USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 2
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"These observations are for the purpose of announcing to the people of this state that it is not the purpose of the Executive to usurp the functions of courts and juries; that the pardoning power will be exercised strictly according to the theory of our system of jurisprudence and the spirit of our constitution."
In keeping with these sentiments, Governor Herreid was firm in his dealings with offenders. He granted fewer pardons than
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
any other governor we have ever had. In fact the pardons granted by other executives stand about "16 to 1" as compared with those extended by him. His refusal to "pardon," and his read- iness to "veto." kept his two administrations consistent through- out, and left behind him an unsullied record of administrative justice.
AS LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR
But Herreid had had great training for his work as governor. He had previously been elected lieutenant-governor for two con- secutive terms. In this capacity, he had been schooled in hand- ling legislation.
"As president of the state senate in 1893 and 1895 he dis- played in a marked manner his fitness and capacity to deal with public affairs. His failures and candor as well as his evident comprehension of purpose to decide all questions without bias or prejudice in conformity with the rules of the senate, were rec- ognized by men of all political parties, and so well did he succeed in the task that no appeal was ever taken from any of his rulings at either session of the legislature. It is said that no other pres- ident of a state senate in the United States has ever made a similar record."
Ordinarily, any man who accepts the second place on the state or on a national ticket, digs his own political grave, and the bells which peal forth his success at the polls, at the same time tingle out his political death knell. But Herreid was born to be an exception. The ability and fairness which he displayed as president of the senate commended him to the people of the state as the logical man for the higher field of responsibilities. Think on it! Lieutenant-Governor for two terms, Governor for two terms. No doubt many decades will have passed into state history before his record will have been duplicated.
HERREID'S DICTION
Each of Governor Herreid's public documents is a literary gem. He stands in a class by himself as a classical writer. No other public official in the state has ever equalled him as a man of letters.
The most perfect style of diction is demanded of the state supreme court, so that no possible misinterpretation can be placed upon any of their opinions. Yet Judge Fuller, (deceased. whom we all now mourn) said to us one day in his official chamber : "This man Herreid beats anybody I ever knew in his diction. Frequently he comes to me and asks about a certain point, yet it
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CHARLES N. HERREID
is never for information direct that will enable him to reach a conclusion, but merely to see if my judgment re-inforces his own "
His public letters and addresses are so evenly balanced throughout that it is hard for any man to select from the many passages more choice than the rest, any which might tend to em- phasize his style. We think a couple extracts taken from the Address of Welcome in behalf of the state which he delivered to the American Mining Congress which convened at Deadwood dur- ing his governorship, will suffice:
"We all rejoice over the prevailing universal prosperity. I am proud of the fact that I can welcome you to a state where the people are superlatively prosperous, contented and happy; where the spirit of success do ninates the commercial and industrial at- mosphere; where everybody has surrendered to the magnificent energy which is building a new and splendid empire. I welcome you to the people who for six years have produced more wealth per capita than any other state in the Union; to a state famous for the large number. according to population, of newspapers, churches, colleges and school houses; to a state absolutely free from conflict between labor and capital; to a state settled largely by the children of the pioneers who were the empire builders of the great west -children who from infancy were taught the lesson of vigorous manhood; a people who adopted as the state motto: 'Under God the People Rule,' and who, as individuals and com- munities, with reverence for all law, human and divine, are liv- ing up to their high standards of right.
"Ten years ago the real value of all property within the state was less than one hundred million dollars; to-day it is one thousand millions!
"To-day every South Dakotan is proud of his state and with joy and devotion ready to join the grand chorus of thanksgiving and praise :
'I love every inch of our prairie land. Each stone on her mountain side,
I love ev'ry drop of her water clear That flows in her rivers wide.
I love ev'ry tree, ev'ry blade of grass Within Columbia's gates,
The queen of the earth is the land of my birth
My own United States.' "
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
BIOGRAPHICAL
Governor Herreid is a Wisconsinite by birth and a South Dakotan by adoption. Again, the old Badger state has shown her marked influence over the new territories that one after another were gradually carved out of the great domain to her westward. A proud father and mother, calmly viewing their baby boy on October 20, 1857, evidently little dreamed that they were the parents of a future South Dakota governor.
