History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 81

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

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David Moore was reared to the sturdy disci- pline of the farm, and received his early educa- tional training in the common schools of Indiana and Illinois, having been seventeen years of age at the time of his parents' removal to the latter state. After his school days he continued to be identified with farming until there came the call to higher duty, as the integrity of the nation was menaced by armed rebellion. On the Ist of Au- gust. 1862, at Bloomington, Illinois, he enlisted as a private in Company H, Ninety-fourth Illi- nois Volunteer Infantry, being appointed fourth sergeant of his company at the time of its organi- zation, while on the Ist of January, 1863, he was promoted second lieutenant, which office he held until January 5. 1864, when he was made cap- tain of his company, serving as such until the regiment was mustered out, at Galveston, Texas, in July, 1865, while he received his honorable discharge at Galveston, in July, 1865. His com- mand was assigned to the Army of the Frontier in 1863 and was assigned to the Department of the Gulf and was in that department until the end of the war, participating in many important

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engagements, among the more notable of which may be mentioned the following : Siege of Vicks- burg, Yazoo City, siege and capture of Fort Mor- gan, Alabama, Spanish Fort, Alabama, and other severe battles.

After the close of his long and faithful mili- tary service Judge Moore returned to McLain county, Illinois, where he resumed his active identification with the great basic industry of ag- riculture, to which, it may be said, he continued to devote his attention until 1890. He first lo- cated in Hand county in 1883, and in 1884 located in Hyde county, where he took up a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of government land and engaged in farming. In April, 1887, he was ap- pointed postmaster at Highmore, that county, and remained incumbent of this position until April, 1889, in the meanwhile continuing to supervise his farming interests. He resigned the office at the time noted and removed to Fort Pierre, Dakota.

where he aided in organizing Stanley county, in 1889. and the city of which he was a resident, in the spring of 1890, being elected its first police justice. It should be stated that he had held various minor offices while a resident of McLain county, and the appreciation of his ability in a popular way has led to his being called to office at all times, as he has never been an active seeker of the same. In the general election of Novem- ber, 1892, he was elected county judge of Stan- ley county, serving two years, and in 1896 he served as state's attorney of the county, making an excellent record as a public prosecutor. In November, 1902, he was again elected to the county bench, for a term of two years, so that he is in tenure of this responsible position at the time of this writing.

Judge Moore has ever been a stanch adherent of the Democratic party, in whose cause he has taken a lively interest at all times. He cast his first presidential vote for Stephen A. Douglas, in 1860, and has voted for every Democratic pres- idential candidate since that time with the excep- tion of General George B. McClellan, in 1864, having been denied the franchise at that time by reason of being absent from home as a soldier. Fraternally he is affiliated with John A. Dix Post,

No. 30, Grand Army of the Republic, at High- more, this state, and retains an abiding interest in his old comrades in arms.

On the IIth of October, 1867, Judge Moore was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Low- ery, who was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, on the 3d of February, 1840, being a daughter of William and Martha Ann (McCoy) Lowery, and the names of the children of Judge and Mrs. Moore are as follows: Levi A., Laura A., John W., Ethel M., Albert L., Alice B. and David L. Laura Ann is the wife of J. F. Comstock, sub- agent at the White Horse Indian camp. Mrs. Comstock is field matron of the Cheyenne Indian agency and is also past grand chief of the De- grce of Honor of South Dakota. Ethel May is the wife of F. W. Hungate, who is engaged in the real-estate business. Alice Belle is the wife of F. J. McGraw, a stockman of Ft. Pierre, South

ORVILLE W. THOMPSON, cashier of the First National Bank of Vermillion, Clay county, was born in the town of Vermillion, which is still his home, on the 13th of November, 1871, so that his boyhood days were passed under the territorial regime. He is a son of that honored pioneer, Myron D. Thompson, to whom specific reference is made on another page of this vol- time, so that it is not necessary to recapitulate the family history at this point. The subject secured his fundamental educational training in the pub- lic schools of his native town, having been gradu- ated in the Vermillion high school as a member of the class of 1887, while later he was matriculated in the State University of South Dakota, at Vermillion, where he completed the classical course and was graduated in 1893, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Shortly afterward he became associated with his father in the grain and lumber business, the latter having at the time been a member of the firm of Thompson & Lewis. In 1896 the title was changed to the Thompson-Lewis Company, and two years later the husiness was incorporated under the style of the Thompson Lumber Company, the subject

