USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Volume II > Part 12
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His next pastorate was at Michigan City, where he remained for three years. He was then called back to Greencastle and made pastor of College Avenue church-the church attended by the faculty and students general- ly of DePauw university. Here was honor coupled with responsibility. He was now to preach to the faculty that had schooled him. Faint hearts fall by the wayside in the pres- ence of such responsibilities. John Hoagland was no weakling. He was not afraid of these masters of learning, nor doubtful of himself. He buckled in; and so full did he fill his job
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that he held it for ten consecutive years, un- til he voluntarily resigned, to come to Mitch- ell, South Dakota in the spring of 1909, to succeed Dr. H. S. Wilkinson, who had re- signed his position at Mitchell to go to the coast. He has, therefore, during his twenty- three years in the ministry, preached regu- larly in only four towns. This is a rather remarkable record within itself.
In 1904, five years before he came to Mitchell, his Alma Mater, De Pauw universi- ty, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and so we have all come to know him as Dr. Hoagland.
MRS. HOAGLAND
The Bible states, "Let every man take unto himself a help-meet." Dr. Hoagland evidently felt that as an exponent of the scriptures he, himself, would have to carry out all of these sacred mandates; that is, he would have to practice as well as preach; and so, away back in 1895, while he was still occupying the pulpit at Terre Haute, Indiana, he was united in marriage to Miss Alice Beckman, instructor in English in the state normal school at that place.
Last year (1915), being the twentieth anniversary of their wedding, a few even- ings ago they gave a reception to the entire membership of their large congregation at
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Mitchell, in honor of the event. During a happy after-dinner speech on this occasion, Dr. Hoagland told of his matrimonial exper- iences. He said : "When I asked Mrs. Hoag- land to become my wife she was getting $1,100 per year as a teacher of English, and I was receiving but $800 per year as a preacher. It took a lot of nerve for an eight- hundred-dollar man to ask an eleven-hun- dred-dollar lady to become his wife."
Mrs. Hoagland, in replying in her usual tactful manner, said: "It took still more nerve for an eleven-hundred-dollar woman to marry an eight-hundred-dollar man, but I have never regretted it; and I was never happier in my life than I am tonight."
Dr. Hoagland, continuing his speech, said: "I was known in Indiana, and I have become known in South Dakota, as 'the preacher with a good wife.'" There are plenty of women in the world from which to select wives (there will be a superabund- ance after the European war.) If a man fails to select a good one it reflects more on him than it does on her, for it merely proves that he, himself, erred in judgment. Dr. Hoagland selected wisely. One of the hard- est positions in the whole world to fill tact- fully is that of a preacher's wife. Mrs. Hoagland fills her trying position with great
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charm and power. She is a popular idol among the entire membership of her dis- tinguished husband's church.
One son, Henry, a junior in the Mitchell High School, has blessed their union.
MULTIPLIED DUTIES
In addition to his regular pastoral duties, Dr. Hoagland is vice president of the board of trustees of Dakota Wesleyan uni- versity; president of the state Anti-Saloon League ; member of the board of the national Anti-Saloon league; president of the board of trustees of the new Methodist hospital now in the course of erection in Mitchell, and a member of the national association of Social Service. It is little wonder with all these multiplied anxieties and with such a large church membership to look after, that for the past two years he has found it nec- essary to have an associate pastor.
PLATFORM POWER
Dr. Hoagland is in great demand over the state, not only as a pulpit orator of great power, but as a special lecturer for the anti- saloon league, Decoration day speaker for the old soldiers and an orator on commence- ment occasions. Before graduating classes, some men use a vocal shot gun, some a rifle, but Dr. Hoagland brings up his heavy artil- lery and uses a forty-two centimeter gun.
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He has more calls for commencement ad- dresses before high school and college classes, every year, than he can fill.
