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Gc 978.3 C83w v.2 1916 1744314
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01066 6912
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013
http://archive.org/details/whoswhoinsouthda02cour 0
WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
Y.2
(VOLUME II)
THIRTY-THREE BIOGRAPHIES
By
O. W. COURSEY
Author of: "History and Geography of the Philippine Islands" "The Woman With a Stone Heart" "The Philippines and Filipinos" "Who's Who in South Dakota" (Vol. I) "Biography of General Beadle" "Biography of Senator Kittredge" "Literature of South Dakota" "School Law Digest"
The above books are all published and for sale by the EDUCATOR SUPPLY COMPANY, Mitchell, South Dakota
840
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: 1744314
INTRODUCTION
Vol. I, "Who's Who in South Dakota," containing the first fifty of these articles, having found a prompt and steady sale, the publishers concluded that there is a demand in the state for this class of personal, or conversational, literature.
True; the articles are loosely drawn, because they were written merely for temporary newspaper use, and they contain an element of mirth, yet there is so much vital state history woven around the lives of the men contained in them that there has come a general demand for their preservation in book form.
In the preface to Vol. I, the author stated :
It is greatly regretted that many other equally deserving South Dakotans could not have been incorporated in this work, but time and space forbade. However, another volume will appear later, in which only new names will be found.
In harmony with the foregoing senti- ments, this volume has made its appearance. We hope it will be as well received as was Volume I.
The Publishers.
.
1
·
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page 3
Notice of copyright 4
Introduction 5 Table of Contents 7
Frank M. Byrne
9
R. L. Slagle 19
W. W. Girton
27
George W. Kingsbury 35 43
H. B. Anderson
49
E. H. Willey
Thomas Sterling
63 75 87
C. L. Dotson
95
C. C. Carpenter
103
Harry M. Gage 111
J. W. Parmley 121
Cleophas C. O'Harra 131
C. F. Hackett 143
Joy M. Hackler 159 Rev. Charles Badger Clark 169
W. A. Morris 177
T. W. Dwight 183
W. R. Ronald 190
55
Alexander Strachan
A. E. Hitchcock
J. W. Heston
O SIBAT
TABLE OF CONTENTS-Continued
George A. Pettigrew 197
Frank Crane 209
Emory Hobson 215
Frank Anderson 225
W. G. Seaman
231
J. B. Gossage
239
Charles B. Preacher 247
Dr. W. H. Thrall 263
Rollin J. Wells
271
J. S. Hoagland
279
William T. Doolittle 289
Frank McNulty 299
FRANK M. BYRNE OUR TRUSTED LEADER
Nearly forty years ago, two young farmer boys, who lived about four miles apart in Allamakee county, Iowa, were at school together in a little old building about eleven miles southeast of Waukon, amid in- numerable tree-covered hills, skirted with layers of stone, not far back from the huge
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
bluffs of the Mississippi. Although they > were approximately the same age, yet one was teacher and the other pupil. The equal- ity in their years caused them to become chums. They grew fond of each other. Then they separated. Years later, they came to- gether in Dakota; and the teacher is today Senator Coe I. Crawford, while his indus- trious pupil is the Honorable Frank M. Byrne, governor of South Dakota.
Governor Byrne has "made good" in every way. A large per cent of the sanest legislation on the statute books of our state, eminated from his brain, was drafted by his pen and was enacted largely through his own individual exertion.
He was presented to his father and mother in their humble farm home in Alla- makee county, Iowa, by a Good Gypsy, as the tradition goes, away back in 1858-two years after the birth of the republican party, with which he has since been so prominently identified. Had he been born the year he was inaugurated governor of South Dakota, instead of 1858, he would no doubt have been delivered by parcel post.
His boyhood years were spent on the farm. At twenty years of age the western fever got hold of him and he struck out, land- ing in Sioux Falls in 1879. The next year
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FRANK M. BYRNE
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he homesteaded in McCook county. He and Lieut. Governor Abel both became identified with McCook county. He broke up part of his own farm and did some work for the Honorable Rollin J. Wells, now of Sioux Falls, one of his neighbors, and who has since earned the distinction of being the state's finest dramatic poet. Wells paid Byrne the first dollar he ever earned in South Dakota; and today there isn't a man in the state who is prouder to see Frank M. Byrne governor, than is Mr. Wells himself.
