History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 31

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

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Thomas Fitch was about sixteen years of age at the time of the removal to Fillmore county, Minnesota, where he attended the common schools and an excellent academy at Chatfield. He was for many years successfully engaged in teaching, while he has ever continued a close student and wide reader, being distinctively a man of broad information and liberal ideas. He

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was teaching when the thundering of rebel guns against old Fort Sumter announced the initiation of the greatest civil war known in the annals of history. He responded to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, and on the 26th of June, 1861, was enlisted for three months as a member of Company A, Second Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. His company was commanded by Captain Judson W. Bishop, who eventually rose to the rank of general and who is now a promi- nent resident of St. Paul. He continued in ac- tive service for three years and one month, being mustered out as corporal on the 21st of July, 1864. He retired from service by reason of severe injuries received in the battle of Chicka- mauga, on the 20th of the preceding September. He was wounded in the right arm and the face, by the same ball, and in the ensuing surgical operation fifteen pieces of shattered bone were taken from his arm, in which the ball had re- mained for eighty-one days. His brothers, Wil- liam A. and James H., also served in the Union army, the former having been a member of the Chicago Light Artillery and died in the service, after having been a prisoner in Libby prison for seven months. The latter was a member of · Company E, Seventh Minnesota Volunteer In- fantry.

After the war Mr. Fitch resumed teaching in the same school in which he had been retained at the time of his enlistment, and thereafter de- voted fourteen years to pedagogic work in Min- nesota, though he was also identified with agri- cultural pursuits and was incumbent of various local offices. In 1880 he took up a soldier's homestead in Kilborn township, Grant county, becoming-thus one of the early settlers. He im- proved his farm and placed it under cultivation, and still owns the property, as well as forty acres adjoining Milbank. In 1883 he took up his residence in Milbank, where he is now success- fully engaged in the wood and coal business, while he commands the unequivocal esteem of all who know him, being popular in business, social and public life. He has been called upon to serve in various offices of trust and responsi- bility, including those of justice of the peace,

school trustee and member of the village coun- cil. He has a nice residence and the pleasant home is a center of gracious hospitality. Mr. Fitch is a member of the company operating and owning the co-operative creamery in Milbank, which represents one of the important industrial enterprises of the county. In politics he has ever accorded a stanch allegiance to the Republican party and has been an active worker in its cause, while for the past two years he has served as chairman of the Republican central committee of Grant county. In January, 1902, he received through the legislature the appointment as one of the five members of the board of control of the soldiers' home at Hot Springs. He has ever retained a deep interest in his old comrades in arms and is one of the valued members of Gen- eral A. A. Humphrey Post, No. 42, Grand Army of the Republic. In 1900 Mr. Fitch was elected one of the presidential electors on the Republican ticket, and had the distinction of re- ceiving the largest number of votes ever cast for a candidate in the state.

At Preston, Minnesota, on the 7th of Decem- ber, 1865, Mr. Fitch was united in marriage to Miss Sarah P. Shaw, who was born in New York, being a daughter of Ebenezer and Lydia P. Shaw, who were numbered among the early settlers in Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Fitch have one son, Frederick, who is now a resident of the city of Spokane, Washington, where he is a conductor on the Great Northern Railroad. He married Miss Mary Hause, and they have one child, Gene.

HON. A. H. INGERSOLL, county judge of Roberts county, was born in Waupun, Wis- consin, October 12, 1857, and is the son of Artemedorous and Nancy (McNammard) In- gersoll, both parents natives of Pennsylvania, the father of English descent, the mother of Scotch-Irish. Artemedorus Ingersoll came from an old and respected New England family, was a man of intelligence and much more than or- dinary culture and for a number of years served as official surveyor of Dodge county, Wisconsin,

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having been an educated and remarkably cap- able civil engineer. He reared a family of nine children, six sons and three daughters, the old- est son, a captain in the late Civil war, dying in a rebel prison, and two others have died since that time.

