History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 6

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

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JOHN W. MARTIN.

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also manufactured spinning-wheels, made boots and shoes, worked at stone and brick masonry .- in fact was a mechanical genius who could turn his hand to almost any kind of skillful work- manship. He left his native state in 1845 for the west, migrating to Dane county, Wisconsin, where he purchased land from the government. developed a good farm and spent the remainder of his life on the same, dying in the year 1872. His widow subsequently came to South Dakota. where her death occurred, in March, 1880. Mr. Stainbrook was a man of considerable promi- nenee in his various places of residence, and he was honored at different times with official posi- tions, among which were those of justice of the peace, township treasurer and others. He was. with his excellent wife, a faithful, devoted and liberal member of the Methodist Episcopal church. The family of John and Susan Stain- brook originally consisted of ten children, four of whom are living at the present time, the stib- ject of this sketch being the oldest of the sur- vivors; the others are John. of Hutchinson county : Solomon, a resident of Hanson county. this state: and Samuel, whose home is in Clay county. South Dakota. 1112144

Isaac Stainbrook was born in Meade town- ship. Crawford county, Pennsylvania, on the 4th day of February, 1831. and there spent the first fourteen years of his life, removing with his parents to Wisconsin in 1845. His early educa- tional advantages were limited and by reason of his time being required at home he had few op- portunities to become acquainted with books. Reared to agricultural pursuits, he naturally turned his attention to the same after leaving hone and beginning life for himself, and he con- tinued to till the soil in Wisconsin until his re- moval to Towa in 1875. After spending one year in Adair county, that state, he changed his abode to the county of Buchanan where he lived three years, at the expiration of which time he moved to Hutchinson county, South Dakota, and settled on the place where he has since re- sided and where he now owns a beautiful and well-improved farm of four hundred and forty acres, which has been brought to its present

high state of cultivation principally by the labor of his own hands.

When Mr. Stainbrook came to Hutchinson county the country was comparatively wild, there being no roads, while the settlers were few and far between. He worked diligently to get a start. experienced the vicissitudes and hard- ships peculiar to pioneer life in the west, gradu- ally reduced his land to cultivation, and at in- tervals made improvements as his means would admit until in due season he found himself the owner of a beautiful and well-tilled farm and a fine home, which in point of location and attract- iveness is now considered one of the most desir- able country residences in the county. His suc- cess in material things has resulted in a fortune sufficiently ample to place him in independent circumstances and insure a competence for the future, while his high standing among his neigh- bors ard fellow citizens gives him a place in their confidence and esteem, such as few of his contemporaries enjoy. Mr. Stainbrook is a Democrat in polities, and as such was elected a member of the board of county commissioners. in which capacity he served very effectively for a period of three years, and in addition to this responsible position he also spent a number of vears on the school board of his township. In religion he is a Methodist, in which church he was born and reared and the teachings of which have had a little to do in forming his character and shaping his life and destiny.

In the year 1854 the subject contracted a marriage with Miss Elizabeth Middleton, of Elkhart, Iowa, the union terminating in 1897. The fruits of this union were ten children whose names are as follows : Mahala, married and liv- ing in Hutchinson county ; Rohenna, also mar- ried : Malvina, now Mrs. Carl Braatz, of this county : George W., who married Frances Klatz and is engaged in farming and stock raising in the same part of the state ; Albert, also a farmer of Hutchinson county and a married man. his wife having formerly been Miss Anna Klatz; Harriett, wife of William Adams: Elizabeth, who married Charles Thompson: Emma, now the wife of Charles Michaelson, lives in Hutch-

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inson county, as do also Andrew J. and John E., both of whom are married and the heads of families, the former choosing for a wife Mabel Harrington, the latter entering the bonds of wedlock with Miss Lorinda Biers.