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having been vice-president of this company from : he devoted his attention to different kinds of the time of its organization. In 1896 he was elected cashier of the First National Bank of Vermillion, and he has ever since retained this incumbency, proving himself one of the discrim- inating and able young financiers of the state and evincing an executive power which has done much to further the prestige of the institution mentioned. Mr. Thompson and his brother, Mar- tin L., organized the Thompson Brothers Cattle Company, of which he is president, and they con- trol an extensive business, having a fine stock ranch of sixty-five thousand acres, in Potter county.

In politics Mr. Thompson has been a stanch advocate of the principles of the Republican party from the time of attaining his legal ma- jority, and he is one of the active and zealous workers in its cause, being a member of the Re- publican state central committee at the time of this writing. He is a member of the Baptist church, and fraternally has attained the Knights Templar degree in the Masonic order. being also identified with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

FRANK W. WEBB, farmer and stock raiser and ex-member of the South Dakota general as- sembly, was born April 22, 1851. in Green Lake county, Wisconsin, being the son of Erastus and Jane Webb. the latter hefore her marriage having borne the family name of Clute. These parents, who were natives of New York, migrated to Wis- consin in 1846 and lived in the latter state until the year 1884. when they removed to Brown county, South Dakota, where the father entered land and developed a good farm on which he spent the remainder of his days, departing this life in the month of October, 1894.

Frank W. Webb spent his childhood in his native county and attended the public schools of the same at intervals until his sixteenth year. At that age he went to Nevada where he spent some time at farm work, was also employed for a period in a quartz mill and furnace, after which

manual labor, the meanwhile finishing his edu- cational training in a normal school and giving one year to teaching. On September 28. 1879. he contracted a marriage with Miss Ellen Wil- son and in the spring of the year following came to Brown county, South Dakota, locating in Ab- erdeen township, of which he and a gentleman by the name of C. F. Holms were the first settlers west of Aberdeen. Mr. Webb took up land, huilt a sod house and for several years lived the life of a pioneer, experiencing the vicissitudes peculiar to this country in an early day. Two years after his arrival the angel of death invaded his home and took therefrom his faithful wife and the ten- der. loving mother of his three young children. Later, in January, 1884, he chose a second com- panion in the person of Miss Penila Wilson, who has borne hiin one child, a son by the name of Roy W. The offspring by his first marriage. three in number, are Sadie, Flossie and Frantie, all at home and, with the other members of the family. constituting a happy and contented do- mestic circle.

Mr. Webb's career as a farmer has been cred- itable in every respect and he is today one of the enterprising and successful men of the county. owning a fine tract of land, and in addition thereto his wife has a desirable place of four hun- dred and eighty acres, which he also manages. He raises abundant crops of grain, which he makes a specialty, and on his place may be seen herds of fine Holstein cattle, also a number of valuable blooded horses, while the splendid con- dition of his home bespeaks the industry and deep interest with which he prosecutes his labors. Mr. Webb has been an active participant in political and public affairs ever since becoming a resident of Brown county, and in 1896 he was elected a member of the state senate. He entered that body as a Populist, served during the sessions of 1807-8 and became an influential factor in legis- lative matters, as well as a party leader. During his incumbency he was chairman of the commit- tee on military affairs, also served in several other important committees, besides taking a prominent part in the general deliberations. When the great

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political reform was inaugurated throughout the west. Mr. Webb threw himself into the move- ment and since then he has given his allegiance and active support to the People's party. He has held several local positions, spending twelve years as chairman of the board of supervisors for his township and eight years as township clerk, and has also filled the office of school treas- urer ever since the township organization went into effect. During the early days of the Farm- ers' Alliance he was active and influential in dis- seminating its principles and organizing local so- cieties in different parts of the country, and he was honored at one time by being elected president of the organization in Brown county, the duties of which position he discharged in an able man- ner.

