History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 7

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

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known as the No. I plant, at Lead, at a cost of three hundred thousand dollars, the plant having a capacity for treating, approximately, fourteen hundred and fifty tons a day, which makes it the largest of the sort in the world. It is earning, approximately, from thirty to forty thousand dol- lars a month, and the tailings treated are those secured from the great mills containing five hundred and forty stamps at Lead. In the year 1902 Mr. Merrill installed for the company its second plant, at Gayville, and this has a capacity for the treating of an average of eight hundred tons a day. This No. 2 cyanide plant treats the leachable sands from what are known as the North End mills, the Deadwood, Terra, the cld Caledonia and the old Father De Smet, repre- senting three hundred and sixty stamps. The tailings from these mills are materially lower in grade than those at Lead, though practically the metallurgical processes employed in the two cyanide plants are identical. The second plant is running at a fair profit, taking into consideration the low grade of material treated. maintaining a profit of from seven to ten thousand dollars a month.

In politics Mr. Merrill gives his allegiance to the Republican party, but has never desired official preferment, preferring to give his entire attention to his profession, of which he is an en- thusiastic devotee. He is a member of the Amer- ican Institute of Mining Engineers, the Institu- tion of Mining and Metallurgy, of London, and the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa.

On the 9th of February, 1898 Mr. Merrill was united in marriage to Miss Clara Robinson, of Alameda, California, she being a daughter of Dr. William H. Robinson, a prominent dental sur- geon and practitioner of that state, and of this union has been born a daughter, Beatrice, and a son, John.

JOHN A. SPARGO. master mechanic of the great Homestake Mining Company, was born in Polk county, Tennessee, on the 12th of October, 1853. and is a son of James and Mary (May)

Spargo, both of whom were born in England. James Spargo, Sr., grandfather of the subject. was likewise a native of England, and there passed the closing years of his life, though he had spent a number of years as a resident of Cuba. In 1842 the father of the subject came to America to accept the position of mechanical en- gineer for a copper-mining company in eastern Tennessee, bringing machinery with him to com- plete the equipment of the plant. He remained in the employ of one concern for the period of thirty years and is now living retired, in com- pany with his devoted wife, in Polk county, Ten- nessee, having attained the venerable age of eighty years. During the Civil war the mines with which he was connected were confiscated and worked by the Confederate government, and he continued in the same position until the original owners again assumed control.

John A. Spargo, the eldest of the three chil- dren, all of whom are living, secured his early educational training in private schools and there- after continued his studies in the Henry Clay School, in Lexington, Kentucky, after which he took up the study and practical work of mechan- ical engineering under the able direction of his honored father. Later he served an apprentice- ship of four years in the Corliss Engine Works, at Hamilton, Ohio, thereafter remaining there employed until 1873. when he was offered and accepted a position with the Silver Islet Mining Company on the north shore of Lake Superior, where he remained until 1878, when he came to the Black Hills. In November of that year he entered the employ of the Homestake Mining Company. working for a time as machinist and being pro- moted from time to time to positions of greater trust, until, in 1882, he was finally advanced to his present important office of master mechanic. Since that time he has had the supervision of all machinery in the mines and stamp mills and shops of the company, as well as of all construction work. When he enteretl the service of the com- pany the mill was equipped with eighty stamps, and this has been increased to nine hundred. making it one of the largest and most complete

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stamp mills in the Union, while in the shops are made practically all machines and tools demanded in connection with the great industry. Mr. Spargo is interested in promising mining prop- erties and is known as an able engineer and exec- utive. In politics he renders allegiance to the Republican party, and fraternally is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

On the Ist of April. 1885. was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Spargo to Miss Ida Martin, who was born and reared in Wisconsin. She was summoned into eternal rest on the Ioth of Au- gust, 1896, and is held in loving memory by all who came within the sphere of her gracious in- fluence. She is survived by three children, Ma- rion Clyde, Ellen May and Roger D.

