History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 11

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

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tered upon his executive duties on the 2d of July of that year. He retained this position for the long period of eight years, his service being most acceptable to the company and gaining him still further commendation, but his health had in the meanwhile become somewhat impaired and this fact, coupled with a desire for a change of occupation, led him to resign his position on the Ist of May, 1899. He then entered into part- nership with his brother-in-law, Thomas S. Stin- son, and engaged in the general merchandise busi- ness in Canton, the firm securing most eligible and attractive quarters in the two-story stone building known as the Postoffice block, while to the new store was given the name of the Enter- prise, a designation which is most consistently applied. The concern has taken a foremost po- sition by reason of the progressive ideas and correct methods brought to bear, and the busi- ness controlled at the present time is second to none of similar character in the county, while both of the interested principals command the un- qualified confidence and regard of all who know them. The entire business and stock of the Enterprise was purchased, February 8, 1901, by Horace E. Thayer, the enterprise being now con- (lucted under the firm name of Horace E. Thayer.

In politics Mr. Thayer has ever given a stanch allegiance to the principles of the Republican party and he has shown a deep interest in all that concerns the welfare and progress of his home city and county. Ile has served three terms as a member of the board of aldermen of Canton. having been first elected in 1893, while he was chosen as his own successor in the following year. being again elected to the office in 1900. In 1902 he was elected to the mayoralty of the city, for a term of two years, and he has given a most able and business-like administration of the municipal government and has gained unequivocal endorse- ment as a progressive and public-spirited ex- ecutive. Fraternally, he is identified with the Knights of Pythias and the Masonic order. He became affiliated with the lodge of the former in Mason City, Iowa, in 1890, and in 1892 trans- ferred his membership to Canton Lodge, No. 52,

in Canton, of which he is past chancellor com- mander. In June, 1902, he was initiated as entered apprentice in Silver Star Lodge, No. 4. Free and Accepted Masons, in which he was duly raised to the master's degree.

At Eldora, Iowa, on the 8th of August, 1883. Mr. Thayer was united in marriage to Miss Min- nie Bell Young, of Ackley, that state, she being a daughter of Joseph H. Young, who was a valiant soldier in the Civil war, in which he served as a member of Company H, One Hun- dred and Eighty-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, enlisting in 1863 and receiving an honorable discharge at the close of the great conflict which determined the integrity of the Union. Mr. and Mrs. Thayer have three daugh- ters: Neva Bell, who was born in Mason City, Iowa, on the Ist of April, 1884; Vera Luella, who was born in Canton, South Dakota, July 31, 1804. and Nila May, who was born in Canton, May 26, 1897.

RICHARD G. PARROTT, postmaster of the thriving town of Pollock, Campbell county, is a native of the city of Chicago, where he was born on the 22d of November. 1864. being a son of John and Sarah Parrott. He was reared to ma- turity in the great western metropolis, receiving his early educational training in the public schools and learning the trade of moulder in his youth. In 1883, at the age of nineteen years, Mr. Par- rott. in company with his widowed mother his five brothers and two sisters, came to what is now Campbell county. South Dakota, this being nearly a decade before the admission of the state to the Union, and after a few months he returned to Chicago, where he remained until the spring of the following year, when he came once more to Campbell county, and shortly afterward entered claim to a tract of government land near the pres- ent village of Pollock. He began the improving of this property and also conducted farming and stock growing. When the line of the Sioux Rail- road was built through Pollock, in the autumn of 1901, he located in this village. In January of the following year the postoffice was here estab-

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lished, replacing those at Flint and Lagrace, and he was made postmaster in the new town. Men- bers of the family have served as postmaster in each of the towns mentioned, as well as at Rusk, and all have been discontinued since the establish- ment of the office at Pollock, from which point also is served the former postoffice of Vander- bilt. His religious faith is that of the Preshy- terian church, of which his wife likewise is a member, and fraternally he is affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, being a member of the lodge at Herrick, South Dakota. He still retains possession of his farm of three hundred twenty acres, and he has contributed his quota to the development and upbuilding of this section of the state.

