History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 93

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

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he became a successful manufacturer of wagons, sleighs and various types of farming implements, there conducting a prosperous wholesale and re- tail business along these lines for about a dec- ade, at the expiration of which he removed to Pipestone, Minnesota, where he continued to be engaged in the agricultural implement business until 1891, when he retired to his farm near that place, where he and his estimable wife still re- side, being well advanced in years and being honored and influential citizens of their com- munity.

The subject of this review secured his early educational discipline in the public schools of West Salem, Wisconsin, completing a course in the high school. At the age of fifteen years he began to render active assistance to his father in his business operations, and later devoted two years to the study of law, under the direction of able attorneys of Pipestone, Minnesota. Before completing his technical studies he accepted a position in the counting room of the Pipestone County Bank, retaining this incumbency two years and gaining an intimate knowledge of the practical details of the business. In 1890 he came to Pierre and accepted liis present position as cashier of the National Bank of Commerce, and he has proved a most able and discriminating executive officer and has done much to further the interests of the institution, in which he is a stockholder. The bank is capitalized for one hun- dred thousand dollars and its stockholders are numbered among the leading capitalists and sub- stantial business men of the state.

Mr. Ewert enjoys marked popularity in both business and social circles, and no better mark of the confidence reposed in him by the people of the capital city could be asked than that shown in his election to the mayoralty of Pierre in 1902, and his re-election, without opposition, in 1904. He is one of the most progressive execu- tives the municipal government has ever had. and directs the affairs of the city with much discernment, scrupulous care and fidelity and upon the strictest of business principles. In poli- tics the mayor gives an unqualified allegiance to the Republican party, and fraternally he is identi-

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fied with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, the Knights of Pythias, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Knights of the Macca- bees, and the Modern Brotherhood of America. Both he and his wife are valued members of the Baptist church.

On the 30th of September. 1890, Mr. Ewert was united in marriage to Miss Caroline E. Dutcher, who was born in Sanilac county, Mich- igan, being a daughter of Byron M. and Rebecca Dutcher. Mr. and Mrs. Ewert have two sons, Winfred Edward and Mark H.

JOSEPH BOONE MOORE .- Standing out as one of the central figures in the legal history of South Dakota is Hon. Joseph Boone Moore. of Lead City, who was born October 13, 1862, in Nashville, Tennessee, and is the son of James G. and Mary (Hiter) Moore, the father for many years a prominent merchant and representative man of that city. The early educational training of the subject was acquired in the schools of Nashville and sometime after finishing the high- school course he came to Dakota territory, locat- ing. in September, 1880, at Lead City, where in due time he secured employment with the Home- stake Mining Company, entering the service of that large concern as a common laborer. Later he resigned his place to become a brakeman on the Black Hills & Fort Pierre Railroad, subse- quently rising by successive promotions to the positions of fireman and conductor, and it was while discharging his duty in the latter capac- ity that an accident occurred, which very mate- rially changed his future course of life. On April 5. 1884, while attempting to board a moving train, he lost his footing and fell under the cars. the injury resulting in the loss of his left leg. just below the knee, also the four small toes of the right foot, from the effect of which painful, and what at the time was thought fatal, injuries he was a long time recuperating. When suf- ficiently recovered, he returned to his old home in Nashville, Tennessee, where he entered the law department of Vanderbilt University, becoming what is known as a "one-year man."-that is,

by hard study and attendance at both junior and senior lectures, finishing the full course in one- half the allotted time. He made a brilliant record as a student. and in 1885 was graduated with the honors of his class, being selected on the occasion as one of the moot court commence- ment orators on account of his rare power and eloquence as a public speaker. Shortly after his graduation Mr. Moore returned to South Da- kota and, opening a law office in Lead City. soon built up a lucrative practice and gained recogni- tion as one of the rising members of the Lawrence county bar. His success was immediate, his ability as a jury lawyer winning him worthy prestige, and for a number of years he was con- nected either for the prosecution or defense in nearly every important case tried in the courts where he practiced. In 1889 he was elected city attorney of Lead and held the office with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of the public until May, 1892, on the first day of which month he was appointed state's attorney for Lawrence county. He held the latter position one year, his term closing in 1894, from which time until 1897 he devoted his attention solely to . his private practice, which had greatly grown in magnitude and importance during the intervening years.

