History of Dakota Territory, volume V, Part 36

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

USA > South Dakota > History of Dakota Territory, volume V > Part 36

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

HON. ROBERT F. KERR

311

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA

secretary to Governor Elrod of South Dakota in 1905 and 1906 and he was editor of the Minnesota and Dakota Farmer, published at Brookings, from 1907 until November, 1910.

Mr. Kerr has also left the impress of his individuality upon the political records of the state, for he was a member of the South Dakota legislature, from 1911 until 1913. He was also one of the founders in 1901 of the South Dakota State Historical Society, was made a member of its board of directors, was subsequently elected its president and has long been a liberal contributor of articles concerning South Dakota history to newspapers, encyclopedias and historical publications. He is the author of the Block Map and Manual of South Dakota and along more local lines his activities have been equally pronounced and beneficial. He is today secretary of the Brookings Building and Loan Association and is publicity man of the Brookings Commercial Club. He is likewise manager of the Brookings Chautauqua Association. In Masonry he has attained high rank, having not only taken the degrees of the blue lodge but also of capitular and chivalric Masonry as a member of the chapter and commandery at Brookings. He likewise has membership with El Riad Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Sioux Falls, and with the Beta Theta Pi, a college fraternity. He is active in church work and has affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal denomination. It is impossible to measure the extent of bis influence. While holding to high ideals, his methods have been practical and substantial results have been achieved. At all times he has been aetuated by the spirit of progress and the results that have followed his labors have been of substan- tial benefit in shaping the history of the state.

VINCENT KOFTAN.

The Koftan family are numbered among those sturdy citizens of South Dakota who claim Bohemia as their native land and Vincent Koftan is one of the best known and most highly esteemed agriculturists of Bon Homme county. He was born in the village of Pustovyette, Bohemia, October 27, 1859. He was in his eighth year when he accompanied the other members of the family to America in the spring of 1867. His parents were Frank and Josephine (Schwartz) Koftan who, thinking to better their lot in the new world, sailed from Bremen for Qnebee with their family, and after a voyage of more than two months reached their destina- tion. They were held in quarantine on the island for three weeks because of a rash from which one of the children was suffering, and which no doubt was brought about by the poor ship's fare. From Quebee the family went by way of Chicago to Aspinwall, Nebraska, and there the father purchased two teams and filed on land eight miles north of Pawnee City. That farm remained the family home for many years, but after his sons, Vincent and Joseph, were established in South Dakota Frank Koftan sold his farm in Nebraska and removed with the rest of his family to this state, securing a fine farm southeast of Tyndall, which now belongs to his son Charles. The father's death occurred on the 25th of April, 1901, in Tyndall. to which place he had retired a few years previously. His widow survives and lives in Tyndall. All of their eight children are living, namely: Vincent; Joseph, residing in Rock county, Nebraska: Barbara. the wife of James Benesh, of Bon Homme county; Frank and .Tohm. who are both farming in Cleveland township, that county; Charles, who is residing on the old home place; Josephine, the wife of Anthony Fajfar: and Robert, a prominent attorney of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Vineent Koftan well remembers the long voyage to Quebec and the journey aeross the country to Nebraska. He had attended school but a short time in Bohemia as he was but seven years of age when the family emigrated to the new world and at the time that they settled in Pawnee county, Nebraska, the schools were somewhat primitive there and his education was therefore limited. In the fall of 1882, in company with his brother Joseph. he purchased a quarter section of land in Bon Homme county, this state, as they believed that this then new country was destined to become a prosperous and populous region. The brothers divided their quarter seetion, Vincent taking the west half. Soon afterward they built a small farmhouse on Joseph's traet and there kept bachelors' hall until Joseph mar- ried, after which our subject continued to live with his brother for two or three years. He then huilt a comfortable dwelling for himself of the chalk rock abounding in that seetion and for seven years not only developed his farm, but also did the necessary housework. He

312

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA

still lives upon that place and its splendid condition testifies to his energy and good judgment. When Mr. Koftan first began cultivating his farm it was prairie ground upon which only grass grew, but one of the first things that he did was to plant a fine grove of decidnous trees and many pines and cedars. He has six acres of fine orchard, all of which is protected by a heavy windbreak of evergreens and other trees. He has made extensive additions to the house, erected a number of farm buildings and otherwise added to the valne of his property. He owns two hundred acres in the home place and one hundred and sixty acres north of Tyndall and is one of the well-to-do agriculturists of his county.

