History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 100

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998

USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 100

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JAMES B. BRADLEY, of Hudson, Lincoln county, is numbered among the sterling pioneers and captains of industry who have aided in lay- ing so broad and deep the foundations of our great commonwealth, and he stands today as a representative citizen of the county and state in which he took up his residence as a young man, thirty-five years ago, at which time the great undivided territory of Dakota was considered on the very frontier of civilization. It is well that the life records of these members of the "old

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guard" be perpetuated in connection with this generic history of the state.

A son of John and Sarah Bradley, both of whom are now deceased, the subject of this sketch was born in Morgan county, Indiana, on the 12th of January, 1849, and there he passed his early childhood, accompanying his parents on their removal to Iowa, in 1854. His father became one of the pioneer farmers of Appanoose county, that state, and thus the early educational opportunities of our subject were linnited, owing to the exigencies and conditions then in evidence. He continued to assist in the work of the home farm until 1868, when, at the age of nineteen years, he came as a youthful pioneer to the ter- ritory of Dakota, locating in Lincoln county, where he has ever since maintained his home. With the growth and development of the county his fortunes have kept pace and he has no reason to regret the choice which led him to cast in his lot with its early settlers. In 1870 he took up a homestead claim of one hundred and sixty acres in Marion county, and this figured as the nucleus of his prosperity. He is now the owner of valuable farming lands in addition to his real estate holdings in the own of Hudson. In 1882 he left his farm and took up his residence in Hudson, which then bore the name of Eden, and here he engaged in the general merchandise busi- ness. In November of the same year, under the administration of President Garfield, he received the appointment of postmaster in the village, and he continued to serve in this capacity for the long period of twelve years. In 1883 he established himself in the grocery business, having the post- office in his store, and in 1886 he associated him- self with P. H. B. Clement, under the firm name of Bradley & Clement, in the purchase of the general merchandise business of S. B. Cul- bertson, the firm continuing to conduct the en- terprise until 1897, when they disposed of the same. In 1899 Mr. Bradley engaged in the retail drug business, becoming the silent partner in the firm of W. M. Pigott & Company, and with this enterprise he is still identified. In politics Mr. Bradley has been a stalwart supporter of the Republican party from the time of attaining his

legal majority, and he served six years as mayor of Hudson, though he has never been ambitious for public office. He holds the esteem of the entire community and is one of the best known citizens of the same.

PETER H. HALL is one of the represent- ative business men of the thriving little city of Hudson, Lincoln county, and is entitled to the distinction of being numbered among the sterling pioneers of the county and state, since he has here maintained his home for nearly thirty years, while he has gained success through his own efforts, having come to America as a young man and dependent upon his own resources for a livelihood. His career illustrates what is possible of accomplishment on the part of one who is animated by a spirit of self-reliance, energy and industry and who insistently guides his course along the clearly defined path of honor and in- tegrity. Mr. Hall is a native of the far distant land of Norway, which has contributed so ma- terially to the growth and normal development of the great northwestern section of our national domain. He was born in June, 1852, and was reared and educated in his native land, where he remained until he was twenty years of age, when he set forth to seek his fortunes in the new world, whither he came as a stranger in a strange land and unfamiliar with the language of the country. He arrived in New York city in the month of May, 1872, and thence made his way westward to Sioux City, Iowa, where he resided until the winter of 1874, being variously employed. He then came to Eden township, Lin- coln county, South Dakota, where he took up a homestead claim of one hundred and sixty acres, being numbered among the first settlers in the county. He forthwith inaugurated the develop- ment of his farm, upon which he made excellent improvements, in the meanwhile adding to the area of the same until he became the owner of one hundred and sixty acres. He continued to reside on his place until 1887, when he removed to the village of Eden, which now bears the name of Hudson, and here engaged in the hardware

