History of Dakota Territory, volume V, Part 137

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1262

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church. He votes with the democratic party and he belongs to the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the degree of Master Mason, but these things are all subservient to his professional duties. He keeps in touch with modern thought and research along medical lines through his membership in the Rosebud Medical Association, the State Medical Asso- ciation, the Missouri Valley Medical Association and the American Medical Association, and when professional duties allow him leisure he turns to outdoor sports and to hunting and fishing for rest and recreation.

MADISON BENNETT.

Madison Bennett, one of the well known and successful agriculturists of Valley Springs township, Minnehaha county, has there carried on farming continuously during the past forty-one years, owning the northeast quarter of section 30. His birth occurred in Meigs county, Ohio, on the 26th of August, 1851, his parents being Jesse and Angeline (Hill) Bennett, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. They were taken to Ohio as children by their respective parents and were married in that state, locating on a farm in Meigs county. In 1856 Jesse Bennett started for Wisconsin with his family by boat, but he fell a victim to the cholera scourge of that year and was taken off board at Galena, Illinois, where his death occurred. His widow subsequently located at Monroe, Wisconsin, and later gave her hand in marriage to Joseph Clark, with whom she came to South Dakota in 1876, settling on a homestead in Valley Springs township, Minnehaha county. The mother of our subject passed away in 1910, at which time she was residing with one of her daughters in Decorah, Iowa.

Madison Bennett was reared at home and acquired a limited education as a pupil in the common schools. In June, 1872, when about twenty-one years of age, he preempted a quarter section of land in Rock county, Minnesota, which adjoins Minnehaha county, South Dakota. He spent the winter of 1873 in the latter county and in March, 1874, homesteaded his present place, comprising the northeast quarter of section 30, Valley Springs township, on which he has remained continuously throughout the intervening forty-one years. In his undertakings as an agriculturist he has won a gratifying and well merited measure of success that well entitles him to representation among the prosperous and enterprising citizens of the community.

In 1878 Mr. Bennett was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Louisa MeMackin, her father being Samuel MeMackin of Valley Springs township, who came to this state from Iowa in 1874. To Mr. and Mrs. Bennett have been born six children, as follows: Albert Eugene, who follows farming in Split Rock township, Minnehaha county; Etta May, the wife of E. A. Trumbull, of Sioux Falls; Asa D., who operates the home farm; Verna, who gave her hand in marriage to Goodman Gulseth, of Rowena, South Dakota; and Florence and Ger- trude, both at home.

Mr. Bennett gives his political allegiance to the republican party and ably served for several years as a member of the township board. He has also been treasurer of the school board for many years, the cause of education ever finding in him a stalwart champion. Fraternally he is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Modern Brotherhood of America and Valley Springs Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His wife is a devoted and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church. They enjoy an extensive and favorable acquaintance in their home community and the hospitality of the best homes is cordially extended to them.

CHARLES F. SISSON.

Charles F. Sisson, one of the leading agriculturists and representative citizens of Minnehaha county, where he has resided continuously for the past four decades, makes his home on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres on section 23, Benton township, and also owns four hundred and eighty acres in Lyons township. His birth occurred in Wisconsin

MR. AND MRS. MADISON BENNETT

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on the 21st of July, 1848, his parents being Francis O. and Zylphia (Lyman) Sisson, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Canada. When a child Francis O. Sisson removed with his parents to Ohio and on reaching young manhood went to Wisconsin, where he was married and located on a farm. He was a mechanic and worked at that occupation for a number of years, but in later life turned his attention to general agricultural pursuits. For some years he held the office of county commissioner, making a creditable record in that connection. His demise occurred in Wisconsin, in 1895, when he had attained the age of seventy-six years, while his wife was called to her final rest in 1907 at the age of seventy-seven years.

