USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Vol. III > Part 8
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"And ye shall succor men; 'Tis noblencss to serve; Help them who cannot help again: Beware from right to swerve." - EMERSON
JOHN H. MCKEEVER
EDITOR ABERDEEN DAILY AMERICAN
The evening of September 28, 1916, in the region of Aberdeen, South Dakota, was one of those calm, starlit, autumn evenings which all Nature had exerted itself to create ideal. The beautiful Bickelhaupt home in
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that city was aglow throughout, and be- decked in a bower of roses. Ladies, clad in charming evening gowns, were moving noiselessly about its rooms. Men, clad in full-dress suits, clustered themselves in small groups around its spacious parlors. All spoke in subdued tones in honor of a cere- mony that was soon to be performed.
Just as the clock struck half past eight, the bride, Miss Doris Bickelhaupt, and the bride- groom, Editor J. H. Mckeever, of the Aber- deen Daily American, - the subject of this sketch -, stepping slowly to the strains of Lohengrin's "Wedding March," took their places in front of the fireplace in the living room. Rev. Ora W. Taylor performed the ceremony which made them husband and wife.
He had scarcely finished saying, "I pro- nounce you man and wife," when the bride, turning to receive her husband's marriage kiss, accidentally swept her flowing bridal veil over a lighted candle, and instantly it burst into flames. With that presence of mind characteristic of John McKeever, he sprang behind his wife, swept the burning
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veil from her head, crushed the flames with his gloved hands, smothered them out with the heavy satin train of his wife's beautiful wedding gown, and thus avoided what might easily have terminated in a terrible calamity.
Mckeever has always been equal to every emergency : this is why he has succeeded in life.
"Oh, the music and beauty of life lose their worth, When one heart only joys in their smile;
But the union of hearts gives that pleasure its birth, Which beams on the darkest and coldest of earth Like the sun on his own chosen isle.
"It gives to the fireside of winter its light, The glow and the glitter of spring -
O, sweet are the hours, when two fond hearts unite, As softly they glide, in their innocent flight, Away on a motionless wing."
BOHN
HIS EARLY YEARS
John H. Mckeever was born in Clinton, Iowa. When he was about four years of age, the family moved to Moline, Illinois. Here John grew to manhood. He attended the public schools of Moline, on through the high school, graduating with the class of 1893.
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Then he attended the normal school at Den- ison, Iowa, for two years. The president of the institution at that time was Col. J. H. Holmes who afterward was Commander of the 4th Regt. S. D. N. G.
NEWSPAPER CAREER
While a boy in Moline, he delivered papers before and after school for the Republican- Journal and for the Dispatch - both of that place. Says the psychologist: "The earliest impressions make the most ineffaceable rec- ords." The early impressions of the news- paper business gained by young Mckeever while delivering these papers and crying out their contents, stimulated within him the de- sire for newspaper work which afterward enabled him to unfold his career.
After being graduated from high school he became a full-fledged reporter and con- tinued so for a year and a half when he entered the normal and business college at Denison, Iowa, from which he graduated two years later. He began work for the Den- ison Weekly Review and continued there until called home to become an assistant in the business department of the Republican-
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Journal. This familiarized him with the business end of the work. Next he became city editor. He was learning to write well. He also learned to save his earnings.
After a time a new and third paper was started in Moline. Shortly thereafter Mc- Keever was made its city editor. It was while holding this place that he quit to go abroad. He had visited the World's Fair in Chicago as a boy in 1893, with his family, and that had aroused in him an ambition to see all the world's fairs in succession. To carry this out he went to the ones at Buffalo, St. Louis, and Omaha; and in March, 1900, he cut loose and spent six months in Europe. Most of the trip was done on a bicycle, starting in at Ireland and ending up at Naples and Gibraltar. Six weeks were spent in Paris at the Exposition, writing up farm implement and other ex- hibits of American manufacturers for Amer- ican trade papers. Travel letters to his home paper were a feature of the trip.
