History of Dakota Territory, volume V, Part 57

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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Senator Hale was married January 6, 1881, to Miss Annie E. Kost, who was born in Galena, Illinois, and is a daughter of Adam and Annie Mary (Voltz) Kost, both natives of Germany. In early life, however, they emigrated to this country and their marriage occurred in Galena. The father arrived in the United States about 1855 and upon making his way to Galena was employed as a mason and plasterer. He later, however, turned his attention to farming. The family removed to Iowa from Illinois and in October, 1872, went to Battle Creek, Nebraska. Mr. Kost passed away at Sturgis. South Dakota, in 1911, and his wife is also deceased. They had ten children, of whom Mrs. Hale was the second in order of birth. Senator and Mrs. Hale, have a daughter, Mary Florence, who was born in October, 1882, and is now the wife of Dr. J. B. Naftzger, of Sioux City, Iowa. They have a son and daughter: John Hale, born August 26, 1908; and Anna Robinette, whose birth occurred October 16, 1909.

Senator Hale became a resident of Sturgis in 1902 and is now making his home in one of the most commodious and attractive residences of that place. He has taken a prominent part in public affairs in the various places in which he has resided and while living in Madi- son county, Nebraska, was elected sheriff for one term. He resigned before the expiration of his term and went to the Black Hills. In 1880 he was elected a member of the terri- torial council of Dakota, being one of two democrats so honored. For four terms he served in the house of representatives and is the present senator from his district, serving his second term. He is well informed as to all questions of public moment and also understands the most efficient ways of embodying the public will in effective legislation. He was appointed the first postmaster of Tilford under President Cleveland but resigned in favor of a merchant who was engaged in business at that place. He is a man of strongly developed social nature and finds a great deal of pleasure in his fraternal connections. He has taken all the Masonic

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degrees in the Scottish Rite from those of the blue lodge to the thirty-second degree and is also a member of the York Rite bodies. He is past grand treasurer of South Dakota and well known in Masonic circles. While connected with the Indians in the early days of the history of the territory he had a number of unique experiences, among which was the fol- lowing incident. He was invited by Chief Spotted Tail to a banquet at which dog was the chief dish served. As he could not very well refuse, he attended the feast but by a cautious use of his handkerchief was able to convey the dog meat from liis month to his hip pocket and thus did not really eat any of it. Senator Hale is thoroughly imbued with the western spirit and it is such men as he who, by their energy, force of personality and practical good judgment have made possible the wonderful material development of the state. He has also had a share in the promotion of the finer interests of life in this new state and has won deserved honor and esteem.

REV. S. J. McCAWLIFF.

Rev. S. J. MeCawliff is the pastor of St. Patricks Catholic church at Montrose, where he has been located for ten years. He was born in Canada, a native of Quebec, on the 9th of March, 1858, and is a son of Michael and Mary (Ryan) McCawliff. After mastering the branches of learning taught in the district schools near his home he became a student in St. Lawrence College of Montreal, afterward studied theology in Montreal Seminary and con- tinued his study in Laval University, from the theological department of which he was gradu- ated in 1903, thus qualifying for the priesthood. He was ordained to holy orders by the present Cardinal Begin on the 17th of May, 1903, and celebrated his first mass at St. Anne De Beaupre. He was assigned to the mission at Springfield, Bon Homme county, South Dakota, where he remained for a year and a half, and in September, 1904, he was transferred to Montrose. Since that time the parish has greatly increased in its numerical strength. There has been a great spiritual revival among the people and there are now one hundred families connected with the parish. He has built a magnificent church edifice, the corner stone of which was laid in 1906, while the building was completed at a cost of twenty-five "honsand dollars and is one of the most beautiful churches of the state. The work of the church is well organized in all of its departments. The Altar Society, the Ladies' Sewing Circle and the Holy Name Society are all in a flourishing condition and the work of the church is being vigorously prosecuted. Father McCawliff holds membership with the Catholic Order of Foresters and with the Knights of Columbus, which draws its membership from those of the Catholic faith.

GROVER C. CAYLOR.

