History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 106

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

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RICHARD OLSEN RICHARDS, one of the representative citizens of Huron, Beadle county, was born in Sandefjord, Norway, on the 2d of January, 1866, and is a son of Richard Martin and Maren Sebille, his surname being derived from the Christian name of his father, according to the Norseland custom. Richard Martin was a prominent shipbuilder and vessel owner, the fam- ily having been long identified with maritime in- terests in the same line,-in fact, for as many generations as the history is authentically traced. The family has resided for generations at Sandef- jord and on landed estates in that vicinity; the names of some of these estates where its ances- tors have been established during the various generations for several centuries are Kamfjord,

Gogstad, Bogen and Stanum, their ship-building yards having been located on the estates of Kamfjord and Bogen. The subject was edu- cated in an excellent private school in Sandefjord, and was graduated in 1880, after which he be- came clerk in the establishment of his uncle, Richard Andersen, who conducted a ship-chand- ler's store and export lumber business in Sandef- jord. Shortly afterward he went to London, England, whence he came to America, landing at New York city in May, 1881, where he secured employment as interpreter at Cas- tle Garden for the State Steamship Com- pany, and later accepted a clerical position in the company's office, at 53 Broadway, where he remained until 1883, in November of which year he came to the west and identified himself with South Dakota. He was engaged in common labor during the spring and summer of 1884 and then secured a position as bookkeeper in the banking house of Ormsby, Clute & Company, at Mitchell, retaining this incumbency until the summer of 1885, when he was tendered and accepted the position of farm examiner of loans for the Amer- ican Investment Company, of Emmettsburg, Iowa, later becoming manager of its extensive business in South Dakota, where its farm loans reached the notable aggregate of approximately three mil- lions of dollars. Mr. Richards was thus engaged until November, 1888, when he organized the Na- tional Land and Trust Company, of Huron, and later effected the merging of the same into the Consolidated Land and Irrigation Company and finally into the Richards Trust Company, of Hu- ron, of which he has since been president. The company is capitalized for one hundred thousand dollars and conducts a general brokerage business in connection with its functions in the making of loans upon approved real-estate securities and in the handling of trust funds, etc., the concern be- ing one of the important and solid financial insti- tutions of the state and controlling a large busi- ness. The Consolidated Land and Irrigation Company, of which Mr. Richards was the or- ganizer, as already noted, had under its care and exclusive management seven thousand farms in South Dakota at one time, and all of these were

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located east of the Missouri river and taken in on farm mortgages by eighteen different non-resident mortgage-loaning companies during the long pre- vailing drouth and financial depression from 1888 to 1896. The Consolidated Company, of which Mr. Richards was president and manager, suc- ceeded in merging the management of the landed interests of all these non-resident companies in South Dakota and held the same until 1896, when finally all of these companies failed, there being 110 sale for the land acquired and a general scar- city of money, which made it impossible for them to meet the interest on their debenture bonds and guaranteed mortgages. Mr. Richards has proved his powers of organization in a significant way, and is typically persistent and determined in car- rying forward to success any enterprise with which he identifies himself, while his course is al- ways straightforward and marked by integrity of purpose, so that he commands at all times the confidence, respect and esteem of those with whom he comes in contact, while he is essentially progressive and public-spirited. He has always exercised his franchise in support of the princi- ples and policies of the Republican party save in 1896, when he cast his ballot for William J. Bryan for president. His religious faith is that of the Lutheran church, in which he was reared, and in 1892 he became fraternally identified with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. in Sioux Falls.

At Hudson, Wisconsin, on the 8th of January, 1891, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ricli- ards to Miss Grace May Durell, who was born in Laconia, New Hampshire, of stanch old co- lonial ancestry. Her paternal great-great-grand- father was Eliphalet Durell, a French Huguenot, who fled from his native land to America to es- cape the religious persecutions entailed by the re- vocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, settling in historic old Salem, Massachusetts. Anna (Weed) Hutchinson, the maternal grandmother of Mrs. Richards, was a daughter of Levi Hut- chinson, who was a member of a New Hampshire regiment during the war of the Revolution, as is shown in the records of that commonwealth as well as in those pertaining to the war. Her 40-

mother was a member of the well-known Sargent family of New England. Following are the names of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Richards, the respective dates of birth being entered in con- nection : Blanche Alma, December 20, 1891 ; Maren Grace, November 12, 1896; Josephine Helena, August 25, 1808; Thelma Dakota +#. August 9, 1900 ; and Richard Olsen, Jr., Fch- ruary 24, 1903. Aurell Bogen Sept 16,1905.

