History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 134

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

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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

location of the State Orphans' Home at Mason City, Iowa. Of their eight children only three are now living.

The subject of this sketch received his early educational discipline in the public schools of his native county and supplemented this by a course of study in the Shattuck Military Academy, at Faribault, and a six-months course at a business college in St. Paul, Minnesota, after which he was engaged in teaching school about three years, meeting with success in his pedagogic ef- forts. Later he was employed for four years as a salesman in a mercantile establishment in Ma- son City, Iowa, and in 1883 established himself in the hardware business in Plankinton, South Dakota, to which he continued to devote his at- tention for twelve years. He has been in a sig- nificant sense the architect of his own fortunes, and the marked success which stands to his credit thus represents the tangible result of his own well-directed efforts. In 1882 he came to Aurora county, South Dakota, where he took up government land in Palatine township, the same constituting an integral portion of his pres- ent valued homestead ranch of four hundred and eighty acres, most eligibly located nine miles northeast of Plankinton, the county seat, where he has maintained his home since 1806. His en- tire ranch is well fenced and equipped with sub- stantial and attractive buildings and other per- manent improvements of the best type. In ad- dition to the original homestead, Mr. Dougan also took up a tree claim, and that he has ac- complished more than the required amount of work in the matter of planting trees is evident to even the casual observer, for his place is made doubly attractive by the many fine trees planted by him and now well matured. In addition to the various cereals, he has given special attention to the raising of potatoes, to which he devotes about six acres of ground, from which he secures an annual yield of about one thousand bushels. He also has a good orchard on his place, and in the agricultural and pomological and horticul- tural departments of his farming enterprise he is particularly favored through the providence af- forded by his fine artificial lake, which covers

a tract of fourteen acres and which varies in depth from seven to nine feet. From the sur- face of the same he can draw off the water to a depth of thirty-three inches for irrigation pur- poses, while the supply is unfailing, being se- cured from one of the finest artesian wells in this section of the state. The well has a diameter of four and one-half inches and is five hundred and twenty-three feet in depth. the sinking of the same having been accomplished at a cost of eight hundred dollars. In the line of live stock, Mr. Dougan gives special preference to the Black Polled cattle, while he also raises an excellent grade of horses and swine. In addition to this homestead ranch he owns seventy acres of val- table land adjoining the town of Oacoma, Lyman county, where he lived during the year 1889, after which he returned to his home place. In politics Mr. Dougan had always been a Re- publican until the campaign of 1896, when he ad- vocated the policy as adopted by the Chicago and later the Kansas City platforms, believing the vol- ume of the money regulates the prices of all com- modities, but in no sense is he in sympathy with what is known as Cleveland Democracy. He served one term each as mayor of Plankinton and as a member of the board of supervisors of Pala- tine township. He is affiliated with the Brother- hood of American Yeomen, Knights of Pythias and also was a charter member and the first noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Plankinton.

On the 6th of September, 1883, Mr. Dougan was united in marriage to Miss Katherine E. Dunn, who was born in Crawford county, Penn- sylvania, and reared to maturity in Iowa. She is a daughter of Philip and Rebecca (Greenlee) Dunn, who removed from Pennsylvania to Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, in 1876, where Mr. Dunn became a successful farmer, and where he remained until his death, which occurred in 1893, in Plankinton. His widow now has her home with her daughter, the wife of the subject. Mr. and Mrs. Dougan have three children, Lee, Blanche and Lynn, all of whom remain at the parental home, the two elder children having completed their education in the Plankinton high

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school, in which they were graduated as mem- hers of the class of 1903. Lee is at present tak- ing a course in the State University at Vermil- lion, South Dakota, and Blanche, having com- pleted a successful term of school the past winter, is at present studying music at Mason City, Iowa.

