USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Vol. III > Part 5
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age of twenty-one. Looking back adown the years, perhaps he would say with the poet :
"I remember, I remember The house where I was born, The little window where the sun Came peeping in at morn." *
"I remember, I remember The (pine tree) dark and high; I used to think (its) slender top Was close against the sky." HOOD
A few months each winter at a country school and two years in the public schools of Polo constituted his educational prepara- tion for life; but he had plenty of native ability.
Finally, at the age of twenty-one, with all of his obligations to his parents honestly discharged, and with theirs to him completed, he left the old home, with his parents' bene- diction upon him, and started out in a big, broad, busy world, to make a success in life.
Having been reared on a farm, farming appealed to him. It had been his main schooling, his stock and trade. In it he saw the realization of his dreams. And so he
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rented a farm seven miles west of Polo, at Eagle Point, and began the development of his career.
After three years on this place, during which he prospered well and was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Grace Kitzmiller, he rented from his father a farm directly across the road from the old home, which the elder Hedrick had purchased, and moved onto it. On this place he remained until he removed to Polo in 1903.
The next year he came to Dakota and set- tled in Chamberlain. At the same time he operated a ranch of 3000 acres north of Oacoma, across the Missouri river. During this same interval, and while he was waiting for the money market to change so as to enter the real estate business, he conducted a feed store in Chamberlain. Finally, in 1895, things began to change in Dakota and he opened a real estate office and conducted a general land business until 1913.
IN THE POLITICAL ARENA
In the spring of 1910, when the city gov- ernment was changed from the aldermanic form of government to the city commission
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form, Mr. Hedrick was elected city com- missioner and drew a three-year term. He has been re-elected twice since, each time without opposition. He has also held the of- fice of Commissioner of Finance all of the time.
In 1910, he was elected to the state senate from Brule and Buffalo Counties, on the re- publican ticket. The legislature of 1911 re- districted the state and added Jerauld Coun- ty to that senatorial district. In the 1912 election the republicans got to fighting among themselves over factionalism, with the result that Hedrick was defeated for re- election by 100 votes.
While he was in the senate, Frank M. Byrne was Lieutenant-Governor and presid- ing officer of that body. He took a liking to Hedrick. In the 1912 election Byrne was elected Governor. And so, in 1913, he ap- pointed Hedrick game warden of South Da- kota - a position he has held ever since with great credit to himself and to the state.
AS GAME WARDEN
Mr. Hedrick's efforts as state game warden divide themselves along three distinct lines
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of endeavor - the development of the State Game Preserve in the Black Hills, the de- velopment of the lakes of the state as feeding and as brooding grounds for feathered game, and the rehabilitation of our lakes and living streams with suitable fish. Let us consider them separately :
1. STATE GAME PRESERVE -
The State Game Preserve in Custer Coun- ty originally consisted of 61,400 acres. To this the special session of the 1920 legislature added over 30,000 acres - including Sylvan Lake, Harney Peak and the rugged and pic- turesque region roundabout - making the total acreage over 90,000. The original tract is enclosed by an eight-foot woven-wire fence. Within it are 75 buffaloes, over 500 elk, and nearly 300 deer. These deer are natives of the park. They :1.
were merely fenced in and left in their original haunts. i! Mr. Hedrick is now engaged in developing the added portion of the park. A fine set of buildings, fifteen miles east of Custer, con- structed wholly out of native materials with- in the park, is being erected. The plans for the park were drawn by Phelps Wyman,
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of Minneapolis, a landscape architect. When completed, it will be second to none in Am- erica.
2. (a) DUCKS -Ducks are living beings. Like people they seek good things to eat. Most people don't even feed their tame ducks; they leave them to hustle for them- selves. But, along comes Hedrick and tells us we must feed our wild ducks; otherwise, they won't live among us, but will go else- where to brood and merely make us a few days' visit on their way south - late in the fall. His plan of feeding the wild ducks in our lakes with appetizing food, and the fact that both our state and national laws pre- vent spring shooting, have caused our feathered friends to change their plans and live among us, with the result that our lakes and sloughs are literally covered with ducks during the entire summer season, thereby making hunting in South Dakota a superb delight.