EMIL FAUST, of Lead, is a scion of illus- trious German stock, and is a native of Hessen Cassel, Germany, where he was born on the 11th of December, 1838, being a son of George and Lucia (Rodman) Faust, who were likewise born in the province mentioned, the maternal grandfather of the subject having been an eminent physician and surgeon in that section of the great empire. The paternal grandfather, Fanst, was colonel of the Twenty-first Hessian Regiment, and served under Napoleon in Russia, while under General Blucher he participated in the historic battle of Waterloo, having received honorable mention for distinguished service under the great French emperor, the first Napoleon. The father of the subject was a man of prominence in his native province, having there served as state treasurer for the long period of fifty-two years and having wielded marked influence in public and civic affairs. He resigned the office men- tioned during the revolution of 1848, but when the government again gained control he was re- appointed to the position. During the revolu- tion he succeeded in concealing a large amount of government funds, which he returned upon the re-establishment of the stable government. Of the six children in the family the subject of this review was the second in order of birth, and of the number four are yet living.

Mr. Faust received his early education in the theological seminary at Fulda, which he at- tended from the age of ten years to that of four- teen, the work being that of a preparatory nature for the priesthood of the Catholic church. of which his parents were devoted communicants. He decided. however, that he had no inclination for the ecclesiastical life, and accordingly left school and went to Bremen, where he shipped on a sailing vessel bound for Melbourne, Australia, and in due time touched the ports of Hong Kong,

Yokohama, Honolulu, San Francisco, and thence passed around Cape Horn to South America, from which point the vessel came to New Or- leans, Louisiana, where he took "French leave," deserting the ship. He remained in the Crescent City until the outbreak of the Civil war, when, in February, 1861, he enlisted in Company K, Eighth Louisiana Infantry, commanded by Colonel Nicholson. He proceeded with his com- mand to the Confederate capital, the city of Rich- mond, Virginia, and there the regiment was as- signed to the army commanded by General (Stonewall) Jackson. Mr. Faust thus took part in the various battles in which that intrepid offi- cer led his forces, including the battle of Fred- ericksburg, the seven days' battle about Rich- mond, and was present at Chancellorsville, where Jackson met his death, having been in the imme- diate proximity when the body of the valiant com- mander was brought in. General Ewell then assumed command, and the subject had by this time been made first lieutenant of his company, which he commanded in the battle of Gettysburg. the company entering this historic and sanguinary battle with a complement of one hundred and ten men, and forty lost their lives in this conflict, while thirty-two, including our subject, were there taken prisoners on the 3d of July, 1863. Mr. Faust had entered the Confederate service more in a spirit of adventure than one of convic- tion of the righteousness of the cause, and after being captured he manifested no reluctance in taking the oath of allegiance to the Union, and he then proceeded north to the city of Chicago, where, in October, 1863, he enlisted as a private in Company B. Twelfth Illinois Volunteer Cav- alry, commanded by Colonel Davis, being finally promoted sergeant of his company. He contin- ted in the service, in Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas, until the close of the war, taking part in no large battles within the interval, and received his honorable discharge in July, 1865. being in Texas at the time. He then joined a volunteer regiment under Colonel Williams, who is now a resident of Chicago, and was made captain of Company A. The command marched into Mex- ico and there joined the forces of General Diaz

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and engaged in bushwhacking service until Max- imilian was taken prisoner, in 1867, when they were mustered out and returned to the United States. Mr. Faust came up the Mississippi river to St. Louis, and thence went to Oil City, Penn- sylvania, where the oil excitement was at its height, but remained but a short time, going then to Omaha, Nebraska, and becoming one of the pioneers of that city. He located there in the fall of 1868, and was there engaged in the bak- ery business until 1872, meeting with marked success. He then disposed of his interests there and removed to Fremont, Nebraska, where he erected a flouring mill, at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars. Shortly after its completion the Elkhorn river flooded its banks and took the mill down stream, entailing a total loss. Mr. Faust then moved to Evanston, Wyoming, and in 1875 was among the first of the bold and ed- venturous spirits who made their way to the Black Hills. He started from Cheyenne in No- vember of that year, and his party, comprising a mule train of about a dozen wagons, came through without trouble with the Indians, reach- ing Custer on the 24th of December, and there finding the "city" represented by a population of about twenty persons. Mr. Faust had brought supplies and there opened a general mer- chandise store, while he also planted ten acres of potatoes, which grew well and proved excellent provender for the grasshoppers, after whose vis- itation no trace of the growing vines was to be found. He also turned his attention to mining. locating some quartz claims, but being unsuccess- ful in the development of his properties. In the spring of 1877 he removed to Lead, where he had secured property early in the preceding year, and here he has ever since maintained his home, con- tributing to the upbuilding and progress of the town to a greater degree than has probably any other one man, and being one of the most public- spirited and enterprising of its citizens. After locating in Lead Mr. Faust established himself in the general merchandise business, building up a large trade and continuing the enterprise until 1896, when he sold out. From the start he also interested himself in mining in this locality. On

