History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 56

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

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WAMPLER LEMUEL COCHRANE, PH. D., superintendent of the public schools of Aberdeen, is a native of Mercer county, Pennsyl- vania, born in the town of Clarksville, October 22, 1870, and nine years later accompanied his parents to Sullivan county, Missouri, where he lived on a farm until a youth of seventeen. Meanwhile he acquired his preliminary education in the public schools, and at the age noted entered Humphrey's College, Missouri, from which in due time he was graduated. While prose-

cuting his collegiate course he devoted his vaca- tions to teaching. and, hetter to fit himself for the latter profession, subsequently became a student of the normal school at Kirksville, Missouri, where he pursued his studies until 1900, when he graduated with the class of that year. Prior to finishing his professional course at Kirksville, Professor Cochrane served as prin- cipal of schools at Glenwood and Browning, Missouri, also held a similar position for some time in the town of Craig, and in 1899 was elected superintendent of the public schools of Moulton, Iowa. Entering upon his duties at the last named place immediately after his gradua- tion, he held the position during the ensuing three years, and at the expiration of that time resigned to take charge of the schools of Aber- deen, South Dakota, to which place he was chosen by the unanimous vote of the board of trustees. Professor Cochrane's work in this city has fully justified the board in the wisdom of their choice, his labors as an organizer as well as an educator giving new life and impetus to the schools of the city, and making the local edu- cational system not only the leading one in South Dakota, but among the best in the United States, as prominent, educators who have investi- gated his efforts and critically observed his methods cheerfully admit. Since taking charge of his present position he has inaugurated and carried to successful issue a number of radical reforms in the matter of instruction and manage- ment, including, among others, a new and greatly improved course of study, which is con- ceded to be one of the most thorough in the state, and making professional training as well as scholarship a prerequisite on the part of the teacher. The present corps of teachers, carefully selected with reference to intellectual culture and professional training, are either normal gradu- ates or hold diplomas from other first-class edu- cational institutions, and their tenure depends entirely upon fitness, the incompetents in due time being weeded out. and only those of high order of ability as instructors being retained. There are now in Aberdeen six school buildings of the latest and most improved style of archi-

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tecture, all neatly finished and supplied with the necessary furniture and educational appli- ances. A building but recently erected is said to be one of the finest specimens of school archi- tecture in the state, if not the best. It is seventy by one hundred and forty feet in area, two stories high, contains twenty-two commodious, well-lighted rooms, with a seating capacity of three hundred, and with furniture and other necessary appliances, represents an outlay con- siderably in excess of fifty thousand dollars. The high school has long enjoyed the reputation of being one of the best institutions of the kind in the country, its graduates being received by the leading colleges and universities of South Dakota and other western states without exam- ination, and it also articulates with the Chicago University, Columbia University at Washington, D. C., and with all the first-class educational institutions in the land.

In addition to his duties as superintendent Professor Cochrane is in great demand at certain seasons as an institute lecturer, his services in this capacity being highly prized wherever he has labored. Since locating at Aberdeen he has not only been active in promoting the city's edu- cational interests, but has also contributed in no small degree to its general prosperity, being in- terested in all movements and enterprises making for the material advancement of the community and the social and moral good of his fellow men. Fond of athletics and healthful outdoor sports and amusements, he has used his influence to encourage the same among young people of the city, especially among students, and it was largely through his efforts that a finely equipped gymnasium was added to the splendid school building recently erected.

Professor Cochrane, in 1895, contracted a matrimonial alliance with Miss Alice Knight, of Linneus, Missouri, one of his classmates in college, and later a successful and popular teacher, the union resulting in the birth of one child, a son by the name of Harrold. Religiously Professor Cochrane and wife subscribe to the Methodist faith and belong to the church of that denomination in Aberdeen.

