Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
South Dakota Farmer's Alliance
Parallel form(s) of name
- Dakota Farmers' Alliance
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
In Chicago, Milton George, the editor of the Western Rural, had been denouncing railroads as discriminatory and a menace to the nation. He organized what became known as the National Farmers' Alliance. In February 1881, farmers in Yankton County obtained a charter for the first alliance in Dakota Territory. Spurred by a drop in wheat prices in 1884, the number of territorial alliances grew and mass meetings in Clark, Huron, Mellette and Redfield were soon denouncing railroads and demanding their regulation. In January 1885, a territorial railroad commission was created, although vigorous opposition left the new agency without any power to establish freight rates. / In February 1885, alliance delegates from 11 counties in Dakota gathered in Huron to form the Dakota Farmers' Alliance, affiliated with the National Farmers' Alliance. The movement grew rapidly and by mid-summer the number of local alliances in the territory had tripled.