USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 19
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An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice."
The impenetrability into the human soul of a voice that is sweet and musical is a psychological art worth developing. Through such a voice friends are made, lovers are won and aud- iences are swayed. It is that full, round, deep, yet mellow, bass voice of Dr. Gunsaulus', more than it is the depth of thought and the fluency of his tongue, that draws to him at Central Church, Chicago, every Sabbath morning an audience of over six thousand.
Thus has nature blessed our preacher educator, Dr. Samuel Fletcher Kerfoot, president of Dakota Wesleyan University, at Mitchell. When one sits before him in an audience and watches him straighten up in the pulpit that pale, slender form of his, and then listens to those deep-toned diapason words coming forth in such fascinating, musical resonance he is led to marvel at the unexpected combination.
Young, scholarly, eloquent and devout; tall, slender, grace- ful and erect; at ease in the pulpit, fluent and possessed of a cul- tured vocabulary, he is a platform orator of unusual charm and power-at present, second to none in the state.
Like his distinguished predecessor, Dr. Thomas Nicholson; his faithful vice president, Dr. Samuel Weir, and many others who have achieved distinction in our state, Dr. Kerfoot is a Ca- nadian by birth and an American by adoption. He entered life at Ontario, Canada, February 11, 1865, just three days before the fatal bullet of Booth entered the brain of Abraham Lincoln.
Kerfoot, is therefore, comparatively a young man-just the kind that is needed for a great college president. To break in
WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
an old man for such a position is the height of foolishness. To be a success, he must be chosen, in the language of John De Mott, "while his brain is plastic and his blood is rich and ripe."
Realizing, even at an early age, that success in life is pro- portioned quite largely in accordance with one's preparation to succeed, young Kerfoot entered Hamline University, St. Paul, and began to lay the educational foundation that has since brought to him such an hon- orable career. He was grad- uated as an A. B., in 1889, was granted his A. M., in 1892, and was honored with his D. D., in 1904. Mean- time, he attended Drew Theological Seminary, Mad- ison, New Jersey, and re- ceived from this institution also in 1892 his B. D. de- gree.
In addition to the two degrees which were con- ferred upon him in 1892, this same year saw him or- dained in the M. E. minis- try. His first pastorate was in Minneapolis where he re- mained five years. From there he went to Winona where he occupied the same pulpit for eight years.
The church had its ever-watchful eye carefully upon him His tenure of service at the two points DR. SAMUEL F. KERFOOT where he had preached, and the abiding confidence and affection of his church membership, invited attention and command respect. A quarter-million en- dowment fund had to be raised for the support of superanuated ministers of the M. E. church. Who would undertake the giant task? All eyes turned instinctively toward the pale-faced young pastor at Winona, who had but a short time before been elected superintendent of the Winona district He accepted the call, and instantly a new star arose in his firmament In two years he had not only completed the giant undertaking, but he had gone far
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beyond it. The church stood aghast. Nicholson had just resigned the presidency of Dakota Wesleyan, at Mitchell. A successor must be chosen. The school was $41,500 in debt. What qualifi- cations must the new man have? Many, indeed; but above all he must be a money-raiser. At such moments boards of trustees search for a man with a record. Kerfoot had it; he was chosen. And momentarily the old school on the hill at Mitchell began to vibrate anew with that confidence which arises from financial gain.
DAKOTA WESLEYAN
Prior to Dr. Kerfoot's ascendency to the presidency of Da- kota Wesleyan, the city of Mitchell, by voluntary contributions, had just completed the erection of a new $65,000 M. E. church, the Catholics had just finished their magnificent $68,000 granite structure, the Presbyterians had enlarged their church, the Con- gregationalists had subscribed money to erect their beautiful new building, several smaller congregations of other denomina- tions had done likewise. Mitchell had also just passed through an expensive capital campaign. To ask a city of its size to come forward with $10,000 for Dakota Wesleyan, seemed like madness. The board said, "Let's try for it."
"Nonsense!" interposed the confident Kerfoot. "People love to give. Why, when you once get them started, you can hardly stop them. Let's not make it less than $50,000 from the city of Mitchell alone."