JOHN H. WILLIAMSON, a member of the state senate, from Lake county, is a native of the old Pine Tree state, having been born in the town of Stark, Somerset county, on the 30th of July, 1859, and being a son of Hon. Henry and Tem- perance (Boardman) Williamson, both of whom were born and reared in that same county, be- ing scions of prominent old families of New England. The paternal grandfather of the sub- ject was Rev. Stephen Williamson, who was born in Siasconset, Nantucket county, Massa- chusetts, and was a clergyman of the Freewill Baptist church and was long active in the work of the ministry. The original progenitors of the family in America came hither from England in the colonial days, and the great-grandfather of the Senator was a valiant soldier in the Con- tinental line during the war of the Revolution, while the Rev. Stephen Williamson was in ac- tive service during the war of 1812, in which he was an officer. Patriotism and loyalty have been distinctive traits in the several generations. and the father of the subject was a stanch abo- litionist in the crucial epoch culminating in the war of the Rebellion. He was physically disqual- ified for active service in the field but took a prominent part in recruiting work and in sustain- ing those who went to the front. He was a farmer by vocation, owning and operating a large homestead in his native county, where he was held in the highest esteem and confidence. He was graduated in Hamilton College, at Clinton, New York, as a member of the class of 1847. He was a member of the state senate of Maine and also of the lower house of the legislature, was chairman of the board of selectmen of his county

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for fifteen years, while he served for four years as county judge and for a time as a member of the governor's council, all of which prefer- ments indicate the influential position which was his. He was twice married, the two children of the first union being John H., the immediate sub- ject of this review, and Horace B., who died April 10, 1900, at Madison, South Dakota. The honored father died in 1892, at the advanced age of seventy-five years.

John H. Williamson received his preliminary educational discipline in the public schools of Stark, Maine, and then entered the Eaton School, at Norridgewoek, Maine, and later the Maine Central Institute, at Pittsfield, where he com- pleted his preparatory collegiate work, being graduated in the institution as a member of the class of 1882. He was shortly afterward matric- ulated in Bates College, at Lewiston, Maine, where he completed the classical course and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in 1886, with special honors in mathematics. In October of the same year he came to South Da- kota and took up his abode in Madison, where he entered the law office of Judge William E. Howe, under whose direction he prosecuted his technical study of the law for one year, at the expiration of which he entered the law depart- ment of the University of Wisconsin, at Madi- son, where he took up the work in both the junior and senior classes, this being the first at- tempt of the sort made by any student in that celebrated institution, being graduated as a mem- ber of the class of 1888 and receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws and being simultaneously admitted to the bar of Wisconsin by the supreme court of the state. He then went to Anoka, Min- nesota, where he was for six months associated in practice with George Wyman, and at the ex- piration of the period noted he returned to Madi- son, South Dakota, where he has ever since been actively and prominently identified with the work of his profession. He served two years as police or city justice, and in 1892 was elected to the bench of the county court, retaining the office four years. In 1900 he was elected to the state senate, of which he was an active working mem-

ber during the ensuing general assembly, while he was chosen as his own successor in the elec- tion of November, 1902. He is a stalwart advo- cate of the principles of the Republican party, and a voucher of his ability and personal popularity was that offered at the time of his first election to the senate, since he was the first Republican to have secured this preferment in the district for a decade. He was one of the organizers of the Lake Madison Chautauqua Association, of which he was the first president, holding this office eight consecutive years, and being at the present time a member of the directorate of the organization. He is vice-president of the Madison State Bank and is the owner of residence property in the town of Madison. The Senator is identified with the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen of America. He has taken a specially active interest in the State Normal School, in Madison, and both in the senate and in a private way has done much to foster the same. It should also be noted in the connection that during the general assembly of the legis- lature of 1902 he received the special honor of being elected president pro tem. of the senate, his intimate knowledge of parliamentary rules making him a specially capable presiding offi- cer.

