History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 45

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

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In his political proclivities Mr. Guenthner is

an uncompromising Republican and he has been an active worker in the party cause. In the fall of 1893 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners, and at the expiration of his term was re-elected, thus serving four con- secutive years, being chairman of the board for three years. In the autumn of 1900 he was made the nominee of his party for representative in the state legislature, being successful at the polls and serving during the next general assembly with marked credit and honor to himself and his constituents. He and his wife are prominent members of the German Lutheran church, in which he holds the office of elder. In addition to his other interests Mr. Guenthner is the owner of four hundred and eighty acres of valuable farming land in Hutchinson county, and is known as one of its substantial citizens.

On the 18th of April, 1876, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Guenthner to Miss Eliza- beth Haar, of this county, and they are the par- ents of ten children, namely : Ferdinand, who is associated in the management of the drug store in which his father is interested; Erhart, who is a student in the medical department of the Northwestern University, in the city of Chicago; and Rosa, Katy. Ella, Charlotte, Alvina, Leah, Ruth and Irene, all of whom remain at the pa- rental home.

EDWARD THOMPSON SHELDON is a native of Berea, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, where he was born on the 28th of February, 1838. being a son of Rev. Henry O. and Ruth (Bradley) Sheldon. The honored father of the subject was for sixty-three years engaged in ministerial labor, being a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church and being a forceful and eloquent speaker and a man of high intellectuality. His eldest son, H. B. Sheldon, was one of the pioneer cler- gymen of the Methodist church in California, where he is still engaged in the work of his high calling. Major Lemi Bradley, the maternal grandfather of the subject, was a major in the war of 1812, while his eldest brother was a ser- geant in the Continental line during the war of

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the Revolution. Edward T. Sheldon received his early educational training in the district schools of his native state, and later was for three years a student in Baldwin University, at Berea, Ohio. At the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion he was preparing to enter college, but at once sub- ordinated his personal interests to respond to his country's call. In 1862, at the age of twenty- four years, he enlisted as a private in Company B, Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, hav- ing removed to the Hawkeye state in 1856. He proceeded to the front with his regiment, which was assigned to the Army of the Southwest, and he participated in many of the battles of the great conflict through which the integrity of the nation was perpetuated. Mr. Sheldon became second lieutenant of Company B, and later was made captain of Company I, in the same regi- ment and being mustered out with this rank. In the fall of 1864 he resigned and received his hon- orable discharge, the illness of his wife being the primary cause which led to his resignation, while at the time it was thought that the war was prac- tically ended.

After the close of his valiant and meritorious service as a soldier of the republic, Mr. Sheldon returned to his home in Tabor, Iowa, where he was engaged in blacksmithing and farming until 1880, when he went to Leadville, Colorado, where he remained until 1883, when he came as a pioneer to Hand county, South Dakota, where he took up government land, in what is now St. Lawrence township and here improved a valu- able farm, upon which he still maintains his home. He now owns four hundred and eighty acres and his place is well improved, having sub- stantial and attractive buildings, good fences, etc., and being one of the valuable places of this sec- tion of the state. Mr. Sheldon was one of the organizers of St. Lawrence township and has been prominent in its affairs from the time of taking up his residence here. He devotes a por- tion of the farm to diversified agriculture and also gives special attention to the raising of high- grade live stock, while he has a small number of registered shorthorn cattle, used specially for breeding purposes.