ALBERT STEELE, who holds the responsi- Me and exacting position of day foreman of the great stamp mills of the Homestake Mining Com- pany, at Lead, is of Scottish extraction in the paternal line, though the name, in the form of Stahl, has been identified with the annals of Nor- way since the fourteenth century, when the orig- inal representatives in the for Norselan 1 immi- grated thither from Scotland. The subject was born in Trondhjem, Norway, on the 6th of April. 1838, being a son of Roald and Kjersten Olsen. After coming to the United States the subject re- verted to the English spelling of the name and the one which was undoubtedly the original or- thography in Scotland. His father passed his en- tire life in Norway, engaged in agricultural pur- suits, and our subject was thus reared as a farmer lad. At the age of fifteen years he accompanied a Lutheran clergyman to the northern part of Norway, where he passed four years, and he then penetrated still farther north, making three trips to Spitsbergen with Captain Carlson, whose stanch little vessel went forth for the hunting of walruses, seals and polar bears. Later Mr. Steele made a trip in a brig to Hammerfest, the most northerly civilized town in the world, and thence returned with a load of fish to Gothenburg.

Sweden, where the vessel was laden with lumber and proceeded to Hull, England, where our subject left the ship and went on a Russian brig, bound for Riga, Russia, and loaded with flaxseed for the market at Belfast, Ireland. The vessel was wrecked on the west coast of Scotland, and the members of the crew were picked up and brought into Glasgow, whence Mr. Steele shipped on the American vessel "Corne- lia," of Portland, Maine, the same being bound for Brazil. When three weeks out from Glas- gow the vessel was wrecked and went to the bottom of the sea, the crew and passengers tak- ing to the boats and being picked up within twenty-four hours by a Welsh brig, and they were landed on Silly Island, whence Mr. Steele em- barked on a steamboat for Penzance, Cornwall, England, thence to Red Ruth and finally to Fal- mouth, where he and his companions appealed to the American consul, who sent them on to Liverpool, via Dublin, where they were looked after by the same consul. There the subject sailed finally on a ship named "Henry Brigham." bound for San Francisco, and the voyage was an exceedingly rough one, necessitating the throw- ing overboard of one hundred tons of the cargo,

while the vessel was greatly disabled, but finally dropped anchor in San Francisco in September, 1861. The vessel was here seized by the govern- ment, as it was owned in the south, then in re-, bellion against the Union. After being identi- fied with the coasting trade for one year Mr. Steele went on the stampede of goldseekers to Alaska, but he immediately returned to San Francisco, where he remained until 1864. when he came to Idaho, where he was engaged in , quartz mining for the ensuing three years. He then returned to California where he followed the same vocation until 1878, when he set forth for the Black Hills, arriving in February. On the 2d of the following month he entered the employ of the Homestake Mining Company as a miner, and was soon afterward made foreman of the Highland mine, retaining this position two years, at the expiration of which the company gave further evidence of appreciation of his abil- ity and fidelity by promoting him to the present

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office as foreman of the stamp mills, the capacity of the mills having been increased from three hundred and sixty to six hundred and forty stamps since he assumed his position as foreman. He has a pleasant home in Lead and is held in high esteem in the community. In politics Mr. Steele gives his support to the Republican party, and fraternally he is identified with the lodge, chapter and commandery of the Masonic order, and also with the auxiliary organization, the Order of the Eastern Star.

In January, 1880, Mr. Steele was united in marriage to Miss Theresa Hienish, who was born in Germany, and who died in 1881, leaving one child, Theresa Marie, who is now a stenographer in the state auditor's office, at Lincoln, Nebraska. In February, 1884, Mr. Steele wedded Miss Mary Ann Leonard, who was born and reared in Pennsylvania, and they became the parents of six children, namely : Ellen, Caroline, Albert J., Agnes Catherine, John Leonard and Mary Ce- celia. While out hunting September 5, 1903, Albert J. was accidentally shot by one of his companions and died a few hours later. He was a bright boy sixteen years old.

ROBERT H. DRISCOLL, who occupies the responsible position of cashier of the First Na- tional Bank of Lead, Lawrence county, was born in the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, on the Ist of July, 1857. and is a son of Cornelius and Catherine (Costello) Driscoll, the former of whom was born in Ireland and the latter in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The father of the subject was a child at the time of his parents' immigration to the United States, the family set- tling in Massachusetts, where he was reared and educated. He was for a number of years en- gaged in hat manufacturing in the city of Low- ell, and he and his wife now maintain their home in the historic old town of Salem, that state. Of their seven children four are living.