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and implement business, in which he successfully continued until the spring of 1893, when he disposed of the same. For the ensuing two years he was employed as traveling represent- ative of the Deering Harvesting Machine Com- pany, and then again took up his permanent abode in Hudson, where he purchased the lum- ber and coal business of Odell & Company, as- sociating himself with H. C. Fitch, under the firm name of Hall & Fitch. In January, 1898. he purchased his partner's interest in the enter- prise, which he has since conducted individually, controlling an excellent business and having the unqualified confidence of the community. In politics he has ever been a radical Republican and has done all in his power to further the party cause, while he has been called upon to serve in various local offices of public trust and responsi- bility. He and his wife are zealous members of the Norwegian Lutheran church, and fraternally he is affiliated with Hudson Lodge, No. 62, Knights of Pythias.

On the IIth of April, 1872, Mr. Hall was united in marriage to Miss Mary Johnson, of Norway, she being a native of that country.

GEORGE S. ADAMS, M. D., is one of the representative young members of the medical profession in the city of Yankton, where his ability and pleasing personality have been the factors in gaining him an excellent and gratify- ing support. The Doctor is a native of the state of Michigan, having been born in Lowell, Kent county, on the 20th of December, 1876, a son of Francis D. and Jane (Ashley) Adams, of whose six children four are living at the pres- ent time, namely: Persis, who is the wife of Robert F. Reynolds, of Groton, South Dakota ; George Sheldon, the immediate subject of this sketch; John F., who is a member of the class of 1905 in the medical department of the University of Chicago, and Charles E., who is a student in the University of Minnesota. Francis D. Adams was born in Waterbury, Vermont, in the year 1838, and when he was a child his father met his death by drown-

ing, and thereafter he passed some time in the home of an uncle, but at an early age he began to depend upon his own resources, relying upon his own efforts to attain a position of independ- ence. He learned the trade of millwright, to which he devoted his attention for a number of years, in Michigan and Indiana, and finally he became the owner of a flouring mill in Groton, Michigan, operating the same for a number of years and then engaging in the manufacture of wagons and buggies in that village. Later he removed to Lowell, that state, where he was en- gaged in the implement business until 1879, when he came to South Dakota with a view to finding a permanent location, making a tour through va rious parts of the state and then returning to Michigan. In the spring of 1880 he again canie to the state and filed claim to a tract of land in Brown county, where the family resided for a number of years, after which they removed to the village of Groton, where he engaged in the bank- ing business for several years, becoming one of the prominent and influential citizens of the county and having the high regard of all who knew him. There he continued to reside until his death, which occurred on the 17th of January, 1899. He was a stanch adherent of the Repub- lican party and was a potent factor in its councils in South Dakota. In 1893 he represented Brown county in the state senate, and for several years he was a member of the board of regents of state educational institutions. He was one of the hon- ored pioneers of the new commonwealth and was closely associated with the upbuilding and prog- ress of the same, ever being one of its loyal and valued citizens. His wife was born in the state of New York, in 1840, and when she was young she accompanied her parents on their remova! to the state of Michigan, her marriage to Mr. Adams being solemnized in Groton, that state. She is still living and resides in Groton, South Dakota, the town having been thus named at the suggestion of the father of the subject.

George Sheldon Adams was ten years of age at the time of his parents' removal from Michigan to South Dakota, and thus the state has been his home during practically his entire life. After

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availing himself of the advantages afforded in the public schools, including the completion of a course in the Groton high school, he was matric- ulated in the State Agricultural College, at Brookings, where he continued his studies for one year. In the autumn of 1897 he entered that well-known institution, Rush Medical College, in the city of Chicago, where he completed a thor- ough technical course, being graduated in June, 1901, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Immediately after his graduation the Doctor re- ceived an appointment as assistant physician in the state hospital.for the insane, in Yankton, and this position he has since held, while his service in the connection has been of the most able and discriminating order. He is a Republican in his political proclivities and fraternally is identified with St. John's Lodge, No. 1, Free and Accepted Masons.

