History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 135

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

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of broad mental ken and decided views, it was but natural that his intrinsic patriotism and loy- alty should manifest themselves in a definite way when the thundering of rebel guns against the ramparts of old Fort Sumter heralded the opening of the Civil war. He raised the first company of volunteers in Richland county, be- ing made captain of the same, which became Company H, Fifth Wisconsin Volunteer In- fantry. He continued in active service with his command for nearly two years when he received his honorable discharge, owing to disabilities resulting from his service in the field.

Soon after the close of the war Mr. Hawkins removed to Woodstock, in the same county of Richland, and was there engaged in the mercan- tile business until September, 1872, when he came to the territory of Dakota and located in Sioux Falls, where he was engaged in the work of his trade for two or three months. In the early winter he started to return to his home in Wisconsin by way of St. Paul, and so s:vere were the snowstorms and so many the other ob- stacles encountered that an entire week elapsed ere he reached the city mentioned. In the spring of the following year, in company with his family, he returned to Sioux Falls, where he ever afterward made his home. In the early days he took up a homestead claim in Wayne township, the same comprising the south half of the southeast quarter of section 33, and the south half of the southwest quarter of section 34, and this property he improved and retained in his possession until his death. He followed contracting in the line of his trade about two years after his return to Sioux Falls. He soon gained the confidence and esteem of the people of the city, and became in- fluential in public affairs, having ever given a stanch allegiance to the Republican party and having been for a number of years an active po- litical worker in a local way. In 1874 he was elected justice of the peace and continued incum- bent of that office, with the exception of one term, until he was elected police justice of the city, upon its incorporation, in 1883. In the latter office he served consecutively until April,

1894, representing a full decade. He also held the office of probate judge of Minnehaha county for eight years, and in every office of trust to which he was called he manifested the utmost fidelity, honor and zeal, while his mature judg- ment and strong individuality made him a power for good in whatever work he undertook. He was one of the prominent representatives of the Masonic fraternity in the state, and did much to forward the interests of the order in his home city.

In 1843 Mr. Hawkins was united in marriage to Miss Ada Monroe, of Plattsburg, New York, and they became the parents of three children, Frederick B., who is now a resident of Sioux Falls; Albert, who resides in Sioux City, Iowa ; and Isabel, who is the wife of George W. Clark, of Pasco, Washington. Mrs. Hawkins was sum moned into eternal rest in 1869, and on the 23d of December. 1872, at Alma, Wisconsin, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Harriet Al- bertson, who was born in Stroudsburg, Monroe county, Pennsylvania, and she survives him and still retains her residence in Sioux Falls, as did also their only son, the late D .. Jolin R., of whom individual mention is made elsewhere in this work. In religion Mr. Hawkins was a Methodist.

Mr. Hawkins was the architect of his own fortune, and upon his life rested no shadow of wrong or. injustice while his kindly and genial nature won him firm and abiding friendship, his memory resting as a benediction upon all who came within the immediate sphere of his in- fluence.

FRED LEWIS TIFFANY, one of the able and popular young members of the bar of Wal- worth county, and now incumbent of the office of United States court commissioner for the northern district of the state, was born in Mason City. Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, on the 20th of May. 1877, and is a son of David M. and Ad- die R. Tiffany, the former of whom was born in the state of New York and the latter in that of New Hampshire, while they are now residents of

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Mitchell, South Dakota, the father being a mer- chant by vocation. The subject passed his boy- hood days in his native town, where he com- pleted the curriculum of the public schools, hav- ing been graduated in the high school as a men- ber of the class of 1896. He then entered the University of Minnesota in the city of Minneap- olis, where he continued his studies in the aca- demic department for two years and later com- pleted the prescribed course in the law depart- ment, in which he was graduated in June, 1901, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, being sim- ultaneously admitted to the bar of the state, as was he to that of South Dakota a short time af- terward. In June of the same year he came to Mitchell, this state, and there initiated the active practice of his profession, remaining there until March. 1902, when he located in Selby, Wal- worth county, where he was engaged in practice until June 16, 1903, when he was appointed to his present office, by Judge J. H. Carland, of the United States district court, and then removed to Everts, where he has since given his attention to his official duties, while he also continues the practice of the law, in the minutiae of which he is thoroughly well informed. In politics Mr. Tiffany gives his allegiance to the Republican party, and he takes a lively interest in the ques- tions and issttes of the hour. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order, while he is also affiliated with two college fraternities, the Phi Kappa Psi and Phi Delta Phi.

