40 Siouw City Academy of Science and Letters. 



pile of beaver skins and was sleeping away, like a pig 

 under a gate, when, sometime during the night, I was 

 awakened by loud talking and swearing on the part of 

 the trappers. They had remained up late to play cards 

 and got into some dispute about the fairness of the game. 

 They were so abusive that I thought some one would 

 be killed, especially since their revolvers were much in 

 evidence, yet no harm came of it. These four men were 

 Bill Copeland, John [Henrj^] Campbell, Bill Craven [s] 

 and [John] Mitchell, commonly called "Old Mitch." 



Next morning we went up the river to a point oppo- 

 site the present site of Yankton, S. Dak., where we found 

 a party of New York men holding a townsite. On the 

 M'ay we had passed a high rocky point, which had looked 

 so good to me and commanded such a fine view that I 

 now recommended that we return to it. This recom- 

 mendation suited Mr. Bennett, so we went back and 

 staked out a townsite consisting of over 2,000 acres, or 

 more than three sections. This took us nearly a week, 

 after which we were ready to return to Sioux City. In 

 the meantime the snow had melted and the return trip 

 was not so difficult. After reaching home I platted the 

 town, naming it Opechee, a name afterward changed to 

 St. Helena. It was in Cedar County, Nebr., opposite^ the 

 present village of Gayville [which is in Yankton County, 

 S. D.]. Bennett went east and had the plat lithographed 

 and sold lots right and left, getting himself into trou- 

 ble,2 since the land had not yet been surveyed by the 

 United States government. 



FATE OF THE FOUR TRAPPERS. 



In the fall of 1857 I was elected a Justice of the 

 Peace in and for Woodbury County. One of the first 

 cases to come before me was the trial of a man named 

 Wm. O. Allen, for killing Bill Craven [s], one of the 

 quarreling trappers whom we had met at St. James. 

 Allen was bound over to the District Court, and, since 

 there was no jail any nearer, the Sheriff^ started off with 

 the prisoner to Council Bluffs. They got as far as the 



1. The town is still in existence. 



2. And into the penitentiary. 



3. John Braden. 