On the 9th of June. 1891, Senator Williamson was united in marriage to Miss Stella L. Storms, daughter of Elisha C. and Mary (Tuttle) Storms, of Anoka, Minnesota, while she was born in Waukesha county. Wisconsin. Of this union have been born four children : Lura M .. Henry S., Frank E. and J. Horace.

WILLIAM WALLACE GIRTON, secre- tary of the State Normal School, at Madison, was born in Lincolnshire, England, on the roth of April, 1850, being a son of John and Mary (Hubbard) Girton, both of whom were likewise born in England, of stanch old English lineage. The father of the subject there devoted his at- tention to farming until 1850, when he came with his family to America, locating in Florence,

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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

Michigan, where he engaged in farming, and in that state he passed the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1851, while his wife moved to Wisconsin with her two orphan boys, both of whom are living, the subject of this sketch being the younger in order of birth. The mother died at the home of her eldest son in Winchester, Ten- nessee, November 3. 1893, at the age of seventy- one years.

William W. Girton received his rudimentary education in the public schools of Wisconsin, at- tending the district schools of Sauk county dur- ing the winter terms until he had attained the age of eighteen years, when, in 1868, he en- tered an academy at Spring Green, that state, where he continued his studies for two terms. while during the winter of 1869 he was a student in the academy at Sextonville, Wisconsin. That he had duly profited by the advantages thus af- forded him is evident when we revert to the fact that in the fall of 1870 he initiated his career as a teacher, having charge of a district school near Reedsburg. Sauk county, and being thus employed during the winter of 1870-71. In April, 1871, he entered the State Normal School at Platteville, Wisconsin, where he completed a thorough course, being there graduated in June. 1874. In 1875-6 he was incumbent of the posi- tion of principal of the graded schools at Mus- coda, Wisconsin, and then went to Vinton, Iowa. where he held the office of assistant superintend- ent of the State School for the Blind for one year, at the expiration of which he became prin- cipal of the public schools at Harlan. that state. where he rendered most effective service until November, 1880, when he entered upon his du- ties as superintendent of the schools of Shelby county, Iowa, to which office he had been elected to fill a vacancy, while he remained incumbent of the same for four years, proving a most able and discriminating executive and showing great facility in organization and systemization. In 1883 he founded the Shelby County Republican, at Harlan, Iowa, and continued as editor and publisher of the same until 1886, in September of which year he came to South Dakota, having disposed of his newspaper property. In De-

cember, 1886, Mr. Girton organized the Vilas Banking Company, at Vilas, Miner county, South Dakota, and was president of the same for the ensuing three years, while he also es- tablished the Miner County Farmer, which he conducted simultaneously during the period men- tioned. In 1892 he was elected county super- intendent of schools for Miner county, in which capacity he served two terms, doing much to forward educational interests in that section of the state. In 1889 he served as deputy territorial auditor, and in the same year was chief clerk of the joint commisson which had in charge the set- tlement of accounts between the new states of North and South Dakota. In 1896 he was elected to the chair of geography and civics in the State Normal School, at Madison, of which office he has since remained incumbent, while he has served as secretary of the institution for the regents of education, during the same time, en- joying the respect and esteem of his confreres and also of the students of the school, while he has here added materially to his prestige as a capable and enthusiastic worker in the field of education. He has been particularly successful and prominent in normal institute work in the state during the past fifteen years, and it may be said without fear of contradiction that he has conducted more teachers' institutes in that period than has any other man in the state, while in the connection he has accomplished a work of unequivocal value and one of which he may justly be proud. In the year 1901-2, in the absence of the president, Mr. Girton was ap- pointed acting president of the State Normal School, which position he filled to the entire satis- faction of the regents. It may be farther noted that he served as chief engrossing clerk of the last territorial legislature. in 1889, and while clerk of the joint commission of North and South Dakota shipped the territorial library, records and other property, having an aggregate weight of nearly sixty tons, down the Missouri river from Bismarck to Pierre, the new capital of South Dakota, while he also made copies of the territorial records for this commonwealth, a work of no little magnitude and difficulty.