Hedrick soon discovered that one pond would be covered with wild ducks, and that another one nearby would be entirely without them. An investigation disclosed the fact
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that ducks have delicate appetites; that, like men, they are fond of good food, for, in each pond where they lingered, there was found some delicate wild-duck food growing in abundance.
Acting upon this theory, Mr. Hedrick se- cured Clyde B. Ferrell, of Oshkosh, Wiscon- sin, a federal authority on the habits of wild game, to make a survey of some of the lead- ing lakes of South Dakota, with a view to planting them with wild rice, so as to induce the ducks to remain. Ferrell did his work carefully - making charts of where the seed should be sown, the amount to be used, etc. The next year he sent an expert to execute his plans. In a period of five years, South Dakota, as a result of this foresight, has be- come the summer home for hundreds of thousands of wild ducks, making it one of the choicest hunting grounds in America.
(b) PHEASANTS - No matter what the hunting laws of a state, the moment the prairie is broken up, the natural nesting places of the prairie chickens are gone, and they leave or become extinct. Their natural successor is the pheasant. He broods in
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hedges, debris and under cover. The more the country is broken up and settled up, the better he: thrives.
What a wise thing it was when several hundred of these birds were brought into our state and turned loose a few years ago! To- day, they may be seen from a car window, exhibiting their choice plumage and strut- ting around, on almost any mile in the state. This is especially true in Spink County where 137 of them were seen from one car window, between Hitchcock and Ashton, on the C. & N. W. Ry. In a few years they will make wonderful hunting. Thanks, Mr. Hed- rick !
3. FISH - Said the Reverend J. S. Hoag- land in an address delivered to a large aud- ience at Mitchell, a few years ago: "How old are you ? Don't look in a glass at your bald- heads. Don't think of your cane. But get down your rod and reel. Think of the fish in some good lake; and then ask yourselves,; 'How old am I?" Truly - the man ยท who doesn't love to fish is minus something. Na -.. ture must have slighted him. ....
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Much of the surface of South Dakota was formed by glacial drifts. Small ponds or lakes collected in the pockets formed by the moraine deposits. These make capital fish- ing places. But some of these are shallow sloughs that disappear in very dry years. Some of them freeze to the bottom during the winter. Others do not have in them suf- ficient food for fish. These problems all have to be met and solved by Mr. Hedrick. And he is doing it well.
He made a survey of the lakes of the state and found that some had in them more fish than they could support, while others were absolutely barren. He therefore purchased sixty-seven 10-gallon cans, suitable for trans- porting fish, and began to move fish from one lake to another, so as to equalize their op- portunities - as well as the fisherman's.
For instance, in Lake Alice, near Alta- mont, it was found that the bullheads were all starving. They were seined out in count- less numbers in the fall of 1916 and distrib- uted among other lakes capable of support- ing them. 25,000 of them were placed in Red Lake near Chamberlain. The net result
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was that these mature fish all spawned the next spring and converted this lake into one of the best fisheries in the state. A large number of black bass and perch were also placed in Red Lake. 40,000 bullheads were put in Wall Lake. In fact thirty-one car- loads of bullheads were taken out of Lake Alice and distributed throughout the state. Commercial fishermen were permitted to seine Lake Traverse which had become con- gested with bullheads, and from 20,000 to 80,000 pounds of dressed bullheads, per month, were taken from this lake and put on the market.
His next problem was to dam up the out- lets of some of the shallow lakes and raise the water in them a couple of feet, so as to preserve the fish placed in them. This was done to Pelican Lake near Watertown and several others. Swan Lake, in Turner Coun- ty, which had gone dry, has been filled up until today it carries a uniform depth of eight feet of water, and it has been heavily stocked with fish.
The next problem was to keep these lakes and streams suitably stocked with fish. To
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W
STATE FISH HATCHERY, WATERTOWN, S. D.
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this end it was decided that the state should hatch its own fish. Therefore, two hatch- eries were erected - one at Watertown and another at Rapid City. Of course, in addi- tion to these, the U. S. Government main- tains its own hatchery at Spearfish for the hatching of trout exclusively.