In 1897 Mr. Moore was elected judge of the eighth judicial circuit of South Dakota, for which high and responsible position he was well fitted and he occupied the bench until 1901, winning the meanwhile an enviable reputation as an able and popular jurist. His rulings were not only fair and impartial, but embodied a thorough knowledge of the points at issue, and his deci- sions were comprehensive and exhaustive, few of them suffering reversal at the hands of the supreme court.

In 1900 Judge Moore was nominated for congress on the fusion ticket, a minion of Demo- crats and Populists, but by reason of the over- whelming strength of the opposition that year failed of election, although running several hun- dred votes ahead of his ticket. He was a South Dakota member of the national Populist convention, held in Sioux Falls in 1900, and took

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a leading part in its deliberations, securing the insertion of a resolution in the platform denounc- ing the incarceration of miners in the Coeur d' Alene Bull Pen, as an infamous outrage. The Judge was also a delegate to the Populist na- tional convention which met in St. Louis in 1896, and had much to do in formulating the policy of the party and directing its operators in the cam- paigns of that and succeeding years. He has always had the interests of the lahoring classes at heart, and, having been a toiler himself for many years, thoroughly appreciates their condi- tion, sympathizes with their aspirations and to the extent of his ability assists them in carrying out every laudable measure for their advance- ment. In the line of his profession he has dem- onstrated his interests in the poor and needy in many ways, frequently giving legal advice gra- tuitously, and never refusing to take a case for a man or woman on account of lack of fees.

When Troop A of Grigsby's Cow-Boy Regi- ment, Third United States Volunteer Cavalry, of South Dakota, perfected a permanent organiza- tion, Judge Moore was made an honorary mem- ber, being the only man accorded the honor, the list closing with his name. As an evidence of the high esteem in which he was held by the troop, they presented him with a button badge, which he has since worn on the lapel of his coat and which he proposes thus to wear as long as he lives.

The Judge's last official position was that of city attorney, to which he was appointed the sec- ond time in 1902, and the duties of which he has since discharged with his characteristic ability. He has always been a zealous Democrat and an active party worker, and his influence as a politi- cian is confined to no particular locality, being state-wide on account of his effectiveness as a campaigner and his ability in the hustings. In the campaign of 1900 he gained a national repu- tation by reason of his pronounced views and utterances in opposition to the Philippine war. his able discussion of this question and other is- sties of that year carrying conviction to the minds of the large and appreciative audiences that greeted hiin, wherever he appeared. Without

invidious distinction, it is but fair to state that Judge Moore is today one of South Dakota's best known and most popular citizens, his career as a lawyer, judge and public-spirited man of affairs fully meeting the high expectations of his many friends and admirers, and reflecting credit upon the state.

On June 2. 1886, Judge Moore was united in marriage with Miss Susie B. Jordan, of Tennes- see, who was born and reared near Franklin, in the county of Williamson. Her father at one time was one of the largest land proprietors in the middle part of that state, a man of great wealth and wide influence and before the war the owner of a large number of slaves. Three children have blessed the union of Judge and Mrs. Moore, their names being Rupert E., Mary Alice and Norma Elizabeth.

Judge Moore is an enthusiastic member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and now holds the title of past exalted ruler of Dead- wood Lodge, No. 508. In 1902 he was a dele- gate from this lodge to the grand lodge, which met at Salt Lake City, and while attending that body took a prominent part in its deliberations and was influential in shaping the policy of the order, not only in his own state, but throughout the entire country. In religion the Judge is lib- eral, not belonging to any church or inclining more favorably to one denomination than to an- other : nevertheless he is a firm believer in a su- preme' being, recognizes in Christianity a great moral and spiritual force, but accepts as his only creed the Golden Rule.