J. F. HALLADAY, editor and proprietor of the Iroquois Chief and a journalist and politician of state repute, also present state auditor, is a native of Kansas, born in the city of Topeka on the 9th day of September, 1860. Albert Halla- day, the subject's father, a native of New York and son of Cornelius and Priscilla Halladay, was reared in Wisconsin, where his parents settled in an early day, and at the age of twenty-one went west, spending a number of years in Kansas, Ne- braska and Colorado, before those states were open for settlement. Later he came to Kings- bury county, South Dakota, and engaged in farin- ing and stock raising, to which he subsequently added the livery business. He has now retired from active business and is living at this time in the town of Iroquois at the age of sixty-nine years. Mary E. Thompson, wife of Albert Hal- laday and mother of the subject of this review, is also living, having reached the age of sixty- four years. Of her three children, two are liv- ing, J. F. and Charles, the youngest of the num- ber, a daughter by the name of Carrie, having died in early childhood.

When J. F. Halladay was quite young his parents moved to Nebraska and it was in the town of Beatrice, that state, that he grew to manhood and received his educational training. After at-

tending the public schools until his fourteenth year, he entered the office of the Gage County Courier, with which paper and the Beatrice Ex- press he spent the ensuing seven years, the mean- time acquiring efficiency as a typo, besides becom- ing familiar with other branches of the printing business. Leaving Nebraska in 1882, he came to South Dakota and accepted a position on the Huron Daily Times, which he held until some time the following year, when he resigned and began work on the Iroquois Herald, one of the leading papers in Kingsbury county. After two or three years of active and effective service with that journal, he became assistant cashier of the Bank of Iroquois, but three years later resigned his position and in 1888, in partnership with Karl Gerner, he started the Iroquois Chief, the entire interest of which he purchased in 1891, since which time he has been sole owner of the plant and editor of the paper. From the start the Chief proved successful and so rapidly did it grow in public favor that within the course of a few years its neighbor, the Herald, was obliged to suspend publication for lack of support. The Chief is a neat, well-edited paper, designed to vibrate with the public and under the able management of Mr. Halladay it has become not only the leading Republican organ of Kingsbury county but one of the most influential political journals in South Dakota. The present circulation is between eight hundred and a thousand, which, with a liberal ad- vertising patronage, returns handsome profits on the capital invested, to say nothing of the lucra- tive business the office does in the line of general printing. Mr. Halladay is a terse, clear and forceful writer, fearless in discussing the issues of the day, and his able editorials have been influ- ential in shaping the policy of the Republican party in South Daokta, and promoting its suc- cess in a number of campaigns. With a single exception he has been a delegate to every state convention within the last twenty-one years, and his influence in these, as well as in local conven- tions, has always been commanding by reason of his ability as an organizer and leader.

Mr. Halladay served as postmaster of Iro- quois during President Harrison's administration,

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was re-appointed by President Mckinley, and held the office for a period of nine years, resign- ing in July. 1903. In 1902 he was endorsed by every Republican newspaper of South Dakota for auditor of state, and when the convention con- vened in July of that year he received the nomi- nation by acclamation. His election followed as a matter of course, and he is now filling the high and responsible position with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the public. At the Republican state convention held in May, 1904. he was re-nominated by acclamation for state auditor, no other name being suggested. Mr. Halladay served seven years as secretary of the South Dakota Press Association and one year as president, during which time the organization thrived in its every department. He is interested in the local telephone company and the Iroquois State Bank, in both of which he is a stockholder and director, and he is also a director in the Pub- lishers' Mutual Insurance Company.

