History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 124

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

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making and later, 1885, started a creamery at Winthrop, Minnesota, which he operated for a period of one year. Disposing of the business at the end of that 'time, he spent the following year running an engine in the town of Adrian, and in 1887 came to Valley Springs, South Da- kota, to take charge of the Hubbard & Palmer Elevator Company, at this place, which position he still holds, and in the management of which he has achieved worthy prestige as an able, dis- creet and far-seeing business man. In connec- tion with buying and shipping grain, in which the company he represents commands the bulk of the trade in Minnehaha county, Mr. James deals quite extensively in coal, his patronage in this, as in his other line of business, being larger than that of any other man or firm in Valley Springs similarly engaged. Mr. James was one of the originators of the Valley Springs Telephone Company, took a leading part in its organization and in many ways has contributed to the success of the enterprise, much of its prosperity being directly attributed to the in- terest he has manifested in its behalf. He has been a member of the board of directors ever since the company went into effect, and as sec- retary has been untiring in his efforts to pro- mote its efficiency, and make it one of the best local systems in the state, which reputation it has always sustained. This company, which was incorporated with a capital of ten thousand dollars, is composed of business and professional men of high standing and unimpeachable in- tegrity, Dr. George W. Bliss being president, L. S. Hetland, vice-president. W. H. James, sec- retary, and P. E. Howe, treasurer, the same gentlemen, with J. Dunham, a well-known capi- talist, constituting the board of directors.

In addition to his business interests and in connection with the telephone company, Mr. James conducts a local insurance agency, in which a number of the leading companies of the United States are represented, and does a flour- ishing business in Valley Springs and through- out the county of Minnehaha. He has long been influential in public affairs, has served as town clerk for a period of ten years and his activity

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as a politician has gained him favor and high standing in the Republican party, of which he is an earnest advocate and a zealous supporter. His fraternal relations include membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, in addition to which he encourages benevolent enterprises under what- ever name they may appear, being charitable and ready at all times to extend help to the needy and minister to the comfort of those in sickness or distress.

On the Ist day of January, 1900, Mr. James entered the marriage relation, choosing for his life companion Miss Carrie Hendrickson, who was born in Postville, Allamakee county, Iowa, but at the date mentioned was living in South Dakota. In addition to himself and wife, his home circle at this time includes five children, whose names in order of birth are Wilmer, Cora, Neal, Harrold and Byrle. Mr. James' life has been an exceedingly busy one and his record in all of his undertakings is without stain. As a business man he ranks with the most successful of his contemporaries and by reason of a long and active experience his opinions carry weight and his ideas receive due consideration. He is regarded as safe and reliable in matters involv- ing large and important interests, careful in the management of affairs intrusted to him and he lays his plans with wise forethought and forms his opinions only after mature reflection.

JOHN T. LEE, who is incumbent of the important office of treasurer of Minnehaha county, was born in the city of Christiania, Norway, on the IIth of February, 1855, being a son of Thorsten and Anne (Okre) Lee, who emigrated from the far Norseland to America in 1867, at which time the subject of this review was a lad of twelve years, his preliminary edu- cational training having been secured in his na- tive land, while after his parents' location in Iowa, on their arrival in the new world, he at- tended the public schools somewhat less than a year, his future education being that supplied in the great school of practical experience and

personal application. In the autumn of 1869 he came to the territory of Dakota and located a year later on a farm in Minnehaha county, where his father had taken up a claim of government land, the same being entirely unreclaimed. There the subject continued to be successfully engaged in farming and stock growing until the year 1891, having in the meanwhile become the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land. In the year mentioned he located in the village of Brandon, where he assumed the man- agement of the grain business of the Farmers' Association. In 1898 Mr. Lee disposed of his interest in this concern and since that time has been agent for the American Grain Company, at Brandon, having the general supervision of its extensive business and having shown marked executive ability in the connection. From the time of attaining his legal majority he has been deeply interested in the success of the Republican party and has taken an active part in the promo- tion of its cause in the state, while he has been called upon to serve in various offices of local trust and responsibility. In 1891 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners of Minnehaha county, and it may be consistently said that he has acted in some official capacity for his party ever since attaining years of sufficient maturity. In the autumn of 1902 Mr. Lee was chosen to the responsible office of county treas- urer, and his administration of the fiscal affairs of this populous and important county has been distinguished by marked discrimination, fidelity and administrative ability, so that his retention in the office can not but prove a wise provision on the part of the electors. He has been a dele- gate to several state conventions of his party and to county conventions, and his influence has been potent in public affairs of a local order. He holds thirty-second-degree membership in the Masonic fraternity and its social adjunct, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and is also identified with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, while his religious faith is that of the Lutheran church.