They did it. Kerfoot undertook the campaign. And the city of Mitchell, with her accustomed big heartedness, not only came forward heroically with the $50,000, but in harmony with Dr. Kerfoot's prediction, she could not be stopped until she had given over $54,000.
"It's hard work," said Kerfoot, "but I enjoy it. Now let's go into the field and bring it up to $250,000, for an endowment fund and $100,000 for a building fund." Everybody caught the spirit! Kerfoot led. Three years passed by; and, think of it! for this entire period, this gifted, faithful, confident money- getter averaged $300 per day that he raised for Dakota Wesleyan University. The old debt was wiped out, the new funds were subscribed, a new $75,000 science hall is now nearing completion, the faculty has been strengthened and everything is at high tide.
CALLED HIGHER
But halt! Right on the heels of this victory, the president of Hamline University resigns. It is Kefoot's Alma Mater. The air of Methodism is perfumed with the scent of his achievement
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at Mitchell. And Hamline University calls to her presidency an Alumnus of her own halls, a product of her best endeavor, and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Fletcher Kerfoot, still in the prime of life, has left Dakota Wesleyan, to take up the administration of the school that gave to him his awakening.
"True worth is in being, not seeming,
In doing each day that goes by Some little good, not in dreaming
Of great things to do hy and by."
This is Kerfoot, a man of action. There is none of the sup- erficial about him. He does things instead of dreaming about things to be done. His heart is large. He catches a vision of possibility, draws the curtain aside, and changes it into reality.
Again, Dr. Kerfoot is one of the most modest men that ever lived. Reserved in the extreme, it is impossible to get him to talk about his own achievements. This intelligent modesty is what makes him "wear" so well.
He has the widening influence that comes through trave). Nothing educates, nothing broadens, nothing develops a man like travel President Elliott, of Harvard, said: "I would rather have a young man make a three years' tour of the world than to take a three years' college course." Thus has President Kerfoot broadened out his horizon of life by taking a trip through the Holy land; basking in the shade of the Cedars of Lebanon, drink- ing at the Pool of Siloam, viewing the tomb of David and the crumbling structures of Bible lore, standing in silent meditation at Golgotha and climbing the sun-kissed slopes of Olivet. Like- wise he has traveled through southern Europe, placed flowers at the door of Virgil's tomb, scanned the shimmering Bay of Naples from the top of proud Nisida where Brutus kissed the beautiful Portia a last farewell, enriched his fund of classic information bv viewing the sculpture of the Old World; drank into his life the physical aspects that gave rise to the paintings of Raphael and the songs of Homer, and had his faith quickened by standing momentarily in the dark, damp dungeon in which St. Paul was confined before he was beheaded.
Thus equipping himself for success in life, through his dou- ble standard of scholastic preparation and travel, Dr. Kerfoot's name will pass into history as one of the greatest educators, preachers, college presidents and financiers of this century. And so with him,
"These struggling tides of life that seem In wayward, aimless course to tend, Are eddies of a mighty stream That rolls to its appointed end."
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FAMILY
Dr. Kerfoot was united in marriage December 28, 1892, to Miss Margaret Share, a little brown-eyed, rosy-cheeked college girl of Farmington, Minnesota, who fills the trying position of a college president's wife in splendid fashion. Their union has brought into being four charming sons and a handsome daughter, each of whom is now giving rise to great promise for life. Although a very busy man, one whose life is freighted with mul- tiplied responsibilities, Dr. Kerfoot always finds an abundance of time to look after his family. His home-life is ideal; his boys are his companions; Mrs. Kerfoot is jovial and entertaining; and all who call are made to feel at ease as they catch the true spirit of simple, Christian democracy that pervades their home.
Dakota Wesleyan, Mitchell and South Dakota, will miss them. Nevertheless, let Hamline rejoice.
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SOUTH DAKOTA'S "GRAND OLD MAN."
General William Henry Harrison Beadle was born in the rugged new west, in a forest region where great oaks, walnut and poplars grew, near the Wabash river, the route for nearly all the commerce of the early days; when the houses were mostly of logs and all the life around him was active and vigorous; drank from the cool, clear springs with a limestone element in them to de- velop bones and stature, and used to labor to the extent of his physical powers; and, observing the ambitious efforts of his en- terprising father and mother, his life was shaped for execution and sucess. Such were the environments and stimulating condi- tions that life in boyhood and manhood gave to Dr. Wm. H. H. Beadle, and prepared him for his great service to the territory of Dakota and the state of South Dakota.