Mr. Koftan has considerable inventive genius and has recently patented in the United States and some foreign countries, a truck for raising automobiles off their tires. Simplicity, ease of operation and cheapness of manufacture are some of the good points of the device, which is also so made as to lessen the liability of breakage.

Mr. Koftan was married three miles west of Tyndall to Miss Elmora Abbott, a daughter of William and Sarah A. (Wilman) Abbott, and a native of Dane county, Wisconsin, born February 13, 1871. Her father was born in England, and in 1868 emigrated to Wisconsin, coming thence to South Dakota in 1875. Mrs. Koftan was in school the day of the great blizzard and with the rest of the children remained at the schoolhouse over night. Mr. and Mrs. Koftan have two daughters, Belle Violet and Mattie Louise. They and their mother are members of the Christian church and Mr. Koftan is a republican in his political belief. He has become thoroughly American and is one of the most esteemed residents of his section of the state, where those who know him are his friends.

HON. PHILO HALL.

Hon. Philo Hall, one of the foremost members of the bar of eastern South Dakota, has been engaged in practice at Brookings for more than a quarter of a century and has also been a prominent figure in the public life of the state. As a member of the well known law firm of Hall, Alexander & Purdy he has been accorded an enviable and gratifying clientage. His birth occurred in Waseca county, Minnesota, on the 31st of December, 1865, his parents being Philo and Mary E. (Green) Hall, the former a native of Canada and the latter of New York city. When a young man Philo Hall, Sr., crossed the border into the United States and attended school at Kenosha, Wisconsin. Subsequently he removed to Waseca county, Minnesota, where he met and married Miss Green, who had accompanied her parents on their removal to the Gopher state in girlhood. During the period of the Civil war he served for three years with the First Minnesota Infantry, acting as first sergeant of his company and making a most creditable military record. After returning from the front he embarked in the merchandising business at Wilton and later conducted a similar enterprise at Waseca. In 1879 he went to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and was there suc- cessfully engaged in business until his demise, which occurred in 1883. His widow, who survives, now makes her home in Brookings.

Philo Hall was reared under the parental roof and in the acquirement of an education attended the public schools of Waseca, Minnesota, and the Baptist College of Sionx Falls. Following his graduation he located in Brookings in 1883, there took up the study of law in the office of Judge J. O. Andrews and was admitted to the bar in 1887. Throughout the intervening twenty-eight years to the present time he has remained an active and successful representative of the legal profession in Brookings. Gaining merited recognition in political and public life. he was first chosen for the office of states attorney and filled the same most creditably for two terms. In 1901 he was elected to the state senate of South Dakota, remaining a member of that body for one term and ably representing the interests of his constituents. In 1902 he was chosen attorney general of South Dakota, holding that impor- tant office for two terms or until 1906, when he was elected to congress from his district and served for one term. Since its conclusion he has given his undivided attention to his law practice and enjoys the distinction of being one of the leading representatives of the pro- fession in eastern South Dakota.

In April, 1890. Mr. Hall was joined in wedlock to Mrs. Mary A. Cooke, of Brookings, by whom he has had three children, two of whom survive, as follows: Vivian, who is the

313

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA

wife of Henry Shea, assistant professor in chemistry in the South Dakota State College of Brookings; and Morell, who is a student in the Brookings high school.

Mr. Hall's fraternal relations are with the following organizations: Brookings Lodge, No. 24, A. F. & A. M .; Brookings Chapter, No. 18, R. A. M .; Brookings Commandery, K. T .; El Riad Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Sioux Falls; Brookings Lodge, No. 40, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is also a valued member of the Brookings Commercial Club, and Mrs. Hall belongs to the Baptist church. He has wisely used the talents with which nature has endowed him and his record proves that he regards a public office as a public trust-and it is a well known fact that no trust reposed in him has ever been betrayed in the slightest degree.

