USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Vol. III > Part 13
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On December 19, 1918, Colonel Shade was sent to Romorantin, and placed in charge of the Air Service Shops. These were turned over to his Motor Transport Corps. He built it up from 600 men to 7,000, and made it the largest Reconstruction Park in France. For this achievement, General Walker made the following citation :
AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES Office Director Motor Transport Corps TOURS, France, May 17, 1919.
Lt. Colonel Myron L. Shade, Field Artillery,
My dear Colonel Shade : -
I am sorry to hear that it is necessary for you to return to the United States, especially since this is brought about by family bereavement.
I wish to express to you my very high opinion of the work you have done in the American Ex- peditionary Forces in connection with Motor Transport. From the first you had charge of motor matters in the Replacement Division, and developed a good school and training system.
Somewhat later you went to Romorantin in charge of Motor Transport Reconstruction Park at this station, a very large plant employing eventually several thousand men. The organiza- tion and operation of this part were attended
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by many difficulties, all of which you met and overcome.
I regret that you were not transferred to the Motor Transport Corps during the period when such transfers were permissible, because I feel that the character of work you have done for this Corps merits recognition in the shape of promotion, and this I am now unable to arrange for you at this time.
In my opinion you have displayed great ability as an organizer of a large project, and have made this organization function well by dint of your untiring energy and perseverance. I want you to accept my thanks and my congratulations for what you have accomplished.
Hoping that it may be my good fortune to run across you again after we are all back in the United States, I wish you would believe me,
Sincerely yours, M. L. WALKER, Brig. Gen. U. S. Army.
Director, Motor Transport.
Colonel Shade received 200 vehicles on wheels and 50 carloads of them a day for 30 days. When he left on May 17, 1919, he had on hand 12,000 vehicles spread out over 600 acres.
He left France May 22, 1919, and set sail for America on board the U. S. A. transport, "Mobile" (also a former German transport) , and landed at Hoboken on Decoration Day. He was discharged July 8, and made a full
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Colonel in the Officers' Reserve Corps. This ended his third military service.
"Your flag and my flag! And oh! how much it holds - Your land and my land Secure within its folds; Your heart and my heart Beat quicker at the sight; Sun-kissed and wind-tossed - Red and Blue and White.
The one flag, the great flag, theflag for me and you- Glorified all else beside - the Red and White and Blue."
NESBIT
Let us conclude his military career in the heroic language of the mightiest poet pro- duced by the Anglo-Saxon race, William Shakespeare :
"I do not think a braver gentleman, More active-valiant, or more valiant-young, More daring, or more bold, is now alive, To grace this latter age with noble deeds."
In recognition of his splendid services to his country, Governor Norbeck appointed him a member of the State Highway Com- mission the very day he got home - July 12, 1919.
He had been elected Department Com- mander of the United Spanish-War Veterans
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in 1915. Six days after his return from France, he was elected Commander of the South Dakota Department of the American Legion - and served one year.
DOMESTIC
Colonel Shade was united in marriage on April 24, 1904, to Miss Jennie O. Giese, of Princeton, Illinois, whom he had known for many years. With him, as was said of George Washington :
"Providence rendered him childless."
Yet he would not be without a son ; and so he and Mrs. Shade adopted a baby boy born in St. Josephs Hospital in Mitchell, and made him their own - in every sense of the word. They named him Lewis Giese Shade, - and blood parents were never prouder of a son. Says Hood :
"What different lots our stars accord! This babe to be hail'd and woo'd as a Lord!"
t
CHAPLAIN GUY P. SQUIRE HERO OF TWO WARS
In the aftermath of battle on the Marilao river in the Philippine Islands on March 27, 1899, the hospital corps came onto the field and began carrying away the wounded - and later the dead also.
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Among those, wounded nigh unto death, who were being carried on stretchers to the railroad station nearby, preparatory to transporting them to a hospital in Manila, twelve miles away, was a young corporal of Co. "F." His name was Guy P. Squire. And thus we become introduced to our hero of two wars, on the field of battle.
"The death-shot hissing from afar - The shock - the shout - the groan of war- Reverberate along that vale, More suited to the Shepherd's tale:
Though few the numbers - theirs the strife, That neither spares nor speaks of life." BYRON.
