History of Yankton, (Yankton County) South Dakota United States of America

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Walter Atwood Burleigh, a prominent pioneer of Dakota, was born at Waterville, Me., Oct. 25, 1820. He studied medicine at Waterville, and in New York city, and was graduated at Castleton medical college. He removed to Kittanning, Pa., where he acquired a large practice, and devoted much of his time in the campaigns of 1856 and 1860 to the support of the Republican party as a platform speaker. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him agent of the Yankton Sioux Indians of Dakota territory. The Indians being inflamed by previous grievances, threatened to burn the warehouse, council house and other property of the agency. Dr. Burleigh despatched two brave and reliable men to Fort Randall for a body of U.S. regulars, and at daybreak on the following morning just as the hostile Indians, armed and in their war paint, gathered for an attack upon the buildings, the troops approached, and their chiefs sued for peace. In the latter part of August, 1862, the agency was again in danger from the hostile Sioux in their retreat from the Minnesota massacre. Dr. Burleigh at once built a substantial block house, and called for troops from Iowa, and with these and the good offices of Struck-by-the-Rees, the head chief of the Yanktons, the agency was saved, and South Dakota was spared a bloody invasion. Dr. Burleigh was elected a delegate to the 39th Congress in 1864, and in 1866 to the 40th Congress. In 1877 he was elected a member of the legislature of Dakota, and chosen president of the council. He was a member of the last legislature of Montana territory, and was elected to the convention of 1889, which framed the constitution of that state. He also engaged in many private enterprises, having at one time a fleet of steamboats on the Missouri River, which did a large carrying trade between St. Louis and Fort Benton. Burleigh county, North Dakota, was named in his honor. He graded fifty miles of the Northern Pacific railroad and erected the first house in Bismarck. He practised law for twelve years in the courts at Miles City, and Billings, in Montana. He, upon removing to Dakota, made his home at Yankton, where he erected a magnificent mansion overlooking the Missouri, and having a wide range of scenery. He died at Yankton, S. Dak., in 1896.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Yankton, (Yankton County) South Dakota

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