History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 100

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1138

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June, 1881, when he was admitted to the bar of Iowa, in the city mentioned. In the following month he secured admission to the Minnesota bar, at Luverne, while he became a member of the bar of Codington county, Dakota, in 1882. He came to Watertown, this county, in July, 1881, and on the 7th of the following month took up his residence in the village of Clark, where he has ever since maintained his home and been actively and successfully engaged in the practice of his chosen profession. He has been employed by the county in most of its important litigations, including the prosecution of Christ Christianson, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to the penitentiary for life, this being the only mur- der trial ever held in the county. Mr. Sherwood has been signally prospered in his efforts and the tangible results are seen in his valuable prop- erty interests. He is the owner of a well-im- proved farm of twelve hundred acres and also of considerable other real estate, including his attractive home in Clark. He has one of the best libraries in this section of the state, the same being valued at twenty-five hundred dollars.

Mr. Sherwood has been active in public af- fairs from the time of taking up his residence here. He served from 1882 until 1887 as register of deeds of the county, and was a member of the constitutional conventions, in Sioux Falls, in 1883 and 1889, while he was a delegate to the na- tional Republican convention which nominated Mckinley for the presidency in 1806. He was state senator from the twenty-ninth senatorial district of South Dakota in the first state senate convened, and was temporary and permanent chairman of the first Republican state convention held after the admission of South Dakota into the Union and chairman of the Republican state convention held at Sioux Falls, May 23, 1900, the largest convention ever held in the state. He has been a delegate from his county to every state convention of his party, with one exception, served for nearly a decade as chairman of the county central committee and is at the present time a member of the Republican state central committee. He has been intimately identified with the industrial, political and civic develop-

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ment of Clark county, having been thus associ- ated with its interests from the time of its organi- zation, while his was the distinction of being elected its first register of deeds. Mr. Sherwood has been affiliated with the Masonic fraternity since 1883, being a member of the lodge and chapter in Clark and the commandery of Knights Templar in Watertown. He was initiated in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in 1884, and is a member of the lodge in Clark. He is also identified with the Knights of Pythias, the Mod- ern Woodmen of America, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Brotherhood of America, while in 1902 he became a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Watertown. Both he and his wife were reared in the faith of the Baptist church, but they now attend and give support to the Methodist Episcopal church.

On the Ioth of February, 1885, at Clark, this state, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sher- wood to Miss Nellie C. Fountain, a daughter of George H. and Dollie A. Fountain, who were pioneers in Nashua, Iowa, whence they later re- moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and from that city to Clark, South Dakota, in 1879, being among the first to settle in the vicinity of this now thriving city, the site being unmarked by a single building at the time of their arrival, while their nearest neighbors were six miles dis- tant. Of the four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood we enter brief record, the date of birth being given in each respective con- nection, and the three living still remain at the parental home: George F., May 5, 1887; Harry A., September 15, 1888, died December 1, 1892 ; Mary Carlton, June 3, 1802 ; and Dollie Viola, July 2, 1897.

REV. MICHAEL DERMODY is one of the able and honored representatives of the priest- hood of the holy Roman Catholic church in South Dakota, being pastor of the parish of St. Simon and Jude, at Flandreau, Moody county. Father Dermody was born in Waterford, Ireland, on the 10th of September, 1860, and is a son of

John and Catherine ( Kennedy ) Dermody, both of whom were likewise born and reared in Waterford, coming of stanch old Irish stock and being folk of intelligence and sterling character, the father of the subject having devoted the major portion of his life to teaching as a voca- tion. He whose name initiates this sketch re- ceived his preliminary educational discipline in the parochial schools of his native place and then continued his studies in the monastery of Mount Sion, in the same town, availing himself fully of the excellent advantages of this old and noble institution. In 1878 Father Dermody came to America and completed his preparation for the priesthood in St. Viator's College, at Kan- kakee, Illinois, where he was ordained to the priesthood by Rt. Rev. Bishop O'Gorman, bishop of the diocese of Sioux Falls. After hold- ing various pastoral incumbencies he came to South Dakota and since 1898 he has been pastor of the church at Flandreau, where he has given himself with all the devotion and fervent zeal to his sacerdotal and pastoral duties, vitalizing the work of the parish and gaining the earnest co-op- eration and affectionate regard of his parishion- ers. His congregation now numbers about one hundred families, and the parish is in a pros- perous condition.