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In politics Mr. Girton has ever given a stanch allegiance to the Republican party in the promo- tion of whose cause he has taken an active in- terest, while as candidate on its ticket he was elected to the office of county superintendent of schools in Shelby county, Iowa, and later in Miner county, South Dakota. In 1878 he be- came a member of the First Baptist church at Harlan, Iowa, and holds a letter from the same at the present time. He has advanced to high degree in the Masonic fraternity, of which noble order he is an appreciative member, having reached the Royal Arch degree of the York-rite bodies, while he is now serving his fifth con- secutive year as master of Evergreen Lodge, No. 17, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Madison, South Dakota, and he has attained the thirty-second degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, being affiliated with Yankton Con- sistory, Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret, in the city of Yankton. He also holds membership in Madison Lodge, No. 20, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Howard Lodge. No. 62, Ancient Order of United Workmen.

On the Ist of August, 1877, Mr. Girton was united in marriage to Miss Frances Richmond, who was born in Belturbel, County Cavan, Ire- 1 land, on the roth of May, 1851, being a daughter of Francis and Susan ( Moore) Richmond, who came to America in 1860 and located in Green county, Wisconsin, where Mrs. Girton was rcared and educated. The subject and his wife have six children, whose names are here entered, with respective dates of birth: Lee Richmond, August 13, 1878; Daisy M., April 8, 1880; Susan M., May 17, 1882 ; Edith A., January 27, 1884: William T., July 6, 1886, and John F., September 21, 1891.

The State Normal School at Madison was established by act of the territorial legislature in March, 1881, and commenced its work in De- cember, 1883. It is situated on elevated -ground in the north part of the city of Madison on a nearly level campus of twenty acres, which has been artistically laid out and set with trees.

The main school building was erected in 1886. It is constructed of red quartzite, obtained

at Dell Rapids, South Dakota, and trimmed with white cut stone from La Crosse and with Mil- waukee pressed brick. This building is seventy- six by eighty-four feet, four stories in height, the lower one being half basement. It is finished throughout with oak and Georgia pine. It cost thirty-five thousand dollars. It is situated near the center of the campus. The oldest dormitory, called West Hall, situated near the southwest corner of the campus, is a frame brick-veneered building, thirty-six by eighty-six feet, four stories in height and contains rooms for the ac- commodation of sixty-five students. It is occu- pied by the young men. This building cost eleven thousand dollars.

East Hall is a four-story, massive structure, built of Sioux Falls stone and trimmed with the same. It is ninety by one hundred and ten feet and was erected in 1900, at a cost of twenty-two thousand dollars. Eighty young women make their home in this building and more than one hundred assemble in the spacious dining room in the basement for meals. The faculty is at present composed of twelve members as follows : IV. W. Girton, acting president. psychology, bookkeeping : J. W. Goff, English, rhetoric, liter- ature: \V. H. Dempster, mathematics, physical geography ; Cora M. Rawlins, Latin, English grammar ; Mirza French, drawing, arithmetic, librarian : Louise A. Wilkinson, elocution, physi- cal culture; Olga B. Forsyth, history. vocal music, elementary algebra; Isabel Larsen, zo- ology, botany, physiology, general history; Wini- fred K. Buck, elementary English, geography, civil government ; Anna B. Herrig, principal training department, methods ; Susan W. Norton, grammar critic ; Nellie Collins, primary critic.

RT. REV. THOMAS A. FLYNN, the hon- ored priest in charge of St. Thomas church and parish in Madison, Lake county, is at the present time vicar general of the diocese of Sioux Falls, and also has the distinction of being domestic prelate to the noble head of the church, Pope Pius X.

