USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Volume II > Part 3
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so he watched the newspapers for two years, looking for some one to advertise for an ap- prenticed "devil." One day the ad. appeared, and young Willey was soon on his way to Hyde Park, Vermont, where he was ap- prenticed, February 9, 1863, for three years on the "La Moille Newsdealer."
One shudders when he learns that the boy's salary was his board and $2.50 a month for the first year, with an increase of $15 per year for each of the next two years. But he stuck to it and applied himself well. Before the end of his apprenticeship, he was made foreman of the shop. He remained in this position, all told, for eight years.
Then he went to Randolph, Vermont, and during 1871-73, he published at that place the "Orange County Eagle." But the western fever got hold of him, so he went to Burlington, Kansas; worked for one year on the "Burlington Patriot," and then went north to Iowa, in which state he served for seven years on different papers. However, in 1881, he went to Maine and for six years he was employed in the office of the "Oxford Democrat" at Paris, in that state.
But the east did not suit him. He longed to go west again. So in 1887 he came to South Dakota, settled at Vermillion and went to work on the "Dakota Republican."
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At the end of six months he bought the plant and became editor and publisher of the paper. During 1890-92, he had the Hon. Carl Gunderson for a partner. When Gunderson got into politics, he sold his interest back to Willey. The work was too heavy for one man, so in 1895 Mr. Willey took Mr. Dan- forth in as a permanent partner. The splendid work of these two partners on the Republican for the next fifteen years is so well known throughout the realm of news- paperdom that it needs no review here. The editorial page of the paper fairly glistened with sparks of life direct from the anvil of human thought.
RETIRES
After fifty years of such strenuous life (and newspaper work certainly is one of the most strenuous lives on earth) it is but natural that at the age of sixty-four, he should wish to retire, so he sold his interest in the plant, on October 1, 1910, to Mr. Mark E. Sloan.
When he retired, the newspaper frater- nity-the pencil pushers-of the state showered upon him great wreaths of editor- ial bouquets that would almost have smothered the average individual.
His successors collected these and published them in a twenty-four page souvenir pamphlet,
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beautifully illustrated and elegantly bound. It contains editorial utterances from fifty- two papers. They are all so brotherly, so encouraging and so charmingly written that we regret our lack of space to reproduce them. They reflect as much credit upon the editors themselves as upon Mr. Willey.
The new firm left his old type case at which he worked for twenty-five years, sit- ting near the window, and each day he still goes there and sets a few sticks of type-just to "keep his hand in." A man's heart never gets weaned away from a great life work. "A printer once, a printer always." Editor Willey is no exception. Occasionally some keen-eyed reader still thinks he can detect on the editorial page of the Republican a few "sparks" from the old pen that illumined it for so long. The new management is keep- ing the paper up to its former high standard, and it continues to be a power-not only lo- cally but throughout the state.
PERSONAL
Mr. Willey was united in marriage, May 29, 1887, at Meemee, Wisconsin, to Miss Sue L. Danforth. She died in August, 1898. On September 5, 1899, he married Miss Susie A. Chaffee, of Waterville, Vermont. As was said of George Washington: "Providence rendered him childless."
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Our distinguished friend is a K. P., and for ten years he has been a member of the local Baptist church at Vermillion. Editor Willey has always been square in his deal- ings; is highly respected not only at Ver- million, but throughout the state ; has always boosted for his home city; has invariably refused political preferment for himself but has given staunch support to the other fel- low; and as he approaches the sunset of life nothing more appropriate could be said of him than Longfellow's tribute to "The Vil- lage Smithy,"
"Something attempted, something done; Has earned a night's repose."
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THOMAS STERLING A CONTINUOUS PERFORMANCE "Politics in this country has gotten to be one continuous performance," said
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A. F. Allen, managing editor of the Sioux City Journal, to the writer, not long since. Yes, the "performance" is continuous, be- cause the performers are so numerous and the occasions are so continuous.
One of the strong men of the state who got caught in the whirlpool of politics in his younger days, and kept on "playing the game" until he landed in the United States senate, is Dean Thomas Sterling of Redfield, now of Vermillion.
