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De Smet, South Dakota
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==History== Located in the area of South Dakota known as "East River" (east of the [[Missouri River]], which diagonally divides the state), De Smet was [[plat]]ted by European Americans in 1880.<ref>{{cite book|author=Chicago and North Western Railway Company|title=A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OspBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA64|year=1908|page=64}}</ref> It was named for Belgian Father [[Pierre-Jean De Smet|Pierre De Smet]],<ref name=gnis/><ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n104 105]}}</ref> a 19th-century [[Jesuit]] missionary who worked with [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] in the United States and its territories for most of his life. In the mid-1880s, prairie fires and failures of crops after a three-year period of drought caused many settlers to relocate their farms and homesteads to easier areas.<ref>''Samuel Clark Sr. and his descendants.'' Second edition. By Rev. Edgar Warner Clark, A.M.. 1892. p. 99.</ref> By 1917, De Smet was a [[cattle towns|cow town]], with many trains passing through every day carrying cattle to market.<ref>Marian Cramer, [http://southdakotamagazine.com/cows-desmet "Cows on Parade"], ''[[South Dakota Magazine]],'' May/June 1990</ref> [[File:Former first congregational church building de smet sd.jpg|thumb|left|Currently a [[Christian and Missionary Alliance]] church, the building was originally the First [[Congregational church|Congregational Church]] of De Smet; one of the church's builders was [[Charles Ingalls]].]] The [[Charles Ingalls]] family, originally of [[Wisconsin]], arrived in De Smet in 1879. Their travels and pioneer life in [[Minnesota]], [[Kansas]], [[Dakota Territory]], and [[Iowa]] would be later chronicled in the ''[[Little House on the Prairie|Little House]]'' series of books written by the Ingallses' second oldest daughter, Laura Elizabeth - later known as [[Laura Ingalls Wilder]]. Laura Ingalls and her husband [[Almanzo Wilder]] would first settle in De Smet along with Wilder's brother, Royal. They were later joined by their older sister, Eliza Jane, who took up a claim of her own. She was one of the first women to file a solo claim. There the Wilders lived just outside of De Smet on farmland, as well as Royal's feed store in town. The Ingallses also had a claim outside of town. In the winter they stayed in the town of De Smet, at least while the girls were still in school. After building a home and starting a farm there, Charles Ingalls helped to found the First Congregational Church of De Smet, later helping to build the church building, with the first service being held there on August 30, 1882. Ingalls and [[Caroline Ingalls|his wife]], along with oldest daughter [[Mary Ingalls|Mary]], were among the church's eight original charter members.
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