LESLIE G. HILL, M. D., F. A. C. S.

Dr. Leslie G. Hill, specializing in the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, is today one of the best known representatives of the medical profession in South Dakota. He was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, May 31, 1868, and is a son of Edward and Isabelle (Stannard) Hill, both of whom were natives of the state of New York. In early life, however, they became residents of Kenosha, Wisconsin, where they were married. The father became a farmer of Mitchell county, Iowa, in 1869, and there carried on general agricultural pursuits until 1894. In 1911 he was called upon to mourn the loss of his wite, but he survives at the age of seventy-nine years and now resides in Osage, Mitchell county. He has long been an exemplary member and active worker in the Masonic fraternity.

Dr. Hill was reared amid rural surroundings, with the usual experiences of the farm lad. He supplemented a public-school education by study in the Cedar Valley Seminary at Osage, Iowa, from which he was graduated with the class of 1887. Two years prior thereto, however, he began teaching, being then a youth of seventeen years, and he followed that profession for four years, hut regarded it merely as an initial step to other professional labor, taking up the study of medicine in 1890, reading under the preceptorship of Dr. George H. Ripley of Kenosha, Wisconsin, who for some years was a member of the state board of health of Wisconsin and one of the foremost representatives of the medical profession there. In 1891 Dr. Hill entered the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, completing the course with the class of 1895. He then returned home and the first important event following was his marriage to Miss Helen St. John of Cedar Falls, Jowa, who is a lady of liberal education, being a graduate of the Iowa State Teachers' College. They established their home in Sibley, Iowa, where Dr. Hill remained in general practice for five years. He was most liberally patronized, building up a practice of extensive proportions, and during that period he also served as coroner of the county.

In 1902 he removed to Chicago in order to enter upon the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. He spent two and a half years in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York in his special work and subsequently studied under Dr. L. Webster Fox of Philadelphia, one of the greatest ophthalmologists of the world, then at the head of the Medico-Chirurgical College, from which Dr. Hill received his diploma in June, 1908. How- ever, in the meantime-1904- he had located in Watertown, being the first physician to specialize exclusively in treatment of the eye, ear, nose and throat in this section of the state. He has kept in touch with the advancement of the times in medical science pertaining to his work and each year has pursued post-graduate courses, giving him intimate and accurate knowledge of the most modern methods and the latest scientific investigations which have to bear upon his particular field. He is a member of the staff of the new Luther Hospital of Watertown, and is oenlist for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Com- pany. He has a license permitting him to practice in seven different states.

In 1907 Dr. Hill was appointed a member of the state board of medical examiners of South Dakota and soon thereafter was elected president of the board, while later he was chosen secretary and exeentive officer. He was also appointed by Governor Vessey a member of the national board of reciprocity and examination and his activity in that important position led to his advanced ideas on medical registration being adopted, so that they are now in operation in many states. Under Dr. Hill's administration the Sonth

314

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA

Dakota state requirements were advanced to the highest plane of effieieney. He is a mem- ber of the Watertown District Medical Society, the Sioux Valley Medical Society, the South Dakota State Medical Society, the lowa and the Nebraska State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association, the last named having elected him a delegate to its national convention in 1915. In the same year he was elected to fellowship in the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. and Mrs. Hill have become the parents of three children, Helen Maud, Leslie St. John and Dorothy Alice. The family is a prominent one socially in Watertown and Dr. Hill is a valued member of the Masonie fraternity, belongs also to the Knights of Pythias and is a life member of Watertown Lodge, No. 838, B. P. O. E. He also belongs to the Watertown Country Club and he is president of the board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal church. Progress might well be termed the keynote of his character. The spirit of advancement has always actuated him and he stands today among the foremost representatives of his pro- fession because of his wide study, the thoroughness with which he has mastered the work of the profession and his ready and accurate adaptability of his learning to specific needs. Without invidions distinction he may be termed one of the eminent specialists of South Dakota.