A. H. Ingersoll was reared in his native state, received a high-school education at Waupun, Wisconsin, and studied law at Preston, Minne- sota, under the direction of Henry R. Wells, being admitted to the bar in 1878. In that year he came to South Dakota and, settling on a tree claim near Wilmot, began practicing in that town and upon the organization of Roberts county, in 1882, he was chosen state's attorney, which posi- tion he held for a term of two years, retiring at the expiration of that time to his farm. But a brief interval elapsed until he was again elected to the office and after discharging the duties of the same in an able and satisfactory manner for a period of six years, he was elected to the county judgeship, which with the exception of four years spent in agricultural pursuits, he has since held. Judge Ingersoll is an able lawyer, a ju- dicious and successful practitioner, and as a judge his course has been creditable to himself and an honor to the county, fully meeting the ex- pectations of his friends and the public and justifying the wisdom of his election. In the discharge of his official functions he is eminently fair and impartial, his rulings bear every evi- dence of a profound knowledge of the law, his decisions have been characterized by an intense desire to render justice in all matters submitted for his consideration, and thus far there has been little in his career to criticise and much to com- mend. He is not only one of the representative Republicans of Roberts county, but enjoys much more than local prestige as a judicious organizer and successful leader.

Judge Ingersoll is vice-president of the Citizens' Bank at this place, and a stockholder in the same, and is also identified with the Bank of Wilmot, besides having various other interests which tend to the development of the country and the promotion of its prosperity. Fraternally lie belongs to the Ancient Order of United Work-

men and the Knights of Pythias, in both of which brotherhoods he is an active worker, and at dif- ferent times he has been honored with important official positions in the same.

The Judge was married on April 15, 1881, to Miss Ida F. Maydole, a native of Iowa and the daughter of Henry M. and Eliza (Wilson) Maydole, the father of German descent, the mother's lineage being traceable to an old New England family that figured in the early history of Vermont.

ELIAS MONSON, ex-register of deeds of Roberts county and now president of and ab- stracter for the Roberts County Abstract and Title Company, is a native of Dodge county, Minnesota, and the son of Ole and Bertha ( Kuntson) Monson, both parents born and reared in Norway. Ole Monson and wife came to the United States a number of years ago and were among the earliest settlers of Dodge county, Minnesota, locating there when the county was on the very outskirts of civilization. After a long residence in that state, they removed to near Grand Forks, North Dakota, where the father's death occurred in 1900, and the mother's two years previously. Ole Monson, a farmer by occupation, was a man of intelligence and sound judgment and was a most excellent and praiseworthy citizen. He was always deeply in- terested in the public affairs of the communities in which he lived, took an active part in politics and for years was one of the Republican leaders of Dodge county, Minnesota. Although of for- eign birth and ever retaining a warm feeling for his native country, he became devotedly at- tached to the country of his adoption and was an ardent admirer and loyal upholder of the free institutions under which so many years of his life were spent and so much of his success achieved.

Elias Monson was born on July 4, 1864, spent his childhood and youth in his native county and state and after acquiring an elementary edu- cation in the public schools completed an academic and business course in an academy at

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Portland, North Dakota. On quitting the academy he went to North Dakota in 1888 with the family, and after farming two years in Grand Forks county, changed his residence to the county of Roberts, where, in 1892, he took up a fine claim, which he at once proceeded to im- prove. He continued to reside on his place and promote its development until the fall of 1898, when he was elected, on the Republican ticket, register of deeds for Roberts county, the duties of which office he discharged for two terms hav- ing been chosen his own successor in the year 1900. As a public official Mr. Monson demon- strated fine business capacity and became quite popular with the people. At the expiration of his second term he was prevailed upon by his successor to continue in charge of the office as deputy, being familiar with its varied duties and far better qualified to discharge the same than any other individual.

Mr. Monson is now identified with the Rob- erts County Abstract & Title Company, of which he is president, and also owns an interest in a hotel at White Rock. He gives his influence and encouragement to all enterprises having for their object the material advancement of the community, being also a friend of education, re- ligion and other civilizing agencies without which no commonwealth can truly prosper. He belongs to the Improved Order of Red Men and Court of Honor at Sisseton, is a zealous worker in both organizations and at various times has been honored with responsible official positions by his fellow members.