Charles F. Sisson was reared under the parental roof and attended the public schools in the acquirement of an education. In 1873, when a young man of twenty-five years, he left home and went to Minneapolis, where he spent the following summer, while during the next winter he resided in Rochester, Minnesota. In the spring of 1874, with four com- panions, he came west to South Dakota, locating in Lyons township, Minnehaha county, and taking up a homestead in the southeast quarter of section 21. At the same time he entered a tree claim in the northeast quarter of section 28 and subsequently purchased the south- west quarter of section 21, so that his farm embraced four hundred and eighty acres. He still owns this property and resided thereon for about twenty-five years. In 1899 he bonght his present home farm of one hundred and sixty aeres in Benton township and has lived thereon continuously since. In the conduct of his agricultural interests he has won a gratifying measure of success, for his fields are under a high state of cultivation and yield him bountiful harvests.

Mr. Sisson has been married twice. In the fall of 1876 he wedded Miss Mary Hartzell, of Rochester, Minnesota, by whom he had ten children, six of whom survive, as follows: Harry H., who is a resident of Colton, South Dakota; Grace, the wife of Graff Jackson, of Benton township, Minnehaha county; Edna; Elmer, who follows farming in Minnehaha county; Lucy, who is employed as a stenographer in Sioux Falls; and Newell, at home. The wife and mother passed away on the 3d of February, 1899, and on June 1, 1905, Mr. Sisson married Miss Agnes D. Hogan, of Bon Homme county, South Dakota. To them have been born four children: Charlenia, George, Clyta and Iwana,

In politics Mr. Sisson is a republican. He has served for several terms on both the Lyons and Benton township boards and for several terms acted as clerk of the school board, ever proving an able and faithful public official. His wife is a devout communicant of the Catholic church. His life has been quietly passed, unmarked by any spectacular pbases, but loyalty to duty and principle has established him high in public regard and gained for him the warm friendship of all with whom he has been brought in contact.

GEORGE W. MITCHELL.

The town of Winner is a typically representative western municipality. Of rapid growth, its advancement has been substantial, its builders recognizing that they should lay the foundation not only for present progress but for future growth and upbuilding. Among the worthy and influential citizens of the town is numbered George W. Mitchell, the presi- dent of the Lamro State Bank. He was born in Lodi, Wisconsin, August 27, 1867, and is a son of William H. and Susan (Canning) Mitchell. The father, who was a farmer by occupation, has departed this life hut the mother survives and makes her home at Winner, South Dakota.

Spending his youthful days under the parental roof, George W. Mitchell attended the public schools of Wisconsin and afterward entered the State University at Madison, while still later he became a student in the Northwestern Business College in the same city. He then went to the west and for a period sojourned in Denver hut afterward removed to Nebraska and while in that state entered a general store, in which he was employed as a clerk at a salary of forty dollars per month. It was about that time, or in 1890, that he married and established a home of his own. He continued clerking for seven years, during which period he carefully saved his earnings, practicing close economy as well as industry in order to acquire the capital which would enable him to engage in business on his own

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account. When he felt the sum was sufficient he opened a general store, which he conducted until 1906, when he sold out and removed to South Dakota, first settling at Presho. In the spring of 1909, however, he came to Lamro, South Dakota, and established the Lamro State Bank, which he subsequently moved to Winner. Other banks were also founded here at the opening of the town, but Mr. Mitchell is the only one of the original bankers remaining. From the outset he has enjoyed a good patronage and the business of the bank is now large and satisfactory. Mr. Mitchell has ever maintained a safe policy in conduct- ing the bank and has thoroughly won and merited the confidence of the stockholders, patrons and the general public. He has made judicious investments in property, becoming a large landowner in the state. He is one of the organizers of the Chamberlain Land & Loan Company, which purchased seventy quarter sections and has since disposed of the greater part of this at a good profit.

In 1890 Mr. Mitchell wedded Miss Della Saunders and they have one child, Brandon E. The parents are members of the Episcopal church, taking a helpful interest in its work. Mr. Mitchell votes with the republican party and puts forth earnest effort in its behalf yet is not an office seeker. Fraternally he is a third degree Mason, a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen. His interest in community affairs is manifest in many tangible ways, including his service as president of the executive board of the local Chamber of Commerce. He approves the good roads movement and stands at all times for public progress, in which connection he is a man of action rather than thecry. He enjoys horseback riding and motoring and is fond of fishing and hunting and utilizes those interests for rest and recreation. He leads a busy life, makes his work count for the utmost and his ready discrimination between the essential and the non-essential is one of the salient features in his increasing prosperity.