PETER O. RASMUSSON was born in Vernon county, Wisconsin, on the 30th of April, 1859, and is a son of Ole Rasmusson, who was born and reared in Norway, whence he emi- grated to the United States as a young man and became one of the pioneer settlers of Vernon county, Wisconsin, where he developed and im- proved a valuable farm. In that county the sub- ject of this review was reared to maturity, having duly availed himself of the advantages afforded by the public schools and thereafter continuing to be there identified with agricultural pursuits un- til 1887, in the autumn of which year he came to what is now the state of South Dakota, where he took up a claim of government land in Clark county. In 1888 he returned to his home in Wis- consin for a short sojourn and then came again

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to his farm in Clark county, developing the same and making excellent improvements on the prop- erty, which he still owns, having now one hun- dred and sixty acres of most arable land. He continued to give his attention to the operating of his farm until 1900, when he was made the candidate on the Republican ticket for the office of register of deeds of Clark county, being elected by a gratifying majority and giving so excellent an administration that he was the natural choice of his party for the · office at the expiration of his first term, having been re-elected in the autumn of 1902 and thus being incumbent of the office at the time of this writing, while he has the un- qualified confidence and good will of the people of the county. He is a zealous worker in the local ranks of the "grand old party," and takes a lively interest in all that concerns the general welfare and progress of his home town, county and state. He and his wife are members of the Lutheran church.

On the 28th of December, 1888, Mr. Rasmus- son was united in marriage to Miss Oliana M. Kolbo, who likewise was born in Vernon county, Wisconsin, being a daughter of Hans A. and Ingeborg Kolbo. Mr. and Mrs. Rasmusson have six children, namely: Henry Otto, Irina Ma- thilda, Olga Paula, John Magnus, Marvin Julian and Roland Albin.

It is worthy of note that, as the result of a severe attack of fever when three years old, the subject lost the use of his right leg, being com- pelled ever afterward to use crutches. Never- theless, while in Wisconsin, he ran a horse-power threshing machine for eight years, and ran a steam thresher in South Dakota for six years, while during 1900 he acted as salesman and ex- pert for the Deering Harvester Company.

EDWIN GRANT COLEMAN, of Flan- dreau, one of the able and representative mem- bers of the bar of the state and at the present time serving as state's attorney for Moody county, is a native of the state of Illinois, having been born in Pilot Grove township, Hancock

county, on the 6th of March, 1867, a son of Charles B. and Nancy ( Huckins) Coleman, who are now deceased, the father having been a farmer by vocation. Both the parental and ma- ternal grandparents of the subject were num- bered among the earliest settlers in Hancock county, whither the former came from Zanes- ville, Ohio, and the latter from Concord, New Hampshire, while both families trace the an- cestral line back to stanch Puritan stock, hav- ing been founded in New England in the early colonial epoch.

The subject received excellent educational advantages in his early youth. After complet- ing the curriculum of the common schools he con- tinted his studies in turn in the La Harpe Acad- emy and the Giddings Academy, at La Harpe, Illinois ; later attended the Northern Illinois Normal School, at Dixon ; and in 1889 was ma- triculated in the law department of the Univer- sity of Michigan, where he completed the pre- scribed course and was graduated on the 28th of June, 1892, having been admitted to the bar of that state on the 3d of the same month. He was admitted to practice before the supreme court of Illinois on the IIth of June, of the same year ; and on the 15th of June, 1898, was admitted to practice before the supreme court of South Da- kota. In the autumn of 1892 Mr. Coleman formed a professional alliance with J. F. Ham- ilton and engaged in the practice of law in Gales- burg, Illinois, where he remained until the spring of 1808, when he came to South Dakota, locating in Flandreau on the 29th of April and here open- ing an office. He has since been actively and suc- cessfully engaged in the practice of his profes- sion here, retaining a representative clientage and being known as a safe and conservative counselor and as an able trial lawyer. On the Ist of November, 1901, he entered into a professional partnership with John Q. Adams, under the firm name of Adams & Coleman, and this association has since obtained, the firm holding a very high standing at the bar of the state and having the confidence and esteem of the community.