WARREN D. LANE, one of the successful attorneys of the Roberts county bar and member of the well-known law firm of Barrington & Lane, Sisseton, was born near Cresco, Iowa. May 10. 1867, the son of Abraham and Sarah (Darling) Lane, natives of Pennsylvania and New York respectively. Abraham Lane was a farmer and public-spirited citizen, and for many years enjoyed distinctive prestige in his com- munity as an enterprising man of affairs. Of his family of seven children only three are living, Rev. Louis L. Lane, pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Sisseton; Theron W., an attorney practicing his profession at Bridgeport, Washington, and Warren D., whose name furnishes the caption of this review. Mr. Lane moved to Iowa in 1851 and died in that state in 1879, at the age of forty-eight: his widow subsequently came to South Dakota and settled on a claim east of Wilmot, later changing her residence to the town of Bristol, where he departed this life in the year 1897.

The early life of Warren D. Lane was spent in Iowa, and his youthful experiences were similar to those of the majority of lads reared in close touch with nature on the farm. After attending the public schools of Cresco until the age of sixteen, finishing the high-school course the meantime, he accompanied his mother to South Dakota, settling in 1883 on the claim in Roberts county, alluded to in the preceding para- graph, where he devoted his attention to agri- cultural pursuits, until engaging with his brother in the furniture business at Wilmot two years later. Actuated by a laudable ambition to in- crease his scholastic training, he and his brother disposed of their furniture business in 1892. and entered the Northwestern University at Evans- ton, Illinois, from which institution he was graduated four years later with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Subsequently he took the degree of Master of Science at the University of Minnesota, and in 1898 was graduated from the same institution with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, after which he began the practice of his profession at Sisseton, where in due time he forged to the front as an able and energetic

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attorney, winning a conspicuous place among the leading members of the Roberts county bar. Since then he has been admitted to practice in the higher courts of South Dakota and the supreme court of the United States, and by un- flagging industry has built up a large and lucra- tive legal business.

While well grounded in the principals of the law and familiar with every branch of his pro- fession, Mr. Lane has won especial distinction as an advocate, being regarded as one of the strong, logical and eloquent public speakers of the west, in consequence of which his services are eagerly sought in important jury trials and in cases requiring clear exposition of technical points of law and profound discussion before courts. While a student of the University of Minnesota, he represented that institution in the inter-collegiate debate with the Iowa University and at the Northwestern University he was elected class orator and won the Lyman F. Gage prize for extemporaneous debate, and was elected to membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society, besides gaining various other honors for public discourse and scholarship.

The same year in which 'he opened an office in Sisseton, Mr. Lane was nominated by the Re- publican party of Roberts county for state's attorney, to which office he was triumphantly elected and the duties of which he discharged for two consecutive terms. He has always mani- fested a deep and abiding interest in political questions, and since coming west has been actively identified with the Republican party, being one of its leaders in this part of South Dakota, while as an organizer and campaigner his reputation is widely known throughout the state.

Primarily devoted to his law practice, and making every other consideration subordinate thereto, Mr. Lane is also interested in various business and industrial enterprises, being presi- dent of the Iowa and Dakota Land and Loan Company, vice-president of the Roberts County Abstract and Title Company, and a stockholder in the Citizens' National Bank, besides having large and valuable real-estate interests, owning

a valuable homestead near Sisseton and consider- able property within the corporation. Mr. Lane belongs to several secret and benevolent organi- zations, notable among which are the Masonic fraternity. Knights of Pythias and Improved Order of Red Men, in all of which he has held important official station.

Mr. Lane and Miss Maude Cross, of Wilmot, South Dakota, daughter of Edwin and Lyle (Smith) Cross, of Minnesota, were united in the bonds of wedlock on June 28, 1899, the marriage resulting in the birth of two children, Everett, who died September 5, 1900, at the age of five months, and Frances F., born August 25. 1902.

GEORGE N. WILLIAMSON has been successfully engaged in the practice of law in the city of Aberdeen, Brown county, for the past twelve years, and is one of the representative members of the bar of the state.