In the summer of 1876 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lee to Miss Christina Nelson,

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of Brandon, this state, and she died on the 3d of January, 1894. having been a devoted wife and mother and having held the affectionate re- gard of all who knew her. Of the children of this union we give the following brief record : Edward is manager of the Lee-Egge Lumber Company, at Brandon ; Anthon T. is a partner in the Edward Lee Hardware Company, of Bran- don, as is also his brother Albert; and Hannah, the only daughter, remains in the pleasant home in Sioux Falls, where the family is held in the highest esteem. On December 31, 1903. Mr. Lee married Mary Holm, of Sioux Falls.

THOMAS H. BROWN was born in Porto- bello, Durham county, England, on the 17th of August. 1837, being a son of Richard and Ellenor Brown, who came to the United States in 1848, locating in the state of Wisconsin, where they passed the residue of their lives, the father having there followed the vocation of hardware merchant. The subject was a lad of about ten years at the time of the family re- moval to America, and had initiated his educa- tional training in his native town, later continu- ing his studies in the somewhat primitive schools of Wisconsin, of which state his parents were pioneers. There he grew to manhood, devoting his attention to farming and mining until the out- break of the war of the Rebellion, when he showed forth his loyalty to the land of his adop- tion by enlisting. in June, 1861. as a private in Company I, Third Wisconsin Volunteer In- fantry, and he continued. in the service of the Union until victory was won, receiving his hon- orable discharge in August, 1865. and having participated in several battles of the great inter- necine conflict.

After the close of the war Mr. Brown went as one of the pioneers to the present state of Montana, where the gold excitement was thefr rife, and he there devoted his attention to placer mining for a year and a half, at the expiration of which he returned to Wisconsin and located in Brodhead, Green county, where he engaged in the hardware business. In 1872 he came to

Sioux Falls, taking up his abode in the first dwelling house erected in the embryonic city, this little domicile having been located on the site of his present attractive residence, at the corner of Phillips avenue and Twelfth street. The next spring he entered into a co-partnership with Ben- jamin F. Roderick and engaged in the lumber business, but within the following year retired from the firm and bought a half interest in the business of Nye Phillips, who was dealing in hardware, drugs and leather. This firmn was in existence about five years, and Mr. Brown then entered the employ of the Chicago & North- western Railroad Company, his labors in the con- nection being in the obtaining of the right of way and locating town sites on the Dakota Cen- tral division. In 1888 he purchased the job- printing office and bookbinding plant of Samuel T. Clover, and when the effects of the Insurance Company of Dakota were offered for sale by the receiver he purchased the printing outfit. On the Ist of May. 1889, Mr. Brown admitted Eugene Saenger to partnership, and the firm of Brown & Saenger has now the largest and most com- plete bookbinding and printing establishment in the state.

Since coming to Sioux Falls Mr. Brown has been active in Masonic matters. He organized the first lodge in the county, and was its master for the first three years. He was also the first grand master of the grand lodge of the territory of Dakota, and a few years later was again elected to this office. He has taken an active interest in educational matters and was president and member of the school board for several years. He also took a prominent part in secur- ing to Sioux Falls the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad, now the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway, and has been a director of the company since that time. He was one of the South Dakota commissioners to the World's Columbian Exposition, in Chicago, in 1893. and was the executive officer of that com- mission. It is needless to add anything to the foregoing record to establish the fact that Mr. Brown is a prominent man of affairs and that he takes great interest in the welfare of the state in

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general and the city of Sioux Falls in particu- lar.

