History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 38

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

USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. II > Part 38

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JOSIAH SHELDON .- For a number of years the subject of this review has been very closely identified with the history of Lincoln county, South Dakota, being one of the early settlers and substantial citizens of this part of the state and the founder of the thriving town of Lennox, in which he now resides. Josiah Shel- don embodies many of the sturdy elements of New

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England manhood and traces his genealogy to an early period in the history of Vermont, of which state his parents, Samuel and Lavina (Ballard) Sheldon, were natives, both born, reared and married in the old county of Franklin. About the year 1850 Samuel Sheldon migrated to Dane county, Wisconsin, of which he was an early settler, and there took up a tract of government land which he cleared and converted into one of the most productive farms in that part of the state. He was a successful agriculturist, a worthy citizen and lived on the place he originally located until his death, which occurred in 1876, his second wife, the subject's mother, departing this life in 1858. By a previous marriage with Permelia Martin, who died in Vermont, he had one child, a son, by the name of Nelson, and to his union with Lavina Ballard four children were born, namely : Harmon, who, with the subject, laid out the town of Lennox, South Dakota, but who is now living a retired life in Wright county, Minnesota ; Polly, wife of Sebastian Basford, of Clear Lake, Iowa ; Josiah, of this review, and Desire, twins, the latter, who married William Dunlap, dying in the year 1887. By his third wife, Emma Ross, Mr. Sheldon was the father of one child that died in infancy.

Josiah Sheldon is a native of Franklin county, Vermont, where his birth occurred in the year 1842. He enjoyed but limited educational ad- vantages, never attending school after his six- teenth year, and when old enough to work he took his place in the fields, where he labored early and late, helping to run the farm and con- tributing to the support of the family. After re- maining at home until attaining his majority he started out to make his own way and from 1850 to 1876 followed agricultural pursuits in Minne- sota, removing the latter year to South Dakota and taking up a claim in the northern part of Lincoln county, where the village of Lennox now stands, this thriving town being a part of the original quarter section which he purchased from the government. In addition to this land he also entered one hundred and sixty acres about one and a half miles west of Lennox and in 1890, in partnership with his brother, laid out the town and

began a series of improvements which in due time attracted a thrifty class of people to the lo- cality, many of whom purchased lots and became permanent residents.

Mr. Sheldon moved to the present site of the village before the advent of the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul Railroad in 1879 and donated about forty acres of his land for town purposes, selling all the rest except two lots which he re- served for his own use. He was a member of the first board of trustees of Lennox and in that capacity did much to advance the interests of the town and promote its growth, lending his influ- ence to every enterprise calculated to stimulate business and industry, at the same time giving an earnest and whole-hearted support to meas- ures having for their object the social, intellec- tural and moral well-being of the community.

In his political affiliations Mr. Palmer is a Republican and he has long been a factor of con- siderable importance in local party circles, be- sides manifesting an active interest in district and state affairs, laboring diligently during cam- paigns and contributing not a little to the success of the ticket as an organizer and worker. His fraternal relations are represented by the Ma- sonic order, belonging to Lodge No. 35, at Len- nox, and the Grand Army of the Republic Post, No. 21, which meets at Elsworth, his right to membership in the latter organization depending upon the three years which he gave to the serv- ice of his country during the dark and troublous period of the Civil war. Mr. Palmer, on October 18, 1861, enlisted at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, in Com- pany C, Fourth Iowa Cavalry, which was as- signed to duty in the Army of the Southwest. where he took part in several noted battles, in- cluding, among others, the siege of Vicksburg, and many minor engagements, to say nothing of the long, tiresome marches in which he took part and the numerous vicissitudes and hardships endured while defending the flag and upholding the integrity of the Republic. He was discharged December 5, 1864, at Memphis, Tennessee, with an honorable record, and since leaving the army he has been as earnest and loyal to the govern- ment as when fighting in its behalf on Southern

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battlefields. Mr. Palmer is one of the well-known and widely respected men of Lincoln county, who has dignified every station to which called and whose influence has ever been exercised on the right side of every moral issue. Those who know him best speak in complimentary terms of his many excellent characteristics and his record in the past may be taken as an earnest of con- tined usefulness and prosperity in years to come.