the 24th of April, 1876, he located the Mam- moth Tunnel, going in four hundred feet and be- ing then compelled to abandon operations by reason of lack of funds. This is now one of the rich properties controlled by the Homestake Min- ing Company. He also located the Old Abe ex- tension, which likewise went by default, as he was not able to continue its development, and the same now constitutes the richest ground owned by the Homestake Company. While a resident of Custer, in March, 1876, Mr. Faust took out the first shipment of gold to Cheyenne, amount- ing to about five thousand dollars. D. G. Tallent and James Allen were of the party, with their freighting outfits, and our subject also had a team and wagon. They were snow-bound for five days on Hat Creek, but finally reached their destina- tion in safety. On the return trip, however, the party, comprising about forty men, were attacked by the Indians at Indian Creek, the band of sav- ages numbering fully two hundred. In the con- flict the party lost one man killed, and succeeded in holding the Indians at bay until Captain Egan came to the relief with troops from Fort Lara- mie, when the savages fled. Mr. Faust's army experience proved of great value to him and his companions in warding off the attacks of the In- dians on this occasion. Mr. Faust located thirty- seven claims in Garden City, in 1894, and later sold them to the Penobscot Company, having ap- plied to them the title of the Realization claims. He owns and is operating the Esmeralda group of claims in the Black Tail Gulch. In 1897 he erected the Faust block, a large and substantial brick structure, on Main street, and also the block known as the Dickerson corner, these be- ing among the most modern and attractive buildings in the business section, and in 1902 he erected a fine modern block at the corner of Main and Seavers streets, the same being fifty by one hundred feet in dimensions and three stories in height. He has otherwise shown his public spirit in a way which has conserved the best interests of the community, and is always ready to lend his influence in the furtherance of worthy objects for the general good.

In politics, though never an aspirant for of-

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fice, Mr. Faust is stanchly arrayed in support of the Republican party, and fraternally he is iden- tified with Stanton Post, No. 81. Grand Army of the Republic : is a charter member of Samari- tan Lodge. No. 158. Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Chadron, Nebraska, and is also a charter member of Chadron Lodge, No. 140, In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, of the same place, of which he is past grand master ; and Dakota Lodge. No. 6. Knights of Pythias, at Lead City, of which he is past chancellor.

On the 4th of July, 1868, Mr. Fauist was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Statler, who was born and reared in Pennsylvania, where the family was founded shortly after the war of the Revolution. the original American progenitor having been a soldier in the Hessian army during the struggle for independence. Mr. and Mrs. Faust have two children, William L., engaged in the drug business in Deadwood, and Maud, at home.

H. H. HANSTEIN, M. D., of Lead, is a native of Illinois, and the son of Herman and Emily Hanstein, the father born in Germany, the mother in St. Louis, Missouri. Herman Han- stein enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education in the land of his nativity, and when a young man spent eight years in various technical insti- tutions in Paris, where he became a skilled arti- san and achieved distinction as a maker of astro- nomical and various other kinds of scientific in- struments. He came to the United States in 1875 and since that time has been superintendent of drawing in the high school. Chicago, standing high as an artist and having almost a national reputation as an instructor.

