USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 20
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General Beadle is a Thirty-third degree Scottish Rite Mason. He was married soon after the close of the Civil War to Ellen S. Chapman, a descendant of Mose Rich, a distinguished soldier of the Revolutionary War. Their only child, a daughter, is married and lives in California Mrs. Beadle died in 1897, and left the General to spend his declining years in solitude.
L. E. CAMFIELD
HE CAUGHT A VISION
One year, while the writer was superintendent of the Day- ison county schools, 1901-1904-(the reader will please excuse this allusion to self, but, as will be seen, it becomes necessary, in view of the incident related herein), he was conducting a teach- ers' examination in the court house at Mitchell. Thirty-five teachers and prospective teachers were writing the examination. Among them was a sixteen-year-old girl, Eva Belle Waugh (today, Mrs. S. C. Oathout, of Vermillion). When the examina- tion was over and the papers had all been carefully graded, it was found that this stripling of an inexperienced girl had passed the highest examination of any who had written it. Now, the highest test of the quality of work done by any school is the qual- ity of examination which its students can pass. Where was Miss Waugh educated? Halt! while we pause to inform you, at Ward Academy, an inland school near the Missouri river, seventeen miles off the railroad, in Charles Mix county. Miss Waugh is only one of the many students from this splendid school, which we have since met, -among them being John I. Pasek, secretary of Huron College; Charles Anderson, ex-superintendent of Lyman county, and many others-, all of whom are exceedingly thorough in their scholarship.
This school was built in 1893. It has never had but one president, the Reverend Lewis Emerson Canifield, -the man who caught a vision, grasped the opportunity, looked steadfastly toward his God for guidance, and moved patiently on to victory.
Reverend Mr. Camfield is a descendant on his mother's side from our great teacher, preacher, poet, and philosopher. Ralph Waldo Emerson His father and grandfather were both black- smiths. From his mother' side he inherited piety, literary gen- jus and leadership; from his father's side, a sturdy physique and stable manhood.
Lewis, himself. was born at Fremont, Ohio, February 12, 1860. Here he spent his boyhood attending the public schools of
WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA
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the town. Later, he attended Old Western Reserve College at Hudson, Ohio, for three years. Marcus A. Hanna was also a student there at the same time, while ex-president Hayes and Hon. John Hay were trustees of the school. At the end of his third year the institution was moved to Cleveland, Ohio, consolidated with another institution at that place, and its name changed to Adelbert Col. lege. Here he continued his studies for two years longer. It was Camfield's intention from boyhood to fit himself for a law- ver. But during his col- lege life his mother and sister had removed to Sargent county, North Dakota. They sent for him; he went. This changed his career. He remained in North Da- kota for three years dur- ing which time he worked as a farm hand with the illustrious Isaac Lincoln, of Aberdeen, and taught school.
L. E. CAMFIELD
Finally he drifted into South Dakota and accepted the principalship of the old acad- emy at Plankinton. J. D. Bartow, Captain Anderson and Hon. Tom Ayer's father were the trustees. It was in 1886 Many of us were here then. We remember the conditions. The academy was closed. Nobody was to blame. Wheat 38 cents per bushel. Butter 6 cents per pound. Let us not recall it!
HEARD THE CALL
During his teaching career Professor Camfield had been ac- tive in Christian work among young people and had done more or less preaching . He finally decided to give up his legal aspiration and to enter the ministry. Accordingly, in 1888, he entered Chicago Theological Seminary, affiliated with Chicago University. Here he had for a classmate part of the time Dr. G. G. Wenzlaff,
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president of the Springfield (S. D ) state normal school. One day Wenzlaff became provoked at the mediaeval dogmas being ad- vanced by the old professor of thoesophy, and decided that he was going to turn over a new leaf right then and there and fit himself for a teacher instead of a preacher. This he did, and thus he changed his whole career. Strangely enough, he and Camfield are today presidents of sister schools (geographically). Young Camfield remained at the Seminary for three years, graduating in 1891 with his B. D. degree.
In June of the same year he was united in marriage to Miss Ella Woodman, a teacher in the Chicago public schools, who had been educated in Boston. They have one child, Miss Florence, now a sophomore in Yankton College. Mrs. Camfield taught for many years in Ward Academy, and otherwise assisted her ambi- tious husband.