Mr. Halladay is a stanch and uncompromis- ing Republican, and at no time during the great Populist uprising throughout the west did he . swerve a hair's breadth from the time-honored principles, but on the contrary, did yeoman serv- ice personally and through the medium of his paper in preserving the integrity of his party and saving it from dissolution. His influence, al- ways strong and forceful, was felt in every part of the state, and he continued the fight against the popular fallacy until in due time its opposi- tion began to give way and the triumph of true Republican principles became assured.

Mr. Halladay owns one of the most beautiful and attractive homes in Iroquois, the presiding spirit of which is an estimable and refined lady to whom he was united in the bonds of wedlock on May 20, 1886. The maiden name of Mrs. Halla- day was Carrie E. Hammond, daughter of Lewis and Lucy Hammond, who were among the early settlers of Kingsbury county, the father now a retired farmer living in Iroquois. Mrs. Halla- day attended Paxtou College, Illinois, and has borne her husband two children, Edna May and Clinton Frank, aged fourteen and twelve years respectively.

CHARLES LINCOLN MILLETT, presi- dent of the Stockgrowers' Bank of Fort Pierre, Stanley county, and treasurer of the Empire State Cattle Company, was born at Belfast, Allegany county, New York, on the 9th of December, 1865, and is a son of William and Jennie E. (Jagers) Millett, the former of whom devoted his life to agricultural pursuits, having been born in Bel- fast, New York, which continues to be his home, he having now attained the age of seventy-five years. his wife being sixty-four years old at this writing. The great-great-grandfather of the sub- ject was Jonathan Millett, who resided at Pal- myra, New York, as did also his son, Samuel, the next in line of direct descent. Samuel married Rachel Douglas on the 17th of February, 1799, she having been a daughter of Samuel Douglas, of Sterling, Connecticut, and a cousin of the late Stephen A. Douglas, United States senator from Illinois. The paternal grandfather of our sub- ject was Milton Millett, who was born at Pal- myra, New York. November 30, 1800. He mar- ried Philura Sumner and they became pioneer settlers at Belfast, Allegany county. His son Wil- liam, father of the subject of this review, was born at Belfast, New York, June 5, 1829, and there both he and his wife still reside, honored and revered by all who know them. Both are of Scotch, English and Irish descent, and the Mil- lett family has been identified with the great basic art of agriculture for generations. On the maternal side the subject's great-grandmother Jagers was a first cousin of the poet, Robert Burns. Peter Jagers, the maternal grandfather, was an expert stone mason by vocation and was on the construction of some of the finest buildings in New York city. He came from Yorkshire, England, to America, about 1820, and his wife was a niece of Daniel O'Connell, the Irish patriot.

Mr. Millett received his educational training in the public schools of his native town, where he partially completed a course in the high school, withdrawing about four months prior to the time when he would have graduated, in order to ac- cept a position in the Bank of Belfast. He as- sisted in the work of the homestead farm until he had attained the age of nineteen years, save when

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attending school, and was signally industrious in both fields of application. In January, 1885, he was tendered an unsalaried position as book- keeper in the Bank of Belfast, and at the end of the first year was presented with fifty dollars by the bank and engaged for a second year at a salary of ten dollars a month, the institution again giving him an honorarium of fifty dollars at the end of the second year. In March, 1887. he ac- cepted a position with the Western Loan and Trust Company, of Pierre, South Dakota, whither he came direct from his native town. In June of the same year he was sent to Parker, this state, where he had charge of the company's branch office while the regular manager was ab- sent on a vacation. In July, 1887, he was assist- ant cashier in the Traders' Bank, at East Pierre, but still continued in the employ of the Western . Loan and Trust Company, with which he re- mained as a valued executive until March 1, 1890, when he resigned his position and associated him- self with S. S. Clough, of Pierre, and others and organized the Stockgrowers' Bank of Fort Pierre which initiated business operations the fol- lowing month, with Mr. Clough as presi- dent and Mr. Millett as cashier. In Janu- ary, 1895, our subject was elected to the presidency of the institution, of which office he has since remained incumbent, so that he has been an executive of the same consecutively from the time of its inception. In April, 1890, he re- moved with his family to Fort Pierre, and in February of the following year he associated him- self with J. 'L. Keyes in purchasing from the Traversee family their Indian rights to one hun- dred and forty acres of land lying south of Bad river and partly in the mile square in which the town is included, this property having rapidly ap- preciated in value, as it can not fail to continue to do. Mr. Millett is a member of the directorate of the Empire State Cattle Company, of which he is treasurer, and he holds in the interest of the same a five-years lease to nearly four hundred thousand acres of the Cheyenne river Indian res- ervation, the tract being utilized for the raising of cattle. He is also a director of the National Bank of Commerce, at Pierre. In politics Mr. Millett

