USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Volume II > Part 2
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But Girton had gotten the teaching germ so instilled into his blood that he could not quit. So he went back to Miner county ; was elected superintendent of schools in 1892; served out his constitutional limit- two terms-and in 1896 was elected to the chair of civics in our state normal school at Madison.
This latter position he held until Jan- uary 1st, 1914, when he resigned, on ac- count of enfeebled eyesight. He was also made official secretary for the school, which position he held for many years. In addition to his regular work, he also served in 1901-02 as acting president of the normal.
Professor Girton served in 1905 as president of the Eastern South Dakota Edu- cational Association. His "president's ad- dress" was a masterful piece of sarcastic statesmanship. We regret that we can not
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reproduce it again in full, (The Argus- Leader published it nearly in full at the time it was delivered). One paragraph must suffice :
"The rural school house may properly be described as a rectangular box built with no regard for proper heating, lighting and ventilation ; planned and constructed with no other thought than that of economy. In most cases it stands alone on the bleak prairie without a tree or shrub to protect it from the wintry blast or to offer a little grateful shade from the summer sun. Two or three windows on the side furnish the light. A stove in the center scorches the urchin near- est to it while the one in the corner is freez- ing. There is seldom any attempt at orna- mentation of any kind, and the restless, vig- orous boy, in protest against his unwilling captivity, shirks his lessons, cuts his initials on his desk, and at the slightest provocation · adds truancy to his other sins."
In politics, Professor Girton has ever been a staunch and consistent republican. Since 1878, he has also been a devout mem- ber of the Baptist church. He is a thirty- second degree Scottish-rite Mason, and a Royal Arch degree York-rite Mason; also a member of the I. O. O. F. and of the A. O. U. W.
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At Madison he was always spoken of as "the students' friend." Hereafter he will de- vote himself to real estate matters. Profes- sor Girton has put his business instinct into his education and education into his busi- ness, so that today he is comfortably fixed. He owns a nice home fronting on the nor- mal campus at Madison, and three splendid farms in Lake county. He and Mrs. Girton are the parents of six children-none of whom are now at home. They are each one thoroughly educated, and each is now occu- pying a station of trust and honor at various places throughout the world.
This grand good couple have thus lived intelligently, and they are now prepared to spend their declining years in solid comfort, enduring peace and happy recollections. Yes; his "steps point right" and so do hers. Let us all endeavor to "point" ours in the same direction !
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GEORGE W. KINGSBURY DADDY OF THEM ALL
Those early newspaper pioneers who had so much to do with the development of our state are rapidly passing off the stage of action. Two of them, now above the seventy line, still remain at their posts of duty- Gossage, editor and publisher since away
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back in the seventies of the "Rapid City Journal," and W. S. Bowen, editor of the "Daily Huronite." Nash and Linn, both of Canton, have laid aside their editorial pens forever, and are today rehearsing reminis- cences beyond the Veil of Time. However, the "daddy" of them all, George Washington Kingsbury, of Yankton, although not now at the helm of a paper, is with us still.
The first newspaper plant in the state was the "Dakota Democrat," later known as the "Western Independent," established at Sioux Falls for purely political purposes, in 1859. At the Little Crow Indian outbreak, it was abandoned. The second paper-the one which ultimately became the first per- manent paper in the state-was the "Week- ly Dakotaian" established at Yankton in June, 1861, by Hon. Frank M. Ziebach. He brought the outfit up by team from Sioux City. The old building in which it was first published, is still standing in the city of Yankton.
The object of the establishment at Yankton of the "Weekly Dakotaian" was political rather than financial. Its primary purpose was accomplished in the election of General Todd as our first territorial dele- gate in congress. However, in September, 1861, three months after its birth, it sus- pended publication temporarily.
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The first territorial legislature for Da- kota convened at Yankton, March 17, 1862. On that very day there arrived at Yankton a young man but twenty-five years of age (George W. Kingsbury, the theme of this article), who was destined to guide the affairs of the burg, and with him came the Hon. Josiah Trask who was later killed in the Quantrelle massacre in 1864. They at once bought the "Weekly Dakotaian," con- verted it into the "Daily Dakotaian," and published it for sixty days-during the legis- lative session. Then, Ziebach bought Trask's interest in the plant and he and Kingsbury, in May, 1862, took up in earnest the publi- cation of the paper.