Mr. Monson's domestic history dates from 1895, on December 10th of which year was solemnized liis marriage with Miss Carrie Stad- stad, of Douglas county, Minnesota, a most ex- cellent and amiable lady who has presented him with two children, Beatrice and Arthur A.

CHARLES L. FOLKSTAD, a prominent merchant of Sisseton and proprietor of one of the largest and finest general stores in the eastern part of South Dakota, is a native of Minnesota and the son of Levi Folkstad, who came to the

United States from Norway sometime in the 'forties. Charles L. Folkstad was born on June I, 1863, spent his early life in Dodge county, Minnesota, and enjoyed the advantages of a common-school education. When a young man he turned his attention to well digging, which arduous business he followed for three years in his native state and in 1891 came to South Da- kota and, entering a tract of land in the southern part of Roberts county, lived on the same until receiving a patent from the government, when he returned to Minnesota. During the ensuing three years Mr. Folkstad clerked in a mercantile house, but at the expiration of that time re- signed his position and in 1895 again came to Dakota and opened a gents' furnishing store in Sisseton. His business career since the above date presents a series of successes perhaps without parallel in this state, as his progress from a comparatively modest beginning to his present commanding position among the lead- ing merchants of Dakota has been little less than phenomenal. Starting with a small stock of goods, in an indifferent building, fourteen by twenty feet in size, he soon secured a lucrative patronage and as the business continued to grow in magnitude more commodious quarters became necessary. In 1897 he took in a partner, but in January following purchased the latter's interest and has since been sole proprietor, the business meanwhile increasing to such an extent as to make his store the leading establishment of the kind in the city. Mr. Folkstad, in 1900, erected the fine brick building which he now occupies, the structure being twenty-four by one hundred and twenty feet in size, handsomely finished with pressed brick front and large plate glass win- dows, the interior a model of beauty and con- venience and perfectly adapted to the purposes for which intended. This store is packed to re- pletion with full lines of clothing, gents' fur- nishings, and a first-class tailoring department. Mr. Folkstad has a well-established reputation for selling goods at low prices and for square and honorable dealing with his patrons. Mr. Folkstad has been remarkably fortunate in all of his business affairs and now possesses a for-

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tune of considerable magnitude, owning in ad- dition to his large mercantile house and other city property, an extensive tract of fine farm land, besides considerable stock in a number of local enterprises. He is a man of sterling worth, enjoys the confidence of the public and is held in high esteem by his fellow men of Sisseton and Roberts county. He holds membership with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Knights of Pythias, and in politics supports the Republican party.

Mr. Folkstad's wife, formerly Miss Anna Pederson, was born in Dodge county, Minnesota, but since five years of age has lived in South Dakota, where her marriage was solemnized on September 26, 1893. The following are the names of their children: Lloyd, Gordon, Alton, Anna Bernice and Charles Walter, a twin of the first born dying in infancy.

ANDREW MARVICK, treasurer and man- ager of the Iowa and Dakota Land Company, and stockholder in the Citizens' National Bank, Sisseton, is a native of Grundy county, Illinois, where his birth occurred on June 28, 1871. His parents, Seivert and Laura (Naadland) Marvick, were born in Norway and in 1854 came to the United States, settling in Illinois, where the father purchased land and became a successful tiller of the soil. Andrew grew up in close touch with the rugged duties of farm life, and after receiving an elementary education in the public schools of his native county entered the normal school at Morris, Illinois, where he pur- sued for some time the higher branches of learning. His education finished, he engaged in farming in Illinois and continued the same for some years, later embarking in the real-estate business in Minnesota and South Dakota. In the spring of 1902 he opened a real-estate office in Sisseton and after conducting the same with marked success until the following fall, when he helped to organize the Citizens' National Bank, of which his brother. Joseph Marvick, is president.

