USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Volume II > Part 4
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Immediately after the completion of his law course, he started west to look for a lo- cation in which to practice law. His first stop was at Sioux City. From there he came
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A. E. HITCHCOCK
on to Mitchell, South Dakota, arriving on September 29, 1880. This latter field seemed ripe with opportunities, so he settled at Mitchell, stuck out his shingle, entered upon a new profession, succeeded in his under- takings; and today he is well-to-do and has developed into one of the ablest constitution- al lawyers in the state. He has a high grade of cases; and since statehood the supreme court records show that he has had his share of cases every term, before that honorable body.
MARRIAGE
After practicing law for two years at Mitchell, he had prospered so well that he slipped back down to Iowa and was married · on June 20, 1882, to an Iowa schoolma-am. Mrs. Hitchcock is a talented, refined, digni- fied lady. She enters freely into the literary culture of her home city, and she adds digni- ty and power to several of Mitchell's wo- men's clubs. During their long years of happy wedded life, only one tiny babe has come over their threshold, and it crept out again as silently as it had entered, leaving naught but vacant halls, saddened hearts and sacred memories.
Only a baby's grave, Sodded and bowered and cold. Yet down in its depths-its silent depths, Lies a treasure in its mould.
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IN POLITICS
"Some men are born (leaders), some achieve (leadership), others have (leader- ship) thrust upon them." Mayor Hitchcock represents all three classes. In 1890 he was elected state's attorney for Davison county. He only served one term. The reason for it was he made it so hot as a public prosecutor for the early-day saloon-keepers of Mitchell who were openly, wilfully and constantly violating the law, that they simply went after him hard at the end of his first term, and as is expressed in modern political slang, "Got his goat." He was also city attorney for Mitchell, 1886-1892.
In national politics, Mr. Hitchcock was a staunch republican until 1896. During the free-silver campaign of that year he went over voluntarily to the democrats, and he has ever since remained a consistent and leading member of that organization. In fact, until the Honorable James Coffey was appointed internal revenue collector for the two Dakotas, a few days since, to succeed the Honorable Willis C. Cook (republican), Mr. Hitchcock was the only democratic office holder in South Dakota; and he would not have had an office if it had not been for two things: first the state law specifically pro- vides that the governor, in selecting the five
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regents of education must appoint one from the minority party; second, Mitchell acci- dentally developed two republican candidates in 1909 for an appointment at the hands of the Vessey administration, to a position on the board of regents. Governor Vessey solved the problem by rejecting both appli- cants and giving his minority party appoint- ment to Mr. Hitchcock of the same city. This gave him an office by appointment; other- wise, there would not have been a single state position in South Dakota held by a democrat. And Governor Vessey selected wisely, too. If he had raked the state with a fine-toothed comb he could not have found a better man for the position. From 1891 to 1893, Mr. Hitchcock had served as a trustee of Brookings college, under the old system when each school had its own separate board, and he thoroughly understood the needs of our state schools. Also from 1905 to 1909 he was a trustee of Dakota Wesleyan university. After becoming a regent of education he resigned this latter position. . In addition he was a member of the Mitchell board of education, 1894-96.
In 1900 Mr. Hitchcock was the nominee of his party for attorney general of the state, but during the general republican vic- tory of that year he lost. Again in 1912,
للغاية
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he was urgently requested by the leading members of his party to become a candidate for governor, for United States senator and for the supreme court. He declined all three.
OTHER RELATIONSHIPS
Mayor Hitchcock is a thirty-third degree Mason. In his younger days he was very active in Masonic circles, having held the principal offices in the Master Mason's lodge, the Commandery and the Grand Lodge of the state. His church affiliation is with the Congregationalists.
Since 1896, the tenor of his whole career has been based upon the principle of duty to perform some valuable service to the community in which he has lived, so that when he departs therefrom his surviving ac- quaintances might be made at least a trifle better because of his life of service.
Mayor Hitchcock is a man of fixed con- science and deep convictions-one who has controlled his circumstances instead of yield- ing to them. He never liked criminal law practice; consequently he shunned it and confined himself to civil cases. He is straight- forward in his dealings, and although he sometimes firmly opposes the undertakings of other men, yet none who know him ever doubt the sincerity of his purpose.