Grover C. Caylor is one of the leading citizens of Ardmore, South Dakota, and is connected with many lines of activity there. He is United States commissioner, owns the Ardmore American, is interested in a hardware business and also practices law to some extent. He was born at Harrison, this state, on the 11th of July, 1886, a son of William E. and Ada Z. (Peerman) Caylor, natives respectively of West Virginia and Ohio. The father, who devotes his active life to farming, came to South Dakota in 1880 from Min- nesota. While living in that state he became acquainted with his future bride, who was a neighbor girl, but they were married in South Dakota. In 1884 they located at Harri- son, where the father homesteaded land and engaged in farming and stock-raising. In 1911 they removed to Fall River county and there he is still active, devoting his entire time to farming and ranching.

Grover C. Caylor is the oldest of a family of seven children and was reared under the parental roof, attending the common schools near the homestead and the high school at Harrison. In 1905 he was graduated from the latter institution and after teaching for one year entered the State Agricultural College at Brookings, where he took the first year of the mechanical engineering course. At the end of that time he decided that the

GROVER C. CAYLOR

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law would he more to his liking and accordingly became a student in the University of South Dakota at Vermillion, from which he received his LL. B. degree in 1911. When eighteen years of age he learned the trades of masonry and cement laying and during his vacations worked at those occupations, thus securing the money with which to pay his school expenses.

In the summer of his twenty-third year, Mr. Caylor was employed in the office of E. P. Wanzer at Armour, South Dakota, but in the following summer he went to the western part of the state and homesteaded land near Ardmore, Fall River county. In the summer of 1911 he opened a law office in Ardmore and still devotes some of his time to the practice of his profession. He is also United States commissioner and since April, 1912, has been sole owner and editor of the Ardmore American, an attractive and interesting weekly paper. His printing office is also equipped for job work and he gets practically all of the local business in that line. He has also been engaged in the real-estate business in partner- ship with C. B. Stoops since April, 1914, and since the fall of that year this firm has owned a hardware and implement store at Ardmore. Mr. Caylor is also secretary for the Ardmore Oil Company and is one of the leading business men of the town.

On the 24th of October, 1914, Mr. Caylor married Miss Minnie Ingersoll, who was born at Titnsville, Pennsylvania. The father, William H. Ingersoll, was engaged in the oil business in that state. In the fall of 1912 she came to South Dakota with her brothers, who are oil well drilling contractors and are drilling the wells at Ardmore for the Ard- more Oil Company.

Mr. Caylor is a democrat but has never been an office seeker although he is at present United States commissioner. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church. The greater part of his time is given to his home and his many business interests but he is not remiss in his duties of citizenship and is always willing to further a public measure of merit.

HON. JOHN W. HARRIS.

Hon. John W. Harris has in him those qualities which have ever distinguished the pioneer and have made the efforts of the frontier settlers resultant in the building of great empires. Recognizing the natural resources and the opportunities of the country into which he came, he has been a most dominant factor in the improvement of Mobridge and of Wal- worth county through bringing into this section the man with money to invest. It is a matter of satisfaction to his friends that while he has labored so untiringly and effectively for the community he has also prospered financially and is now numbered among the sub- stantial residents of his part of the state, his present business connection being that of president of the First National Bank of Mobridge.

Mr. Harris was born in Randolph, Wisconsin, on the 16th of June, 1876. a son of John and Arzelma (Parkinson) Harris. The father, a native of Wales, was brought to the United States by his parents during his infancy. He was reared and married in Wisconsin to Miss Parkinson, a native of that state, and in the fall of 1881 they removed with their family from Minnesota to South Dakota, settling in Spink county, where Mr. Harris had taken up a tree claim in 1879. He settled upon this claim, where he lived until his removal to Aberdeen, where his death occurred in 1901. His wife, surviving him for eleven years, passed away in 1912.

