History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 94

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

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also followed the same profession for some time thereafter, devoting altogether about eight years to educational work. In 1897 Mr. Hahn located at Humboldt, where he became associated with Harry Duncan in the mercantile business, form- ing the firm of Hahn & Duncan, which still ex- ists as originally organized. During the ensuing five years the subject devoted his attention ex- clusively to the general goods business, but in 1903 became one of the founders of the Farmers' Bank of Humboldt, of which institution he has been president ever since its organization and the success of which is largely due to his able and effective management. Associated with Mr. Hahn in the banking business are Harry Dun- can, M. Owens, I. D. Maloney and F. B. Lock- wood. four thoroughly reliable and far-seeing business men whose high standing in the com- munity is recognized by all and whose ability to carry on successfully this important financial enterprise does not admit of a doubt. Although but recently established the bank has made com- mendable progress and the volume of business which it now commands indicates its permanence and popularity among the leading institutions of the kind in the state.

The mercantile establishment with which Mr. Hahn is identified is not only the largest and most successful general store in Humboldt, but one of the most extensively patronized in Minne- haha county. Every article of merchandise for which there is any demand can be found in the large and carefully selected stock; the business from a small stock has grown to enormous pro- portions, and few establishments in the same length of time have come so rapidly and promi- nently to the front as the annual sales, amount- ing to over fifty thousand dollars. abundantly testify. Mr. Hahn is essentially a self-made man and every dollar in his business enterprises and in the large private fortune in his possession has been honestly earned through his own ef- forts. Working his way upward by industry and honorable methods, he has become thor- oughly familiar with every detail of the mer- cantile business, and his sound judgment and discriminating knowledge render him especially

H. W. HAHN.

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eligible for the management of large enterprises, pleted his preliminary work of preparation for the priesthood, while later he was graduated in the medical department of the famous University such as he today so successfully directs and con- trols. He is recognized as one of the able financiers and wide-awake men of affairs in the , of Dublin, Ireland, while later he took a post- southeastern part of the state, and his influence in promoting the material welfare of the city of his residence and advancing the varied inter- ests of the people has been as great if not greater than that of any other individual in the com- munity. Upright and honorable in all of his dealings, he is as punctilious in the discharge of his duties now as he was when struggling against opposition in an almost menial capacity, and he attains to a marked degree not only the high re- gard of all with whom he has business relations, but with the general public as well.

Mr. Hahn is a Republican in politics, but the pressing claims of his business affairs prevent him from taking a very active part in political work. He has never held office nor aspired to leadership, his only public position being that of chairman of the Republican township committee, which he held for a brief period and in which his services were effective and greatly appreciated by the party. He was married, on October 21. 1902, to Miss Carrie M. Rehfeldt, of Williams- burg, Iowa, a most estimable and accomplished lady, who moves in the best social circles of Humboldt and is popular with all of her friends and associates.

DAVID F. SULLIVAN, M. D., who is actively engaged in the practice of his profession at Frankfort, Spink county, is a native of the Badger state, having been born in Hazelgreen, Grant county, Wisconsin, on the Ioth of May. 1849, and being a son of Denis and Catherine (Flinn ) Sullivan, both of whom were born in Ireland, whence they came to America when young, passing the closing years of their lives in Wisconsin, of which great commonwealth they were early settlers. The subject was reared un- der the conditions of the pioneer era in Wiscon- sin, but was afforded excellent educational ad- vantages in his youth. He attended school at Cincineway Mound, in that state, where he com-

graduate course in the city of Chicago, in which city he also took a special course of study in law, in the International University. The Doctor be- gan the practice of medicine in 1876, and in 1879 was made surgeon of the Thirteenth United States Infantry, with which he rendered service in the line until 1883, when he was appointed to a similar incumbency with the Twenty-fifth In- fantry, with which he continued as surgeon until 1884, having taken up his residence in South Dakota in 1885. He has been established in the practice of his profession in South Dakota since 1885, and has built up a large and representative business, while he maintains a strong hold upon popular confidence, esteem and affection and is a man of high professional attainments and gen- eral scholarship. He is one of the prominent and valued members of the South Dakota Homeo- pathic Medical Society, in politics is a stanch Republican, and fraternally is identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

On the 8th of February, 1898. Dr. Sullivan was united in marriage to Miss Malvina Lem- euix, who was born in the dominion of Canada, in 1864, being a daughter of Charles LaChance. Dr. and Mrs. Sullivan have no children. Both are devoted members of the Catholic church, in whose faith they were reared, while, as previously noted, the Doctor in his youth began preparing himself for the priesthood of the church, finally maturing other plans and entering the profession which he has honored and dignified by his able services.