WARD ACADEMY
We shall all be interested to learn something more of Ward Academy and how it happended to be located inland. After his graduation, Reverend Camfield came back to South Dakota and took up work as a home missionary and pioneer preacher in Charles Mix county. He had four appointments with a member- ship of about fifty each. Finally one Sunday in 1892, Fremont Hall, a classmate of President Nash at Yankton college, and field agent for that institution, came to call on Camfield, to make the "rounds" with him, look over conditions, do the talking four times that day and to take up a collection from among the west- erners for the furtherance of negro education in the south. The
collection amounted to $20.
That evening, Camfield said to Hall, "If we can raise $20 here among my people during these hard times for the education of the southern negro, we ought to be able to raise considerable money for the education of our children here at home."
"Why don't you establish a school of your own at some ad- vantageous point right here in the county?" said Hall.
"I'll do it!" declared Camfield.
Momentarily, our young western preacher had caught a vis- ion. During the next few weeks he rode on horse-back over the county which is 110 miles long, interviewing the parents of such boys as Ethan T. Colton and Fred Smith, now of Y. M. C. A. fame. He met encouragement everywhere. W. G. Dickenson, of Webster, superintendent of missions, came to the field, and he and Camfield called a public meeting, to further the enterprise. Camfield asked for eighty acres of land and $1,000 in cash.
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Dickinson reinforced the request with a vigorous speech. The meeting pledged 100 acres of land and $1500, in cash. The acad- emy was begun. It was named "Ward" after Dr. Ward, of Yankton College. (It should be changed to "Camfield"). The next year. 1893, it was completed and it opened with an enroll- ment of twenty-three. During the first year this was raised to fifty and for the past four years it has ranged from 125 to 145.
Since "Ward Hall" was built they have erected a large church which is also used as a school building. In addition to this they have built several cottages and they are just now com- pleting a girls' dormitory at a cost of $20,000. They have ac- quired all told 760 acres of land, -farming 300 acres and pastur- ing the balance. In addition they have $5,000 worth of blooded stock. The total value of the buildings, land and stock is $75,000.
All hail! Camfield! you have served your generation well. God never intended you for a lawyer. "Henceforth there shall ' be laid up for you a crown of righteousness." Wear it with manly pride!
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COL. DICK WOODS
"HAVE YOU MET DICK WOODS?"
How familiar the above words have become to each of us! How often have they appeared in our daily papers! Originality in advertising. Yes; and they must have had an origin. They did; and a very dramatic one. Here it is: Colonel Dick Woods, of Sioux Falls, general agent in South Dakota for the Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company, of Milwaukee, was riding on a pas- senger train in this state, several years ago, when the question of "bald heads" becanie a part of the conversation between him and his friends.
"I'll bet," said Dick, "that I've got the baldest head of any man, my age, on the train."
A stranger sitting nearby, who, up to that time, had taken no part in the conversation, broke in with the friendly query, "How old are you?"
"Thirty-one," responded Dick, with his accustomed frank- ness and courtesy.
"Well," said the stranger, "I guess we better 'show up.' You are several years older than I am."
Simultaneously both men snatched off their hats Dick was awfully bald for a man of his age. Approximately the same amount of hair fringed his cranium that clusters about it to this day, but of course at that time it more nearly retained its orig- inal color.
"He's got you, Dick!" interjected one of his friends. And sure enough he had. The young stranger's head was so near to- tally bald that he had to rub alum on his scalp twice every twenty- four hours in order to pucker it enough to draw his hair up under his hat.
"I want to hire you," said Dick, as a crescent grin stole playfully over his full-moon face.
"What is your business?" interrogated the fellow.
"I'm an insurance man," replied the genial Woods.
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"How much will you pay me?" queried the gentleman eagerly.
"Twenty-four dollars a month and your expenses," promptly responded the Colonel.
"It's a bargain,' said the stranger, quite emphatically. "What will my work consist of?"
"Oh !- well, that's a different proposition," muttered Dick. "You're not going back on me, are you?"
"Not for a minute!" snapped out the new employee, evi- dently distressed with the implied suggestion.
"Well, I'll tell you," said the Colonel, "I want to paint these words, HAVE YOU MET DICK WOODS?, on top of your bald ead. You are to keep your hat off all the time. except when you're out of doors; and every time anybody says anything to you about your sign, tell them to write me 'at Sioux Falls. You needn't tell them what your business is, or mine either."