Mr. Sheldon has been a stanch supporter of the Republican party from the time of its or- ganization until the present time and has been an effective worker in the promotion of its cause. He served for four years as a member of the board of trustees of the State Agricultural College of South Dakota, and from 1895 until 1897 was a valued member of the state board of regents of education, which has control of all state educational institutions. He was also chair- man of the finance committee of this board, while he served as secretary of the board for one year. In 1887 he was a member of the council of the territorial legislature, and after the admission of the state to the Union he was elected a member of the first legislative assembly, in which he was a prominent and able worker for the best inter- ests of the people of the new commonwealth. He has ever been one of the leaders in the pub- lic affairs of his county and is also one of the prominent men in the councils of the Republican party in the state. Mr. Sheldon has lived up to the full tension of life on the frontier, having been located in the northwest at the time when the strenuous warfare was waged against the border ruffians, prior to the Civil war, and he was personally acquainted with John Brown, the fa- mous raider whose name is so prominent in the history of that crucial epoch, having been a room- mate of Brown's son while attending school in Tabor, Iowa. Mr. Sheldon and his wife are zealous members of the Presbyterian church, in which he has served as elder for the past eighteen years, and fraternally he holds membership in Col. Ellis Post, No. 51, Grand Army of the Re- public, at St. Lawrence; and in St. Lawrence Lodge, No. 29, Ancient Order of United Work- men.

On the 28th of August, 1862, Mr. Sheldon was united in marriage to Miss Imogene Ham- mond, who was at that time a successful teacher in the schools of Mills county, Iowa, and she died in 1874, without issue. On the 29th of De- cember, 1875, the subject wedded his present wife, whose maiden name was Mattie Hobbs, and who was born and reared in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, being a daughter of Frank and

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Mercy Hobbs, who were pioneers of Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon have six children, namely : Henry E., George F., Albert B., Gladys M., Frank H. and Willard B.

VERY REV. EMMANUEL A. BOUSKA is pastor of St. Wenceslans' parish at Tabor. Bon Homme county, where he has erected the largest church edifice of the state and the largest, most commodious and with modern improvements equipped school, and has made his parish one of the most flourishing and important in the dio- cese. He was born in Borovany, Bohemia, Aus- tria, on the 18th of November, 1864, and is a son of Anthony and Barbara ( Hruska) Bouska, the former of whom was a native of Borovany. while the latter was born in Radetice, Bohemia. the respective dates of birth being November 20. 1826, and December 3. 1820. Anthony Bonska was a son of Joseph and Anna Bouska. and was the owner of valuable real estate in his native land at the time of his death, which oc- curred on the 17th of September, 1886. His wife, a daughter of Francis and Mary Hruska. is still living at the old homestead in Bohemia. Our subject received his early educational disci- pline in the excellent public schools at Bernard- ice, Bohemia, and took a classical course at Ta- bor, that kingdom. He afterward enrolled him- self in the national army, having passed the re- quired examinations, and after one year of serv- ice was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. After the close of his military career Father Bouska entered the University of Vienna, where he studied law for one year. after which he was matriculated in the University of Graz, Styria. Austria, where he took up his theological studies, which he later continued and concluded at Chur. Switzerland, where he passed four years, at the expiration of which he was ordained to the priesthood by Rt. Rev. John Battaglia, bishop of Chur, on the 14th of July, 1888. He was there- after an assistant priest in Europe until Novem- ber. 1889. when he came to America and identi- fied himself with the diocese of Nebraska, where he was assigned to a pastoral charge at Crete.

Saline county, where he erected a church and parish house and where he remained until 1892. in which year he came to South Dakota and was assigned a parish at Kimball, Brule county. In 1893 he was transferred, by the late Bishop Marty, O. S. B., to Tabor, Bon Homme county, where he has since labored with splendid suc- cess and with unqualified devotion. Here he has accomplished a notable work, since, as before stated, there has been ereeted under his regime the largest church in the state, the same being forty-six by one hundred and thirty-two feet in dimensions and constructed of hydraulic pressed briek, at an expenditure of twenty-five thousand dollars. Later he built a day and boarding pa- rochial school, connected with the academy, of the same material, the building being fifty-six by sixty-six feet in lateral dimensions and four sto- ries in height. The school at the time of this writing is in direct charge of seven Sisters of St. Benedict, from Vermillion, South Dakota, who work under the general supervision of Fa- ther Bouska, while in the school are fifty-two boarders and one hundred and six daily stu- dents, making a total of one hundred and fifty-five who are here receiving instruction. The man- agement of the school, connected with the acad- emy, is in the capable hands of Sister M. Clara, O. S. B. In 1899. in recognition of his ability and his peculiar eligibility for the office. Rt. Rev. Thomas O'Gorman, bishop of the diocese of Sioux Falls. appointed Father Bouska diocesan consultor, of which position he has since been in- cumbent. Since coming to the state Father Bouska has interested himself personally and prominently in political affairs, believing this ac- tion to be a duty of citizenship and in harmony with the precepts of the church, and he is today one of the most influential figures in public af- fairs in Bon Homme and is well known and highly respected by leading citizens throughout the state. At Tabor he has not only been an in- defatigable worker in his parish, giving his time and energies to pastoral duties and also to the erection of buildings and the infusing of vigor into all departments of church work, but he has also been one of the most loyal citizens of the