LUDWIG LEVINGER. president and owner of the Aurora County Bank, at White Lake, is a native of the kingdom of Wurtem- berg, Germany, where he was born on the Ioth of April, 1867, being the second in order of birth of the four children born to Herman and Mary (Linder) Levinger. All the children are still living, but the subject is the only repre-

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sentative of the immediate family in the United States. He was afforded liberal educational ad- vantages in the fatherland, where he remained until he had attained the age of seventeen years, when he decided to come to America, where he was convinced better opportunities were af- forded for attaining independence and success. Accordingly, in the spring of 1883, he embarked for the United States, landing in New York city, whence he made his way to the city of Chicago, where he secured employment in a wholesale men's furnishing-goods house. He retained this position a few months, in the meanwhile sparing no pains to inform himself in regard to American business methods and customs, and in the summer of the same year he decided to seek his fortunes in the west. He located in Mitchell, South Dakota, where he held a clerk- ship in a furniture establishment until the spring of 1885, when he took up his residence in White Lake, where he secured a position in the White Lake Bank. From a clerical position he was soon advanced to that of cashier of the institution, and in this executive office he con- tintied to render efficient service until 1895. when he purchased the business of the Aurora County Bank, the oldest monetary institution in this section, the same dating its inception back to the year 1882, and as president and manager of this bank he has attained a high degree of sticcess and an enviable reputation in business circles. All this is the more gratifying to con- template in view of the fact that he came to this country without capitalistic resources or in- fluential friends, and in the short period of twenty years has placed himself well in the fore- front in the ranks of financiers in the great and prosperous state of South Dakota, being known and honored as one of the influential citizens of his county. He is a stalwart Republican in his political proclivities, and for sixteen years has served as mayor of White Lake, of which office he is incumbent at the present time, while he has been also a member of the board of educa- tion for the past fifteen years. He stands high in rank in the Masonic fraternity, holding membership in the following bodies : White Lake

Lodge, No. 84, Free and Accepted Masons ; Mitchell Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Mitch- ell Commandery, Knights Templar; Oriental Consistory, No. 1, Ancient Accepted Scot- tish Rite, at Yankton; and El Riad Temple, An- cient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Sioux Falls.

In 1896, Mr. Levinger was married to Miss Sadie Wagner and they have two children, Frank R. and Margaret.

R. H. SOMERS, who holds the responsible office of government agent for the Lower Brule Indian agency, is a native of New Brunswick, Canada, where he was born October 23, 1857, being a son of Lafayette and Elizabeth A. (Chap- man) Somers, and the eldest of their nine surviv- ing children, the others being as follows: Ame- lia, the wife of L. W. Lewis, who lives at Mad- ison, Wisconsin ; Lowell, a resident of Lafayette, Indiana: Clifford M., a farmer on the Lower Brule reservation : Lafayette, a resident of Cham- berlain, this state; and Le Baron B., Peolia L., Fred D. and Eliza M., who remain at the parental home. The father of our subject was born in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1826, and when a young man he removed to Robertstown, Maine, where he served an apprenticeship at the trade of blacksmith, after which he returned to his home in Canada, where he continued to follow his trade until 1878, when he emigrated with his family to the territory of Dakota, locating in Brule City, the prospective terminal of the Chicago, Milwau- kee & St. Paul Railroad, though by a later dis- pensation Chamberlain was made the terminus. He engaged in farming and stock growing and continued to reside in Brule City until 1898, when he removed to Chamberlain, where he is now liv- ing retired. His wife was likewise a native of Canada, and is one of the honored pioneer women of the state.

