The name of Dinneen has long been a familiar one to the citizens of Beadle county, South Dakota, and as a representative of one of the worthy and honored families Maurice Dinneen is well known. He was born April 11, 1860, in Malone, New York, but during his early boyhood was brought by his parents to the middle west, the family home being established in Brown county, Minnesota. There he was reared and remained until he came with his father to Huron. Here he embarked immediately in the livery business, building barns and maintaining the business along the most strictly modern lines until he now owns one of the best equipped liveries either in this state or North Dakota. He has a fine funeral outfit, a bus line, a hack line, an ambulance and various kinds of vehicles for private use, keeping twenty-six head of horses. He has always lived an active life but has confined his attention chiefly to the livery business, which has brought him a substantial measure of success. Besides his fine barn he owns considerable city property in Huron.In 1891 Mr. Dinneen was united in marriage to Miss Ellen Lavery, of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and to them have been born two children: Josephine, who married Mart Kunie of Aberdeen and has one son, Maurice J.; and John, who is in the revenue office in Aberdeen. No history of Beadle county would be complete without extended references to the Dinneen family and a lengthy sketch of Michael J. Dinneen, father of Maurice, is given on another page of this volume. Like his father, Maurice Dinneen has even proved himself a public-spirited citizen and one ready to give active support to any project for the betterment of the community.
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Dinneen
The life record of Michael J. Dinneen spanned eighty-five years. It is an interesting history, for it presents a true and accurate picture of pioneer life in South Dakota, nor was he only associated with pioneer conditions. He remained a factor in the work of progress and development when pioneer times had passed by and he was ever respected and esteemed among his fellow townsmen as one who stood for progress and improvement in all the essential relations of life. He was born in the city of Fermony, County Cork, Ireland, December 11, 1833, a son of Dennis and Catherine (Calligan) Dinneen, who crossed the Atlantic with their family when their son Michael J. was but two years of age and settled in Franklin county, New York, where the father was extensively engaged in farming. In the Empire state Michael J. Dinneen was largely reared, continuing with his parents in Franklin county until he had attained his majority, when he went to Boston, Massachusetts. He continued his residence in the east until 1864 when he went to Minnesota and there followed farming until his removal to South Dakota.
Ere leaving the east Mr. Dinneen was married in Malone, New York, on the 11th of January, 1859, to Miss Catherine Fitzgerald, who still survives him. They became the parents of five sons, the three eldest of whom were born in Malone, New York, during the residence of their parents at that place. These are: Maurice, living in Huron; Frank, who was born August 25, 1861, and is now a resident of Andover, South Dakota; George F., who was born July 10, 1866, and is a priest of the order of the Society of Jesus in Chicago, where he is now a teacher in the College of St. Ignatius; Stephen D., who was born January 15, 1868, and makes his home in Huron; and Edmund B., who was born August 19, 1870, and is also living in Huron.
After residing with his family in Malone, New York, for a number of years Michael J. Dinneen came with his wife and children to the west, making their home in Brown county, Minnesota, from 1865 until their removal to Huron in 1880. On reaching Minnesota they settled eleven miles southwest of New Ulm, where the Indian outbreak had occurred, and he purchased four hundred acres of land from orphans whose parents had been killed by the savage red men. The family there experienced all of the hardships and dangers of prioneer life, but in the course of time developed a good farm, upon which they remained until their removal farther west.
In March, 1880, Michael J. Dinneen and his eldest son, Maurice, came from Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, where the family was then living, to this state. They traveled by rail to Volga, which was then the terminus of the railroad, and from that point drove to Huron. Looking about them, they filed on two tree claims and then returned home to put in the crops for the year. In May, 1880, they once more came to Huron, settling in the city, where Mr. Dinneen at once built a small hotel upon the present site of the Dakota House. He called his hostelry the Jim River House. As the country became more thickly settled and his patronage grew he added to the place until he had developed the present Dakota Hotel, which has since been in charge of some member of the family. For many years his hostelry was well known throughout the state and nearly every one who traveled in South Dakota in the early days will remember having been entertained at the hotel over which he presided as host He thus gained a large acquaintance not only in Huron but throughout the state and his death was widely mourned.
On coming to the west Mr. Dinneen brought with him a number of cattle and hogs and in the winter of 1881 these helped to keep many people from starvation, for it was the winter of the terrific blizzard and deep snow, when no trains reached this district for several months. It was a winter never to be forgotten by any one who lived in this section of the state. The snow kept falling for hours, piling up until in places it was as high as the housetops. Many deeds of bravery and courage were displayed at that time. Mr. Dinneen's son Frank was one of a party of men who started west on the railroad to shovel out the tracks, but again the snow fell and they were snowbound from Friday until Sunday. On the latter day the sun came out and another party of men started to rescue the former party. Mr. and Mrs. Dinneen remained up until two o'clock Monday morning in order ot have a hot meal ready for the rescued men, knowing how sorely they would need it after their long period of exposure to the cold and storm. It was during this same winter that Frank Dinneen took his team at a time when snow was piled in places as high as the house and drove to Mitchell to take a young man who was trying to recover the body of his brother who had been frozen to death, hoping to return the body to his old home for burial. Frank Dinneen successfully accomplished this self-imposed task of reaching Mitchell and brought back with his a load of flour, making the trip under most difficult conditions.