His boyhood was spent knocking around on the farm, devel- oping a good healthy physique. Later, he spent three years at Galesville University. Then he read law for one year in a law office. Afterwards, he graduated in 1882 from the law depart- ment of the Wisconsin University.
The same year that he graduated he was married to a Wis- consin lady who has since blessed Dakota with her happy traits, noble womanhood, and her charming example, Miss Jeanette Slye. The next year the young couple decided to cast their fortune in the "golden west," and so they packed up and went to Dakota, settling in McPherson county, where they became a part of our sturdy pioneers.
Mr. and Mrs. Herreid's neighbors soon learned to esteem them. Then their neighbors' neighbors found out about them, and so on until like a pebble dropped in the center of a still pool, their influence radiated itself in a succession of wavelets until it had reached the far distant shoals of the state.
As a result, here is what happened: Charles N. Herreid elected States Attorney of McPherson county, then county judge; next a member of the Board of Trustees of our State University, and later a Regent of Education; elected and re-elected Lieu- tenant governor, member of the Republican State Central Com- mitee; member National Republican Committee; elected and re-elected Governor. He has also been Grand Chancellor K. of P., of the domain of South Dakota. He is a member of the A. O. U. W. and was chairman of the committee to revise the constitu- tional statutes of the grand lodge, and has held various important positions in this organization. He is also a member of the Eastern Star and a thirty-third degree Mason. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian church.
Governor and Mrs. Herreid are the proud parents of two children-a daughter, Miss Grace, and her loving and affectionate brother whom the state will recall as having died during Mr. Herreid's incumbency of the governor's office. as the result of an operation for appendicitis. He was a charming lad, universally
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CHARLES N. HERREID
beloved and a general favorite among the South Dakota National Guard, in which he held the rank of Captain.
After retiring from the governor's chair in 1904, Mr. Her- reid removed to Aberdeen and took up again the practice of his chosen profession which he followed for three years. During this time he gradually and rapidly became so inter woven in the busi- ness affairs of Aberdeen that he has been obliged to drop his law practice for other enterprises. He is secretary of the corporation that recently built at Aberdeen the beautiful Citizens's Bank Building, which, including the basement and roof garden, is eight stories high. Governor Herreid is also president of the Aberdeen Railway Company which has built five miles of street railway in that city and which contemplates the construction of three or four miles in the early spring. In addition to these responsibilities, he is a director and Vice-President of the Dakota Central Tel- ephone Co., and the Citizens Trust and Savings Bank, and he is, in other ways, not herein enumerated, identified with the busi- ness interests of Aberdeen.
Such has been the phenominal career of a young man who was not afraid to break away from "dad" and to strike out into the world for hinself. It has been repeatedly asserted by careful political students throughout the state, and it is now quite gen- erally admitted by both factions of the Republican party, that had the city of Aberdeen forced him into the race for the gov- ernorship no nination at the June primaries in 1908, he would have swept the state and easily have become governor for at least a third term-simply on the strength of his past record as a pub- lic servant, which is untarnished by a single blot, and which will stand for years hence among the most illustrious pages of our state's history.
"There never was a manlier man!"
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
A PROGRESSIVE EDUCATOR
Among South Dakota state offices, second only in popularity to that of the governorship (in its lasting influence it greatly outclasses the latter) is the Department of Public Instruction.
This year the republican party of this state, by their selec- tion made by popular vote of the party at the primaries held in June, presents to the people of South Dakota for endorsement by their ballots at the November election, as their candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction, a man of sterling worth, endowed with great natural talents, enriched by education and experience-one whose record as an advanced thinker in the edu- cational world and whose activities in the superlative execution of his ideals, have already found concrete expression in the schools of Lincoln county-Prof. C. G. Lawrence, of Canton.