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thriving little town, at whose cradle he stood, as- sisting in the organization of the village and having been most influential in its civic and social growth and development. He has brought about the organization of several benevolent so- cieties for his people and is just at present build- ing for them a society hall at an expenditure of three thousand dollars and has had at all times the affectionate regard and earnest co-operation of those among whom he has so zealously and effectively labored. He is known as one of the most able and forceful speakers in his native tongue in the northwest, and is a man of versa- tile talent and high scholarship, speaking the Bohemian, English, German, Latin and Polish languages and reading with readiness the Greek, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spaniard and all Sla- vonic languages. He is a member of the Roman Catholic Bohemian Union, the Catholic Knights. the Catholic Foresters and Catholic Workmen.

J. V. DRIPS is a native of the Hawkeye state, having been born in Clinton county, Iowa, on the 16th of April, 1871, and being a son of J. H. and Hannah (Hawkins) Drips, both of whom were born in the state of Pennsylvania. They became the parents of ten children, of whom eight are living. The father of the subject served with distinction in the Union army during the war of the Rebellion, passing the major portion of his term of enlistment in Dakota, under command of General Sully, in the work of suppressing the border outlaws and the refractory Indians. He saw much arduous and perilous service, taking part in the memorable battle of Whitestone Hill and many other engagements, while he also as- sisted in the erection of Fort Sully. He is now living in the city of Clinton, Iowa.

J. V. Drips received his educational disci- pline in the public schools of Malone, Iowa, and after leaving school he turned his attention to various vocations in Iowa until 1892, when he came to South Dakota and located in Gann Val- ley, where he purchased the plant and business of the Dakota Chief, a weekly paper, of which he continued as editor and publisher until 1897,

when he sold the property to the firm of Dye & Hill, who still continue the publication. Mr. Drips was appointed postmaster at Gann Valley in 1895, under the administration of President Cleveland, and served in this capacity until Au- gust, 1897. In 1901 he was again appointed to the office, under President Mckinley, and has since remained incumbent, his management of the affairs of the postoffice having met with distinc- tive popular endorsement and approval. In poli- tics he is a stanch Republican and takes an act- ive part in the local work of the same. Frater- nally he is identified with the Masonic order and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Mrs. Drips is a member of the Congregational church. The creamery of which the subject is manager is doing a large and prosperous business and is a distinct acquisition to the industrial enterprises of the county.

On the 3d of July, 1897, Mr. Drips was united in marriage to Miss Rose Miller, daughter of A. W. and Henrietta Miller, well-known resi- dents of Buffalo county, and of this union have been born three children, namely: Joseph H., Victor D. and John V. Mr. and Mrs. Drips are prominent in the social life of the community, enjoying marked popularity in their pleasant home village, while their residence is a center of gracious hospitality.

PETER BARTH is a native of Washington county, Wisconsin, where he was born on the 6th of September, 1858, being a son of Matthias and Mary Barth, the latter of whom died in 1892. The father of the subject devoted the major por- tion of his active life to agricultural pursuits and is now living retired, making his home with his daughter, Mary, who is the wife of J. Simon, of Grafton, Wisconsin. He was a blacksmith by trade and followed this vocation for a number of years, and he has ever held the unqualified regard of those with whom he has come in con- tact in the various relations of life. He attained success in temporal affairs and is now enjoying the fruits of his many years of earnest toil and endeavor, having attained the venerable age of

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eighty-four years (1904). He has been a stanch Republican in politics ever since the organization, and has been for many years a zealous member of the Lutheran church, of which his wife like- wise was a devoted member. They became the parents of twelve children, of whom seven are yet living, the subject of this review having been the sixth in order of birth.