There was probably no family in this section who did more to assist others in pioneer times than did the Dinneen family. It was not an infrequent thing for Mrs. Dinneen to remain up most of the night preparing meals for the hungry. Having cows, she gave many a bowl of butter to the sick and for them prepared many a delicacy. On one occasion Judge Caldwell came to the hotel and told her he had heard she had fresh meat, Mr. Dinneen having brough twith him two hundred fat hogs, one of which was often killed to supply the table with meat. The judge said that he and his wife had had nothing to eat but beans boiled in water without salt for some months, so Mrs. Dinneen gave him a piece of pork and some salt and he always said that she kept him and his wife from starvation. This is only one of the many instances of her generosity and of the many good deeds done by herself and husband. At one time while taking a basket of food to a poor family of seven children, Mrs. Dinneen was nearly killed by a horse overturning the buggy in which she was riding. She can relate many very interesting facts concerning pioneer days of South Dakota and has endured with others all the hardships and privations of frontier life. They often had to melt ice in order to get water to drink, and at one time when the town ran out of fuel a committee allowed each family so many cedar ties to burn. She used the bones from hogs killed to make a fire for her baking. In 1882 she had to pledge her diamond in order that the family might have the necessities of life. She is a very intelligent women and has on several occasions given readings in Huron and also at Kimball Hall, Chicago, November 6, 1914. The hotel was used for a church for over three years. During the first year of the family's residence in Huron Michael Dinneen and his son hauled most of the lumber used for building from Volga. He afterward erected a number of houses which he sold and his activity in the real estate field brought him a good return.
For a long period Mr. Dinneen was a member of the city council of Huron and exercised his official prerogatives in support of many progressive public measures, doing everything in his power to promote the welfare of the community in which he lived. He died February 7, 1913, at a ripe old age, and is still survived by his widow, who was born about foty miles from Montreal, Canada, and is of English descent. Mr. Dinneen held membership in St. Martin's Catholic church and he belonged also to the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. The story of his life of activity and usefulness is well known in Huron and should serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement to many. He possessed personal courage and marked endurance and did not hesitate to sacrifice himself when he could further the interests of an individual or of the community at large. He lived to see remarkable changes as the work of settlement and development was carried forward, and as hotel proprietor and public-spirited citizen he bore an active and helpful part in the work of general progress.
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The following is the church building record of Mr. and Mrs. Dinneen on the frontiers of Minnesota and Sakota, written by Mrs. Dinneen.
Mr. M. J. Dinneen and family left home in York state forty-seven years ago last July. Came to New Ulm, Minnesota, in 1866. When we got to New Ulm, it was a German town. There was no American people. There was no bishop, no priest, no church. After we got to New Ulm, I began to inquire if there was a Catholic church here and some of the elderly people hushed me up and said: "Are you a Catholic?" I said, "we are Catholics." Why, they said, "you must not tell that here. There are no Catholics allowed here. This is Turner's society and they do not allow any Catholics among them." I said, "we will not deny being Catholics. And they said: "They will kill you." But we claimed our rights to the Catholic church and they did not kill us.
In two years afterward, we were helping to build a church in New Ulm. We went out twelve miles southwest from New Ulm and bought a large tract of land and opened a wheat farm. The big Cottonwood river ran through the farm. On the flat grew very fine oak timber. Above on the river, there were a couple of men who started a little steam sawmill. Men came from New Ulm and cut the oak; hauled it to the sawmill; had it sawed and the joists in that churhc, and in the convent school, were made of that oak timber. The church was built and finished; and the convent school was built and finished.
In five years after, 1871, the citizens in that country planned to build a Catholic church at Sleepy Eye, only three miles from our wheat farm, and we had to turn in and help to build that church. Maurice Dinneen was a little boy, but he helped haul the brick twelve miles with a double team. When his father could not go with him, his mother went. We got where the church was building as late as twelve o'clock nights and unloaded our load of bricks with no light but the shining stars from Heaven. We finished that church and Bishop Ireland consecrated it and confirmed a big class of children, Maurice and Frank Dinneen being the two largest boys in the class.
In five years after that church was finished (1876) the people fourteen miles south of Sleepy Eye, in a little town called Leavenworth, undertook to build a church and we were claimed for that parish. Mr. Dinneen was one of the head leaders to help and work and build on all those three churches.
In the year 1880, we made up our minds if we stayed on our wheat farm, we could never educate our children. The road coming through this western country, we came to Huron. When we got to Huron, there was a dot of a shanty here and there. There was no bishop, no priest, no church and did not look as though there ever would be. We bought the Dakota House corner and hastened to build. It was in the summer of '81 that we got here. In the summer of '83 we had our house in running order.
Father Haire came along one day carrying his church and chapel on his shoulder. He introduced himself as a Catholic priest. We turned over to him the use of our house. He used our house as a church for about three years or more. In '85 we undertook to buy lots where our church now stands. Mr. T. J. Nichols, the superintendent of the road, presented the church with one lot and the other two we had to buy. In '82 in the month of June, Father Haire celebratee mass on Sunday at the Dakota House. About two o'clock in the afternoon a double wagon drove up to the house. Mr. Dinneen went out to the man that was driving. He says: "I am looking for a Catholic priest, my wife is dying." Mr. Dinneen asked him where he lived. He said about twenty-five miles southwest. Mr. Dinneen hastily picked up his satchel with his chapel in it and went along with the man. They arrived at the man's house along towards evening. He found his home a little sod shanty. He hastened in and found the woman that was dying. He immediately prepared her for death and stayed with them till along in the night and the woman departed from this life. After death had occurred, Father Haire took his satchel, laid it down in the corner and lay down on the bare floor to rest a little. At daylight in the morning, he got up, established an altar and said mass for that poor departed soul.