THE GAME OF LIFE
Ohio, in addition to being the "mother of presidents," is also the mother of many other prominent men. That state gave birth to Senator Sterling, February 21, 1851. He was, therefore, a lad of 14 when Lincoln's tragic death occurred. His father was Scotch-Irish, his mother German. It is from this mixture of bloods that many of our best citizens have been developed.
When "Tom" was four years of age, his parents removed with him to McLean county, Illinois, and settled on a farm near LeRoy. Here the boy grew to manhood, doing the heaviest kind of labor. His parents were poor and he received very little early school- ing. Finally his latter teens were upon him. He yearned for an education. An old friend of the family told us recently that when he
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started off to school at Illinois Wesleyan, his father took him to town on a load of brooms . which they had made from broom corn raised on their own farm; sold it, spent the money for some books for the lad and gave him the balance of the cash-a little over a dollar. It was therefore up to him to make his own way through school. The room he secured did not have in it a single piece of furniture. It's only equipment was a small woodstove. He did his own cooking, sat on a box, used a box for a table and the floor for a bed. Out of these surroundings, seasoned with a stur- .dy determination, came forth the man who was afterwards to be a United States sena- tor; and up from the same conditions, slight- ly improved, rose his distinguished brother, John A., who is today a member of congress from Illinois. It is not only a strange, but a commendable incident, that two brothers should be members at the same time of the two branches of the greatest legislative body on earth.
HIS LEGAL EXPERIENCES
Senator Sterling was admitted to the bar at Springfield, Ill., in 1878. During the years of 1880-81, he served as city attorney at Springfield. But in 1882, he came west and settled at Northville, Spink county, this state, where he took up the practice of his
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profession. After a couple of years he moved to Redfield. He served as state's attorney for Spink county in 1886-87; was a member of the constitutional conventions of 1883 and 1889, and was the first state senator from Spink county. He was made chairman of the judiciary committee, and as such he rendered invaluable service to our young state which had just been admitted to the union.
STERLING IN ACTION
Senator Sterling was recognized as one of the leading members of the bar of the State long before he went to Vermillion to take charge of the law department, there. Whenever an important case was on for trial in his county (Spink) he was usually found in the case on one side or the other.
One of the most important civil cases ever tried in Spink county was the case of Bopp vs. C. & N. W. Ry. Co. In this case Agnes Bopp brought suit for damages against the Railway Company for the death of her husband in an accident that occurred in a wreck between Aberdeen and Redfield. The deceased was a young man of rare at- tainments and drawing a good salary from the Cary Safe Co. At that time the amount of recovery for death by wrongful act was not limited by statute, and suit was brought
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for $75,000 damages. The case was fiercely contested. Senator Sterling conducted the prosecution, but the defendant was ably represented by Senator Coe I. Crawford and A. W. Burtt of Huron with local attorneys
at Redfield. The case occupied eight days in trial. In closing the case Senator Sterling made one of the most effective pleas ever heard in the Court room. The room was packed, and as Senator Sterling proceeded in his masterly. argument the silence of the audience was impressive. At the conclusion of his argument an attorney from Wisconsin who was present in the Court room came · forward and said with tears in his eyes, "Mr. Sterling, I have heard Spooner and I have heard Vilas, and I have heard some of the best arguments ever heard in the Courts of my State, but I have never heard a more effective plea than the one you have just de- livered." The jury was out but a short time and returned 'a verdict of $30,000 in favor of the plaintiff. This was probably the largest verdict that was ever returned as damages for death by wrongful act in the State up to that time.
When Senator Sterling went to Vermil- lion his ability as a trial lawyer had pre- ceded him and his assistance was eagerly sought in the more important cases that were
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tried in Clay county. He assisted in the Clark murder case, and the Edmunds murder case and in other important litigation.
HIS CHARACTER
During those early days in Spink county, Mr. Sterling practiced law, handled real estate and loaned money for eastern parties. The hard times came on. Many of the loans made by him became valueless. Rather than see any of his clients suffer, Tom Sterling assumed responsibility for every poor loan and paid off every dollar of these obligations. It was the response of conscience and "sterling" manhood to a moral obligation-he was not obligated in the least under the law. These old loans kept his "nose on the grindstone" for years; but he paid them off and preserved his manhood. Nothing more concerning the character of Tom Sterling need be written.