In the fall he returned to the Moline Mail and shortly thereafter bought an interest in it and became its editor. This stiffened his responsibility. He met it. The paper pros-
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pered. It finally absorbed the old Republi- can-Journal. Later Mckeever bought his partner out and became sole owner of the establishment, his father being associated with him. As the boy becomes the father of the man, so the carrier boy and cub reporter had now become the father or the proprietor of the institution.
COMES TO ABERDEEN
He conducted the Mail until 1908 and then sold out the newspaper and later disposed of the Mail building, a business block in the heart of the city which housed the paper. His mother, his constant companion and beloved guide, had fallen ill, and that winter was spent at home with her during months of blessed intimacy and association. After she passed away in March of 1909, he came to Aberdeen and bought a one-third interest in the Daily American with A. A. Pickler and J. K. Kutnewsky. Mr. Pickler's father died, and he was called home. Mckeever bought his interest. The next year Kut- newsky went west to locate and his share was taken over.
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One day Capt. E. P. McNeill, recently back from the Philippine war, stopped off, follow- ing up correspondence over newspaper work. He was en route home to Billings, Mont., from a trip to the national tournament of the National Guard as a member of the Montana state team. He became advertising manager of the paper. W. P. Holmes took over the job printing and office supply department in . 1913. Then Neill and Mckeever organized a new company in which each owned a half interest and bought the newspaper. Neill became the manager and Mckeever con- tinued as editor.
They have made it one of the strongest morning dailies in the state. The paper is fearlessly independent republican.
On Oct. 15, 1919, Neill joined Mckeever at the Rotary Club luncheon saying that C. J. McLeod, owner of the Evening News, had just suggested that they buy the News, owing to the state of his health. At a con- ference that afternoon terms were agreed to, the first payment made and possession given. It was one of the quickest transactions of such magnitude newspaper history has
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known. The two plants were consolidated in the American building and publication of the two papers continued as separate edi- tions, with both combined in the Sunday American-News.
Mckeever's editorials are snappy, vital, and penetrating. He has developed a style that is masterful without being arrogant, convincing without being repulsive, coura- geous without assuming to be perfect, and in- spirational without getting sensational.
Mckeever went to Pierre in January, 1918, and remained for two months - during the entire regular session of the legislature. While there he acted as special legislative writer for his own paper. His articles were by far the most comprehensive reports sent out. He remained up until two o'clock every night, digesting the previous day's work of the legislature. His articles were fearless, impartial and comprehensive. This made the Daily American a power during the session. On a previous occasion he wrote up each member of the legislature, and then brought out his articles in book form. They were in great demand.
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"This (paper) of (eight) pages, happy work! Which not even critics criticize; that holds Inquisitive attention, while I read Fast bound in chains of silence."
COWPER
In 1920, he served as president of the South Dakota State Press Association.
Editor Mckeever was first united in mar- riage in 1910, to Miss Maude Bradfield, of Barnesville, Ohio. Two years later she sac- rificed herself while bringing baby Sarah into the world.
GOVERNOR W. H. MCMASTER
FROM NEWSBOY TO GOVERNOR
About a third of a century ago, a ten- year-old boy in Sioux City, Iowa, tumbled out of bed each morning at three o'clock, in
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response to an alarm clock placed on an in- verted dishpan so as to intensify its sound. lit the oil lamp sitting on the old-fashioned dresser nearby, rubbed his sleepy eyes, hur- riedly pulled on his clothes, and then trotted off through the night air to a daily news- paper office in the heart of the city.
There he loaded onto himself about 225 copies of the Sioux City Journal, and started off on a seven-mile tramp to deliver them. Each morning this was repeated; and it is doubtful if any of the subscribers who found their daily newspapers on their porches reg- ularly when they got up at six A. M., ever dreamed that the sturdy lad who got up in the night to deliver them would some day be governor of the great adjoining state of South Dakota. Yet, that is precisely what happened; and today, William H. McMaster, the Sioux City "newsy," is our governor. We are all proud of him.
How beautifully Longfellow sang :
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"Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait."
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And good Mr. Whittier must have looked adown the years when he wrote :
"Blessings on thee! little man, Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan; With thy turned-up pantaloons And thy merry whistled tunes."