Mr. Marvick is an accomplished business man and although but recently identified with banking, he has demonstrated abilities and re- sourcefulness as a financier such as few attain after a much longer and more varied experience. Under his able management the Citizens' Na- tional Bank has become not only one of the lead- ing institutions of the kind in Roberts county, but in the northeastern part of the state, and, being backed by safe and conservative men, it bids fair to achieve ere long an honorable reput- tation among the popular and successful banks of the great northwest. In addition to his con- nection with the banking interests of Sisseton, Mr. Marvick is identified with various other business enterprises that have had a decided in- fluence upon development of the country, notably among which being the Iowa and Dakota Land Company, which he is now serving in the two- fold capacity of manager and treasurer.

Mr. Marvick ranks with the intelligent and level-headed men of the city of his residence and in every relation of life has made a reputation for probity and correct conduct that has become proverbial. His impulses, always earnest and generous, are invariably in the right direction, and the encouraging success with which his business career has been crowned is mainly dite to his industry, fidelity and the spirit of courtesy characteristic of the well-bred, broad- minded gentleman.

Mr. Marvick was married on February 20, 1895, to Miss Linnie Bjelland, a native of Illi- nois, but of Norwegian parentage, the union re- . sulting in the birth of three children, Lydia, Raymond O. and Amos S. Mr. and Mrs. Mar- vick have one of the most beautiful modern residences in Sisseton, and their pleasant home is noted for the hospitality and spirit of good fellowship that welcome all who enter its pre- cincts. In private life the subject is quiet and unobtrusive, but warm-hearted and affable in his relations with his fellow men. He numbers his friends by the score, stands high in public esteem and the prominent position which he has already reached in business and social circles is indicative of the still greater and more influential

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career that awaits him in the future. Relig- iously Mr. Marvick and wife are Lutherans, being among the leading members of the church of that denomination in Sisseton.

FRITHIOP N. H. GYLLENHAMMAR. M. D., of Gayville, Yankton county, was born in Sweden, on the 8th of February, 1857, being a son of Lars G. and Catherine M. (Samuelson) Gyllenhammar. From 1632 to the present time the subject's ancestors and himself have been noblemen in their native land, the Doctor's name, with the other members of the family, being registered in the noblemen's calendar at Stock- holm, Sweden. Mrs. Anna Carlson, the Doctor's sister, who is his housekeeper, was widowed in Sweden, her husband having been a civil en- gineer. The Doctor was reared in his native land and his more purely literary education was secured in Linkoping College, where he con- tinued his studies until he had completed the prescribed course of the college. About the year 1882 he took up the study of medicine and surgery, under most effective preceptorship, and in 1884 he emigrated from the far northland to the United States, locating in the city of Duluth, Minnesota, where he continued his technical studies under the direction of Dr. W. H. Mc- Gee, and while a resident of that city he also familiarized himself with the English language, so that he became well qualified for taking up his active labors in the country of his adoption. In the autumn of 1887 the Doctor was matriculated in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, where he com- pleted the prescribed course, being graduated as a member of the class of 1891, and receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine on the 10th of March of that year. He passed the ensuing summer in that city and in the autumn removed to Sioux City, Iowa, where he built up a suc- cessful practice, continuing to there follow his profession until the autumn of 1894, when he came to South Dakota and located in the city of Yankton, where he was engaged in practice for the ensuing three years, at the expiration of

which he came to Gayville, which has ever since been the field of his earnest and successful en- deavors in the work of his noble profession, in which he has gained marked prestige and the concomitant confidence and esteem of the com- munity.

Since coming to South Dakota Dr. Gyllen- hammar has served about five years as a mem- ber of the board of pension examiners for Yank- ton county, and he is held in high regard by his professional confreres in the state, while his ability and pleasing personality have brought to him a representative support in his chosen field of labor. In politics he accords a stanch support to the Republican party and his religious faith is that of the Lutheran church. He is a member of the South Dakota State Medical Society, the Sioux Valley Medical Association and the American Medical Association, while fraternally he is identified with the Knights of the Mac- cabees and the Mutual Benefit Association. He is also president of the Yankton District Medical Association. The Doctor is the owner of a pleasant and well-appointed home in Gayville, in which he has a large library of well-selected books, both professional and scientific. The Doc- tor is not married, and his sister presides over the domestic affairs of his pleasant home, while in the family circle are two adopted children, George and Hilda Heloise.

