USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 95
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134 | Part 135 | Part 136 | Part 137 | Part 138 | Part 139 | Part 140 | Part 141 | Part 142 | Part 143
663
HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
Irish lineage. He was born in the beautiful town of Cobourg, province of Ontario, on the 28th of November. 1859, and was reared and educated in his native province, where he continued to maintain his home until the year 1879, when he set forth for the west, coming to what was then the undivided territory of Dakota and located in Sioux Falls, where he remained two years. At the expiration of this period, in 1881, he came to Chamberlain, Brule county, arriving in May of that year and finding the site of the village marked by only two buildings. He purchased the lot on which his present business building is located and then returned to Sioux Falls, where he purchased the necessary material with which to construct his store, after the completion of which he installed a stock of groceries, beginning operations on a modest scale. With the growth of the town and the settling up of the surround- ing country his enterprise expanded and pros- pered, and to meet the demands of his patrons he has kept his stock up to the highest possible standard, both in comprehensiveness and quality, while he has spared no pains in catering to the wants of his patrons, who in turn manifest a distinctive appreciation. In politics Mr. Gerin is a Republican and he is one of the valued citizens and business men of the county.
HENRY M. DAVISON .- The enterprising young business man and popular citizen whose name furnishes the heading of this review needs no formal introduction to the people of Spring- field and Bon Homme county. Mr. Davison is in every sense of the word a western man, as he was born and reared in South Dakota and thus far his life has been very closely identified with the growth and development of Bon Homme county, where he first saw the light of day on January 5. 1870. His father, Henry C. Davison, was a native of Augusta, Maine, and his mother, who bore the maiden name of Alberta Mead, was born in the state of New York. These par- ents moved to Illinois a number of years ago, thence in 1869 to Bon Homme county, South Dakota, where the father was engaged in mer-
chandising until 1874, when he discontinued that line of business and began dealing in live stock. His experience in the latter industry was of brief duration, however, as he died the latter year, shortly after taking up his residence in Springfield. Mrs. Davison bore her husband two children and about two years after his death she became the wife of George W. Snow, with whom she now lives in the above town.
Henry M. Davison was born and reared in Springfield, South Dakota, and enjoyed the best educational advantages the schools of the town afforded. He early manifested a decided pred- ilection for business and at the age of eighteen entered the Springfield Bank, in which he held an important position from 1888 to 1892. Sever- ing his connection with that institution the latter year, he became associated with other parties in organizing the Springfield Hardware Com- pany, with which enterprise he has since been connected, the business growing to large pro- portions the meanwhile, until the establishment is now the largest and most successfully con- ducted of the kind in the city. In 1903 the company added agricultural implements and farm machinery to their stock and the patron- age in these lines is already large and lucrative and steadily increasing.
While deeply interested in his business affairs and making every other consideration subordi- nate thereto, Mr. Davison has not been unmind- ful of his obligations to the public or of his duties as a citizen. From an early age he has taken a lively interest in matters of public moment and since old enough to exercise the rights of the ballot he has been an earnest and zealous supporter of the Republican party. In recognition of his valuable political services as well as by reason of his peculiar fitness for the position, he was elected in 1896 treasurer of Springfield, the duties of which office he dis- charged efficiently and to the entire satisfaction of the public for a period of five years. Later he was further honored by being made mayor, and he is now in his second term in this office. During his incumbency municipal affairs have been ably and faithfully managed and the city
664
HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
is now enjoying one of the best administrations in its history.
Mr. Davison is one of the leading young men of his city and county, and his influence in business circles and public affairs has been marked and salutary. As already indicated, his life has been spent in Springfield, and his per- sonal history presents no pages marred or blotted by unworthy actions. Few men in the community are as widely and favorably known, none enjoy higher standing as a generous, obliging, self-sacrificing friend, and from what he has already accomplished it is safe to predict for him increased usefulness and additional pub- lic recognition and honor with each succeeding year. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, in Springfield, and since 1891 has been a member of Mt. Zion Lodge, No. 6, Free and Accepted Masons, in addition to which fra- ternities he is also identified with the Order of Eastern Star and the Modern Woodmen of America, having held important official po- sitions in all of these organizations. Religiously he subscribes to the Episcopal creed, and with his wife belongs to the church at Springfield, in which he is a zealous worker and to the support of which he contributes liberally of his means and influence.