After he celebrated mass, he said to the man, "I want to get back to Huron as quick as I can." The main said: "I can not take you back to Huron. You will have to get back where the best way you can." Father Haire took his satchel and started on foot for Huron. When he had gone quite a ways a man overtook him in a little single wagon. Father Haire asked him for a ride. He said, "Father Haire, where are you going?" "I am going to Huron." Well, "you can ride as far as I go that way." When they got to the road where the man turned to another direction, Father Haire got out and started on his way afoot. He had walked quite a ways when a man overtook him with a double team and a lumber wagon. Father Haire asked him for a ride. He asked Father Haire, "Where are you going?" "I am going to Huron." The man said: "I am going to Huron. You get in and ride." Father Haire said: "Will you drive me to the Dakota House?"
Mrs. Dinneen happened to be in the office when the wagon drove up. She said to Mr. Dinneen: "There is Father Haire in that wagon, go out and hlpe him out." Mr. Dinneen went out and took his satchel. The priest came in. I met him in the office. I said "Father Haire, you look very fatigued." He said: "Yes, I am very tired and weak. Get me a cup of hot milk." I seated him at a table in the dining room. I said, when I served the cup of hot milk, "Father Haire we will have dinner ready very soon." It was then nearly two o'clock. He says: "I can't eat anything. I have had nothing to eat since I left here yesterday and I have to be careful now and not eat too much." I got him a cup of coffee and that is all he would take.
George C. Fullinweider
During the entire period of his active life George C. Fullinweider has been
connected with the banking business and in this field has risen to a place
of prominence and importance, being today connected through official service
with some of the leading banks of South Dakota. Since 1897 he has been
identified with financial interests of Huron as an officer in the National
Bank of Huron, an institution of which he is now president. Mr. Fullinweider
understands the banking business in principle and detail and has beilt an
unusual degree of success upon experience and knowledge. He was born in
Crawford county, Indiana, November 11, 1872, and is a son of Clay and Amina
Fullinweider, the former of whom passed away in 1872. In the following year
the mother removed to Decorah, Iowa.
George C. Fullinweider was reared in Iowa and supplemented a public-school
education by a course in Breckenridge Institute. After he laid aside his
textbooks he secured a position as bookkeeper in a bank at Estherville and
was retained in this connection for seven years, after which he removed to
Huron, South Dakota, where he has since resided. He has been connected with
the National Bank of Huron for many years, serving in an efficient and
capable manner as cashier for some time. Since January, 1911, he has been
president of the institution and is recognized in financial circles as a man
of executive ability, energy and power. The other officers are as follows:
W. N. Farmer, vice president; H. C. Shober, vice president; and Camen
Rayburn, cashier. The board of directors is composed of these officers and
of the following additional members: B. E. Beach, A. A. Chamberlain, Neil
McKay and F. R. Brumwell. The National Bank of Huron has a capital stock of
fifty thousand dollars and the surplus and undivided profits amount to about
fifteen thousand dollars. This institution was made a national bank in 1907,
succeeding the Standard Savings Bank, a state instituion, which was
organized in 1896, following the discontinuance of the National Bank of
Dakota. This in turn had been an outgrowth of the Traders Bank, a private
institution. All of these banks have occupied the same builing, at the
corner of Dakota and Second streets, in Huron, and Mr. Fullinweider was
connected with the Standard Savings Bank as cashier and vice president. The
National Bank of Huron is conducted along modern lines and its policy of
progressiveness is tempered by a safe conservatism, which has made it one of
the solid and substantial moneyed institutions of the state. Mr.
Fullinweider gives a great deal of his time to the affairs of this bank but
his connection with it does not form by any means his only business
affiliation, for his interests have extended over a wide territory and he is
now well known in banking circles of the state. He was the organizer and is
now vice president of the First National Bank at Miller and is president of
the Hitchcock State Bank, another institution which he founded. The First
State Bank of Cavour also owes its foundation to his initiative and
enterprise and he has been president of that institution since it was
established.
In 1894 Mr. Fullinweider married Miss Ruth Ballard, of Estherville, Iowa,
and both are well known in social circles of Huron. Mr. Fullinweider is a
member of the Masonic blue lodge, chapter and commandery and belongs to the
Modern Woodmen of America, the Elks and the Knights of Pythias. He is a
member of the Presbyterian church and gives his political allegiance to the
republican party. For many years he has taken a prominent and active part in
public affairs, serving in various positions of public trust and
responsibility, acceptably filling the offices of alderman, school treasurer
and city treasurer. All who had have business, official or social relations
with him accord him their unqualified respect and esteem, while in financial
circles he occupies a position of precedence, won through many years of
capable and intelligent effort along this line.
"History of Dakota Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, 1915
CALVIN H. FRENCH
AN EDUCATIONAL FINANCIER
CALVIN H. FRENCH
Dr. Cavlin H. French, president of Huron College, was walking down the streets of Cincinnati, when he met a wealthy friend to whom he imparted his plan to raise an endowment of $250,000 for the Huron school. In a satirical manner, as if to poke fun at the undertaking, the fellow interpolated: "Why dont' you make it a half million?"
"I believe I will!" responded the doughty president, and from that very moment the big financial fight to raise $500,000 for Huron College was on.
ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS
After all is said and done, there are, from a common-sense, practical standpoint, only three primal elements to success in life —selection, preparation, determination. The latter will overcome a mistake made in either or both of the first two. It brought victory to the venture of Columbus, crowned Washington's efforts with success, triumphed at Appomattox, and made Bob LaFollette governor of Wisconsin. It gave to Calvin H. French of Huron, an unprecedented victory in college financing. Two years! Think of it! Two long years away from home. Two years of incessant struggle. Not one brief effort like Jacob wrestling all night with an angel at Jabbock's Ford, but 730 days and 730 nights of relentless struggle. Determination? What else? College presidents all over the country told him it couldn't be done. Preachers and philanthropists advised against it. Calvin H. French, alone, had faith in the task, faith in himself, faith in his fellowman, faith in God. It was undertaken. It was done. And today Huron College has been placed upon a Gibraltar basis, financially, where the storms of adversity, arising from short crops and political disturbances of the money market, will die into oblivion as they beat against the threshold of her buttress.