LEONARD C. MEAD, M. D., superintend- ent of the State Hospital for the Insane at Yank- ton, has won a high position in his profession. It is not fulsome flattery to say that he is one of the most capable and most distinguished physi- cians in the northwest. He is the son of Ezra and Sylvia (Barber) Mead and few parents have been blessed with a more loving and a more loyal son. The father was born in northeastern New York in 1821, but grew up in the western por- tion of that state, where his father died when he was nine years of age, leaving the care of a large family to the widowed mother. Young Ezra from the first assumed a share of his mother's responsibility and by unremitting in- dustry contributed to the support and comfort of his mother and brothers and sisters. In conse- quence his opportunities for education were limited, but he made the most of the common school privileges which were at hand. Soon after attaining his majority he settled at Colum- bus, Columbia county, Wisconsin, where he se- cured a farm and followed agricultural pursuits. In 1886 he sold his interests there and removed to Elkton, Brookings county, South Dakota, where he died on August 21, 1897.

Ezra Mead was a man of exceptional intel- ligence and one who enjoyed the respect and high esteem of all acquaintances. Originally he was a staunch Whig and in the progress of events he became an equally zealous Republican, and though active in support of his political prin- ciples and one whose advice was sought in party councils, he was never an office seeker or office holder. He read and thought much ; was deeply informed upon many subjects and possessed the faculty of expressing his views clearly and con- cisely and in controversy, of which he was fond, sought to convince his opponents by courteous and gentlemanly argument rather than by de- nouncing their positions. He was especially noted for strong convictions and decided opin- ions, but never assumed a position he could not maintain, nor surrendered a principle when con- vinced it was right.

Mrs. Mead, the mother, who is enjoying a serene old age, is a native of Massachusetts, and is passing her declining years with her children, of whom, Henry, of Loup City, Nebraska, Leonard, the subject of this article, Mrs. Adalia Young, of Elkton, South Dakota, and Ida, the wife of Albert Parks, of Kent City, Michigan, survive.

Leonard C. Mead was born on the family homestead, near Columbus, Wisconsin, January 18, 1856. He spent his early years after the man- ner of most Badger farmer boys, the summer time helping in the fields and the winter in the district school. He was enabled to complete the high-school course at Columbus, and then entered the State University at Madison, where he defrayed his expenses by teaching, having undertaken that occupation at seventeen years of age, at first in country schools but after two years becoming principal of the Rio schools for three years and also for a time filling a position in the grammar department of the Columbus schools. While teaching he took up the study of medicine in the office of Dr. S. O. Burrington, of Colum- bus, and afterward pursued his studies in the office of Dr. Robert W. Earl, of that city. Both were able preceptors and he made such progress that in the fall of 1878 he entered Rush Medical

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College, from which he graduated in the spring of 1881, defraying his expenses during the period by teaching during the vacations.

After graduation Dr. Mead established him- self in practice at Good Thunder, Minnesota, but a year later removed to Elk Point, South Dakota, where during eight years he established so excellent a reputation that on the 5th of May, 1890, he was called to the assistant su- perintendency of the State Insane Hospital and after a year devoted to the peculiar requirements of the position was promoted to the superintend- ency. Up to this date, May, 1891, the hospital had been a political football, kicked about to re- ward political services, and for a long time had averaged one superintendent per year, the work inaugurated by one being sure to be undone by his successor. It was Dr. Mead's first business to organize the institution upon a business and professional basis and lift it from the degrading domain of party politics, and he has brought it to a position which bears favorable comparison with the leading hospitals of the kind in any country. He possesses superb executive ability and the happy faculty of directing the move- ment of the large number of employes and of- ficers without friction. His retentive memory and painstaking methods give him an intimate knowledge of each one of the many hundreds of inmates and at any moment he is prepared to recite the history and present condition of any one of them. He has made a close and critical study of nervous diseases and insanity in all of their forms, and to perfect himself in these spe- cialties he took a post-graduate course in the New York Polyclinic, in 1899-1900, devoting particu- lar attention to neurology and microscopy. Through long and successful experience and special preparation Dr. Mead is now recognized authority upon all nervous diseases and as such is frequently called in consultation by the ablest physicians in the west.