Major R. H. Somers, the immediate subject of this sketch, acquired his early education in the schools of his native province, and before attain- ing the age of sixteen he entered upon an appren- ticeship at the blacksmith trade, under the ef-

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fective direction of his father. After the removal of the family to Dakota he bought an ax and be- gan chopping wood for the steamboats plying the Missouri river, and after being thus occupied for one year he was tendered and accepted the po- sition of blacksmith at Fort Hale, where he served four years. In 1883 he left this position and re- moved to Chamberlain, and devoted the follow- ing three years to farming and stock raising. In July, 1886, he married Miss Helena F. Archer, of Brule county, and as a severe drought the follow- ing year causcd an entire loss of his crops he re- moved from his ranch to the village of Cham- berlain and here opened a blacksmith shop, whichi he eondueted until the spring of 1888, when he sold the same and returned to his farm. The droughts continued, however, and in 1891 he was forced to again abandon his agricultural opera- tions and to re-engage in the blacksmith business in Chamberlain, where he continued at his trade until 1898, having also engaged in the livery busi- ness in 1894, making a success of both enter- prises. In October, 1897, Major Somers was ap- pointed deputy United States marshal, in whiel capacity he served until May, 1901, when he re- signed to assume the duties of his present office as agent at the Lower Brule Indian agency, his appointment having been conferred on the 15th of May. He is a stanch Republican in his polit- ical proclivities, and fraternally is identified with Chamberlain Lodge, No. 56, Free and Accepted Masons ; Pilgrim Chapter, Royal Areh Masons ; Castle Lodge, No. 10, Knights of Pythias, of which he is a charter member; and Chamberlain Lodge, No. 88, Ancient Order of United Work- men. Our subject and his wife are the parents of five children, all of whom are still beneath the home roof, namely : Robert E., Frances E., Eve- lyn, Lucky H. and Thomas M.

CHARLES D. TIDRICK, one of the rep- resentative and highly esteemed citizens of Chamberlain, is a native of Winterset, Iowa, where he was born on the 24th of May, 1863, being a son of Levi M. and Martha (Bell) Tid- riek, of whose eleven children seven are liv-

ing, namely : Lee, a resident of Winterset. Iowa : Addie, wife of O. M. White, of that place ; Grace, wife of E. W. Geiger, of Ottawa, Kansas ; Hoyt, Joseph and George, all residents of Win- terset, and Charles D., the immediate subject of this sketch. Levi Tidrick was born in Guern- sey county, Ohio, in 1827, and when twenty years of age he removed thence to St. Louis, Missouri, where his brother, Robert L., a prominent attorney and reeciver of the land of- fiee, was then residing, and in 1848 they both went to Winterset. Iowa, where the father of our subjeet took up his permanent abode, his brother eventually removing to the eity of Des Moines. Levi Tidrick was married at Winter- set, and took up the study of medicine, being enabled to defray nearly the entire expense of his eourse in the St. Louis Medieal College, and receiving some financial assistance from his brother Robert. After his graduation in this in- stitution Dr. Tidrick continued in the active practice of his profession in Winterset until his death, in 1896, at the age of sixty-nine years. His death was the result of exposure in Florida. where he passed the winter of that year on his orange farm, the season being one in which the severe frosts did so great damage to the Florida fruit crops. The Doctor was widely known and mitich loved in his seetion of Iowa, and his death was deeply lamented in his home town. His widow still resides in Winterset.

Charles D. Tidrick acquired his early edit- cational discipline in the public schools of his home village, being graduated in the Winterset high school and then entering the Normal School at Ladoga. Indiana, later continuing his studies at the State University of Iowa, at Iowa City, where he was a student for four years. After leaving school lie passed a short interval in Indian Territory, and in the spring of 1884 eame to Beresford, South Dakota, where he se- cured a position as auditor for F. M. Slagle & Company, lumber dealers. He retained this re- sponsible office about five years, being located at the firm's yards in Alton, Iowa. In 1888 he was elected recorder of Sioux county, that state, on the Democratic ticket, his victory at the polls

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being the more noteworthy by reason of the fact that the county had a normal Republican plu- rality of about one thousand at the time. He was re-elected in 1890, thus serving two terms.