LAW OF PROMOTION
Inasmuch as the work of the state superintendent is largely supervisory of the work done by the various county superintend- ents, it is but natural that an out-going county superintendent should aspire to the state position. Fundamentally a man cannot inspire another man to do a thing which he himself has never done and which the one whom he is directing has reason to be- lieve that the one giving the instructions is perhaps not able to do. The principle holds true in every walk of life. The suc- cessful military commander is he who rose from the ranks The successful district superintendent (formerly designated a "pre- siding elder") is he who has been a successful preacher first. The successful sales manager is the man who was first a success- ful salesman. And so on through the various activities of life.
There are of course exceptions to this. South Dakota had one rare exception to the rule in the services of Hon. G. W Nash, a former Superintendent of Public Instruction Nash was distinctly and decidedly a college man. He was college bred and had taught only in college, without ever having served a day as
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C. G. LAWRENCE
county superintendent. (And, by the way, he too, hailed from Canton ) Yet he gave to the state one of the most successful administrations of her educational affairs that she has ever en- joyed In fact Nash was so "large," and he filled the office so full, that he could be seen projecting out beyond it, on all sides of it. But, again we emphasize, he was an exception.
SCANDINAVIAN ASCENDENCY
The Scandinavians are among the most progressive and in- telligent citizenry of the state. Their numerical strength at the polls is so great that no party or faction dares now to go before the public for endorsement without reckoning on the Scandina- vian vote. One of the most successful governors the state ever had or ever will have, Charles N. Herreid, came from this lineage. Hon. Hans Ustrud is of the same stock. With the state strongly "progressive" in politics a "stalwart" Scandinavian, H. B. Anderson, of Mitchell, in the primary campaign of this year, won out by 7,000 votes over his opponent who had everything but na- tionality in his favor. Clay county, the hot-bed of "insurgency," but peopled largely by Scandinavians, went over to Anderson who is of their own blood. This political adhesion is but natural.
Just so with Superintendent Lawrence. Born of Norwegian parentage he commanded the united Scandinavian vote of the state-and won. Married to a Scandinavian lady, he had in his family affairs, proven his loyalty to his blood.
His father came to America in 1843, and afterwards taught school for many years in Wisconsin, and in Illinois. One of this distinguished ancestor's teacher's certificates, secured in Illinois, is still held as a sacred momento in the Lawrence home. It is dated 1854. It will thus be seen that the subject of this sketch came honestly by his educational proclivities.
BIOGRAPHICAL
Professor Lawrence was born January 12, 1871, at Madison, Wisconsin. His early education was acquired in the public schools of that place. Later, he was graduated by the University of Wisconsin, taking his B. L. degree. In 1896-97 he did post graduate work in the same institution.
He was married August 22, 1900, to Miss Gunda Jacobson, of Canton, his assistant principal in the high school of that place.
Mrs. Lawrence is a graduate of the Madison, South Dakota State Normal School. Therefore, the schools of Madison, Wis- consin, and of Madison, South Dakota, gave to us the two educa- tors who will, in all probability, lead in the educational thought
WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
of the state for the next two, and possibly for the next four, years. To this union have been born two boys-one nine, and the other six years of age.
LAWRENCE, THE EDUCATOR
The best endorsement any man can have is the longevity of his service in a certain position or with a certian firm. No word from his employers can attest more truthfully to his worth than the fact of his long continued employment by them.
Hoff has been city superintendent at Mitchell for seven years. His predecessor, the lamented Quigley, held the same position for ten years. Strachan has served for twenty continuous years as superintendent of the Deadwood city schools; while Cook is rounding out a quarter of a century as president of the Spearfish Normal.
We perfect this line of thought by citing the record of him who constitutes our theme. After teach- ing two months in a rural school in Wisconsin, he was called to Augustana College, Canton, S. D., in 1894, where he served four years on the faculty of that school, and then yielded to the request of the citizens of Canton to become the head of their public schools. He held the latter position for eight consecutive years; and only surrendered it in 1906 to become a candidate for superintendent of Lin- coln county. He was elected, and re- elected in 1908.
PROF. C. G. LAWRENCE
Recapitulating, we give a resume : two months teacher in a rural school, four years a college pro- fessor, eight years city superintendent, four years county super- intendent. Fine record! eh?
AS COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT
It was not until Lawrence entered the county superintendent's office, got out among the people of his county and the educators of the state, that his real work began to be known. True; he had attended district and state educational gatherings and had read some able papers before them, but the "bigness" of the fellow, aside from his domineering six-foot-four stature, had not com- manded general attention.
