Rapid City's Founders

On February 23, 1876, a party made up of W.P. Martin, J.W. Allen, Mart Persinger, William Marston, John R. Brennan, Tom Ferguson, and Dick King left Palmer Gulch to lay out a town in the foothills, reached Rapid Creek that day, and camped near Big Springs at the mouth of the canyon. The next day they explored about 20 miles down the valley, and on February 25 camped at a big tree at Point of Rocks, where others joined them after thinking they were following a gold rush. That evening the group decided to lay out a townsite, and Samuel Scott later recorded that on February 25 a section of land was measured with a tape line and pocket compass, six blocks were laid out, lots were drawn, and the name Rapid City, proposed by William Martin, was accepted by the party. John Richard Brennan later became Rapid City's first mayor, president of its first City Council, first postmaster, a member and later president of the first South Dakota School of Mines board of trustees, fire chief for several years, Union Pacific Railroad agent, Pennington County superintendent of schools, and vice president of the First National Bank of Rapid City; the Brennans donated the land for Library Hall, built the Harney Hotel in 1885, managed it until 1900, and after Brennan served 17 years as superintendent of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, returned to Rapid City in 1917. Other founders and early participants followed varied paths: Tom Ferguson farmed near Hammerville; William Porter Martin, credited with giving the city its name, had helped lay out Pueblo, Colorado, helped construct the road from Rapid City to Buffalo Gap, served on the Dakota Territory finance committee in 1877, and was last mentioned in Deadwood that year; John W. Allen left for Deadwood and then Alaska; William Marston went into business as an iceman in the Deadwood area; Dick King became a Lawrence County commissioner after leaving for Deadwood; Mart Pensinger survived an Indian attack in 1878, reportedly ran the Pony Express to Rochford in 1879, then drowned while working a ferry at Fort Pierre that same year; Scott, who led the second party to arrive, remained in Rapid City and entered a real estate and mining partnership with Robbins; Albert Brown, an experienced land surveyor, probably helped lay out several Black Hills towns; Billy Nuttall went into the theatrical and saloon business in Deadwood; James Carney helped build the first log cabin on the original townsite before returning to Deadwood and later going into business in Gayville; and Major John C. Hutchinson served on the new town's board of trustees before leaving for Deadwood.

Rapid City, South Dakota · United States