Robert H. Driscoll was about five years of age at the time of his parents' removal from Lowell to Salem, and in the latter city he secured his preliminary educational discipline in the pub- 3-

lic schools, being graduated in the high school as a member of the class of 1877. In the autumn of the same year ( 1877) he was matriculated in Harvard University, where he completed the clas- sical course, being graduated in 1881, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then accepted the position of instructor in Latin and Greek in a private academy at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, retaining this incumbency one year, at the expi- ration of which he located in Spencer, Iowa, where he taught in the public schools for one year. He then, in August, 1883, came to Lead, South Dakota, and here passed the ensuing three years as principal of the public schools, in which connection he made an excellent record by greatly advancing the interests of the cause of education in his field of labor, systematizing the work and inaugurating methods which have con- tinued in use ever since. In 1887 he was ap- pointed the first auditor of Lawrence county, under Republican administration, and in the fol- lowing year was duly elected to the office by popular vote. In 1889 he was appointed clerk of the county and circuit courts, these appoint- ments throughout the territory having been made by the President of the United States, who se- lected all court officials during the territorial regime. The subject was incumbent of the office at the time South Dakota was admitted to the Union, and with other presidential court appoin- tees, claimed the right to hold the position until the next general election, the clerks appointed by the county officials taking issue. Mr. Driscoll made a determined stand, and was the first to get his decision before the supreme court, said de- cision being favorable to him and thus settling similar contentions throughout the state. In 1890, the first regular election, he was chosen to fill the office, and in 1892 was re-elected, and that without opposition. In 1894 he resigned his of- fice and accepted that of cashier of the First National Bank, of which he has since continued incumbent, having practically the executive charge of the affairs of the bank and having proved himself an able and discriminating finan- cier. He is a member of the directorate of the Black Hills Mining Men's Association and also

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of that of the Lead Commercial Club, while he is also a member of the American Mining Con- gress and a life member of the Harvard Union, an organization of the alumni of his alma mater. Mr. Driscoll is intrinsically progressive and pub- lic-spirited and takes an active interest in all that makes for the advancement of the state of his adoption, being a loyal citizen and one who places true valuations on men and things. He is a stockholder and official in several mining com- panies. In politics he gives a stanch allegiance to the Republican party.

On the 16th of September, 1886, was solemn- nized the marriage of Mr. Driscoll to Miss Cath- erine Barry, who was born in Houghton, Michi- gan, being a daughter of Thomas and Ellen Barry. Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll have two chil- dren, Robert E. and James Lowell.

AARON DUNN, one of the pioneers of the northwest and a prominent and honored citizen of Deadwood, is a native of the province of On- tario, Canada, having been born on the banks of the St. Clair river, a few miles from the city of Detroit, Michigan, on the 16th of February. 1851. . His father, Aaron Dunn, was a native of England, and as a young man, in the thirties, came to America and took up his residence in New York, later going to Canada, where he was engaged in the lumber business until 1856, when he moved to Minnesota, becoming a pioneer of Mower county, that state, where he was engaged in lumbering and farming until 1870, when he repeated his pioneer experiences to a certain ex- tent by coming to what is now the state of South Dakota, locating in the city of Sioux Falls, where he passed the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1885. His wife, whose maiden name was Isabella Carnathan, was born in the north of Ireland, and her death occurred in 1870. They became the parents of twelve children, of whom three are living, the subject of this sketch having been the fourth in order of birth.