HERMANN J. G. KOOBS, M. D.

Dr. Hermann J. G. Koohs, of Scotland, is one of the best known physicians of the south- eastern part of the state. He has made a thorough study of his profession, which he has mastered in principle and detail, so that his high reputation is but the reward of conscientious study and strict application. Dr. Koobs is a native of Ostfriesland, Germany, and was reared in the city of Bremen, where he obtained his preliminary education. He was an only child of his parents, who died during his early infancy, and he was therefore reared in the family of C. L. Horn, relatives of his mother, who had only one daughter and who adopted him, rearing him as their own son, but leaving him his own name.

Between the ages of fifteen and sixteen years Dr. Koobs was graduated from a realschule, an institution in which the course of study is at least equal to that of any high school or academy in this country. For a year thereafter he was in the office of a petroleum broker, learning the fundamentals of business. From the time when he was a small boy, however, he had shown particular talent and liking for the study of physics and chemistry and desired to become an apothecary. As positions in German apothecary shops are very difficult to obtain he saw no opportunity of being able to follow his choice of a life work there. An unele in America wrote him that it would be easy for him to achieve his desire along that line in this country. Moreover, he was unwilling to serve for three years in the German army and as he could get papers of dismissal from the German government at that time, being then seventeen years of age, he decided to come to the United States, the desire to carry out his plans of a life work and to avoid military service in Germany constituting the motives which brought him to America, sailing from Bremerhaven on the North German Lloyd Steamship Oder on the 27th of January, 1885. The voyage was a rather rough one and during a heavy sea when he tried to walk across the ship's deck a big wave swept him off his feet. carrying him to the railing and taking with it his cap and giving him a thorough drenching. It was a narrow escape, but at length he reached New York in safety in the month of February. He also experienced considerable hardship on his first railroad trip in this country. The weather was severely cold and his ticket having heen purchased over the North West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, he traveled through a region where a great deal of snow had fallen. When near Buffalo, New York, the train became stuck in a snowdrift so that the passengers had to

DR. HERMANN J. G. KOOBS

THE KOOBS RESIDENCE

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transfer, walking some distance in order to reach the other train. Not being properly clothed for that climate, Dr. Koobs nearly froze his ears and fingers. His train was again delayed at Erie for about twenty-four hours, for the heavy ice interfered with the passage of the ferry boat with which the train made connection. Eight days had elapsed from the time lie left New York until he reached his destination-Grundy Center, Iowa. As he had neither sufficient money nor food to last for such a length of time he was almost famished when he reached the end of his journey. As a result of this exposure, laek of food and other hardships he suffered a severe attack of climate fever, from which he did not recover for several weeks. Among the varied experiences which have come to him in later life was another that had to do with a narrow escape from a railroad accident. It occurred at the time of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, when he was returning to his home over the Maple Leaf Road. There was a broken rail between Kent and Stockton, Illinois, which caused the train to plunge down a twelve-foot embankment. The car in which Dr. Koobs was a passenger, landed on its roof, so that he found himself standing upon his head in the aisle, and he gripped both seats firmly in order to keep from being thrown to the floor and possibly, as some were, through the window. As it was he escaped unhurt except for a little sprain of his wrists.