John W. Harris was reared in his parents' home and completed his public-school educa- tion in the Aberdeen high school, from which he was graduated with the class of 1894. The following fall he entered the Archibald Law School in Minneapolis, which he attended for one year but did not complete the course. Returning to his father's farm, he spent the following year thereon and in 1896 engaged in merchandising at Mellette. South Dakota, where he was prominently identified with commercial interests for four years. In 1900 he disposed of his business and in the spring of 1901 associated himself with banking interests, establishing the Evarts State Bank at Evarts, South Dakota. He was identified with this institution as its president until 1907. at whch time the town was abandoned and he removed to Mobridge, establishing the Mobridge State Bank, which was made a national

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bank in June, 1915. As its president he has remained its chief executive officer, directing its policy and making it one of the valued and important business concerns of this part of the state. He is also interested in several other corporations and has extensive holdings in farm lands, for he has firm belief in the future greatness of South Dakota as an agri- cultural district. Accordingly he has acquired eight or nine thousand acres in Corson and other counties and his property holdings are indicative of his success, which is the well merited reward of his labors.

On November 24, 1896, Mr. Harris was united in marriage to Miss Lettie E. Fox, a daughter of D. B. and Matilda (Weller) Fox, of Spink county, South Dakota. To Mr. and Mrs. Harris have been born two children: Loren, deceased, and John Quentin.

Fraternally Mr. Harris is identified with the following organizations: Mobridge Lodge, No. 164, A. F. & A. M .; Selby Chapter, No. 43, R. A. M., of Selby, South Dakota; Damascus Commandery, No. 10, K. T .; Omega Council, No. 2, R. & S. M .; South Dakota Consistory, No. 4, A. & A. S. R .; Yelduz Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Aberdeen; the Order of the East- ern Star, of which Mrs. Harris is also a member; Mobridge Lodge, No. 205, I. O. O. F .; and Aberdeen Lodge, No. 1046, B. P. O. E. Politically Mr. Harris is a republican and has filled various local and state offices. For seven years, from 1903 until 1910, he was a member of the board of county commissioners in Walworth county and he represented his district in the thirteenth session of the state senate, having been elected in November, 1912. He has served on the town board of Mobridge and is one of the foremost residents of this part of the state. He and his wife are members of the Congregational church and their influence has ever been a feature in moral progress as well as in connection with the material advancement of the district.

WILLIAM E. REEDER.

William E. Reeder is one of the partners in the Hot Springs Transfer, Feed & Fuel Com- pany. He was born at Lacon, Illinois, July 27, 1858, a son of D. W. and Nancy Catherine (Taylor) Reeder, natives of Pennsylvania and Kentucky respectively. In early life D. W. Reeder engaged in railroad engineering and afterward was employed in a distillery at Lacon, Illinois. He subsequently removed to Oberlin, Kansas, and there engaged in farming, con- tinuing in that state from 1880 until 1894, when he went to Hot Springs, visiting his son, William E. Reeder. His death there occurred in that year. He had for a decade survived his wife, who died in Oberlin, Kansas, about 1884. He was never a politician in the usually accepted sense of the term, yet he served as mayor of Lacon, Illinois, for a number of years.

In a family of seven children William E. Reeder was the second in order of birth. The eldest son, Charles, died and was buried at San Rafael, New Mexico, in 1880. Two of the children died in infancy. Frank, who was called to represent Decatur county, Kansas, in the state legislature when a young man of but twenty-three years, and was chairman of the committee appointed to locate the state insane asylum, resided in Hot Springs for about ten years and afterward removed to Twin Falls, Idaho, where he is now practically living retired. Elizabeth is the wife of W. A. James, chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railroad at Winnipeg. Neatta is the wife of W. A. Chapin, who is engaged in the lumber business in Washington, Kansas. The Reeder family comes of an ancestry honorable and distinguished. Many representatives of the name have been popular and prominent and have left their impress upon the history of the comnninities in which they have resided. The first governor of Pennsylvania and the first governor of Kansas were members of this family.

