USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 13
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The old guards had been absorbed by the First South Dakota Infantry, United States Volunteers, that served so valiantly in the Philippines. They had all been mustered out. There wasn't a semblance of a military organization left. Conklin rebuilt the establishment from the ground up.
Within nine months he organized two regiments of infantry,
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consisting of twelve companies each, and four troops of cavalry; held one state encampment of seven days, and two of five days each, and had but an insignificant appropriation. $3,000, to do it with. An officer of the war department, commenting on his success, said :
"The organization of the National Guards in South Dakota by Adjutant General Conklin is without parallel in the organiza- tion of militia in time of peace."
REFORM
But above all, the old gentleman loves to be referred to as a reformer. He seems proud of the fact that the reforms enacted in South Dakota and elsewhere within the past few years are nearly all measures advocated by him over a quarter of a century ago. He has been in every campaign since 1856, including the primary and the general election last year. He was twice a meni- ber of the Wisconsin legislature, fathered the Press Association of this state, and he is now president of the Clark County Bar Association, and vice president of the Clark Commercial Club.
ENFEEBLED
Early this year the General suffered from inflamatory rheu- matism, erysipelas and pneumonia, which was followed by a stroke of paralysis, leaving his entire left side helpless. Yet with the aid of electric massages, he has been largely restored to his former ruggedness.
Recently he dictated for publication a complete history of the town of Clark. His memory astonished his townspeople. A great many had forgotten the details and the dates which he used, and it seems incredible that he should have remembered them.
The old general has never felt assured of the hereafter. With him it has always been a matter of doubt. But incidentally, dur- ing one of his trips to Chicago, a few years since, he was induced to call on a spiritualist. At his request she called back the spirit of one of his former wives and asked her a question about some private family affairs that had been bothering the general for many years. She gave him a direct reply. Since then the Gen- eral has been meditating.
(Later. - Since the above was written and first published, General Conklin has adopted the Christian faith and united with the M. E. church. Congratulations! General. )
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DR. F. E. WALKER
A TACTFUL SURGEON
The dictionary says a "walker" is one who walks. Not so with Dr. F. E. Walker, -he rides. He rides because he can af- ford it; he can afford to because he has a large surgical practice, and he has a large practice because he merits it.
After spending a few years in general medical practice, com- . bined with surgery, and finding the latter class of practice his natural field of work, he decided to give his life to it
The first problem was the proper field. Offers were coming to him galore Being a profound student, he figured out the . place for himself-and he decided well, -- Hot Springs, S. D .; not Hot Springs, Arkansas, or Missouri, or Arizona or any other state, but Hot Springs, South Dakota !-- if you please; a city neatly tucked away in a spring-watered vale, 3,400 feet above the sea, in the picturesque Black Hills of Dakota; a city where Old Sol works overtime uncomplainingly, and voluntarily puts in an average of 363 full days each year: where the dry mountain zephyrs, laden with the ozone of quakenasp and birch, are soft- ened by the wooing of a tireless sun ; where the climate is so ideal that on Christmas morning. frogs and froglets, poised with spread-weh feet .upon the green watercresses along the brooklet's sides, croak in endless refrains the same gurgling chants which their progenitors have sung since the days of Adam; where the aged wayfarer lies down to sleep and sees visions of plump- formed, ruby-lipped, satin skinned maidens mounting the Jacob's lalder of his dreams until his soul wells up with incantations of delight and he feels himself growing young again at Bethel's gate; where the mineral-water springs-fountatins of eternal youth- comfortably heated in the hidden bosom of Nature's realm, send gushing forth in endless volumes their healing streams of life; where Eden-calm, sun-lit, brook. fed, grassy-terraced. flower-belecked, treeful Eden-basking in the favored smiles of her Creator, opens wide her Hebean arms and says to the pain- weary sufferer, "Come in! Health and happiness are here."
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Born at Grinnell, Iowa, January 5, 1872, Mr. Walker rapidly rose to prominence. At fifteen years of age he graduated from the local high school: clerked for the next three years, and then spent five years teaching school and reading medicine. In 1895 he entered the Iowa State University, graduating from the med- ical department with the class of '98. The next year he held a position in the Iowa State Hospital for the Insane, at Independence.