Young Squire's sufferings are told in part in an article from his own pen published several years ago (p. 256, Vol. II, WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA). In it he says :
"I was shot in the right side in the fight at Marilao river, and with Sergeant Preacher was taken that night on the same car back to Manila. We were laid side by side in a train of freight cars, eighteen in number, in which, as carefully as could be done, our soldier engineer ran us back the eighteen miles to the city wharf in Manila. There we were disembarked and placed upon a launch which conveyed us up the Pasig
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river to where a door of the First Reserve hos- pital opened onto the river; then we were taken out and carried to the operating room where at two tables the surgeons were soon at work on their mission of mercy. So many were there that the rooms surrounding the operating room were completely covered with the litters of the boys, where they lay chatting and smoking amid the groans of the dying, talking over the events of that terrible day.
"Finally, it came my turn, and after having my wound dressed, I was taken to Ward 18, a ward made of large "A" tents erected on a platform outside the quadrangle of wards of the regular hospital, as that was full, having at the time over 900 men in it. About 3:00 o'clock in the morning, I was placed in a bed in this ward, the first springs that I had laid on in a year. I had been on guard, without sleep, throughout the previous night, * and after that day's fighting at Marilao, and with the suffering from my wound, I was as nearly in a state of collapse as I well could be. Never will I forget the sense of delicious ease that stole over me, as they laid me down, with my wound dressed, upon those soft white sheets."
EARLY YEARS
Guy Squire was born at Defiance, Ohio, March 24, 1875. In 1883, the family re- moved to Dakota Territory and settled on a farm in Edmunds County. Here Guy at- tended rural school in an old sod school
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house with a mud floor and planks for a blackboard.
Five years after coming to Dakota the father died. It was the "dry spell." Nothing would grow. The family suffered the hard- ships common to most pioneers. Finally they returned to Ohio where Guy worked as a fac- tory hand for several years.
However, in 1893, he returned to Dakota and took up work as a farm hand, again at- tending rural school during the winter months. By the fall of 1896, he had gotten a little ahead, and so he entered Redfield Col- lege, to fit himself for a Congregational preacher.
But the Spanish-American war broke out in 1898. Squire was a patriotic Youth. He left school to enlist as a member of Co. "F," 1st S. D. Volunteers. This regiment was ordered to the Philippines. During the in- surrection of the natives which followed in the spring of 1899, he was wounded as pre- viously set forth. His wound was so severe that he was not permitted to return to the firing line; and so the authorities sent him
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nome, and he was mustered out at San Fran- cisco in August, 1899.
Immediately after his return, he reentered Redfield College, with a view to completing his ministerial course. During the next two years, while attending college, he acted as a local preacher near Redfield. This helped him to put his classroom theories into prac- tice and it enabled him to develop the prac- tical side of himself.
He spent the school year 1901-2 in Chi- cago Theological Seminary, enlarging his scholastic preparation for life. After that he returned to northern Hand County and entered upon a regular itinerant preacher's career.
A STATE BUILDER
A "state builder." How often we hear the term used : sometimes rightfully, some- times wrongfully. Chaplain Guy P. Squire is a man to whom it can be applied truth- fully, for he is, in the truest sense of the words, a state builder. Any preacher who builds six new churches in sixteen years of his ministry is a state builder. This is
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Squire's record, and it is a record to be proud of.
The history of northern Hand County is largely the history of this boy preacher. Here it was that he built five churches. Here it was that he ministered to them after they were organized. Here it was that he taught school during the week; drove forty-seven miles on Sunday, regardless of weather con- ditions, and preached three times. For ten years the annual salary received by him from both jobs amounted to less than $300. Mrs. Squire also taught school, to help meet the family expenses. They did this heroic pio- neer church work through choice rather than through necessity. This makes it all the more creditable.
OTHER PASTORATES
After this strenuous period of heroic pio- neer work in northern Hand County, he ac- cepted a call to the pastorate at Humboldt, South Dakota. Here he was made secretary of the Commercial Club and became intensely active in the betterment of good roads; in fact, one of the first stretches of good roads
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in Dakota was built at Humboldt under his guidance and as a result of his inspiration.