THE CLOSING SCENES
On the morning of the last day, this telegram was received from Dr. French, who was at that time in New York City, making the greatest effort of his life to raise money:
"New pledge of Fifteen Thousand, on condition Huron guarantees the last Ten Thousand."
Now, Huron had already given beyond her ability. But, $475,000 had been pledged on condition that the total amount, $500,000, should be subscribed before midnight, November 11, 1911. Thus $150,000 was now depending upon another home pledge of $10,000. Yes, more than that! $475,000 plus $15,000; total, $490,000, was hanging on that last $10,000, to be subscribed by Huron.
"Will they do it!? Dare they do it? Oh! God grant they won't refuse!"
Thus the words of the poet, put into the mouths of the patriots in Liberty Hall, in good old Philadelphia on the morning of July 4, 1776, were suddenly revived by the students and faculty of Huron College. It was a challenge to heroic endeavor, to self-sacrifice, to build beyond the grave.
It was about nine o'clock p. m. November 11, last President Abel of the board of directors of Huron College, who had given lavishly of his own hard-earned funds, and who had struggled all day in personal interviews with the citizens of Huron to rise to the occasion and make the best investment that had ever confronted them, had gone out to the college to await news from Dr. French. The latter's faithful secretary, John I Pasek, a product of Ward Academy, was standing with one hand on the telephone receiver which had not as yet been lifted from the hook, debating with President Abel about the wording of a telegram to be sent to Dr. French, when, at that very moment, the phone, as if inspired, gave a sharp ring.
Jerking down the receiver, slamming it tightly against his ear, Mr. Pasek, while an anxious crowd rushed forward to hear, shouted into the mouth-piece:
"Hello!"
''I've a telegram for you," said the operator at the Western Union.
"Repeat it! Quickly!" demanded Pasek.
"We win! French."
Huron College was organized and established in 1883, at Pierre, S. D., with Rev. Thomas M. Finley as president. Two years later, Rev. William M. Blackburn D. D. LL. D., succeeded to the presidency. The "dry time" in Dakota came on. After struggling for thirteen years against the adverse tide of conditions, he resigned in 1898, and Dr. Calvin H. French, a local preacher at Scotland, this state, and who had made an enviable record as president of the old Scotland Academy, was chosen as his successor.
The Spanish-American war was in progress. Times were just beginning to "limber up." The vast gold fields of Alaska had begun to give forth their rich ores. Money was becoming more plentiful. Weather conditions changed. Bountiful crops began to yield their rich treasures. The citizens of Huron, through private subscription, bought for $5,000 the old Royal hotel at that place, which originally cost $50,000, and made a present of it to the school. It was the awakening. French was the man of the hour.
CONTRIBUTIONS
Four years later, the Chicago and Northwestern railway company gave to the school four beatuiful blocks of ground near the heart of the city of Huron on which to erect their future buildings. In 1904, Ralph Voorhees of Chicago, gave them $15,000 for a girls' dormitory. The faithful women of Huron raised $5,000 more to be added to it. This made $10,000 that Huron had already invested in the enterprise, let alone her liberal contributions toward the running expenses. Other contributions were made by distant friends. The year closed with $27,900 pledged.
In 1905, Mr. Voorhees offered conditionally to give $10,000 toward a central building. French said: "We'll take it!" The building was completed two years later, at a total cost of $122,000. It is as yet the finest school building in the state. There was an old indebtedness of $15,000. Mrs. Voorhees gave it. Noble people! One building was named for her, the other after her philanthropic husband.
THE ENDOWMENT FUND
Dr. D. K. Pearsons, of Chicago, gave the school $15,000 in July, 1908, as the first contribution toward an endowment fund. Jim Hill, the raliroad magnate, followed it with $50,000. At midnight, November 11, 1911, Dr. French, through his own tireless efforts, and at the sacrifice of numerous friends, brought it up to the high water mark of South Dakota educational endowments, $506,129. Hats off to his grit!
THE LOCATION
There are in South Dakota seven state educational institutions. As a result of some disgraceful political operations, they were split up and every single one of them, with but one exeception—the Madison Normal—were placed in border counties; that is, the outside tier of counties around the edge of the state. So, also, were all of the charitable institutions, save one, similarly located. The next generation will ask, with appropriate curiosity, "Why didn't they finish the job and connect them all with a high wall?"
This error in judgment gave to the denominational schools of the state the very opportunity they desired. The rich James River Valley, extending across the east central portion of the state, from north to south lay open before them. The Congregationalists put in an academy at Redfield and a college at Yankton. The Methodists, with equal foresight, slipped their university into the city of Mitchell. The Free Methodists sought out Wessington Springs. Then the Presbyterians, taking creditable advantage of the situation, closed their academy at Scotland and their so-called university at Pierre, put the two together and established them as one institution on the bank of the Jim, in the beautiful city of Huron, which lies geographically, in the center of the old river's fertile valley.
Today, the beautiful college campus at Huron; the magnificent, imposing bulidings thereon, and the large endowment fund -representing a total valuation of $771,120—the increase in the faculty from a membership of seven to twenty-five, and in the enrollment, from 136 to 488, all combine to attest the wisdom of the last maneuvers in location, and, as well, the judgment displayed in the selection of a president.