After practicing for a brief period independently at Bigelow, Minnesota, he re- moved to Worthington, in that state. In 1902, he estab- lished at that place the city's first hospital, gave up his gen- eral medical practice and de- voted all his time to surgery.
His reputation as a sur- geon spread with his practice, until other towns began to bid for his services. The natural, as well as the commercial ad- vantages of Hot Springs, S. D., induced him to locate there in 1906, and accept the responsible position of head surgeon to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
DR. F. E. WALKER
MATCHLESS RECORD
The first year (only five years ago), he perfomed less than one hunderd operations. Today he is peforming on an average of four major operations a day. Although engaged in surgery but a comparatively few years, he is now approaching the Five Thousandth operation that he has performed; and the hospital records reveal the incontrovertible fact that the mortality result- ing from his operations is only one-half of one per cent. Five. things have no doubt united to bring about these phenominal re- sults: proper diagnosis, surgical skill, effective sterilization. good nursing, and the dry mountain cli nate of the Springs.
The doctor is a man of exceptional poise. Although nervous as well as nervy, not a trace of it is ever visible in the operating room. Here he works with the precision and rapidity of an ar-
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tist. Not one false move is made; not a single stitch put in at the wrong place and then removed; not a word spoken and re- peated; it is genius personified.
Walker, evidently fully appreciates the fact that the strain on his patient is in direct proportion to the number of minutes which he or she is under the anesthetic. For this reason he nerves himself up for the act, and performs on a average, three operations while the average surgeon is performing one. This has been proven on several occasions when members of his med- ical staff were performing simultaneous operations in adjoining rooms.
DIAGNOSING
At an expense of $10,000 Doctor Walker and his staff have fitted up in the medical block two large laboratories with every conceivable chemical and scientific apparatus known to the med- ical profession, for diagnosing the ailments of the human race. For this reason local practitioners-some of them heads of hos- pitals -within a radius of 500 miles, are daily sending people to Hot Springs, South Dakota, for physical examination. Many of these go back home for their operations.
The great value to suffering humanity of Walker's organiza- tion is the fact that he has, all in one building .- the beautiful stone medical block-twenty-two splendidly equipped office rooms. These are occupied by the specialists on his medical staff. One payment and one journey do the whole job. After receiving Doctor Walker's opinion, if the patient, or his or her friends, desire the advice of a specialist, a member of the staff is called in and the sick one is given the benefit of expert knowledge with- out a cent of extra charge. Again this is a wonderful saving in the vitality of the patient.
VARIED ABILITIES
In addition to his surgical and professional ability, Doctor Walker is also a conundrum along many other lines. On the plat- form he is fluent, witty and entertaining. In the literary realm, he is one of the most prolific contributors of his profession, to the standard medical journals of the entire nation. In the mus- ical world he can sit up to a piano and trip off on its responsive keys an oratorio that will lift the music lover's soul into realms of ecstacy and delight. As a physiographist, he is a walking en- cyclopedia of Black Hills climatic and geologic information. As a lawn tennis player, he has few peers in the west. As a man of general culture, his learning is broad and he could serve with dignity and honor as a lecturer on economics in one of our uni-
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versities. Although crowded terribly with professional work he is, withal, one of the most companionable of men; yet not one un- acquainted with grief. Recently, he said to a friend "There is only one real trouble in life and that is death." The first Mrs. Walker (nee Daisy M. Barclay of Brooklyn, lowa,) died in Min- neapolis in 1902. Four years later he was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Eckland of Worthington, Minnesota.
At present the doctor owns in Hot Springs what is perhaps the most expensive and unique bungaloo dwelling in the state. In it he comfortably houses his little family, fondles his babe for pastime, and like Longfellow's "Village Smithy," of Cambridge, "He looks the whole world in the face.
For he owes not any man."
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THOMAS C. BURNS
A LUCKY POLITICIAN
Robert Burns represents Scotland, but the name of Tom Burns suggests a neighboring isle. As the political history of Ireland for a decade. is largely the personal history of Robert Emmett, so the political history of Mitchell and of Davison county for a decade is largely the history of the up's and down's in politics of the tactful, clever, whole-souled, cheerful-losing Thomas C. Burns.
