Moody County

Moody County. You are about to enter. domain of the Dakota (Sioux) Indians, with a trading post, traditionally, at the Great Bend as early as 1763 and Joseph LaFramboise in 1822 and Philander Prescott, 1832-33, certainly had posts there. That portion east of the Big Sioux was ceded by the Santee Sioux in 1851, that west by the Yankton Sioux in 1858. Its first settlement, at Flandreau was established in 1857, but abandoned on account of Indian pressure in 1858. It was named for Charles E. Flandreau (1828- 1903)., Until 1873 its S half as part of Minnehaha, its N half of Brookings County. Named for Gideon C. Moody (1832-1906) territorial legislator and first U.S. Senator, its first permanent settlers were 25 Christian Santee Sioux Indians, who took homesteads in 1869. Among them were Old Flute, All-Over-Red, Iron Old Man, the pastor, Iron Dog, and Big Eagle, who were along the river, as were James Jones and L.M. Hewlett, when in September 1869 Eli P. Drake surveyed the county., Shortly thereafter Charles K. Howard set up a trade store on the Sioux at Flandreau where the Pettigrew Brothers, surveyors and enterprising pioneers, had the town established by 1872. The county was organized by David Fairbault, Harry Stoughton and Edward Pierce, August 30 1873, and Flandreau was soon named county seat. By 1880 despite grasshoppers, drought and blizzards there were 3,915 people in the county. The railroad reached Flandreau 1 January 1880. Riggs Institute of 1892 became the Flandreau Indian School, the center of a considerable Indian community whose church building dates back to 1872.