Yankton was the territorial capital of the entire region of Dakota. It grew rapid- ly, so that by 1872, it was practically as large as it is today. In 1870, another newspaper, the "Weekly Press," was opened at that place. It was continued for three years. However, in 1873, it was consolidated with the Dakotaian.
Just at that time Yankton was under- going a boom. Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills. Migration was heavy in that direction. Yankton was the western outlet. Between 50 and 75 steamboats were making regular trips up the Missouri from
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Sioux City and docking at Yankton. One of these boats did a yearly business of $1,000,000. Twenty of them established trade along the upper Missouri as far north as Ft. Pierre.
The same year, 1873, the Milwaukee railroad was extended as far west as Yank- ton. The next year, 1874, W. S. Bowen, now of the Huronite, came to Yankton from Wis- consin. He bought an interest in the Da- kotaian, with Kingsbury, and in April, 1875, they got out the first issue of the "Daily Press and Dakotaian" which has been con- tinued to this day; was, and still is, one of the most influential daily newspapers in the state.
It was always active in politics. Presi- dent Arthur, in 1883, made Bowen post- master at Yankton as a reward for political service previously rendered to his lamented predecessor, James A. Garfield. Cleveland "fixed" him as soon as he took the throne. When Harrison came in, he returned Bowen to the postmastership for four years. Then the Daily Press and Dakotaian got behind Richard Franklin Pettigrew and put him in the United States senate. Pettigrew called Bowen to his private secretaryship, and Kingsbury continued the publication of the paper until 1902, when, owing to advanced
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years, he sold out to David. Lloyd, who, at present, is deputy treasurer of Yankton county.
OUR "DADDY" HIMSELF
It has been necessary to review these historical events that came up in the life of "Daddy" Kingsbury, in order to understand the old gentleman himself.
He was born at Lee, Oneida county, New York, December 16, 1837. At the age of four his parents removed with him to Utica, N. Y., where he got a scanty education, and fitted himself for a civil engineer. George Washington did this, you know; so George Washington Kingsbury "followed suit." Many a boy has been made into a man by naming him right. The implied suggestion resulting to him from the utterance of his name, stimulates him.
He assisted in the survey of the Black River and Utica railroad; then he went to Wisconsin, in 1856, and helped to survey the Watertown, Madison and Prairie du Chien railroad. When this work had been completed he went to St. Louis and took up the printers' trade which he had learned while a boy. From there he went to Leaven- worth, Kansas, in 1858, where he worked in a job printing office for a few months and then accepted a job as editor of a paper at
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Junction City, which he ran for three years.
During this period he formed the ac- quaintance of Mr. Trask with whom he came to Dakota Territory in 1862. In 1863, he was elected to the territorial legislature from . Yankton, and served four years. He was appointed collector of internal revenue in 1890; was elected to the state senate in 1894, and in 1898 Governor Lee appointed him a member of the state board of charities and corrections.
A western sketch, devoid of an act by Cupid, could at best be but stale reading. In all human undertakings, from the sinful tragedy in the Garden of Eden, down through the ages, to Mary kneeling at the feet of her bleeding Lord on Calvary, there has invar- iably been a woman to play her part-to complete the act, make it fascinating, genu- ine, real. The thing bothering man now is whether the female is not going to play more than her part. Well, just so in the life of our pioneer, George W. Kingsbury. That printer's experience in Kansas had brought a southern belle-Miss Lydia M. Stone-into the pathway of his life. Cupid got busy, and on September 20, 1864, they became husband and wife. To their union have been born and reared three sons-George, Theodore and Charles.
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All are gone. Today the old gentleman sits in the silent home at Yankton, to which he brought his bride fifty-two years ago, all alone, writing what will undoubtedly prove to be the best history of South Dakota ever written. He has been working on it for ten years; that is, steadily ; while as a matter of fact, he began it fifty years ago.