SPINK COUNTY'S TOM TOM'S
In those eventful pioneer days in Spink county, there were two young lawyers, each named Tom, who were the direct anthitheses of each other-Tom Walsh and Tom Ster- ling. Walsh was a democrat; Sterling a republican. Each was a good lawyer, a good speaker and a good fellow. They had the opposing sides on practically every big law suit in Spink county. Despite their political
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and professional rivalry, they always re- mained firm friends. Long years ago, Tom Walsh went to Montana. On March 4, 1913, they met each other at Washington, D. C .- Walsh as junior United States senator from the great state of Montana, and Sterling as junior senator from our own progressive young commonwealth. Again, after many years of separation, they meet on common ground, and vie with each other for supremacy.
BECOMES A TEACHER
A college of law was established at our state university in Vermillion in 1901. The regents of education looked around faith- fully for a man of ripe scholarship, broad experience and exemplary manhood, to as- sume the deanship of this new law school. One man in the state seemed pre-eminently fitted for the task. That man was the sage of Redfield, Hon. Thomas Sterling. The po- sition was tendered to him; he accepted it, and it is needless to say that he made good and surpassed the expectations of his most admiring friends. Sterling is one of those few lawyers in the state who take time to read the Bible and to keep up on the classics. He can quote more Shakespeare, offhand, than any other lawyer or politician in the state. His Sunday addresses to young men
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reveal his own unimpeachable character, and they show the scope of his study and the trend of his intellect.
He remained at the head of the law school from October, 1901, till · June, 1911, when he resigned to "play the game," on a large scale. During his deanship, a large number of capable and brainy young fellows had graduated under his instruction. Many of these are now practicing law throughout the state; some are state's attorneys, and a few are county judges. One of them, Royal C. Johnson, is at present attorney general of our state. (He has since been elected to congress). When their old professor plunged into politics for the United States senator- ship, he had this array of alumni from his law school, as a natural organization throughout the state, on whom he could rely. They "put him over."
This was not the first time that he was a candidate for the United States senate. In 1901, when Kyle was elected, Sterling was also a candidate, and on one ballot, he lacked but five votes of winning. After his defeat, one of his friends who was a member of the "Kyle" legislature, stepped up to him and said, "Tom, I hope to have the privilege of voting for you for United States senator again some day when my vote will count."
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That friend is a member today of our pres- ent legislature, from another county, and he voted for Tom Sterling for United States senator and his vote did count! This article will scarcely issue from press until he will have been sworn in as United States senator, and the ambition of a life time will have been realized. It pays to "play the game" good and hard, even if it does require a "con- tinuous performance."
LATER-STERLING IN THE SENATE
At Fairbanks, Alaska, on July 4, 1915, in an address delivered by the Hon. James Wickersham, delegate to congress from Alaska, at the laying of the cornerstone of the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, the speaker, in relating the serious and devious ways that a bill establishing this school had in its course through congress to a final and successful end, paid the follow- ing compliment to United States Senator Thomas Sterling, of our own state :
"As a boy in 1877 I entered an office in Springfield, Illinois, and took up the study of law. In an office nearby another young fel- low, named Tom Sterling, was similarly en- gaged. We studied together and passed through the same general course which led to admission to the bar upon a successful ex- amination before the supreme court of the
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state. After admission we went west to grow up with the country, and it thus hap- pened that when the opposition to my school bill seemed to doom it to defeat I turned to Hon. Thomas Sterling, U. S. Senator from South Dakota, for help. He was a promi- nent member of the senate committee on pub- lic lands, and at my request he introduced the bill in the senate in the same form that it was recommended for passage in the house. When the senate committee met to consider the bill I was present to explain its provisions and to urge its favorable report. Senator Smoot of Utah, a member of the committee, criticized me for taking up the time of the committee, when, as he declared, every one knew there was no possible chance to get the bill passed by the senate, even if it were favorably reported, before the 63rd congress must adjourn on the 4th day of March. I pleaded with him and the members of the committee to report it favorably any- way, since a favorable report would be of great assistance before the next session, even if we failed to pass it in this. Senator Smoot finally withdrew his objection and at 12 o'clock, noon, just as the senate was con- vening in regular session the committee voted to report it favorably and instructed Senator Sterling to make the report and take
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charge of the bill. Five minutes later Sen- ator Sterling stood on the floor of the senate with the very short but favorable report in his hand. It often happens that the machin- ery of legislation does not move promptly on the opening of the morning hour, and it so happened now. Instantly Senator Sterling asked leave to report the bill and thereupon moved that the rules be suspended and the bill passed, and when Senator Smoot came in a moment later he was surprised to find what he had declared to be impossible in that congress, was done-our bill had passed the senate and was on its way to the house for passage. But for the happy accident, and Senator Sterling's square chin, the bill might not have passed before another con- gress."
