USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 16
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When F. B was four years of age, the family removed to Jones county, Iowa, where he was reared on a farm. His big, brawny physique shows him, in his younger days, to have been a son of the soil.
EDUCATION
President Gault did not enter school until his ninth year. Good reason -there wa none to attend. Finally th farmers of Wayne township Jones county, voluntered to raise enough money by popula subscription to erect a schoo house. This was done, and it was there that young Gault attended school for several terms. Later, he became a student in the high school at Monticello, a little city in the northern part of Jones county From there he went to Cornell graduating as a B. S. with the class of 1877. Three year: later, his Alma Mater honorer him with his M. S. degree, and in 1898 with his M. A., while the University of Wor- DR. F. B. GAULT cester in the town of his birth, made him a Ph. D. in 1901.
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F. B. GAU T
TEACHER AND ORGANIZER
Dr. Gault began his teaching experience before he was eight- een years of age in Linn county, Iowa, near Cedar Rapids, where he taught a country school for four terms. Then he was for three years principal of schools at Tama, Iowa, and two years principal at Mason City.
Going west he organized the South Side public schools at Pueblo, Colorado, remaining at the head of those schools for five years. He then resigned to become superintendent of the city schools at Tacoma, Washington. When that state was admitted to the Union under the omnibus bill of '89 which also brought in the Dakotas, Dr. Gault drafted the school code thereof, which remains to this day, almost entirely unaltered. While he was in the state of Washington, President Roosevelt, in 1902, acting upon the unanimous recommendation of the congressional delega- tion from that state, appointed him a member of the visitors' committee to inspect our United States naval academy at Annapolis.
Before leaving Iowa, and after going west, Dr. Gault was one of the foremost teachers' institute instructors and conductors in the country. Hon. O. L. Branson of Mitchell, while a young school teacher in Iowa, received his normal institute training under him.
Dr. Gault drifted back across the mountains during the sum- mer of '92, and organized at Moscow. Idaho, their State Univer- sity, combining with it their Agricultural college, and School of Mines. (Compare this piece of educational statesmanship if you will with what took place in organizing similar institutions in our own state.)
Re-crossing the mountains to his old home, he was called upon to organize Whit nore College at Tacoma. He remained at the head of this institution for six years, during which time it enjoyed a remarkable growth.
In the summer of 1906. Dr. Gault was called to the pres- idency of our State University, at Vermillion. In this position he has been pre-eminently successful When he arrived, he found the loose ends of unorganized departments Huttering in the breezes of public gossip. Tying these together into a cable of strength, he at once became master of the situation. Touching on this matter in detail, once before, we ventured the wicked assertion that "Had Christ returned to earth to have undertaken the task that confronted Gault when he landed in Vermillion, he would again have been led up Calvary." We have since regretted
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this apparent sacrilegious comparison, but really it expressed a recognized truth.
Dr. Gault was first employed for two years as president of our university by the old board of regents, headed by the schol- arly Dr. Spafford of Flandreau. The new board, now headed by Mayor Hitchcock of Mitchell, have retained him to date-six years in all. Indeed, the new board, in section 50, pp. 45, of the "Rules and Regulations," governing our state schools, specifically
state: "It is the policy of the board of regents of education that members of the faculty and assistant professors of the state in- stitutions, shall hold their positions during good behavior and satisfactory service." Amen! politics eliminated at last. Not a change has been made in the head of a state institution for five years except one at Rapid City, necessitated by the voluntary resignation of the president of the School of Mines.
Reverting again to our state university, we reiterate that during President Gault's administration, it has prospered. The campus has been fixed up, much new and needed furniture se- cured; the law school and the library have been bulit; the med- ical department has been organized; the heat, light and power plant has been erected, and a good artesian well has been sunk, (the latter being the involuntary gift of the Honorable Peter H. Norbeck of Redfield. Keep still!)
Prior to President Gault's arrival the institution at Vermil- lion had been quite largely a high school for Clay county. He at once threw out the preparatory department. This cut the en- rollment about 150. He did not care. It was quality rather than quantity which he had in mind. Despite the sudden reduction in attendance the institution soon began to grow. In 1907, the close of President Gault's first year, they graduated 43, the next year 44; in 1909, they raised it to 55, and the next year to 60, and the next to 65, while this year they graduated 74.