Mr. Davison, on January 15, 1896, contracted a matrimonial alliance with Miss Eva G. Stevens, an intelligent and accomplished young lady, who was born in Cass county, Iowa, and who with her husband has since moved in the best social circles of the city in which they reside. Mr. and Mrs. Davison have a beautiful home plen- tifully supplied with the comforts, conveniences and many of the luxuries and their domestic re- lations are indeed most pleasant and agreeable. Mrs. Davison was elected worthy grand matron, Order of the Eastern Star, of South Dakota, at Deadwood in June, 1903.
J. O. MELHAM is a native of the state of Minnesota, having been born on a farm in Fill- more county, on the 20th of April, 1866, and being a son of Ole O. and Ann Melham, both
of whom were born and reared in Norway, where their marriage was solemnized. There the father of the subject was engaged in teaching until 1861, when he emigrated thence with his family to America, remaining for a brief interval in Wisconsin, and thence moving to Fillmore county, Minnesota, where he purchased land and turned his attention to farming, having been numbered among the pioneers of that section. He there continued to reside until 1877, when he returned to Wisconsin and purchased a farm in Buffalo county, being there actively and suc- cessfully engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1881, when he disposed of his place and came with his family to what is now the state of South Dakota, locating in Deuel county, where he purchased a claim of one hundred and sixty acres of land, in Brandt township, where he ini- proved a good farm, being one of the early settlers in the locality and becoming one of the prominent and highly honored citizens of the county. He died on his homestead on the 19th of September, 1887, at the age of fifty-six years, while his wife still resides on the farm with two of her children. They became the parents of six children, all of whom are living in this state, namely: Julia, unmarried; Emma, who is the wife of O. C. Halverson, of Brandt ; Ole, who is operating the home farm; J. O., who is the im- mediate subject of this review; Andrew, who is associated with J. O., and Anna, who is a clerk in Watertown. The father was a Republican in politics, and his religious faith was that of the Lutheran church, of which his wife also is like- wise a devoted member.
J. O. Melham passed the first decade of his life on the farm on which he was born, and his rudimentary educational training was thus se- cured in the district schools of Fillmore county, Minnesota, while later he continued his studies in the public schools of Wisconsin and South Dakota. After leaving school he continued to assist in the work of the home farm in Deuel county, South Dakota, until he had attained to his legal majority, when he initiated his in- dependent career, securing employment in an agricultural-implement store at Clear Lake,
HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
665
where he remained four years, during which period he engaged in buying grain during the autumn seasons. Thereafter he was for one year employed as bookkeeper in the Bank of Toronto, Deuel county, and at the expiration of this period he resigned his position, in 1892, and en- gaged in the lumber and hardware business in Brandt, that county, associating himself with Ole Halverson, under the firm name of Halver- son & Melham. The partnership was dissolved in 1895, since which time Mr. Melham has con- tinued to be identified with the lumber business, which is now carried on upon an extensive scale, being associated in the enterprise with his brother Andrew, under the title of the Melham Brothers Lumber Company, which is incorpo- rated under the laws of the state, and of which he is president and treasurer, the company hav- ing well equipped yards in each of the follow- ing named towns in the state: Albee, Brandt, Bryant, Volga and Hazel, all in South Dakota, with about fifty-six thousand dollars invested. The annual sales amount to about one hundred thousand dollars. The subject is the owner of two valuable farms in Deuel county, is president of the State Bank of Brandt, and also of-the First State Bank of Hazel, Hamlin county, while he is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Volga, Brookings county. In addition to his varied landed and capitalistic interests in this state he is also the owner of nine hundred and sixty acres of land in British Columbia. Mr. Melham continued to reside in the village of Brandt until 1903, when he removed to Water- town, where he now maintains his home and business headquarters. In politics he gives a stanch allegiance to the Republican party, but is essentially and primarily a business man and has never had any desire for the honors or emolu- ments of public office. He and his wife are con- sistent and active members of the Lutheran church.