COLONEL MELVIN GRIGSBY.

Colonel Melvin Grigsby, of Sioux Falls, is recognized as one of the foremost citizens of the state of South Dakota. For a number of years he served ably in the important and responsible office of attorney general of the state and during the Spanish-American war he was colonel of the Third United States Volunteer Cavalry, which he organized and which was known as Grigsby's Cowboys. Moreover, it was due to his efforts that the formation of a regiment of United States volunteer cavalry was made possible. The initiative which he displayed at that time is characteristic of the man and of the west, where he has resided throughout his entire life.

Colonel Grigsby was born in Potosi, Grant county, Wisconsin, June 8, 1845, a son of William E. and Rhoda Grigsby. The father was employed in the lead mines near Potosi but when his son Melvin was four years old he removed to a farm two miles from the village and there the Colonel grew to manhood. His summers were devoted to assisting his father with the farm work and during the winters he attended school, which was held in an old log house. At the outbreak of the Civil war, although he was but a youth of sixteen, he desired to go to the front but his father thought him too young and sent him to school in Lancaster, Wisconsin. In the fall of that year Colonel C. C. Washburne went to Lancaster to recruit men for the Second Wisconsin Cavalry. This made young Grigsby more anxious then ever to join the army and he at length obtained his father's consent to enlist in Com- pany C, Second Wisconsin Cavalry, which was recruited at Patch Grove, Grant county, by Captain R. R. Woods. The other officers were: Myron W. Woods, first lieutenant; and D. C. Riley, second lieutenant, the former of whom subsequently became major and the latter captain. Colonel Grigsby was at the front for more than three years and experienced all of the hardships of the war. He was captured and was imprisoned at Canton, Mississippi; at Cahaba, Alabama; Andersonville, Georgia, where he remained six months; and at Florence, South Carolina, from which place he escaped on the 10th of January, 1865, reaching Sher- man's army on the 1st of February. He escaped onee and was recaptured, but finally suc- cecded in getting away. The story of his escapes, together with his experiences in rebel prisons, has been told by himself in a book entitled "The Smoked Yank."

After the conclusion of the war Colonel Grigsby entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he remained for one year, and later became a student in the State Normal School at Platteville, from which he was graduated in 1869. He was for a year principal of the schools of Horicon, Wisconsin, and for a similar period held the office of principal of the Darlington, Wisconsin, sehools and later was principal of the graded schools of Delavan, Wisconsin. In the meantime he had taken up the study of law and he completed his prepara- tion for the bar in the office of Pitt Dewey, of Lancaster. In 1872 he was admitted to the bar and not long afterward started on horseback to find a promising location for a young attorney in the northwest. In June of that year he arrived in Sioux Falls and, being pleased

COLONEL MELVIN GRIGSBY

317

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA

with the prospects, decided to locate there. He formed a partnership with R. F. Pettigrew for the practice of law and the conduct of a real-estate business and this association was continued with mutual pleasure and profit until 1876. In 1877, with George M. Smith, Colonel Grigsby established the Dakota Pantagraph at Sioux Falls, which, however, he sold in a few months. He and Mr. Smith also started the Bank of Egan at Egan, of which Colonel Grigsby was the first president, and the Union Bank at Elk Point, of which he also served as the first president.

The fitness of Colonel Grigsby for public office was early recognized by his fellow citi- zens and in 1883 at the first city election of Sioux Falls he was elected alderman from the third ward, which office he held for two terms. For one year he was clerk of the courts of Minnehaha county and in 1886 at the territorial congressional convention at Watertown he received almost enough votes for the nomination. In that same year he was elected to the territorial council and served in that capacity with marked ability. He was a delegate to the constitutional convention which met at Sioux Falls and thus had a part in the making of the organic law of the state. Until 1894 he supported the republican party but as he believed in the free coinage of silver he transferred his allegiance to the populist party in that year and was nominated for the state senate. Two years later he was the populist candidate for attorney general and campaigned the state for Bryan and free silver. He was not only elected but received more votes than any other candidate on the populist ticket in the state. He proved an efficient and conscientious official and made a record of which he has every reason to be proud. In 1912 he was a candidate for the United States senate.