The fellow readily assented; a stencil artist painted the sign clear across the bald area of his cranium, beginning well down on his forehead and extending it backwards to the base of the fel- low's medulla oblongata.
Dick Wood's fortune was made. It was an idea born of the moment, yet it got results. Letters came to him thick and fast from farmers, farmer's daughters, factory hands, railroad em- ployees, hotel clerks, and what not. It beat Tom Murray' "Meet me face to face" all hollow.
Following this, a number of traveling men ordered the fel- low's "head" sign painted artisitcally on a board, had it hung up in the Cataract Hotel at Sioux Falls, and, for a joke, had the bill-$25-sent to Dick Woods, himself. He paid it willingly, and often remarked to the fellows who did it that it was the cheapest advertising he ever got.
Dick is an Irish-American or an American-Irishman, as the case may be, -take your choice. At any rate, he was born in Belfast, Ireland, of American parentage, January 17, 1863. While yet a mere babe his parents returned with him to America, and his father engaged in business in New Orleans, at which place the latter died in 1872. The mother at once took the fam- ily and went back to Ireland, returning again to America the next year, after exhausting the family fortune, and settled in Philadelphia where she died the following year in obscure poverty.
Young Woods had in him a mixture of bloods and of senti- ments. His father, during the Civil War, was a firm sympathizer with the North; his mother was equally loyal to the South. Fam-
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ily dissentions arose. This accounts for their trip abroad during the war, and Dick's birth on foreign soil. The intense convic- tions of his mother's soul found their most rigid expression in the naming of her children. For instance, one boy was named Albert Jeff Davis Woods, another one, George Beauregard Woods, while our subject himself was named Richard Jackson Woods, and a daughter was christened Virginia Lee Woods. This in- tense loyalty on her part to the South was very commendable, right or wrong, and the patriotic devotion to her own convictions was transmitted to her successful son-Colonel Dick Woods, of Sioux Falls.
After his mother's early death, Dick was sent to the Lincoln Insti- tute, an orphan asylum, in Phil- adelphia. It was run by Mrs. J. Bellanger Cox. Later she acquired some land in Lincoln county, South Dakota, and organized the famous Mead farm. To this ranch she as- signed young Woods and several of his orphan associates. This is how Dick happened to become a Dakotan.
The most unfortunate thing about it was that he only got two weeks of schooling in his entire career. Yet, somehow, sometime, somewhere, some-way, he learned to read, write, cipher, and spell, and today he is one of the best informed men in our state.
It is an admitted fact that Dick Woods has the widest personal ac- COL. DICK WOODS quaintance of any man in South Dakota. He can start in at Elk Point, go north through the state, making every town in it, and call more people by name as he meets them, than any three other men in our commonwealth.
He is also a very ready speaker. Once upon a time he was present at our State Training School at Plankinton when the of- ficial board was there. They urged him to address the school. Without preparation, he recited the graphic story of his life. There wasn't a dry eye in the room, as he proceeded. Yet he brought them all out nicely by assuring the youthful criminals that when a boy he was as bad as the worst of them, only he had escaped getting caught.
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Since early manhood Dick has been active in the politics of the state. He has attended every territorial and state convention of the republican party since 1884. It was he who first "discovered" and brought out the lamented A. B. Kittredge. His admiration and affection for the latter was signalized in his first and only child whom he saw fit to name Alfred Kittredge Woods. (This was merely the outcropping of his inherited loy- alty to his friends, manifested by his mother.) Upon the sen- ator's death he was made secretary of the Kittredge Memorial association which has for its object the creation of funds with which to erect marble bust of the Senator in our state capitol. just opposite that of General Beadle.
Dick is a thirty-second degree Mason, an Odd Fellow, a member of the Knights of Pythias, grand-treasurer of the South Dakota U. C. T., and he has held every office in existence in the Grand Lodge of Elks. For eight years he was president of the State League of South Dakota Republican clubs; was twice pres- ident of the State Elks' association; was twice president of the State Firemens' Association, and is secretary of. the South Dakota Peace Society; was appointed by President Taft a member of the Mint Commission, last spring; and on September 18, 1912, he was elected treasurer of the old-line republican organization ef- fected in the city of Mitchell.
However, the greatest single achievement in Dick Wood's life, and the one which above all others showed him to be a past master in the political game, was a "stunt" pulled off by him some sixteen or more years ago at the national convention of re- publican clubs in the city of Detroit, Michigan.