At the Watertown institution, they hatch pickerel, pike, and perch. From five million to twenty million young fish are shipped each year from this hatchery. The Rapid City institution is confined solely to the hatching of brook trout. In 1919 they purchased 900,- 000 eggs, and the fry hatched from these eggs were placed in the streams of the Black Hills. There is no place at Rapid City to keep brood fish. This is now being arranged for in the state park near Custer, and in a short time the state will produce as well as hatch its own trout eggs.
The great need of the state at present is a black bass hatchery, which should be located somewhere in the eastern part of the state, as a large majority of the black bass lakes are east of the Missouri River.
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In addition to all this, Mr. Hedrick has procured his own machinery and equipment for work. He conducts the state's business as though it were his own private affair. He purchased a saw mill, and saws the state's own lumber from the Black Hills' forests. He has a cement mixer, a fish car, steam shovel, and other equipment.
The question naturally arises : Where does he get his money for such large under- takings? The reply is from licenses. The state does not give him a cent. His depart- ment is self-supporting. For hunting deer and for trapping, the state charges residents Five Dollars and each non-resident Twenty- five Dollars. For hunting winged game, resi- dents pay One Dollar and non-residents Fif- teen Dollars. During the year 1919 these licenses amounted to $95,000. In a few years as a result of Mr. Hedrick's good work, they will be doubled.
"By viewing Nature, Nature's handmaid - art, Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow; Thus fishes first to shipping did impart, Their tail the rudder, and their head the prow."
DRYDEN
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Hedrick has made the whole state his debtor. Like the New England bard, Whit- tier, he has gained
"Knowledge never learned of schools."
which Mr. Whittier himself declares in the "Barefoot Boy" consists in knowing :
"Of the wild bee's morning chase, Of the wild flower's time and place, Flight of fowl and habitude Of the tenants of the wood; How the tortoise bears his shell,
How the woodchuck digs his cell,
And the ground-mole sinks his well; How the robin feeds her young, How the oriole's nest is hung."
Again in "Snow-Bound," this same nature poet must have inspired Hedrick when he forced Hermes to confess :
"How teal and loon he shot, And how the eagle's eggs he got, The feats on pond and river done, The prodigies of rod and gun."
THE HILLS
MRS. W. S. HILL
It was in the fall of 1908. The South Dakota Educational Association was holding its annual convention in the city of Lead. The afternoon meeting of the second day was in session. A trip through the northern Hills had been promised the association as soon as the afternoon program was over. The convention was anxious to make it, -
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the day being ideal. Mrs. Hattie Moore Mitchell had addressed the meeting in one of her characteristic speeches. She was fol- lowed on the program by a new educator in the state, Miss Inez Kelso, who was to read a heavy twenty-minutes' paper on a vital educational theme. Miss Kelso sensed the mind of the audience, stepped forward, gave a two-minute, impromptu epitome of her paper, thanked her hearers and sat down.
From that time on, Inez Kelso, superin- tendent of the Alexandria city schools, held a high rating among the educators of the state.
Her work for four years at the head of the Alexandria schools won her state-wide recognition, and had she concluded to re- main in educational work, there is no telling what position she might have attained. But she left the schoolroom to take her Master's degree at Chicago University; secured it; returned to the state, and shortly thereafter became the wife of W. S. Hill, of Mitchell, - banker, farmer, and president of the State Fair board.
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"Nothing lovelier can be found
In woman, than to study household good And good works in her husband to promote." MILTON
CAREER
Mrs. Hill is a farmer's daughter. She was born near Minonk, in Woodford County, Illinois, July 11, 1865. While a girl on the farm she assisted her mother with the house work and herded cattle on horse-back.
She attended only rural schools until she was grown. Then she entered the high school at Allerton, Iowa, graduating in 1884 in the same class with Mr. Hill. She took her B. Ph. degree at the University of Iowa in 1894, and her Master's at Chicago Univer- sity in 1913.
EDUCATOR
Her teaching was begun in the rural schools of Wayne County, Iowa, in 1884, shortly after her graduation from high school. She devoted three years to this line of work and then taught the eighth grade for three years at Corydon, Iowa. Her next experience was at Atlantic, Iowa, where she taught one year as assistant principal and
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one year as principal of the high school. She then transferred to the principalship at Humeston, Iowa, for five years; served two years as superintendent of Wayne County and then accepted the city superintendency at Humeston for a period of five years, - making her total educational service at this point twelve years.