On the 20th of August, 1867, Mr. Brown was united in marriage to Miss Mary Morse, daugh- ter of Marshall and Albina Morse, at that time residents of Brodhead, Wisconsin, and of this union have been born the following named chil- dren, all residing in Sioux Falls : Marshall R., connected with the firm of Brown & Saenger ; Oscar A., connected with the Brown Drug Company; Harry T., connected with the An- thony Candy Company.

CHARLES H. ROSS .- An article which appeared in the American Lumberman of May 31, 1902, offered an epitomized review of the career of the able young business man whose name introduces this paragraph, and from the same we make the following excerpt :

Charles H. Ross is an up-to-date young business man-progressive, efficient, cultured and gentlemanly. He is no doubt a lumberman because he has followed his desire in the matter; at any rate he thinks there is no other business like it. Heredity may have had to do with his choice of calling, for not only has his father been a lifelong lumberman, but so also was his grandfather, Hiram J. Ross, who operated a saw-mill in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as early as 1837, having gone there in 1835, when the place was settled. His father, Hiram W. Ross, has figured as a well-known lumberman in the northwest, in earlier years running a mill at Colby, Wisconsin, and now known as presi- dent of the H. W. Ross Lumber Company, which oper- ates a line of twenty yards in Minnesota and South Dakota, with head office in the Lumber Exchange, Minneapolis. In this company there are only three stockholders-H. W. Ross, president and treasurer; and his sons, Hiram E., vice-president, and Charles H., secretary.

Charles H. Ross was born in Milwaukee, on the 23d of August, 1870, and moved with his parents to Canton, Dakota, in 1879, Mr. Ross, Sr., choosing this little town as a lookout point. He was of the opinion that the chief town of what was then Dakota terri- tory would be either Yankton or Sioux Falls and that if he lived in neither he could best judge of their comparative merits and development. Following a two years' residence in Canton, he regarded Sioux Falls as the more promising town and took up his residence there. Charles H. Ross was graduated in the Sioux Falls high school and received his college

education in the University of South Dakota, located at Vermillion. Though born in the Badger state he comes nearly being a South Dakota product. On leav- ing college he took a position in a lumber yard, where for four years he did the work of a day lahorer. He was ambitious to learn the business and he knew that to do so thoroughly he must begin at the bottom. It is not often that the college graduate takes up manual labor, and that Mr. Ross voluntarily did this is additional evidence as to the sterling material of which he is made. To him work is work, whether of brain or hand, and one as honorable and necessary as the other. He says that this experience in the yard was of value to him, as he is now familiar with every detail of yard work. He does not hold his present position by reason of being his father's son, but be- cause, having mastered the business, he is competent to hold it. In 1893 Mr. Ross was made secretary of the company, and two years thereafter hecame its buyer. In 1900 he turned the buying over to his brother and took the management of the outside yards, with his residence in Sioux Falls. * *

* The Ross Company has been highly successful in its selection of local managers. S. H. Hurst, in charge of the Sioux Falls yard, has filled his present position twenty-one years. Another manager has heen with the company sixteen years, and several others ten and twelve years each. The confidence must be mu- tual, for Mr. Ross remarked that he had not a man- ager in his employ whose honesty he in the slightest degree questioned. Efficient men well paid is one of his mottoes. * * *

In association work Mr. Ross has taken a keen in- terest. He believes that were it not for the existence of the retail associations the selling of lumber at a profit that would at all compensate for the use of the capital invested in the business and the time in car- ing for it would be well-nigh impossible. In 1901, when in Florida, he received a telegram announcing his election as vice-president of the Northwestern Lumbermen's Association, and he was elected presi- dent of the same organization at the annual meeting held in Minneapolis, in January, 1902. His election as vice-president was a surprise to him, the selection having been made by the members of that association. who are ever on the lookout for capable official tim- ber.