In 180)3 Mr. Tidrick effected the organization of the German Savings Bank in Alton, dispos- ing of his interests in the same in the fall of that year. when he came to Chamberlain. Here, in the spring of 1804. in company with G. W. Pitts, he organized the Bank of Iowa & Dakota, of which he became president. In 1896 they sold the bank and purchased the electric-lighting and gas plants of Chamberlain, which they have since owned and operated. Mr. Tidrick is the owner of twenty-five hundred acres of valuable land in Brule county, and fifteen hundred acres in contiguous counties, while he conducts a large business in the real-estate line, and in the extending of financial loans, as well as in the in- surance and abstracting departments of his business. Mr. Tidrick built and now owns the gas plant at Chamberlain. He is a stalwart Democrat in politics, and is now a member of the board of aldermen of his town. In 1897 he was appointed United States commissioner for this district, and is strictly serving in this capacity. Fraternally he is identified with Cham- berlain Lodge, No. 56, Free and Accepted Ma- sons : Chamberlain Lodge, No. 88, Ancient Or- der of United Workmen ; Sioux Falls Lodge, No. 262. Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks : Castle Lodge, No. 10, Knights of Pythias, and Sioux Tent, Knights of the Maccabees.

In 1893, Mr. Tidrick was married to Miss Lillian Love, of Albion, Indiana, and they have three daughters, Eugenia, Mary and Frances.

THOMAS A. STEVENS, the popular post- master at Chamberlain, was born in the city of Elgin, Illinois, on the 26th of January, 1840, be- ing a son of Josiah and Sarah ( Rowley ) Stevens, of whose eight children he is the younger of the two surviving, his sister, Caroline, being now the wife of Jacob Ebersole, of Fredericktown, Ohio. The parents of the subject were both born in the village of Painted Post, New York, and the gen-

ealogy in the paternal line is traced back to an- cestors who came from Liverpool, England, to America, in 1654, and the subject has in his pos- session a valued heirloom in the form of a cane which was brought over to the new world by the founder of his family, the name and date being carved on the cane, while he himself bears the full patronymic of his colonial ancestor, while the cane has been handed down from generation to generation to persons thus bearing the name of their first American progenitor. The mater- nal ancestry is of Irish extraction, and the name has likewise been identified with the annals of our national history from the colonial epoch.

In 1834 Josiah Stevens emigrated from New York to Illinois, making the long overland trip with wagons, and he took up a claim of govern- ment land lying within the present corporate lim- its of the great city of Chicago. A year later he traded this land for a team of horses and removed to Elgin, that state, being one of its early set- tlers, and thereafter he was engaged in railroad work for several years. About 1853 he removed to Rockford, and later to Pecatonica, Illinois, where he was railroad station agent up to the time of his retirement from active work, about the year 1860, while his death there occurred in 1872, at the age of seventy years. He was a Democrat up to the time of the formation of the Republican party, when his anti-slavery views led him to espouse the cause of the new party, of whose principles he ever afterward continued a stanch advocate, while he was one of the early members of the Masonic fraternity in Illinois and active in its work.

. Thomas A. Stevens received a common-school education in his native state. On the outbreak of the Civil war he was among the first to tender his services in defense of the Union. On April 17, 1861, the day after President Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers, he enlisted as a pri- vate in the Rockford Zouaves, being the first person in the town of Pecatonica to enter the serv- ice. The zouaves were mustered in as Company D, Eleventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, on the Ist of May, and the command was one of the first to pass through Chicago enroute to the

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front. He served with this regiment during his three-months term of enlistment and after being mustered out assisted in raising a company which became Company K. First Illinois Cavalry, and of which he was made first lieutenant, in which . capacity he served until January 1. 1864. In July of that year he enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Forty-sixth Illinois Volunteer In- fantry, with which he served as first lieutenant until August 1, 1865, when he was mustered out, receiving his honorable discharge.