PERSONAL
He, whose worthy deeds are feebly extolled in this article, was born in Williamsburg, Ohio, June 13, 1862. Attaining his Bachelor of Arts at Lake Forest University in 1888, he was, three years later, honored with his Master's degree, by the same institution. In 1891 he graduated from the Union Theological Seminary of New York, and was ordained by the Presbytery of South Dakota the same year, and installed at once as pastor of the Scotland church. This position he occupied until 1898. However, during 1897-8, he was also principal of Scotland Academy. In 1900, Wooster University honored him with his Doctor of Divinity. July 28, 1897, he was united in marriage at College Springs, Iowa, to Miss Anna Long, of that city. This brave little Christian woman has been his fortress as well as his advance guard ever since, and much of his success has been due to her unwserving devotion.
Transferred to Huron, in 1898, as previously set forth, this determined, plucky youth from the east, showed himself to be no tenderfoot in the race of life. Upon his return from New York, after his successful endowment campaign, the citizens of Huron turned out en masse and gave him a banquet long to be remembered. One of the unique and worthy features of the occasion, was the rendition of the following hymn of welcome, in his honor, composed by H. Foster Jones:
TO PRESIDENT C. H. FRENCH
|
Strong Man of God, whose tireless hands |
History of Dakota Territory, George W. Kingsbury, Vol. 4, 1915
HON. CHARLES HENRY BURKE.
Hon. Charles Henry Burke, who as a member of the fifty-sixth, fifty-seventh,
fifty-eighth, fifty-ninth, sixty-first, sixty-second and sixty-third congresses
represented South Dakota in the national house of representatives for fourteen
years, makes his home in Pierre, where he will later engage in active business.
The Burke family of which he is a representative is of Norman origin and with
the Butlers and Fitzgeralds is ranked with the most distinguished of the Norman
Irish. The ancestor of the Irish Burkes was William Fitz-Aldelm-de-Burgo, who
accompanied King Henry to Ireland as his steward in 1171 A. D. The family was
related by the ties of blood to that of William the Conqueror. Two of them,
Robert de Burgo and his brother William, were with the Norman conqueror at the
invasion of England, and the former was afterward created Earl of Cornwall. In
the reign of King John the Burkes obtained large possessions in Connaught
through rivalry and quarrels with the O'Connors. Becoming powerful, they
subsequently renounced their allegiance to the kings of England and adopted the
Irish language, dress and customs and compelled all other families of Norman
origin in Connaught to do likewise. Two of them became Irish chiefs and settled
in what is now embraced in the present County Mayo. Other branches settled in
Limerick, Clare and Tipperary. Many members of the family attained distinction
in military achievements, while others won fame along literary lines. Edmund
Burke, "one of the greatest sons of men" was of this family. John Burke, the
celebrated genealogist who established "Burke's Peerage," was also of this
family. Thomas Burke, of Revolutionary war fame as a writer and patriot, was a
native of Galway, Ireland, and became governor of North Carolina. Robert O'Hara
Burke, the celebrated Australian explorer, was a native of Galway and also of
this family. Joseph Burke, an uncle of Charles Henry Burke, acquired renown both
in Europe and America as an actor and violinist and almost in his infancy was a
histrionic and musical prodigy. He played in Great Britain and the United States
before immense audiences, his ability being accounted the most astounding
instance of precocious talent the musical world has ever known. Constant study
and practice continually developed his talent and his standing as an artist is
indicated in the fact that he was chosen to accompany Jenny Lind on her tour of
the United States in 1850 in the role of violinist. He afterward became her
treasurer and private secretary as well as her musical director. He was born in
Galway, Ireland, in 1817, and died in Batavia, New York, in 1902.
Dr. Miles Burke, the grandfather of Charles H. Burke and a native of Galway,
Ireland, was a physician and surgeon of wide repute who was graduated from a
famous school of surgery of London, England, in 1809 and afterward practiced in
Ireland for a number of years. He emigrated to America in
1830, taking up his abode in New York city, where he resided for a number of
years. Subsequently he removed to Troy, New York, and finally to Canada, near
Niagara Falls, where his demise occurred in 1845.
Walter Burke, his son and the father of Charles H. Burke, was also a native of
County Galway, born November 10, 1820. He came to America in 1830 with his
father. Following the death of his father he located, in 1846, in Genesee
county, New York, purchasing and settling upon Summerville Farm, where he
continued to live and carry on agricultural pursuits the remainder of his life,
passing away in 1911 at the venerable age of ninety-one years. He was married in
1856 to Miss Sarah T. Beckwith, who was born in Connecticut, October 17, 1828.
While Mr. Burke is a representative of an old and noted Irish family on the
paternal side, his ancestral record in the maternal line is traced back through
the history of one of the prominent old New England families. The maternal
grandfather of Mrs. Burke was Nathan Tinker, a Revolutionary soldier and
pensioner, and her father, Josiah Beckwith, was a soldier in the War of 1812.
Mrs. Burke, the mother of Charles H. Burke, was a school teacher in her younger
days, being a lady of liberal education and wide culture. She died in 1907. Mr.
and Mrs. Walter Burke became the parents of five children who lived to maturity,
as follows: Catherine Elizabeth, who is the wife of C. J. Harris, of Genesee
county, New York; Joseph W., residing on Summerville Farm, the old homestead in
Genesee county, New York; Charles Henry, of this review; Lulu J., who is the
wife of John G. Torrance, of Batavia, New York; and Grace, a resident of
Batavia, New York.