William E. Reeder attended the schools of Lacon, Illinois, and when not yet fifteen years of age was employed as a fireman on the Chicago & Alton Railroad between Lacon and Streator, Illinois. He continued in the business for a short time and was later employed as a drug clerk at Lacon. He became a registered pharmacist both in Illinois and Kansas and continued in the drug business at Lacon as a clerk until he went to Kansas, where he engaged in business on his own account at Nickerson for a short time. He then went to New Mexico, where he spent some time in traveling, and later returned northward to Boulder, Colorado, where he engaged in contract work for a year. At the end of that time he located at Kalispell, Montana, which was then a frontier town. No railroad entered the place at that

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time and the work of development and improvement seemed scarcely begun in that section of the county. He engaged in contract work and also conducted a drug store, residing there for more than a year. When the railroad was built into the Black Hills in the year 1892 he became timekeeper for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. When an extension was made into Spearfish about ten months later he settled at Hot Springs and established the Hot Springs Transfer Feed & Fuel Company, conducting a general transfer business and buying and selling all kinds of feed and fuel. His trade has now reached extensive proportions and from the beginning the business has been a growing and profitable one. Mr. Reeder also owns valuable business property in Hot Springs. In connection with A. W. Riordan he owns the postoffice block and he also has other business properties in the town. He devotes his entire time to his business and his investments, and his capable management has brought to him a most gratifying measure of success.

In 1888 Mr. Reeder was united in marriage to Miss Maggie Beal, a native of Canada. Her parents became residents of Oberlin, Kansas, in 1880 and there remained until 1894, when they removed to Oregon, establishing a new home. Both died in the early part of 1914. To Mr. and Mrs. Reeder have been born two children. Catherine, who is now a student in Pratt Institute in New York city, graduated from the Nebraska University with the degree of Bachelor of Arts and for two years was principal of a school in Nebraska and for one year in South Dakota. Her first year of teaching was spent at Arlington, Nebraska. She is now preparing for a professional career as a designer. Alma, a high-school graduate, after- ward entered the Nebraska State University and is pursuing the last year's work of her course.

Mr. Reeder is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His political allegiance is given the republican party and he has filled some local offices, to which he has been called by his fellow townsmen, who recognize his interest in the public welfare and his fidelity to duty. He has for two terms been a member of the city council of Hot Springs and he also served on the board of education for two terms.

EDWARD F. HOFFELT.

Edward F. Hoffelt is a druggist of Estelline and, although independently connected with the business interests of the town for only four years, he is today regarded as one of the most progressive, capable and enterprising men there. His place of business is one of the most thoroughly modern 'and up-to-date drug stores in eastern South Dakota and it seems that the future must hold in store for him a substantial measure of success, because of the qualities which he has already displayed in the management of business interests.

Mr. Hoffelt was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on the 8th of February, 1888, a son of Peter and Ida (Brandt) Hoffelt. He remained in his native city through the period of his boyhood and was educated in the public schools of St. Paul until he reached the age of sixteen years, when, in 1904, he located in Estelline, where he began his career as a druggist by securing a position in the drug store of Lohr & Lohr, thus laying the foundation for a phar- maceutical education and career. He was employed in the store for seven years and on the 1st of January, 1909, he entered the Minnesota Institute of Pharmacy at Minneapolis, from which he was graduated in April of that year. On his examination before the state board of South Dakota he passed with the highest general average of any candidate for three years. An extraet from the annual report of the South Dakota State Board and Pharma- ceutical Association of 1909 has this to say: "Mr. Hoffelt obtained the highest general average of any candidate for three years. This was his first and only examination before any board of pharmacy. Last year the American Pharmaceutical Association gave a mem- bership to the most deserving candidate appearing before our board, but this year it was withdrawn and we therefore recommend that the association change the rule adopted a few years ago, granting a membership in the American Pharmaceutical Association for a prize paper at each annual meeting and that our board be authorized to give this membership to the most worthy candidate appearing for examination during the year, and if this action is taken we unanimously and most heartily select the name of Mr. Edward F. Hoffelt for such honors for the year just closing."

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In 1911 Mr. Hoffelt resigned his position with the firm of Lohr & Lohr and established himself in business in Estelline, outfitting a store the equal of which is seldom to be seen outside a city of much greater magnitude. Occupying one full side of the store is a stock of modern silverware and jewelry, such as might be displayed in a city of ten thousand popu- lation. He carries a most full and attractive line of drugs and druggists' sundries and the rear of his prescription connter is as clean and orderly as the front part of the store. The basement is also a display room, in one section of which he operates his own carbonating plant.