is an uncompromising advocate of the principles of the Republican party and is prominent in its councils in the state, being at the present time a member of the state central committee, as a repre- sentative of Stanley county. He and his wife are members of the First Baptist church in Pierre, but for more than seven years he has held the position of superintendent of the Sunday school of the Congregational church in Fort Pierre, there being no Baptist organization here.

On the 22d of September, 1887, at Belfast, New York, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Millett to Miss Fanny Ford, daughter of John B. and Martha Ford, of that place. Her paternal grandfather, Treat Ford, was one of the pioneer settlers of Belfast, that state, whither he came on foot from Connecticut, there being no roads through the forests at the time so that he was compelled to make his way by following the trail indicated by blazed trees. Mr. and Mrs. Mil- lett have two children, Helen, who was born May 29, 1897, and Paul, who was born December 24, 1900.

CARTER P. SHERWOOD, journalist, busi- ness man and official, was born in Whitehall, Trempealeau county, Wisconsin, August 8, 1862, His father, A. L. Sherwood, was a native of New York, and his mother, who bore the maiden name of Nancy P. Parsons, was born and reared in the state of Pennsylvania. These parents were married in the latter state, and some time there- after moved to Dane county, Wisconsin, where they lived on a farm several years, changing their residence at the end of that time to the county of Trempealeau. Mr. Sherwood continued agricul- tural pursuits in the latter county until 1880, when he came to Kingsbury county, subsequently removing to Fairmount, Minnesota, where he now resides.

In his youth Carter P. attended the district schools of his native county, also the high school at Whitehall, where he finished his education at the age of eighteen. In 1877 he entered the of- fice of the Whitehall Messenger to learn the print- er's trade, and after spending two years at that

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place and becoming proficient in his chosen call- ing, accepted a position in the book department of the State Journal at Madison, where he re- mained until 1883. In that year he came to South Dakota and took an interest in the Leader, pub- lished at DeSmet. Kingsbury county, buying out his partner two years later and becoming sole proprietor of the paper. In 1891 the Leader was consolidated with the News and under the latter name the paper continues to make its periodical visits to its numerous subscribers, having within the last ten or twelve years become one of the leading and influential local newspapers in the eastern part of the state.

In addition to his successful career as a jour- nalist. Mr. Sherwood since coming to Kingsbury has been interested in various other lines of en- deavor, notably among which being the DeSmet Creamery, one of the largest and best conducted enterprises of the kind in South Dakota. He was a leading spirit in the organization of this con- cern in 1895. since which time he has been its manager and the success of the creamery is largely due to his untiring efforts and correct and prompt business methods. Mr. Sherwood served for a number of years as a member of the Na- tional Butter-Makers' Association, and for a per- iod of five years was secretary of the State Dairy Association. He has also been prominent in the local affairs of DeSmet, and, in addition to hold- ing municipal offices, took an active part in or- ganizing the Building and Loan Association of the town, which he served ably and judiciously in the capacity of secretary. He has always been deeply interested in politics, and since attaining his majority has never swerved in his allegiance to the Republican party.

Mr. Sherwood. in February, 1901, was ap- pointed state food and dairy commissioner, being the first man in South Dakota to hold this impor- tant and responsible office. So ably did he dis- charge the duties of the position that he was re- appointed. in February. 1903, and he now holds the office with credit to himself and to the satis- faction of all parties concerned. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and has filled all the chairs in the local lodge, besides

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 81

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