Charles Henry Burke was born on Summerville Farm April 1, 1861, and there his
boyhood days were passed, his early education being acquired in the rural
schools of the neighborhood. At one period in his life he drove five miles to
and from school each day while doing the ordinary farm chores morning and
evening. During the summer seasons he worked as other farm boys usually do,
assisting more and more largely in the labors of the fields as his years
increased until he was making a full "hand" upon the place. When he was still in
his teens he secured a teacher's certificate and taught for four months in the
year, covering the winter season, while the remainder of his time was devoted to
active farm work. Immediately after attaining his majority, on the 6th of May,
1882, he started for the west with capital only sufficient to take him to his
destination—Moorhead, Minnesota. There he secured employment at the carpenter's
trade in the midst of a building boom. He faced life with courage and
determination and each day saw him farther advanced because of the good use he
made of his time and opportunities and the lessons which he learned from
experience. In the summer of the same year he joined a former New York friend of
about his own age in a mercantile venture at Broadland, Beadle county, South
Dakota, and at the same time home-steaded. After a year he removed to Blunt,
Hughes county, and in 1887 he became a resident of Pierre, where he has since
made his home. When he took up his abode at Blunt in the spring of 1883 he
entered into partnership with Caldwell & Smith, of Huron, in the land and
real-estate business, and while negotiating property transfers he devoted the
hours which art usually termed leisure to the study of law and was admitted to
the bar in 1886. He then entered upon active practice, which he followed in
connection with the conduct of his real-estate business at Blunt until
September, 1887, when he removed to Pierre and entered the employ of the
Security Mortgage & Investment Company, in which connection advancement brought
him to the position of manager. He continued in that capacity until he closed up
the company's business and subsequently he became a member of the law firm of
Burke & Goodner of Pierre, which connection was dissolved when Mr. Burke was
elected to congress.
Previous to his congressional experience, however, he took an active part in
local and state affairs. In 1890 he was secretary of the Pierre capital
committee, in which capacity he devoted eight months almost exclusively to
campaign work, his labors proving most effective and winning him high
appreciation. From the beginning of his public service he has been very
forceful in political circles and in 1894 was elected on the republican ticket
to the state legislature, in which he served for two terms. His ability as a
lawmaker was quickly recognized, for his course showed that he readily grasped
the various phases of the different questions which came up for settlement and
that in all of his legislative work he was actuated by a desire to further the
public good.
Accordingly in 1898, appreciative of his worth in the general assembly, Mr.
Burke was nominated by the republicans as a candidate for one of two congressmen
at large and elected in November of the same year. During his first term in
congress his course met the highest expectations of his constituents so well
that in the three succeeding nominating conventions, in 1900, 1902 and 1904, he
was nominated by acclamation and elected in each succeeding election. In 1906 he
was defeated in convention but was again nominated in June, 1908, in a statewide
primary and elected to the sixty-first congress, and reelected to the
sixty-second and sixty-third congresses. Mr. Burke's congressional career is one
which reflects honor and credit upon the state which honored him, his service
being most useful to his district, to his commonwealth and to the nation. During
the sixty-first congress he was chairman of the important committee on Indian
affairs, succeeding Vice President Sherman in that capacity, and during the
sixty-second and sixty-third congresses he was the ranking minority member of
that committee. He was also a member of the committee on interstate and foreign
commerce in the fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth congresses, which committee had
charge of the famous Hepburn rate bill. During the sixty-third congress he was
the "republican whip," an indication of his standing among his colleagues.
During the sixty-first congress he was chairman of the special committee that
investigated the Gore charges in Oklahoma and he was a member during the
sixty-third congress of the joint Indian commission from the house and senate,
of which Senator Robinson was chairman, this commission having full
investigating powers on all general Indian affairs. At the same time he was a
member of the special commission to investigate and report on the Yakima Indian
reservation irrigation project of Washington and the New Mexico Indian
tubercular sanitarium, of which subject the commission made an exhaustive study
and reported fully to congress. In 1913 Mr. Burke announced his retirement to
private life, owing to three severe surgical operations which he had undergone.
In January, 1914, in spite of Mr. Burke's firm opposition and without his
sanction, his friends proposed him as a republican nominee for United States
senatorial honors as the opponent of Senator Crawford, a representative of
another faction of the republican party. Mr. Burke was nominated over Crawford
in the primaries, carrying forty-one of the sixty-one counties, but was defeated
at the general election of November, 1914, by the democratic candidate, Ed S.
Johnson of Yankton.
On the 14th of January, 1886, Mr. Burke was united in marriage to Miss Caroline
Schlosser, a native of Lodi, Wisconsin, by whom he has four children, as
follows: Grace, who is the wife of Milton P. Goodner, of Seattle, Washington;
Elizabeth, at home; Walter H., a resident of Chicago; and Josephine L., who was
born in Washington, D. C, and is also at home.
Mr. Burke is now living retired temporarily save for the supervision which he
gives to his personal property interests and investments. He is a director of
the Pierre National Bank but otherwise is not before the public in any business
connection. During territorial days he was a member of the militia of South
Dakota. Fraternally he is identified with the following organizations: Pierre
Lodge, No. 27, A. F. & A. M.; Pierre Chapter, No. 22, R. A. M.; Pierre
Commandery, No. 21, K. T.; the Ancient Order of United Workmen; and the
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. The religious faith of Mr. Burke is that of
the Episcopal church. He holds membership in Trinity church at Pierre, in which
he is serving as vestryman and treasurer. He is most popular among his fellow
townsmen and the sterling traits of his character are indicated by the fact that
he is most highly esteemed where best known.