PATTISON FRANCIS MCCLURE, pres- ident of the Pierre National Bank, was born in Laurel, Franklin county, Indiana, on the 8th of August, 1853. and is a son of James R. and Hester A. McClure, who removed from the Hoos- ier state to the territory of Kansas the year after the birth of the subject, and they located one hundred and thirty-five miles west of Kansas City, and as a pioneer the father of the subject became prominent and influential in the public affairs of the territory and state, having been

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one of the early members of the bar of the Sun- flower state and having been successfully estab- lished in the practice of his profession in Junction City for nearly half a century and up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1903. As a young man James R. McClure ran away from college to tender his services to his country in its war with Mexico, while he also served with signal valor and gallantry during the war of the Rebellion, as a member of a Kansas regiment, in which he was made captain of his company and later promoted to the office of quartermaster. He did not come forth unscathed, since he lost his right leg in the battle of Shelbina, Missouri. During his many years' residence in Kansas, Captain McClure has much to do with the shap- ing of its political and civic history and material upbuilding, having been conspicuously con- cerned in many of its most important historical events and having filled numerous offices of pub- lic trust and responsibility.

The subject of this sketch received his pre- liminary educational discipline in the public schools of Junction City, Kansas, later being a student in the State Agricultural College, at Man- hattan. Kansas, while he thereafter was matrice- lated in Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, where he continued his course into the junior year. After leaving college he began reading law under the effective preceptorship of his hon- ored father, but before completing his technical course he went to Illinois, where he put his dis- tinctive mechanical talent into play in connection with the perfecting of a self-binder reaper for a well-known manufacturer of harvesting ma- chinery, being one of the first workers, in 1874-5, who successfully brought about the solution of the mechanical problem involved. In 1878 Mr. McClure went abroad to assist in introducing American harvesting machinery in Great Brit- ain, Belgium, France and Spain, while during 1879-80 he had charge of important affairs, throughout the state of Minnesota, for a large manufacturing concern in Ohio.

Mr. McClure identified himself with the city of Pierre at the time of its inception, having come here on the first passenger train to enter the

town, in the autumn of 1880. Here he forth- with established himself in the hardware busi- ness, entering into partnership with William H. Gleckler, under the firm name of Gleckler & MeClure, and they built up a most prosperous business, being thus associated until 1889, when our subject disposed of his interests in the en- terprise. In that year he was one of the prin- cipals concerned in the organization of the Pierre National Bank, of which he was elected presi- tlent, an office of which he has ever since re- mained incumbent, while to his wise executive policy and progressive methods is largely due the magnificent growth which has marked the course of this solid and popular financial in- stitution. Upon the organization of Hughes county, in 1880, he was made the first county surveyor, and in 1882 he was elected a mem- ber of the board of county commissioners. In 1885 he was elected mayor of the city, and was chosen as his own successor in the following year. giving a most able and acceptable ad- ministration and doing much to further the municipal growth and material prosperity. He was one of the committee. in 1885-6-7. repre- senting this section of the state at the federal capital in the matter of urging upon congress the opening to settlement of a large tract of valuable land then included in the Sioux In- dian reservation, a measure which was finally brought to a successful issne and which had great effect in hastening the development of the state and in affording opportunities for a large number of good citizens to secure homes. He has been one of the prominent and valued members of the board of trade of Pierre and in the connection rendered most effective service in the contest which secured the location of the state capital here. in 1889-90, while his influ- ence and energies are being again brought into action at the present time (1904) in defending the claims of his home city and in aiding to defeat the proposition to remove the capital else- where. In 1887-8 Mr. McClure served as com- missioner of immigration of the territory of Da- kota, having been appointed by Governor L. K. Church. In 1889 he was the first nominee for

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governor of the state on the Democratic ticket, and made a brilliant canvass, but was defeated by the Republican nominee, Hon. A. C. Mellette. In 1893 he was appointed commissioner of the state to the World's Columbian Exposition, in Chicago. He was most actively identified with the movement which resulted in the division of the great domain of Dakota territory and in the admission of North and South Dakota to the Union. Mr. McClure has ever given a stanch allegiance to the Democratic party and is one of its leaders in the state, while as a citizen and as a business man he is held in unequivocal confidence and esteem.

