History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 90

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

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CHRISTEN J. BACH, a successful business man and representative citizen of Turner county, who is at present the state commissioner of school and public lands, and is president of the Bank of Hurley, at Hurley, is a native of Denmark, where he was born on the 10th of November. 1858, be- ing a son of Jacob S. Bach, a pioneer of Yankton, South Dakota. The subject received his early education in the excellent schools of his native land, and there remained until 1873, when he came to Dakota territory, where he has availed himself of the opportunities presented and has won definite success through his own earnest and honorable endeavors. He located in Centerville, Turner county, in 1884, where he engaged in the hardware business, also establishing a store in Hurley. He built up a very profitable business in the line and continued operations in both towns until the Ist of October, 1892, when he estab- lished himself in the banking business in Hurley, and has since given the major portion of his at- tention to the supervision of the same. The bank is ably managed and established on a solid finan- cial basis, while its popularity is indicated by the representative support accorded by the people of the section.

In politics Mr. Bach is a stalwart supporter of the principles of the Republican party, in whose cause he has been an active and valued worker, while his is the distinction of having been a mem- ber of the first and second general assemblies of the legislature of the state. In the fall of 1902 he was elected the state commissioner of school and public lands, and has since remained incumbent of this office. He and his wife are prominent and zealous members of the Lutheran church, and fraternally he has attained to the thirty-sec- ond degree of Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Masonry, being identified with the consistory at Yankton, while he is also one of the influential members of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, being past grand master of the grand lodge

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of the order in the state. On the 4th of October, 1878, the subject of this sketch was married to Carrie Franson, who was born in Norway, on the 28th of December, 1858, and they have six chil- dren, namely: Forest, Guerdon, Mae, Bernie, Etta and Ruth.

ZECHARIAH SPITLER, one of the repre- sentative citizens of Aberdeen, was born on a farm in Newton county, Indiana, on the 24th of March. 1855, being a son of Zechariah and Sally (Rider) Spitler, the former of whom was born in Virginia and the latter in Pennsylvania. The paternal ancestors settled in the Old Dominion state in the colonial epoch of our national history, the name being prominently identified with the annals of that patrician section of the Union, where a fine old homestead has been retained in the family for many generations. The maternal ancestors were numbered among the early set- tlers in York county, Pennsylvania. The parents of the subject became residents of western Indi- ana in the latter 'thirties, and there their marriage was solemnized in 1842, while for fifty-eight years they resided continuously on one farm, re- tiring to town for the remainder of their old age. The subject received his early education in the common schools of his native county and supple- mented this discipline by a course in an academy at Battle Ground, Indiana, in which institution he was graduated in the early 'seventies, after which he gave his attention principally to teaching in the country schools of Indiana and farming until September, 1880, when he entered the law department of the famous University of Michi- gan, at Ann Arbor, where he was graduated in 1882, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, Within the same year he came to the territory of Dakota, locating in Frederick, Brown county. where he remained until the fall of 1887, engaged in the land business and in a desultory practice of his profession. He then took up his residence in the city of Aberdeen, where he was most of the time in the employ of Lincoln & Boyd, in the real- estate mortgage business until the Ist of Jan- uary, 1901, since which time he has been person-

ally engaged in the real-estate business as an individual enterprise, never having entered ac- tively into the practice of his profession. He is one of the incorporators of the Aberdeen Cloth- ing Company, a manufacturing institution. Soon after coming to the territory Mr. Spitler took up tracts of government land, and he has given much time, thoughit and energy to the handling of realty for others as well as his own properties, controlling a large and important business in the line at the present time. In politics Mr. Spitler is an advocate of the basic principles of the Dem- ocratic party, is in favor of free trade or of tariff for revenue only, while he is unequivocally op- posed to the expansion policy which has been manifest in governmental affairs since the late Spanish-American war. He and his wife are zealous members of the Presbyterian church and are earnest workers in the cause of the divine Master.

On the 20th of November, 1887, was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Spitler to Miss Sarah Drum, who was born in Chittenden county, Vermont, and their only child, Lela Mae, was born on the 14th of November, 1889.