But Mr. Byrne's western fever proved "intermittent," as the doctor would say; at least he suffered a relapse, for, after proving up in 1883, he again pulled west and settled in Faulk county. At that time the little in- land town of La Foon was the county seat. Here he made his home for two years. Then he struck for Fargo, now in North Dakota, but at that time a prominent village of Da- kota Territory. For the next three years, he roamed between Fargo and Sioux Falls. However, in 1888 he came back to Faulk county and settled on a farm where he re- mained till 1900 when he moved into the city of Faulkton, where he has since made his home.
During all these years, he prospered, so that today he owns twelve quarter sec-
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
tions of land in Faulk county, and a nice › home in the city of Faulkton. Seven quarters of the land lie together in one farm near Miranda. It is a splendid farm-one that Governor Byrne may well feel proud of, be- cause he earned it instead of inheriting it.
IN POLITICS
Governor Byrne was the first state senator from Faulk county. Later, he served four years (1899-1902) as treasurer of that county. These early experiences gave rise to his growing knowledge of our public affairs. He then retired from politics for four years. But again in 1906 his friends turned out and sent him back to the state senate. He was making good. Faulk county placed confidence in his ability, his integrity and his judgment. It was during his second service in the senate that the eyes of the state were attracted to him. He had some "insurgent" or "progressive" or "reforma- tory" (whichever you wish to call it) ideas- not red-eyed, fire-eating, irrational, radical, panaceas for all of our political evils, both real and imaginary-but some genuine, sane, manly conceptions of rational progress. So he introduced into the state senate, and suc- ceeded in their enactment, the following laws :
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FRANK M. BYRNE
(1) Anti-Pass law-which has since proved one of the greatest blessings to the state of any law which we have ever enacted.
(2) The Two-Cent Passenger Fare Law-which has since been tied up in the courts.
(3) The Reciprocal Demurrage Law -which requires railroads to pay damages for delay in furnishing cars to shippers.
(4) A Law Taxing Railways' Termi- nal Property.
(5) A Law Reducing Express Rates 20 per cent-and authorizing the state rail- road commission to reduce these rates still further.
(6) A Law Requiring Standard Forms of Life Insurance Policies.
(7) An Insurance Law-one requiring the insurance commissioner to turn over all fees to the state treasurer, and providing that they could be paid out only on regular vouchers ; and
(8) The Anti-Lobby Law.
His legislative record made him an easy winner for the lieutenant-governorship in 1910. Here again, in the organization of the state senate, he showed himself to be a man of great poise, judgment, tact and fairness and withal a statesman. As presiding officer of the state senate, he won the friendship and
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
confidence of the leaders in both factions of his party. So, in 1912, the natural-the logical thing-happened. He became a can- didate for governor. There was plenty of opposition, to be sure. A primary is a bid for multiplication of candidates. But when the votes were counted, Frank M. Byrne had polled a plurality of approximately 10,000, over his nearest competitor and a majority of 6,000 over all. He had a tough fight in November, but he won.
AS GOVERNOR
On January 7, 1912, amid imposing cere- monies, Frank M. Byrne was sworn in as governor of our great and growing state. His inauguration was one of the grandest in the history of the commonwealth.
From the standpoint of our state's needs, his first message to the legislature was a masterpiece. Again, in detail recommenda- tions, it showed that the governor is not only a man of broad comprehension but that he possesses an exceedingly analytical mind. In all, he made recommendations for specific legislation at once on nineteen different sub- jects, chief among which were our state in- stitutions, freight and passenger rates, and public printing.
The message, in printed form, consists of fifty pages-exactly one half of which are
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FRANK M. BYRNE
devoted to our state institutions. His most sweeping recommendations are in a complete change which he recommends for the man- agement of our state educational, our chari- table and our penal institutions. At present the five regents have complete control of the state schools, while the five members of the board of charities and corrections have equal authority over the charitable and penal in- stitutions. Instead of dividing the work per- pendicularly, so to speak, as it now is, Gov- ernor Byrne recommends a constitutional amendment that will reduce each board to three members and authorize the legislature to enact a law dividing the boards' responsi- bilities horizontally; that is, a board of ad- ministration to employ the heads of all of the institutions, and other members, and another board to look after the strictly business af- fairs of the same. His reasoning invites ad- miration. A class of men, competent by edu- cation, training and experience, to select normal school presidents and faculties, might not be equipped to handle successfully the technical part of the various institutions' business affairs, while a board of three, con- sisting of an experienced contractor, a bank- er and a lawyer, would unquestionably look closely after the erection of buildings, the
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
insurance of the same and various kindred matters.