REMINISCENCES
The year that Dr. Gault graduated from Cornell College, in 1877, he was elected as a delegate to the interstate oratorical con- test which was held at Madison, Wisconsin. Congressman E. W. Martin was also a student at Cornell at that time. He was not pres- ent at the contest-being away on one of his accustomed fishing trips. When it came time to elect a president of the association for the ensuing year, young Gault arose and presented the name of Eben W. Martin. So eloquently did he set forth the superior qualifi- cation of his protege for the position that Martin was elected.
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Then a clamor went up for a speech from the newly-elected pres- ident. He could not be found. Gault knew where he was.
The funds of the association had been hideously squandered. Young Martin had a business head on him. He re-adjusted finan- cial matters, paid off the old obligations, opened up a set of in- telligent books and placed the organization on a Gibraltar basis. Incidentally, he got his own start in public life, out of this experience.
This year, after an interim of thirty-five years, this same Gault was selected as one of the judges to determinne the suc- cessful orator before the old organization which meets at North- field, Minnesota, but owing to pressing engagemens at home, he was obliged to decline.
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WHOM I LIKE
I like a man with an iron will, Who will do what he knows to be right; Who cannot be bought, who will not be sold, Whose life is a radiant light.
I like a man with a cleanly tongue, Who prizes the power of words;
Whose thoughts are pictured in jewels of speech, Whose song is as sweet as the birds'.
I like a man with freedom of thought, Who accords the same right to another;
Who lies down at night with a hope of reward, Because he's not envied his brother.
I like a man whose ambition is high, Who hitches his cart to a star ;
Who cannot be whipped by a failure or two; Who keeps his stock above; par.
I like a man who will say, "I'll try!" And will lift every pound that he's able;
Who'll divide with a brother the fees for a day, That each may have food on his table.
I like a man who says, "There's a God," Omniscent -e'er present-adjudging; Who tries to do right, discourages wrong, And resists idle words without budging.
I like a man whose habits are fixed, Whose morals ne'er take a vacation; Whose week days and Sundays are pillored with hope, Who adds to the strength of the nation.
I like a man who is rev'rent and kind, Systematic-painstaking-enduring,
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Good natured, cool headed, well balanced and true; Aggressive and yet unassuming.
I like a man who is open and free, Who looks you right square in the eye;
Who feels in himself he's a tower of strength, - Whose ideals are "treasures on high."
I like a man with rich, ripe blood, Whose chest heaves with rugged ambition; Who laughs at life's toils as he says to the world, "I'm always in splendid condition."
I like a man who is willing to fight, When the good of society demands it;
Who will gird on his armor and strike at the foe, And not act the part of a bandit.
I like a man who looks up and not down; Who struggles for many promotion;
Who retires at night and rises at morn With a cultured and pious devotion.
The above poetical reasons (excuse the term) which I have given abstractly for liking a man, are, when applied, the concrete reasons why I like Dr. A. C. Shepherd, superintend- ent of the Sioux Falls' district of the M. E. church. Strong willed, of cleanly thought, ambitious, charitable, reverent, fra- ternal and kind, he furnishes one of the nearest approaches to my ideal of a man.
Arthur (as everybody calls him, on account of his big-heart- edness and democratic tendencies) is a product of Dakota Wes- leyan University. Born at the little village of Castle Rock, Min- nesota, June 17, 1872, he removed with his parents to Casselton, North Dakota, in the fall of 1878, and eight years later set- tled on a farm in western Davison county, South Dakota.
EDUCATION AND ORATORY
His early education was acquired in several different country schools. In 1887. he entered the old D. U., at Mitchell. A tall, gaunt youngster, with his arms 'projecting far out of his coat sleeves, and with his pant legs so abbreviated that he never wor- ried any about the mud, he presented a vastly different spectacle than he does today with his massive, well developed physique, and splendid manly appearance. He seems to have undergone a complete metamorphosis. So much for the benefit of college
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training. In a speech delivered at Dakota Wesleyan, during ยท commencement. in 1910, he said.