Aaron Dunn, whose name initiates this re- view, passed his boyhood days under the condi- tions of the pioneer epoch in Minnesota, and his

early educational advantages were perforce some- what limited, while he started forth for himself when but ten years of age. At that time he started for the Red river district of Minnesota, but the Indians were a source of constant men- ace at the time and the adventurous lad decided it better not to attempt to personally annihilate the savages, and accordingly turned about and went to the southern states, this being in 1862. in which year occurred the memorable Minnesota massacre, the Indians having gone forth on the warpath. The subject's brother, James C., was at the time a member of Company B, Fifth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and at the first outbreak of the Indians at Redwood Ferry, for- ty-eight of his company engaged in the conflict with the savages, and of the number only twenty returned, seven of them being wounded, while twenty-seven were killed, the other to complete the number engaged being the captain of the company, who was drowned while crossing the Minnesota river. During the war of the Rebel- lion the subject was in various southern states, from Missouri to Tennessee. He was too young to enlist in the Union service, but as a boy per- formed his part in forwarding the cause. He drove an ambulance for some time, carried dis- patches and was employed in the sutler's depart- ment, and thus witnessed a number of engage- ments. In 1863 he was at Cape Girardeau, Mis- souri, at the time of the battle there, and he con- tinued in the south until the end of the war. when he returned to the north and remained for a few months, when he went to Colorado, where he was employed for a time, thence going to New Mexico. In 1866 he made his way to Montana, making the trip via the Bozeman Cut- off and Forts Kearney and Smith. At Brown's Springs, on the dry fork of the Cheyenne river. the party of which he was a member had a con- flict with the Indians, losing seven men, while afterward the party had several other conflicts with the savages, another member being killed. They arrived in Bozeman in the latter part of September, and thence Mr. Dunn proceeded to Virginia City, where he passed the winter. In the spring of 1867 he started forth on a prospect-

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ing tour, making his way into the now famous Coeur d'Alene district of Idaho and there meeting with fair success. He then went to Phillipsburg, Montana, where he took charge of the mill of the Imperial Silver Mining Company, which he placed under successful operation, while it had previously proved a failure. While under his charge eight and one-half tons of silver repre- sented the product of the mill. He remained with this concern for a period of eighteen months and then removed to Rochester, Madison county. Montana, where he leased mines and operated the same for the ensuing two years, with good success. He then went to Trapper City, where he operated the Trapper mine for one winter, after which he went to the city of Butte, where he was offered a quarter interest and a salary of ten dollars a day to sink a shaft to a depth of one hundred feet in the Hattie Harvey mine. He accepted the proposition, sunk the shaft to the stipulated depth and then ran a level from the bottom a distance of one hundred feet, when he struck an immense body of ore running twenty- eight per cent. copper, but as thirty per cent. was the lowest that would at that time justify working, owing to the enormous charges for freight, the development did not proceed till some time later. It should be stated that this mine is now one of the most valuable portions of the great property of the Boston & Montana Mining Company. Limited. Leaving Butte, Mr. Dunn started for the Black Hills, in the summer of 1876. Upon reaching Fort Benton, then the head of navigation on the Missouri river, he found that he had arrived a few hours too late to secure the last boat for the season, and in company with one companion he purchased a skiff, in which they floated four hundred and fifty miles down the river, traveling most at night and seeing Indians almost daily, this being shortly after the great Custer massacre. At Car- roll. Montana, they found a steamboat, on which they took passage to Bismarck, from which point the subject and his party came through with ox- teams to the Black Hills, arriving in Deadwood in October. 1876, and having managed to avoid attack from the Indians while enroute. He

passed a month in mining in Deadwood Gulch and then joined the stampede to Wolf Mountain, but the prospects there turned out a failure and he returned in a few weeks to Deadwood. In Jan- uary, 1877, Mr. Dunn secured employment in the first stamp mill erected and placed in opera- tion in the Black Hills, the same being owned by M. E. Pinney and Robert Lawton, and being located on two cement claims, called the Alpha and Omega. This mill was started in operation the last day of December, 1876, and though there has been no little dispute as to the matter of the first mill to be put in operation, Mr. Dunn gives the assurance that this one is unmistakably entitled to the distinction. The Bald pulverizer had been started previously and run a short time, but was not a stamp mill. Mr. Dunn did the amalgamating in the stamp mill mentioned for the ensuing seven months, and he then engaged in prospecting and in speculating in mining prop- erties, while for a time he ran the Standby mill, at Rochford, and was also identified with the operation of several other mills, at varying inter- vals. Since 1877 he has been interested in min- ing properties in Spruce Gulch, about two and one-half miles distant, by road, from Deadwood, and is there the principal owner in nineteen full claims. Up to the time of this writing about forty thousand dollars have been expended in the improvement and developing of these prop- erties, while about three thousand tons of ore have been shipped to the smelter, the returns being from eight to twenty-three dollars a ton, while the ground is acknowledged to be rich. He also has interests in properties near Custer, where he has passed some time in prospecting within the past two years, and there he has found a belt five miles long and three wide, carrying all classes of silvanite and teluiride ore hitherto practically unknown, while he predicts that the same district will equal the famous Cripple Creek district, in Colorado, in which latter he also has some inter- ests. Mr. Dunn has made a careful study of mining, milling, etc .. and is known as one of the best amalgamators in the Black Hills. In 1885 he looked over mining properties in Nova Scotia. Vermont and South Carolina for Boston capital-