Dr. Mead is equally as successful as a busi- ness man as he is as a physician and. executive and is especially fertile in mechanical, engineer- ing and architectural expedients and plans for the advancement of the institution, and it has

been his good fortune to be permitted to put most of his plans into execution. Under his management and as a consequence of his long official career the hospital plant has been largely remodeled and of course vastly increased in capacity, the additions made under his direction considerably exceeding the extent of the original plant. In the location and planning of new buildings he has been unhampered and his op- portunity for impressing his individuality upon the place has been limited only by the ability of the state to provide means, and the state has not been niggardly in supplying structures and all modern appliances for the most favorable treat- ment of its unfortunate wards.

Dr. Mead is a Mason, belonging to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and the Mystic Shrine, and he is also identified with the Ancient Order United Workmen and the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a mem- ber of the South Dakota Medical Society, the Sioux Valley Medical Society, the American Medico-Psychological Association and other pro- fessional organizations, local and general. He was married in June, 1886, to Miss Matilda Frazer Gardener, of Sparta, Wisconsin, and their home is delightful and ideal. They have not been blessed with children, but have opened their hearts and home to a little boy and girl who are receiving all of the care and affection which de- voted parents might lavish upon them.

EDWARD F. DONOVAN, supervisor of the State Hospital for the Insane, Yankton, is a na- tive of Michigan and the son of Jeremiah and Margaret Donovan, both parents born in Ireland. The father, a native of the county of Wicklow, came to the United States when a young man of eighteen years, and located at Marquette, Michigan, where later he became captain of the Qivinzt mine, which post he held for a number of years. Resigning his position, he engaged in the mercantile business at Independence, Iowa, and after spending ten active and prosperous years in that city, he disposed of his establish- ment and retired to a farm near by, where he

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has since followed agricultural pursuits and stock raising. Jeremiah Donovan is a man of fine business ability and great energy and has been remarkably successful in his various lines of endeavor, being at this time the possessor of a large and valuable landed estate, consisting of two hundred and forty acres in one of the finest agricultural districts of Iowa, besides owning considerable city property and extensive personal interests. He has been an influential factor in the civic and public affairs of the different com- munities of his residence, served two terms as county auditor, one term as county commissioner, besides filling various minor official positions. He has long been a stanch Republican and a leader in his party and it was in recognition of his valuable services to the same as well as on account of his peculiar fitness that he was hon- ored with the different public stations referred to above. In religion he is a Catholic and has always been loyal to the mother church, having been born and reared in the same and descended from a long line of Catholic ancestors. He has reached the age of sixty-seven and retains to a marked degree his physical force and mental power, being as ever a leader of thought and a moulder of opinion in his community. Mrs. Mar- garet Donovan, who before her marriage bore the maiden name of Kilfy, was born in Ireland and at the age of fifteen accompanied her parents to America, the family locating at Marquette, Michigan, where she subsequently met the gentle- man who became her husband. She is still living, as are six of her seven children, their names be- ing as follows: Michael, of Deadwood, South Dakota; Daniel, a resident of Independence, Iowa; Edward F., whose name introduces this sketch ; Peter, of Yankton ; Henry lives in Dead- wood, and James, whose home is in the state of Iowa.

Edward F. Donovan was born in Marquette, Michigan, on the 16th of December, 1868. His early life, devoid of striking incident, was spent under the parental roof in his native city, in the public schools of which he received his prelim- inary educational discipline. After the family moved to Iowa he further prosecuted his studies

in the high schools at Independence, but at the age of sixteen he laid aside his books and, invest- ing his means in an outfit for drilling wells, fol- lowed that line of work during the ensuing three years. At the expiration of the time noted he ac- cepted a clerkship in a general store at Independ- ence and after holding the position for a period of eighteen months, resigned to engage in the produce business upon his own responsibility. Mr. Donovan followed the latter business about one year, during which time he bought and shipped large quantities of country produce, building up an extensive trade from which he realized handsome profits. With means thus ac- quired he purchased a fine stock farm in Iowa, but after living on the same for a limited period abandoned agriculture and stock raising and for two years thereafter was connected with the In- dependence State Hospital, Independence, Iowa. In 1891 he came to Yankton, South Dakota, where he was shortly afterwards appointed super- visor of the State Hospital for the Insane, which responsible position, with the exception of a part of 1900 and 1901, he has held continuously ever since.