On the Ist of June, 1896, at the home of the bride, in Deuel county, Mr. Melham was united in marriage to Miss Julia H. Tolrud, a daughter of T. O. Tolrud, a wealthy and influential farmer of that county, to which he came from Fillmore
county, Minnesota, in the early 'eighties, Mrs. Melham having been born in the county last mentioned, and having been reared and educated in South Dakota, and being a lady of gracious presence and distinctive refinement. Mr. and Mrs. Melham have four children, namely: Wil- liam Oscar, Mark E., Arnold Gerhard and Thomas Walter.
CONRAD EYMER .- A resident of South Dakota since 1869 and one of the oldest, best known and most highly esteemed citizens of Bon Homme county, with the history and de- velopment of which his life has been very closely identified, it is eminently fitting in this connec- tion that due mention be made of the successful farmer and public-spirited man of affairs whose name introduces this article. Conrad Eymer is a native of Homberg, Hesse Cassel, Germany, where his birth occurred on August 3. 1842. His father, Jacob Eymer, also born in Hesse Cassel, was a confectioner by trade and fol- lowed that line of work all his life, having been an expert in the manufacturing of candies, as well as a man of intelligence and excellent re- pute. He lived an industrious and useful life and died in the land of his birth in the year 1849. Mrs. Eymer, whose maiden name was Hasenfplug, survived her husband many years, and was called to the other world in 1893, after reaching a ripe old age. To this couple four children were born, the oldest of whom is Kate, wife of Timothy Heineman, a contractor and builder of Covington, Kentucky ; Lizzie, the sec- ond daughter, lives in Covington also; Conrad is the third in order of birth and the youngest of the family ; a daughter by the name of Sophia married Luke C. Walker and lives in Lower Brule Agency, South Dakota.
Conrad Eymer remained in the land of his birth until about eleven years of age, when he accompanied his mother to the United States and for several weeks thereafter lived in Baltimore, Maryland. Leaving that city, he went to Cov- ington, Kentucky, where he resided until 1869, devoting his attention the meanwhile to me-
43
666
HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
chanical work, making a specialty of carpentry, which he learned in early life. In the latter year he yielded to a desire of long standing by coming west and in due time arrived in what is now Cleveland township, Bon Homme county, South Dakota, where he pre-empted and then homesteaded a quarter section of land, which he at once proceeded to convert into a home. The land was wild and it required a great deal of hard work to reduce it to cultivation and make the other necessary improvements, but with an energy that knew no lagging and a determi- nation that hesitated at no difficulty, he persevered in his efforts until he had one of the best de- veloped farms in his section of the country, be- sides adding to its area by subsequent purchases.
Mr. Eymer now owns two hundred and forty acres of fine land, all of which is tillable, and as a farmer and stock raiser his success has been marked and his progress steady and substantial. He markets every year a large number of cattle and hogs, which with the products of the farm bring him a liberal income and he is today one of the thrifty, well-to-do men of his township and county, as well as a leading citizen of the community in which he resides. Mr. Eymer is a Republican, but not a very active politician and he has never aspired for office nor to any kind of public station. He has always been an honest, hard-working, law-abiding citizen, con- tent with the quiet life of the farm, but ready and willing to lend his influence and support to all enterprises and progressive measures for the advancement of the country and the welfare of the people. In addition to his long and honorable career in civil life, he has a military record also, having served in the late Rebellion, as a member of Company B, Fifty-third Kentucky Mounted Infantry, which did valiant service for the Union in some of the noted campaigns and a number of the bloody battles of that great struggle. He enlisted in 1863 and shared with his comrades all the vicissitudes of its varied experience until the close of the war, proving under all circum- stances a brave soldier, whose loyalty to his adopted country was as strong and enduring as if he had been born and bred on American soil.