It would be an incomplete and unsatisfactory record of Charles H. Burke if there
was no mention made of the opinions which have been expressed concerning him by
his colleagues in public life, for it has been through his congressional service
that he has become best known to the country. When it was known that he would
retire from congress, in March, 1907, Hon. William P. Hepburn of Iowa, chairman
of the committee on interstate and foreign commerce, appointed from that
committee a committee which made the following report: "That the committee on
interstate and foreign commerce, upon which the Honorable Charles H. Burke has
served for two congresses, hereby express its sincere regrets that our colleague
will no longer be a member of the house after March 4th next, and that his
membership on this committee will end. It is the unanimous opinion of this
committee, made known in regular committee meeting, at which every member was
present, that by the retirement of Mr. Burke from the house this committee loses
an able and most efficient and faithful representative, one who at all times has
devoted his time, ability and attention to the public business, and by his
courtesy, kindness, and gentlemanly bearing, has endeared himself to all who
knew him, but more particularly to the members of this committee." On the same
occasion Mr. Hepburn said: "Your comrades on the committee are not willing that
this connection should be terminated without many an expression as to their
regrets, and they have deputed me to strive to express to you, in part, their
feelings. You have been a member of the committee for many years.
Your industry, your punctuality, the interest you have always shown when on the
duties with which it has been charged, and the high order of ability you have
brought to bear upon all questions it has considered, have marked you as one of
its most valued members. These qualities could not have been exhibited as they
have without doing something more than winning our respect. They call for our
admiration, in largest measure our confidence. As a slight mark of our high
appreciation of your personal and valued qualities, the committee have procured
this service which I am directed to present to you as coming from all the
members. It is an expression of affection and admiration for your splendid
virtues of courage, fortitude, intelligence, and gentleness, which are marked
essentials in your character, and in part the qualities that make us love you.
In this parting our regrets are very many and lasting, but wherever you go you
may be assured that you carry with you our best and kindliest wishes for your
well-being—that the future may have in store for you only the choicest of
blessings."
James R. Mann, in his characteristic and vigorous way, spoke of Mr. Burke as
follows: "We know him to be great. He has made good on this committee, he has
made good as a public servant. Men come and go in public life; they appear and
disappear from the halls of congress. The world goes on much the same, but I
venture to believe that few men have made so great an impression in the present
house of representatives during his term of service as has Charles H. Burke. He
has established himself in the absolute confidence of this committee, which, in
my opinion, is the greatest committee in the house. Our committee deals with
more subjects covering a greater variety in interests than any other committee
of congress. It takes hard work and long experience to become of the greatest
value in this committee. By his assiduous devotion to his public work, by his
conscientious efforts to study the work coming before our committee, Mr. Burke
has made himself so valuable to us that we who remain will miss him more than we
can tell."
"I have had peculiar opportunity to learn of Congressman Burke's personal
qualities," said Congressman Esch of Wisconsin. "I have been impressed with his
industry, his good judgment, his attention to duty and his high ideals." With
genuine warmth, Congressman Townsend, of Michigan, spoke in part as follows: "I
have learned to respect and admire Mr. Burke for his modest, earnest and
effectual work on this committee. He is differently constituted from myself, and
I have profited by his example. I have known him outside of this committee room.
It is said that one must 'summer and winter with a man' in order to know him
well. Since I came to Washington I have lived at the same hotel with our
colleague and in his modest, unassuming manner there, the same as here, he won
his way into the hearts of all. I trust and believe that the same qualities of
heart and head which have made his congressional life so great a success, will
enable him to render even greater service to his state and this during what I
hope will be the many years to come."
One of Mr. Burke's democratic colleagues in congress, Mr. Adamson of Georgia,
said: "In my association with Charles H. Burke here as man, member of committee
and congressman, I have admired in him the highest merit, exercised with the
most beautiful modesty. Patient, industrious and wise, polite and considerate of
his opponents, vigilant with adversaries, he stands a splendid example of a
great, useful congressman. His sincere and genial disposition, constantly doing
kindnesses, make all love him. He gives the most complete. exhibition of
generous unselfishness I have ever observed in the conduct of any man. He never
loses his temper. He uses intellect in transacting business. He analyzes the
issue with his mind and is convinced by his reason. He will rank with the
greatest and with the best and brightest who have served mankind in these
halls."
At the conclusion of the consideration of the Indian appropriation bill in the
house of representatives on January 9, 1915 (See Cong. Rec, p. 1364), the
chairman of the committee, Mr. Stephens, yielded to the republican leader, Mr.
Mann of Illinois, who said:
"Mr. Speaker, I think it is quite appropriate for me to say a word, under the
circumstances, conveying at least the best wishes of the House to those members
of the Committee on Indian Affairs who will not be with us in the next House.
"There are eight of them who go off the committee. On this side of the House two
of the oldest members in point of service upon the committee will retire. Two of
the ablest Members on this side of the House will go out of the House and off
the Committee on Indian Affairs. The gentleman from South Dakota (MR. BURKE) has
shown that he is one of the most capable men who ever sat in this Hall and one
of the men who had the most intimate knowledge of the intricacies of Indian
affairs. While we on this side of the House had hoped still to have his services
in another body, we sincerely regret that we are to part with his services. Mr.
Burke, in my opinion, has at different times, both as chairman and as member of
the Committee on Indian Affairs, saved to this Government and to the Indians
many millions of dollars, and we could well have afforded, so far as money
considerations are concerned, to have paid him a pension for life in order that
he might give us his knowledge and his sound judgment of Indian affairs.
"I say the same kind words to the gentleman from Oklahoma (MR. McGUIRE), and I
extend the best wishes of this side of the House to the Members on the other
side of the House who are going off this great Committee on Indian Affairs,
where more service is rendered that is not of a personal interest to Members,
probably, than on any other committee of the House" (APPLAUSE.)
History of Dakota Territory, George W. Kingsbury, Vol. 4, 1915
FRANK L. VAN TASSEL.
Between the ages of nine and eleven years—boy that he was—Frank L. Van Tassel
was teaching writing and in that way partially earned the money that paid for
his later education. Today he stands as one of the foremost business men in the
state of South Dakota. He has made his home since 1868 in Yankton, where he is
secretary and manager of the Excelsior Mill Company, president of the First
National Bank of Yankton and a partner in the ownership and control of many
other important business enterprises which have been chief factors in the growth
and development of city and state.
