen drew a heavy plow. The plowman walked slowly along, sowing yellow corn in the previous furrow as he went along. After the corn was harvested, a crop of flax was planted. Crossing rivers was a hazardous enterprise, especially in winter. Mr. Sweet recalls crossing the river on West Twelfth street one winter when the ice was not thick enough to support a wagon. There was a narrow channel through the ice which the wagon had to follow. The horses swam through the bitterly cold water, which was so deep that the heavily loaded wagon came within inches of being entirely submerged. Mr. Sweet retired from active farming 20 years ago, moving to Sioux Falls, where he has since lived. In his early days he broke land on all sides of the city, working principally in the vicinity of Wall lake. His winters were spent on the claim near Ellis, which he gradually improved until it was a prosperous farm at the time of his retirement in 1910.