Bailey, Dana R. History of Minnehaha County, South Dakota. Sioux Falls: Brown & Saenger, 1899.

Page 178

South Dakota School for Deaf-Mutes

The South Dakota School for Deaf-Mutes was established in the fall of 1880 under the name of Dakota School for Deaf-Mutes, and was located at the City of Sioux Falls.

Mrs. D. F. Mingus, nee Miss Jennie Wright, now a resident of San Diego, Cal., took the first steps toward the establishment of the school, which has grown to such proportions during the past eighteen years.

Upon her arrival here, Mrs. Mingus secured the co-operation of Rev. Thomas B. Berry, an Episcopal minister, who had been instructor in the New York and Maryland schools for the deaf.

There were at this time four deaf children in Sioux Falls - Hester Black, Willie Hanley, and two brothers, Lewis and Harry Garrison. These children Mrs. Mingus and Mr. Berry took into their care, and soon added a fifth, Andrew Sieverson, from the vicinity of Sioux Falls.

The work of educating these children was carried on in a private dwelling, and expenses were paid by private donations. In the latter part of the summer following, Professor James Simpson, for three years a teacher in the Iowa institute for the education of the deaf, and brother-in-law of Mrs. D. F. Mingus, came to Sioux Falls and assumed the management of the school. A fund of $1,000 was donated by the City of Sioux Falls, besides and appropriation of $2,000 from the territory, and a site of ten acres, which was the gift of E. A. Sherman, R. F. Pettigrew and L. T. Dunning, all of Sioux Falls, and Isaac Emerson of Melrose, Mass.

A frame structure 36x40 feet and a wing 16x24 feet, containing fourteen rooms, was at once erected upon the site donated. This building was ready for occupancy October 21, 1881, on which date the pupils were removed to it. There were then seven pupils, Sarah Collins of Sioux Falls and Willie Richmond of Bon Homme county having been added to the previous inmates.

The first board of directors was made up of the following gentlemen: E. A. Sherman president; Amos F. Shaw treasurer; E. G. Wright secretary and C. K. Howard, all of Sioux Falls, J. O'Brien Scobey of Brookings, Rev. G. C. Pennell of Deadwood, C. A. Lounsbury of Bismarck, V. P. Thielman of Parker and O. S. Gifford of Canton.

During its session of 1883 the territorial legislature appropriated the sum of $12,000 for the erection of a new building. At the beginning of the term of 1884-5, the frame structure was vacated, and the main building occupied.

Shortly after, more room was needed, and two years after securing the appropriation for the main building, another appropriation from the territory, this time $16,000 was obtained. The erection of the boy's dormitory was then commenced, and was completed in the spring of 1886. Both buildings were made of Sioux Falls granite, the first being trimmed with red bricks and the last with red pipestone from the famous quarries in Minnesota.

The next appropriation secured for buildings and improvements