He is a native of the state of Minnesota, having been born in Rochester. Olmsted county, on the 20th of December, 1865, and being a son of Nathan N. and Mary Williamson, the former of whom was born in the state of New York and the latter in New England, while they were numbered among the pioneers of Minnesota, the father having been for many years engaged in the contracting business at Rochester. The subject received his early educational discipline in the public schools of Oronoco and Rochester. Minnesota, and then entered the law department of the University of Minnesota. He was ad- mitted to the bar of his native state in 1889 and the same year to that of the new commonwealth of South Dakota, since he located in Aberdeen in 1892 and here initiated the active work of his profession, in which he has been most successful, being an able trial lawyer and a duly conserva- tive counselor, he is a close student of his pro- fession and gives careful preparation to every cause which he presents before court or jury. In politics he is an independent Republican and while he takes an active interest in public affairs and in the success of the party cause, he has

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never been ambitious for political office. He has attained the thirty-second degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Masonry, and is also iden- tified with the Knights of Pythias.

On the 15th of April, 1896, Mr. Williamson was married to Miss May M. Mackenzie, who was born in the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, on the 3d of August, 1875, being a daughter of Alexander C. and Annie Mackenzie. Of this union have been born three children, Alan N., Marjorie and Helen.

FRANCIS M. MURPHY .- Born and edu- cated on the western verge of Missouri, remov- ing in his youth to southern Colorado, and com- ing to the Black Hills in the full flush and vigor of his manhood, and having thus been practically a pioneer in three states of the great West. the late Francis M. Murphy, of Pennington county, was the very embodiment of its spirit, the broad sweep of its vision, the prodigious enterprise that drives its activities, and its daring faith which laughs at impossibilites and challenges fate her- self into the lists ready to meet her on almost equal terms. His life began on December 22, 1843, in Platte county, Missouri, and he lived there until he reached the age of sixteen years, receiving in the public schools of that county all the book learning he ever got from academic teaching. In 1859. when he was just completing his sixteenth year, he accompanied his parents to Colorado, and with them settled in the southern part of the state. There lie united with his father in extensive farming operations, working for a few years at a salary and then becoming a part- ner in the business. This relation continued until . 1870, when he was married and started a similar enterprise in raising stock and general farming for himself. This he conducted with success un- til 1879. when he deemed it wise to try his for- tunes amid the glowing promises of the Black Hills, and leaving his family at their Colorado home, he came directly to Rapid City, arriving in November, and bringing with him a band of cattle as a basis of operations. He took a squat-

ter's claim on Rapid creek, five miles southeast of the city, and in the following spring, after the government survey had been made, filed on the land he had taken up, and this he made his home until his death. It is still occupied by his widow and children, and shows in its development and the well disposed and valuable improvements he made on it the character of his enterprise and pro- gressiveness. He remained in this section until the spring of 1880, then returned to Colorado, closed out his interests there, and brought his family to their new abiding place. The cattle he brought with him on his first trip had win- tered well and were in good condition for the enlargement of his stock industry, and he at once widened its scope and increased its proportions to more imposing magnitude, at the same time preparing to carry on in connection with it a vig- orous general farming business suited to his cir- cumstances. He worked hard to get his land fully irrigated and in good condition, and in all his undertakings in this connection was very suc- cessful. being accounted at his untimely death, on March 26, 1900, one of the leading individual farmers and cattle growers in this part of the state. Being energetic, progressive and public- spirited, his influence in business circles and along industrial lines was felt far and wide, and was always wholesome and elevating in its effect ; and his death was universally felt to be a loss to the county and state in which he had cast his lot, as well as a personal bereavement to the admiring friends whom he numbered by the host. He took an active part in public affairs also ; and although a Democrat in politics, and a staunch supporter of his party in state and national issues, he was not partisan, but patriotic in local affairs, and clearly saw and ardently worked for the best interests of the community without reference to party or personal considerations. He was buried at Rapid City with many demonstrations of pop- ular esteem. and his last hours were brightened with the reflection that his enterprise and capacity had secured ample provision for the comfort of his family after his decease. He belonged to the Masonic fraternity, with membership in the lodge at Rapid City.

