Great-Grandfather Dee Billington lived in South Dakota for about 57 years. He studied South Dakota history, lived it, loved it, and shared it. In his last days he sat in his rocking chair and told all his stories to his daughter Estelle and she shared those stories with us. It's about time this blog focuses on his happy place. We can highlight here the history he shared during his years of living in Deadwood and Spearfish, S.D. A few Billington cousins have visited there and hopefully they will add their reflections as a postscript to this blogpost.
I was fortunate to visit South Dakota a few weeks ago, thanks to my daughter, Tina, who drove me there from Idaho. We drove through Yellowstone Park on the way to Spearfish, and drove through Livingston, Montana and Yellowstone again back to Idaho. We were hoping to spot the exact rock Grandfather Sid and Eva Billington stood on while honeymooning in Yellowstone Park back in 1919. We found plenty of rocks and geysers, but we didn't find that particular rock.
 |
Sid and Eva Billington
Yellowstone Park 1919 |
 |
| "The Beanery" Service Cabinet |
 |
| Antique Radiator |
 |
| Lana ordering lunch at "The Beanery" |
 |
| "The Beanery" RR sign |
This was my first trip to South Dakota, but my second trip to Livingston. I traveled with my daughter, Eva last spring and we were able to take photos inside "The Grill" in the Livingston train depot, where Grandfather Sid and Grandmother Eva met for the first time. Sid was a fireman on the railroad and Eva was a waitress in the cafe. I wanted to see what the cafe looked like now. It was built inside the depot in 1902 and although some features were remodeled over the years, some were the same. We met cousin Roger Vetter there and ate lunch with him on an outside picnic table, right next to the railroad tracks with the trains chugging right by us.
 |
| "The Beanery" entrance |
 |
| Roger Vetter and NP train |
 |
| "The Beanery" retro deco |
 |
| 15 stools at "The Beanery" counter |
 |
| Tina at" The Beanery" counter |
On the second trip to Livingston, Tina and I revisited "The Grill" which is now called "The Beanery" and had lunch on the inside counter; the longest counter I have seen in any restaurant. We took more pictures on the inside, including photos of pictures on the walls. I bought a Rail Road T shirt as a sourvenir. We took more photos on the inside, including photos of pictures on the walls.
We then visited inside the depot itself which has been converted into a museum.
 |
| Depot from the track side |
 |
| wall photos in the museum |
 |
post card of depot in 1909
|
 |
| photo in museum of round and workers |
I imagine one of those workers in the pictures above might be my grandfather Sid.
Many railroad displays and paintings about Montana inside the museum are unique and beautiful:
More about the depot here:
https://www.livingstondepot.org/
Tina and I also visited Great Grandmother Rose Stottlemyer and her husband Herman Buettner's gravesite in Livingston's Mountain View Cemetery.
*******
On our way to Spearfish, South Dakota, we whizzed by Gillette, Wyoming, where grandmother Rose Stottlemeyer met and married Fred Martz in 1906. Then we zipped by Sundance, Wyoming where Dee often visited and Pat Bishop worked on a ranch there and traveled often up to Spearfish for a wagon load of supplies and to see Ceceile Billington.
 |
| Lana standing in front of the Blackbird Espresso Coffee Shop |
 |
| outside patio of the Blackbird Coffee Shop |
Tina and I were curious to find the exact location in Spearfish of the livery barn Dee owned, the house he lived in, the Fish Hatchery where he volunteered, the City Park where he worked, and the post office where he worked up to his retirement. Many Spearfish City employees helped us by providing deeds, archives, tax forms, and maps which enabled us to accomplish many of these goals and dreams in just one day.
The Livery was once on the corner of 6th and Main and had a large corral behind it. Now a coffee shop with a big patio in front of it. Only open in the morning hours, we were there when it was closed. We determined the house the Billington family rented was most likely across the street or behind the Livery.