DICK'S GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT
The president of the national organization wrote him prior to the convention that if he would attend, and bring with him an active delegation from South Dakota, he would make him chair- man of the committee on credentials. This looked good to Dick. He started, taking with him Messrs. Herreid, Sterling, Burke, and others. When he arrived at Detriot he was all alone,-his comrades having stopped off, one by one, at various points along the way. Dick wanted that chairmanship. He had with him credentials for a number of South Dakotans, but he could not vote these very handily on the floor of the convention. His wit saved him. Rushing out of the hall he hailed a stranger.
"Can you spare a few minutes?" shouted he to the fellow.
"Certainly!" responded the gentleman. "What is it you wish done?"
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"I want you to go into the conveniton hall yonder and when the name 'Charlie Day' is called, say 'Present'," (at the same time giving the fellow a liberal "tip").
Then he hailed another and named him Charlie Burke, and another, Charile Herreid (these strangers must have thought that South Dakota was peopled with "Charlies"), and so on until his list was exhausted. He then gave each fellow a slip of paper with his new name on it.
They attended the convention in a body; were seated, and when the proper time came, they each one voted -and voted as Dick Woods told them to vote. The victory was his! After it was over, and the truth leaked out, the "New York Sun" de- voted an entire column to a laudation of Dick's cleverness and political sagacity.
HIS TITLE
Oh! yes; I forgot to mention that title of his-"Colonel." Now, this is genuine. Dick is a patriot. He was not given this title for standing on a stump and auctioneering off blooded steers. No sir! he earned it. Away back in our early territorial days, when a man had to pay out money instead of receiving it, in order to belong to our militia, young Woods joined old Com- pany "B" of Sioux Falls, as a private. Then, step by step, he rose to the rank of corporal, of sergeant, and on up to lieutenant. Finally, in 1889, at the inception of our statehood, there was cre- ated by law two special military departments -- engineers and ordnance. Governor Sheldon afterwards united these into one department and appointed Lieut. Richard Jackson Woods, chief of it, with the rank of Colonel.
"Have you met Colonel Dick Woods?"
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REALIZED HIS AMBITIONS
One beautiful evening in the spring of 1912, which all nature had exerted itself to create ideal, when the red-fingered tapers of twilight arching gently from the west, cast lingering shadows across the Big Sioux Valley, a quiet, dignified jurist with a kindly face and pleasing mannerisms, stepped out of a cab at the Great Northern depot in Sioux Falls, stole almost unnoticed across the platform in the semi-darkness, and boarded a passenger train on that line, headed for Yankton. Arriving at the latter place late in the evening, this dignified, courteous gentleman stepped off the train quite as unnoticed as he had entered, walked hurriedly across the depot platform to a hackman and said, 'Drive me at once to the home of Senator Gamble."
Upon reaching the senator's home, he lost no time in alight- ing from the cab and entering the house. Senator Gamble, throw- ing open the door in response to a sharp ring of the bell, said : "Come in, my dear Judge, I'm so glad to see you," bowing the meanwhile in polite recognition of the caller's presence, and ex- tending to him a most cordial hand-clasp. "Remove your coat." he continued, "while I call Mrs. Gamble who will be equally pleased to see you."
During the felicitations which followed, Mrs. Gamble de- tected beneath the accustomed smile on the jurist's face a pecul- iar expression of anxiety which bespoke to her in silent but im- pressive language that something unordinary was either happening or else about to take place. Therefore, without lingering in the room beyond twenty scant minutes, she excused herself and re- tired for the night.
It was in the midst of Senator Gamble's campaign for re- nomination to the United States senate. The room was beauti- fully lighted. The Senator, himself, was clad in a salt-and-pepper frock suit; and when his friend arrived, he was sititng at a table pondering meditatingly over a chart of South Dakota election statistics. Once by themselves the Judge hastily disclosed his
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errand. He said: "Senator, I have come over voluntarily to see you with regard to your renomination. Would you mind if I should speak very plainly to you about the situation, as I see it?"
"Not at all," responded the Senator, "I shall be greatly pleased to have you do so."