FRANCIS M. MURPHY.

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On October 10, 1870, Mr. Murphy was united in marriage with Miss Sarah J. Morris, a native of Missouri, but living at the time in Arapahoe county, Colorado, where the marriage occurred. They became the parents of four chil- dren, Isaac M., David R., Mary E. (Mrs. Haas) and Edna. The sons are now, in connection with their mother, carrying on the business. They have taken up land of their own, and with their mother hold everything in common ; and although it is high praise, it is but a just meed to merit to say that they are in every way worthy followers of their father.

JOHN ROTH, one of the representative farmers and stock growers of Grant county, was born in Hohenzollern, Germany, on the 22d of May, 1858, and he is the son of Florian and Sophia ( Beuter ) Roth, both representatives of stanch old German stock. The mother died in Germany in 1858, and in 1887 the father came to America, and he now resides on a farm about three miles distant from that of our sub- ject. In the family were three children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the only son. Fanny is the wife of Adna Woolsey and resides near Summit, South Dakota; and the younger sister, Josie, is the wife of John L. Roth, who resides near Rochester, Minnesota.

John Roth, whose name initiates this review, was reared in his native place, and received his educational discipline in the excellent national schools of Germany, where he continued to re- side until he had attained the age of seventeen years, when, in 1875, he severed the ties which bound him to home and fatherland and set forthi to seek his fortunes in America, depending entirely upon his own resources and being at the time unversed in the English language. That he has so admirably succeeded in making his way to the goal of definite prosperity and independ- ence, stands to his perpetual credit and stamps him as a man of energy, perseverance and in- flexible integrity. He first located in Mower county, Minnesota, where he found employment at farm work, while he showed his ambition to

advance in knowledge by attending school during the winter terms, making the best use of his ad- vantages and soon gaining an intimate command of the language of his adopted country. In 1879 he came to South Dakota, and in June of that year filed entry on his present homestead, which was then thirty-five miles distant from the nearest railroad point, the little village of Gary, in Deutel county. He took up his residence on his claim and bent all his energies to its improvement and cultivation, the results of his efforts being evident in the attractive buildings and other im- provements to be seen on the place today, in- cluding fine groves of trees, good fences, etc., while the entire tract is available for cultivation and yields good returns for the labors expended. He gives his attention to the raising of various cereals best adapted to the soil and climate, and also to the raising of live stock of excellent type. In 1892 Mr. Roth was one of the organizers of the Evangelical Mutual Insurance Company, of which he has been secretary from the start, having proved a most able and discriminating executive and giving no little time to the work involved in the handling of the affairs of the office, while it may be said that this is the largest mutual company in the state, now having policies indemnifving to the extent of more than three and one-half millions of dollars, while its business extends into diverse sections of both North and South Dakota. The political proclivities of the subject are indicated in the stanch support which he accords to the Republican party, and he manifests at all times and seasons the loyalty of a progressive and public-spirited citizen. Both he and his wife are devoted and zealous members of the Evangelical Association, and he is at the present time secretary of the local congregation, which has an attractive church edifice three- fourths of a mile west of his home.

On the 18th of February, 1882, were uttered the words which united the life destinies of Mr. Roth and Miss Saralı Haber, who was born and reared in Minnesota, and they had one child, Kate. Mrs. Roth was summoned into eternal rest on the 25th of September, 1883, at the age of twenty-seven years, and her remains were

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interred in the cemetery about seven miles east of the home farm. On the 23d of May, 1884. Mr. Roth was united in marriage to Miss Emma Loraff, who was born in Germany, and of this union have been born seven children, all of whom are living, namely : John F., Emma L., Fannie B., Wesley C., Caroline I., Reuben S. R., and Carl F.