FRANKLIN T. JACKSON, the immediate subject of this sketch, remained at the parental home until the time of his marriage, in 1883, having received his educational training in the public schools and the Curtis Business College, in Minneapolis. After his marriage he removed to Redwood county, Minnesota, where he en- gaged in farming and stock growing. in which line of enterprise he there continued until 1886, when he came to South Dakota, arriving in Mc- Cook county, on the 22d of January, in company with his wife and child, while his equipment for the winning of success and independence in the new home was summed up in his energy, integ- rity and determination, his visible accessories be- ing represented in a span of mules and a lumber wagon. He took up a pre-emption claim of one hundred and sixty acres and there engaged in farming and stock raising. In the fall of 1886 Mr. Jackson took up his residence in the village

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of Montrose, where he devoted his attention to the buying and shipping of stock for the ensuing eight years. In 1894 he took up his residence in Salem, where he has since been successfully en- gaged in the same line of enterprise, being one of the leading stock buyers of this section of the state. He also owns and superintends the oper- ation of more than a thousand acres of farming land in this county, and he is known as one of McCook county's most progressive and alert busi- ness men. In politics Mr. Jackson is a stanch Republican, and for a number of years past has been a prominent figure in local affairs of a pub- lic nature. In the fall of 1902 he was elected to represent his district in the state legislature, and his course has been such as to amply justify the choice of the voters of the district. He is affil- iated with Fortitude Lodge, No. 73. Free and Ac- cepted Masons ; Salem Chapter, No. 34. Royal Arch Masons; Oriental Consistory, No. 1, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in Yankton ; Salem Lodge, No. 106, Independent Order of Odd Fellows: Sioux Falls Lodge, No. 262. Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Salem Lodge, No. 60, Knights of Pythias; Salem Lodge, Ancient Order of United Workmen ; and Ramsey Camp, No. 5634. Modern Woodmen of America, of which he served two terms as consul.

On the 19th of July, 1883. Mr. Jackson was united in marriage to Miss Nettie M. Gibbs, of Lake City, Minnesota, and they are the parents of four children, namely : John A., Fay F., Carol F. and Helen H.

THOMAS M. SHANAFELT, D. D., state superintendent of Baptist missions in South Da- kota and North Dakota, was born April 1. 1840. at Brinkerton, Clarion county, Pennsylvania. He came to his present position in April. 1888. Dr. Shanafelt is a graduate of Blackwell University. 1861. He served in the Rebellion as a private in the Pennsylvania volunteer infantry. He is at present a member of the board of commissioners for the South Dakota Soldiers' Home and vice- president of the State Historical Society. He

is deeply interested in historical topics and is the author of an authoritative history of the Baptist church in South Dakota, published in 1899. Out- side his sacred calling in which he has won high distinction, he is a public-spirited citizen and a leader in every good work. Few men possess in a greater degree that habit of persistent in- dustry which makes every minute count for good.

DELORME W. ROBINSON, M. D., Pierre. South Dakota, president of the state board of health, was born October 26. 1854. at Pulaski, Pennsylvania. He was educated at Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, and received medical training in the medical department of Wooster University, Cleveland, Ohio, and took post-graduate work in the Chicago Medical School and at the Kentucky School of Medicine. Louisville. He located in Pierre in 1882. Dr. Robinson has attained the highest eminence in his profession in South Dakota and it is probable that he would readily be accorded the first place upon the vote of his co-professioners. both in general practice and surgery. His success in cap- ital operations has been somewhat phenomenal. Dr. Robinson is a loyal citizen of his city and the state, progressive in all of his views and active in his support of public measures. He was the author of the first territorial law creating a board of health and also of the first state law upon the subject. He has served three terms as a member of the state board of health and has written extensively upon medical topics. He takes great interest in studious historical re- searches and his contributions to the history of the northwest are recognized authorities. His contributions of one hundred and fifteen notes upon South Dakota history, including careful studies of most of the famous Indians, to the first volume of the Collections of the State Histori- cal Society, have won many encomiums from scholars and critics. His wife, the daughter of the renowned Dr. William Maxfield Blackburn, died in 1801. He has two children, a daughter of fifteen and a son aged twelve.