HARRY L. BRAS, educator, legislator, pub- lisher, postmaster, promotor, politician and all- round good citizen, is a leader among the repre- senative young men who have brought South Dakota to its present high place in the union of states. Energy and persistence are the prime qualifications which have won for him a most en- viable position in the state. Few indeed are the enterprises for state development either upon ed- ucational or material lines in which he has not been prominently identified. As teacher, school superintendent and publisher of the state's leading educational journal he has made his impress upon the educational policy of the state for all of the period of statehood and before. As a legislator he introduced and pressed to passage the pres- ent efficient law for the inspection of food stuffs and dairy products, as well as many other im- portant pieces of legislation. As a loyal citizen of his own city he organized the movement for the removal of the capital from Pierre to Mitchell and was by his neighbors made the manager of the pending campaign for capital removal before the people.

Mr. Bras is the son of Leonard Bras, a suc- cessful lawyer, and Mary Hannah DeMott, of South Bend, Indiana. He therefore possesses that mixture of French and German blood which has produced so many strong and notable men. His parents located at Toolsboro, Louisa county, Iowa, where Harry was born October 16, 1862. In 1867 his family removed to New Boston, Illinois, and there he received a thorough common and high-school education and then took a course in the Illinois State Normal

University and later completed his studies in the University of South Dakota. For three years he engaged in teaching in Illinois and then, locating at Mount Vernon, Davison county, South Dakota, he took up a tract of government land, but continued to teach for three years, at the end of which period he was elected county superintendent of schools. The country was new, the school system crude, lacking in uni- formity and coherence, but he set to work promptly to reduce it to a practicable working system and soon secured the adoption of a uni- form course of study, free text-books, raised the standard of teaching and gave to the schools and the teachers an enthusiastic interest in the work. He held the position three terms and de- clined a fourth nomination to engage in the publication of the South Dakota Educator, the official organ of all the state educational bodies. He still is the publisher of this journal, as well as of the South Dakotan, the organ of the State Historical Society, and the School Board Journal. By his energy and industry he has built up a large and profitable printing establishment and publishing house. From 1890 to 1896 he was a member of the board of trustes of the Madison Normal and for a portion of the time president of the board. From 1898 to 1902 he was a member of the state legislature. He has from the beginning been an active member of the State Educational Association and of the Teachers' and Pupils' Reading Circles and much of the time one of the administrative officers of these bodies. Since 1892 he has been postmaster of Mitchell and is also the treasurer of the Com- mercial Fire Insurance Company.

On September 2. 1885, Mr. Bras was mar- ried to Miss Hattie Betts, of Mount Vernon, and to them four daughters have been born, Elsie Louise, Lillian, Florence and Sarah. Mrs. Bras died in December, 1903. In the prime of his manhood, Mr. Bras, with state-wide acquaint- ance and unstinted popularity, is still but at the beginning of that career of usefulness and honor which his unflagging industry, integrity and ability give assurance that the community will require at his hands.

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HOWARD BABCOCK, attorney-at-law, and for a number of years a leading member of the Sisseton bar, and the present mayor of Sisseton, was born in Waterloo, Wisconsin, December 21, 1867, being the son of Seth C. and Sarah C. (Cole) Babcock, hoth natives of New York. Seth C. Babcock, a farmer by occupation, was descended from old colonial stock, his family hav- ing been among the earliest settlers of York state, and not a few of the name participating in the struggle for independence. He was a vet- eran of the late Civil war, serving in Company H. Twenty-ninth Wisconsin Infantry, and made an honorable record as a brave and gallant sol- dier. The Coles also belong to an old family, the early history of which dates from a remote period in the time of the colonies, and the name is still familiar in New York, where they orig- inally located. Seth and Sarah Babcock were the parents of four children who grew to ma- turity, three sons and one daughter, all living.