This able divine puts fire into his ser- mons. (Some preachers should reverse this process.) He is a master thinker-a logi- cian, a Bachelor of Philosophy-and his style is wholly original. He never seeks to imi- tate; neither does he warm over sermons outlined by some one else at so much per. Everything about the man denotes his own powerful originality and strength of char- acter. His sermons are not confined to one line| He generalizes-not only on Biblical deductions, but on civic reform and social conditions. A congregation of over 1,400 usually assembles each Sunday morning to hear his able, eloquent, profound morning sermon. His Sunday evening sermons are of an entirely different character-less formal, more inspirational, and very practical. For- tunate, indeed, is any community with a moral leader of this kind in its midst. That he will soon rise to the honored position of a bishop in his denomination is self-evident.
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OUR VETERAN ENGINEER
By Roy W. Markham, in the Argus-Leader.
After forty-five years of service as a locomotive engineer, forty-three years of which were spent in the employ of the Chica- go, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha rail- road, William T. Doolittle,, of 135 South Prairie Avenue, who brought the first pas- senger train into Sioux Falls in 1878, was
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today placed on the retired list at his own request. In all of his years of active service, it is said of the retiring veteran engineer that he never had an accident of any kind where there was any blame attached to him and that he was never the object of dis- ciplinary measures. During his many years of, railroading, Mr. Doolittle has also been the recipient of high honors at the hands of his hundreds of friends and fellow citizens, being a prominent thirty-second degree Mason, a past potentate of El Riad temple of the Mystic shrine, a past grand commander of the Knights Templar of South Dakota, and a former mayor of Sioux Falls, as well as an alderman and president of the city council under the old municipal government system and a member of important city com- mittees. His devotion to the public good stands as an unquestioned fact of his career, whether occupying office or in private life. His life record is that of a man who has been fearless in conduct and stainless in reputa- tion.
SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
Mr. Doolittle was born March 30, 1849, in Loudonville, Ohio, and the ancestry of his family can be traced back to the sixteenth century. His parents, Lucius and Eleanor Doolittle, removed to upper Sandusky, Ohio,
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in 1859 and there as a boy he attended the public schools until he was 14 years old. His father was well to do and had planned a good education for his son, but when the Pitts- burg, Fort Wayne and Chicago railroad, the second line constructed in Ohio, was built through Sandusky, William T. Doolittle was so much impressed that he decided to be a railroad man and, much against the wishes of his parents, abandoned the schoolroom to take up railroad work. He went to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the new shops of the road were opened, and there served an ap- prenticeship of three years.
When a youth of seventeen he went upon the road as a fireman, and after serv- ing two years in that capacity, was pro- moted to the position of engineer of a freight train. A year later he was given a pas- senger run, which he held for two years and when the engineers of the line went upon a strike he removed westward to Sioux City, Iowa, in March, 1873. Sioux City then was a town of about 3,000 population and it was a short time before that the Sioux City Journal had been bought by the Perkins Brothers for $2,500, a property now worth in the neighborhood of a half million dollars.
At that time, Mr. Doolittle entered the employment of the Chicago, Saint Paul, Min-
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neapolis and Omaha railroad, with which he continued on the run from Sioux City to St. James, Minnesota, until 1878. In that year was built the first road that ever entered Sioux Falls and Mr. Doolittle ran the first train into the city. With the exception of one year, when he was instructor for the road, he has remained upon this run continu- ously since, covering a period of thirty-eight years, but has been with the company forty- three years.
ORGANIZED ENGINEERS IN NORTHWEST
Mr. Doolittle is a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, an organization with 72,000 members. He or- ganized the first division of the order in the northwest at Sioux City, Iowa, in 1876. The grand international division of the order presented him on August 16, 1913, with a medal for faithful service in the order and made him an honorary member of the Grand Lodge for life. Of the seven thousand em- ployees of the Omaha road he has the honor of being number one on their list. In fact, there is no other one of the seven thousand employees on the two thousand miles of road who was with the company when Mr. Doo- little joined them. This road has a veterans' association and Mr. Doolittle is one of the 162 who have been with the company for
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more than thirty years and is thus entitled to membership in and is a member of the as- sociation.