Peter Barth was reared on the homestead farm and from his boyhood up rendered his quota of aid in connection with its work, while he secured his educational training in the public schools of his native county, making the best use of the advantages thus afforded him. At the age of seventeen years he initiated his independ- ent career, having been for two years employed as spiker on the Milwaukee & Northern Rail- road, after which he located in Winnebago county, Illinois, where he was engaged in farm- ing for the following three years. He then re- turned to Wisconsin and took up his residence in Rock county, where he continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits until the spring of 1884, when he came to what is now the state of South Dakota and purchased one hun- dred and sixty acres of land in Hancock town- ship, Bon Homme county, the same having never been furrowed by the plowshare and being en- tirely without improvements. On the place he erected a small frame house and then bent his energies to the reclamation and improvement of his farm, which continues to be his abiding place, while the entire tract is under effective cultiva- tion and yields excellent returns for the labor ex- pended. Mr. Barth also raises excellent grades of live stock, giving preference to the Hampshire- down sheep and Durham cattle, while on his place are also to be found good horses and swine raised by him. He is energetic and progressive, takes an active interest in public affairs of a local nature and is honored as a loyal and worthy citizen. In 1895 he erected liis present com- modious and substantial residence, and the other permanent improvements on the place are in harmony therewith. In politics he is not insist- ently partisan, but votes according to the dictates of his judgment, giving his support to those can-

didates whom he considers most eligible for the respective offices. He is not formally identified with any religious organization, but gives a lib- eral support to church work, his wife being a member of the Congregational church.

On the 4th of November, 1885, Mr. Barth led to the hymeneal altar Miss Frances Snow, who was born in Rock county, Wisconsin, being a daughter of Charles D. Snow, who is now one of the prominent and successful farmers of Bon Homme county. Mr. and Mrs. Barth have had four children, Charles, who died at the age of six months; Grace and Clifford, who are attending the district school, and Willard, who is three years of age at the time of this writing, in 1904.

HENRY KLINDT comes of stanch German lineage and is himself a native of the father- land, having been born in Holstein, Germany, on the 29th of May, 1850, and being a son of Claus and Anna Klindt. He received his early educational training in the excellent national schools of his native land, continuing to attend school at intervals until he had attained the age of twenty-two years and thus gaining a knowl- edge of many of the higher branches of learning, while for some time he was a student in a prom- inent military school. After leaving school he turned his attention to fortification work, in which he was engaged until 1876, when, at the age of twenty-six years, he severed the ties which bound him to home and fatherland and set forth to seek his fortunes in America. He settled in the city of Rock Island, Illinois, where he se- cured a position in a paper mill, in which he was employed for the following three years. He then, in 1879, came as a pioneer to what is now the state of South Dakota, locating in Aurora county, where he was engaged in farming until 1883, when he came to Buffalo county and took up a tract of government land in Grant town- ship, where he has ever since made his home and where he has accumulated a valuable prop- erty. He at once instituted the improvement of his embryonic farm, and gradually added to its area by the purchase of adjoining tracts until he

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is now the owner of a well-improved ranch of sixteen hundred acres, all of which is available for cultivation, though the major portion is de- voted to his live-stock enterprise, in which he conducts his operations on an extensive scale, having cattle of the best grade and also raising swine and horses.

Mr. Klindt is a man of broad views and dis- tinctive intellectuality, and he is known as a pub- lic-spirited and enterprising citizen, while he has received many patent evidences of popular confi- dence and esteem. He is a Populist in his polit- ical proclivities and has been an active worker in the party cause in his section of the state. In 1887 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners, in which capacity he served four years, and in 1894 he was elected to represent his district in the state legislature, where he made an excellent record, serving two terms, with credit to himself and his constit11- ency. His religious affiliation is with the Luth- eran church.