On the 24th of July, 1893, at Sioux City, Iowa, Mr. McClure was united in marriage to Mrs. Elizabeth S. Bowen, nee Bentley, and their beautiful home is a center of gracious hospitality.

DOUGLAS W. MARCH, one of the repre- sentative members of the bar of Pierre, is a na- tive of the old Buckeye state, having been born in New Franklin, Stark county. Ohio. on the 25th of September. 1859, a son of Henry C. and Sarah J. (McLoughlin) March, both of whom are now deceased, the father having devoted the last twenty years of his life as a treasury department clerk at Washington, D. C. After completing the curriculum of the public schools in his native town Mr. March entered Mount Union College, at Alliance, in the same county, and in this well- known institution he completed his literary course. In 1882 Mr. March matriculated in the law department of the National University at Washington, D. C., and was there graduated in 1884, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in 1886 he took the degree of Master of Laws. In 1887 he located in Oberlin, Kansas, where he was engaged in the practice of his profession until 1889, when he came to Pierre, South Dakota. I where he has ever since been established and where he has built up a large and representative practice. He has ever given an uncompromising allegiance to the Republican party, but has held his profession worthy of his undivided time and

attention. Mr. March is affiliated with Capital City Lodge, No. 36, Knights of Pythias, which he has represented in the grand lodge of the state, of which latter important body he is a past chancellor.

On the 17th of September, 1894, Mr. March was united in marriage with Miss May Cowan, daughter of Archibald and Mary Cowan, of Pierre. and they are the parents of four children, namely : Harry C., Doris, Julia E. and Alta May.

GEORGE W. PALMER is a prosperous cit- izen of Lennox, Lincoln county, where he has been practicing veterinary surgery for a number of years. He was born April 1, 1836, in Madi- son county, New York, and lived at home until of mature years, assisting his father on the farm and receiving an education in the schools of his native state and Wisconsin. He then left the pa- rental roof and went to Iowa, where he engaged in farming. Subsequently he disposed of his Iowa farm and moving to Wisconsin, engaged in the drug business. A number of years ago he came to Lincoln county and took up land, to which he later moved his family, and under his labors the claim in due time was improved and converted into one of the good farms in the neighborhood. Subsequently he removed to the village of Lennox, where he has since resided, devoting his attention the meanwhile to veteri- nary surgery, a profession in which he has ac- quired unusual proficiency and skill and much more than local reputation.

MRS. PHOEBE L. MCCOLLUM, of Sioux Falls, who is conducting a notable enterprise un- der the title of the North and South Dakota View Company, is a native of the state of Illinois, and a representative of one of its early and honored pioneer families. She was born in Granville, Putnam county, on the 8th of October, 1865, and is a daughter of Anton and Anna (Merryfield) Lowenberg, the former of whom was born in Il- linois and the latter in Ohio. He was a farmer by vocation and both he and his wife are now at

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Hastings, Nebraska. They became the parents of seven children, of whom seven are living. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. McCollum was George Lowenberg, who was one of the first set- tlers in the vicinity of the present town of Gran- ville, Illinois, where he took up his residence as early as 1835, and his large farm is now being platted into city lots. When he located there his nearest market place was Chicago, about one hundred and twenty-five miles to the east, and the great western metropolis was then repre- sented by a straggling .town of the most unpre- tentious kind.

Mrs. McCollum received her educational training in the public schools of her native state, having been graduated in the high school in the city of Ottawa as a member of the class of 1888. She was for two years successfully engaged in teaching in the schools of her native town. On the 20th of September, 1890, in the city of Chi- cago, was solemnized the marriage of the sub- ject to Arthur C. McCollum, who was born in Ottawa, Illinois, on Christmas day of the year 1865, being a son of William and Doris McCol- lum, of Ottawa, where he was reared and edu- cated. Mr. and Mrs. McCollum have one child, Ruth Esther. Immediately after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. McCollum removed to San Jose, California, where the former was for nine years a clerk in the local postoffice, having been in the postoffice previous to the marriage. In the spring of 1894 Mr. and Mrs. McCollum came to Sioux Falls, and here the subject has since been en- gaged in business, as previously noted. Mr. Mc- Collum is now employed in the postoffice at Sioux Falls. Both she and her husband are members of the Congregational church.