In 1908, she was invited to come to Alex- andria, South Dakota, as superintendent of the city schools at that place. She remained four years, and then went to Chicago Uni - versity to secure her Master's degree.
After completing her post-graduate course she went to Streater, Illinois, as principal of the normal training department in the pub- lic schools of that place, and supervisor of primary work - for one year.
MARRIAGE AND SOCIAL WORK
In the fall of 1914, Miss Kelso was united in marriage to W. S. Hill, of Mitchell.
She is a member of the Twentieth Century Club of Mitchell, and for the past two years has been its president. For two years she has been president of the City Federation of Women's Clubs; and she was first president
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of the Mitchell Chapter P. E. O., and a dele- gate to the Supreme Convention at Denver, October, 1919, which meets bi-ennially. At this convention she represented Mitchell, Sioux Falls, and Mobridge.
Mrs. Hill was appointed food administra- tor of Davison County during the World War, and as such she gave a great deal of her time to the work and made an enviable record for herself. She was also member in South Dakota of the Women's Committee of the National Council of Defense, and State Chairman of Industry.
She was a member of the executive com- mittee of the Davison County League of Women Voters, and chairman of the Depart- ment of Food Supply and Demand in the state organization of this league, which makes her a member of the executive com- mittee of the state organization.
She is a member of the executive board of the Y. W. C. A., and chairman of the headquarters committee. Mrs. Hill is also a member of the Congregational church, and very active in the Ladies' Aid work of the institution.
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In addition to all of these multiplied anxieties - anxieties and responsibilities too multiplied for the average mind to compre- hend, let alone their execution - Mrs. Hill is also a great home builder. She loves her home, keeps it in perfect condition, and never neglects any of its cares or responsibilities.
The question arises: How can she do all this - and not neglect a single task assigned her? The reply is simple : In addition to her wonderful natural capacity for work, it is the direct result of her advanced scholastic train- ing. An organized mind, carefully trained, rapidly disposes of organized work carefully planned. Mrs. Hill is a born executive. She has a pleasing personality, a wonderful command of language, a strong voice, and she is, withal, one of the best platform speakers in the state.
Perhaps with her, as with Charles Dickens, all the vacation she needs is a change of employment. No doubt she would confess with Longfellow :
"Work is my recreation, The play of faculty; a delight like that Which a bird feels in flying, or a fish In darting through the water, - Nothing more."
W. S. HILL
PRESIDENT STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE
Some states put a banker at the head of their State Board of Agriculture; some ap- point a farmer : but South Dakota placed at the head of her board a man who is both a banker and a farmer, -W. S. Hill, of Mitchell.
Mr. Hill was first appointed on the board in 1907 by Governor Sam Elrod. After seven years of efficient service he was pro- moted to the presidency of the board. Through the good work of this board and of Secretary McIllvaine, the South Dakota State Fair has been put on the circuit with Minnesota and Iowa and given a place of prominence throughout the nation. The board's system of advertising with calendars as well as placards has proven a success. They enjoy the confidence of the whole state ; and no department or board in South Dakota
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receives more generous support from the legislature than does the Board of Agricul- ture.
PERSONAL
Mr. Hill is a native of Illinois, - having been born on a farm near Paris, in Edgar County of that state, June 3, 1863. His parents moved to a farm in southern Iowa when William was six years of age. Here he grew to manhood.
He was educated in the rural schools and in the high school at Allerton, Iowa, gradu- ating with the class of 1884. He had, how- ever, meantime, completed a course in Peirce's Business College, at Keokuk, Iowa, and had finished with the class of 1882.
In August, 1884, he went to Des Moines and began to work for a Mill Furnishing house, at $25 per month, and boarded him- self. He stuck to this task about two years, and then quit to take up work for a whole- sale firm at $500 per year. His work was so efficient that at the end of six months they voluntarily raised his salary to $75 per month and dated the raise back four months.
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He came to Alexandria, South Dakota, in March, 1887, and entered the implement business. H. W. Lanz was associated with him until 1893, when Lanz sold his interest to Hill's brother, Albert. However, in 1900, W. S. bought his brother's interest and operated the business alone until 1908.