On the 23d of November, 1891, Mr. Parrott was united in marriage to Miss Florence Benk- art. who was born in Iowa, whence her father, John C. Benkart, came to South Dakota in 1883. becoming one of the pioneers of Campbell county. but being now a resident of Carthage, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Parrott have three children, Bertha. Robert and Mabel.

JOHN C. STOUGHTON. the popular post- master of the thriving little village of Geddes, was born in Ionia county, Michigan, on the 13th of July, 1844, and is a scion of a family which has been identified with the history of the United States from the time of the Revolutionary epoch. His parents. Samuel E. and Emily H. (Park) Stoughton, were both born in the state of New York, and of their ten children only two survive, the subject of this sketch and his brother, Charles J., who is a resident of Howard City, Michigan. The father of the subject was born on the 17th of April. 1814, and his devoted wife was born on the 20th of February. 1816. and both were children at the time when their respective parents removed from the old Empire state and became pioneers of Michigan, settling in the vicinity of the present beautiful city of Detroit. and in that state bothi were reared to maturity, their marriage being solemnized May 21. 1835. After he had attained manhood Samtiel E. Stoughton pur-

chased a tract of government land in Ionia county, Michigan, where he developed a farm from the virgin forest, becoming one of the sub- stantial citizens of that section and ever retaining the high regard of all who knew him. On the old homestead farm which he had reclaimed for the wilderness he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1872, while his wife passed away in 1883. Mr. Stoughton identified himself with the Republican party at the time of its organization and ever afterward remained a stanch advocate of its principles, and while he was never ambitious for political preferment he was called upon to serve in various offices of local trust. His father, Dellucine Stoughton, was a veteran of the war of 1812, and his grandchildren recall that in his later years he found pleasure in entertaining them by singing the old army songs. He was a son of Amaziah Stoughton, who came with his parents from England to the United States about the time of the Revolution, the fam- ily settling in the state of New York, with whose annals the name has long been identified, and thus the subject of this sketch is of the fifth generation of the family in America.

John C. Stoughton, whose name initiates this review, was reared to the discipline of the old homestead farm in Ionia county, Michigan, and after availing himself of the advantages of the common schools he entered, in 1865. Kalamazoo College, in Kalamazoo, that state, where he con- tinned his studies for two years. His financial resources then reached a low ebb, and hie accord- ingly left college and devoted the following year to teaching in the schools of his native state. He then removed to Kansas, where he continued his pedagogic labors, in Atchison and Leavenworth counties, for the ensuing four years. His father's death occurred in 1872, as before noted, and he was appointed administrator of the estate, return- ing home to settle up the affairs of the same. He was married the following year and decided to remain in Michigan, where for a number of years he devoted his attention to teaching during the winter terms, while farming constituted his vo- cation during the remaining months of the year. In 1883. in company with four others, Mr.

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Stoughton came on a prospecting trip to South Dakota, with a view of selecting a permanent place of residence. The party came by railroad as far as Plankinton, where they purchased a mule-team and wagon and set forth to look over the country to the west of that point, and three of the number, of whom our subject was one, finally filed claims to a quarter section each of land in Charles Mix. county, Mr. Stoughton se- curing an excellent claim seven miles northwest of the present village of Geddes, whose site was unmarked by any habitation at that time. He set- tled on his claim and in September of the fol- lowing year his wife joined him in the new home. He later purchased an adjoining quarter section, and during the intervening years he has brought his fine farm of three hundred and twenty acres under most effective cultivation, has made excel- Jent improvements on the same and has been suc- cessful in his efforts. In the spring of 1900 Mr. Stoughton was appointed postmaster of the new town of Geddes, to which he forthwith removed with his family, taking charge of the office in June of that year, and having since remained in- cumbent. He is a stalwart advocate of the prin- ciples of the Republican party and has taken a lively interest in the promotion of its cause. In the autumn of 1883 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners, in which capacity he gave most efficient service, retaining the office three years. It may be said that the postoffice at Geddes was established in June, 1900, in which month our subject assumed con- trol, and further data in the connection will indi- cate the rapid upbuilding and substantial increase in population of the town. In April, 1902, only one year and nine months after the establishing of the office, it was placed on the list of presiden- tial offices, the salary of the postmaster being at the time raised to eleven hundred dollars a year. while three months later it was raised to twelve hundred, in accordance with the increase of busi- ness, while in July of the present year (1903) a further increase to fourteen hundred dollars was made. Mr. and Mrs. Stoughton are members of the Congregational church, and he was one of those prominently concerned in effecting the erec-