First, he thought to make it a history of Yankton, but when the Yankton semi- centennial jubilee was held a few years since, his friends who gathered there urged him to make it a history of Dakota. Again, with Yankton as the old territorial capital for over twenty years, its history would, of necessity, be largely the history of our state for that period. Only a few men are left who are capable of writing its history large- ly from memory. One of these pioneers is General W. H. H. Beadle. Recently he made a trip to Yankton to examine Mr. Kings- bury's manuscript which is now nearing completion, and after carefully reviewing it, he pronounced it the best history-par ex- cellence-of the state in existence. The pub- lication of it will be arranged for somehow during the next year or so; and its sale among our people should bring the old gentleman suitable recompense for his long patient years of toil. As a trained editorial
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writer he has acquired a style of written ex- pression that is fascinating and clear. His diction is most admirable; and even in sketching history wherein the literary con- fines are much more rigid than in newspaper work, his language is lucid and picturesque.
But a few years more will have elapsed · until the last one of the Dakota plainsmen will have passed from the theatre of opera- tions forever, leaving behind him as a lasting heritage for the future the part he took as an empire builder of the west. £
The part taken by George W. Kingsbury will make a brilliant chapter in the history of the state, and he will leave behind him,
"Foot-prints on the sands of time." "Foot-prints, that perhaps another Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and ship-wrecked brother Seeing, may take heart again."
At the date of the publication of this book, Mr. Kingsbury's history has been completed. Prof. G. M. Smith, of our state university, has re-edited it. The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., of Chicago, have published it, and it is now for sale at $25.00.
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H. B. ANDERSON AN HONEST SERVANT
Eleven years a county official, four years a deputy county officer, and four years a state official; total, nineteen years of public service-sixteen years of which were con- tinuous, although the offices he held, save that of three years as a county commissioner, were those limited by the state constitution to two terms of two years each. Can any other man in the state duplicate it?
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Who's record is it? The Honorable H. B. Anderson's, our former state auditor. "How did he do it?" you ask. Easily enough ; when he was first elected to office, he proved to the public that he was obliging, conscien- tious and honest. They were looking for such a servant, and they by their franchise, kept him in office.
His entire life reveals a character, a trustworthiness and a manhood far above the average. He is a poor man; otherwise, some might suspect that money had kept him in office. Not so ! Honesty and efficient service did it.
Anderson is a Scandinavian by birth and an American by adoption. There is no better class of citizens in America than the sturdy Swede and the valiant Norsk. His boyhood was spent in southern Sweden where he came into being, September 15, 1859. His parents were pious, conscientious farmers, greatly respected in that section of his fatherland. In his early boyhood they incul- cated in him lessons of piety, reverence, fru- gality and devotion. These early fireside lessons gave rise to stable manhood. "The earliest impressions make the most inefface- able records." It's true in all walks of life.
At the tender age of six years, he lost his devout mother, yet the impress of her
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personality and teachings lingers with him yet. Three years later his father remarried, and two years afterward the family mi- grated to America and settled on a farm in Jefferson county, Nebraska.
The next year, when young Anderson was yet under twelve years of age, he was thrust upon his own resources. He began to work on a farm at $7 per month. During the winter season, he worked for his board and attended an old-fashioned country school-one built of logs, where the benches were around the outer edge of the room, and where the old pedagog was severe and the entire curriculum consisted of the "Three R's." Here the lad got his scanty scholastic preparation for life.
Boyhood gave way to manhood, and on November 12, 1882, there took place in the little neighborhood a Scandinavian marriage, the contracting parties to which were Henry B. Anderson and Miss Ida C. Lindahl. She proved a splendid, God-fearing, hard-work- ing helpmate for the young Swede; and as the years passed by she became the proud mother of eight children, three of whom are still living. Mrs. Anderson died October 19, 1915.
The early pioneers-Norwegian and otherwise-who had settled in southern
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Nebraska, had accumulated all of the vacant government land in that vicinity, so that our young couple, in order to have at least an equal chance in life, found it necessary to push on into the great northwest. They made their way overland and settled on a homestead in Davison county, South Dakota, in the spring of 1883. This farm he still owns. It is today worth $85 per acre. Like other Dakota pioneers, they underwent many bitter hardships, but they stuck to it.