J. A. RICKERT, a financier of more than "local reputation, is a native of Trumbull county, Ohio, and the oldest in a family of twelve chil- dren, whose father and mother were of German and Irish descent respectively. Mr. Rickert was born September 21, 1852, and four years later, with his parents, emigrated to Olmsted county, Minnesota, where he grew to manhood on a farm, meanwhile receiving his preliminary edu- cation in the district schools of that county. In 1871 he entered St. Vincent's College, Wheeling, West Virginia, where he pursued his studies for two years, meanwhile attending night school at the Bryant & Stratton Business College, of that city, completing the full commercial course at

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that institution. For the six years following Mr. Rickert was engaged as clerk, timekeeper and bookkeeper, in Wheeling, West Virginia, and in towns in Minnesota. In 1879 he came to South Dakota and took up a homestead in Grant county, near Milbank. In 1881 he disposed of his claim and with the proceeds engaged in the general merchandise business two years later at Corona, this state, where he carried on a very successful business during the ensuing sixteen years, all of which time he served as postmaster of the town, besides holding various township and municipal offices.

In 1896 Mr. Rickert was elected treasurer of Roberts county, and upon taking charge of the office moved to Wilmot, where he resided until the seat of justice was changed to Sisseton, when he took up his abode at the latter place and has since made it his home. He was re-elected in 1898 and served both terms in an able and satisfactory manner, proving a painstaking, obliging and popular public servant. During his last term he built an elevator at Sisseton and engaged in the grain business, and about the same time associated himself with H. S. Morris and Howard Babcock and organized the First National Bank of Sisseton, becoming president of the institution, which position he still holds. Still later he became one of the organizers, stock- holders and officers of three new banks, known as the Citizens' State Bank of White Rock, the First State Bank of Summit, and the Roberts County State Bank, of Corona, and is a stock- holder in the Sisseton Loan and Title Company and the Roberts County Land and Loan Com- pany.

Mr. Rickert owns a fine business property at Corona and a nice residence in Sisseton. He has charge and the management of the extensive farm properties of the Sisseton Loan and Title Company, of which they own about thirty farms in Roberts and neighboring counties.

Mr. Rickert was married in December, 1882, the union being blessed with one child, a son, Paul M., who is now pursuing his studies in Pillsbury Academy at Owatonna, Minnesota.

Mr. Rickert is a Mason and a member of the

Ancient Order of United Workmen. In politics he has always been an enthusiastic Republican. The distinction which he has achieved in financial and business circles has given him con- siderable reputation, and as a public-spirited citizen he is deeply interested in all that tends to the material development and general pros- perity of his city, county and state.

RT. REV. THOMAS O'GORMAN .- To him whose name initiates this review has come the attainment of a distinguished position in connection with the work of the holy Catholic church. A man of distinctive and forceful in- dividuality and high attainments, he has con- secrated his life to the service of the Divine Master and is at the present time ministering faithfully and zealously as bishop of the Catholic church for the diocese of South Dakota. of which Sioux Falls is the see city and conse- quently his place of residence.

Bishop O'Gorman is a native of the city of Boston, Massachusetts, where he was born on the Ist of May, 1843, being a son of John and Margaret O'Gorman, who removed to the west when he was a child. his hoyhood days being passed in Chicago and St. Paul, where he se- cured his early educational training in public and parochial schools. At the age of ten and one-half years. in company with the dis- tinguished Archbishop Ireland, who was then sixteen years of age, he was sent to France, where he continued his literary studies and was also educated for the priesthood. Upon his re- turn to St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1865, he was or- dained to the priesthood, receiving holy orders on the 5th of November of that year. There- after he had charge of a missionary district in southern Minnesota until 1878, the center of said district being the town of Rochester. In the vear last mentioned he joined with the Paulist fathers in their missionary work, and during a portion of two years was an assistant in the church of St. Paul in New York city. In 1885 Bishop O'Gorman was made president of the seminary of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minnesota, in

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 31

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