USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 102
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Mark Wentworth Sheafe, to whom this sketch is dedicated, received his early educational discipline in the city schools of Boston, being there graduated in the high school as a member of the class of 1861, having fitted himself for
GEN. MARK W. SHEAFE.
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Harvard College and having passed a satisfactory examination for entrance to that institution. The habits and tastes of his early youth were decidedly toward a free and unconstrained life, his hap- piest boyhood days being passed in the woods, with his dog and gun, and as a result the west soon appealed strongly to him as the land of promise, so that shortly after leaving school he accompanied his father to Wisconsin, desiring to engage in business in the new and progressive west. In 1862 he returned to Massachusetts for the purpose of tendering his services in defense of the Union, whose integrity was in jeopardy by reason of the war between the states, and be- ing desirous of going to the front with those who had been his boyhood friends and school- mates. After serving his time and receiving his honorable discharge he again repaired to the west and engaged in business in Evansville, Wis- consin. About that time the great territory of Dakota seemed to offer a field of great promise, and imbued with this idea General Sheafe, in 1872, journeyed to this territory, where he be- lieved he could find a broader field for the exer- cise of his energies and abilities, and settled at Elk Point, which is now the county seat of Union county, South Dakota, where he engaged in the lumber business, meeting with distinctive suc- cess. At that time no railroad entered the great domain of the territory of Dakota, but the "Da- kota Southern" was building toward Yankton, and when the track was laid to a point within four miles of Elk Point he was enabled to ship lumber over this road instead of hauling it in by team from Sioux City, Iowa, to which means he had previously had recourse. Thus it happened that the first shipment of freight by rail into Dakota Territory was made by General Sheafe, this being in the autumn of 1872. In 1877 he purchased the flouring mills at Elk Point, one of the first plants of the sort erected in the territory, and he there continued to be engaged in business until 1892. In 1885 he received the appointment as register of the United States land office at Watertown, at the hands of President Cleveland, and took up his residence in this city in July of that year. He then became interested in the Watertown National
Bank, of which he was vice-president, and aiso the Dakota Loan & Trust Company, an important financial institution whose stockholders were res- idents of New England. In 1889 he was made president of this company and continued as its chief executive officer until it closed up its busi- ness, on November 1, 1903. He has also had large interests in cattle on the plains and ranges west of the Missouri river and has valuable min- ing interests in Mexico, principally silver propo- sitions.
Reverting to the military record of the Gen- eral, we will say that it had its inception in June, 1862, at Boston, Massachusetts, where he enlisted as a private in Company H, Forty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. This regi- ment was made up of young men of high stand- ing and character in the community, the average age of its members being but twenty-two years. Its nucleus was the old New England Guard, an organization which had been in existence since the war of 1812 and which had sent many of its members into that war. He proceeded to the front with his regiment and participated in numerous battles and skirmishes, serving faith- fully and valiantly until the expiration of his term of enlistment, when he was mustered out and received his honorable discharge. He was not thereafter personally identified with military af- fairs again until 1885, when he organized the Second Regiment of the Dakota National Guard, receiving a commission as colonel from Hon. Gil- bert A. Pierce, who was then governor of the territory. This position he held, save for an in- terim of two years, until the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, having in the meanwhile brought the regiment up to a high standard in its personnel, drill, discipline and faithful service. In 1898 he received a commission as brigadier general of United States volunteers, from the late lamented President McKinley, and was as- signed to duty at Camp Alger, Virginia, in com- mand of the First Brigade, Second Division, Sec- ond Army Corps, which brigade consisted of the Third New York, the One Hundred and Fifty- ninth Indiana and the Twenty-second Kansas regiments. At the termination of the war with
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Spain the General returned to his home in Wa- tertown and resumed his duties as president of the Dakota Loan & Trust Company. It should be noted in the connection that at the time of this war he was the only general appointed to repre- sent the three states of North and South Dakota and Nebraska, a significant distinction.