"Well." said the learned judge and wise political prognos- ticator, as he drew his chair much closer to that of Senator Gam- ble's and placed his hand affectionately upon the latter's knee, "the present campaign is going to hinge itself on the Lorimer scandal. It is no doubt true that the election of many other sen- ators is tainted with fraud but that doesn't make any difference; in my judgment he is going to be made the 'goat' of the senate and be driven to the mountains for refuge. The public is excited and are demanding his removal. I am sure it will be done, and if you continue to support him, you are as sure to go down to de- feat as day follows night, but if you will oppose him you can sweep the state. and in all probability go back to the senate as often as you desire. Personally, I have not had time to review the evidence in the case, so of course my suggestions are not based upon the merits of it. You will, of course, pardon this outspoken declaration from me. Now, what is your opinion?"
"Judge," said the senator slowly and with a look of deep concern upon his face, "what you say may be true, but in sup- porting Mr. Lorimer, I am simply doing my duty as I see it. From boyhood it was my ambition to occupy the position of a United States senator. It is the highest legislative body on earth. I have not only taken my oath as a member of that body but I have also taken a solemn oath as a member of the special com- mittee appointed to investigate the scandalous charges concerning Mr. Lorimer's election. I am sitting there as a juror or a judge. I am sworn to determine the matter on the evidence. Look at it! There isn't enough real evidence to convict a dog. It was mostly given by bar-room criminals and leeches of the under-world. Look at the testimony that has been given by substantial citizens
to offset it." Then, rising from his chair, that sturdy senator, Robert J. Gamble. with tears trickling down his manly face, said in a trembling voice but with an approving conscience: "A senator's salary is comparatively small. I haven't saved a dollar out of mine. No senator can save money unless he is dishonest. I have never accepted a dishonest dollar in my life. On the other hand my law business is gone; I know less law than I did twelve years ago when I entered the senate. Under the circumstances I should like very much to remain at least another term in the senate. But, Judge, in determining this Lorimer matter, I am
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going to do my sworn duty as I see it, and as God, Himself, gives me light to see it, with absolutely no thought of my own political welfare; and then if I go down' to defeat, you'll never hear me whimper."
To whom was the senator speaking? Who was this night messenger that had called at his home? Who was the judge? the jurist? the counsellor? who had come to see him as his benefac- tor? Ah! read slowly-don't miss a word-while I disclose to you that it was his life-long friend, his former office boy, his campaign adviser in days gone by, the most astute politician South Dakota has ever produced, Judge James D. Elliott, of Sioux Falls.
But Judge Elliott is no longer in politics. He was not in politics, directly, when he made his night call upon Senator Gamble. He had sim- ply gone there as a former neighbor and friend to get the Senator to change his view- point on the Lorimer matter. Nevertheless when he was ac- tive in politics, he was never known to err in judgment or in prophecy. He was identified with the old wing of the Re- publican party until 1906, and until that time they never tasted total defeat. His judg- ment in politics was infallible. But when the practices of the old organization became in- tolerable to him, he promptly left them and became one of the leaders in the reform movement. Momentarily a new chapter was written in our political history.
JUDGE ELLIOTT
PERSONAL
Born at Mt. Sterling, Illinois, October 7, 1859, of Scotch par- entage, he was, nevertheless, while yet a mere babe, taken by his parents to Ringgold county, lowa, where he spent his early child- hood. His father served two enlistments in the Civil War. Although but a mere child at the time, Judge Elliott remembers
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seeing his father bid the family farewell, mount his horse and ride away to the service of his country. He also remembers the assassination of Lincoln. After the war, the family removed to Guthrie county, Iowa. Here young Elliott attended a district school and later took up work in an academy. He would have graduated from the latter institution in June, 1872, had not his parents, in April of that year, moved to Clay county, South Dakota.
This brought a new chapter into his life. Here was a boy who had entered school at four years of age and who had prac- tically completed an academic course at thirteen. Once in Da- kota, conditions changed. He lingered along at the old home on the Missouri bottom, for several years, getting such help in his studies as he could from intelligent settlers here and there. Finally, when the Vermillion city schools were organized he went there and took a four-year course in two years; that is, he took the two-year high school course which was established and a special two-year course beyond it, in half time. Yet this achievement was not accomplished without one of the most severe struggles in the history of a man. His parents were exceedingly poor. James hadn't a dollar. He slept in the rear of a vacated building, with no fire. Night after night he shivered himself to sleep. For food he hadn't a bite except that sent to him now and then in a rough wooden box by his loyal mother. He piled sticks in the alley, set them on fire, thawed out his food, ate it and underwent hardships that would make even Dr. Cook blush in his quest for the north pole. The second year was easier, -he got janitor work to do to pay for his board.
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