Mr. Donovan's business career, as already ill- dicated, has been eminently successful and his management of the important institution of which he is now the supervisor has been honorable to himself and creditable to the state. His record throughout is undimmed by the slightest suspi- cion of disrepute and his long retention as custo- dian of one of the people's most sacred interests, demonstrates not only business capacity and ex- ecutive ability of a high order, but also a faith- fulness to trust and a consecration to duty which the public has not been slow to recognize and ap- preciate. Mr. Donovan has been prominent in political affairs both in Iowa and Dakota and while a resident of the former state was a Repub- lican nominee in 1901 for sheriff of Buchanan county, but declined to make the race. He has been active in party councils since coming to Yankton, but is not a partisan in the sense the term is usually understood, nor has he been an aspirant for leadership in his place of abode. Like all enterprising citizens, however, he mani-

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fests a pardonable pride in his adopted city and state, has unbounded faith in the future growth and prosperity of each and lends his influence and encouragement to all laudable agencies for the promotion of these ends. Religiously he is a Catholic and fraternally a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, belonging to Yank- ton Lodge, No. 101. Mr. Donovan, on June 19, 1896, was united in marriage with Miss Ma- thilda Vinatien, the union being without issue.

MARK D. SCOTT .- One of the alert and thoroughly trained newspaper men of South Dakota is the subject of this sketch, who is editor and publisher of the Sioux Falls Jour- nal. Under his able management this has be- come one of the most influential journals in the state.

Mr. Scott is a native of Wisconsin, having been born on the 7th of April, 1866, and being a son of Daniel and Augusta H. (Hunter) Scott. The subject received his early educa- tional training in the public schools of his native county, and gained his initiation into the mys- teries of the printing business before he had at- tained the age of ten years. In 1878 he accom- panied his parents on their removal to Dead- wood, South Dakota, and in this celebrated min- ing city, then on the frontier of civilization, he became a newspaper carrier and eventually gained control of several newspaper routes in the town. In 1883 he came to Sioux Falls and secured employment in a printing office, and in 1885, in association with Hibbard Patterson, had charge of the mechanical work on the Dakota Argus for a period of six months. During the year 1886 Mr. Scott was advertising solicitor for the Rapid City Daily Republican, and later he was for six months employed on the Lead City Tribune. In 1888 he went to Burke, Idaho, and started the first newspaper in the town, but disposed of the business after six months. He then went to LeGrande, Oregon, where he again became associated with Mr. Patterson, the two gentlemen there establishing the LaGrande Jour- nal, whose publication they continued until

March, 1890, when they sold the property. Mr. Scott continued to be identified with newspaper interests in LeGrande until 1892, when he came again to Sioux Falls, where, on the first of January, 1893, he became city editor of the Sioux Falls Daily Press. This incumbency he retained until August of the following year, when he became the editor and publisher of the Sioux Falls Journal, having since been thus connected with this well-known and popular paper. Of his efforts in this connection another publication has previously spoken as follows: "During the presidential campaign of 1896 Mr. Scott issued a daily paper called the Daily Journal. There were sixty-two issues of this paper, and every one of them was filled with what newspaper men call 'hot stuff.' It was published in the in- terest of Bryan and his adherents in South Da- kota, but when it became assured that Mckinley was elected the daily issue was discontinued. Mr. Scott is a great newsgatherer and always has something pertinent and timely to say regarding the issues before the people. He is strictly in the newspaper business and is an earnest advo- cate of economy in public affairs."

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 100

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen Number of Pages: 998

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998