IN POLITICS
In 1888, Mr. Anderson was elected com- missioner in Davison county. The next year the state constitution was adopted. Ander- son, by the change was given three years in the office. After that he kept out of office for awhile-but in 1898 he was forced against his will to become a candidate for auditor of Davison county. He won, and was re-elected in 1900. Then he was re- tained four years as deputy county auditor, and then again he was called to the county auditorship and was re-elected as before- thus giving him twelve years of continuous service in the one office. The public liked him. They trusted him. When the cam- paign of 1910 opened up, some one suggested H. B. Anderson as a candidate for state auditor. The suggestion spread rapidly over
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the state. Newspapers and politicians fell in- to line and he was an easy winner in the June primaries of that year. He was elected in the fall; made a matchless record as state ·auditor; was re-nominated without opposi- tion in 1912, and re-elected in the fall by the largest plurality of any candidate on the re- publican ticket. This gives to him sixteen years of continuous service as county audi- tor, deputy county auditor, and state auditor ; and the end is not yet!
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ALEXANDER STRACHAN HE'S A STAYER
Major Dollard, whom we all loved and now mourn, and Prof. Alexander Strachan, were sitting on the porch steps of T. O. Bogert's beautiful home in Scotland, S. D., one pleasant summer's eve, in 1890, engulfed in a pleasant conversation, when Major Dol-
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lard finally said, "I hear you are going to Deadwood this fall to take up school work there."
"I am," responded Professor Strachan after a moment's silence.
"Well, sir," said Dollard, "I know those people at Deadwood very well. They are thoroughly united. If you go there and do your duty, you can stay forever !"
He told the truth. Strachan went. He did his duty. He staid. Twenty-four times in succession the hands on the clock have counted off an old year and ushered in a new one, with Professor Alexander Strachan still in the chair as city superintendent at Dead- wood. No other man in public school work in this state has ever approached his record for continuous service.
Professor.Strachan possesses three fun- damental requisites for a successful school man : intelligent modesty, profound sincer- ity, and a thorough knowledge of his pro- fession. These things have, of course, helped to keep him at Deadwood all these years. But there is another vital element that has played its part-his board has at all times been united. No political or religious ques- tions have ever been mentioned by them at a board meeting. Just one thing-one only -has ever been discussed-the welfare of
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the Deadwood schools. Strachan doesn't know the politics of a single member of his board, and it is perhaps equally certain that not a single member of them knows how he votes. The thing which has played more havoc with the public schools of this state than all other forces combined, has been the injection into them of so much politics. True; conditions are rapidly improving. Let us all hope for better days.
Several years ago, a party in Deadwood who was in a position to know, told us when Strachan made application for the position at Deadwood, that all he said in his letter was this :
"I hereby make application for the position of superintendent of your city schools." "Alexander Strachan."
Those thirteen (lucky) words did the trick. There were twenty others. Strachan's application was less than one-twentieth as long as any of the rest. The board liked his brevity-his modesty, if you please ; he won !
HIS CAREER
We shall all be delighted to learn where he came from. (We are not troubling about where he will go to. His noble, manly life has been too simple and pure to admit of doubt) . Well, his birth occurred in Aber- deenshire, Scotland, over fifty years ago. It
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was there he got his early education. At the age of fourteen years, he was so far ad- vanced that he was made a pupil teacher under the school system of Scotland. During this work he prepared himself for the Uni- versity of Aberdeen, from which institution he later graduated.
In 1873, he came to America and com- pleted his college education at the University of Rochester, taking his Master of Arts de- gree in 1880. Upon his graduation he was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa.
Professor Strachan came west the year of his graduation and did public and private school work near Chicago for the next six years. However, in 1886, he again moved westward, settled at Scotland, this state, and organized Scotland Academy, holding the po- sition of principal for two years. Then he went to Mandan, North Dakota, and served for two years as city superintendent there.