C. BOYD BARRETT, of Aberdeen, South Dakota, is descended on the paternal side from one of the old families of Maryland, while on the maternal side from the old Carr family, of Virginia. His family experienced in full the vicissitudes and misfortunes which fell so heavily upon so many of the sterling old families of the south during the period of the Civil war, but they were willing to make all these sacrifices, though theirs was to become eventually the "lost cause."

Major Barrett was born on the ancestral plantation, in Loudoun county, Virginia, on the | of the war. His widowed mother, in the midst 23d of May, 1838, being a son of John F. and i of alarms and menacing turbulence, had bravely

Caroline (Wade) Barrett. both representatives of prominent old families of that commonwealth. The father of the subject followed the vocation of a planter until he was summoned from the scene of life's labors and was a man of prom- inence and influence in the community, having been a captain in the state militia and having held various local offices of publie trust. Both he and his wife were devoted members of the Presbyterian church, in which he served as elder for many years. Major Barrett was reared under the gracious influences of the old homestead and received a good academic education. As a youth he became a member of a cavalry company in the state militia, and was in active service with his command in guarding the Potomac at the time when John Brown made his famous raid. At the outbreak of the Civil war this company be- came a part of the Sixth Regiment of Con- federate Cavalry, and later was assigned to the Thirty-fifth Virginia Battalion, under General E. V. White. It was the portion of our subject to take part in thirty-eight of the pitched battles

incidental to the progress of the great internecine confliet, and he was in active service during practically the entire period of the war. His command was in service in northern Virginia, being for much of the time in the Shenandoah valley and the Piedmont region, under "Stone- wall" Jackson. He also took part in the Penn- sylvania campaign, participating in the battles of the Wilderness, Antietam, Sharpsburg and in the Gettysburg campaign, under command of the gallant General Wade Hampton, and he was with his regiment at Appomattox at the time of General Lee's surrender. For some time he was assigned to detail duty on the staff of General Lawton, of Georgia. Major Barrett was three times wounded in action, and thrice had his horse killed from under him. He was captured in a skirmish in Clark county, Virginia, in 1862, and was confined for four months in the federal prison in the city of Washington, being one of the one hundred and thirty-five prisoners who were the last to be exchanged before the close

remained on the old homestead, in company with one devoted old slave. The fortunes of the family fell to the lowest ebb and the beautiful old plantation was a scene of havoc at the time when our subject returned. He had been re- ported killed in the battle of the Wilderness. and his mother had been bowed under this ad- ditional sorrow, knowing not that he was still living until he put in his appearance at the old home. He devoted four years to endeavoring to restore the prestige and prosperity of the planta- tion, but was eventually compelled to abandon this devoted service. He removed to Alexandria, Virginia, where he was engaged in the hotel business for five years and then took up his resi- denee in Washington, D. C., where he engaged in mercantile business, continuing this enterprise until 1883, when impaired health, resulting front the injury received in a wound through the right lung while in service, compelled him to seek a change of climate. He accordingly came to South Dakota and located in the village of Aberdeen, Brown county, where he continued in the hotel

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business until 1884, and he then purchased the Aberdeen Republican, now known as the Aber- deen Democrat. He retained the original name, but changed the political policy of the paper, making it an excellent advocate of the principles of the Democratic party, and he successfully con- ducted the paper until 1893, when President Cleveland conferred upon him the office of re- ceiver of the United States land office in Aber- deen. He continued incumbent of this position four years, after which he again became editor of the Republican, having retained possession of the property. He sold the plant and the business in 1902, after having been closely identified with its fortunes for more than a decade and a half. He is a vigorous and able writer, and made the paper a force and power in the political affairs of the state. He has ever been a stalwart advocate of the principles of the Democracy and has been prominent in its councils and formed the ac- quaintanceship of its leading men. In 1894-5 he was a member of the Democratic congressional committee. Mr. Barrett is an elder in the Pres- byterian church and is a Mason. He married Mollie D. Fadeley, of the same county in Vir- ginia, and they have two children: C. Boyd, Jr., and Caroline B. Mr. Barrett is also engaged in the real-estate and insurance business, the firm being Barrett & Son.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 56

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