HIS RAILROAD EXPERIENCES
Mr. Doolittle has been in only one rail- road wreck and that was when they were running a doubleheader through a blinding snowstorm. The front engine broke down and, leaving the rails, pulled him with it.
In recalling that experience, Mr. Doo- little said, in a recent interview with the Argus-Leader, "The winter had been severe and the cuts were filled with snow. On the day of the accident, the thermometer was 35 degrees below zero and a blizzard was rag- ing. At Luverne, Minn., we took on a double-header. Near Trent the snow plow on the leading engine broke down, throwing that engine off the track. That also threw the engine I was on off the track and it rolled down the bank. I lay beneath the engine an hour and a half before it was possible to get aid."
The conductor had wired the office at St. Paul that Mr. Doolittle had been killed. When the wrecking train arrived, someone looked between the driving wheels and dis- covered his body packed in below the en- gine. Then, after an hour and a half of digging, they rescued him. He was severely
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injured and it was ten days before he could be brought to his home at Sioux Falls, where he was laid up for several months. The fire- man with Mr. Doolittle was so badly injured that he died. The rescuing party found on investigation that Engineer Doolittle had done everything possible to stop the train when he discovered the engine was off the track, for they found the locomotive with the emergency brake applied and the engine reversed.
DOOLITTLE SAVED SIOUX FALLS
In 1879 Engineer Doolittle figured in an incident which saved Sioux Falls to the early settlers and is not generally known among the later generations.
R. F. Pettigrew, later a United States senator and still a resident of Sioux Falls where he was at that time a practicing at- torney, boarded the train in Minneapolis with a deed that would clear up the title to what is now the town site of Sioux Falls. The title, heretofore, had been clouded, as the only title was an Indian script.
Mr. Pettigrew saw a Minneapolis at- torney board the same train and knew that he had a quit claim deed to this property. If he reached the court house in Sioux Falls first and recorded the deed it would give him a title to the property on which the Sioux
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Falls people had built their homes. If Mr. Pettigrew recorded his deed first the homes of the people would be saved to them. He stepped into a telegraph office on the way only to learn that the other attorney had wired first for a cab to meet him at the train. Greatly worried, he walked up to the engine on which was his friend, William T. Doo- little, and told him of the situation. Mr. Doolittle then instructed Mr. Pettigrew to come and get on the engine on the first sta- tion out of Sioux Falls, which he did, not saying a word to the conductor or anyone. A few miles out of Sioux Falls, Mr. Doolittle stopped his train, uncoupled his engine and made the run in, getting Mr. Pettigrew there first to record the deed and thereby saving the homes of the people. He was called into the office of one of the railroad officials who told him that the attorney had started suit against the railroad for fifty thousand dollars and that his dismissal was demanded. He replied : "If my dismissal will appease the wrath of this gentleman, it is of small matter." He was not dismissed.
IN POSITIONS OF PUBLIC TRUST
Mr. Doolittle has ever had the interests of Sioux Falls at heart and a recognition of that fact has led to his selection for various positions of public trust. He was elected
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alderman of the first ward in 1898, acting as president of the city council in 1897. He was on the committee with C. A. Jewett and J. W. Tuthill to build the new waterworks plant for the city of Sioux Falls and the work was completed at a figure less than the esti- mated cost. This was one job entirely free from any suspicion of graft. On April 21, 1908, Mr. Doolittle was elected mayor and it is generally admitted that he gave the city the cleanest administration that it has ever had. The opposition tried to unearth some skeleton in his private or public life that would be to his discredit, but the only thing that they could find was the story that he did not obey the orders of the railroad com- pany when he uncoupled his engine and brought Mr. Pettigrew to Sioux Falls-an act which won for him the gratitude of the residents of the town. As the chief execu- tive of the city he stood constantly for re- form and progress, working untiringly for the interests of the people.