On the 20th of May, 1902. was consummated the marriage of Mr. Tiffany to Miss Florence Gregory, who was born in Racine, Wisconsin, on the 10th of December, 1877, being a daughter of William H. and Ellen R. Gregory, now residents of Mitchell, South Dakota. Of this union has been born a fine little son, Lewis Gregory Tif- fany, who was ushered into the world on the Toth of April. 1903.

JOHN R. HAWKINS, M. D., who was summoned to the life eternal on the 3d of May. 1904, in the very flower of his manhood, was a native of Sioux Falls and a son of one of its

honored pioneers, Robert C. Hawkins, to whom a memorial tribute is accorded on other pages of this volume. Dr. Hawkins was born in Sioux Falls, on the Ioth of July, 1874, and was a son of Robert C. and Harriett ( Albertson) Hawk- ins. He secured his early education in the public schools and manifested from his boyhood a dis- tinctive predilection for study. After complet- ing a course in the local high school he entered the University of Chicago, where he continued his studies for four years, at the expiration of which he was matriculated in Rush Medical Col- lege, in Chicago, where he completed the pre- scribed technical course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1900, receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine. Through his own ef- forts he, to a large extent, paid the expenses of his higher education, and in the few years of his active professional work he had gained marked prestige and distinction. Soon after his gradu- ation he engaged in active practice in his native city, making a specialty of the diseases of chil- dren, and he gained a representative support and a stronghold upon popular confidence and esteem, as well as upon the high regard of his profes- sional confreres. He was made major surgeon of the Second Regiment of the South Dakota Na- tional Guard, and recently promoted to surgeon general with the rank of colonel, and held this of- fice at the time of his demise, while he was a mem- ber of the State Medical Society and secretary of the Minnehaha County Medical Society, as well as county coroner and medical counselor of the ninth district when summoned from the sphere of life's activities, having been incumbent of the office of county coroner for three years. He was deeply devoted to his profession and took a great interest in all that tended to conserve its ad- vancement. He was practically the originator of the present medical laws of the state, having expended much time, effort and money in pre- paring the measure and urging its passage, the enactment of the law having been made by the last legislature. He was a Master Mason, being identified with Minnehaha Lodge, No. 5. and was a consistent and valued member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

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On the 19th of June, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Hawkins to Miss Minnie Edna Dull, of Freeport, Illinois, who survives him.

ALBE HOLMES, superintendent of the Two Johns mine, located at Crow Hill, Law- rence county, comes of stanch old colonial stock, and is himself a native of the far-distant Pine Tree state, having been born in Belfast, Waldo county, Maine, on the 13th of June, 1848, and being a son of James and Hannah H. (Ward) Holmes, who were likewise born and reared in that county, both passing their entire lives in Maine, where the father devoted his attention to lumbering during his active business career. The subject secured his early educational train- ing in the common schools of his native place and early began to assist his father in his lum- bering operations. In 1869, upon attaining his legal majority, he came west as a youthful pio- neer. He made his way to Nevada, where he was for a number of years employed in the great Comstock mine. In 1876 he came to the Black Hills, making the trip to Cheyenne, Wyoming, from which point he came overland in a stage coach, in company with ten other men, hiring a team from one of the old-time pioneers. Tim Dyer. This was the second stage to enter the hills, and while the party were enroute a band of one hundred and fifty Indians passed their camp but gave them no trouble. They arrived in what is now the town of Custer on the 24th of March, and after devoting a few weeks to quartz prospecting Mr. Holmes started the first express line between Gayville and Deadwood, operating the same about six months, when he sold out. He then resumed prospecting, in which line he met with varying success during the fol- lowing years. In 1896 he located the property now worked by the Spearfish Mining Company, and he still retains an interest in this property, which is a most promising one. In 1897 he was appointed superintendent of the Two Johns mine, named in honor of two well-known individuals of national reputation, John W. Gates and John

