Bullock Properties

HISTORY OF SETH BULLOCK

Seth Bullock was born in 1849 in the little village of Sandwich, Ontario, to retired British Major George Bullock and his Scottish wife. Little is known of his boyhood, except that he was frequently at odds with his father’s strict attitudes concerning discipline.

Accepting Greeley’s advice to “go West, young man” at face value, Seth arrived in Helena, Montana in 1867 to become a permanent part of the Western scene. He ran for the territorial legislature at the early age of twenty, but was defeated. However, he was successful in being elected as a Republican member of the Territorial Senate of Montana, serving in the 1871 and 1872 sessions. During this time, he introduced a resolution memorializing the Congress of the United States to set aside Yellowstone for all time to come as a great national park. The resolution was adopted by the Legislature and shortly thereafter a bill was introduced in both houses of Congress. Yellowstone Park was established by Federal Statute on March 1, 1872.

In 1873 Bullock was elected Sheriff of Montana Territory in Lewis and Clark County. In addition to his other activities, he soon made a mark for himself as an auctioneer and commission merchant in early-day Helena. He entered into a partnership with Sol Star in the hardware business as well as serving as Chief Engineer of the Helena Fire Department.

In 1876, Star and Bullock followed the gold rush to Deadwood, South Dakota, to open a soon- successful hardware business in the raucous camp. Prior to this, he sent his bride Martha with their first-born infant daughter back to the security of her Michigan home. Bullock was elected treasurer of the Board of Health and Street Commissioners, which was organized to combat a threatened smallpox epidemic. The newly organized board quickly became the first unofficial government unit in Deadwood.

The death of Wild Bill Hickok in August 1876 triggered a growing demand for law and order in Deadwood, resulting in Bullock’s appointment as the first Sheriff of Deadwood a few months thereafter. He quickly appointed several able, fearless deputies and before long order had settled upon Deadwood Gulch with little fanfare or gunsmoke.

With the elimination of the “roughs’ from Deadwood, Bullock devoted his time to ranching and raising thoroughbred horses on the ranch he and his partner established at the confluence of the Belle Fourche River and Redwater Creek. In addition, he dabbled in mining, politics, and promotion while continuing to serve as Deputy United States Marshal.

In the spring of 1881, Bullock planted alfalfa on his ranch. (Bullock is generally credited with introducing this important crop in the State of South Dakota.) Continuing his youthful dedication to conservation, Bullock successfully secured a Federal fish hatchery for the Black Hills area, located near modern-day Spearfish.

Bullock became the founder of the town of Belle Fourche (later to become the largest livestock shipping point in the United States) by persuading the railroad to build through the old site of the DeMore Stage stop on the Bullock-Star Ranch and offering free lots for any building moved from the town of Minnesela to his “new” town.

During the Spanish-American War, Bullock volunteered for active service in the Cavalry and was named a Captain of Troop A in Grigsby’s Cowboy Regiment. The outfit never saw combat, but did sustain quite a few casualties from typhoid, which was rampant in the Louisiana training camp where they impatiently sat out the short war.

During the 1890’s, Bullock remained in close contact with Teddy Roosevelt. This close personal friendship between the Bullock and Roosevelt families began years prior when the two men shared coffee and beans over the tailgate of a chuckwagon on the rangelands near Belle Fourche. Roosevelt, the newly-elected Vice-President under President McKinley, appointed Bullock as the first Forest Supervisor of the Black Hills Reserve.

In 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt appointed Seth Bullock as United States Marshal for South Dakota. Seth was reappointed in 1909 by President William Howard Taft and continued in office for one year under President Woodrow Wilson.

Roosevelt’s death in January 1919 was a fearful blow to Captain Bullock who himself was in a weak, emaciated condition. By mid-February, however, Bullock was busily engaged in his last act of devotion to his beloved friend, enlisting the aid of the society of Black Hills Pioneers to erect a monument to Roosevelt on Sheep Mountain. The peak was renamed Mount Roosevelt, and on its crest, Bullock and his fellow pioneers erected a tower constructed of native Black Hills stone. This, the first memorial to Theodore Roosevelt in the United States, was dedicated July 4, 1919.

Trail’s end came for Captain Seth Bullock two months later in September 1919 at the age of seventy.