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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

CHARLES A. JEWETT is a native of the old Buckeye state, having been born in Newark. Licking county, Ohio, on the 7th of February. 1848, and being a son of David D. and Mary (Taylor) Jewett, natives of Ohio. The father of the subject was engaged in the grocery trade in Newark for many years and was one of the honored citizens and successful business men of that section. He died in 1891, and his wife passed away in 1848. They became the parents of ten children, of whom four are living at the present time. The subject secured his early ed- ncational training in the public schools and con- tinued his studies until he had attained the age of seventeen years, when he commenced work in his father's grocery store, being thus engaged mintil 1870. when he removed to Kansas City. Missouri, and embarked in the wholesale grocery business upon his own responsibility. At the expiration of two years he disposed of his in- terests in that city and removed to Independence, Kansas, where he was established in the same line of trade until 1875, when he sold out. passing the ensuing seven years as traveling salesman for prominent wholesale grocery houses, in New York and Chicago. In July. 1882, he entered into a partnership with his brothers, Harvey and R. N., and opened a grocery house in Aberdeen, South Dakota, in which city he took up his residence in March of the following year. There he remained until June, 1888, when he re- moved to Sioux Falls, where he has since main- tained his home, the enterprise in Aberdeen be- ing still continued, under the corporate titles of Jewett Brothers. At the time of taking up his abode in Sioux Falls the firm of Jewett Brothers & Jewett, which is now incorporated under the laws of the state, purchased the wholesale gro- cery business of Ward & Frick, in this city, and forthwith began to expand the scope of the enter- prise, and this concern figures as the first dis- tinctively wholesale house in South Dakota, and its business has grown to magnificent proportions under the able management of our subject and his coadjutors. In March, 1893. a branch es- tablishment was opened at Sheldon, Iowa, and the trade of the concern now ramifies throughly a

very wide area of country, the facilities being unexcelled and the reputation of the concern un- assailable. In 1884 the firm shipped the first car- load of sugar ever brought into the state, the same having been consigned to their establish- ment in Aberdeen. In 1897 its shipment of sugar into the state reached the enormous aggregate of two hundred and forty carloads, which one item gives evidence of the great and substantial growth of the business, which in that year repre- sented transactions amounting to more than one million and two hundred thousand dollars. In 1902 the concert shipped in three hundred and thirty-three carloads of sugar, averaging forty thousand pounds to a car, more than double the weight per car of the shipment of 1897. while the aggregate of the business for the year reached more than two and a quarter millions of dollars. The branch establishment at Sheldon is conducted uncler the title of Jewett Brothers & Company, and this is also incorporated. In 1901 Mr. Jew- ett effected the organization of the Jewett Fruit & Fish Company, of Sioux Falls, of which he has been president from the start, and the concern bas likewise built up a large and prosperous busi- ness. In 1902 he organized the Manchester Biscuit Company, of Sioux Falls, of which he is president, while he is also vice-president of the Andrew Kuhn Company, wholesale grocers, in Sioux Falls. Each of these large enterprises has felt the influence of his progressive spirit and high administrative talents, and he is held in high regard in business circles and is esteemed by all who know him. In 1903 Mr. Jewett or- ganized the Jewett Drug Company, of Aberdeen, the same conducting a wholesale and general jobbing business, and he is president of this cor- poration.

Mr. Jewett has taken an active interest in public affairs, as touching civic advancement. and prior to 1896 he was a stalwart supporter of the Republican party. In the campaign of that year he found his views not in harmony with the platform of the party and has since main- tined an independent attitude, taking the stand that he is today a Lincoln Republican and being well fortified in his convictions and opinions as

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to matters of public policy. He has been a delegate to both state and county conventions of the Republican party and has never wavered in his allegiance to its basic and primary principles. He was for two years president of the Sioux Falls Daily Press Company, but has now disposed of his interests in the same.

On the 12th of May, 1869. Mr. Jewett was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Ryan, of Troy. New York. No children have been born of this union, but they have reared and educated two nieces of Mrs. Jewett.