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C. G. LAWRENCE
Entering upon his duties as superintendent of Lincoln county, he took one year to get his bearings and to find out the neces- sities of his schools. Then, his convictions crystalized that when a child comes into the world, it begins to move and to use its tiny hands; that as soon as it is able to sit up, if given blocks, it will begin to build; that at a later age it longs to mix mud pies and to cook; that its whole tendency is one of physical usefulness; that as soon as it enters school we begin to educate it away from the use of its hands which should by their economical use, earn its bread and butter for life, and instill into it the idea that its brain and not its hands were intended for use only, and that the latter should not be soiled; that the whole underlying scheme is wrong.
And there was plenty of evidence. Not a girl could be found who would condescend to do house work. She had been educated to think but not to act. Hotels were putting in Japanese waiters and negro cooks, because American girls had been taught not to soil their hands, but to preserve them for piano use. The farmer, taking advantage of our state law which compels his school dis- trict to pay practically all of his son's high school tuition, had sent his son away to school, the lad had failed to return; he had been taught to think while his hands hung idly by his sides. The "dignity of labor" was unintentionally assailed and credence given to the old Chinese proverb, "Those who labor with their minds govern others; those who labor with their hands are gov- erned by others."
Lawrence said: "Halt! We'll 'about face' and go at this thing right. Lincoln county has as rich soil as to be found on earth. Our boys should learn to till it right and to love to do it. Our big buxom farmers' daughters, pictures of health and strength, should be taught economy in their household work, and be instilled with the idea that there is nothing better."
Accordingly, for the past three years he has carried on in Lincoln county, in addition to his regular educational work, boys' corn-growing contests and girls' sewing and baking clubs. True; South Dakota has a common school course of study which by law county superintendents are compelled to require their teachers to follow. Lawrence abridged it. He went beyond it. He put do- mestic science into his schools and demanded that each teacher in the county give to the girls in their respective schools instruction for one and one-half hours every Friday afternoon, in sewing and preparing themselves for the responsibilities of a practical and happy life; while special instruction was given to the boys in the soil, the germinization of cereals and the care they demand
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WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
through the period of their growth, in order to harvest a full crop; the value of birds as insect destroyers, etc. As a climax he has arranged for a short course in Agriculture and Domestic Science to be held at C'anton in December of this year by six experts from the faculty of the South Dakota State College, at Brookings.
Such is the leadership and such is the man (in the natural order of events if the republican party is successful at the polls in November -and it is generally conceded that it will be) upon whom the eyes of the state will be centered after January 1. 1911. Talented, educated, experienced, cultured. he brings to the posi- tion an intellectual equipment that bespeaks success, and a moral and mental force that never knew defeat.
[P. S. Lawrence was elected by an overwhelming majority and re-elected in 1912 ]
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COE I. CRAWFORD
A FIERY ORATOR
"You're a liar!" (apologies to T. R.) ripped out a big red- faced fellow sitting mid-room in the I. O. O. F. hall at Alpena, during the redhot political campaign of 1896 The speaker in a dramatic pose, with clinched fists and with his voice pitched in stentorian tones, had just reached a terrific climax, as he sought to show that the salaries of the daily wage-earner had steadily increased in this country since the Civil War, except during Grover Cleveland's two democratic administrations.
This insult hurled into his teeth caused the campaigner's face to flush. Seizing a book of statistics with which to prove his assertion, the speaker rushed down the aisle to the brazen- faced scapegoat, held the book firmly against the fellow's nose, and said in a manner that was in keeping with the excitement, "Did you say I was a liar?" The fellow's head kept going far- ther back. Every red corpuscle in his blood spontaneously crowded themselves into the veins of his face. "Did you say I was a liar?" thundered the speaker at him again.
And the speaker-ah! yes, the speaker! Who was he? None other than the fiery, fearless, eloquent young attorney-general of South Dakota -himself a candidate for congress -the Honor- able Coe I. Crawford.