"Outside of those lives that first touched mine, those who taught my infant lips to lisp the Saviour's name in prayer and guided my feeble steps in those long-gone tender years, no other forces or factors on the human side, have done more in the mak- ing and moulding of my character, the firing of my ambition and stirring of my soul with a passion to be, and to do something worth while, than these two teachers of my youth, remem- bered, respected, revered. my friends, to whom I owe a debt not paid, because it cannot be, Prof. L. A. Stout and Miss Noble. No change of time or place, or cirumstance will suf- fice to erase their names from memory's walls, but enshrined in love's affection cherished in undying gratitude, they will live there forever."
7 But Arthur's education was in the course of acquisi- tion during the "dry time" in. Dakota. Money was scarce. He had to make his own way. After graduating from the normal department, he left school to earn money with which to complete his educa- tion, but he never went back. Still, during his brief
DR. A. C. SHEPHERD
scholastic preparation he made a record for himself as an orator. While as yet under eighteen years of age, and but a meager stud- ent in the preparatory department, with no training in oratory except that acquired like Henry Clay, during noon hours and on rainy days, in making impassioned speeches to the oxen and other cattle in the old shed, he was called upon to represent Da- kota University (now Dakota Wesleyan) in the state oratorical contest. Taking for his subject "The Indian Problem," he went at it to work out for the occasion a formal oration. Professor Friar and Miss Dell Noble (now husband and wife, living at Seattle, Washington,) put into the young fellow's head some en- nobling thoughts on the beneficent effects of civilization, and
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lent their services otherwise as best they could in preparing their protege for the first big event of his life.
Friends helped to adjust his clothes. A tonsorial artist hacked away at his healthy growth of farm-boy hair. He was gotten ready. Everybody said, "He's got the stuff in him."
Quite a number predicted, "He'll win." The night for the contest came. Several well trained college men, ten years his senior, were matched against him. The young fellow finally mounted the platform. Mitchell was loyal to him. His own col- lege gave their "yell." The big, lank country lad caught his breath and finally got started. In three minutes he had reached one of those soul-stirring climaxes, peculiar alone to the natural- born orator, and had fairly lifted his audience-judges and all - from their chairs. The young fellow had gained his first hill top. Holding to this advantage, he maneuvered for awhile, got a fresh start, and before he had finished he had climbed to the top of Vesuvius where he stood momentarily-an uncrowned king-and then left the platform to receive, a few minutes later, the com- bined verdict of the judges; and the young awkward plowboy of Dakota prairies had been triumphantly started on his pathway for a future public career.
TEACHER AND PREACHER
His oratorical victory attracted the attention of the board of education at Mitchell, and he was employed at once as principal of the Mitchell high school, beginning in the fall of 1891. This position he occupied for six consecutive years, and then he re- signed to enter the M. E. ministry. His first pastorate was at Alexandria.
At the close of the first year, he was transferred to Madison, at which place his salary was doubled. He preached three years at Madison, three at Canton and four at Vermillion. From there he stepped into the distict superintendency and trans- ferred his headquarters to Sioux Falls. His accomplished elder brother, Rev. W. S. Shepherd, who also during his studentship at Dakota University, won the state oratorical contest for his Alma Mater, and who later succeeded his brother Arthur as pas- tor at Vermillion, is now superintendent of the Mitchell district of the M. E. church. This is the first time in the history of Methodism when two brothers were presiding elders of adjoining districts at the same time. They are two of the strongest preach- ers in the state, and are loved and revered not only by their con- stituents but by the general public as well.
Dakota Wesleyan made Arthur a Doctor of Divinity in 1910. For two years he was superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League
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of South Dakota. Last fall he was elected as a delegate to the general conference of the M. E. church.
FAMILY AFFAIRS
Dr. Shepherd was united in marriage at Chamberlain, South Dakota, December 21, 1892, to Miss Minnie W. Welch. She died August 11, 1894, leaving a four-months-old baby girl, Frances Maurine, who is now a student at the D. W. U. On February 25, 1897, he was united in marriage to Miss Nellie E. Aitken of Plankinton. To this second union, but one child has been born- a boy, Master Adrian, now fourteen years of age.