Senators Kittredge and Gamble were standing before President Roosevelt, in his of- ficial office quarreling over South Dakota patronage.
"I'll settle this dispute," said Teddy . "I will flip a coin -heads up, Kittredge's first choice; tails up, Gamble's first choice: and so on until all the patronage at you fellow's com- mand is disposed of. What say you?"
"Agreed!"' came the united response. A pair of lips drew apart; a double set of polished incisors, bicuspids, canines and molars, arranged in an elongated semi-circle, was revealed; the hand that unsheathed the victorius sword at San Juan thrust itself firm- ly in to a pocket; a silver dol- THOMAS C. BURNS lar came forth in it -- just one-one only, not "sixteen to one;"' but sixteen chances to one Tom Burns who was red-hot after re- appointment in the land office at Mitchell, might lose.
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Tom's fate was hanging in the balance. Would the coin, when tossed by the hand of authority, come straight down, heads up, bounce up a trifle, fall back in its same position or? would it "flop?" (a thing Tom Burns never did in politics).
Silence!
"Here it goes, boys," said the president; and at that mo- ment the dear little piece of thin circular metal, so greatly loved and so bitterly lamented by Mr. Bryan, was tossed to the ceiling.
Hush !
"Ping"- -"buzz". "down" A rush!
Staring eyes strove to catch the result.
"Heads up!" said Teddy.
"I'll take Tom Burns for register of the United States land office at Mitchell!" exclaimed Senator Kittredge.
Several years have now sped by into the irredeemable eter- nity of the past; the rapidly receding history of our rapidly de- veloping state is now being written by a new regime. The pro- gressive faction of the republican party is in power. "To the victor belongs the spoils." "Whose head goes next?" "Tom Burns!" shrieked out an insurgent."
"Well, I dont' know about that," said the new boss in South Dakota politics. "Dog gone it, I kinda like Tom. He's the hardest fighter and the best loser in politics that I ever knew. I believe we better be magnamious in his case and save him." "Well," said another, "we've got to get him out of Mitchell and Davison county, somehow. Just look at the majority that county gave Kittredge at the June primaries in 1908 "
"Wire him to come to Washington," interjected another. In a few hours Tom Burns was aboard a limited train, hurry- ing toward our national capitol.
Two days later glaring headlines appeared in all the leading dailies of the country :
U. S. LAND OFFICE At Mitchell TRANSFERRED TO GREGORY Tom Burns Retained As Register
"Fortune favors the brave." It's true in war, it's true in love, it's true in politics, it's true everywhere; even nature hates a coward. Tom Burns is as shrewd a political fighter as any man who ever got tangled up in the game. Yet his methods are so manly that even his enemies love him.
The greatest thing about Tom is that in politics, as in other things, his word is his bond. He never breaks faith with any
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man. He is either for you or against you; and, no matter which, you soon find it out.
Sir Thomas, plain Tom, "Uncle Tom," or just Tom Burns. as the case may be (he doesn't care what you call him, so long as it is done with "heads up"), is a politician through heredity, environment, and voluntary servitude. When he entered life 'tis said the first yell he let out of him was "poli." (He had the "tics" in him at the time, but he could not quite bring them to the surface.)
When he began to walk, as the story goes, he kept calling "pol, pol , poli, pol" until he so distracted his mother that she began to search for something to gratify his curiosity. She finally found it-some cards with men's faces on them, and T. C. has been "stacking" this kind of cards ever since.
Tom Burns came to Mitchell about thirty years ago. The better part of his life has been spent in that city. There he has raised and educated his family. There he has woven himself into the home life of the whole community. Unlike most active politicians who are brusque and abrupt, and who isolate them- selves from the world, except to their lieutenants, Mr. Burns is very sociable, and he enters into the social life of his home town with his whole heart. He goes to church regularly, visits the sick, comforts the dying, encourages the living; and, as a result, is universally liked by everybody. You couldn't get mad at him on a bet.
When he was about to leave Mitchell, to assume his position in the land office which had just been transferred to Gregory, in Gregory county. the business men of Mitchell held a special ban- quet in his honor. A member of the supreme court, the mayor, the leading attorneys, the bankers and the preachers-all made speeches of regret in his behalf, and overwhelmed him with tributes.
