spring of 1878, he again started for the Black Hills with a drove of more than 200 shoats which were driven overland. He had outfitted 17 wagons loaded with shelled corn for feed. It is not known how many men he had working for him but Joe Dufphey (Jack Dufphey's father) was with him. They made friends with the Indians and he and Chief Spotted Tail formed a lasting friendship. The chief invited him and Joe Dufphey to a dog feast. Joe would never say that he ate any of it. They must have been quite diplomatic about it as Chief Spotted Tail next offered his daughter's hand in marriage to "Jack" but he very diplomatically declines.

They would herd the hogs along, letting them graze on grass and then try to find water for the camping site at night where the hogs would also be fed corn. They were not in too much hurry as they wanted the hogs to be big butcher stock, 250 or 300 pounds, by the time they reached the Black Hills when they would sell out for fabulous prices. They made the same trip in 1879 with a drove of 250 hogs and in 1880 they took out a drove of 400 hogs and a large band of sheep.

Jack then settled down and established the Pleasant Valley Stock Farm near Sturgis, South Dakota. Later he also owned a 5,400 acre ranch just below the Devils Tower in Crook County, Wyoming.

During the eighties the government asked Mr. Hale to go up into Montana and bring back some Indians that had strayed off the reservation. Jack sent a telegram to his friend Joe Dufphey as he agreed to go only if Joe would go with him. Joe took to the railroad and from Sturgis they started out with a wagon loaded with provisions and trinkets to induce the Indians to return to the reservation with them. The two men found the Indians and were successful in getting them to return. On the return trip, one of the lesser Indian chiefs died. Jack and Joe placed the body in their wagon and as the weather had turned quite cold, the body soon froze so that they used it for a pillow at night.

Mr. Hale served several terms in the South Dakota Legislature. Anyone visiting the Museum in Deadwood will find many relics of Mr. Hale's part in "Winning the west."

Then there was Troy Hale and there are many stories told about him by the people who knew him when Battle Creek was wild. Troy established a livery barn on the site where the Walter Freudenburg home now stands. He owned all the land in that block running south on the west side of the street and his home stood on the ground where Gertrude and Laurie Wright now live.

One story which has been told is as follows: The Joe Dittrich family lived in a home which stood on the corner where the Paul Prauners now live. Mrs. Dittrich's sister came from Wisconsin to visit, arriving on an evening train after dark. They had no more than reached the house when shooting began across the street around the livery barn. No one was hurt as it was only Troy letting off steam, but the young lady from Wisconsin was ready to take the first train home and she didn't sleep well

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