tion of the church of this denomination in the vil- lage of Jasper. the property being later sold to the Methodist Episcopal society, who now own and occupy the edifice. Mr. Stoughton was initia- ted in the Masonic fraternity in 1869 and has been a charter member of two lodges in Charles Mix county, this state, being now affiliated with Geddes Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons.

On the 4th of March, 1873. was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Stoughton to Miss Selena V. Bovee, of Greenville, Michigan. She was born in Lenawee county, Michigan, being a daughter of M. and Julia Bovee, and of her marriage has been born one son, Elmer B., who was assistant postmaster at Geddes. He was born in Green- ville, Michigan, on the 14th of April, 1879, and after attending the public schools entered Ward Academy. in Charles Mix county, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1898. after which he was for one term a student in Yank- ton College, having later been engaged in teach- ing for a short time. He has recently ( 1904) resigned his position in the postoffice and has removed to Lyman county, South Dakota, where he has taken up a homestead, on which he expects to make his future home.

JOHN F. COMSTOCK, now holding the re- sponsible position of government farmer on the Cheyenne Indian reservation, maintaining his headquarters at Whitehorse Station, is a native of the state of Wisconsin, having been born in Columbia county, on the 13th of October. 1861. and being a son of George W. and Teresa Com- stock, natives of the state of New York. When the subject was about ten years of age. in 1871, his parents removed to Benton county, Iowa. where they remained until the spring of 1885. when they came to South Dakota and took up their abode near Highmore. Hyde county. where the father has since been actively engaged in ag- ricultural pursuits. All of the five children in the family are living at the present time, the sub- ject of this sketch having been the third in order of birth.

J. F. Comstock secured his early educational

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training in the public schools of Iowa, and ac- companied his parents on their removal to South Dakota, being independently engaged in farming in Hyde county for a number of years. In 1892 he removed to Pierre and was there engaged in teaming until 1894. when he was elected county auditor of Stanley county, in which office he served two years. In 1898 he was appointed to his present position as government farmer on the Cheyenne reservation. He is impressed with the fact that the Indians will not attain any great degree of success as farmers here, partially owing to the condition of the reservation land, much of which is not available for cultivation. The Indi- ans have shown a greater aptitude and predilec- tion for stock raising and many of them have been prospered in connection with this industry. some of them having more than one hundred head of cattle. In politics the subject is a stanch advocate of the principles of the Republican party.

On the 6th of October, 1885, Mr. Comstock was united in marriage to Miss Laura Moore, daughter of David Moore, a well-known resi- dent of Fort Pierre and the subject of an indi- vidual sketch on another page of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Comstock have one child. George. who was born on the 4th of August, 1886.

OSCAR SHERMAN GIFFORD, superin- tendent of the Hiawatha Insane Asylum, at Can- ton, South Dakota, was born October 20, 1842, at Watertown, New York. While yet young he accompanied his parents upon their removal to Rock county, Wisconsin, but subsequently lived with his maternal grandfather, David Resseguie, in the Adirondack mountains in New York. In 1853 he removed with his parents to Boone county, Illinois, and in October, 1871, he settled in Lincoln county, Dakota, where he has since resided.

