Hatfield Recalls Huron 65 Years Ago (c1883)

[Source:The Huronite & Daily Plainsman (Huron, SD), Thursday, 1 April 1948, p2c6]

R. B. HATFIELD [Roy Berton], 125 Seventh St. S. W., said that Huron wasn't much to look at when he got his first glimpse of the prairie town just 65 <1883> years ago this morning.  HATFIELD was just a boy when his mother [Mary Elizabeth (SANDERS) HATFIELD] brought him and three other children [Ira H., Sarah Elizabeth, Jennie Pearl] to Huron to join their father [Jacob Cramer HATFIELD], who had come here to pioneer three years before that.

And it was a long trip to make from Shellsburg, Ia., their former home, to Huron even though they made the trip by train.  It took three days and nights.  They arrived at 2 a.m. and moved into the old Dakota House where they lived a month until moving onto their homestead, 10 miles north of Huron.

Mr. HATFIELD moved into the city 39 <1909> years ago and his father and mother left their homestead to move here about 37 years ago.  Mr. HATFIELD recalls that his father was the contractor for the first brick building in Huron which is where Snow's Cafe is now located.