After the close of the war Mr. Stevens, in May, 1866, started from Illinois for the west, making the trip overland with team and wagon. Upon reaching Fort Riley, Kansas, he found that there was an uprising of Indians, and he re- turned to Omaha, whence he proceeded by steam- boat up the Missouri river to Fort Benton, Mon- tana, whence he proceeded by stage to Helena, now the capital of that great state. In that local- ity he engaged in prospecting for gold and in general contracting. in which he continued until the fall of 1868, when he returned to his home town in Illinois, where he established himself in the grocery business. In the spring of 1872, just after the great fire in that city, he went to Chi- cago, where he entered the employ of the Adams Express Company, in whose service he there continued until March 1, 1882, when he started for Chamberlain, South Dakota, his brother Eras- tus C. having come to this territory in 1878, as a pioneer settler, and having come to Chamberlain in 1881, as a contractor and builder, his arrival here being simultaneous with that of the railroad. He erected a number of the first buildings in the town. After the subject's advent in the town he became associated with his brother in the con- tracting business, to which he devoted his atten- tion about three years. In 1885 he was appointed deputy register of deeds, serving about four years. In 1889 he was elected register of deeds, serving one term and being defeated in the ensuing elec- tion by reason of the Populistic wave which swept over the west in that campaign. In 1892, under the administration of President Harrison, he was appointed clerk at the Crow Creek Indian agency, in which capacity he served until June 1, 1804.

when he was removed by President Cleveland, by reason of his political views. Ile then came to Chamberlain and established himself in the abstract business and also became a prominent figure in political affairs, being made chairman of the Republican county central committee. On the 8th of March, 1898. Mr. Stevens was ap- pointed postmaster at Chamberlain, under Presi- dent Mckinley, and on the 6th of March, 1902, he was reappointed, under President Roosevelt. Both appointments came as the result of popular endorsement in the community.

Mr. Stevens has been an uncompromising Re- publican from the time of attaining his majority, having cast his first presidential vote for Lin- coln, as did he also his second, having been at that time a soldier in the field and making the trip from New Orleans to his home in Illinois for the purpose of thus exercising his franchise. He is one of the charter members of McKinzie Post, No. 340, Grand Army of the Republic, and is also affiliated with Chamberlain Lodge, No. 56. Free and Accepted Masons.

On the 23d of August, 1865, Mr. Stevens was united in marriage to Miss Emily Elliott, of Peca- tonica, Illinois, and her death occurred, at Crow Creek agency, in April, 1893. Of the five chil- dren of this union four are living : Lucy, who remains at the paternal home ; Elizabeth, who is the wife of Ray Gooder, of Iona, this state ; Harry, who is at the paternal home ; and Erastus C., who is deputy postmaster under his father.

EDMUND A. BARLOW, who is register of deeds of Lyman county, is one of the honored pioneers of the state and is at the present time president of the Old Settlers' Association of the county. He was born in Eaton, province of Quebec, Canada, on the 14th of February. 1855. and is a son of George F. and Ann (Day) Barlow, both of whom were born in the state of New Hampshire, whence they removed to the province of Quebec in the same year in which their marriage was solemnized, passing the remainder of their lives in the dominion of Canada, the father being a carpenter and in-

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ventor. The subject received his early educa- tional training in his native province, and at the age of seventeen years removed thence to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where he continued to attend school as opportunity afforded. defraying his expenses for a time by clerking in mercantile establishments and later by teaching in the public schools. In 1879 he attended the Wisconsin State Normal School, at River Falls, and in the following year came to what is now the state of South Dakota, locating in Flandreau, Moody county, where he secured a clerical position in the important mercantile house of the W. Jones Company. About three years later he purchased the business, which he successfully continued until 1887, when he disposed of the same and purchased the general merchandise business of Ross Whalen, in Artesian, Sanborn county, South Dakota. In the fall of 1880 he removed thence to Chamberlain. South Dakota, purchas- ing a stock of general merchandise and prepar- ing to engage in business immediately upon the opening of the Sioux Indian reservation to settlement, this occurring the following spring. He then brought his stock of goods to Lyman. where he continued his mercantile business about eighteen months, at the expiration of which he sold out and engaged in ranching, to which line of enterprise he successfully gave his attention until June, 1903, when he disposed of his in- terests in that line, in order to assume the duties of his present office. He is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party, and in 1890 he was appointed postmaster at Lyman, serving about three years. He also served one term as county superintendent of schools and four years as justice of the peace, ever proving worthy of the confidence reposed in him by the people of the county. In November, 1902, Mr. Barlow was elected to his present office, that of register of deeds, for which he is specially well qualified. He has ever taken a lively interest in educational affairs in the county and has done much to ad- vance the canse. He is a member of Flandreau Lodge, No. 11, Free and Accepted Masons ; Pil- grim Chapter. No. 32, Royal Arch Masons ; Cyrene Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 94

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