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J. W. HESTON
A PRACTICAL EDUCATOR
In 1897 the State Educational associa- tion was held at Redfield. The committee on program had arranged for a sort of edu- cational debate, without having notified the debaters. This oversight was accidental, but it developed an embarrassing situation.
Dr. John W. Heston, at that time presi-
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dent of our state college at Brookings, had come to the state the year previous. He was given a place on the program at Redfield and assigned this subject, "The Bread and Butter Theory of Education." Pitted against him- unknowingly to both parties-was the lamented Dean C. M. Young, of our state university at Vermillion. Young was given this subject, "The Psychology of Education."
Here were two mental giants in the educational thought of the state, matched against each other on two sides of the same subject, to appear on the same platform on the same evening. Each one had prepared his address without any knowledge of the situation under which it was to be delivered.
Young had the theoretical or scholastic side of the argument-one that called upon him to analyze the human mind, show its processes in the development of thought, the part education plays in that development and the necessity for such an education. Heston had the "dinner pail" or popular side of it- the development of the hand as well as the head through vocational training.
Dean Young opened the discussion. He delivered one of his characteristic scholarly addresses. It was superbly grand; but he was at a disadvantage, because he had the unpopular side of the question. Dr. Heston
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followed. He sounded the keynote to the new order of things in the educational world -industrial training, scientific agriculture, etc. Of course he had a big advantage be- cause he had the popular side of the dis- cussion.
Upon opening his address, Dr. Heston called the attention of the audience to the fact that he knew nothing about the prepara- tion of Dean Young's speech, but it would become evident to all that the two addresses were vitally opposed to each other. It was a situation similar to the one developed at Mitchell last fall, when Regent Hitchcock and Dr. G. W. Nash inadvertently followed each other on the program of the association, in set speeches, each taking diametrically op- posed views of the proposition to consolidate our state schools, thus forcing Dr. Nash to announce at the outset, when he arose to succeed Regent Hitchcock on the floor, it would soon become evident to the audience that he and Mr. Hitchcock had not compared notes, and the evidence was soon forthcom- ing.
However, Dr. Heston's speech at Red- field became the subject of much discussion throughout the state. He made a bitter at- tack on the whole educational system of the state, showing that the whole scheme was
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to head students toward some university, and he argued for the very change that has since come about-the preparation of the high school boy for life instead of for college.
HIS TRAINING
Heston's training had of course been along the line of his argument. He was born at Bellefonte, Pa., in 1854; was educated in the normal schools of Pennsylvania, and .in 1879 was graduated from the Pennsyvlania state college, taking his A. B. degree. Two years later, his alma mater granted to him his Master's degree.
Then he began to teach in this same in- stitution, and stayed by his job for twelve consecutive years. This is out of the ordi- nary. Usually a man has to seek employ- ment elsewhere. Last year Dr. Kerfoot of Mitchell, was called to the presidency of Hamline, his alma mater at St. Paul. President Woodrow Wilson was called to the presidency of Princeton university, the same school that graduated him, and after many years of continuous and successful service, stepped into the governor's chair of his home state, and then was called to the presidency of the nation. But these recognitions by colleges of their own students are not numer- ous; in fact, they are rare exceptions. Cor-
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relatively, we might state that Dr. Heston has been repeatedly urged to give up educa- tional work in this state and to enter the political arena.
The western fever finally got hold of him, and he moved to Seattle, Wash., and engaged in public school work at that place for over three years. You can't keep a good man down. Heston was aggressive and pro- gressive. He soon found recognition in the educational councils of his new state, with the result that he was called to the presi- dency of the Washington state agricultural college.
Two years at the head of this school brought him up to 1893. He was now 40 years of age. Ambition overwhelmed him. He wanted to get rich. Other professions seemed to offer great financial inducements. He had previously been admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. So in 1894 he withdrew from school work to take up the practice of law. He failed. God intended every man to do a certain thing in life. It is only in the discharge of that specific duty that one can properly succeed. Professor Hobson was first a plumber, then a soldier and then a musician. He finally found his field, put into use the talents God had given him, and won !