In January, 1908, W. S. Hill bought Still- well's interest in the Farmers Bank of Alexandria and became cashier of the insti- tution. His implement business was con- ducted for the next two years by H. L. Taylor and it was then re-organized as the Hill- Taylor Co.
In 1911, Hill resigned as cashier of the bank and moved to Mitchell where he erected one of the finest homes in the city. He still retained his interest in the bank, and the next year it was re-organized as a National Bank. Mr. Hill was elected president of the institution in 1913, which position he still holds.
He purchased the controlling interest in the Dakota Improved Seed Co., of Mitchell, in 1910, and became its president and treasurer. This firm does a business in ex-
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cess of $150,000 a year, and renders a great service to the state.
Mr. Hill was a member of the State Coun- cil of Defense during the World War, and he is president of the Board of Education in Mitchell.
Says Fields in the "Lucky Horseshoe":
"A farmer travelling with his load Picked up a horseshoe on the road, And nailed it to his barn door, That luck might down upon it pour, That every blessing known in life Might crown his homestead and his wife, And never any kind of harm Descend upon his growing farm."
It is not known whether Mr. Hill ever nailed a horseshoe to his barn door or not, but certain it is that an element of good luck has surrounded his life. He has amassed a snug fortune. He gives about sixty days of his valuable time each year to the state, gratis, in connection with the State Fair, and thereby makes the whole state his debtor.
"Blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,
And, though late, a sure reward succeeds." CONGREVE
HON. JOHN HIRNING
A SELF-MADE IMMIGRANT
The eventful Republican state convention of 1906, which turned the state over to the "progressive" element of the party, was in session at Sioux Falls. Hon. Sam Elrod, of
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Clark, had served but two years as governor. Atty. Coe I. Crawford, of Huron, was at- tempting to wrestle the leadership of the party from his control. Crawford had opened his headquarters in the Cataract Hotel. Manipulation for a set of candidates that could win all of the nominations fo" state offices and carry the state at the fall election, was going on rapidly.
A young Russian immigrant, named John Hirning, from Campbell County, was sitting in the lobby of the Cataract Hotel, talking to a friend, when a courier from Crawford's headquarters on an upper floor, came rush- ing down to him and whispered into his ear that they had determined to present his name to the convention for State Auditor. Hirning grew visibly nervous. His voice trembled. He said : "I can't do it!" But he was in the hands of his friends and he did do it. He was nominated and elected state auditor twice; and he made such a good record that he has been kept in the public service of the state to this day (1920).
Here is a phenomenal career. Among our self-made men - more especially among our
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self-made immigrants - none in the state take higher rank than John Hirning. In private life and in public action, his every act has been free from wrong. As Hannah Moore said of "Daniel" :
"I've scanned the actions of his daily life With all the industrious malice of a foe; And nothing meets my eye but deeds of honor."
IN EUROPE
John Hirning was born on a farm sixteen miles west of Odessa, in Russia, January 12, 1875. His parents were German-Russians. He spent his boyhood on the farm, attending rural school during the winter months.
His European education was finally com- pleted at a normal school in Gross-Liebenthal - a village nine miles from Odessa. This is a State school, supported by nine villages. Its course of study corresponds to our State Normals in America. John graduated from it in 1893, securing a Life Diploma to teach. He engaged a school, but before it came time to begin, he got released from his contract and accompanied his parents to America.
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IN AMERICA
The Hirning family landed at Eureka, South Dakota, in October, 1893, and settled on a farm in Campbell County. Here John attended rural school for two terms. Al- though himself a normal graduate - a man grown, and educated beyond the teacher who was teaching him - yet it was necessary for him to enter the chart class, because he could not speak the English language. It was humiliating, to be sure; but John Hirn- ing was no prude, - he came to America to win! True - the road might be rough, but he was willing to tread it. Victory lay be- yond !
Three years after he landed in America, he began teaching school. He taught success- fully for three terms. Then he spent the school year 1899 - 1900 at the Madison State Normal, and the next year at Brookings State College. He also taught a summer term in 1900, and another in 1901.
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