RETROSPECT
Here was another genuine "diamond in the rough," an un- sparkling gem, a piece of corroded marble; a big, awkward, farm lad whose soul had been quickened toward things ennobling by an ideal home life, and who, in order to attain to his ap- pointed station in life, needed that still greater influence and polish which comes alone from contact with cultured minds and through scholastic training. A few years at Dakota Wesleyan supplied the emery wheel that ground away the uncouth appear- ance of youth and set his feet in the pathway of a higher man- hood, which he has now attained, and in which all who know him join in wishing him well. Indeed none will be surprised to see him reach the bishopric before he dies. Success!
(Later .- Since the above article was written Dr. Shepherd has resigned his district superintendency and has moved to Oro- ville, California, to accept the pastorate of the M. E. church at that place. Regrets!)
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GEO. A. SILSBY
AN EXTEMPORANEOUS ORATOR
It was away back in the fall of 1892. Grover Cleveland was struggling with Ben Harrison to wrestle from him the presiden- tial crown. The night before election had arrvied. A political meeting was called to be held in the old, low-roofed, tin-covered skating rink in the city of Mitchell, that formerly stood where to- day stands the beautiful home of Mrs. O. H. Perry on west Second street. The students of Dakota Wesleyan had been extended a special invitation to attend. They were present en masse. The rink was filled to its utmost capacity.
Presently, a short, square-shouldered gentleman, clad in a Prince Albert, accompanied by a few associates, came in and took his place on the platform. He was roundly cheered,. In a mo- ment he was introduced by an admiring champion. Then for three hours and fifteen minutes he held his enthusiastic audience spell bound. The issue was the tariff. The speaker's fund of information was inexhaustible.
Toward the close he grew superbly eloquent and pictured in classic verbiage the grand old ship of state steaming into the republican harbor, with her undaunted chief, President Harrison, standing triumphantly at her helm.
And the orator -who was he? General George A. Silsby, we reply, the state's most gifted extemporaneous speaker. Here is a born orator, a man with an original style of oratory, pecul- iarly his own. Well read, scholarly, and with a superfluous abundance of words always at his command, he is constantly in readiness for a speech, long or short, and he always makes good. General Silsby has a way of starting his audiences to thinking at the inception of his opening remarks; then he gradually draws them into the current of his own thought until they are sub- merged and engulfed in a baptism of spontaneous eloquence that is soul entrancing. His personal appearance, his gestures, his peculiar manner of using the rising inflection at the end of his
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sentences, his clear, outreaching, penetrating voice, his unbroken current of words, his wit-all combine to make him a platform orator of unusual charm and power.
SILSBY, THE POET
General Silsby, in addition to his oratorical powers, is also pos- sessed of a keen poetical instinct. Writing poetry comes to him with- out effort. That which he has turned out for Decoration Day and for other occasions, is superb. What might he do if he were to apply himself to the task more intensely! At Christmas time, this vear, without any previous med- itation, he sat down hurriedly at the typewriter and spun off spon- taneously the following Christmas ditty to his life-long friend, Hon- orable O. L. Branson. One needs to scan it but hurriedly to detect within it the great natural ability back of it.
GEO. A. SILSBY
TO MY FRIEND, O. L. BRANSON
The old year is dying ; - And soft winds are sighing, While Christmas stands at the door.
Friendsphis are strongest, And last the longest, When cherished forevermore.
Season's benediction Brings out the prediction, That our's will last for all time:
'Tis cherished with love That springs from above: And nurtured with thoughts sublime.
So I bring you this toast, But with no idle boast; - "A merry Christmas to you :" May kind Heaven fore-fend, My very best friend, Who always proved loyal and true.
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His Decoration Day addresses are usually well-seasoned with his own original poems. He seems able, with but little effort, to produce an inexhaustible supply of them. We remember one preserved from his Memorial address in May, 1907. It follows:
THE FLAG
Oh! starry flag, with field of blue, With stripes of red and stripes of white; Thou standest for the things most true --- For Honor, Justice, Right.
We gladly hail this emblem pure, This banner of our country's pride;
For you our sons will ere endure; For you our noblest died.
From heaven's high dome you richly shine, And radiance cast on all around :
Thy form speaks of a love divine That knows no captive bound.