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Just so with Heston; he was not intended for a lawyer, and as he himself once said, "I nearly starved to death at it."
CALLED TO DAKOTA
A new educational opening thrust it- self in his pathway. There was a genuine row on at our state college at Brookings. Heston was called to the presidency. He is a good "mixer" and in six months he had acquired a state-wide acquaintance with the result that the attendance at Brookings shot skyward.
Several years passed by. Finally, when a few of the old members of Heston's faculty revived the old political agitation, he de- manded some changes. These the Board were not in position to give, and hence a change in the Presidency followed as the only course. A year later, Dr. Heston was tendered his present position as head of the Madison State Normal faculty which place he has held now for over twelve years.
OTHER RELATIONSHIPS
The university at Seattle conferred upon him his Ph. D. degree, and later his LL. D. In 1902, he served as president of the South Dakota State Educational associa- tion. He is a member of the National Edu- cational association, of the American As- sociation of Sciences, the Knights of Pythias,
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the Baptist church, the Masons and the Eastern Star.
Dr. Heston was married in 1881 to Miss Mary E. Colder, daughter of President James Colder of the Pennsylvania Agri- cultural college. Two children bless their home life. Charles, who is married and lives at Rochester, N. Y., is connected with the Carlson Telephone company, the largest manufacturers of electric supplies in the United States. He is an electrical engineer, and for eight years he was connected with the war department and supervised the wir- ing of their submarine mines, of their ports, etc., serving two years for them at similar labor in the city of Manila, P. I. He is a graduate of the university of Wisconsin. The other son, Edward, is a graduate of the Northwestern University Medical school, and he is now chief surgeon in a large hospital in the state of Washington.
President Heston is big-hearted, easy of approach, democratic in his tendencies and universally liked. He is "long suffering and kind," well preserved for a man of his age, a hard worker, a faithful servant of the state; strong in his likes and dislikes, courageous in the discharge of his duty, and a typical man among men.
(Later .- Mrs. Heston died October 9th, 1915, and was buried at Madison.)
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C. L. DOTSON AT THE EDITOR'S DESK
Charles Lewis Dotson, proprietor of the "Sioux Falls Daily Press," has developed one of the most essential elements of success
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in life-an organized will. His mind is analytical in the extreme. He reasons with the precision of a machine. When he has reached a conclusion he is as unyielding as the sphinx on the Sahara. Stubborn! No; merely determined. Stubbornness is the child of ignorance; determination is will power intelligently directed. It is this ele- ment in Dotson's makeup that drives him forward to certain victory. It is the same thing that caused Columbus to-
"Sail on, sail on, sail on and on"
until he discovered a new world; kept Grant with his face turned toward Richmond until Lee handed him his sword at Appomattox; and put Bob La Follette in the United States senate.
Mr. Dotson came from long-lived stock. His mother died at the ripe age of 76; and his father, now at the extreme age of 93, lives in Iowa, and apparently enjoys the best of health. Last year he gave back to Charles the gold-headed cane which the latter and his brother had given to the old gentleman twenty-five years before, saying that he did not need it. He still reads without glasses and appears quite as young as a man of 30.
The elder Dotson was raised in Ten- nessee. In his young manhood, he drifted northward into Illinois. Here he met and
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married C. L.'s mother, who was a South Carolinian by birth. In 1848, the young couple migrated to Iowa and settled in Jasper county, where our subject was born in 1859.
Charles secured his early education in the rural schools. Later he attended the Christian college at Oskaloosa, Iowa, and finally completed his training at a business college in Chicago. Then he went back to Jasper county and taught a rural school for two years.
However, on December 31, 1882, at Ira, Iowa, he was united in marriage to Miss Fernanda Baker, who was born and reared in Jasper county, and who was also educated in the Oskaloosa college. It is therefore, safe to presume that during C. L.'s scholastic training, he kept both eyes wide open and did more than merely study and recite. They are the parents of five promising children. After his marriage, Mr. Dotson went back to the old farm where he remained one year. Then he engaged in the hardware business for two years. He then sold out and traveled for eighteen months for a wholesale hard- ware establishment.