Mr. Eymer was married in the year 1867 to Miss Kate Deiss, of Wurtemberg, Germany, who accompanied her parents to America when six years of age and grew to womanhood in Coving- ton, Kentucky. Eleven children have been born of this union, namely: Albert, a farmer living at Tyndall, this state; Charles, who lives with his parents; Carrie, wife of Charles Bixby, of Bon Homme county; William married Anna Paddock and resides in Cleveland township, where he is engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock raising; Kate is the wife of Oscar Snow- den and lives in Lyman county, South Dakota ; Walter is deceased ; the younger members of the family, whose names are Sophia, Timothy, Arthur, Mabel and Pearl, are still inmates of the parental home. Religiously the subject and his wife subscribe to the Methodist Episcopal creed and are consistent and respected members of the local church with which they are identified.
JAMES D. REEVES, of Groton, Brown county, is a man who has wielded no little in- fluence in the public and civic affairs of South Dakota, having been prominently identified with the newspaper business and having served the commonwealth for four years in the responsible office of state auditor. He is a citizen who com- mands public confidence and esteem and his life record is such as to well entitle him to repre- sentation in this work.
Mr. Reeves is a native of the state of Min- nesota, having been born in the village of Pleas- ant Grove, Olmstead county, on the Ist of March, 1858, and being a son of Rev. Michael D. and Martha Reeves, the former of whom is a clergyman of the Baptist church, while he was also for a number of years successfully engaged in farming in Minnesota. The early educational advantages of the subject of this sketch were such as were afforded in the public schools of his native state, while as a youth he served an apprenticeship to the trade of printer, at Spring Valley, Minnesota, where he devoted his atten- tion to this preliminary discipline from 1874 to 1878, becoming a skilled workman and not fail-
667
HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
ing to duly profit by the experience to be gained in a newspaper office,-an experience which has been pertinently designated as equivalent to a liberal education. On the 9th of September, 1881, Mr. Reeves established in Groton, South Dakota, its first newspaper, to which he gave the name of the Groton Mirror. In the following year he here founded the Brown County (Co- lumbia) Sentinel, while in 1884 he established the Groton Independent, of which he is still editor and publisher, this paper being practically the successor of the Groton Mirror, the Groton News, the Groton Eagle, the Groton Advocate and the Groton Gazette, so that the application of the law of the survival of the fittest may be a subject of incidental reference in the connection. Mr. Reeves is recognized as a thoroughly trained newspaper man and as one of progressive ideas, and these facts predicate success, which has not been denied him. In politics he has been known as an uncompromising advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and his services in the connection have been unstinted and effective during the years of his residence in South Dakota. He served for two years as a member of the Groton school board and for an equal period as mayor of the town, his adminis- tration as chief executive of the municipal gov- ernment being such as to gain to him unequivocal commendation. In 1899 he was elected auditor of the state, remaining in tenure of this office until 1903 and proving a most discriminating and efficient incumbent. Mr. Reeves has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1879, having been initiated and raised in the lodge at Hastings, Minnesota, and he is also identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America.
In Glencoe, Minnesota, on the 20th of June, 1883, Mr. Reeves was united in marriage to Miss Bertha Snyder, and her death occurred on the 25th of December, 1894. Of the children of this union we record that Gertrude V. was born August 13, 1884; Jay E., May 25. 1886; and Jackson D., October 21, 1888; while twin sons, born November 25, 1894, died in infancy. The other three children remain at the paternal home.
On the 19th of April, 1899, Mr. Reeves con- summated a second marriage, being then united to Miss Mona B. Taubman, of Aberdeen, South Dakota, no children having been born to them.
HOSEA BRIDGMAN .- The subject of this sketch is a native of Cook county, Illinois, and the son of Chauncy and Betsy Jane ( Miller) Bridgman, the father born May 1, 1814, in Tioga county, New York, and the mother on October 2, 1817, in the same state. These par- ents were married November 1, 1835, and two years later moved to Cook county, Illinois, set- tling near Elgin, where Mr. Bridgman engaged in farming, in connection with which he also did considerable building in that city and the coun- try surrounding. He died November 8, 1846, while on a visit to New York, after which his wife and children moved to Wisconsin, where the latter were reared and educated. Mrs. Bridgman, who was a daughter of Alvah and Sarah Jane Miller, survived her husband a num- ber of years, departing this life at Springfield, South Dakota, on April 3. 1883. She was the mother of four children, namely : Alvah T., born July 25, 1836, present postmaster of Springfield, South Dakota ; Mary L. was born June 24, 1840, and died on July 4th of the same year; Hosea, of this review, is the third in order of birth, and Helen, who was born March 21, 1844, lives with the subject and owns valuable real estate in Bon Homme which she entered a number of years ago when she first came west.