Father Flynn is a native of Milwaukee county,

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Wisconsin, where he was born on the 16th of May, 1854, being a son of John and Sarah ( Cav- eny) Flynn, both of whom were born and reared in County Mayo, Ireland, whence they came to America more than sixty years ago, being num- bered among the pioneers of Milwaukee county, Wisconsin. They located near the present city of Milwaukee, and there passed the remainder of their long and useful lives, the father having been a farmer by vocation, while both were de- voted and consistent communicants of the Holy Mother church, which their son is honoring by his earnest and self-abnegating services. They became the parents of four children, two sons and two daughters, all dead except the subject of this sketch.

Father Flynn received his preliminary educa- tional discipline in the common and parochial schools of his native county and hereafter com- pleted his classical course in the Jesuit college in Milwaukee. At the age of eighteen years he entered the Seminary of St. Francis de Sales, near that city, where he prepared himself for holy orders, continuing his theological and phil- osophical studies in that institution for several years. He early became identified with the mis- sionary work of the church in what is now South Dakota, and at Yankton, this state, was ordained to the priesthood, by the late Bishop Marty, on the 29thi of June. 1881, having the distinction of being the first priest ordained in the state. He was forthwith assigned to the missionary par- ishes in Lake and Moody counties, taking up his permanent abode in Madison, and forthwith en- tering with vigor and zeal into the labors as- signed him. In 1883 he had completed the erec- tion of St. Thomas church, in Madison, having personally organized the parish, and within the present year (1904) he has here completed a new and attractive church edifice, the former having proved inadequate to properly accommodate the enlarged congregation. When he assumed the pastorate here the congregation of his parish was represented by forty families, while at the present time there are more than one hundred and fifty families represented in the parish mem- bership. Father Flynn has not only exercised his

sacerdotal functions most earnestly and effect- ively, infusing spiritual zeal into all parts of the parish work and securing the affectionate regard and hearty co-operation of his flock, but he has also proved a specially able executive and has brought the temporal affairs of his parish into a most prosperous and gratifying condition. In 1900 Father Flynn was appointed vicar general of the diocese, in which capacity he acts for the bishop when the latter is absent from his juris- diction, and in 1902 he was appointed domestic prelate to the late pope. In 1900 he made a trip to Rome, and in the "eternal city" had the ex- treme gratification of being granted an audience with Pope Leo, the noble patriarch and gracious head of the church at that time.

CHARLES B. KENNEDY .- Among the names of the honored pioneers of the territory of Dakota and the state of South Dakota there are few that stand forth with more prominence or that are representative of more distinctive pub- lic spirit than that which initiates this paragraph. Mr. Kennedy has accomplished much in forward- ing the upbuilding of the great commonwealth, is well known throughout the state and is an ex- emplar of the highest type of citizenship. In a prefatory way we can not do better than to in- corporate an appreciative estimate of the man written by one who has known him long and well. the same being an extract from an article published not long since : "There are two things which Hon. Charles B. Kennedy did for Lake county in the early days which will make him prominent while he lives and cause his name to be remembered after death. One was the found- ing of Madison upon its present site, while the other consists in the aid, both moral and financial, which he gave to the State Normal School, being virtually its organizer. Mr. Kennedy's history is closely linked with that of Lake county, and, as a local paragrapher aptly put it : 'If you want to know about Lake county, look up Kennedy ; and if you want Kennedy, just look up Lake county.' "

Charles B. Kennedy comes of stanch old

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New England stock and the far distant Pine Tree state figures as the place of his nativity. He was born in Moscow, Somerset county, Maine, on the 28th of March, 1850, being a son of Bartholomew C. and Olivia (Smith) Ken- nedy, both of whom were born in Maine, the former being of Scotch-Irish extraction and the latter of English lineage. Bartholomew C. Ken- nedy was a farmer by vocation, and his death occurred in July, 1902, at the age of eighty-three years, while his widow still resides in Madison, South Dakota, having attained the age of eighty- five years, her ancestors having been numbered among the early settlers of Maine. The paternal grandfather of the subject was William Ken- nedy, who was born in Massachusetts, whence he emigrated to Maine as a young man and there passed the residue of his life.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 106

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