Crawford is by far the most spirited, logical and convincing campaign orator that the state has ever produced. The campaign of 1896 was the hottest political contest this country has seen since the Civil War. During its progress Senator Crawford de- livered 105 telling speeches-speeches that were filled with pith and unanswerable arguments; and although he lost the fight for himself, he helped to stem the tide of popocracy and democracy combined and saved to the republican party of the state a part of the state ticket.
The scene at Alpena was mild beside the one that was enacted at Mound City in Campbell county. At this meeting, J. H. Kipp,
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who afterwards became insurance commissioner under Governor Lee, and a bunch of rowdies, stationed themselves in one corner of the room in which the meeting was being held, and deter- mined to break it up. Every time Mr. Crawford would make a point they would groan and then hurl ugly remarks at him. The speaker's patience became exhausted. Being a master of invective, by birth, and a sovereign at sarcasm, by training, he suddenly stopped his address to pay his respects to Kipp and his friends. If ever fiery darts of burning invective, spat from the end of a human tongue, pierced the social armor of men, it was those that were sent seething into the skins of Kipp and his rowdies that night by Crawford. After giving them a tongue lashing that would have caused the soul of a cannibal to shrivel in its casement, the speaker went on -uninterrupted.
Again at Bowdle, during the same campaign, when Mr. Crawford had gotten his audience to a fever pitch of excitement, some licentious cur gulped out, "You got $20,000 for selling out to Taylor." (Taylor was the defaulting state treasurer whom Mr. Crawford, as attorney-general, was compelled to prosecute.) Quicker than a flash and in a tone of voice that showed he was not too young to begin nor "too old to come back," the speaker shot at his accuser this penetrating rejoinder, "I don't know who your are, but I know one thing and that is that you are a brazen liar." There was a slight shuffling of feet-a silence-a few coughs, when finally some one said "sic 'um" -then silence, as accuser and accused, liar and lyee (no charge for this new word), stood glaring into each other's eyes. The accuser settled down deeper and deeper into his seat until his crown played tag with his coat collar ;- the speaker went on.
Once more-this time at Hartford. Owing to a railroad ac- cident, Mr. Crawford was obliged to drive to Hartford from Salem. The night was blinding dark; the driver got lost and they did not reach Hartford until ten o'clock. Meanwhile an old farmer had been "filling in" until the regular speaker could ar- rive. As Mr. Crawford entered the hall. and was recognized, pent-up feelings gave vent to out-spoken threats, men jumped onto chairs and called each other liars; some shook ten, twenty and even hundred dollar bills in other men's faces and told them to "put up or shut up. " A fist fight was going on outside, and oaths rent the air.
Mr. Crawford spoke till after midnight; then the crowd re- fused to depart. Both sides prepared huge bonfires which they re-kindled until their fiery tongues intermingled in the morning skies with the reddened streaks of dawn. Such are only a few of
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the stirring scenes through which he who constitutes our subject has passed.
CRAWFORD, THE ORATOR
Senator Crawford has a style of oratory peculiar to himself. It comes natural to him. It is differffent from all other men in the state His climaxes are not built up on previous meditation. He gathers his inspiration from his surroundings, ignites it with a fuse of soul, and immediately there is an outburst of high keyed rhetoric that causes one to feel his chair lifting him from the floor. Your hair stands pompadour; your scalp puckers as though it had been rubbed with alum; the muscles of your face twitch; your heart thuds; you lean forward; you hold your breath; -you have been touched by the magic tongue of the orator. Then as his oratory subsides, you relax, settle back, fec] as though you were being lowered into an abyss, catch your breath, feel your heart-throbs become normal, and sit meditating over the argument being adduced; when suddenly the speaker's eyes flash again, his voice raises, his fists clinch, he comes nearer, you tremble under the spell, and then as if touched by an electric battery you leap upon your seat and cheer! What's wrong? Nothing! You have merely felt the power of human words, the accents of a soul-stirring voice, the effects of natural, inspira- tional. impassioned, spontaneous eloquence. Such is the oratory of Crawford. His silvery tongue, pivoted on a diamond swivel, glistens with sparkling verbiage and brings upon you an incanta- tion that is overpowering, aweinspiring, magical, grand.
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