Mr. Gifford received a common school educa- tion, which was supplemented by attendance at the Beloit ( Wisconsin ) Academy. During the war of the Rebellion the subject evinced his pa- triotism by entering the service of his country,

serving one and a half years in the engineer corps and one year in the Elgin Battery, Illinois Light Artillery. After his discharge from military service, Mr. Gifford entered upon the study of law and in 1871 he was admitted to the bar. In 1874 he was elected county judge of Lincoln county, but declined to serve, and in June of the following year he formed a law partnership with Mark W. Bailey, since which time he has con- tinuously been actively engaged in the practice of his profession.

Mr. Gifford has several times been engaged in public service and has always acquitted him- self creditably. He was a member of the consti- tutional convention which convened at Sioux Falls in September. 1883, and had been mayor of the city of Canton during 1881 and 1882. In November, 1884, he was elected a delegate to con- gress from Dakota territory, being re-elected a delegate in November, 1886, and in 1889 he was elected a member of congress from South Dakota, serving in the forty-ninth. fiftieth and fifty-first congresses as a Republican. While a member of that body Mr. Gifford served as a member of the committees on agriculture, Indian affairs and public buildings, which committees had charge of the more important matters in which the people of Dakota were interested. It was largely through the subject's efforts that the Crow, Sisse- ton, Sioux and Wahpeton Indian reservations were opened for settlement and Indian industrial schools were established at Pierre and Flandreau and a large number of day schools opened in the Indian country. The question concerning the di- vision of Dakota and the admission of North Dakota and South Dakota as states was the most important measure before congress while Mr. Gifford was a member thereof and it was largely through his efforts, aided by the sentiments of his constituents, that Dakota was divided and two states formed from the immense territory. The measures known as the "omnibus bill," by which North and South Dakota, Montana and Washing- ton became states, was approved by the President and became a law February 22, 1889, and, as be- fore stated, at the first election thereafter, in Octo- ber, 1889. Mr. Gifford was elected a representa-

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tive from this state. Mr. Gifford reported to the house and had full charge of the measure for the construction of a public building in Sioux Falls. In November, 1901, Mr. Gifford received the ap- pointment as superintendent of the Hiawatha Asylum, at Canton, a United States Indian insane asylum. He entered upon the discharge of his duties with an intelligent appreciation of its re- sponsibilities and has discharged the same to the full satisfaction of every one.

In May. 1874. the subject was united in mar- riage with Miss Phoebe M. Fuller. Fraternally. Mr. Gifford has long been actively and promi- nently identified with the time-honored order of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He was initiated, passed and raised as a Master Mason in 1877, and in 1879 he was elected worshipful master of Silver Star Lodge at Canton. He was elected grand treasurer of the grand lodge of Dakota in 1881, was elected grand master of the grand lodge in June. 1882, and was re-elected to that position in June, 1883. In politics he has always been an earnest and active Republican.

HOWARD G. FULLER, judge of supreme court, born at Glenns Falls, New York. Educated himself, studied law in a lawyer's office and for several years devoted himself to educational work as teacher and county superintendent. Came to Dakota in 1886 and elected judge of sixth circuit in 1889. On supreme bench since 1894.

FRANK P. SMITH, M. D., one of the prominent and honored members of the medical profession in Canton, Lincoln county, was born at Rouse Point. Clinton county, New York, on the 2d of November, 1852, his father being a farmer by vocation. The Doctor was thus reared on the old homestead, and received his early edu- cational discipline in the common schools of his native county, while later he prosecuted his studies in the high school at Burlington, Ver- mont, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1872. He then returned to his home

in New York and assisted in the work and man- agement of the farm until he had attained the age of twenty-four years, having in the mean- while determined to prepare himself for the medi- cal profession. For a time he was a student in the Albany Medical College, in the capital city of the Empire state, and then was matriculated in the celebrated Bellevue Hospital Medical Col- lege, in the city of New York, in which he was graduated in 1877. receiving his coveted degree of Doctor of Medicine and coming forth well fortified for the practical work of his chosen vo- cation. He at once entered upon the practice of his profession in his old home town of Rouse Point, where he remained two years, at the ex- piration of which, in 1879, he came to the ter- ritory of Dakota and located in Canton, where he has ever since been successfully engaged in the practice of his profession, being one of the leading physicians and surgeons of this section of the state and being known to practically every person in the county. He was the first super- intendent of the board of health of the county. retaining this incumbency many years, while he also served long and faithfully as county physi- cian and as local surgeon of the Chicago, Mil- waukee. & St. Paul Railroad. For sixteen years he was a member of the board of pension ex- amining surgeons for Lincoln county, and has been secretary of its board since 1886. He is a Democrat in politics, and has ever shown a deep interest in the industrial, civic and political prog- ress of his adopted city, county and state.