HIS EARLY STRUGGLES
Governor McMaster was born on a farm near Ticonic, Iowa, May 10, 1877. When he was three years of age, his father died. Then, the mother moved the family to Sioux City, where they could have better educational ad- vantages. Here William grew to young man- hood. He attended school in the day time and worked mornings and evenings. For delivering daily Sioux City Journals and Tribunes he received $20 per month. At the age of fifteen he became a street-car con- ductor-serving during his vacations. When he was seventeen, his good mother also passed away, leaving him in a big world - alone. The next year, 1895, he graduated from the Sioux City high school. Undaunted by orphanage, imbued with a determination to secure an education, he pressed on and
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graduated from college, at Beloit, Wisconsin, with the class of 1899.
ENTERS BUSINESS
After graduation, he returned to Sioux City. Finally the president of one of the banks in that place, who owned a chain of such institutions, sent him to assist in one of these country banks. In six weeks, he met William again on the streets of Sioux City.
"What are you doing here?" he queried.
"I'm going into business for myself !" re- torted young McMaster ; and he did !
Perhaps Dryden, himself, somewhat im- pulsive, was indulging in a semi-confession, when he wrote :
"Heaven has to all allotted, soon or late, Some lucky revolution of their fate: Whose motions, if we watch and guide with skill, (For human good depends on human will,) Our fortune rolls as from a smooth descent, And from the first impression takes the bent: But, if unseized, she glides away like wind, And leaves repenting folly far behind."
Taking the train for South Dakota - the Land of Promise - he looked over the entire
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southern part of the state, and finally selected Gayville, in Yankton County, as the place where he would immediately establish a bank. It was the year 1901. He promptly organized the Security State Bank at that place; and in 1907 he established another state bank at Mission Hill, only a few miles away. The two institutions now have on de- posit in them over $1,100,000.00.
That he has succeeded in business is due to honesty, industry, unselfishness and high courage.
IN THE FIELD OF POLITICS
Necessity, rather than choice, forced William McMaster into politics. Quietly working away in his bank at Gayville, trying to support his family and lay by a compe- tence for old age, his friends suddenly draft- ed him to run for the state legislature. It was with the utmost reluctance on the part of himself and of Mrs. McMaster, that he finally yielded to their entreaties.
He was elected to the house in 1910; to the state senate in 1912, and re-elected in 1914. During these six years in the state
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legislature, he made so many friends through his genial personality, and by strict attention to legislation, that in 1916, he was brought out for lieutenant-governor, elected, and re- elected in 1918. This training prepared him for the governorship. He was nominated for this high office by the Republican State Con- vention held in Pierre in December, 1919;
STATE CAPITOL
ran the gauntlet of the primaries in March, following, receiving the largest majority of any man on the ticket; and was elected by a wide margin at the polls in the fall (1920).
It will thus be ssen that his whole life has been a romance, and such a romance as is possible only in the United States of Ameri- ca where a humble Lincoln rose from a log cabin to the Presidency of the Nation.
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In the legislature, he fathered the Bank Guaranty law, Absent Voters law, the Act to recover $100,000 Back Taxes from Express Companies ; a law compelling Fire Insurance Companies to pay Ten Per Cent Bonus, on failure to settle in sixty days, and was active in behalf of Rural Credits, State Hail In- surance, Mothers' Pensions, Good Roads, and many other important measures along pro- gressive lines.
As president of the state senate, he was fair and impartial in all his rulings and uni- formly courteous to the entire membership. In fact it was the state senate that forced him into the race for governor - largely as their candidate to look after the essential de- tails of our growing young state.
MCMASTER, THE ORATOR
It is doubtful if a painter or a sculptor gets the satisfaction from their finished products that a speaker does in standing on the platform and with true eloquence sway- ing the minds of men. It is
"A consummation devoutly to be sought."
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Governor McMaster is one of the most finished public speakers of the state. While a student in the Sioux City high school, he had some training in oratory and debate, and at Beloit College he was a member of the inter-collegiate debating team. This training bore him a high rate of interest on the time invested, during his spirited campaign for governor.