S. WESLEY CLARK, a representative and successful member of the bar of Spink county, was born at Platteville, Grant county, Wisconsin, on the 28th of December, 1873, and is a son of Samuel P. and Elizabeth (Huntington) Clark, who now maintain their home in San Jose, Cali- fornia. Samuel P. Clark was born on a farm near the city of Rutland, Vermont, in the year 1838, and in 1847 he accompanied his parents on their removal thence to Wisconsin. His father, Pliny Clark, was one of the early pioneers of the Badger state, where he reclaimed a good farm, being compelled in the early epoch to haul his produce by wagon to Milwaukee, eighty miles distant. The Clark genealogy is traced back to pure English extraction and family tradition in- dicates that the original representatives in America were Puritans who came over on the historic Mayflower, either on its first or second voyage. Abraham Clark, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was of this fam- ily. The father of the subject was reared in Dane county, Wisconsin, where he was educated in the common schools of the pioneer era and the state university, at Madison, where he completed a partial course, withdrawing from that institu- tion in order to assist his parents, by teaching. In 1862 he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Huntington, who was born in Liver- pool, England, in 1842. In 1849 her father, Thomas Huntington, came with his family to the United States and settled in Dane county, Wis- consin, becoming one of the prominent farmers near the town of Mazomanie, where the mother of the subject received hier early education in the .common schools, supplementing this discipline by a course of study in a seminary at Evansville, that state. She and her husband are communi-

cants of the Episcopal church. Thomas Hunt- ington was a prominent architect and builder in Liverpool, after coming to America aban- doned his profession and lived quietly on his farm in Wisconsin until summoned to his reward.

In July, 1882, the parents of the subject came to South Dakota and located in Faulk county, within whose confines the father took up a con- siderable tract of government land and engaged in farming and stock growing, while in 1883 he established the postoffice of Wesley, named in honor of the subject of this sketch, who was the youngest white boy in the county, having been eight years of age when the family located in Faulk county. During the early years he watched his father's cattle on the prairies and assisted in trapping many wolves and foxes during the win- ter months, while in August, 1882, he espied a single buffalo, not far distant from the primitive home, and wished to take his father's rifle and shoot the animal, but was forbidden to do so by his anxious mother, her husband being absent at the time. Mr. Clark stated to the writer that he had ever retained a sincere regret that he had failed to shoot at that buffalo. He early mani- fested a distinctive predilection for the reading of good books and while still a boy expressed a wish to become a lawyer. When but thirteen years of age he began to read with absorbing interest such books as he could obtain as touch- ing both ancient and modern history, as well as scientific works, and the while secured such edu- cational advantages as were offered in the pioneer common schools of Faulk and Spink counties. When but nine years of age he met on his father's farm near Athol, Spink county, Thomas Sterling, now dean of law at the state university, and through a conversation with him determined to take up the study of law as soon as he could secure the necessary books, while it may be said that in the passing years he has not abated in the least his enthusiasm in the study of the science of jurisprudence in its various branches. He herded cattle for fifteen dollars a month and thus secured the money which enabled him to be- gin his collegiate work. He studied out on the prairies while keeping watch and ward over the

S. WESLEY CLARK.

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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

cattle, and at times became so immured in his reading that his charges took unkind advantage of his abstraction and wandered away from their prescribed province. After completing the cur- riculum of the public schools Mr. Clark entered Redfield College, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1894, having taught school to aid in defraying his college expenses and having held a first-grade teacher's certificate when but eighteen years of age. Immediately after his graduation he entered the law office of Sterling & Morris, at Redfield, and devoted him- self assiduously to his legal duties until Febru- ary, 1897, when he was admitted to the bar of the state, upon examination before the supreme court. He then remained with his preceptors for two years, on salary, and at the expiration of this interval, in 1899. entered into a professional part- nership with E. B. Korns. at Doland, Spink county, this alliance continuing until the removal of Mr. Korns to Tracy, Minnesota. In 1900, upon his election to the office of state's at- torney of Spink county, Mr. Clark returned to Redfield and here entered into partnership with his honored preceptor and friend, Thomas Ster- ling, and they have since continued to be as- sociated in practice, under the firm name of Ster- ling & Clark, while they control the leading law business in Spink and adjoining counties. At the time of his election to the office of state's attorney Mr. Clark was but twenty-seven years of age, being at the time the youngest incumbent of such office in the state. At the expiration of his two years' term, in 1902, he was re-elected, receiving the largest majority ever accorded a candidate for public office in the county. His second term will expire in January, 1905, while it should be stated that he has made a most admir- able record as a public prosecutor. In politics he gives an uncompromising allegiance to the Re- publican party ; his religious faith is that of the Congregational church, with which he united while attending college; and fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Modern Woodmen of America, being at the time of this writing chancellor commander of