Only now and then, only once perhaps in a generation, do you find a man of Tom Burn's temperament and influence. He is a man whom any community might well feel honored to claim.
Long live Tom Burns!
WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
AN HONEST MAN
"An honest man is the noblest work of God." Sam Elrod is an honest man. When he was denominated "Honest Sam," he was at once elevated to the class of "Honest Abe." Governor Elrod is honest as a private citizen. He was honest as a public servant; honest with his constituents, honest to the state of South Dakota and honest with our sister state of North Carolina
On Septembert 21, 1901, Simon Schafer of New York city, presented to South Dakota $10,000 worth of North Carolina bonds issued during Martin Van Buren's administration. To each of these ten bonds were attached fifty-eight interest coupons of $30 each. This made the total amount due on then, $27,400. . The donor made a request that if the bonds were ever collected. the proceeds should go to our state university.
That wizard on corporation law, Col. R. W. Stewart, today one of the high-pricel attorneys for the Standard Oil Company, was employed by the attorney general of this state as special counsel to prosecute the claim. The Colonel waded in, tried the case before the United States supreme court, and won it. Then the trouble came. Honest Sam ascended to the governor's chair. Here is what he did; recommended to the state legislature that they pass a special act giving it all back to North Carolina, less the expense of the suit. Following are a few things which he said about it:
"We took it away from our sister state, North Carolina, simply because the law said we could. Might did not make right in this instance. If the state of South Dakota returns said sum to the state of North Carolina, it will do more to cement the states together than anything that has happened since the Civil War when the relations of the states were so seriously strained. "Morally, we have no right to one cent of this money and we ought to be brave enough and true enough to give it back.
"This money was clearly intended for our university. She can use it, but it is tainted money. I would send this money back
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to North Carolina for her university and appropriate a like sum for our splendid university. It will be no burden on our people."
On April 3, 1906, another public-spirited New Yorker, the Honorable E. L. Andrews, offered to donate to South Dakota $50,000 more of North Carolina bonds, which with accrued in- terest, amounted to about $150,000. In declining this large gift, Governor Elrod said:
"Your kind offer is declined for the reason that it seems to me to be against public policy and good conscience."
So much for the honesty of Sam Elrod, a man who was never known to defraud or to attempt to defraud the state or a private citizen, out of a single cent.
Elrod is of German ex- traction. He was born near Coatsville, In- diana, May 1, 1856; secured his early edu- cation in the rural schools, and then com- pleted his scholastic preparation at De Paw, grad- uating with the class of 1882, and tak- ing his A. B. degree. In '85 his Alma Ma- ter honored him with his A. M.
SELF-MADE
Like many others who SAMUEL H. ELROD have won distinction, young Elrod came from the humbler walks of life and rose to prominence through self-exertion, rather than through influence. While at De Paw he did janitor work and as- sisted in the local post office evenings, in order to pay his way through school.
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On June 22, 1882, he walked out of De Paw with a 17x22 sheep pelt under his arm, that told the whole story. Eight days later, with his boyish heart pulsating for a new victory, he stepped off the train at Watertown, S. D., and three days later, July 8, he was admitted by Judge Kidder to the practice of law.
Catching a construction train headed westward, he climbed on and went to the end of the line-Clark, S. D. In fact he went beyond the end of the road, for he walked in the last half mile.
But Sam had no rich dad to back him. He was dead broke. Something had to be done-and awfully soon. He got together a small pile of lumber, put up a typical western shack with his own hands, stuck out one of those little signs that make a young lawyer feel so wonderfully good in the region of his chest, did his own cooking and washing, and life's battle was on in earnest.
The city of Clark was just being started. Emigrants were flocking in along the new line of railroad. They needed advice. Sam Elrod's services were in demand. The friendships formed between him and these ealry pioneers have remained to this day as bonds of trust; and as a result Honest Sam has had about everything on the political map that he has asked for.
They elected him postmaster in 1885, and two years later made him probate judge. He declined re-election to the judg- ship, but instead he went after the states attorneyship of Clark county, and got it-holding this office altogether ten years.