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ists and in 1890-91 performed for them a similar service in Colorado and Idaho. He now devotes practically his entire attention to the developing of his several properties, and is one of the prom- inent and popular mining men of the state. In 1902 Mr. Dunn made a trip to his old home in Minnesota, this being his first visit there in forty- one years. In politics he gives allegiance to the Republican party.

D. E. A. LUNDQUIST, the first settler of the thriving town of Irene, South Dakota, and in point of continuous residence its oldest inhabi- tant, is a native of Sweden, where his birth oc- curred on the 22d day of February, 1858. His father, A. G. Lundquist, a well-to-do merchant and landowner, also interested for a number of years in factories and various other industrial enterprises, departed this life in his native land in the summer of 1888. The mother, whose maiden name was Eva Wennerstrom, also born and reared in Sweden, is still living in that country, as are other members of the family, the subject and two brothers who reside in New York city being the only representatives in the United States.

Mr. Lundquist received a liberal education in the schools of his native place and after fin- ishing the same, in the summer of 1872, took up the study of telegraphy, which in due time he mastered. For six years he had charge of a rail- way station in Norway, during which time he creditably filled the positions of operator, ticket agent and bookkeeper. At the expiration of the time noted he resigned his position and on De- cember 4. 1879, left Norway for America, bound for Minnesota, reaching Delavan, that state, twen- ty-three days after bidding farewell to the shores of his native land. The winter following his arrival he attended a country school and after spending the next summer herding cattle, he ac- cepted, in the fall of 1880, a clerkship in a gen- eral store in the town of Easton. During the en- suing five years he served as clerk and book- keeper for different mercantile establishments in ; Lundquist opened a general store, which he has

Faribault county, Minnesota, and in the fall of 1885 went to La Crosse, Wisconsin, as book- keeper for a construction company which was building a branch line of the Chicago, Burling- ton & Quincy Railroad to that city.

Severing his connection with this company, Mr. Lundquist subsequently returned to Minne- sota and for some time thereafter held the posi- tion of bookkeeper and cashier in the bank at Wells, Faribault county, which place he resigned in the summer of 1887 and went to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to enter upon his duties as book- keeper for a contractor who was constructing into that city a section of the Illinois Central Railroad. When this work was done, he con- cluded to remain at Sioux Falls, and after spend- ing five years there as bookkeeper in a wholesale house, he again turned his attention to railroad- ing, engaging in the winter of 1892 with the Great Northern, which at that time was being constructed between the cities of Sioux Falls and Yankton. Since the completion of this work. in the fall of 1893, Mr. Lundquist has lived at Irene. with the history of which town he has been very closely identified ever since the place was located. Mr. Lundquist came to Irene before the town was laid out, locating on the present site April 15, 1893. shortly after severing his con- nections with the Great Northern Railroad. When the town was, in the summer of the above year. surveyed and platted, and the proprietor, Jacob Schaetzel, Jr., of Sioux Falls, placed the lots on the market, Mr. Lundquist was appointed agent and continued as such until the fall of 1894, dur- ing which time he disposed of the greater num- ber of lots, besides using his influence to adver- tise the advantages of the place to the world and induce a substantial class of people to locate in the new and rapidly growing town. He not only erected the first building in Irene and became the first permanent resident. but is also the fa- ther of the first child born in the town, besides being the first merchant. served on the first school board. was the first justice of the peace, and the first man in the place to be commissioned notary public. Shortly after locating at Irene Mr.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 7

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