A. Drake, the property being situated at Crow Hill. nine miles distant from Deadwood.

In politics Mr. Holmes gives a stanch sup- port to the Republican party, and he is a member of the Business Men's Club, of Deadwood, being also a member of its house committee, while he also holds membership in the Mining Men's As- sociation of the United States and the South Dakota Pioneer Society, as well as the time-hon- ored Masonic fraternity, in which he has risen to the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, while he also holds membership in the adjunct organization, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

On the 3d of April, 1886, Mr. Holmes was united in marriage to Miss Ellen V. Himes, who was born and reared in Pennsylvania.

DWIGHT GERARD HOLBROOK, of Sioux Falls, who is manager for South Dakota for the Mutual Life Insurance Company. of New York, is a native of Windsor Locks. Hart- ford county, Connecticut, where he was born on the 27th of July. 1867, being a son of Dwight and Kalista (Thayer) Holbrook, both scions of prominent families of New England, where the father was an inventor and a manufacturer of scientific and school apparatus, his birth having occurred in Derby, Connecticut. He died in 1891, and his wife resides in New York state. The subject of this sketch is of the seventh generation in direct line of descent from John Holbrook. who immigrated from Derby, Eng- land, and settled at Oyster Bay, Long Island, in the early part of the seventeenth century. His son Abel was the first white child born at Oyster Bay, the date of his nativity having been 1653. Several of the descendants of the original Amer- ican ancestors were valiant soldiers in the Con- tinental line during the war of the Revolution. On the maternal side the subject is descended from Richard Thayer, who settled in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1640; Henry Adams, who was born in 1626; John Alden and his wife, Priscilla; William White, of the "Mayflower"; and in the fourth generation from Rev. Joseph Thaxter.

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who was commissioned by the "council of the Col- ony of the Massachusetts Bay," on the 23d of January, 1776, as "chaplain of the regiment whereof John Robertson, Esq., is colonel," and who carried a musket at the battles of Concord Bridge, Lexington and Bunker Hill. In 1825 Rev. Joseph Thaxter conducted the religious service at the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill monument. His commission as chaplain is now in the possession of his great-granddaughter, the mother of him whose name initiates this resume. As to the genealogy of the Holbrook family spe- cific reference is made in the following named historical publications : American Ancestry, vol- ume I, page 38, and volume VII, page 6; Aus- tin's Ancestral Dictionary, page 27, also allied families, pages 131-3; Dodd's History of East Haven, Connecticut, page 129; Orcutt's History of Derby, pages 729-31 ; and Vinton's Genealogy, pages 185-8 and 330-40. Of the Thayer and Thaxter families mention is made in detail in Massachusetts Historical Society, volume XVII, page 280; in the Records of the Town of Brain- tree, 1640-73; and in East Anglia, volume III, page 35; while of the Adams, Alden and White families, record appears in Savage's Genealogical Dictionary.

Dwight G. Holbrook received his early edu- cational discipline principally in private schools in his native state, where he was prepared for college. He, however, decided to enter business life, in 1884, rather than to continue a burden upon a mother whose courage, business sagacity, self-abnegation and unqualified devotion had hitherto given him ample opportunities. After nine months of clerical service in the passenger department of the New York Central Railroad, he resigned, in October, 1884, to become a clerk in the actuary's department of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, winning ad- vancement through his fidelity, discrimination and marked executive ability, and being made private secretary to the vice-president of the com- pany in 1889, while in 1893 he was given his present important preferment as general agent for the Dakotas, in which capacity he has ac- complished a great work in the interests of a

great company, manoeuvreing his forces with consummate skill and distinctive initiative and administrative force, and thus bringing much prestige to this old, reliable and well-known in- surance corporation. He is a Republican in his political proclivities, but has never desired office. Fraternally he is identified with the Knights of Pythias, and the Masonic order, in which latter he is affiliated with Minnehaha Lodge, No. I, Free and Accepted Masons ; Sioux Falls Chap- ter, No. 2, Royal Arch Masons; Cyrene Com- mandery, No. 2, Knights Templar ; and Oriental Consistory, No. I, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite.