His father, James Ward Beadle, was born in Kentucky, fif- teen miles above Louisville, near the Ohio river, of ancestry that had landed very early at Salem, Massachusetts, in colonial days, and passed in successive generations through Connecticut, Penn- sylvania and the Shenandoah valley in Virignia, to Kentucky. It was a series of struggles, trials and hard labor. His mother, Elizabeth Bright, was born in St. Mary's county, Maryland, near the lower Potomac, and of the second generation after her grand- father, James Bright, had sailed from near Aberdeen, Scotland, for America. He was a brau Scot as was John Bright, her father. The family was given to the sea, and John Bright continued it on the Chesapeake, Potomac and James, till the destructive effect of the war of 1812-15 in all that region forced them to seek a new home in Kentucky. Traveling in 1816 in wagons, on foot and on horseback, she was ferried across the Potomac by Harper, the oirignal ferryman, who gave name to the later historic village. Harper's Ferry.
The Beadles and Brights became near neighbors, and there General Beadle's parents were married, after the fathers had made two or three trips with flatboats, loaded with produce, to
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New Orleans. They moved to western Indiana, and the father who was a master hand with the broadaxe, built with his own hands a common but comfortable hewed log house near the north- west corner of Parke county, and in that William was born Jan- uary 1, 1838, the fourth child and first son of the family. The woods were close about the home, and the deer, wild turkeys, squirrels and pheasants were abundant in them. The life was simple, the food plain but good, and the clothing was spun, woven and made by his mother.
When nearly twenty years old he left home for education in the University of Michigan. He went from another farm in that county and wore trousers and vest of mixed blue jeans made aslo by his mother.
His life was that of a farmer boy, working with axe and hoe and plow When too young to handle a heavy plow, he walked beside the oxen with whip in hand, quickening their pace, or rode and guided the big gray horse, while an older boy who had been hired beld the plow. He early learned to trap, to hunt and to fish, and carried home many a fine string of black bass and other fish fron the Wabash and its confluents. The boy went barefoot to school in the log school house under a master who conducted a subscription school. And he learned to read and read many good books. beginning with Robinson Crusoe and the Peter Parley stories of America, Europe and Asia. While his mother was spinning with the big wheel he sat close by working out the first story mentioned, and when he came upon a new and difficult word his mother stopped and pronounced it and gave its
meaning. He read in the evening before the log fire, and when neighbors came in he listened to the stories of Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland; how his mother saw the British army and fleet on its way to attack Baltimore when his father was a soldier in the Maryland militia. The father had stories told him by Kentucky rifle men who went to New Orleans and helped Jackson to defeat General Packenham and his veteran soldiers. One old soldier told of his Niagara.campaign under Scott.
But nothing compared with the flatboat and the trip made to New Orleans and the return on the steamboat. He saw the boats built, loaded and float away on the spring rise of the Wabash, with his father standing as captain on the deck. He returned late in May, wearing a spring suit and a Pana na hat, always bringing some new books for the children to read. There were only classic books in the good old days. He went to church in plain clothes and walked two or three miles to a half-Quaker Sunday School. Later the township in which he then lived had a
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real public library and every Saturday evening he got a new book from it, reading Pepe's translation of Homer, Scott's Ivanhoe, and the Conquest of Mexico, and of Peru, and many more, yes, even many of Burn's poems, when but twelve or thirteen years old.
LOOKED INTO THE FUTURE
As previously stated, General Beadle came into life as a providential act that he migth have a full measure of complete years, on the first day of Jan- uary. Seventy-four full round- ed years have already been checked off to him by the finger of time, but yet his great soul "still lives, forever young," while he continues to write, to lecture and to de- velop. Men die from inactiv- ity; that is, more of them "'rust out than wear out." Hard study keeps them young, because it keeps them growing. 'Twas true of Gladstone and of Bryant, 'tis true of Joe Cannon and of Beadle.