Ivy Lodge, No. 23, Knights of Pythias. He has ever taken an interest in military affairs, and has been a member of the National Guard since he was sixteen years of age. Hle enlisted at the time of the Spanish-American war, at Sioux Falls, but was in poor health at the time and thus unable to pass the required physical examination and was not accepted as a volunteer. He is at the present time captain of Company G, Sec- ond Regiment, South Dakota. National Guard, at Redfield. Mr. Clark is of sanguine temperament and genial personality, and has a host of loyal friends, his only enemies being malefactors whom he has hard pressed in his various prosecutions. He went to California in 1890, with the inten- tion of permanently locating, but became home- sick for the prairies and the invigorating climate of South Dakota, to which state he returned after six months, convinced that this is the ideal place for young men.

On the 7th of February, 1900, at Doland, this county, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Clark to Miss Daisy Gertrude Labrie, who was born in the state of Illinois but who has resided in South Dakota since infancy, being here reared and educated. She is a daughter of Joseph E. Labrie, who came to this county in 1879, becom- ing a member of the first board of county com- missioners and being one of the most prominent pioneers and influential citizens of Spink county : he is now postmaster at Doland. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have twin sons, Sterling and Stanton, who were born at the home of his parents, in San Jose, California, on the Ist of June, 1902, and when they were but six weeks of age the two lively youngsters were brought to their South Dakota home snugly ensconced in a basket.

LYMAN T. BOUCHER, of Eureka, at the present time state's attorney of McPherson county, was born in Washington county, Illinois, on the 27th of February, 1858, and is a son of John V. and Polly (Roundtree) Boucher, the former of whom was born in Kentucky and the latter in Illinois. John Boucher, the grandfather of the subject, was likewise a native of Kentucky.

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where the family was established in the early pioneer epoch. John V. Boucher was a pioneer of Illinois, where he was engaged in agricul- tural pursuits at the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion. He tendered his services in defense of the Union, becoming a member of the Tentli Missouri Volunteer Infantry, a considerable quota of which was furnished by Illinois, and he served from the opening of the war until the year of its close, having died in January, 1865, while enroute to his home, his death being the result of disease contracted during the Wilder- ness campaign. His wife survived him a year. Of their six children four are living, the subject of this review having been the sixth in order of birth.

Lyman T. Boucher passed his boyhood days in his native county, where he secured his early educational training in the public schools, after which he was a student in Mckendree College, at Lebanon, that state. He then took up the study of law and in 1879 was matriculated in the Chicago College of Law, where he was gradu- ated in June, 1880, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, being duly admitted to the bar of his native state. He located in Bellville, Illinois, where he was engaged in the practice of his pro- fession until the spring of 1883, when he de- cided to cast in his lot with the pioneers of the future commonwealth of South Dakota. He forthwith opened an office in Leola, and later at Eureka, being one of the early settlers of the town, and here he has labored earnestly and suc- cessfully in his profession, attaining prestige as an able and discriminating attorney and counsel- lor and having the respect and confidence of the people of the community, while he has at all times been at the forefront in urging forward all measures ending to advance the general welfare and social and material progress of his county and state. He was a member of the state con- stitutional convention of 1889, and served as prosecuting attorney of McPherson county prior to the admission of the state to the Union, while he has since been incumbent of the office of state's attorney for several terms, his last election having occurred in 1902. while his term will ex-

pire in January, 1905. On June 2, 1904, Mr. Boucher was nominated by the Republican party of the sixth judicial circuit of South Dakota for the office of circuit judge, and as all the counties of the sixth circuit are Republican, his election next November is assured. He was a member of the state board of regents of education from 1893 to 1896, inclusive, and is one of the three members of the state board of commissioners to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, which opened in the city of St. Louis in May of the present year, 1904. In politics he is a stanch ad- vocate of the principles of the Republican party and has been active as a worker in the party cause.