While Mr. Ross has constantly a great amount of work on his hands he has accepted the conclusion that has been reached by the wisest everywhere, namely, that work is beneficial to only one side of man's nature. As a counterbalance there must he recreation. and fortunately the idea has been imbibed by Mr. Ross while he is yet a young man. Mr. Ross is an enthusiast with the rod and gun. He hunts in the Black Hills and in Montana, and ten years ago,

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on a hunting trip, crossed the plains with President Roosevelt. He has hunted moose in Canada, deer in northern Wisconsin, and even alligators in the south. In 1899 he spent four months in Europe, visiting eleven countries and bringing back with him a bound- less fund of information concerning people and gov- ernments.

The domestic animals find in Mr. Ross a friend and admirer, these animals being much in evidence at his beautiful home in Sioux Falls. He is the owner of Hulda R., a pacing mare that has a mark of 2:18 1-2; a high-bred Jersey cow has the run of his yard, and a bird dog for which he has repeatedly refused into the hundreds welcomes him when he comes from town. He also has pens of high-scoring barred Plym- outh Rock chickens. Mr. Ross is interested in music to so marked a degree that he visits New York and remains through the season of grand opera. Art also interests him. On his European trip he saw twelve of the most famous pictures of the world, traveling three hundred miles to see one of them. While neither wanting nor seeking political favors he joins with the men who control politics in order to have as good men as possible in office. Mr. Ross is a type of the young business man that is altogether too rare -a man who is good to himself and good to others. Plenty of dollars roll his way, and they are neither miserly hoarded nor senselessly squandered.

The foregoing paragraphs indicate quite ade- quately the position which our subject holds in the business world, and it should be noted that he stands essentially at the head of one of the most important lumbering enterprises in South Dakota, while he is held in the highest confidence and esteem in the city and state in which the major portion of his life has been passed. In a recapitulatory way it may be stated that he was graduated in the Sioux Falls high school in 1888, while he was graduated in the University of South Dakota in 1890. He is at the present time a member of the board of education of his home city and is thoroughly public-spirited in his attitude, his political allegiance being given to the Republican party. He and his wife hold membership in the Congregational church of Sioux Falls, and he is also serving as a member of its board of trustees. Fraternally, he has completed the circle of York Rite Masonry, is identified with the Knights of Pythias, and is an enthusiastic affiliate of the great social organiza- tion of lumbermen, the Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoos.

On the 24th of October, 1900, was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Ross to Miss Ellen May Goodrich, of State Center, Iowa, and they are the parents of one child, Hiram Earl, who was born on the 8th of August, 1901. On another page of this work appears a sketch of the life of the subject's father, and to the same reference may be made for further ancestral data.

WILLIAM J. SHEPPARD, president of the Mutual Cash Guaranty Fire Insurance Com- pany of Sioux Falls, was born in the beautiful old city of Quebec, Canada, on the 24th of July, 1862, being of English and Welsh ancestry and a son of Percival Edward and Ellen (Lloyd) Sheppard. His father was one of the honored and distinguished citizens of Quebec and held prominent offices in the Canadian government for nearly a quarter of a century. The subject of this review received a collegiate education in the city of Ottawa, and subsequently came to the United States and secured a position in the Second National Bank of Detroit, Michigan, re- maining with this institution until the death of his father, in 1883. when he returned to his home in Canada. He eventually accepted a position in the auditor's office of the American Express Company in the city of Montreal, where he remained one year, at the expiration of which he became bookkeeper for the Woods Manufac- turing Company, of Winnipeg. in whose employ he remained until the outbreak of the Riel re- bellion, when he went out as a soldier with the Winnipeg Field Battery, of which he had pre- viously been a member for some time. and with this command he served through the campaign of 1885. He participated in the famous battles of Fish Creek and Batoche, and received, as did all others who took part in these engage- ments. a silver medal conferred as a mark of distinction by Queen Victoria.