. His foresight in asking the legislature to begin at once to equip the state's grounds, near Watertown, for another asylum, so as to be prepared to take care of our unfor- tunate citizens, as soon as the Yankton in- stitution has reached an enrollment of 1,200, is an act of statesmanship, and it shows that the people made no mistake in electing Frank M. Byrne governor.
PERSONAL
As a public speaker, Governor Byrne is plain-spoken, straightforward and convinc -. ing. As a writer, his first message shows him to be a man capable of expressing him- self in simple, modest, but high grade English. His message is that of a thoroughly trained business mind.
He was married in April, 1888, to Miss Emma Beaver of Kenton, Ohio. Mrs. Byrne possesses a modest, kindly, democratic tem- perament, similar to that of her distinguished husband. As the "First Lady" of our state she has proven companionable, sympathetic and hospitable.
To this couple who have now become so prominent in the public eye of our state, have been born five sons, Carrol B., who graduated
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FRANK M. BYRNE
June, 1912, from the naval academy at Ana- polis; Francis J., Malcolm, Joseph and Emmons.
Governor Byrne, as has been shown, has had splendid preparation in the school of experience to equip him to make South Dakota a great executive. He is a sturdy Irishman-one possessed of a high sense of civic duty, a member of the Congregational church, and a Knight of Pythias, a Mason and an Elk. Governor Byrne was re-elected in 1914, and is now serving his second term.
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R. L. SLAGLE PRESIDENT, STATE UNIVERSITY
Hanover, Pennsylvania, is a small vil- lage on the railroad that connects the historic town of Gettysburg with the city of Balti- more. During the civil war, it was the nearest decidedly Union town, to the latter place. Here, in the spring of 1865, three
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
promising baby boys were born within a period of two and a half months. Hanover is only a few miles from the famous Gettys- burg battlefield. This battlefield had been appropriately dedicated by President Lincoln in his immortal speech. The civil war was nearing its close. Abraham Lincoln had be- come the idol of the North. His eldest son's name was Robert. So what more natural thing could have happened than that these three "Union" babies should each have been named "Robert Lincoln ?" And so we have Robert Lincoln Hamme, today a post-office employee at Hanover; Robert Lincoln Young, now a wholesale fruit dealer in Omaha, and Robert Lincoln Slagle, president of our state university at Vermillion.
His ancestors were German. The family settled at Germantown, Penn., a few years after the old colony was founded.
His. early education was secured in the public and the private schools of Hanover. Then he matriculated at Lafayette college in 1883; received his Bachelor of Arts degree four years later, and was elected to the "Phi Beta Kappa."
STRIKES WEST
In September, 1887, he came to Dakota and accepted the professorship of natural science in the Collegiate Institute at Groton.
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R. L. SLAGLE
In the what? In the Collegiate Institute ! Yes, sir! Gracious! Never heard of it. No, well, that's not strange. What was the year ? 1887. The school closed shortly thereafter. What if it did? Who was to blame? The writer has a most distinct recollection of having hauled a load of oats, consisting of 108 bushels to market on a beautiful fall day, that same year, and of having received for the entire load $12.70; also of having marketed a load of forty-two bushels of wheat the same fall, for which he received $13.44. Not many youngsters were going to be permitted to attend "collegiate institutes" while they and the old folks were receiving such prices as these for their products.
RETURNS EAST
Professor Slagle left the state in 1888 and went to Johns Hopkins university, where he took up graduate work. In the summer of 1891-92, he did laboratory work at Harvard and in the Museum of Hygiene of the U. S. Navy Department. He earned and was given his Doctor of Philosophy degree by Johns Hopkins in 1894. The same year he took his Master's degree at Lafayette College.
COMES WEST AGAIN
After completing his work at Johns Hopkins, he served as assistant under
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
Professor Atwater, at Middleton, Conn., and in New York City.