Hosea Bridgman spent the greater part of his childhood and youth in Wisconsin and when a young man traveled quite extensively over the counties of Rock and Green, as a photographer, devoting several years to this kind of work. Subsequently he opened a meat market and con- tinued to operate the same until 1873, when he disposed of his business interests in Wisconsin and came to South Dakota, locating at Spring- field, Bon Homme county, in the spring of 1874. During his residence in Springfield, which covered a period of twelve years, Mr. Bridg- man devoted his attention to freighting and built
668
HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
up a lucrative business, running a number of teams and handling a vast amount of merchan- dise and other goods and heavy articles. Dis- continuing this line of work in 1885, he took up a quarter section of land in section 61, township 93, to which he moved his fam- ily in 1885 and from that time to the present he has given his attention to agriculture and live stock, meeting with encouraging success as a tiller of the soil and breeder and raiser of blooded and high-grade domestic animals.
Mr. Bridgman has added to his realty until his farm now contains four hundred and eighty acres of fine, productive land, nearly all of which is under cultivation and highly improved. He has good, substantial buildings, including a com- fortable and commodious dwelling, supplied with many of the conveniences and not a few of the luxuries of life. All things considered, he is well situated to enjoy the liberal fruits of his labors, being in independent circumstances, with a sufficient competence laid up for future years. Mr. Bridgman has many warm friends in the community where he resides and his popularity is bounded only by the limits beyond which his name is unknown. He stands high in the esteem of his neighbors and fellow citizens, and by a course of conduct above the suspicion of wrong- doing demonstrates his right to the confidence reposed in him. Politically he is a Republican, but not a zealous partisan.
Mr. Bridgman was married in Green county, Wisconsin, to Miss Hannah H. Van Curan, of Edinburg, Erie county, Pennsylvania, the union resulting in the birth of three children, viz: Arthur, manufacturer and dealer in harness, Perkins, South Dakota; Edith, one of the county's efficient and popular teachers, and Nettie, who, in addition to teaching, is skillful in the art of photography. Mr. Bridgman spared no expense in educating his children, all three having taken courses in the State Normal School, at Springfield. They are intelligent, more than ordinarily cultured and greatly respected in the social circles in which they move. In addition to his long and successful career as a farmer, Mr. Bridgman can also boast of creditable mili-
tary record, having served during the latter part of the late Civil war as a member of Company I, Forty-Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He spent the greater part of his period of en- listment in Alabama, and later did guard duty principally until the downfall of the rebellion.
WILLIAM W. DOWNIE, editor and publisher of the Herald Advance, at Milbank, was born in Hamilton, Ontario, on the 2d- of March, 1855. George Downie, his father, was born in Scotland and was a blacksmith by oc- cupation. When William was about six years old his parents moved to Michigan and in that state he spent his youth and early manhood, re- ceiving a common-school education and on leav- ing home he entered a newspaper office in Spring Lake. After becoming an efficient workman he was employed for a number of years in various offices in Michigan, and St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1879 came to Big Stone City, South Dakota, where he started the same year the Herald, the first newspaper published in Grant county. The Herald, during the ten years of its publication at Big Stone, acquired a liberal patronage and became a Republican party organ of no small influence. In 1889 it was moved to Milbank and consolidated with the Advance, since when the Herald Advance has made its weekly appearance with a constantly increasing circulation and a steadily growing advertising patronage. In its mechanical make-up it is a creditable example of the art preservative, and in a general way it is designed to vibrate with the public pulse and to be a reflex of the current thought of the day. It is the official Republican organ of Grant county, and under the management of Mr. Downie, who is a keen and forceful writer, its influence in moulding party sentiment and con- tributing to the success of the ticket is second to none in the northwestern part of the state. Through it as a medium, Mr. Downie has done much to promote the material welfare of Mil- bank and Grant county, being a strong advocate of all enterprises calculated to advance the in- terests of the people, and he has been untiring in
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.