At the end of three years at Humboldt, he accepted an invitation to become pastor of the Congregational Church at Wessington Springs. Upon arrival he promptly became identified with the Commercial Club; helped to reorganize it, and was instrumental in establishing the beautiful park and swim- ming pool at that place.
While at Wessington Springs he rebuilt the local Congregational Church, and built a new church nine miles in the country, at Fauston.
In 1911, he was appointed Chaplain of the Fourth South Dakota Infantry; and when the trouble with Mexico came on in 1916, he served with that regiment on the border.
Upon his return he accepted the Congre- gational pastorate at Mobridge where he did valiant service until his regiment was draft- ed into the World War in 1917. He accom- panied the regiment to Camp Green, as Chaplain, and retained the position when this regiment was reorganized into the 147th Field Artillery. He served with them
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through the bloody struggles for world free- dom in France, being in one defensive, and four major offensive, campaigns.
When he returned to the states, during the winter of 1918-19, he received dozens of calls for lectures on the scenes of battle in Europe, which he accepted, devoting his time to this line of work for about a year. When General Wood became a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 1920, Chaplain Squire stumped the entire upper Mississippi valley in the General's behalf.
A MAN'S MAN
Squire is a happy combination; in other words, he is a man's man. He mingles freely with men, loves men, and is respected by them. He has done much to dispel the old- fashioned notion that religion is a woman's whim and that men who engage in the min- istry are effeminate.
While in camp, at Sioux Falls, in 1898, on the boat en route to the Philippines, and while in the Islands - prior to receiving his wound -, he engaged in many boxing con- tests. Again, while preaching at Humboldt,
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a local elevator man, rather handy with the gloves, arranged a boxing match with him. Squire accepted the fellow's challenge, much to the satisfaction of the whole community, and knocked him out in three rounds. This incident is still talked about at Humboldt, yet out of it came a movement for better things in the life of the boys of that com- munity. Just before leaving France, and after having been in the hospital for sever weeks, Chaplain Squire accepted the chal- lenge of a regular army boxer, and he went three swift rounds with him - to a draw.
We repeat the words of Shakespeare, used elsewhere in this series :
"I dare do all that becomes a man. Who dares do (less) is none."
ORATORICAL
Squire is a brilliant fellow. While a stu- dent in Redfield College, he won the Milton gold medal for English composition, three times in succession, until he was barred from further competition. He has lectured widely and is in demand for commencements and
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other occasions. In addition to his word painting, he has a dynamic delivery.
At present the Chaplain is counsellor, at Brookings State College, to Rehabilitation Vocational men, - a ministry he greatly en- joys.
DOMESTIC
Reverend Mr. Squire was united in mar- riage, September 5, 1902, to Miss Helen Sweeten, of Hitchcock, South Dakota. Three children came to bless their home - Ina Louise, Ora Gladys, and Guy P., Jr.
He is a member of the Odd Fellows, Chap- ter and Consistory Masons, El Riad Shrine; an Elk, Son of the American Revolution, Spanish-War Veteran, Veteran of Foreign Wars, Son of a Veteran, and belongs to the American Legion.
"My soul, there is a countrie Afar beyond the stars, Where stands a wing-ed sentrie All skillful in the wars. There, above noise and danger, Sweet peace sits crowned with smiles,
And ONE born in a manger Commands the beauteous files."
VAUGHAN
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JOHN A. STANLEY
JOHN A. STANLEY EDITOR LEAD DAILY CALL
Except for isolated stretches on the west- ern plains, there is scarcely a rural home in America that is not reached regularly, each day, by a rural mail carrier who leaves the daily newspaper in the little mail box on the post near the gate. Childish feet then scamper rapidly for the mail. And the farm- er, when he sits down to rest at night, en- joys the same privilege that his city neighbor does, by having the up-to-date news of the day brought right to his home.
The man who is thus speaking to him, as well as to his city neighbor, through the daily press, assumes a moral obligation. No man should be permitted to run a newspaper who encourages the various isms of the day that seek to undermine our government.
It has been repeatedly asserted, and as often accepted as true, that each newspaper is read by five different people on an average. No doubt this was true when newspapers
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and money were scarcer, and when the means of distribution were stagnant and crude; but it can scarcely be true at the present time. It would, however, be extremely conservative to estimate that each paper was read, on an average, by three different people.