NEWSPAPER EXPERIENCE
Mr. Dotson began his newspaper ex- perience at 15 years of age as a country cor-
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respondent under the nom de plume of "Bob White" for several weekly papers. His pithy sayings and breezy news notes soon brought him into prominence and he became the live correspondent for a number of state papers.
After his experience on the road as a hardware salesman, he removed to Des Moines and became identified with the "Des Moines Daily News." Later he transferred his services to the "Iowa State Register." He acted as their local advertising manager for seven years. When the Spanish-American war broke out, he became business manager for the "Des Moines Daily Capital," Hon. Lafe Young's paper. This position he held for two years, after which he went back to the Des Moines Register for four years.
It will at once be seen that he had been acquiring a varied experience, as a writer, an advertising solicitor and as a business manager, which was equipping him most splendidly to launch into the newspaper business for himself. He had also lived frugally and had accumulated a small purse. So in 1901, he came to South Dakota-the land of promise, and of increasing oppor- tunities-and bought a half interest in the "Sioux Falls Daily Press," from W. S. Bowen, now editor of the "Daily Huronite." Six years later (September, 1907), W.
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C. Cook, at that time chairman of the re- publican state central committee, bought Bowen's half interest in the Press, and he and Dotson became allied in its publication. Mr. Cook was too busy with political matters and with private business affairs to give much attention to the paper, so he employed W. R. Ronald, who had until then been managing editor of the "Sioux City Tribune," to edit the paper for him.
However, on March 30, 1910, Mr. Dot- son bought Mr. Cook's half interest in the Press, paying to him for it four and one-half times as much as Cook paid Bowen for it seven years before. Meanwhile Mr. Ronald had resigned as editor, to go to Mitchell where he bought and still publishes the "Daily Republican." He was succeeded by A. E. Beaumont, who resigned in December, 1911, to become identified with the Sioux City Tribune. This left the Press with no editor, and so Mr. Dotson's son, Carrol B., was pressed into service. He is still edit- ing the paper, while another son, Russell, is acting as associate city editor. The youngest son is now in the high school. After graduation, he, too, expects to become identified with the Press. In addition, Mr. Dotson's son-in-law, Mr. H. F. Harris, is, and has been for seven years, the Press's
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local advertising manager. It will, there- fore, be seen that the Sioux Falls Press, under its present management, is largely a family affair.
When Mr. Dotson bought a half inter- est in the Press in 1901, the paper was issu- ing two editions-the daily and the weekly. In 1902, he changed the weekly to the "South Dakota Farmer," but continued to publish it weekly, making it the only weekly farm paper in the state. Again, it is the only farm paper in the state owned exclusively by a South Dakota man.
POLITICS AND THE PLATFORM
In politics Mr. Dotson has been a life- long republican. He conducts the Press as an independent republican newspaper. For the past six years that faction of the repub- lican party which he has supported has been in control of the state's affairs. Last March, Governor Byrne appointed him a member of the board of charities and corrections, and when the board met to organize he was elected as its president.
Mr. Dotson is also at home on the plat- form. He is one of the easiest and most entertaining speakers in the state, and is in constant demand at banquets and before the students of our state schools.
As a citizen he is also active in civic
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affairs. He served for three years as presi- dent of the Sioux Falls Commercial club. It was through his individual efforts that Sioux Falls got her present street railway. Mr. Dotson knew the owner of the company that built it, Mr. F. M. Mills, in Des Moines. He persuaded him to come to Sioux Falls. The investment proved a success, and today Sioux Falls has one of the best electric lines of any city of similar size in the country.
Eleven years ago when C. L. Dotson came to South Dakota, he was a stranger here. His identification with the Sioux Falls Daily Press-one of the two big family newspapers of the state-at once brought him into prominence and gave him a state- wide acquaintance-an acquaintance, by the way, that has worn well, one that has sunk deeper and grown broader with the succes- sive years, until today it encircles the state. We are glad to have him with us.
(Later-Between the publication of this article and its reproduction in this book, the elder Mr. Dotson passed to his reward.)