But in following this line of research and progress, in his advanced years, the Gen- eral is only giving vent to his hereditary traits. Near the close of his 'teens, his father Said to him: "Willian, you GEN. W. H. H. BEADLE have been an excellent boy. All through these trying years of pioneer life, you have worked uncomplainingly from early till late. I haven't any ready cash for you, but I will give you a 240-acre farm; you can soon marry, settle down and develop it for yourself."
"For quite a while, father," said the lad, "I have been thinking that I ought to have a college education. I am con- vinced in my own mind that such a preparation for life will be a better investment than to possess a farm. So if you will pay my way through the University of Michigan, I will gladly let you keep the farm."
The father meditated; then he responded: "I think you are
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right, William; and while it may be somewhat of a hardship for us to get along without you, you may go.''
In June, 1861, this big, brawny country lad from the "banks of the Wabash," stepped out of his chosen college with his Bach- elor of Arts diploma under his arm-a finished product ready and willing for the struggle of a professional career. His Alma Mater, in 1864, granted him his Master's degree, and in 1867 conferred upon him his LL. B., and in 1902 his LL. D.
Like thousands of others born in the 30's and early 40's, young Beadle had his life's work broken into by that awful strug- gle for the preservation of the union -- the Civil War. Only one month after leaving college, he responded to his country's call. and was commissioned a first lieutenant by Abraham Lincoln with whom he later formed an intimate personal acquaintance and whose remains he accompanied across the country, as one of the guard of honor, after the president's untimely assassination by Booth.
He was later commissioned captain of company A, thirty- first Indiana volunteers, and finally promoted to lieutenant- colonel, First Michigan sharp shooters. For "gallant and merit- orious conduct in action," Lincoln made him a colonel by brevet. and later brevetted him a brigadier-general. His military record is without a blemish. On the other hand it abounds with acts of conspicuous daring and leadership, unsurpassed by any man of equal rank in the entire service.
After the war General Beadle began the practice of law at Evansville, Indiana, in 1867. Finding the field largely occupied by older attorneys and not offering to him the advantages desired. he removed the next year to Boscobel. Wisconsin, where he prac- ticed successfully for nearly two years.
While in college Dr. Beadle had specialized in civil engineer- ing. When, after the close of the war, the tide of migration moved westward with a spasm, it became necessary to have the Dakota territory surveyed. Many politicians sought the appoint- ment of surveyor-general for the district; but that uncompro- mising soldier, General Ulysses S. Grant, who had already as- cended to the presidency of the nation, remained firm in his abiding conviction that where circumstances were equal, a soldier is entitled to preference, and appointed General Wm. H. H. Beadle to the position, in 1869.
Accordingly, he and his family removed to Yankton, the ter- ritorial capital, and he at once undertook the task before him. It gave to him the opportunity of a life time. He equalled the opportunity. In 1876 he wrote the "Codes of Dakota;"' was
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elected the next year to the territorial legislature, and secured their adoption.
His surveying work having been completed, a comprehensive code-the product of his own brain and pen -- having been enacted, the territorial governor appointed him territorial superintendent of public instruction, in 1879. He held this position until 1885. When Dakota was divided and the state was admitted to the union in 1889, General Beadle was, without knowledge or effort on his part, appointed president of the state normal school at Madison, South Dakota, the oldest normal in the state. This position he held for sixteen consecutive years, until advanced age forced him to diminish his broader field of duties to a younger man, Dr. John W. Heston, while he, in turn, confined himself to the chair of history.
During these eventful years, Dr. Beadle prepared and left to us as a lasting heritage, not only his "Codes of Dakota, " but three other volumes: "Life in Utah," "Geography, History and Re- sources of Dakota," and the "Natural Method of Teaching Geog- raphy ." But by far his greatest service to the people of the state at large was his foresight, statesmanship and perseverance, displayed in the preservation of our school lands --- the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of each township.
Having watched similar lands gobbled up for mere nothing by land sharks in other states, Beadle resolved that if it lay with- in his power, their acts should not be repeated in South Dakota. Accordingly he wrote that masterful section of our state constitu- tion which provides that none of this land shall ever be sold for less than $10 per acre, and which has since been embodied almost verbatim in the constitutions of seven other new states Thomas Jefferson had the basic principle of this matter in mind when he drafted that immortal "Ordinance of 1787," for the government of the "Northwest Territory," and inserted in it these words:
"Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means for education shall forever be encouraged."