His first great speech in South Dakota was made on the Electric Headlight bill when it was up for discussion in the state legislature ; and, strangely enough! it was largely this speech that ultimately made him governor.
He is in continual demand for lodge gatherings, home comings, old settlers' pic- nics, Decoration Day, Fourth of July, high school commencements, and various other special occasions ; in fact, it is generally con- ceded that he has delivered the largest num- ber of speeches on the greatest variety of occasions, of any man in the state.
PERSONAL
The Governor's home life has been greatly enriched by his happy marital relations. While a student at Beloit, he met, in one of
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the homes in that city, a young lady named Miss Harriet Russell, of Cooperstown, N. Y., and on April 16, 1902, after he had gotten himself securely established in the banking business, they became husband and wife. The advent of a son and a daughter made their home complete.
He is a Consistory Mason, a member of the I. O. O. F., an Elk; and he worships at the Episcopal church. That his conduct as a man and his standing as a citizen are held in high regard by his neighbors is evidenced by the fact that in 1918, when he was a can- didate for lieutenant-governor, he received every vote in Gayville, except four; and in 1920, when he was a candidate in the pri- maries for the nomination for governor - even though the vote was doubled by reason of the enfranchisement of the women - he received every vote but five.
We have looked into his life from the standpoint of a newsboy, a business man, politician, orator and citizen, and nowhere have we found him lacking. Democratic in the extreme, loved and respected by all, most folks simply call him "Billy."
SENATOR PETER NORBECK
SENATOR PETER NORBECK
FROM WELL-DRILLER TO U. S. SENATE
Uneducated, unaided, but with a lot of native ability and a will to win, Peter Nor- beck, a native South Dakotan, lifted himself, through his own efforts, from a humble well- driller to a United States Senatorship. He was elected in November 1920, by the Re- publican party.
The noted Booker T. Washington handed over to us for reflection this fine bit of philos- ophy born of his own experiences: "I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles he has overcome while trying to succeed." Peter Norbeck overcame poverty, a lack of education and the hardships of a western pioneer lad; and through frugality, foresight and hard work, lifted himself into a position of prominence and power. He is under obligations to no man for his success. He attained it through
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application of himself to the task at hand and with a fixed ambition.
He had been a state senator for six years from Spink County, South Dakota; lieu- tenant-governor two years and governor four years. His political clock had struck "Twelve." A new day was before him. His opportunity was at hand. He seized it, and became a United States Senator.
Disraeli, England's Hebrew statesman, once aptly said: "The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his oppor- tunity when it comes." Governor Norbeck's opportunity came, he merely reached out and grasped it.
The admonition of Longfellow is appropri- ate: "Opportunities are very sensitive. If you slight their first visit, you will seldom see them again." This typical western lad did not "slight" his; he simply mastered it.
Austin Phelps reasoned well when he wrote: "Vigilance in watching opportunity ; tact and daring in seizing opportunity ; force and persistence in crowding opportu- nity - these are the martial virtues which must command success."
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It is evident that all of these philosophic keys to success found concrete expression in the life of Peter Norbeck.
SELF-MADE
We are always thrilled by reading ac- counts of poor boys who have won their way up the ladder of fame through their own in- dividual exertion, such as Lincoln walking twenty miles and back again to borrow a copy of Blackstone, so as to fit himself for an attorney at law, and of reading the first 100 pages of it while trudging along the dusty roadway homeward; also of Garfield planing boards at so much apiece, before and after school, in order to pay his way through college ; but here comes a unique character from the west, uneducated, except in the hard school of experience, digging wells for a living, and rising to the United States Senate.
"Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time."
- LONGFELLOW
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HIS FATHER
Young Norbeck came from good stock. His father, who died at the ripe age of eighty-one years, after living long enough to see his distinguished son made governor of South Dakota, was a Norwegian Lutheran preacher. He came to America at thirty years of age. In 1867 (five years before there was a single foot of railroad in the Dakota Territory), he settled on a homestead in Clay County, near the present city of Vermillion. He was elected to the territorial legislature of 1873, and elected to the first state legislature in 1890. He was a strong, rugged character in every respect. Senator Norbeck inherited many of his admirable traits.