However, taking the latter as a reasonable basis, the editor of a newspaper like the Sioux Falls Daily Argus-Leader with a paid- up circulation of 18,000, speaks through his columns to 54,000 people each day. The size of his reading audience, therefore, intensifies his moral obligation. This is as large an audience daily as the average village preacher speaks to during the total tenure of his min- istry - based upon an average of forty years in the pulpit. The newspaper business has now become a profession instead of a trade, and as such it should be put on a pro- fessional basis.
Says Sprague in "Curiosity":
"Trade hardly deems the busy day begun, Till his keen eye along the sheet has run; The blooming daughter throws her needle by, And reads her schoolmate's marriage with a sigh; While the grave mother puts her glasses on,
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And gives a tear to some old crony gone. The preacher, too, his Sunday theme lays down, To know what last new folly fills his town; Lively or sad, life's meanest, mightiest things, The fate of fighting cocks, or fighting kings."
And again, in the same literary production, he comes back to his accustomed theme and says :
"Turn to the press - its teeming sheets survey, Big with the wonders of each passing day; Births, deaths, and wedding, forgeries, fires and wrecks,
Harangues and hailstones, brawls and broken necks." :
We are now to consider the life of an editor who has weighed all of these things well, - John A. Stanley, of the Lead Daily Call. After thirty years in the weekly newspaper business, he suddenly got it into his head late in the fall of 1914 that he wanted to enter the field of dailies. At that time, George Grace, editor and proprietor of the Lead Daily Call, got it into his head that he want- ed to go to California and engage in the automobile business. Therefore, he and Stanley quickly made a deal whereby the
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latter became proprietor of the Call, - taking possession January 1, 1915.
He is a safe and sane editor - not reac- tionary enough to stand still, nor so progres- sive as to become radical. True - he has an ideal; but he believes in being real while one is attaining his ideal; that is, he believes in so moulding the Present that it will fit into the Future, and thus his real aim be accomp- lished without destructive processes. A man of his temperament, in these vital hours of social unrest, is a blessing to any community ; - doubly so, when attached to the helm of a daily newspaper where he has an oppor- tunity to shape public opinion. He believes with Cowper :
"How shall I speak thee, or thy power address, Thou god of our idolatry, the Press? By thee, religion, liberty, and laws, Exert their influence and advance their cause."
Editor Stanley also believes in making the News page of a newspaper worth while. With him sensationalism that destroys the home life of a community is not legitimate news. With Shakespeare he believes :
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"Though it be honest, it is never good To bring bad news: give to a gracious message An host of tongues; but let ill tidings toll Themselves, when they be felt."
Every classical writer since John Guten- berg invented the printing press and made the dissemination of news possible, has had something to say about the newspaper busi- ness. Even Robert Burns could not evade it; and so, in "Captain Grose," he cautions :
"If there's a hole in a' your coats, I rede ye tent it; A chiel's amang you taking notes, And, faith, he'll prent it."
Stanley does not believe in rushing into print the fact that "There's a hole in a' your coats," unless that hole was placed there through mercenary motives, and society, by having its attention called to it, may escape a penalty.
In all his thirty-five years of newspaper experience, never once has he been sued for libel; made editorial retraction to escape a law-suit; or apologized voluntarily for wronging a fellowman. It is a fine record - one that reveals the character of the man.
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"O ye powers that search
The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts, If I have done amiss, impute it not! -
The best may err, but you are good."
ADDISON
PREPARATION AND EXPERIENCE
After struggling with his attributes, we must look back to the origin - to childhood, to youth, to maturity. He was born in the little town of West Salem, in Wisconsin, on October 24, 1862, when the Civil War was not as yet half over. Here he attended public school and did odd jobs until he was seven- teen years of age, when the family moved to Dakota and settled on a homestead near Gary in 1879. When the father left West Salem he sold the old home to the parents of Hamlin Garland, the great American author and lec- turer who later homesteaded in McPherson County, Dakota Territory, northwest of Aberdeen.
John assisted on the farm near Gary for over three years, breaking prairie, putting in crops, clearing the fields of stone, doing chores and other farm work. Finally, at the age of twenty, he struck out in life for him- self ; entered the old Inter-State print shop
ยท
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at Gary and learned to set type under the direction of the editor, Fred J. Bowman. Young Stanley was an industrious lad. In addition to working at the case, he volun- teered to gather news and write editorials. The result was that in three years he had charge of the plant.