DANIEL J. CONWAY, junior member of the well-known law firm of Muller & Company, of Sioux Falls, is a native of the state of Illinois, having been born in the city of LaSalle, on the 8th of March. 1860, and being a son of Daniel and Mary ( McTiernan) Conway, the former of whom was born in Sligo, Ireland, both in Drumkeerin, County Leitrim, Ireland, both representative of stanch old Irish lineage. The subject received his early educational training in the public schools of his native city. and later continued his studies in St. Viateur's College. in Bourbonnais, Illinois. He later was for two years a resident of Dixon, that state, where he took a course of study in the Northern Illinois Normal College, and in the meanwhile began the study of law, under an able preceptor in that place. He then removed to Sioux county, Iowa, where he held the office of deputy auditor of Sioux county from January, 1888. until March. 1880. In the month last mentioned he came to Sioux Falls, where he engaged in the real-estate business, to which he devoted his attention until 1891, having in the meanwhile secured admission to the bar of the state, while he is also a practi- tioner in the federal courts. In the year noted he entered into a professional partnership with David E. Powers, under the firm name of Powers & Conway, and this alliance continued until 1893, when he hecame associated with Henry A. Mul- ler, under the title of Muller & Conway, which has ever since obtained, the firm controlling a large and representative legal business and hav-

ing distinctive precedence both as attorneys and counselors.

Mr. Conway has been one of the wheel- horses of the Democratic party in the county and state and has wielded marked influence in the party councils, while his leadership has been ac- knowledged and appreciated. He was manager of the Democratic campaign in the state in 1896. and has been secretary of the state central com- mittee of his party for the past six years. In 1897 he was appointed United States commissioner, an office of which he is still incumbent, and he served with great acceptability as city attorney of Sioux Falls from May. 1898, until May. 1900. In re- ligions belief Mr. Conway is a Roman Catholic.

On the 26th of November, 1891. was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Conway to Miss Jane Frances Conness, of Kansas City, Missouri, and they have five children, namely : Henrietta M., M. Roberta, Marie Beulah, Frances F. and Daniel Walter.

GRANVILLE G. BENNETT was born at Middletown. Butler county, Ohio, October 9, 1833. the son of Peter and Mary (Pinkerton) Bennett. He was educated at Washington Col- lege. Washington, Iowa, and studied law. In June, 1861. he enlisted in the Seventh Iowa Regiment and served throughout the war as lieutenant of the Seventh and adjutant of the Nineteenth, but during the last two years of the war as an officer upon the staff of General Thomas J. McKean. After the war he practiced law at Washington and served in both houses of the Iowa legislature. He was appointed as- sociate judge of the supreme court of Dakota in 1875 by President Grant, and served in that ca- pacity until August, 1878, when he resigned to accept a nomination to congress. While justice of the supreme court of Dakota he organized the courts in the Black Hills and held the first ses- sions there. He made an excellent record in congress and since that time has practiced law at Deadwood. He is a public-spirited citizen, a leader in all public enterprises, and is still a power in politics, always representing his county

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in state conventions and was a delegate to the national convention which nominated Mckinley and Roosevelt in 1900. He is a powerful and eloquent speaker, and a popular lecturer upon scientifie and literary subjects. He is a leading member of the Congregational church.

Mr. Bennett was married at Washington, Iowa. October 11. 1860, to Miss Mary Dawson, and their home life has been ideal throughout the happy years of their union. Their surviving children are Misses Esteline and Helen, and Granville G., Jr. The young ladies are leaders in social and professional life, the former as a musician and journalist in Chicago and the latter in educational work, being at present the superin- tendent of schools in Lawrence county. Gran- ville G., Jr., is preparing for the Episcopal min- istry.