The original Livery Stable passed through many hands in the early days. It was previously known as the "Mammoth Barn." The picture below, shows a wagon and a stage coach in front. It was largely a stage stop in the early days. At one time, Dee had a the name "Dee Billington's Barn" painted on the side of it. Estelle mentioned that it embarrassed her a little to see the Billington name up high on the building when she walked home from school. We were hoping to find a photo of that writing on the building, but at least we have one photo. The name we will have to imagine.
 |
| newspaper ad |
 |
| so is this the stagecoach Dee drove from Spearfish to Deadwood ? |
.
 |
| or is it this one? |
 |
| Or this one? |
We found a stagecoach in the Days of '76 Museum that was restored and painted red and yellow. Who knows if this is the same one as in the photos.
 |
Lana and Tina at the Days of '76 Museum
This Sanford map of 1912 showed us that the Livery was a half a block west of the Spearfish Hotel
on the corner of 6th and Main...just like it said in the newspaper.
******* |
******
The Billington house originally set on the edge of Spearfish on a large secluded woodsy area of land near the Spearfish Creek across the creek from the Spearfish City Park. There was a swinging bridge connecting that land to the park, but it was washed away some time ago. Estelle said the creek often flooded their lawn in the spring.
We looked for a possible place the house and the bridge could have been during the time the Billington's lived there. When I stepped on to the road and looked down in the grassy area, the first thing I saw was a tiny wildflower....could be like a Scottish Blue Bell..Sid's favorite flower. Anyway I felt I was in the right place
So you can see some of the surrounding area and the road that circles around and is now taking up some of the land. Tina is standing on the new bridge that leads to the Fish Hatchery on the other side of the creek. We found the address through the City Hall Office, 303 Meier Ave, but the house that is there now is not the original. Apparently it has been replaced or remodeled 3 times. It is surrounded by many houses now although still very secluded.
 |
| 2016 |
The Fish Hatchery brought rainbow fish of all types to Spearfish Creek and surrounding Black Hills area. You'll just have to do see it for yourself, it is a large 10 acre area with statues, ponds, souvenir bookstore, locomotive car that transferred the fish, underwater fish observation area, and much more. Many townspeople volunteer as guides there. Beginning in 1899, Dee volunteered his time there and became a good friend of the superintendent, D.C. Booth.
More about the fish hatchery here: https://dcboothfishhatchery.org/
*******
The next day, we visited Deadwood, SD. We were specifically looking for the location of the jail where Dee served as night jailer for about 4 years from 1880-1884. We found the photo below in a book about Deadwood.
"The Deadwood jail on the
corner of Washington and Monroe Streets, on the east side of the street. The
first jail in Deadwood, built circa 1876-77. Written on the back of the photo,
"Dak Teritory [sic], Old jail 1876 & 1877, Deadwood, S.D., 1876 &
7, Mrs. Holmes"
It was a converted house at that time and not very safe//many prisoners escaped. It was torn down some time ago and now the neighborhood of Washington and Monroe is a residential area of very fine homes.
 |
| Deadwood Jail |
 |
| Dee as a jailor and Stage Coach Driver |
We were also looking for the places he called home during that time, and after leaving the farm in St. Onge. But we were not successful in finding those places.
However we were lucky enough to get a copy of the Tax Records from the Archivist in Deadwood which helped us to locate the land he owned. We learned that the land in the St. Onge area was several lots adding up to 80.10 acres.. Those 80.10 acres he bought from Elijah Boyden (his father-in-law) for $1.00. As the story goes, Elijah did not want his daughter to raise a family in such a rowdy town as Deadwood, and thought Dee should be a farmer outside of town. He wanted to just give him half of the 160 acres he had as a homestead, but had to made a transaction legally, so sold it for $1.00. Dee and Estelle were only there for about 2 years then moved back into Deadwood. Dee admitted he was not much of a farmer and spent the next year looking for a place to work in Spearfish which he felt would be a better, safer place to raise a family. Elijah agreed and the family plus Elijah lived in the house on the very edge of town and Dee went into partnership with James Roberts in the livery business on Main Street.