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A. E. HITCHCOCK A DEMOCRAT IN ACTION
The human intellect turns instinctively toward things in action. Age does not alter the principle. A child will throw aside a valuable plaything that is motionless and cling intuitively to a cheap toy that is filled with action, while an old man will enthuse
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far more over a horse race than he will over a fine painting of a horse, done by a high grade artist.
The same principle governs literature. The writers that are read most nowadays are those, who, at the very outset, plunge their leading characters into rapid, vital, ir- resistable action. The earliest writer of any note in history-Moses-did the same thing ; for, in the Pentateuch, he plunged his divine character, God, into immediate, vital action. His opening sentence reads, "In the begin- ning God created the heavens and the earth."
The early writers of the nineteenth century forsook this principle, and today they are little read. Scott, in "Ivanhoe," starts out with an elaborate introduction as to time and place. Cooper, in all five of his "Leather Stocking Tales," does likewise. So also with Hawthorne. In his "House of Seven Gables," as well as in all of his other standard novels, he indulges himself in long, verbose, labored introductions. One soon tires of them.
Note the change during the past ten or twenty years; novels are no longer written to stimulate human curiosity but to gratify it. Modern writers, like good old Moses, place their leading characters on the lit- erary stage at the very outset and cause them
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to start some tragic action. Churchill, in "The Crisis," puts Eliphalet Hooper on the stage of action in the opening sentence. Partridge in "Passers By" brings forward the acting parties (Christine and Ambrose- although not by name) in the second sen- tence. While Jacques Futrelle, the eminent young French novelist who met tragic death on the ill-fated Titanic, in his last novel, en- titled "My Lady's Garter," published since his death at the instigation of his mournful wife, starts the dance, permits the Countess of Salisbury's garter to come loose and fall to the floor, causes her partner, King Ed- ward III, to pick it up, and thus starts off in dead earnest his great social drama-all in the first paragraph.
In our long series of "Who's Who" ar- ticles, we have purposely indulged ourselves in both forms of introduction, so as to avoid monotony.
CREPT THROUGH A SEWER MAIN
Now, here we have a democrat to get into action. (A very easy thing to do since March 4, 1913.) Not an imaginary demo- crat that is presumed to have lived before the days of the mighty Grover, but a real live one-in fact the only democratic office holder, until a few days since, for many years in South Dakota-not fiction, but fact. And
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the action ? Why ! it was premediated, painstaking and vital, with an end in view. So here he goes! Crawling on his hands and knees through a storm sewer, from one catch basin to another-a distance of 375 feet.
"A fugitive from justice!" you exclaim, with gasping breath, without waiting for the particulars, "or else an escaping convict" (and a democrat at that).
Never mind; he's neither one. It was merely the Honorable Abner E. Hitchcock, mayor of the city of Mitchell, making as the soldier would say, "a tour of inspection."