On the 26th of December, 1873, Mr. Doolittle was married to Miss Catherine Strock and they became the parents of three children : Jessie, who died at the age of three years ; Walter S .; and Grace. Walter S., now an engineer on the Omaha road, wedded Marie Freeble, of Sioux Falls, and they have
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five children, Eden K., Eunice, Norman, Theodore Frederick and Richard. Walter F. Doolittle served in the Spanish American war, going out as a private in Company B, but at the end of the war had risen to the rank of first lieutenant. The daughter, Grace, is the wife of Neil D. Graham, a com- mercial traveler living in Sioux Falls, and they have one child, Janet Catherine.
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OUR TEACHER-LAWYER
Where are our experienced teachers ? Echo answers: "In other professions, where the salary is larger, the opportunities greater, and where they do not need to seek employment at the end of each nine months."
Just so with Frank McNulty, the new- ly-appointed judge of the fifth judicial cir-
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cuit. He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, December 1, 1873; was educated at the Uni- versity of Minnesota, and at Valpariso Uni- versity.
Judge McNulty was formerly principal of schools at the little town of Wilmot in the southern part of Roberts county. Then he was elected superintendent of Roberts county and served in this capacity 1897-1900, in- clusive. The last year of his supervision he was secretary of the republican state central committee. This position associated him very closely with the mighty Kittredge, and imbued his young mind with the possibili- ties in the field of law and of politics.
At the expiration of his two terms in office, like practically all other teachers who find their way into the office of county super- intendent and thereby come in touch with a larger and more open life, he saw the jump- ing off place, and in order to gratify his newly-formed desires, he went to the Uni- versity of Minnesota and took his law course. Returning to Roberts county, he was elected states attorney and served with distinction in this position for four years, 1905-1908.
Judge McNulty is one of the best po- litical campaigners in the state. On the stump he is a genuine young Demosthenes, In 1906, he was selected as chairman of the
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last republican state convention held at Sioux Falls. It was a trying position. The repub- lican party, divided against itself, was will- ing to adopt any kind of tactics to defeat itself. The rulings of the chair (McNulty's) were appealed to the convention time and again, but the chair was always sustained. McNulty, the young lawyer who was presid- ing, was chosen by the insurgent crowd, who were greatly in the majority, and in the heated factional fight that was seething on the floor of the convention like a prospective eruption of Vesuvius, he was sure of being sustained-no matter what his rulings might be. But let it be said that although his decisions on parliamentary usages came like a flash from the chair, they were sane and showed his keenness of intellect, and his ability to "hold his head" and meet emerg- encies with astonishing rapidity.
The traits exhibited by him as presiding officer of a turbulent political convention, are the identical traits which are needed to make a great judge. It requires a much keener and more rapidly moving mind-one susceptible of classifying facts and formu- lating concepts-to act as circuit judge than it does to serve on the supreme bench. In the latter position a judge takes his technical
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points of law under the most deliberate ad- visement. Not so with a circuit judge. In common vernacular, he has got to be right there with the goods on the spur of the mo- ment. There is no waiting for after-thought. A shrewd lawyer, with his client's interests at heart and his own reputation at stake, has challenged a question put to the witness. There are no "ifs" or "ands." The judge must decide with suddenness and precision whether or not the witness shall or must reply. On his decision the fate of a life may depend. It requires a wonderful mind : Judge McNulty has it.
When Judge McCoy was promoted to the supreme bench, the governor and his ad- visers began to scan the circuit to find a young lawyer with scholastic preparation, decision, judgment and courage, to take his place. Through the ranks of the republican party one name was whispered above the others-it was the name of Frank McNulty of Sisseton-our young teacher-lawyer.