Still, there remained in his memory visions of the West, of Indian summer days, of beautiful mirages, and of treeless plains . whose horizons were bounded only by the curves of the earth. He longed to come back to a country that had outgrown the "dry time." And so in the fall of 1895 when he was elected professor of chemistry in our state college at Brookings, his ambition was realized and again he came West.
Two years later, he was transferred to the department of chemistry in the State School of Mines at Rapid City, and the next year he was made president of the institu- tion. Land of opportunity! Blessed are the opportunists who keep pace with their op- portunities. Shakespeare was pretty wise when he wrote :
"There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at its flood, leads on to fortune."
Dr. Slagle was at flood tide. He made good at Rapid City for eight years; and on January 1, 1906, the regents of education called him back to Brookings and installed him as president of our State College at that place, in which he had formerly been a humble professor.
ANOTHER PROMOTION
He remained at the head of the State
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R. L. SLAGLE
College for eight years. During the summer of 1913, Dr. Gault resigned the presidency of the State University at Vermillion. At that time, Dr. Slagle had been for eighteen successive and successful years under the regents of education in this state-professor of chemistry in two of our institutions of higher education, and subsequently president of them both. There wasn't a flaw in his record. He was recognized by the brainy men of the East as one of the most exact scholars in the State. So, on December 5, 1913, the regents of education met at Ver- million, and without any application from Dr. Slagle or any endorsements of him from anybody, they elected him president of our State University.
He promptly resigned at Brookings and went to Vermillion where he assumed charge of the school February 2, 1914. The faculty and students gave him a most cordial wel- come; the city of Vermillion received him with open arms. Confidence in the institu- tion was promptly restored throughout the State. President Gault had been gone for seven months and the institution was run- ning without a regular presidential head- the deans of the various colleges alternating in charge of affairs. In a year the regular college enrollment had increased 31 per cent.
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
This, without counting any of the 170 summer school students.
HIS RECORD AND PERSONALITY
Here is a great record-the record of a great man. Dr. Slagle is a powerful thinker. Said the mighty Emerson, "I count him a great man who inhabits a higher sphere of thought into which other men may rise with labor and difficulty." This is the sphere of thought inhabited by Dr. Slagle. One can only rise to the same level with him through years of patient toil and research. This is the way he got it ; others must achieve it likewise.
And yet, withal, Dr. Slagle is one of the most simple, most democratic and most com- panionable men in our state. He is as chum- my with the boys of our state university as though they were actually his room mates. On the other hand he maintains-even while mingling so freely with them-that beautiful manly dignity that commands respect and invites admiration. Only the born teacher and disciplinarian can do this. In his natural manners Dr. Slagle reminds one of Shakespeare's couplet :
"I dare do all that may become a man: Who dares do more is none."
There can be no doubt that God gives to every man special talents to do certain
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R. L. SLAGLE
things; this becomes their natural field of work. To succeed they must find it. Dr. Slagle found his-the school room. Carlyle immortalized this thought in his literary gem :
"Blessed is he who has found his work; Let him ask no other blessedness."
Thus is Dr. Slagle blessed-thrice blessed. And through this blessing, coupled with his pure manhood, he is blessing others; for, in the language of Browning :
"The world wants men-pure men, Who can not be bought or sold; Men who would scoff to violate trust; Genuine gold.
The world wants men-pure men, Free from the taint of sin, Men whose lives are clean without And pure within."
"Conquer thyself !" wrote Burton, "Till thou hast done that thou art a slave." Ro- bert L: Slagle, the moral man, makes Robert L. Slagle, the physical man, and Robert L. Slagle, the mental man, both his slaves. His great heart rules; and out of it springs a manhood that makes others more manly who have heard or felt its throbs.
Again he is a sympathetic man-one thoroughly enthused with his work. For some time three eastern schools have been struggling to get him away from South Da-
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
kota: Two of them have offered him salaries far in excess of what he is receiving, but he has steadfastly refused, and to each offer has said: "No, I like my boys and I have a mis- sion here to perform." Perhaps, after all, his soul has been lighted up with a spark from Cotton's pen :
"If solid happiness we prize, Within our breast this jewel lies, And they are fools who roam."
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS
At Rapid City, Dr. Slagle was a member of the Black Hills Mining association. He is also a member of the American Chemical society, of the Free Masons, the Sons of the American Revolution, and of the Episcopal church.