WASHINGTON C. GRAYBILL, one of the highly honored citizens of Chamberlain, was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, on the 24th of January, 1851, being a son of Samuel R. and Sarah A. (Carlisle) Graybill, of whose children five are living, namely: Henry Clay, who is traffic manager of the Belt Railroad & Stock Yards Company in the city of Indianapolis, In-

diana; George R., who is traveling emigrant agent for the Frisco Railroad Company, at Shel- byville, Illinois; Frank C., who is engaged in the commission trade in Kansas City, Missouri; Washington C., who is the immediate subject of this sketch; and Sarah O., who is the wife of Charles McLeod, of Portland, Oregon. The fa- ther was likewise born in Fairfield county, Ohio, whither his parents removed from Pennsylvania in the pioneer days, both having been native of Germany. Samuel R. Graybill was reared on the pioneer farmstead and as a young man prepared himself for the legal profession, being duly ad- mitted to the bar of his native state. About 1859 he removed to Shelby county, Illinois, where he engaged in farming and stock growing, having been led to devote his attention to the great basic art of agriculture from the fact that he had mar- ried the daughter of a prosperous farmer. His own parents were well-to-do and had given him a liberal education, but he never had cause to re- gret his final choice of vocation. He was origi- nally an old-line Whig, but eventually arrayed himself with the Democracy, having held various local offices. His death occurred in 1895, while his wife passed away in 1871.

The honored subject of this sketch was reared on the homestead farm and after duly attending the public schools continued his studies in the Shelbyville College, in Shelbyville, Illinois. At the age of nineteen he began teaching in the dis- trict schools, and for thirteen years thereafter was successfully engaged in pedagogic work. In 1883 he came to Dakota and located in Chamber- lain, where he was soon afterward admitted to the bar of the territory, having previously given careful attention to the study of law while en- gaged in teaching. He opened a law office here and also established himself in the real-estate business, while he soon gained a strong hold on the confidence and regard of the community. In 1886 he was elected county judge of Brule county, and was chosen as his own successor two years later, giving a most able and discriminating serv- ice on the bench and showing himself well in- formed in the minutiae of the law. In 1890 Judge Graybill was elected register of deeds of the

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county, serving one term, and in 1894 he was appointed receiver of the United States land office at this place, retaining this position until 1898. In the fall of 1902 he was elected to represent his district in the lower house of the state legislature, being also the minority candidate for speaker, and here he has shown himself once more the loyal cit- izen and one deeply interested in the welfare and progress of his state, serving on several impor- tant committees. He has ever been a stalwart Democrat and has been an active worker in the party canse. He is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, being affiliated with Cham- berlain Lodge, No. 56, Free and Accepted Ma- sons ; Pilgrim Chapter, No. 10, Royal Arch Ma- sons ; St. Bernard Commandery, No. 11, Knights Templar, at Mitchell; and El Riad Temple, An- cient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Sioux Falls ; while he has been also a prominent figure in the Knights of Pythias, hav- ing served as grand chancellor of the grand lodge of the state in 1890, and being a member of Cas- tle Lodge, No. 10, in his home city.

On the 30th of January, 1895, Judge Gray- bill was united in marriage to Miss Marion W. Perry, of Saratoga Springs, New York, no chil- dren having been born of this union. Mrs. Gray- bill's only brother. Dr. John L. Perry, is one of the proprietors of the United States Hotel at Sar- atoga, New York, and it is worthy of mention that the family is related to Commodore Perry, of Lake Erie fame.

H. W. HAHN, president of the Farmers' Bank, Humboldt, and one of the leading mer- chants of the same place, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the 24th day of May, 1870. His parents, Ferdinand and Emelia ( Hennig ) Hahn, moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when he was eight years old and it was in the public schools of that city that he received his early educational training. The discipline thus ac- quired was afterward supplemented by a course in the Western Normal School, at Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was graduated in 1894, but prior to that date he taught in South Dakota,

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 93

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