Colonel Grigsby was serving as attorney general of South Dakota at the time of the sinking of the Maine and at once recognized the fact that this was almost certain to lead to war with Spain. He was very anxious to raise a regiment bnt knew that he would not be able to secure a commission in a volunteer regiment as Governor Lee, who by virtue of his office had the power of appointing all officers, was his bitter enemy. As Colonel Grigsby was thinking over the situation he saw a number of cowboys galloping up on their horses and it flashed upon him that the western cowboys would make unusually efficient soldiers. He at onee telegraphed to President Mckinley the following message: "The sinking of the Maine means war. In that event the cowboys of these western plains will make the best soldiers that can be secured on short notice. I tender my services in this connection." He watched very carefully the proceedings in congress and when he learned that a law pro- viding for the formation of volunteer regiments for service in the Spanish-American war was abont to be passed he went to Washington. On the night before his arrival in the capital the bill passed the house and was sent to the senate committee on military affairs. Colonel Grigsby secured a copy of the bill and wrote an amendment which authorized the raising of three regiments to be composed of men of special qualifications as to horsemanship and marksmanship, to be recruited from the nation at large and the officers thereof to be appointed by the president. He interviewed Assistant Secretary of War Micklejohn, who said that there was no use of trying to get the amendment added to the bill, and Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, who said that he would be very glad to help him get the amendment through but that he was so busy that it was impossible for him to do anything at that time. Colonel Grigsby then went to the senate and found that the com- mittee on military affairs was in session. He explained the amendment to Senator Warren, who said that it was a good thing but that it would be impossible for it to be added as the committee would report the bill within twenty minutes. Colonel Grigsby, however, finally succeeded in getting the amendment called to the attention of the committee and when the bill was reported it contained the amendment exactly as it had been written by Colonel Grigsby. The bill passed the senate that day and was then sent back to the house, where it was passed without objection to the amendment. The following morning it was signed by the president and became a law. It was due to this amendment that Leonard Wood was appointed colonel and Theodore Roosevelt lieutenant colonel of the First Regiment of the United States Volunteer Cavalry, Colonel Torrey colonel of the second regiment and our subject the colonel of the third. He at once began to recruit the regiment, which was mustered in on the 19th of May and left the next day for Chickamauga, where the training camp was situated. They were popularly known as "Grigsby's Cowboys." Colonel Grigsby was very popular with his men and by the time that they were called into active service they were a well drilled and effective regiment. When they were mustered out he was presented with a beautiful sword by the other officers of the command. On the 2d of June Colonel Grigsby was appointed Vol. V-14

318

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA

acting brigadier general and placed in charge of the First Cavalry Brigade, First Army Corps, and during the entire summer he had about thirty-five hundred cavalrymen in training. He remained in the service until the 8th of September, 1899, when he was mustered out. When Colonel Grigsby became an officer in the United States army Governor Andrew Lee asked for his resignation from the office of attorney general of South Dakota, which, however, he refused to give. The governor then requested that the United States officials discharge Colonel Grigsby from the army, maintaining that he could not legally hold both positions. The United States attorney general, however, ruled that the governor of South Dakota had nothing to say regarding the United States army and so Colonel Grigsby continued to hold both offices.

Colonel Grigsby was married in March, 1873, at Delavan, Wisconsin, to Miss Fannie L. Kingsbury, a sister of Hon. George W. Kingsbury, the author of the "History of Dakota Ter- ritory." To this union have been born four children: Sioux K., an attorney of Sioux Falls; George B., now mayor of Nome, Alaska; Fannie Lou, of Sioux Falls; and John T., familiarly known as "Jack," who is a practicing attorney of Flandreau, South Dakota.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Dakota Territory, volume V, Part 36

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