Dr. H. H. Hanstein was born in Chicago. August 26, 1877, and received his educational training in that city, graduating from the high school when a youth in his teens. He then began the study of medicine and. entering Rush Med- ical College, prosecuted his professional research until May 25. 1898, when he received his diploma, after which he served the usual term of hospital practice, under the direction of Dr. A. J. Ochner.

one of Chicago's most distinguished surgeons. With a mind well disciplined by professional training and practical experience. Dr. Hanstein opened an office at Kenosha, Wisconsin, but after spending about one year in that city, he con- tracted with the Lead Hospital at Lead, South Dakota, and during the year and a half following was on the medical staff of that institution. Re- signing his position at the end of the time noted. he opened an office in the Feiler Curnow block. and engaged in the general practice, which he has since prosecuted with most gratifying profes- sional and financial success, commanding, in ad- dition to a large city patronage, an extensive busi- ness in Lead City, besides being regularly em- ployed by a number of mining camps in sur- rounding country. Few physicians of his age have achieved the prestige in medical circles which Dr. Hanstein enjoys, his career from the beginning presenting a succession of advance- ments that demonstrate a profound knowledge of the profession with the ability to apply the same to practice.

The Doctor is a close, critical student. seek- ing by every means at his command to increase his knowledge and usefulness, and the high es- teem in which he is held attests the firm and abid- ing hold he has on the confidence of the public.

JOHN WILLIAM FREEMAN, surgeon of the Homestake Mining Company, and one of the distinguished men of his profession in South Dakota, is a native of Macoupin county, Illinois, born on the 13th day of December, 1853, in the town of Virden. Peter S. Freeman, the Doctor's father. was born and reared in the state of New Jersey, but in an early day moved to Macoupin county, Illinois, where he followed agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred in the year 1874. Elizabeth Freeman, the mother, was a native of Kentucky and, like her husband, went to Illinois when that state was new, and there spent the remainder of her days, departing this life in the above county in 1886.

Reared under the wholesome but somewhat rigorous discipline of the farm, the early life of

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Dr. Freeman was spent amid a ceaseless round of toil in the summer time, varied of winter sea- sons by attendance at the public schools. Sub- sequently he pursued his studies in the Virden high school and after completing the course of that institution he spent one year as a student in Blackburn University, in the city of Carlin- ville. The Doctor remained at home until his twenty-second year, assisting with the work of the farm, and in 1875 went to Jacksonville, where he began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. D. Prince, one of the leading physicians of that city, under whose direction he continued until en- tering the Miami Medical College, at Cincinnati. After attending that institution two years, he fur- ther prosecuted his studies and research in the medical department of the University of New York City, where he was graduated in 1870. afte- which he became assistant to Dr. David Prince, physician in charge of the Jacksonville Sanita- rium. In September. 1881, Dr. Freeman severed his connection with the sanitarium to accept a ! position as assistant surgeon in the United States army, being sent to Fort Meade, South Dakota. where he remained in the active discharge of his professional duties until 1883. In June of that year he left the army service for the purpose of accepting the more lucrative post of surgeon of the Homestake Mining Company at Lead City, to which he was appointed on the Ist day of Jan- uary following.

Dr. Freeman has looked after the medical interests of the above company for nearly twenty years, during which time he has discharged his duties in an eminently able and satisfactory man- ner, his career presenting a series of successes. which have added greatly to his reputation as a capable physician and skilled surgeon and given him much more than local repute in the line of his profession. During this period, he has ex- ercised personal supervision over the Homestake Hospital, which under his able management has become one of the leading institutions of the kind in the state, and in addition to the pressing claims of his position with the company he also com- mands a private practice of no small magnitude. Dr. Freeman belongs to the most advanced

school of his profession and has spared neither pains nor expense in preparing himself thorough- ly for his exacting duties, taking advantage of every opportunity to increase his knowledge and by critical study, original investigation and re- search, keeping in close touch with modern med- ical thought. He served as superintendent of the Lawrence county board of health under the territorial government, having been elected to the position in 1885, and he also held the office a number of years after the admission of South Dakota to statehood. In 1887 he was elected president of the Black Hills Medical Society, and in 1890 was further honored by being ele- vated to the presidency of the Medical Society of South Dakota, the highest position within the power of the profession in this state to bestow. He is also a member of the state board of medical examiners and is a member of the American Medical Association and the National Associa- tion of Railway Surgeons, in both of which he has come into close contact with the eminent men of his profession in this country, among whom he is held in high esteem. In addition to the above relations, the Doctor has been and is still identified with enterprises outside his pro- fession, having served for eight years as a mem- ber of the school board of Lead City, of which body he is now president, besides being a director of the First National Bank of this city, also a stockholler in the same.