However, in 1904, Sam Elrod's political stock shot skyward. He went to the Sioux Falls convention occupying a seat of honor beside the mighty Kittredge who was driving the old political machine now lying in the scrap-heap of eternal usefulness, licked his wary opponent, Coe I. Crawford, to a frazzle, and was nom- inated by the republican party as their candidate for governor of South Dakota. Crawford took his defeat good-naturedly, climbed onto the band wagon helped to elect Elrod, and then came back two years later and whipped Elrod to a frazzle. (We are not well enough informed on Rooseveltian philosophic slang to know what two frazzles equal.)
THE UNDOING OF ELROD
Two things conspired sort of automatically to bring about the defeat of Elrod and cause his downfall, politically : the mater- ial to be used in building our new state capitol, whether it was to be Indiana or South Dakota stone, and the enactment of a state- wide primary law. Elrod, as is characteristic of the man, took a decided position on each issue, and he was right on both. Still he went down to defeat before a lot of clap-trap that was a bug- aboo, but an eloquent thing for campaign purposes.
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THE STONE ISSUE
A new capitol building had to be constructed -- and at once. The constitution prohibits the legislature from contracting debts beyond $100,000, except to repel invasion. Money was scarce. Bedford, Indiana, stone could be procured and shipped to Pierre for the construction of the new building for $100,000 less than Sioux Falls' granite, quarried in our own state, could be pro- cured for. Elrod, as head of the capitol commission, stood solidly for the Bedford stone. His opponents, for political purposes, raised the question of "'state pride" and of building it of stone quarried in our own state, regardless of cost; went before the people on this issue, licked Honest Sam who was up for renom- ination; and, then, lo and behold you! the fellows who led the fight, after they got into the saddle, turned right square around and constructed the building of Indiana stone. So that, as a mat- ter of fact, even his political enemies, when once they came face to face with the practical side of the proposition, admitted that Honest Sam Elrod was right.
THE PRIMARY
Another thing that helped to put Governor Elrod under the rear wheels of the political band-wagon, was his state-wide pri- mary law. In his first message to the legislature, among a lot of negative things, he said:
"We think there is no pressing need for the enactment of a primary election law providing for direct nominations. * *
"Such a law is expensive both to the tax payers and to can- didates. If such a law is enacted, it will cost twice as much to make nominations as to conduct the general elections. Taxes are already too high
"Once such a law is enacted, the poor man will be eliminated and the man of dollars will win, and too often he will be a weak and unqualified official."
On each of these separate propositions-intrinsic parts of the whole -Sam Elrod was right.
(1). No need for its enactment. Instead of enacting a state- wide primary, Elrod's administration enacted the "Honest Caucus Law"-the best, the least expensive, the safest and the sanest cau- cus law ever placed upon the statute books of ours or of any other state in the union. It was gotten up by Hon. John Holman, as. sisted by Judge Smith (now of the state supreme court) and other able legal talent. It was so honest and guarded the caucus so closely and so well, that the progressive element in the repub- lican party won every office in the state, and it is the only time
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they ever did it. (This law was repealed two years later.) The results justified Elrod's position.
(2). Expensive to taxpayers and to candidates. - A state- wide primary was passed two years later. Two primaries were. held under it in 1908, one for delegates to the national conven- tion, and one for state and county officers. The first one cost the taxpayers of the state $52,000, and the second one cost them, $76,000; total for one campaign's nominations, $128,000, let alone the expensive election which followed.
Now, for the candidates! Their sworn statements on file with the secretary of state should reveal the truth. From the standpoint of amounts expended, Senator Kittredge heads the list with $1,368.78. Here are some more near the head of the class: L. A. Munson, $1,300; Wilbur Glass, $1,000; Charles
Burke, $900; Crawford, Martin Browne and Vessey each over $500. In fact twenty-five republican candidates swore to a total expenditure of $12,403.90. The seven democratic, eleven social- ist, and ten prohibition, candidates did not file sworn statements. (The law seems to have been enacted for the regulation of re- publicans only.) They no doubt averaged $25 dollars apiece. In addition there were 636 candidates for the various county offices throughout the state. This does not include about eighty candi- dates for county commissioners. These fellow's sworn statements on file with the different county auditors show expenditures ranging from $15 to $500; and in one case $1,250. (The fellow was defeated.)
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