In 1878 General Sheafe was elected mayor of Elk Point, retaining this incumbency four consec- utive years. It was within his regime as head of the municipal government that the Missouri river valley was inundated, as all old settlers will remember, and to add to the distress and danger an epidemic of smallpox raged simultan- eously in the state, but it may be said to the credit of Elk Point and its executive and other officials that no life was lost either by flood or disease at this time. As before noted, the Gen- eral was appointed register of the land office at Watertown in 1885, remaining in tenure of the position until 1889. inclusive, while in 1893 he was again appointed to this office, which he held for another four years, retiring in the spring of 1897. In public enterprises he has contributed largely in the way of adding to the wealth of the territory and state, in the construction of various buildings. In 1874 he was elected to the terri- torial senate, from Union county, and at this ses- sion of the legislature much was accomplished toward hastening the development of the terri- tory. In 1890 he was elected to the state senate from Codington county, thus being a member of the second general assembly after the admission of South Dakota to the Union, and he proved a valuable working member of the upper house, the statutes of the commonwealth showing many laws which are the result of bills introduced by him.
In his political views General Sheafe is. al- ways has been and ever hopes to be a Jefferson- ian Democrat, with all that the term implies, be- lieving that this republic was intended by the Revolutionary fathers to be an asylum for the oppressed and a "government of the people, for the people and by the people," but at the date of this writing he freely gives voice to the opin- ion that the objects of the founders of the nation
have been thwarted and that it has become a government "of the many for the benefit of the few," in consequence of failing to heed the wise injunction of the founder of the Democratic party, "Equal and exact justice to all and special privileges to none." The conditions today obtain- ing he holds as a matter of personal regret and sorrow. General Sheafe has heen affiliated with the Masonic fraternity since 1865, and in 1870 was elected master of Union Lodge, No. 32, at Evansville, Wisconsin ; also a member of the fra- ternity of Elks. He was reared in the faith of the Protestant Episcopal church, and is a com- municant of the same.
At Evansville, Wisconsin, in 1866, General Sheafe was united in marriage to Miss Cassie A. Hall, and they became the parents of three chil- dren, Mary Wentworth, Anne -Wentworth and William Wentworth, the first named having died in infancy. In 1882 the General consummated a second marriage, being then united to Miss Agnes Spark, who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, while her parents were residents of Elk Point, this state, at the time of the marriage, which was solemnized in the city of Omaha, Nebraska. Of this union have been born two children, Mark Wentworth, Jr., and Mary Agnes.
General Sheafe is a man of genial and com- panionable nature, having none of the proclivities of the recluse, and he has the faculty of gaining and retaining friends in all classes of society, while among the number are some of the distin- guished citizens of the nation, notably General Fred D. Grant, son of the President, and now in command of the Department of the Lakes of the federal military service, with headquarters in Chi- cago. In 1877 our subject and General Grant made an expedition into the Indian country west of the Missouri river, arranging for the "right of way," with the Sioux Indians, from said river to the Black Hills.
The respect and admiration of General Sheafe for the late President Mckinley are unbounded. In 1897 he was delegated to represent the state at the inaugural of President Mckinley and was assigned for duty as his body guard or personal escort. When, in a private interview, he was
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asked by the President how it chanced that he; a Democrat, should have been thus placed as a representative of his state, the General replied-by saying that he had come out of admiration for the President and to "lend respectability to the oc- casion." A year subsequently, when in Washing- ton for the purpose of thanking the President for his commission as brigadier general, Mr. McKin- ley recalled the event and promised that he wouldl keep his eye on the "lone Democrat."
Like his ante-Revolutionary ancestors, Gen- eral Sheafe sought the west and its freedom, be- ing unable to content himself in the crowded cities of the east, with their narrow ways and avaricious worship of money alone. In the terri- tory of Dakota he foresaw that a rich empire would be carved out of the far-stretching prairies which were then inhabited only by the Indians and that a splendid and advanced civilization would come with the passing of the years. He has lived to see the territory of Dakota with but five or six organized counties in 1872 and with a population not exceeding forty thousand per- sons, now, after a residence here of thirty-three years, composed of two immense states with a population aggregating eight hundred thousand people, happy and contented, and he feels proud of the part that has been his in aiding in this de- velopment and magnificent progress.