In his selection the governor made no mistake. We are proud to see a school man rewarded-even if he is compelled to seek the recognition in a new profession. Judge Fuller of the supreme bench (deceased) was also an old teacher and county superinten- dent. Judge Whiting, now on the bench, was
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formerly a teacher. These men, when they reached a ripened manhood, saw that the law furnished much greater opportunities than the teaching profession, and so they
swapped. Had McNulty remained in the teaching world, he would never have been heard of outside of some small locality. In the legal profession but four years and a few months, and we behold him on the cir- cuit bench-sending sinners to the peniten- tiary.
And yet there are some people who will criticise us for showing up to our teachers from actual facts the comparative advantages in other fields.
Where are our teachers? Ask the legal profession to unfold its records. In addition to those previously mentioned, add the name of Abner E. Hitchcock, mayor of Mitchell, and a former principal of schools in an Iowa town. Yes! . don't stop! Add the names of one-third of the successful lawyers of the state.
Where are our teachers? Ask the ministry to open its books. A young fellow was attending school at Dakota Wesleyan university. He was brilliant, to be sure. He won the state oratorical contest and gave the Chalcedony slab to his alma mater. After his graduation, the board of education in the
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city of Mitchell elected him principal of their high school. In two years he resigned to enter the minisiry and today Arthur Shep- herd is a shining light in the Methodist Epis- copal church. Another young fellow mar- ried his Latin teacher at Cornell college, taught school briefly, gave it up for the ministry and today Elder Dobson, formerly of Mitchell, but now of Mt. Vernon, Iowa, astounds a state with his eloquence and in- fluence. Halt! the record is too lengthy for perusal. Call the roll! Seventy-two per cent of the ministers of our state at some time taught school.
Where are our teachers? Ask the Bank- ers' association. Place at the head of the list O. L. Branson, of Mitchell, president of the First National bank of that place, an old normal school teacher. Turn over a page. There you will see the name of Colonel J. H. Holmes of Aberdeen, president of a newly- organized bank in that city, and a former normal school teacher. Go through the list to your heart's content and see what the teachers' profession has given to the bank- ers' career.
Where are our teachers ?. Let the in- surance companies be investigated once more! We see the brilliant Charley Holmes, principal at Howard, then at Sioux Falls,
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then writing life insurance, and today, with peace of mind and heart he sits in his com- fortable chair in his private office in the New York Mutual company's magnificent structure in Sioux Falls, as their state manager, and draws the princely salary of $7,000 per year: (Our normal school presi- dents receive less than half this amount.)
Don't stop ! Call up the record of William P. Dunlevy, a Harvard man; city superintendent at Pierre, then at Aberdeen ; next year to take up insurance. A half dozen other prominent educators might be mentioned in the same category.
Where are our teachers? Ask the medical profession ! Heavens ! They, too have impoverished our ranks. Begin with Dr. Rock of Aberdeen, formerly city super- intendent at Webster, this state, drawing a piccininsh little starvation salary-today head of the medical profession in this state- doing more surgery than any other man in South Dakota, with an income away up in the thousands.
And so on down the list. Two hundred more might be mentioned.
It will thus be seen that the teachers' profession is simply being used as a stepping stone to all other professions, trades and oc- cupations. Why? Simply because any other
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field offers greater opportunities. It is so with both sexes. Telephone exchange offices all over the state are filled with nervous little schoolma'ams. At $25 per month for twelve months in the year-year in and year out-they can save much more money than they can in the teaching business, and escape spanking other people's children and taking those barbarous examinations.
We regret that this little seance on com- parative opportunities and swapping pro- fessions got hitched on to the life of Judge McNulty, but he made such an ideal char- acter with which to introduce it, and his own life made such exemplification of the prin- ciple under discussion, that we just simply could not resist the temptation.
Reverting to our original topic, we glory in the wisdom of the judge. We would not admonish others to attempt to follow in his steps-not all have the same native ability. But in the years to come we shall watch his career with eager expectations, and if the supreme bench fails to reward his after years, we miss our guess entirely.
This being one of the first of this series of articles to have been published, several changes have since taken place among those alluded to in it. Judge McNulty, himself, has since resigned to enter the practice of law where the remuneration is much greater than on the bench.
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