On the 4th of October. 1893. Dr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Helen Miller, who was born in the state of Wisconsin, being a daughter of William H. Miller, Sr.

NEWMAN C. NASH, well known as the editor and publisher of the Sioux Valley News, at Canton, is a native of the old Empire state, having been born in Orleans county, New York, on the 15th of February, 1848, and being a son of Francis and Catherine V. (Curtis) Nash. His father was born in Genesee county, New York. of English and Holland Dutch descent, and was

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by vocation a farmer. The mother of our sub- ject was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and in the agnatic line was of Holland Dutch descent, while her mother was a representative of families established in New England in the colonial epoch of our national history. Francis and Catherine V. Nash became the parents of nine children, of whom the subject of this review was the eldest son, while of the number seven are living at the present time.

Newman C. Nash passed his early childhood days on the homestead farm in Orleans county, New York, and was seven years of age at the time of his parents' removal to Rock county, Wiscon- sin, where his father became a pioneer farmer. and there the parents passed the remainder of their lives, honored by all who knew them. The subject was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm, duly availing himself of the advan- tages afforded by the common schools of the lo- cality and period, and he was still a member of the parental household at the time when the dark cloud of civil war obscured the national horizon. When but seventeen years of age he enlisted as a private in Company A, Thirteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with which he continued in active service for four years and three months, participating in all of the many engagements in which his command was involved, so that the history of his regiment is practically the history of his faithful and valiant career as a soldier of the republic. He received his honorable dis- charge on the 28th of December, 1865.

As soon as he was mustered out Mr. Nash re- turned to Rock county, Wisconsin, and was there- after engaged in agricultural pursuits near the city of Janesville, that county, until 1871. when he came as a pioneer to the territory of Dakota. He arrived in Lincoln county in February of that year and in Canton township took up a homestead claim of one hundred and sixty acres, perfecting his title in due course of time and forthwith in- stituting the improvement and cultivation of his land. He continued to reside on this ranch until the autumn of 1876, when he removed to the city of Canton, which was then a small frontier vil- lage, and in January of the following year he

initiated his career in connection with the "art preservative of all arts," by purchasing a half interest in the plant and business of the Sioux Valley News, of which he became the sole pro- prietor in the following April. This was one of the first papers published in the territory, and he has presided over its destinies consecutively from the time noted. The paper is a model in the matter of letter press, discrimination is displayed in the news columns and those devoted to mis- cellaneous reading, while even a cursory glance establishes the fact that the editorial department is under the control of a man who keeps himself well informed regarding matters of public mo- ment and who writes forcibly and with directness in expressing his opinions. The News has a cir- culation of fourteen hundred copies and is a wel- come visitor in the majority of the homes in this section of the state. Mr. Nash is a valucd and influential member of the South Dakota Press As- sociation, of which he was president for two years, and politically he is a stanch adherent of the Republican party, whose principles he sup- ports by his franchise and personal influence. He is an appreciative and most popular member of the Grand Army of the Republic, being affiliated with General Lyon Post, No. 11, while from June, 1893, to June. 1894. he held the office of com- mander of the order for the department of South Dakota. He is also past grand master of the grand lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in the state, and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of America. He and his wife are zealous mem- bers of the Congregational church in their home city, and he has served as a member of its board of trustees for more than a decade and a half. He was a member of the board of education for several years, and has also rendered effective service in other local offices of public trust, in- cluding that of postmaster, of which he was in- cumbent from April, 1890, to June, 1894.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 11

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