"Sarah-A-Campbell" (July 10,1823-April 10,1888)

One of  the first non-Native native-Women in the Black Hills of  South Dakota,accompained Colonel George Armstrong custer's 1874 Expedition there as a cook,prospected for gold and silver,and was co-the Custer Park Mining Company.


She was born in Kentucky to an African American slave named Marianne upon her owner's death,Marianne and her children were to be manumitted upon her owner's death,she remained enslaved illegally until her own death in 1834.Six days later,11-year old Sally was sold to Henry Chouteau,cousin of the founder of Dakota's Fort Pierre.Sally field an "unlawful detainment" suit against Henry Chouteau the following year and with the aid of an attorney won her lawsuit and her freedom in 1837,receiving a single penny in damages.


While still enslaved,Sarah was rented out as a cook on steamboats serving the upper Missouri River fur trade.As a free woman,she continued to work on steamboats and married a fellow steamboat worker from Illinois.Their son St.Clair operated the ferry at Dakota's Fort Randall before his death in 1885 at the age of 45.


In 1873 Sarah moved as a widow to Bismarck,Dakota Territory.Under the affectionate nickname of "Aunt Sally," she claimed seven lots and operated a private club,took in lanundry,and served as midwife there. A year later,during Custer's Black Hills Expedition,she and 20 other Bismarck residents formed Custer Park Mining Company and staked placer claims on French Creek,now part of Custer State Park.


When the Black Hills Gold Rush began in 1876,Sarah joined the second outfit from Bismarck to head for the region.She lived in Crook City and Galena,both mining towns on the western border of modern-day South Dakota,and continued to work as cook midwife while she prospected.She searched for both gold and silver and filled five claims,although the Alice Lode silver mine in the Black Hills was the only one that proved valuable.Fifteen months before her death,she sold it for $500.


When the silver boom in Galena abruptly ended,Sarah moved to a ranch just to the south where she and and an adopted son planned to run a wood camp for miners and railroad workers.Sarah is buried at the Vinegar Hill Cemetery in Galena,South Dakota.