Howard Babcock remained in his native town until about eight years of age and in 1875 re- moved with his parents to Racine, Mower county, Minnesota, where he worked on a farm and at- tended the public schools and the Spring Valley high school until his eighteenth year. After teaching two terms of school, he spent the en- suing three years in the Cedar Valley Seminary at Osage, Iowa, and at the expiration of that time began the study of law with Judge C. C. Willson, of Rochester, Minnesota, under whose instruction he continued until his admission to the bar in 1892. Mr. Babcock began the prac- tice of his profession at Wilmot, South Dakota, in 1892, and two years later was elected state's attorney, which position he held the constitutional term of four years, proving an able, faithful and untiring official. Retiring from office, he resumed the general practice and when the county seat was moved to Sisseton he changed his residence to that place, and has built up a large and lucra- tive practice in the courts of Roberts and neigh- boring counties. Mr. Babcock is one of the lead- ing lawyers of the Sisseton bar, stands high in the esteem of his professional associates and the public, and has earned an enviable reputation in

his chosen calling. His success has been as pronounced financially as professionally and he is today one of the well-to-do men of his city and county, owning valuable real estate, besides his interests in the First National Bank and Res- ervation State Bank, of Sisseton, the First State Bank of Summit and the Citizens' Bank at White Rock. He helped to organize these institutions and has been a member of the directorate of each bank ever since, and at this time he is president of the First State Bank of Summit. He also or- ganized the Sisseton Loan and Title Company and is heavily interested in the Roberts County Land and Loan Company, being president of both institutions. Mr. Babcock owns one of the finest residence properties in Sisseton and a half section in Roberts county, which is under a high state of cultivation and well improved in the way of buildings, fences, etc. He is essentially a self-made man, his professional success and financial prosperity being the result of his own untiring efforts and industry, and it is eminently fitting to claim for him a prominent place among the representative citizens of his adopted state. Mr. Babcock is a member of the Masonic frater- nity and at the present time holds the office of junior warden in Sisseton Lodge, No. 31 ; he is also identified with the Pythian brotherhood. be- longing to Reservation Lodge, No. 66.

Mr. Babcock, on January 22, 1895, contracted a matrimonial alliance with Miss Ella Jones, of Mitchell, Jowa, and their union has been blessed bv three children, Dana B .. Gordon C. and Carroll H., who are sturdy examples of the boys they raise in South Dakota.

IRA C. HILL, county treasurer of Roberts county and a gentleman of high standing in the business and social circles of Sisseton, is a na- tive of New York, born in the city of Elmira, on March 9. 1848. His father, Felix Hill, was also a New Yorker by birth, being descended from one of the old families of that common- wealth, and his mother, who hore the maiden name of Julia Hoover, came of old New Eng- land stock. her father having served with dis-

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tinction in the war of 1812. Felix and Julia Hill were the parents of eight children, five sons and three daughters, all living, the majority well settled in life and greatly esteemed in their re- spective places of residence.

Ira C. Hill spent the first eight years of his life in the state of his birth and in 1856 accom- panied his parents on their removal to Wiscon- sin, where he lived until 1863. He was reared on a farm, with the rugged duties and whole- some discipline of which he early became famil- iar, and when old enough he entered the district schools which he attended of winter seasons until a youth in his teens. In 1863 he went with the family to Minnesota, where a little later lie tendered his services to the government to help put down the rebellion, enlisting in Com- pany D. Ninth Minnesota Infantry, with which he shared the fortunes and vicissitudes of war for a period of eighteen months, the meanwhile taking part in -several campaigns and in a num- ber of hard-fought battles. At the expiration of his period of service he returned to Minne- sota, where he followed agricultural pursuits until 1892, when he disposed of his interests in that state and came to Roberts county, South Dakota, where he purchased land and engaged in farming. Later, 1897, he moved to Sisseton, and started a hardware store, to which line of business he devoted his attention until 1900, when he was elected treasurer of Roberts county, which position he still holds, having been re-elected in 1902. Mr. Hill's career has been eminently sat- isfactory and it is universally conceded that the county has never been served by a more capable or obliging official. He has handled the public funds judiciously, and as a custodian of one of the people's most important trusts has so de- ported himself as to gain the confidence of his fellow citizens of all parties and shades of polit- ical opinion. He has also served two terms as county commissioner and during his incumbency in that office was untiring in his efforts to promote public improvements, but at all times careful and even conservative in the matter of expenditures.