Dr. Koobs made his initial step in business circles of America by obtaining a position as clerk in the drug store of Moffett Brothers at Grundy Center, Iowa, going to work as soon as his health would permit. After three and a half years in that connection he engaged in business for himself as a partner of J. P. DeNeui at George, Iowa, a new town on the Illinois Central extension from Cherokee to Sioux Falls, Iowa, theirs being the first drug store at that place. Realizing that further study would he an advantage to him. Dr. Koobs sold out at George and entered the Illinois School of Pharmacy in the fall of 1889, receiving honorable mention during the graduating exercises for good work done there. He worked for a while in a Chicago drug store as prescription elerk, becoming licensed as a registered pharmacist in the states of Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota, and was engaged in the drug business at various places altogether for about twelve years. While owning a drug store at Paullina, Iowa, he became interested in the watch and jewelry business and in order to better understand this went to Peoria, Illinois, taking a course in the Parsons Horological Institute. While there he also took up as a specialty the study of optics and from that time was greatly interested in the errors of refraction and diseases of the eye. This, together with the wish of Dr. Heffelfinger, of Grundy Center, who took a great liking to him when he was working for Moffett Brothers and who insisted that he was especially well qualified for the profession of medicine and undertook to give him instruction along that line, determined Dr. Koobs to prepare for medical practice and to that end he entered the Northwestern University Medical school with credits in chemistry, materia medica and physiology. While pursuing his course there he served as student assistant in the department of physiology under Professor W. S. Hall for two years and was graduated in June, 1902, with the M. D. degree.

On completing his course Dr. Koobs returned to Scotland, South Dakota, where he had previously been interested in the drug and jewelry business with V. B. Diehl and has since enjoyed a very extensive and lucrative practice. During 1909 he spent about six months in Oklahoma on account of his health and while there took the medical state hoard examination at Muskogee, passing with a general average of ninety-five and a fraction per cent according to the report sent by the secretary of the state board. He has pursued post-graduate courses in the Chicago Clinic and the Illinois School of Electro-Therapeuties and keeps in tonell with the advance of his profession by constant study and by conference with other physicians and surgeons. He has a well selected medical library of over four hundred volumes and one of the best equipped offices in the southeastern part of the state, enabling him to perform his professional service in a most efficient manner. He is especially well qualified for diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, specializing along that line, in which he now enjoys a large operative practice. He has an office nurse, who assists him in his work and this, together with a complete office equipment and his liberal professional education, enables him to give lis patients most excellent care and treatment. He has become especially widely known for his success in ophthalmology. In addition to an extensive private practice he is the present superintendent of the Bon Homme county board of health; is secretary and treasurer of State and County Medical Health Officers Association of South Dakota; is local United States pension examining surgeon; is surgeon for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Com- Vor. V-50

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pany; and medical examiner for about twenty different life insurance companies, including the Northwestern Mutual of Milwaukee; the New York Life; the Provident Savings of New York; the Prudential of Newark, New Jersey; the Travelers of Hartford, Connecticut; the Penn Mutual of Philadelphia; and the Merchants and Bankers of Des Moines. He is a member in good standing of the American Medical Association; the South Dakota State Medical Asso- ciation; the Yankton District Medical Society; the Sioux Valley Medical Society; and the Academy of American Railway Surgeons. He is an ex-president of the Yankton District Medical Society and in 1915 is serving as vice president of both the Sioux Valley Medical Society and the South Dakota State Medical Association. He has prepared and read several papers before most of these societies on scientific subjects and has delivered several public addresses on medicine and health topics.

Dr. Koobs was married in Paullina, Iowa, August 31, 1890, to Miss May E. Donnan, then a schoolteacher, who was born in Wisconsin and is a daughter of Alexander and Rachel (Perkins) Donnan. While Dr. and Mrs. Koobs have no children of their own they have legally adopted a son-Valentine Hall Koobs.

The Doctor is prominent in Masonic circles, still holding membership in the blue lodge at Paullina, Iowa, where he first joined the order. He has taken the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in the consistory at Yankton and is a member of the Mystic Shrine at Sioux Falls. He is also a member of and examining physician for the Modern Woodmen of America and the Royal Neighbors. Both he and his wife are prominent in the Eastern Star. The Doctor is an active member of the Presbyterian church and superintendent of its Sunday school. His political allegiance is given the republican party where national issues are involved, but he takes no part in politics aside from the exercise of his right of franchise and at local elections votes without regard to party ties.