On the 26th of December, 1888, Mr. Boucher was united in marriage to Miss Helen Melvill, of Galena, Illinois, and they have four children, namely : Melvill. John M., Lyman T., Jr., and Hiram A.

HANS O. WICKRE, one of the progressive farmers and stock growers of Day county, is a native of Norway, where he was born on the 5th of May, 1855, being a son of Jacob and Kater- ina (Holland) Wickre, who emigrated from Norway to the United States in 1868 and located in Benton county, Iowa, where they remained until 1886, when they came to South Dakota, being residents of Webster at the present time. The subject secured his early education in the excellent schools of his native land and was about thirteen years of age at the time of the family immigration to America. He remained on the home farm in Iowa, in the meanwhile at- tending the public schools at intervals, until 1884, when he came to South Dakota and lo- cated in Independence township, twenty-two miles northwest of Webster, Day county, where he took up government land, to which he has since added until he now has a finely improved landed estate of about one thousand acres. The entire ranch is being conducted under his per- sonal supervision, and he raises large quantities of grain each year, the product running from twelve to fifteen thousand bushels annually, while

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he also makes a specialty of breeding Hereford cattle, from registered stock, usually having an average of two hundred head: also Percheron horses ; and in particular the Duroc Jersey swine, in which line his stock is unexcelled in the state. He has a modern two-story house on his farm and a specially large and well-equipped barn, which provides the best of accommodations for stock and produce. He is a man of much energy and good judgment and has attained success through his own efforts, while his enthusiasm in regard to the attractions and great resources of the state of his adoption is as marked as is the success which has attended his efforts since cast- ing his lot here. He has shown a zealous con- cern in local affairs of a public nature, has held various township offices and also served as a member of the school board of his district. In 1888-89-91 Mr. Wickre was a member of the board of county commissioners, and in 1902 he was elected county treasurer, of which office he is incumbent at the time of this writing, while his continuance in the position by re-election in the fall of 1904 is practically a foregone conclusion. He has maintained his home in Webster, the county seat, since 1895, and here he has one of finest and most modern residences in this section of the state, the same having been erected at a cost of seven thousand dollars and being a dwelling which would be a credit in any metro- politan center. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America, while he is one of the most prominent and popular members of the Old Settlers' Association of the county, of which he is president at the time this article is prepared.

On the 22d of December, 1878. Mr. Wickre was united in marriage to Miss Bertha Strand, who was born in Norway, in 1877. whence she immigrated to America, having been a resident of Iowa at the time of her marriage. Of this union have been born one daughter and three sons. Janna is a member of the class of 1904 in Oberlin College, at Oberlin, Ohio, and Jacob, Sherman and Benjamin are attending the public

schools in their home town. In politics Mr. Wickre is a stanch adherent of the Republican party, and both he and his wife are members of the Lutheran church.

WHEELER S. BOWEN, who is at the present time editor of the Sioux Falls Press and a member of the firm of Dotson & Bowen, pub- lishers of the same, was born in Akron, Summit county, Ohio, on the 8th of April, 1843, being a son of Hiram and Martha ( Wheeler ) Bowen, who removed to Jonesville, Wisconsin, when he was a lad of six years, the father there becoming editor of the Janesville Gazette, of which he was part owner.