In 1910 Mr. Hoffelt was married to Miss Eva Lohr, a daughter of Charles H. Lohr, one of his former employers, and they have become parents of two children, Charles E. and May V. In politics Mr. Hoffelt is a progressive republican, feeling that he has taken a step in advance in thus allying himself with the movement that seeks to make the party rule that of the majority and not that of a machine. Fraternally he is connected with Kuhrum Lodge, No. 96, A. F. & A. M .; Estelline Lodge, No. 196, I. O. O. F .; and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. One speaking of him in the parlance of the day said that he is a live wire; another said that he is an efficiency man. In a word, he is capable, wide-awake and alert. He recognized the fact that progress is a cumulative process and that where there is no advancement there has been no effort. He knows, too, that opportunity is universal, not local, and that success depends upon the best possible utilization of every moment.

JOHN T. McKEE.

John T. MeKee, an enterprising agriculturist residing on section 2, Sioux Falls town- ship, is widely recognized as one of the worthy native sons and influential citizens of Minnehaha county, South Dakota. His birth occurred in Sioux Falls on the 17th of Sep- tember, 1876, his parents being John and Ella (Brooks) MeKee, the former a native of Belfast, Ireland, and the latter of Dodge county, Wisconsin. The father, who learned the trade of a harness maker in the Emerald isle, emigrated to the United States in 1865 as a youth of eighteen years and stopped for a short time in New York city. Subse- quently he removed to Pennsylvania and in 1871 came to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where in the fall of that year he embarked in the harness business in the old barracks building. Some years later he moved his shop but afterward returned to the barracks building, where he was actively engaged in business until his death on the 2d of March, 1913, being at the time of his demise the oldest business man in the city. Just a year prior to his death Mr. McKee erected a new business structure on the site of the old barracks building and pulled up the old pump used in the barracks. He won a gratifying and well merited measure of success in his undertakings and acquired valuable city properties, also owning three hundred and twenty acres of farm land where our subject now lives. The period of his residence in Sioux Falls covered forty-two years and he enjoyed an enviable reputa- tion as one of its leading business men and most respected citizens. He was one of the prominent Masons of the city and also an influential factor in local politics, his popularity and the trust reposed in him by his fellow citizens being indicated in the fact that he served as democratic county commissioner in this republican stronghold for about nine years.

It was in Sioux Falls that John McKee was united in marriage to Miss Ella Brooks, whose father was killed in a runaway when she was only four years old, and in 1870 she was brought to Sonth Dakota by her mother and stepfather, William Howie, who settled in Sioux Falls. Here she grew to womanhood and by her marriage became the mother of four children, namely: Nellie, now the wife of Dr. Bowen, of Hartford, South Dakota: John T., of this review; Mayme, the wife of B. T. Stapleton, of Sioux Falls; and Anna, the wife of Wayne Webster, of the same city. The mother still lives in the old home at No. 503 South Dakota avenue, where as a bride she and her husband began housekeeping.

John T. McKee acquired his education in the public schools of his native city and also pursued a course of study in the Sioux Falls Business College. Subsequently he began the study of pharmacy but at the end of about a year in a Sioux Falls drug store was

JOHN McKEE

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advised by the physician to obtain outdoor work. Accordingly he turned his attention to general agricultural pursuits and during the past eighteen years has cultivated a tract of land in Sioux Falls township, on seetion 2, which his father had acquired. Three years ago he came into possession of the southwest quarter of section 2, on which his residence and farm huildings stand. His undertakings as an agriculturist have been attended with gratifying results, for he follows practical, modern methods in the work of the fields and annually gathers bounteous harvests.

On the 1st of June, 1898, Mr. MeKee was united in marriage to Miss Cora Baldwin. of Hudson, Iowa, by whom he has two children, Roland and John. IIe gives his political allegiance to the democracy and has served as a member of the school board for several years, the cause of education ever finding in him a stanch champion. In religious faith he is an Episcopalian, and in the community where his entire life has been spent he is widely recognized as an upright, esteemed and representative eitizen.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume V, Part 57

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