However, any mention that might be made of him, without including Mrs. Slagle, would be incomplete. Her maiden name was Gertrude A. Riemann, and her home was in Philadelphia. She and Dr. Slagle' were united in holy matrimony at St. Paul in 1896.
Mrs. Slagle was quite as democratic in her manners as is her distinguished husband. She was a lady of strong literary tastes, always congenial and refreshing, and was for several years instructor in English at the State School of Mines. Mrs. Slagle, after a painful illness, passed away December 3, 1915.
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W. W. GIRTON HIS STEPS POINT RIGHT
"I have never met you before, professor, but I have crossed and recrossed your trail a hundred times, and I have always found that your steps pointed in the right direction," said Father Haire, a member of the regents of education during Governor Mellette's
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
days, to Prof. W. W. Girton, of the Madison State Normal, the first time they met.
What the good old father discovered, every other man who has ever crossed Pro- fessor Girton's trail, has also discovered. Here is a man of whom it may truthfully be said, "His life is an open book." With him, deceit is contrary to his nature. He has practiced the rules of civic virtue and private honesty for so many years that he could not betray his fellow man if he tried-but he will never try. A thirty-second degree Mason, he has inculcated from that grand fraternity, the noble principles which have moulded him into a righteous man.
His soul is embossed in beauty. From it emanates rays of powerful and magnetic friendship that draw his associates to him by legions. His inward nature exhales a soul- sweetness that causes his companions to speak with pride when they say, "He is my friend." Calm, judicious, even tempered, and one who practices daily those great civic virtues-silence and circumspection-his is the life ideal; his, the companionship to be sought; his, the example to follow. If every man's steps pointed in the direction of Pro- fessor Girton's, we would have no jails, no penitentiaries, and the millennial dawn which is to usher in the angelic day would be staring us squarely in the face.
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W. W. GIRTON
ADOWN THE YEARS
It will surprise many of Professor Gir- ton's friends to learn that his birthplace was Lincolnshire, England, April 10, 1850; that his parents were both British born and reared; and that later on, W. W. Girton married a girl (Frances Richmond), who was born at Belturbet, Ireland, May 10, 1852. This leaves but one year and eleven months between their ages. Whether Mrs. Girton has ever demanded "home rule" for Ireland we do not know; but it is safe to say that Great Brit (her . devoted husband) never denied to her a common sense request.
The same year that W. W. was born, his parents removed with him to America and settled at Florence, Mich. The next year his father died, and our baby immi- grant, his good mother and one brother, were left in a foreign land to hustle for them- selves. The mother took her little brood and wended her way to Sauk county, Wisconsin. Here William got his early education in a district school. Later he attended the public schools, and then he became a student for two years in the academy at Spring Green, going from there to the academy at Sexton- ville. Out of this trend of events, he had prepared himself for a teacher, and in 1870, at the age of twenty, he took up work as such in a district school near Reedsburg.
Tous Fand eni A
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
The financial struggles of childhood had 1 taught our young teacher the art of saving. He guarded well his earnings and expendi- tures during the year, and then in April, 1871, he entered the state normal at Plattes- ville, from which he graduated in 1874.
During the winter of 1875-76 Professor Girton was principal of schools at Muscoda, Wis. Then he drifted over to Cinton, Ia., and was appointed assistant superintendent of the school for the blind; but at the end of the first year he resigned to accept the principalship of the public schools at Har- lan, Ia. In 1880, he was elected superintend- ent of schools in Shelby county, Iowa, of which Harlan is the county seat.
In this position, he served four years; then he established the "Shelby County Re- publican" at Harlan, which he edited and published for three years. However, in 1886, he sold out and came to Vilas, S. D., at which place he organized the Vilas Bank- ing Co., serving as president of the same for three years. During this same period he established and published the "Miner County Farmer."
He sold out in 1889 and was immediately thereafter made chief engrossing clerk of the last territorial legislature, which at that time was in session at Bismarck. When the
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W. W. GIRTON
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legislature adjourned he was made deputy territorial auditor, and as such he had charge of the tremendous task which we "Latter Day Saints" will never know anything about, of making a complete transcript of the ter- ritorial records to be filed in the capitol of our own state which had just been or- ganized; and of moving to Pierre, systema- tizing and filing away, over sixty tons of literature.
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