On the 29th of May, 1889, Mr. Klindt was united in marriage to Miss Mary Schultz, who was born and reared in Wisconsin, being a daughter of August and Louise Schultz, who were numbered among the sterling pioneers of Green county, that state. The subject and his estimable wife are the parents of four children, namely: August, Henry, Hazel and Lydia, all of whom remain beneath the home roof tree.

ISAAC LINCOLN .- Among those promi- nent in the banking and financial circles of South Dakota is Isaac Lincoln, president of the State Bank of Aberdeen, vice-president of the Aber- deen National Bank and president of the First National Bank of Wehster, Day county. Mr. Lin- coln is a native of the state of Maine, and is de- scended on hoth sides from colonial stock, his ancestors having come to New England in 1636, settling on Cape Cod. Mr. Lincoln was born in Brunswick, Maine, and is a son of Dr. Jolin D. and Ellen (Fessenden) Lincoln, who were like- wise born and reared in Maine, where the re- spective families were early established. He se-

cured his education in the public schools of his native town and in Phillips Academy in An- dover, Massachusetts. Shortly thereafter he came to the territory of Dakota, where he engaged in farming and stock raising until 1886, when he located in Aberdeen. Besides his banking inter- ests lie is engaged in the real-estate business and in farming, having one of the largest stock and grain farms in the county, which he personally supervises. In politics he is a Republican, and fraternally is identified with the Masonic order.

JOSEPH M. PETRIK, one of the successful and popular business men and influential citizens of Tabor, Bon Homme county, was born in Spill- ville, Winneshiek county, Iowa, on the 16th of August, 1869, being a son of Mathias and Mary Petrik, both of whom were born and reared in Bohemia, Austria, where their marriage was sol- emnized. They emigrated thence to America and became numbered among the early settlers in Winneshiek county, Iowa, where the father took 11p a homestead claim of government land and set himself to the task of reclaiming the same to cul- tivation, meeting with the struggles and hardships which attended the lot of the average pioneer on the broad prairies of this now favored and opulent commonwealth. The subject of this sketch was a child of about two years at the time of his parents' removal to this state, and he was reared to the age of ten years on the home farm, attending the primitive district school as oppor- tunity afforded. At the early age mentioned he went to the city of Chicago, where he completed his educational work in the public schools, being compelled to depend upon his own resources in prosecuting his studies, as the financial circum- stances of his parents were such that they could lend him but slight aid. He there continued to attend school until he had attained the age of six- teen years, his labors in the connection having perforce been such as to make him the more ap- preciative of the advantages which he thus gained, and he then returned to South Dakota. and secured a position as clerk in a general store at Armour, Douglas county, being gradually en-

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trusted with better and more important positions until 1894. when he went to Yankton Reserva- tion, Charles Mix county, and took up a home- stead claim of one hundred and sixty acres, where he remained for three years, during which time he was engaged in preparing the land for farming. A failure of crops on account of a drought caused him to haul all water used by his family and with which to water his stock, for a distance of six miles, the water being procured from a private well situated on a creek bottom. About this time a neighbor, Frank Seip, and wife, were murdered and robbed by one Charlie Basl, and this naturally made Mrs. Petrik nervous and dissatisfied with that locality, so it was decided to dispose of all personal property and allow the tree claim to revert to the government, and in 1897 the subject came to Bon Homme county. South Dakota, opening a store in the village of Tabor, where he has since been successfully en- gaged in this line of enterprise save for an in- terim of one year, during which he conducted a store at Scotland. He is now senior member of the firm of Petrik & Honner, general mer- chants, and the firm has built up a prosperous business, while both of the interested principals stand high in the confidence and esteem of the community. In politics Mr. Petrik gives a stanch support to the Democratic party and has ever shown a proper interest in public affairs, partic- ularly of a local nature, while in 1900 he was candidate of his party for the office of county sheriff, being defeated with the balance of the ticket. He and his wife are communicants of the Catholic church, and fraternally he is identified with the Knights of St. George and with the local lodge of the Western Bohemian Catholic Union.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 45

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