This takes him up to the year 1890, when he returned to Scotland, S. D., married Miss Mary T. Torrey of that place and then went direct to Deadwood. At first he acted as professor of mathematics, at Deadwood, in addition to his supervisory duties. Then he dropped this line, all but trigonometry, and took up in its place the French and German. He speaks and writes both of these foreign
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tongues as readily as English, and it is a fair guess that he is the only man in the state who can.
He is a member of the Latin and Greek committee of the North Central association of colleges and secondary schools. Professor Strachan was also honored with the presi- dency of the State Educational association in 1903.
Mrs. Strachan was born in Maine; spent her girlhood in Wisconsin and her young womanhood in South Dakota, at Scotland. She and the professor are the parents of three childern. One died in its infancy ; one is now a sophomore in the University of Chicago and the other is attending the public schools in Deadwood.
We can not, with justice to all con- cerned, conclude this article, without stop- ping to congratulate the board of education at Deadwood for having selected a man of Strachan's temperament and scholastic prep- aration, and then for having the good judg- ment to retain him. Deadwood has, in this all-important matter, set an example in school work worthy of emulation by the whole state. And while we are congratulat- ing Deadwood, we would also congratulate Professor Strachan for having cast anchor in a town and county where the people are
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so much of one mind; a community that has, with the help of the state, kept Eben W. Martin in congress for eight terms, a com- munity that has been largely responsible for keeping Fayette L. Cook president of the Spearfish normal for twenty-seven years, a county that has four times made Miss Florence Glenn county superintendent of schools and one that if the constitutional limitation is removed will delight to keep her at the head of its school work as long as she may care to serve; yes, a community that has in various ways set many things to mov- ing up the pathway of a better civilization.
(Later .- This article was first published in 1913. In 1915, Prof. Strachan resigned his position at Deadwood, to move to the coast.)
E. H. WILLEY
A PROFESSIONAL NEWSPAPER MAN
"Woodman, spare that tree! Touch not a single bough! In youth it sheltered me, And I'll protect it now!"
The tree we have in mind is not the one that Morris referred to so feelingly in his poetical defiance to the woodman, but a large
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maple standing directly south of the south- west corner of the old court yard in the city of Vermillion. It stands in the center of where the sidewalk should run, and it has "sheltered" so many youths that the city of Vermillion permitted the owner of the prop- perty to have the sidewalk built around it. This tree is one of the ornaments to the splendid premises and beautiful home of E. H. Willey, former editor of "The Dakota Re- publican," but more commonly spoken of as "The Vermillion Republican." Within the circumference of its "grateful shade" is his elegant modern home paid for out of a prin- ter's profit. In addition to his home, editor Willey also built and paid for a substantial business establishment at Vermillion in which to house his plant.
Mr. Willey succeeded in the printer's profession (he objects to calling it a trade, for with him it always was a profession), because he loved his work. This world is big enough and there are enough things in it to do, so that no man ought to work at something he doesn't like. With editor Willey, his work was always a "labor of love." He reveled in it. With him there was no higher profession. His outranked all others. He saw the opportunity to mould public opinion rather than merely to reflect
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it. His pencil was made of caustic, yet he always wrote with deliberation. If some fellow got "burnt," it was because he had meddled a little too much somewhere. Again, his editorials were always scholarly; and it is due him to say that "The Dakota Republi- can" has been quoted as much if not more by the leading dailies of the state, than any other weekly in South Dakota.
EDUCATED OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL
If there was ever a man lived of whom it can truthfully be said that he was educated in the universe instead of a university, that man is E. H. Willey. He was born May 30, 1846, near Waterville, Vermont; spent his boyhood on the farm; contracted inflamma- tory rheumatism at the age of nine, which left him a deformed cripple for life; never saw inside of a schoolroom, and at the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a printer to learn the newspaper trade. (It remained for himself to make it a profession.)
His parents and friends looked around for some suitable job for him. Some of them argued that in his crippled condition it would be best to apprentice him, as was done with General Conklin, of Clark, to a shoemaker, and make a cobbler of him. E. H. himself was afraid this might be done. Personally, he wanted to become a printer ;
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