"This is getting him into suspicious action, and mighty suddenly at that!" sug- gests the literary critic. That's right in a measure, for Mayor Hitchcock is decidedly a man of action-one that does things while other people sleep. Here is the explanation : The city of Mitchell had voted $50,000 in bonds for the construction of a storm sewer. Hitchcock was mayor. It was his business to see to it that the city did not get the worst of the deal. The sewer was finished and the contractors awaited its acceptance by the city authorities. Mayor Hitchcock, therefore, entered a catch basin at a street corner, crept through the sewer main to the next catch basin, a block away, came up-with a stiff neck and aching shoulders that laid him up
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for a few days; but he had discovered a flaw in the sewer-one that had it not been fixed before the sewer was used would have caused much annoyance and the possible taking up of the entire mains in that block. It was immediately remedied by the contractor who was entirely ignorant of the fact that the de- fect existed, and the city promptly accepted the job.
We have mentioned this incident for but one single purpose-to show the painstaking character of Abner E. Hitchcock, the thor- oughness of the man and the careful manner in which he discharges his public duty, re- gardless of the consequences to himself.
Almost his first act as mayor of Mitch- ell, after he was elected in 1908 was to list up and publish in the "Mitchell Daily Re- publican," for the benefit and information of the people of the city, an itemized list of all the city's resources, including cash on hand, waterworks, buildings, lots, parks, etc., and a corresponding list of the city's liabilities, including open debts, outstanding warrants, unmatured bonds, etc. It was an eye-opener to the citizens, as well as to the mayor, and it showed all concerned just where they were at.
He was elected mayor of Mitchell by the largest majority of any man who has ever
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held the office. In 1910 he was re-elected without opposition; and in 1912, he refused to become a candidate to succeed himself. But the good people of Mitchell absolutely refused to accept his declination. They nominated him by petition against his own will and unanimously re-elected him again for two years longer. He was re-elected again in 1914. The public likes a fellow who will not neglect their interests when he has been entrusted with power-one who will get down onto a level with them, and who will, if necessary, go underground (into a sewer) to see that they get a square deal.
UP'S AND DOWN'S OF LIFE
Mayor Hitchcock was born at North Bergen, Geneseo county, New York, October 29, 1853. He is therefore, as the broguish easterner would say, a "New Yowkah" by birth and a South Dakotan through migra- tion.
He remained on the farm with his parents and attended rural school during the winter months until he was ten years of age. However, about the time that Abe Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Mr. Hitchcock's parents moved west and settled at Maquoketa, in Jackson county, Iowa. Here he had for boyhood playmates such lads as Congressman Eben W. Martin of our
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own state and Professor H. E. French of Elk Point.
After five years at Maquoketa, the family, in 1868, moved to Jones county, Iowa, and settled at Anamosa, a picturesque little city snuggled silently away between the rugged hills that skirt the Wapsifinigan river valley. Here the boy attended public school, and for three years conducted a bake- shop. He had learned the bakery business while at Maquoketa.
At nineteen years of age he began teaching. His first school was in a rural dis- trict two miles out of Anamosa. He walked to and from school and worked in a bakery at night. Out of this combined toil he managed to save $90 during the year.
It was now 1873; he was twenty years of age. After buying himself a new suit and some minor necessities, he had $55 left. With this he struck out for the Iowa State Agricultural college at Ames, to secure a col- lege education. He worked his way through by teaching and by doing manual labor, and he graduated with honor as an A. B. with the class of 1876. During the years of 1877- 1879, he was principal of graded schools in an Iowa village, and he instructed in teach- ers' institutes during the summer months. In the summer of 1879, Mr. Hitchcock and
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another professional teacher were opposing applicants for superintendent of the Mason City schools-the best school position in northern Iowa. For two months the board of education met repeatedly and balloted for a superintendent. Each time the vote stood a tie. However, one member of the board was a relative of Mr. Hitchcock's opponent. This member finally, through some secret maneuvering, got one of Hitchcock's sup- porters to change his vote.
Hitchcock lost; but it was the making of him. From early boyhood he had enter- tained ambitions to become a lawyer. Had he gained the superintendency at Mason City, and have realized his immediate earn- ing power in school work, he would, in all probability, have gotten side-tracked from his original intention and have followed an educational career. So, after his defeat, he promptly enrolled in the law department of the state university at Iowa City and took his law course. At that time it consisted of but one year above the regular college course. He graduated the next summer (1880), tak- ing his LL. B. degree.
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