In the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, on the 14th of July, 1898, Mr. Holbrook was united in marriage to Miss Charlotte B. Long, daughter of Joseph D. Long, and of this union have been born two children, namely: Robert Dwight, June 7, 1899, and Darwin Long, July 5, 1903.

JOHN L. W. ZIETLOW, who is president of the Dakota Central Telephone Company, with headquarters in the city of Aberdeen, is a native of Prussia, where he was born on the 8th of December, 1850, and where he was reared to the age of seventeen years, having received his edu- cation in the excellent national schools of his native land. In 1867 he immigrated to the United States, having previously learned the watchmaker's trade in Prussia. He made his way to Wisconsin, and there sought such em- ployment as came to his notice. He worked on a farmi a time and later was employed in a ma- chine shop and in sawmills. In 1873, while working in a sawmill, he had the misfortune to meet with an accident of most deplorable nature. having his right arm severed above the elbow. By the time he had recovered from his injury, so far as may be, he found himself almost penniless, but the same courage and self-reliance which have brought to him success in later years stood him well in hand at that critical period. He went to Naperville, Illinois, and there succeeded in completing a course in a commercial college. Thereafter he secured a position as scaler in a

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sawmill, while later he secured clerical work in an office in Stillwater, Minnesota. In March, 1880, Mr. Zietlow came to what is now the state of South Dakota, and took up a homestead claim in Spink county, where he turned his attention to farming and the implement business, but his crops failed six years in succession, a fact which led him eventually to identify himself with the telephone business. Being a superior mechanic and having made particular study of applied elec- tricity, he has been able to direct his efforts with consummate ability and success,

It may be said that while residing in Min- nesota the subject, had read a glowing description of the attractions of the James river valley in South Dakota, and later he was visited by a man who purposed bringing a colony to this section. A church meeting was held and this promoter prefaced his exhortations by a long prayer, after which he expatiated on his plans and on the great future in store for the section in which he was interested. Mr. Zietlow determined to investi- gate matters for himself, and, in company with a friend, he came to Watertown, then the ter- minus of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. and thence, in the teeth of a fierce blizzard, made his way to the promoter's vaunted city of Ash- ton, which he found to be comprised of one shanty and a sod house. He took up a home- stead claim, which proved to be near Athol, and tlien returned to Minnesota. On account of being caught in a blizzard in the fall of 1880, while on his way to his claim, he practically de- cided to abandon the property, when an offer of fifty dollars was made him for this tree claim adjoining Athol, which was beginning to show signs of growth, and which within six months was increased to the amount of twenty-three hundred dollars, he decided to once more come and "see what was doing." He found fourteen stores and two hotel buildings in the course of erection in the town, and that the railroad com- pany had designated the same as a station on its line, while town lots were being platted beyond his claim. He refused eleven thousand dollars for his property and the town continued to boom for two years, within which time he platted his 51-

land, selling one lot. Other towns grew up as if by magic, and in time Athol's fortunes lan- guished and it became practically but a memory.