Dr. Freeman, in common with the majority of enterprising men of all professions and occupa- tions, is identified with the time-honored Ma- sonic brotherhood, in which he has risen to a high rank, being past master of Central City Lodge. No. 22, Free and Accepted Masons ; past high priest of Dakota Chapter, No. 3. Royal Arch Masons ; past eminent commander of Dakota Commandery, No. I. Knights Templar : eminent commander of Lead Commandery, and past po- tentate of Naja Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Politically he supports the Republican party, and while widely read and deeply informed relative to all great questions and issues of the day, national, international and foreign, the claims of his pro-

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fession are such as to leave him little time or in- clination to enter the domain of partisan politics.

Dr. Freeman was married at Lead City, Sep- tember 10, 1885, to Miss Hattie Dickinson, who has borne him four children, namely: Carrie Erceldene, Marion E., John D. and Howard Freeman.

CHARLES W. MERRILL, B. S., of Lead, Lawrence county, was born in Concord, New Hampshire, on the 21st of December, 1869, and is a son of Sylvester and Clara L. ( French) Mer- rill, the former of whom was born in Massachu- setts and the latter in New Hampshire, while they now maintain their home in San Francisco, California. The paternal grandfather of our subject was a pioneer hat manufacturer in Me- thuen, Massachusetts, while grandfather French was prominently identified with the installation of stage lines in New Hampshire in early days, and also interested in the construction of the first railroad line in that statc. In 1870 the parents of our subject removed to California, where the father established himself in the furniture busi- ness and where he and his wife still reside.

Mr. Merrill completed the curriculum of the public schools in San Francisco and then entered the University of California, where he was grad- tated as a member of the class of 1891, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. After leaving the university Mr. Merrill passed four years in practical work with the United States geograph- ical survey and with one of the leading metallur- gical engineers of the world, whose specialty was the amalgamation of gold and silver ores by chemical processes. In 1895 Mr. Merrill in- stalled his first cyanide plant, for the Standard Mining Company, at Bodie, Mono county, Cali- fornia, this being the first plant of the sort in that district. That the project proved a source of profit and the plant a significant success is cvi- (lenced in the fact that it paid for itself in six weeks after the plant was put in operation. Since that time a number of other plants have been erected in the same district and by the improved process it has been found profitable to re-open

a number of previously abandoned mines, which are now yielding good returns. In 1896 Mr. Merrill erected a large plant at Harqua Hala, Yuma county, Arizona, this likewise being a pio- neer cyanide plant, and it has netted the operating company a profit of ten thousand dollars a month on an investment of thirty thousand dollars. In 1897 the subject found his services in requisition in connection with the erection and equipping of the pioneer cyanide plant for the Montana Mining Company, Limited, at Marysville, Mon- tana, the same having a capacity of four hundred tons per day and having been erected at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars. Up to the present time it has paid a full half million dollars in profits.

In the autumn of 1898 Mr. Merrill began a series of individual experiments 'in connection with treating the tailings from the mines of the Homestake Mining Company, at Lead, South Dakota, said tailings practically representing in valuation about half those with which he had previously experimented and had successfullly treated. The attraction of such a low-grade proposition was due to the great ore reserves and large daily tonnage. However, the problem was one of exceptional interest and importance, and Mr. Merrill has not only added materially to his personal reputation through the success which he has gained in the connection, but has gained an economic and scientific victory as bear- ing upon the great mining industry of this sec- tion and other localities where similar conditions cxist. The difficulties encountered were, first, to make a successful separation of the leachable portion of the tailings, owing to the fact that the battery process produces a very slimy prod- uct ; and, second, to overcome the adverse condi- tion involved in the fact that the ore carried a very high per centage of pyrrhotite, a very objec- tionable mineral element in connection with cy- aniding, by reason of its marked affinity for oxy- gen, and its tendency to decompose considerable quantities of cyanide. The problem was finally solved on a profitable basis, and the economic treatment of the tailings on a large scale began with the completion, in April, 1901, of what is

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 6

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