Oh! starry flag, forever wave, For Freedom pure, and righteous laws; Within thy folds conceal no slave, Nor treasure any flaws,
FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD
Born in Rockford, Illinois, March 28, 1847, General Silsby was a lad ten years of age when the Lincoln-Douglas debate took place at Freeport, Illinois; and he is one of the few persons, liv- ing today, who can truthfully say that they heard one of these debates.
On the morning of the day that this particular debate took place, his father said: "Come, George, help to hitch up the team and we'll drive to Freeport to hear the speeches today by Lincoln and Douglas " Here was the opportunity of a life time. The boy was at that plastic age in life when impressions are easily made and sink deep. He carried away with him part of the ad- dresses, and, above all, the spirit of the occasion. He recalls to this day and relates with some mirth, how Lincoln, when Judge Douglas was introduced, arose, as a matter of courtesy ; and how Douglas, much to the amusement of the audience, strutted over to Lincoln, and looking up at him, (Lincoln was a head and shoulders taller than Douglas) said, "How long. O Lord, how long :" and how Lincoln, when he was introduced and Judge
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Douglas stood up, looked down at him and said, "The ways of the wicked are short." (It soon proved true.)
While a boy he attended the public schools in Rockford. In 1880, he got the "western fever" and migrated to Dakota, set- tling on a homestead in Davison county, just west of Mitchell, in Beulah township, where for two years he batched it in a sod shanty. One year, while on the farm, he raised two acres of onions that netted him $835 45. They were all bought and eaten by the citizens of Mitchell, except 100 bushels.
In 1883, Mr Silsby was given a position in the United States land office at Mitchell, and later he was made chief clerk. The next year he was appointed postmaster at Mitchell, but he was removed two years later by Grover Cleveland, for "pernicious activity" in political affairs. Knowing that if a democratic president were elected, he would lose his position, Silsby was very active during the campaign. When it was learned that Cleve- land was elected, a crowd of enthusiastic democrats, led by Judge Hammer (deceased) marched up Main street, carrying torch lights. They stopped in front of the postoffice. But the daunty Silsby was not to be outdone. Looking up they beheld a banner which he had hoisted, on one side of which were these words: "Onions will grow again. It will be summer by and by," and on the other side:
"To the victors belong the spoils."
MILITARY
General Silsby enlisted at fifteen years of age as a private in the 74th Illinois infantry, April 5, 1862. Serving out his first enlistment, he re-enlisted in the 132nd Illinois. Having taken sick, and having been reduced thereby in flesh until he weighed but ninety-three pounds, he was mustered out at Chicago, De- cember 6, 1864, for physical disability.
Shortly after homesteading in Davison county, he was elected captain of old Co. "I" of the South Dakota state guards at Mit- chell. He used to hoe onions during the day and then walk to town at night to drill his troops. Governor Mellette appointed him inspector-general for the state. In this capacity his work was so satisfactory that Governor Sheldon later on appointed him adjutant-general.
POLITICS
At the state republican convention held at Madison, in 1892, Harry L. Bras, of Micthell, was a candidate against Cortez Sal- mon, of Parker, for state superintendent. He brought out Gen-
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eral Silsby as a candidate for temporary chairman of the conven- tion. After a lot of dickering, during which General Silsby's name was withdrawn from the fight for nearly an hour, he was put back into the race, but was defeated by twenty-three votes by our present United States senator, Robert J. Gamble. Later on the General was made permanent chairman of the convention and as a result of his impartial rulings during that stormy ses- sion he was elected to the republican national convention as the first presidential elector-at-large from South Dakota, -casting his ballot for Ben Harrison for president. In 1902 General Silsby was elected mayor of Mitchell, and during his two administrations the city showed a splendid growth; the large, granite city hall- was built without issuing bonds, and many other substantial im- provements were made. He was our state's national bank ex- aminer from 1898, for ten consecutive years,
PERSONAL
The General owns in the city of Mitchell one of the most magnificent homes in the state: also another large modern dwell- ing, the large store building occupied by W. H. Fritz on Main street and a large interest in the Mitchell Cattle Company which owns eight sections of land in northern Hyde county, heavily stocked. At present he is secretary of the Mitchell Elks' Club with a membership of 850, secretary of the Mitchell Commercial Club; a member of the G. A. R. and the Masons, and an active member of the Congregational church.
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