Our old geographies gave Dakota as a land of barren waste. Beadle was twitted for holding the value of the American desert at $10 per acre. But during his surveyorship and his territorial superintendency he had seen it in detail as no other man ever had, or perhaps ever will. Ile went on horseback and on foot from Yankton to Bismarck and from Sioux Falls to Deadwood; met the settlers face to face, called public meetings and addressed them in sod houses; urged them to elect men to the constitutional convention who would sustain and fight for his school land pro-
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vision in it; and when the crucial hour arrived, Beadle won! All hail! Grand Old Man of the Dakotas! We will kiss the feet of your marble statue long after your remains lie silent in the dust !
Beadle's father was at one time sheriff of Parke county, In- diana. Young Beadle occasionally acted as bailiff. Many prom- inent western lawyers tried cases in that court. The lad became personally acquainted with them. Among this class of men was Ben Harrison, afterwards president of the United States. When the school land feature of the proposed state constitution for South Dakota was being assailed by those who sought to profit by having these lands put in at a much lower value, General Beadle made a trip to Washington, D. C., and held a conversation with his boyhood friend, General Harrison, who was then a member of the United States senate This conversation and the facts which it disclosed to General Harrison, gave rise to the latter's eloquent speech in the senate in favor of the "ominbus bill," which gave to us our statehood.
A few years since, the state teachers' association passed a resolution to erect a marble bust of General Beadle, life size, in our new state capitol - the funds for the same to be contributed in pennies or nickels or dimes by the school children of the state. So generous was the response that a fund far in advance of what was needed was hastily contributed. A South Dakota sculptor. Mr. Webster, of Sioux Falls, (now deceased), prepared the sta'ue: and during the 1911 session of the association, in the presence of the teachers of the state, of hundreds of other admiring friends, of state dignitaries and of the man whose likeness it reveals. it was unveiled amid imposing ceremonies by the General's life- long friend and admirer, Prof. George M. Smith, of our state university at Vermillion. Smith' dedicatory address was a gem of classic beauty and surpassed in soul-sweetness all previous ef- forts of his life.
Today, as a journeyman enters upon the main floor of this beautiful edifice -our state capitol -- the first thing his eyes be- hold is the illu nined stone image of the man who "saved our school lands," standing imposingly in an alcove of the rotunda, speaking to him in silent language a lesson that penetrates the soul.
Depsite the rapid increase in the school children of the state, the increase in the interest and rental income from the sale and leasing of our school lands continues to increase proportionately, so that today we still draw upon this fund to maintain our schools, at the rate of $4.50 per child. Indeed, the semi-annual amount
WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
apportioned to the various counties of the state on June 15, this year, amounted to $361,524. General Beadle's $10 per acre scheme has long since been vindicated, for in March of this year when the last sale of these lands was held, some of it, in Coding- ton county, brought $150 per acre, or fifteen times the minimum value placed upon it in the constitution. The entire amount realized to date from the sale of these lands is approximately ten million dollars, and when they are finally all disposed of the amount will approximate one hundred and twenty-five millions. This amount, if loaned at the minimum rate of 6 per cent, will produce $7,500,000 per annum, for the maintenance of our schools, or it will, in other words, make them self-supporting.
Correlated to the question of General Beadle's statue in our capitol, is the laying of the corner stone of that magnificent structure, in 1909, by General Beadle himself. Apologetically, we quote from a former article of our own bearing upon it:
"As the curtain rises and reveals our territorial and state his- tory, the writer conscientiously believes that there has never been enacted within our state a scene so tremendously imposing, so irresistably inspiring. as the one recently enacted at Pierre, of this grand old warrior of the 60's-this educator of a half cen- tury -- strong, masculine, seventy-one years of age, still in pos- session of his wonderful mental faculties and of his powerful basso voice that rang out above the din of battle during our civil strife and commanded batallion after batallion of bleeding men to rush forward to the firing line again and again for the preser- vation of our common country -standing on the base of the first story of our new capitol building; drenched in perspiration, with uplifted hands and a bouyant soul, delivering in tones sufficiently audible to be heard several blocks away, his masterful dedicatory address which will be read and re-read, ages hence, with increas- ing delight by generations yet unborn."
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