Because of his close application to business, his intolerance of improper conduct and his independent nature he often gives one who is not well acquainted with him the impression of lacking in sociability and of being unduly haughty and reserved, but the impression soon vanishes when one comes to know bim better, for he is of a genial nature, tender-hearted, fun- loving and hospitable to a fault. He is always intensely interested in anything that will make for the betterment of his town or community or will promote the welfare of his fellowmen and he is especially fond of and interested in children and young people. Those who know him best hold him in the highest esteem.

ROBERT T. SUNDAL.

As president of the Farmers State Bank of Lyons, and as an official in various other business enterprises of Minnehaha county, Robert T. Sundal ranks among the substantial and influential citizens of his section of South Dakota. He is, moreover, actively engaged in agricultural pursuits on a valuable tract of three hundred and twenty acres, located on section 15, Lyons township. Mr. Sundal was born in Norway on the 18th of November, 1860, a son of Torger and Anna (Rote) Sundal, who emigrated to the United States in 1887, joining their son, who had preceded them two years, and with whom they have since made their home.

Robert T. Sundal received a common-school education in the land of his nativity and after putting aside his books there learned the tailor's trade. He was a young man of twenty-five years when, anxious to test the truth of the reports he had heard concerning the new world, he set sail for America. Arriving here he first located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and spent the four succeeding years working at his trade. At the end of that time he engaged in the tailoring business at Dell Rapids, South Dakota, where he spent seven years. During this time he accumulated a capital sufficient to enable him to pur- chase one hundred and sixty acres of land and while he was engaged in business for him- self his parents lived on the farm and conducted the same for him. As above stated, he remained in business for himself seven years, and when that time had expired he located on his land and has since devoted his energies to farming. He has added a second tract of one hundred and sixty acres to his original holdings, so that his home farm now comprises three hundred and twenty acres, and he has also purchased other farm property and now

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owns two hundred acres on section 16, Lyons township, while his home property is situated on section 15. Although he is busily engaged in his farming operations, he yet finds time to devote to public enterprises. He was one of the organizers of the Farmers State Bank of Lyons, of which he was made vice president, while in 1911 he was made president of the institution, in which capacity he has since ably served. He is also serving as treasurer of the Farmers Cooperative Lumber Company of Baltic, and since the organization of the Baltic Creamery Company has served as its vice president. In these various capacities he has always performed his full duty and he is numbered among the foremost citizens of Minnehaha county.

It was in 1888 that Mr. Sundal married Miss Mathilda Fossen, who was likewise a native of Norway, and to them were born seven children, of whom four still survive. These are Alex, Taylor, Mildred and Pearl, all at home. The wife and mother departed this life in 1898 and in January, 1911, Mr. Sundal wedded Laura Kjeldsen, also a native of Norway, and by her marriage she has become the mother of a daughter and son, Hazel and Marvin.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Sundal affiliate with the United Lutheran church and Mr. Sundal gives his political support to the republican party. For the past twelve years he has served on the hoard of supervisors. When Mr. Sundal arrived in America he was entirely ignorant of the customs and language of its people but the courage which enabled him to leave the land of his birth and establish himself amid strange people and new customs did not desert him, and despite the obstacles and handicaps which are always encountered by the foreigner, he has succeeded in life and today ranks among the leading citizens and enter- prising business men of his adopted county and state.

SAMUEL M. LINDLEY.

Samuel M. Lindley, president of the Security State Bank at Bonesteel, when nineteen years of age walked from Iowa to South Dakota and started in business life in this state in a humble capacity. Energy and industry, however, always come off conqueror in the strife with poverty and drawbacks and Mr. Lindley made steady progress, working his way upward until he is at the head of a strong financial institution which is bringing to him well merited prosperity. He was born at Blencoe, Iowa, August 3, 1860, and is a son of Robert and Sarah (Grant) Lindley. The father, who devoted his life to farming, was one of the earliest settlers of that state, taking up his abode in Iowa in 1854. It was a great unsettled western wilderness, its broad prairies covered with the native grasses through the summer months and presenting a dazzling, unbroken sheet of snow through the winter seasons. He bore the hardships and privations of pioncer life and lived to see remarkable changes in the state. Both he and his wife are now deceased.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume V, Part 137

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1262

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1262