After the close of the rebellion Mr. Shep- pard removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, and be- came traveling salesman for the Berrisford Bis- cuit Manufacturing Company, with which he remained seven years, at the expiration of which

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he accepted a similar position with the house of McKibbin & Company, of that city, with whom he remained for eleven years and to whose in- terests he gave his attention until the organiza- tion of the company of which he is now presi- dent. He established his home in Sioux Falls in 1896, and has ever since resided here, and he is the owner of a fine farm of four hundred and eighty acres in McCook county, this state, besides property in Sioux Falls and in Min- neapolis, Minnesota. In September, 1896, Mr. Sheppard became associated with four other gentlemen in Sioux Falls in instituting here a council of the Order of the United Commercial Travelers, this having been the first established in the state and being now a large and flourishing organization, known as Sioux Falls Council No. 100. He was made its first past councillor, is at the present time a member of its executive committee, as is he also of the executive com- mittee of the grand council of Minnesota and North and South Dakota.

On the 28th of May, 1903, Mr. Sheppard organized the Mutual Cash Guaranty Fire In- surance Company, being associated in the enter- prise with other substantial and representative capitalists and business men of the state, and of this company he was elected president, .while he now gives his entire time and attention to the administration of its large and rapidly increas- ing business, the plan and policy of the com- pany being so equitable and attractive and its solidity so assured that it has met with most favorable reception among those seeking in- demnity for loss from fire upon economical terms, the interests of the policy holders being identical with those of the company, which is purely mu- tual and on a cash basis, not being a stock com- pany, so that the share to the policy holder is in proportion to the amount of insurance carried by him. Mr. Sheppard is a man of marked initi- ative and executive ability and business acumen, and the company of which he is president has already taken high rank among the fire under- writing companies doing business in the state. December 3. 1903, Mr. Sheppard bought out the entire interests of Mr. Dwight in the Anothy-

Dwight Candy Company, of Sioux Falls, and then sold to Thomas H. Brown, of Sioux Falls, one-half of his interest. They reorganized the company, increasing the capital stock to thirty thousand dollars, and officered as follows: T. H. Brown, president ; E. A. Anothy, vice-presi- dent ; H. C. Brown, secretary and treasurer ; and W. J. Sheppard, general manager. They have put in a steam plant, which is the only one in the state, and it is their intention to branch out in every way to reach business.

In politics Mr. Sheppard gives his allegiance to the Republican party and fraternally is identified with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, while his religious faith is that of the Episcopal church, of which both he and his wife are communicants. He is a man of refined tastes and high social attainments, and enjoys the respect and esteem of all who know him. On the 3d of July, 1887, Mr. Sheppard was united in marriage to Miss Caroline Mary Harder, daughter of William Harder, general traffic manager of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and a resident of Winnipeg. Of this union have been born two children, Stuart Harder and William Percival.

EDWARD TEARE TAUBMAN was born December 18, 1853, near the city of Cleveland, Ohio, where his parents, Edward and Margaret (Teare) Taubman, natives of the Isle of Man, settled the preceding fall. The year of his birth witnessed the family's emigration to Iowa, in which state he spent his childhood and youth, growing to young manhood near the town of Maquoketa, where he also received his pre- liminary education by attending the public schools. The training thus received was supple- mented later by a business course in the Clinton Commercial College, after which he followed teaching for four or five years, during which time he also taught classes in penmanship at different places. While thus engaged Mr. Taub- man began the study of law under the direction of Cotton & Wolfe, leading attorneys of De- Witt, Iowa, and in September, 1878, was ad-

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mitted to the Clinton county bar, immediately fol- lowing which he began practicing his profes- sion in the town of Delmar. After spending some months at that place, he moved to Spencer, the same state, where he practiced until 1883, in March of which year he closed up his busi- ness in Iowa and came to South Dakota, locat- ing at Aberdeen, where he opened an office and in due season secured a liberal share of patron- age. Twenty years ago and more Aberdeen appears to have been a mecca for lawyers, Mr. Taubman having been the seventy-fourth legal light to swing his shingle to the breeze, of which large number but five besides the subject are in active practice in the city at the present time, namely, C. N. Harris, John H. Perry, C. J. Hute, A. W. Campbell and Captain Houser.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 124

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