Mr. Hill is still engaged in agriculture on an extensive scale, owning a finely improved farm

of four hundred acres in the northern part of Roberts county, all under cultivation, in addition to which he has various other interests, being a heavy stockholder in the First National Bank of Sisseton and in the Citizens' State Bank at White Rock. He has been quite successful in all of his enterprises and is now regarded as one of the financially strong and reliable men of his city and county. He is a member of Sisseton Lodge, No. 31. Free and Accepted Masons, and his name is also found on the records of Reservation Lodge, No. 66, Knights of Pythias, being a zealous worker in both orders, besides at all times exem- plifying their principles and precepts in his rela- tions with his fellow men.

Mr. Hill was married in Minnesota, May 27, 1878, to Miss Jennie Rhodes, daughter of Elica Rhodes, of New York, the union resulting in the birth of a daughter. Susie J., at home, and Felix, who is married and lives on the home farm.

JOHN HOLMAN, of the law firm of Gam- ble, Tripp & Holman, and distinctively one of the leading attorneys of the Yankton bar, is a native of Wisconsin and the son of Sjur and Ragrilda Holman, both parents born in Norway. Sjur Holman came to the United States in 1849, and settled near Deerfield, Wisconsin, where he shortly afterward married Ragrilda Aase, who was brought to this country by her parents in 1845, when about thirteen years of age. After his marriage, Mr. Holman turned his attention to agricultural pursuits and, though beginning in a modest way with but limited capital, he suc- ceeded by good management and consecutive in- dustry in accumulating a handsome competence, so that he is now enabled to spend the closing years of his life in comfortable and honorable retirement in the town of Deerfield. Of the chil- dren born to this estimable couple, eight are living at the present time, namely: Mrs. Martha Sterricker, of Omaha, Nebraska; Andrew, who lives in Copper Center, Alaska. of which place he was the first settler and founder ; Nel, a grad- uate of the law department of Wisconsin Uni-

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versity, but now publishing a paper in Deerfield, that state ; Lewis, who is stationed at the Oknago Indian Mission in British Columbia ; John, of this review ; Gerina, at home; Edwin, editor and proprietor of a newspaper in Minnesota, and Ella, who is still with her parents.

John Holman was born February 10, 1867. in the town of Deerfield, Wisconsin, and grew up at home, attending for some years the com- mon schools and later taking a full course in the seminary at Red Wing, Minnesota, from which institution he was graduated in the spring of 1887. In the following fall he entered the law department of the University of Wisconsin, and after prosecuting his legal studies for the greater part of two years, was graduated with the class of 1889, immediately after which he accepted a clerkship in the office of one of the leading at- torneys of Madison. Young Holman spent about one and a half years in clerical work at the nominal salary of fifteen dollars per month and board, but becoming restive under such manner of living he resigned his position at the expiration of the time noted, and in January, 1891, came to Yankton, South Dakota, where, with something like fifty dollars saved from his meager earnings and about two hundred and forty dollars of bor- rowed capital, he opened an office and entered upon his career as a lawyer. His first year in this city was one of struggle and self-denial, clients being few and expenses by no means light. By husbanding his resources, however, he managed to acquire sufficient business to keep his bark afloat until the fall of the following year, at which time he was induced by his Republican friends to announce himself a candidate for the office of state's attorney. Arrayed against the candidate for the Republican ticket in that cam- paign were the combined forces of Democracy and Populism, a fusion which its members confi- dently believed would sweep the country and cap- ture every office, state, district and county. Not- withstanding the strong opposition, Mr. Holman accepted the nomination and, entering upon the campaign with the determination of doing his best, made a thorough, systematic and brilliant canvass, the result of which was his election by

a very handsome majority over a popular com- petitor. During his first term as prosecutor he formed a law partnership with L. L. F. Cleeger, and opened a branch office at Centerville, Mr. Cleeger looking after the business at the latter place, the subject taking charge of the office in Yankton. At the expiration of his term Mr. Holman was chosen his own successor and at the same time his associate was elected state's attor- ney of Turner county, in consequence of which their partnership was dissolved, the subject shortly thereafter becoming a member of the law firm of Cramer & Holman, which continued for a period of two years.