After one year as editor of the Inter- State, he quit and became identified with the Dakota News, published at Watertown by General S. J. Conklin. Before two years had elapsed the shop at Gary changed ownership and young Stanley was called back there and again placed in charge of the Inter-State.
Here he remained until May, 1886, when he removed to the Black Hills and established the Battle River Pilot at Battle River Stage Station. At that time the Northwestern rail- road stopped at Buffalo Gap. During the summer of 1886, it was extended on through to Deadwood. The railway authorities changed the name of Battle River to Her- mosa, and so Stanley changed the name of his paper to the Hermosa Pilot.
In February, 1892, he traded the Hermosa Pilot for the Hot Springs Star; moved to
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Hot Springs and edited that paper for eighteen years. However, in 1910, he sold it to Warner and Son. But the "call to the case" was ever with him, and after a year he bought the Hot Springs Times-Herald which he also sold in less than a year, and then began to scan around for a good daily, - purchasing the Lead Call late in 1914. Since assuming control of it, he has enlarged the subscription list, greatly increased the job work, added a new Whitlock press and other facilities, and has made the paper a helpful factor in the life of Lead.
Mr. Stanley was a charter member of the Dakota Press Association which he helped to organize in 1883, with General Conklin as the first president, and George Schlosser - today editor of the Wessington Springs Re- publican - as the first secretary.
CORRELATED ACTIVITIES
At Hermosa he was appointed postmaster, but resigned when he moved to Hot Springs in 1892. At the latter city he was again made postmaster by President Mckinley, holding the office for seventeen years. In 1919, Governor Norbeck appointed him to a
2
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position on the Custer State Park Board.
Mr. Stanley owns a large ranch south of Cascade Springs, in Fall River County, con- sisting of 2340 acres, stocked with 400 head of Galloway cattle.
A gentleman named Wood, from Lansing, Michigan, purchased a farm near the Stan- ley homestead in Deuel County in the early eighties. He came to live on it for one year, bringing with him his talented daughter, Miss Alice. While living on this land, she and John Stanley became acquainted. Then the Wood family returned to Michigan. However, on April 6, 1887, John and Alice became husband and wife. They have two cons - Ward, who operates the ranch, and Elton, who is a practicing attorney at Rapid City. The family home is in Lead.
"The gravity and stillness of your youth The world hath noted, and your name is great In mouths of wisest censure."
SHAKESPEARE
DR. CRAIG S. THOMS
AUTHOR AND LECTURER
What could be more interesting in writing biographies than to delve into the field of our state authors? We have numerous ways of projecting ourselves on down through the centuries. By means of photography, paint-
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ing, or the sculptor's chisel, we preserve the physical appearance of an individual. The phonograph preserves the human voice, so that a thousand years from now one may place a record on a machine and hear Schu- mann-Heink sing "The Rosary." An author preserves his thoughts by means of books. Thus, the whole man, except his soul, is kept before us here on earth. It's wonderful to be an author! How many thousands of peo- ple covet it !
"An author! 'tis a venerable name! How few deserve it, and what numbers claim! Unblessed with sense above their refined, Who shall stand up, dictators to mankind? Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue's cause, That sole proprietor of just applause?" - YOUNG
THOMS, THE AUTHOR
Conspicuous among the present-day authors of our state is Dr. Craig S. Thoms, of our State University at Vermillion. Three books, a pamphlet on birds, and many maga- zine articles constitute his writings to date.
His first volume appeared in 1912. It was his "Bible Message for Modern Manhood." It is a book that meets the needs of the hour
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in our busy life. It was splendidly received by the public. Preachers, university pro- fessors, laymen, business men - everybody bought it, read it, praised it. A comment on it by President Hunt, of Denison University (Granville, O.) is most appropriate :
"I have read 'The Bible Message for Modern Manhood' with great interest and profit. It seems to me to be admirably constructed and clearly expressed. The handling of the mooted questions of interpretation seems to me to be very wise and helpful. You recognize the prob- lems while keeping the attention of your readers fixed upon the essential purpose and character of the books. It is a splendid example of the reverent handling of critical questions. I hope it may be widely read as it deserves."
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