CHARLES L. LOFFLER, M. D., is a na- tive of the state of Iowa, having been born in Hampton county, on the 4th of July, 1871, and being a son of Charles and Mary R. (Bowman) Loffler, who are now residents of Yankton, South Dakota, having been numbered among the honored pioneers of South Dakota, whither they came in the territorial epoch. When the subject was but six months of age his parents removed from Jowa to Yankton, South Dakota, and there he received his early educational training in the public schools, while later he continued his stud- ies in the Yankton College. He is a graduate of Barne's Medical College of St. Louis, Missouri, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1901. He was thereafter engaged in practice at
different points in Iowa and South Dakota until November, 1902, when he permanently estab- lished himself for the practice of his special branches in the city of Sioux Falls, where he has met with marked success, his office being located in the Minnehaha building. Dr. Loffler holds state certificates to practice in South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Okla- homa and Kansas. Fraternally he has attained the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite Ma- sonry, is also identified with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with the Knights of Pythias, and with Lodge No. 262, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, at Sioux Falls.
On the 22d of December, 1895, Dr. Loffler was united in marriage to Miss Marie M. Dres- selhuys, of Lamars, Iowa. They have no chil- dren.
LEROY D. MILLER, who is engaged in the livery, hack and transfer business in Sioux Falls, also conducting an auxiliary undertaking depart- ment, is a native of the city of St. Joseph, Mis- souri, where he was born on the 24th of Febru- ary, 1869, being a son of William and Martha (Hartman) Miller. When he was a child of three years his father died, and his mother subsequently became the wife of Joseph N. Davenport, and when the subject was three years old he accom- panied them on their removal to what is now South Dakota, the family locating in Minnehaha county, where Mr. Davenport engaged in agri- cultural pursuits. Mr. Davenport is dead, but his widow is still living, making her home in Cali- fornia.
The subject was reared on the homestead farm of his stepfather and secured such educa- tional advantages as were afforded in the public schools of the locality. At the age of twenty- three years he engaged in buying grain for the Peavey Elevator Company, of Farmer, South Da- kota, and continued to be thus employed for a period of three years, at the expiration of which he located in Montrose, McCook county, where
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he was engaged in the livery business for two years, being thereafter identified with agricul- tural pursuits, in Minnehaha county, for four years. In 1899 he located in Sioux Falls and es- tablished himself in the livery business, while in August, 1901, he established in connection a hack and general transfer line, and in 1903 he still further expanded the scope of his enterprise by the addition of an undertaking department. His equipment throughout is of the best order, in- cluding about thirty-eight horses and a full com- plement of modern vehicles for all purposes, and he controls a large and representative business, showing the result of his own energy and good management. Mr. Miller is a stanch advocate of the principles of the Republican party and fra- ternally is identified with the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, being affiliated with Sioux Falls Lodge, No. 262.
On the 28th of December, 1893, Mr. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Minnie C. Roney, of Decorah, Iowa, and they have two daughters, Ethel A. and M. Blanche.