In politics Mr. Coleman is a stanchi advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican

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party, in whose cause he takes an active interest, | and he has served since 1002 as state's attorney for Moody county, proving a discriminating and faithful prosecutor, while for the past five years he has been a member of the village council of Flandreau. He was for six years a member of the Sixth Regiment of the Illinois National Guard, with which he was in active service dur- ing the labor strikes in Chicago, Pekin, Spring Valley and other places in the state, in 1804. Fraternally he is a Master Mason and also iden- tified with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Royal Neigh- bors, the Knights of the Maccabees and the Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

On the 12th of June, 1902, Mr. Coleman was united in marriage to Miss Lucy M. Vance, a daughter of Nathan Vance, of Flandreatt, she being a native of Minnesota and at the time of her marriage with Mr. Coleman a resident of Flandreau, North Dakota.

LEVI McGEE. of Rapid City, present judge of the seventh judicial district of South Da- kota, was born in Davis county, Iowa, on March 12, 1858. After acquiring a preliminary edu- cation in the public schools of his native place. he pursued the higher studies for some time in a 1101 mal institute, which course being completed he devoted two or three years to the work of teaching. His father being a farmer young Mc- Gee was reared to agricultural pursuits and the outdoor experience and excellent discipline thus received had a marked influence in fostering habits of industry, shaping his char- acter and materially affecting his future course of life. Having decided to make the legal profession his life work, Mr. McGee, at the age of twenty-two, entered a law office in Bedford, Iowa, and devoted the greater part of the ensu- ing three years to close, painstaking study, sup- porting himself by clerking in a store at odd times. In 1883 he became greatly interested in the Black Hills country, and his desire to seek his fortune in that promising field finally led him to purchase a wagon and a yoke of oxen with

which to make the journey thither. Starting the above year he drove through over the old Pierre trail and, arriving at Rapid City in the month of September, at once entered the office of Now- lin & Wood, the leading law firm of the place, where he prosecuted his studies until his admis- sion to the bar in 1886, defraying his expenses as formerly by doing office work and assisting his preceptors in various ways.

Mr. McGee brought to his profession a mind well disciplined by hard study and laborious re- search and in due time became one of the rising members of the Rapid City bar. The same year in which he opened his office he was nominated by the local Democracy for county judge and, defeating his competitor in the ensuing election, entered upon the duties of an office in which he achieved an eminently creditable and honor- able record. After six years on the bench Mr. McGee resumed the practice and the large volume of business which soon came to him and his connection with the most important litigation in Pennington and neighboring counties attest the high rank he achieved among the most dis- tinguished members of the South Dakota bar.

As already indicated, Judge MeGee is a Democrat, and since coming west he has been an influential force in the party. Yielding to the re- peated solicitation of his party friends, he ac- cepted, in 1894. the nomination for the upper house of the general assembly and was elected by an overwhelming majority. Owing to the press- ing claims of his large and constantly increasing legal business, which he could not afford to neglect for legislative honors, Judge MeGee, after serving one term, refused a renomination, although his record in the senate was a dis- tinguished one. He continued uninterruptedly the practice of his profession until the fall of 1897, when his name was again placed upon the Democratic ticket, but for a higher order of public service than any which he had previously been honored, to-wit, the district judgeship. His eminent qualifications for the position. together with his recognized integrity and great per- sonal popularity paved the way for an easy election and he has held the responsible and ex-

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acting office continuously to the present time, having been chosen his own successor in the year 1901. Judge McGee's judicial career has more than realized the high expectations of his friends and the public, his thorough profes- sional training, liis familiarity with the principles of jurisprudence and his long and successful ex- perience in every branch of the law in the town and higher courts of the state eminently fitting him for the duties of the dignified office which he so ably fills.