NATIVE DAKOTAN
South Dakota was not organized as a ter- ritory until 1859. The first railroad entered the state in 1872. Statehood was adopted in 1889. It is rather remarkable, therefore, that so young a state should have for one of its Senators, a man who is a native of the commonwealth. Yet Senator Norbeck enjoys
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this distinction. He was born on a farm in Clay County, Dakota Territory, in 1870; and was, therefore, at the time he was elected Senator, fifty years of age.
When he was sixteen years old, his father moved from the Clay County farm to one in Charles Mix County. On these two farms the boy grew to manhood. His educational advantages in so new a country were very meager. Aside from a few weeks now and then during the winter months in a rural school, and a couple of winter terms at our State University, he had no schooling, except that which every enterprising western lad gets through reading and home study.
NORBECK, THE WELL-DRILLER
Leaving home, penniless, at the age of twenty-five, he took up that hardest kind of labor - drilling wells. It was during the "dry time" in Dakota. Farming was prac- tically a failure. Irrigation was urged. Stock raising seemed the only hope of the settlers. The creeks were dry. Stock had to have water. Surface wells were no good. Artesian wells, alone, seemed the hope of the
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ARTESIAN WELL AT CHAMBERLAIN, S. D. Drilled by Norbeck and Nicholson
country. Prices charged for dring deep wells by outside concerns were fabulous, ranging in price from $4,500 to $7,500. Pri- vate individuals could not afford them. The
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legislature met and authorized the townships to issue twenty-year bonds for artesian well purposes. Many townships promptly bonded themselves for $20,000 each, and contracted for four wells apiece within their confines. These wells were sunk ; flowed a year or two; caved in, for lack of proper casing, and dried up.
It was at this juncture that young Norbeck decided to go into the well-drilling business. He knew that some plan would have to be devised to drill wells more cheaply, and that they would have to be cased from the top to the bottom if they were to endure.
BORROWED CAPITAL TO START
Accordingly, he and Peter Erickson bought a rig, in the fall of 1894, for drilling shallow wells, and started out. It cost $260. Norbeck borrowed the $130 for his share. The first well they drilled was ten miles north of Mt. Vernon, in Davison County. It proved a success and the well is still flowing. This well is 420 feet deep and is cased from top to bottom with a two-inch pipe. They had plenty to do from the start. They were drilling wells of various depths, from $200 to
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$500 apiece - one-tenth what outside firms had been charging; were casing these wells at their own expense, and were making money. If one of their wells "went wrong," they promptly drilled the farmer another one, nearby, free of cost. Their reputation for honesty and square dealing soon became known. Their success was also enhanced by their improved machinery for drilling, which made it possible to do the work much more cheaply. They combined all of the best ideas of the old drillers' outfits, and then invented a number of new devices of their own.
Their second well was drilled for a certain bank in Davison County, which had a capital of $40,000. Yet, owing to the hard times, this bank had loaned down so low to try to help the settlers remain over that they could not pay for the well when it was completed. Norbeck and Erickson took a Certificate of Deposit for the amount. Then they contract- ed for a second well-drilling outfit. They gave the Certificates of Deposit in payment for it and put another crew at work. There was plenty of it to be done. Every farmer in the surrounding country who had stock,
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and many who didn't, wanted one of these cheap wells.
"TRADE" INSTEAD OF MONEY
But people were hard up and could not pay for them. One man turned over to them a harness, another one gave his new wagon in part payment. They drilled a second well for the bank that had given them the Cer- tificate of Deposit for the first one. This bank had foreclosed a mortgage and had taken over a nice team of horses. These were applied on payment of the second well. Thus the firm now had a team, wagon and harness. Norbeck and Erickson used the horses one season and then sold them for nearly double what they had allowed for them.
Thus the little firm, through barter and otherwise, began to grow. At the end of two years the firm was dissolved and Norbeck took in C. L. Nicholson as his partner - the organization lasting to this day. At present they have nearly forty well drills running. They have drilled wells in Illinois, Nebraska, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Montana. All told, they have drilled over 10,000 wells -
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