CHARLES E. HILL, editor and proprietor of the Vidette, one of the leading local journals of eastern Dakota, is a native of Greene county, Ohio, and dates his birth from December 8, 1857, being the son of Samuel J. and Sarah J. Hill. These parents moved to Cleveland when Charles E. was quite young, and he spent his childhood and youth in that city, receiving, the meanwhile, a fair education in the public schools. From his boyhood he manifested a decided taste for the printer's trade and when old enough he yielded to this desire of long standing by entering the office of the Cleveland Daily Herald, where he served an apprenticeship, during which he be- came personally acquainted with a number of the leading Republican politicians and strong men of Ohio, among whom were E. V. Smalley, Marcus A. Hanna and others equally as distinguished in public affairs. After serving his time and be- coming a skillful typo, young Hill became ani- mated by a laudable ambition to see something of the world ; accordingly, in the winter of 1876,
he severed his connection with the Herald and went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked for awhile on the old Times-Journal, later holding a case in the office of the Globe-Democrat and in the spring of 1876 he left that city for New York, thence in May of the same year crossed the ocean to England. After working at his trade for sev- eral months in that country, he went to Ireland and Wales, where he found employment on differ- ent papers. Satisfied with his experience in the old country, Mr. Hill in 1876 returned to his native land and for several years thereafter worked at his trade in nearly all the large cities in the United States and Canada, finally, in 1891. making his way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and accepting a position in the office of the Daily Press of that city. Resigning his place the fol- lowing year, he came to Valley Springs and took charge of the leading hotel in the town, but after a brief experience in the capacity of "mine host" he gave up the house and resumed the vocation for which he was better fitted, and to which he had devoted so much of his life. Sometime after coming to Valley Springs a stock company com- posed of several prominent business men of the town established the Vidette, a weekly paper. which Mr. Hill purchased shortly after the enter- prise went into effect. He has since been sole owner of the plant, which the meanwhile has grown into quite a valuable property, and under his business and editorial management the Vi- dette has become one of the most influential local sheets, not only in Minnehaha county, but in the eastern part of the state. The paper is ably edited and has a large circulation, also a liberal adver- tising patronage and in its every department is a creditable sheet, being highly prized as a family paper and recognized as one of the strong Repub- lican organs of eastern Dakota.
Mr. Hill has always stood for Republican principles and since becoming a citizen of Dakota his labors and influence in behalf of the party have contributed greatly to its success in a num- ber of local and state campaigns. He has attended every county and state convention since locating at Valley Springs, being universally chosen a del- egate to these assemblages, and his presence has
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been felt not only in their deliberations, but in formulating platforms, directing party policies and planning for the more active work of the can- vass. He has also been quite prominent in munic- ipal affairs, having served for a number of years on the town board, in which and other capacities he has labored earnestly to promote the growth and development of Valley Springs, and advance its various industrial and business interests. Fra- ternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in all of which organizations he is a leading spirit and an active worker, also an honored official. Mr. Hill's influence has been used to build up his town and few enjoy as great prestige as he in public, political and social circles. He was mar- ried on March 14, 1892, to Mrs. Emma A. Pix- ley, of Valley Springs, his home circle consisting of himself and wife only.
GEORGE CASSADY was born in Hamil- ton county, Ohio, May 25, 1849, the son of George and A. M. (Sampson) Cassady. He was educated in the public schools of Cincin- nati and when a young man learned telegraphy, which profession he followed at different times in the west from 1865 to 1878. In the latter year he came to Valley Springs, South Dakota, as agent for the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad at this place, and has had charge of the office ever since, being one of the oldest local agents in point of continued service in the state. The year following his arrival in Valley Springs Mr. Cassady began experiment- ing in horticulture and finding the soil and cli- mate of this part of Dakota adapted to fruit growing, he planted large orchards and from that time to the present has prosecuted the busi- ness with most gratifying success. In partner- ship with J. M. Bailey, under the firm name of Cassady & Bailey, he is now interested in one of the largest nurseries in the state, in which all kinds of fruit trees, shrubbery and small fruits grown in this latitude are reared and sold, the business being so extensive as to give the pro-
prietors a wide and constantly increasing repu- tation. To Mr. Cassady belongs the credit of being one of the first men to introduce horti- culture into South Dakota and he has demon- strated beyond a doubt that the state is destined at no distant day to become one of the greatest fruit-producing sections of the Union. He has made a careful study of the business in its every phase, is a member of the State Horticultural Society and takes an active interest in the deliber- ations in this and other organizations for the promotion of the fruit industry throughout the west.