Aside from his profession, Judge McGee has achieved enviable standing as a citizen and his name has been closely identified with whatever makes for the social, educational and moral wel- fare of the community in which he resides. He belongs to the ancient and honorable Masonic brotherhood, in addition to which organization he is active and liberal in his benevolences, both public and private. The Judge owns a con- modious and attractive home in Rapid City, and has gathered around him many of the comforts, conveniences and luxuries of life, which are shared by his estimable companion and helpmeet. to whom he was happily married on the 18th of December, 1887. Mrs. McGee, who was for- merly Miss Gertrude S. Richards, was born in Delaware, but a considerable portion of her life has been spent in Rapid City, South Dakota.

GEORGE MOREHOUSE, deceased, late of Brookings, was one of the representative bank- ers and capitalists of the state and one of its most honored citizens, while the lesson of his career is a valuable one, showing a particular mastering of expedients, a strong mental grasp and a rare power of initiative, through which forces he has attained a high degree of success and won the proud American title of self-made man.

Mr. Morehouse was a native of the old Em- pire state, having been born in the town of Holley, Orleans county, New York, on the 23d of December, 1839, being a son of Carlton More- house, born in Galloway, Saratoga county, New York, on the IIth of December, 1797. The

latter was a son of Caleb and Abigail Morehouse, the former of whom was born in the western part of Connecticut, whence he removed to Saratoga county, New York, immediately after the war of the Revolution, and there for many years was engaged in agricultural pursuits. His chil- dren were as follows : Erastus, Ransom, Carlton, Henry and William. The father of Caleb More- house was the original progenitor of the family in America, whither he emigrated from England in the colonial epoch of our national history, tak- ing up his abode in the western part of Con- necticut. During the war of the Revolution his live stock was confiscated by the British soldiers, among the animals taken being a yoke of oxen, which, after a few days, returned to the home farm, much to the surprise and gratification of the owners. In 1846 Caleb Morehouse came west to Kane county, Illinois, in company with his son Carlton, father of the subject, and he died at the home of his son Henry, in Plato township, Kane county, Illinois, said son having been a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church and a circuit rider in Illinois from 1848 to 1853. The wife of Caleb Morehouse died in Saratoga county, New York, prior to his removal to the west. Each of their sons was married in Saratoga county, and the son Henry, who was a local preacher and a farmer, was the first of the family to locate in the west, having resided for a time in Kane county, Illinois, whence he removed to Janesville, Bremer county, Iowa, where he passed the remainder of his life. He was the father of two children, Bertha and Hattie. Erastus, the eldest of the sons of Caleb Morehouse, passed his entire life in Saratoga county, New York; Ransom died when a young man ; and William, the youngest, became a resident of Janesville, Iowa, about 1866, and there he was engaged in the meat-market business during the remainder of his active business life, retaining his home there until his death.

Carlton Morehouse, the father of the subject, was reared and educated in Saratoga county, New York, growing up on the pioneer farm and in his early youth securing employment as clerk in a local mercantile establishment. On the 7th of December, 1825, was solemnized his marriage

George nonhente

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to Miss Eliza Cornell, who was born on the 12th of March, 1806, and whose death occurred on the 2d of July, 1863, she being a daughter of Wil- liam Cornell, of Saratoga county, New York, the Cornell family having been of English lineage and the name having long been identified with the annals of American history. William, Sr., had only two children, and his son and namesake removed to Illinois and took up his abode on a farm at Pleasant Ridge, where he passed the re- mainder of his life. After his marriage Carlton Morehouse removed to Orleans county, New York, about 1838, and there he was engaged in general merchandise business until 1846, when he removed with his family to Plato township, Kane county, Illinois, where he engaged in farm- ing, later becoming a traveling salesman for Ezra Wood & Company, of Chicago, manufactur- ers of agricultural implements, remaining thus engaged until his death. His health had been somewhat impaired during the winter of 1854-5 but he had recuperated sufficiently so that he felt himself able to resume his work, and he went to Chicago and died very suddenly, of a congestive chill, while in the office of his employers, his de- mise occurring on the 6th of April, 1855. He was a Democrat in his political proclivities and served as supervisor of his township after his removal to Illinois. He and his wife were mem- bers of the Baptist church and were folk of sterling character, ever commanding the respect of all who knew them. Carlton Morehouse was a man of fine intellectual gifts and marked ability, and his early death alone prevented his rising to a position of prominence in connection with the public and civic affairs of the state of Illinois, of which he was an honored pioneer. Carlton and Eliza (Cornell) Morehouse became the par- ents of six sons, concerning whom we enter the following brief record: Ransom, who was born in Saratoga county, New York, on the 23d of March, 1827, married Margaret Brown, and he died in Denver, Colorado. Frederick D., who was born in Galloway, Saratoga county, on the 5th of June, 1829, died in Orleans county, New York, on the 16th of July, 1845. William Henry, who was born in Galloway, Saratoga 38-

