Chas. Locke, Resident of Dakotas Since 1876, Laid to Rest on Friday

Funeral services, attended by a large number of friends, were held for Charles Locke, pioneer extraordinary of the two Dakotas, at the Sacred Heart Church here Friday, with the Rev. Father O'Hara officiating. Interment was made in the Morristown cemetery.
The deceased was born in 1851 in St. Lawrence County, New York, where he grew to manhood. At the age of 25 years, in 1876 he came west, traveling by rail to Sleepy Eye Minnesota, and thence by stage to Yankton where he boarded a boat which brought him up the Missouri River to the vicinity where later the city of Mobridge was to be established. Here with a partner he spent the winter cutting cord wood to sell to the steamboats during the summer months.
In 1878 Locke went to Bismarck where headquarters were held for steamboat companies who enlisted his services on various river boats plying the trade of civilization's outposts. Six years he remained in the employ of the shipping concerns and in 1884 as Winona was being established across the river from Fort Yates, he went there where he gained employment with such renowned old times as Jerry Dyer, McCrory and others.
It was during his stay in Winona, that he established a ferry boat between that town and Fort Yates and this enterprise he maintained for a number of years.
After serving for sometime as a deputy sheriff of Emmons county he succeeded McGee as sheriff which position he held for one term.
A thrilling experience of those early days in Emmons county and one which had written itself deeply in his memory was the hideous murder of the Spicer family. Locke was at the county seat, then Williamsport, when the crime was committed and recalled vividly the outcome of the crime when a lynching took place which cost the lives of three of the five Indian boys who perpratated the deed.
Another experience of his earlier years in the far west was the witnessing of the burial of the Indian police killed in the attempt to arrest Sitting Bull on the Grand River on December 15, 1890. Locke was present when the soldiers brought in the body of the famous chief and the corpses of the dead polices, to Fort Yates for burial.
In 1894 Locke came west into this area and began a career of cowpunching experiences, working at intervals for Ed Lemmon and the Turkey Track outfit at Siem.
About 1900 he took charge of a ranch on the Cedar River west of the harry Knoke place where he was given charge over a herd of cattle being run for the TD outfit of Mandan.
When Morristown was established in 1909 Locke moved to town and established the first butcher shop here. In later years he operated the livery stable over a period of time. Recent years, during his illness were spent at the T.A. Chubb home south of the city.
A participant in many glamorous event of the old west Locke numbered among his acquaintances such renowned old times as Major McLaughlin, Jack Carrignan, Bill Wade, Bill Zahn, Bill Pamplin, John Leach, Jerry Hart, Parkins, Wild Bill, Calamity Jane, Ott Black, Mustache Maude and scores of others, many now dead. He was an authority on early day history of the territory surrounding Fort Yates, an outpost of civilization in the '80's and '90's.
Married on three occasions, he is survived by but one son, Chas. Locke Jr., of Morristown. five children through the first union have preceeded him in death.
Taken from Morristown World January 17, 1935