After practicing alone for one year, Mr. Hol- man entered into a partnership with Robert E. McDowell, present private secretary of Senator Gamble, which lasted until the formation of the present legal firm of Gamble, Tripp & Holman in the year 1901. Actuated by a spirit of intense patriotism, Mr. Holman, in May, 1898, sacrificed his law practice, which in the meantime had be- come large, far-reaching and lucrative, to enter the service of his country in its war with Spain. Enlisting in Company C, First South Dakota Volunteer Infantry, he was soon on his way to the Philippines, where he experienced the vicis- situdes and hardships peculiar to warfare with a barbarous foe in a hot and trying climate. Soon after joining the army he was made corporal, subsequently was promoted quartermaster ser- geant and still later rose to the rank of lieutenant, which position he held until his discharge, in Oc- tober, 1899. Returning home, he assumed his law practice, which soon regained its former magnitude, and from that time to the present he has devoted his attention closely to his profession, with the result that he today commands an ex- tensive business and occupies a conspicuous place among the leading members of the Yankton bar.

In the spring of 1900 Mr. Holman was elected mayor of Yankton, and the ensuing fall he was further honored by a third election to the office of state's attorney, in which position he is now serving his fourth term, having been re-elected in the fall of 1902. Mr. Holman's frequent elcc- tion to important official station demonstrates not

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only superior professional ability, but a trust- worthiness and popularity with members of all political parties such as few attain.

In December, 1900, Mr. Holman was married. in Yankton, to Miss Alice Flanagan, of this city, the union being blessed with two children, a daughter by the name of Susan R. and a son named Bartlett. Mr. Holman is a member of the Masonic order, in which he has risen to a high degree, and he is also identified with the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He was reared a Lutheran and, though still adhering to that faith, he has at- tended of recent years the Episcopal church of Yankton, to which his wife belongs. He con- tributes liberally to the support of both these re- ligions, is also alive to all kinds of charitable and benevolent work, and assists to the extent of his ability any laudable enterprise having for its ob- ject the social advancement of the community or the moral good of his fellow men.

HARRY L. SPACKMAN, president of the Reservation State Bank, Sisseton, and manager of the Roberts County Land and Loan Company. was born in Stephenson county, Illinois, May 3. 1866, the son of Jonathan W. Spackman, a na- tive of Pennsylvania and by occupation a con- tractor and builder. Harry L., who is one of six children, three sons and three daughters, was reared to his seventeenth year in the town of Dakota, Illinois, the meantime acquiring a good education in the public schools. He came to this state in 1883, and from the latter year until 1888 he lived in St. Lawrence, Hand county, devoting the greater part of the time to agricultural pur- suits, and then went to Sioux Falls, where he clerked in a store until his removal to Sisseton in 1892. Mr. Spackman was one of the propri- etors of Sisseton, and to him also belongs the credit of being the pioneer merchant of the town. He opened a general store shortly after his arri- val and conducted a very profitable business until 1896. when he disposed of his mercantile inter- ests and engaged in banking and real estate. He

was one of the organizers of the Reservation State Bank of Sisseton, and has since been presi- dent of the same, and also took a leading part in establishing the Sisseton State Bank, of which he is still an official and heavy stockholder. In addition to this enterprise he is connected with the Roberts County Land and Loan Company, being its business manager, and to his energies and executive ability is due much of the success which has marked the history of the company from its organization to the present time. As already indicated, Mr. Spackman was one of the founders of Sisseton and to him as much as to any other individual may be attributed the rapid growth of the town and its favorable prospects of becoming at no distant day one of the most important commercial and industrial centers in the northeastern part of the state.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 38

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