The subject received his early educational discipline in the common schools of Janesville, and as a boy began to work about his father's printing office, the training afforded in this line having been consistently designated as equal to a liberal education, and so it eventually proved in the case of Mr. Bowen. In the second year of the Civil war his patriotism was roused to re- sponsive and definite protest, and in August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in the Twelfth Battery of Wisconsin Light Artillery, with which he served until the close of the war, making the record of a valiant and loyal son of the republic whose integrity he thus aided in perpetuating, while the history of his battery is the history of his service in the great conflict. His command was assigned to the Army of the Tennessee, com- manded in turn by Generals Grant, Sherman, McPherson and Howard, and he was a partici- pant in all the campaigns of said army after the time of his enlistment. Mr. Bowen received his honorable discharge in May. 1865, and then re- turned to his home in Janesville, where he be- came a compositor in the office of the Gazette, later being made foreman of the office and finally city editor of the paper, with whose publication his honored father was long identified. In the spring of 1874 Mr. Bowen accepted the position of Rock Island editor for the Davenport Gazette, retaining this incumbency a few months, after which he returned to Janesville and was married.

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In November of that year, in company with his bride, Mr. Bowen came to the territory of Da- kota and located in the city of Yankton, where be became associated with George W. Kings- bury, Sr., in the purchase of the Yankton Press and Dakotan, and he thereafter continued to be in editorial charge of that paper during the major portion of the time until 1896, covering a period of nearly a quarter of century. In the year mentioned he went to Washington, D. C., to assume the office of clerk of the senate commit- tee on Indian affairs, remaining in the federal capital until 1901, in July of which year he lo- cated in Sioux Falls and purchased the Sioux Falls Press, C. L. Dotson being admitted to part- nership a few months later. They have since conducted the Press as an independent paper. the same having both daily and weekly editions. During the campaign of 1896 Mr. Bowen was editor of the Sioux Falls Daily Journal, and in the connection ably supported Bryan for the presidency, while during the campaign of 1900 he edited the Press as an exponent of the inter- . part in building up his party. ests of the same party and presidential candi- date. He is stanch Democrat and has been one of the leader of the party contingent in South Dakota, during and since the campaign of 1896. While a resident of Yankton he served six years as postmaster of the city, having been twice ap- pointed to this office, and once removed because of a change in the politics of the administration.

On the 21st of June, 1874, in Janesville, Wis- consin, Mr. Bowen was married to Miss Ella S. Davis, daughter of Jerome Davis, a well-known citizen of that place, and they have one son, George H., who is now a student in the Sioux Falls high school.

FRANK ALEXANDER is one of the pioneers of Campbell county. He settled at Mound City in September, 1884, and with the exception of the interval of a few years has re- sided there to the present time. He was born in Dubuque county, Iowa, and spent his early life on a farm. His parents were among the pioneers of Iowa and date their residence in the Hawk-

eye state from November, 1837. Mr. Alexander was elected register of deeds of Campbell county in 1884, and was elected as delegate to the con- titutional convention held at Sioux Falls in 1885. He was elected county judge on the admission of the state of South Dakota into the Union in 1889), and has the honor of being the first register of deeds and county judge elected by the people of this county. He was appointed chief of divi- sion in the office of Indian affairs in Washington and after holding that position for over a year he resigned to take the position of special agent of the general land office, and was assigned to duty in Montana. He returned to Mound City in 1902. In 1806 he was elected state's attorney of Campbell county and held the position for four years. Owing to a vacancy in that office he has been appointed to fill the unexpired term. and has been nominated for that position on the Republican ticket and will be elected for a two- years term. In politics Mr. Alexander is a Re- publican and he has always taken a very active

ROBERT C. HAWKINS, who stood as an honored citizen of Sioux Falls from practically the time of its inception to that of his death, and who passed to his reward on the 16th of Septem- ber, 1903, was born in Plattsburg, Clinton county, New York, on the 23d of July. 1825, and was a scion of colonial stock, while his parents were numbered among the pioneers of the Empire state, where he was reared to manhoo:l and where he received a common-school education which he later effectively supplemented through personal application and the valuable lessons of experience. He acquired the trade of mason, to which he gave his attention in his native state until 1844, when he removed to Illinois, and thence, a few years later, to Richland Center, Richland county, Wisconsin, where he followed his trade and also engaged in farming. He was chairman of the township board of supervisors. township clerk and treasurer, chairman of the county board and justice of the peace, while he was sheriff of the county for one term. A man

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 134

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