Within the limitations necessarily prescribed for an article of this nature it is impossible to enter into details as to the gradual upbuilding of the great telephone enterprises in which the subject of this sketch is so prominently con- cerned, and yet it is but consistent that an outline be entered. In October, 1886, the Dakota Emner Telephone Company was organized, the promoter having been the subject of this sketch, who was one of the seven stockholders and incorporators. This company establishes exchanges in Aberdeen, Watertown and Columbia, and also connected Aberdeen with Groton and Columbia by long- distance telephone during the winter of 1886-87, while the local exchanges in Aberdeen and Wa- tertown were later sold to local companies. With- in one year after the establishment of the business the Bell Company attempted to close the ex- changes on account of infringements of patents, and, fearing litigation, all of the exchanges men- tioned were closed with the exception of those in Aberdeen and Watertown, to which Mr. Zietlow gave his personal attention. He carried on the work against the wishes of the Bell Com- pany, though he was simply working on a salary at the time and the struggle was a strenuous and bitter one. From 1887 to 1894 it was under these adverse conditions the two exchanges mentioned were kept in operation by the use of such appli- ances as Mr. Zietlow could secure by personal ef- fort. He familiarized himself with the old Reis apparatus, which had been invented only for the reproduction of musical tones, and by personal manipulation and improvement he succeeded in inaking the device available for conversational purposes, and during this time he discovered and brought out several inventions which have proved to be very important to practical telephone serv- ice. Before the expiration of the Bell patents the other persons interested in the local service had become discouraged, and in April, 1896, Mr. Ziet- low concluded to attempt individually what the company had originally intended to accomplish. He constructed the line from Aberdeen to Red-

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field, and then found himself six thousand dollars in debt and with a cash capital of but one dollar and a half. The line was constructed through the efforts of himself and his son, with the assist- ance of a kindly disposed friend, and the subject's wife and daughters attended to the operation of the exchange while he was thus engaged in build- ing the new line. From this time forward suc- cess has crowned his efforts and justified his de- termination and courage. The line became very popular, particularly during the hard winter of 1896, when communication by other means was cut off. In the time of the great floods of the following spring, when telegraph and railroad service came to a standstill, he kept his line in operation to Redfield, fording the streams to make the necessary repairs, and on account of no other line of communication being open, it paid some lays as high as seventy and eighty dollars. After he had constructed three hundred miles of line, Mr. Zietlow organized and incorporated the West- ern Dakota Telephone Company and also the Cen- tral Dakota Telephone Company. The Dakota Central absorbed the Clark Telephone and the Midland line, of North Dakota, the Western Da- kota and Central Dakota Telephone Companies as well as the Aberdeen, Watertown and other local exchanges. Mr. Zietlow is still one of the principal stockholders and an officer in each of these companies, whose aggregate capitalization is five hundred thousand dollars, which fact in- dicates the extent and importance of the service given and the business controlled. The Dakota Central Telephone Lines, of which he is president, represents one of the most profitable enterprises of the sort in existence and still gives its service at minimum rates to patrons. It now has a four- ! thousand-mile circuit, with four hundred offices, fifty of which are local exchanges, while seventy- five persons are represented on the regular pay roll, besides the construction gangs and agents, the latter being on commission basis. In 1903 the company expended one hundred and thirty thon- sand dollars in improvements, and the average annual revenue has reached fifty thousand dollars, the estimate for 1904 being one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It may be said without fear of

contradiction, that the service accorded to pa- trons is cheaper than that of any other telephone company in the Union doing a legitimate busi- ness. The net profit on each twenty-five cent message is only four and a half cents. The com- pany has no indebtedness and the stock is all held by residents of South Dakota.

In politics Mr. Zietlow is a Republican, his religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal church, and fraternally he is identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Knights of the Maccabees and the United Commercial Travelers.

At Newton, Wisconsin, on the 4th of March, 1878, Mr. Zietlow was married to Miss Martha Hewitt, who was born in Ohio and reared in Wis- consin, and who has proved an able coadjutor to her husband in his past struggles and at all times a wise counselor. They have three children : J. Forrest, who is superintendent of the system here described, having grown up with the business ; Essie, who is a graduate of the high school and who has been employed in the office of the tele- phone companies since she was ten years of age, and Nina, who aided in the work as a child and contributed her quota to the building of the great enterprises of which her father is the head; in fact she states that as a child she was a "mes- senger boy." She is a graduate of the Aberdeen high school, the Aberdeen Normal School, and is now a student of the Chicago Musical College.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 135

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