Mr. Cassady has held a number of local offices since becoming a resident of Valley Springs and been quite prominent in municipal matters. He is a Republican in politics and an influential factor in the councils of his party in Minnehaha county, having been a delegate to state conventions and a leader during that time in local affairs. He is a Master Mason, be- longing to the lodge at Sioux Falls, and in this fraternity, as elsewhere, has made his presence felt among his associates.
Mr. Cassady was married on October 23. 1870, to Miss Anna Costello, of Minnesota, who has borne him children as follows: Alice; Char- lotte, wife of J. M. Bailey, of Valley Springs ; Mabel, now Mrs. E. W. Schmidt, of the same place; Lulu and Ruth.
HOLDEN D. KINYON, the popular and efficient postmaster of Valley Springs, South Dakota, also a dealer in books, stationery and school supplies, was born in Lomira, Dodge county, Wisconsin, September 15, 1854, being the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (McIntosh) Kinyon. He was reared on his father's farm near Lomira, received his elementary education in the public schools of the town and subse- quently pursued the more advanced branches of study in the Mayville high school, fitting him- self for teaching in the latter institution. Until twenty-six years old he helped cultivate the home place, devoting the winter seasons to edu- cational work, but at that age he left his native
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state and came to South Dakota, purchasing in 1887 a claim about five miles northwest of Valley Springs, in the county of Minnehaha. During the ensuing year and a half he lived on his land and labored at its improvement, but at the end of that time changed his abode to Valley Springs where he spent the next year un- employed on account of poor health. In the year 1890 Mr. Kinyon was appointed postmaster at Valley Springs, which position he has held to the present time, his period of service extend- ing over four administrations, which fact attests not only his efficiency but his great popularity with the public, irrespective of politics, although his allegiance to the Republican party and activity in upholding its principles have made him one of its leaders in this part of the state. Mr. Kinyon has a fine store, in which are found full and complete lines of such goods as he handles, and from the beginning his business has steadily grown until he now commands a large and lucrative trade. His relations with his cus- tomers are gentlemanly and obliging, to which fact not a little of his success is due, and as an official he attends strictly to his duties, the peo- ple recognizing in him a most courteous and ac- commodating servant, whose kindly nature has won a warm and permanent abiding place in public esteem. Mr. Kinyon owns a pleasant home in Valley Springs and has a wife, but no children, his marriage dating from the 18th of March, 1876. Mrs. Kinyon, formerly Miss Jennie F. Palmer, of Wisconsin, is popular in the social walks of life, has many friends and acquaint- ances in the place of her residence and, like her husband, is respected and manifests an abiding interest in whatever makes for the good of the community.
JOHN F. STRASS, journalist, editor and publisher of the Fremad, the most influential Norwegian paper in the United States, was born in the city of Trondjhem, Norway, on November 1. 1862. He was reared and educated in the land of his birth and there remained until the year 1878, when he came to the United States and set-
tled at Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Immediately thereafter he commenced to learn the printer's trade and becoming an efficient workman followed his chosen calling in various newspaper offices until 1881, when he started a Scandinavian paper at Fergus Falls, which soon obtained an extensive circulation. After publishing the paper one year he sold the plant and resumed his trade, working at different places until the early part of 1894, when he located at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with the object in view of establishing a Populist paper in that city, to be printed in the Norwegian language. Meeting with the desired encourage- ment, he soon launched the enterprise and on May 17th of that year the first number of the Fremad made its appearance and met with a hearty welcome from his fellow countrymen throughout the state, who advocated the princi- ples of the People's party. In due time the Fre- mad achieved a wide circulation and it has con- tinued to grow in public favor until it now has a greater number of regular subscribers than any other weekly in South Dakota, to say nothing of extensive general sales and liberal advertising patronage. It is not only one of the best sup- ported papers in the west, but also one of the most influential, as it has been a powerful agency in advancing the varied interests of the Scandina- vians in the Dakotas, besides proving a potent factor in political circles, having had much to do in formulating the policy of the party of which it is a recognized exponent and promoting the success of the same at the polls.
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