county, on the 10th of January, 1832, married Minerva A. McArthur, and devoted his life to farming and merchandising, his death resulting as the result of an operation performed in the city of Chicago, where he passed away on the 17th of June. 1901. Charles, who was born in Saratoga county, March 13, 1835, died the fol- lowing year. George is the immediate subject of this sketch. Ezra Wilson, who was born in Saratoga county, April 13. 1845, was a soldier in the Union army during the war of the Rebellion and died on the transport "Spread Eagle" on the Mississippi river, near Napoleon, Arkansas, on the 19th of January, 1863. his body being in- terred with military honors at Milliken's Bend, Mississippi. The subject of this sketch has little knowledge in regard to his maternal grand- mother, but after her death her husband, William Cornell, married Katherine Deforrest Fox, of the old Holland stock of the Mohawk valley of New York. He was born December 31, 1788, and died on the Ist of July, 1859.

George Morehouse passed the first twenty years of his life on the home farm, while he at- tended the district schools until he had attained the age of sixteen years. At the age of nineteen he left the farm and entered the Bryant & Strat- ton Business College, in the city of Chicago, where he completed a six-months course. In the following autumn he secured a position in the Racine County Bank, at Racine, Wisconsin, and in the following spring, that of 1861, he mani- fested the intrinsic loyalty and patriotism of his nature by tendering his services in defense of the Union, in response to the first call for volun- teers. He enlisted as a member of Company F. Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, but was later rejected on account of physical dis- ability. In order to recuperate his health he then made a fishing expedition along the coast of the gulf of St. Lawrence, and in the autumn of 1861 returned to Wisconsin and assumed the position of bookkeeper in the office of the Racine Advocate. In the spring of 1863 he was made chief accountant for Captain J. M. Tillapaugh, who had charge of the enumerating of men eli- gible for military service, superintending the

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drafting of soldiers, etc., and thus the subject was located in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, until the spring of 1864, when he went to Brazier City, Louisiana, as bookkeeper in the employ of Captain C. H. Upham, a brother of ex-Governor William H. Upham, of Wisconsin, and there he remained until the close of the war, when he re- turned to the north and located in Janesville, Iowa, where he was employed as bookkeeper in the flouring mill of his brother Ransom until 1872, when he was elected treasurer of Bremer county, retaining this incumbency three terms and having had no opposing candidate on the oc- casion of his second and third elections, the dif- ferent parties each placing his name on its ticket. He thus served from 1872 until 1878, and during the last two years of this period he also held the position of cashier of the Bremer County Bank, in Waverly. On the first of January, 1880, he resigned this latter executive office and in the spring of the same year came to Dakota and settled in Brookings, where he took up his abode on the 27th of February, forthwith directing his efforts to the establishing of a private banking institution, in which the interested principals were himself and his brother William H., of Burling- ton, Iowa. In 1884 the bank was incorporated with a capital of fifty thousand dollars, and of the same, known as the Bank of Brookings, the subject continued as cashier until the Ist of Janu- ary, 1901, since which time he has served as president. In the meanwhile, in 1883, the two brothers also established a private bank at Estelline, this state, the same being afterward in- corporated as the Bank of Estelline, and of this institution the subject was vice-president, while he was also one of the incorporators of the First National Bank of Volga, Brookings county, in the spring of 1902, being president of this insti- tution. Mr. Morehouse was a man of rare busi- ness ability, public-spirited, upright and straight- forward in all the relations of life, and he not only contributed in a material way to the advance- ment of the interests of the great state of South Dakota but also held at all times the unequivocal confidence and regard of those with whom he came in contact, being one of the honored and

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 100

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1138

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1138