PHILO HALL .- The legal affairs of the great state of South Dakota at the present time are placed in able hands, and as attorney general of the state the subject of this sketch is giving an administration which is ereditable to the com- monwealth and to himself professionally and of- ficially. Mr. Hall is a native of the state of Minnesota, having been born in Wilton, Waseca county on the 31st of December. 1865. a son of Philo and Mary E. (Greene) Hall. Philo Hall, Sr., was born in Caledonia Springs, Canada, be- ing the son of Philo and Susana Hall, both of whom were born in the state of Vermont. When about fifteen years of age the father of the subject left his native town in Canada and went to Keno- sha. Wisconsin, his father having died when Philo was a mere child. He attended school in Keno- sha and Racine, Wisconsin, continuing his studies until he was about nineteen years of age, and he then removed to Waseca county, Minnesota, where he turned his attention to teaching school, gaining distinctive prestige in this profession. In April, 1861, in response to the President's first call for volunteers, he enlisted as a member of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, with which he served three years, making the record of a valiant and faithful soldier of the republic. He

then returned to his home in Minnesota and en- gaged in the hotel business in Wilton, having married Miss Mary E. Greene, daughter of Wil- liam and Mary Greene, of New York city. The father of the subject died on the 30th of April. 1883, and he is survived by his wife and their four children, the mother being now a resident of Brookings, South Dakota, which is likewise the home of her son, the attorney general, who is the eldest of the four children, the others being as follows : Mary E., who is the wife of Arthur Al- ton, of Brookings; George P., who is likewise a resident of this place ; and Nellie, who remains with her mother. After the death of his father in 1883. the family removed to Brookings, and here the subject of this review took up the study of law in the office of Judge J. O. Andrews, un- der whose direction he prosecuted his technical reading until 1886, and was admitted to the bar of the territory of Dakota in 1887. Shortly after- ward Mr. Hall entered into partnership with his former preceptor. Judge Andrews, this associa- tion continuing until 1889, when Judge Andrews was elected to the circuit bench, and since that time Mr. Hall has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession in Brookings, and is now the senior member of the present firm of Hall, Lawrence & Roddle. Mr. Hall has ever been a staneh advocate of the principles of the Republican party and has been a valued and able worker in the cause of the same. In 1894 he was elected state's attorney of Brookings county, and was chosen as his own successor in 1896. while in 1895 he was elected mayor of the city of Brookings, serving one term and giving a most able administration of municipal affairs. He has also served as eity attorney and in 1901 he represented his district in the state senate. In the autumn election of 1902 he was elected to his present distinguished office of attorney gen- eral of the state, assuming the duties of the posi- tion in January, 1903. and was unanimously re- nominated to that office at the Republican state convention at Sioux Falls, May 4, 1904. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

On the 27th of April, 1890, Mr. Hall married Mrs. Mary A. Cooke, and of this union have been born three children, namely: Vivian, who was born on the 25th of September. 1891 ; Philo, Jr., who was born on the 8th of August, 1895, and Morrell, who was born on the 26th of March, 1898.

REV. GARY T. NOTSON, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Pierre, was born in Decatur county, Iowa, September 19, 1865. In his youth Mr. Notson learned the printer's trade, but in 1892 entered the ministry in the Des Moines conference and joined the Dakota conference in 1894. He has rapidly risen to a position of eminence in his calling. He is secre- tary of the Dakota conference and is the his- torian of the church in this state.

H. B. NOBLE, M. D .- Few men have a better claim to the title of early settler of Howard than the popular physician whose name heads this paragraph. There were a few before him, but when it is stated that he built the second residence put up at the county seat of Miner county. it is easy to see that he was on the scene at a very early period of the settlement of this section of South Dakota. His coming moreover was a distinct public benefit, as he "took hold," to use a western phrase, immediately after his ar- rival and his shoulder has been up against the car of progress ever since. In other words, he has been in touch with every movement to help Miner county, and has done his full share in edu- cating public opinion along the lines of progress. Dr. Noble's parents were Albert G. and Lucy L. Noble, who came west in the first half of the last century and found a location in the rich agri- cultural region bordering the upper Mississippi on the west. Their son, with whose biography we are dealing, was born in Delaware county, Iowa, September 10, 1848, and his early educa- tion was confined to the somewhat meagerly- equipped public schools of that day. In late life. however, he made up by study for all deficiencies

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 90

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