Tina and I went to the Mt. Moriah Cemetery looking for the markers for Dee and Estella's babies that died in infancy, Dee, Jr. and Edna. We knew from the records, they were there along with Dee's brother, James and Adeline's baby boy James. However no markers where found, just the empty lawn space next to a tall tree. Later we were informed by the City Archivist, Michael Runge, that Deadwood is a registered Historic City and since 2006 the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission has allocated funds for the installation of cemetery markers on unmarked graves within the cemeteries of Deadwood. So I will be submitting applications for markers for these babies in the coming month. Hopefully when we return next year we will be able to view the markers and add their photos in a blog update.
********
Tina and I spent the rest of the day at the Days of '76 Museum, looking for artifacts that were donated by Estelle Fontana in 1986. The museum displayed in a glass case the autograph book that was Estella Boyden Billington's. In 1884 she asked Crow Dog to put his autograph in it, which he did, but he also took the time to draw a depiction of an incident he had with another Indian. Whether he was recalling his youthful antics or just dreaming up a future one, we will never know. For sure it is not a depiction of the killing of his rival Spotted Tail, because that was done with a rifle, which is also in the display. The close up of the autograph book shows Estelle's handwritten note that this was indeed her mother's book, and the signature portrays Crow Dog leading his dog with a crow sitting on the dog's back. Estelle did not know the details of the crime at the time of the drawing. In fact newspapers in the area carried many articles of the incident, the two trials of Crow Dog, his appeal to the Supreme Court, and finally his acquittal and release after four years. Dee was his jailer during most of time he was in the Deadwood jail and dee became his good friend during the long ordeal. Crow Dog maintained that he shot only in self defense. More about his case here:
https://www.uaf.edu/tribal/academics/112/unit-1/crowdogcase.php
and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_parte_Crow_Dog
The Reference guide that was posted next to the display incorrectly attributed the drawing to Spotted Tail. The museum has been notified of their mistake and has corrected it in their data base. Not sure when they will change the Reference Guide Card.
 |
| Front cover of Autograph Book |
 |
| #6 is incorrect |
 |
| Crow Dog..Brule Lakota Sioux |
There were other artifacts donated to the museum by Estelle Fontana in 1986, but they were not properly assessed as donations. The archivists are looking for them by our request, but they may be among the many display cases we saw at the museum, shown below. If they are eventually identified, I will post an update.
More about the museum here:
https://www.deadwoodhistory.com/about-us/properties/days-of-76-museum.html
*******
.
Later after the flood of 1883 the studio moved to Main and Gold Street.
The side view of the building shows a ramp going upstairs. We believe the studio was upstairs and the window at the top corner along with the front right window provided the best light for the studio. Albert and Elijah worked together to produce stereographs* which they mounted onto cards that can be seen through stereoscopes that were popular in the 1880-1900's Some of the stereoscope cards he and Albert made were at the Adam's Museum when Tina and I visited there.
*Stereographs consist of two nearly identical photographs or photomechanical prints, paired to produce the illusion of a single three-dimensional image, usually when viewed through a stereoscope. Typically, the images are on card mounts.
Elijah also produced portraits like this one of his daughter, Estella Loring Boyden and Crow Dog:
This one of himself in his Nanaimo studio:
And this one of his grandson, Sidney Billington, at Boyden's Gallery in Spearfish:
I am hoping more of my relatives would like to visit Spearfish, Deadwood, and Livingston next year. Maybe we could plan a Billington reunion at one of those places. Let me know if you are interested!
Another place we wanted to find was the photography studio of Elijah Loring Boyden, Estella's father. He was a traveling photographer much of his life, but went into business with Albert Pollack in Deadwood from 1875-1894, with a two year break from 1884-1886 in Nanaimo, British Colombia. The first studio was on the corner of Lee and Sherman St.and another studio in Fort Meade at the same time. 