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C. C. CARPENTER
Two boys were attending public school in adjoining rooms in the city of Watertown, this state, in the early 90's. Their home en- vironments were different and their impulses were the direct antitheses of each other. One's sixth special sense (spiritual) had been cast by Providence in a major key; the other's, in a minor.
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Twenty years elapsed; the two boys have now become grown men. A few months since, they faced each other at the bar of justice-the boy, whose impulses were up- ward, was sitting on the bench as a circuit judge, while his schoolmate, whose impulses were downward, now stood before him as a criminal, awaiting sentence to the peniten- tiary.
This scene was enacted in the court room at Webster. The criminal had been convicted of carrying dynamite. The maximum statutory penalty for this offense is eight years. When asked if he had any- thing to say why the maximum penalty should not be given him, the criminal stepped forward, laid his head on his hands on the jurist's bench and with the tears streaming down his face, said: "Judge, don't send me to the penitentiary; it would break my old parents' hearts. You knew me as a boy at Watertown; have pity on me. Give me a chance; I'll do better."
The judge was deeply moved. After a moment's reflection, he said: "Yes; we were schoolmates, and I am sorry for you. I will, therefore, give you only six months in jail and not send you to the penitentiary. Dur- ing your confinement in jail, I will look for a good job for you; and I want you to
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promise me that when you get out you will be a man."
"I will; God witness it!" said the peni- tent wretch.
But, the judge! Ah! yes; the judge. How our suspense grows! We are almost tempted to jump over a few lines so that our eyes may more quickly catch his name- Cyrus Clay Carpenter, of the twelfth circuit who, upon request, was temporarily occu- pying Judge McNulty's bench in the fifth. And the criminal? We have said enough. The Day county records bear his name.
PREPARATION FOR LIFE
Judge Carpenter was born January 13, 1878, at Ft. Dodge, Iowa-that grand old · town with which we all instinctively link the name of Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver. He has never been terrorized by reason of the date of his birth-the 13th. Just what his parents may have thought about it, is an- other proposition. His marriage-well, let's wait and see.
He attended public school at Ft. Dodge, 1884-87. Then his parents removed with him to Watertown, South Dakota, at which place he also attended public school, having for one of his teachers the Hon. Doane Robinson's sister. She is a grand woman. Recently, at Pierre, when she heard that her
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old school boy, now a stern judge on the bench, was in the city, she sent for him to come to see her. Their meeting was very cordial and reminiscent.
Cyrus finally completed the grammar grades at Watertown. About that time his parents moved back to Ft. Dodge, and young Carpenter was sent to Cornell college at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, to complete his education. He stuck to it most faithfully for six years.
FIRST CASE IN COURT
In 1898, before he had completed his college course, Cyrus got lonesome to return to his boyhood haunts at Watertown, or he may have gotten a presentiment that he should return; at least his parents could no longer restrain him, so they advanced the money and our typical young westerner set out for his destination.
It so happened that during his boyhood days at Watertown, the friendship of a girl schoolmate had entered into his life. When the young Cornell student arrived at Water- town, he found that this charming lady was soon to become the bride of another man; in fact, her wedding gown was already pre- pared.
Cyrus Clay Carpenter's fate was hang- ing in the balance. He sought an interview with her; pleaded his first case in "court;"
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won it! and the young couple-he under age and she but a few days over-made a "flying" trip through Iowa, to Janesville, Wisconsin, where a license was secured and the "Carpenter boy" from Cornell and Miss Katherine Flint, of Watertown, became husband and wife. Fate said right then and there: "This lad has made good in 'court,' I will make of him a jurist." And Fate made good its own pledge.
BECOMING A JUDGE
The happy young couple, after their romance, came back to Watertown where Mr. Carpenter accepted a position as a clerk in a drug store. So well did he apply him- self that he was soon able to pass the ex- amination and become a registered pharma- cist. Later, he bought a drug business of his own. However, in 1905, he sold out and went to the University of Minnesota where he took his law course. In October, 1907, he passed his bar examination, and immedi- ately thereafter, he and Frank McNulty formed a partnership at Sisseton for the practice of law. It sounds like fiction to say that inside of four years each of these two young attorneys found their way to the cir- cuit bench.
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