Mr. Van Tassel was born in Conneautville, Crawford county, Pennsylvania, January
29, 1851. His father, E. B. Van Tassel, was a practicing attorney, very
prominent in the locality in which he made his home. He was born in Mayfield,
Chautauqua county, New York, and was a representative of an old American family.
He wedded Rachel Litchfield, who was born in Massachusetts and belonged to one
of the old and prominent New England families. Both are now deceased. Their son,
Frank L. Van Tassel, was the third in order of birth in a family of ten
children, of whom six are yet living, namely: Mrs. Anna Adella Brown, the widow
of Dr. W. H. H. Brown, who was a dentist of Los Angeles, California; Mina, the
wife of Dr. Alva Johnston, of Meadville, Pennsylvania; William, a resident of
Prescott, Arizona; Harry, who makes his home at Moosejaw, Saskatchewan; and
Nettie, the wife of James Van Summers, of Bath, England.
Frank L. Van Tassel, who is the oldest of the surviving members of the family,
was reared in his native town and when a very young lad took writing lessons of
Spencer, the originator of the Spencerian system. This was during the period of
the Civil war. So proficient did he become that between the ages of nine and
eleven years he taught the Spencerian system of penmanship and, saving his
money, was thus enabled to attend the Meadville Commercial College at Meadville,
Pennsylvania, for about a year. His fame as a writer had spread and he soon
received a call from Hummiston's (Cleveland) Institute at Cleveland, Ohio, where
he was to teach writing in exchange for tuition, board, clothing, etc. He there
remained from 1866 until June, 1868, when the school was sold and Mr. Van Tassel
then came to the territory of Dakota, where his uncle, Laban H. Litchfield, was
filling the position of United States marshal. He made his way direct to
Yankton, arriving on the 26th of June, and soon found employment as a bookkeeper
in the pioneer general merchandise store owned by the firm of Bramble & Miner.
He applied himself earnestly to the mastery of the business and proved so
efficient and capable as a salesman, that he was admitted to a partnership in
1876, remaining active in the management and control of the store until the firm
passed out of existence in 1883, owing to the cessation of river traffic.
In the meantime Mr. Van Tassel had become interested in other enterprises. In
1872, in connection with William Bordens, the firm of Bramble & Miner built the
Excelsior Mill and in 1875 Mr. Van Tassel was made secretary of the company, at
which time the business was incorporated. This mill from its inception has done
a splendid business and has been enlarged from time to time to meet the growing
demands of the trade, becoming one of the foremost productive industries of the
state. Mr. Van Tassel has been identified with the business since 1872 and
throughout the entire period to the present time has bent his energies largely
to the further development and upbuilding of the trade. He is now a heavy
stockholder in the company, of which he is secretary and general manager, and in
these connections he bends his energies to administrative direction and
executive control. The capacity of the mill is one hundred and seventy-five
barrels per day, and he was one of the pioneers in advertising and introducing
its products, making this a means of outfitting concerns for the Black Hills
country. His recognition of opportunities, his unfaltering energy, his
unflagging determination and his reliable business methods have been the salient
features in the upbuilding of a most extensive and successful milling
enterprise.
Not alone, however, has his attention been confined to this line, for other
interests have felt the stimulus of his activity, have profited by his insight
and benefited by his control. He has been a director of the First National Bank
of Yankton for many years and in 1907 was elected to its presidency, so that he
now has important voice in its management. In the spring of 1873 he was made the
first agent of the first railroad in South Dakota—the Dakota Southern—serving in
that capacity for a short period. In 1906 he became a director in the
Schwenk-Barth Brewing Company of Yankton, and he is secretary of the Yankton
Telephone Company, being the promoter of the first company that built lines into
Sioux Falls, Pierre, Mitchell, Huron, Watertown and Yankton. Eventually he sold
out the business at a great profit to himself and his associates. In 1904 he and
his associates organized the present Yankton Telephone Company. He was also a
director in the first artesian well company in the state, and indeed has been a
pioneer and promoter in many lines of activity which have led to the present
development, growth and prosperity of South Dakota.
Not alone along individual lines has Mr. Van Tassel put forth his efforts, for his labors have been a salient feature in advancing the welfare of the state in directions from which he has derived no individual profit. For example, he was a member of the board of trustees of the State Hospital for the Insane at Yankton, serving under Governors Pierce and Church. In politics he has always been a democrat, but his interest is merely that of a progressive citizen and not of one who seeks office.
On the 19th of October, 1875, Mr. Van Tassel was united in marriage to Mrs.
Sarah Bordens, of Yankton, and they have one daughter, Frances, the wife of B.
F. Dudley, of Yankton. Mr. Van Tassel and his family occupy a prominent social
position and he ranks high in Masotiry, belonging to St. John's Lodge, No. 1, F.
& A. M.; Yankton Chapter, No. 1, R. A. M., of which he is a past high priest; De
Molay Commandery, No. 3, K. T., of which he is a past eminent commander; and
Oriental Consistory, No. 1, A. A. S. R., of which he is the present master af
Kadosh. He is likewise a member of El Riad Temple of the Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine at Sioux Falls, and he belongs to the Elks Lodge, No. 994. He is
temperate in all things and there is an even balance in his life which has been
one of the strong features in his success. He is conservative, yet not to the
point of blocking progress, and attention to business has been one of the strong
features in his advancement. He has always been willing to assist young men to
get a start in life and has done real philanthropic work along that line. His
efforts have been an element in the growth of city, county and state, his
influence has been far-reaching and beneficial, and the worth of his example is
widely recognized, for it indicates what may be accomplished when determination
and laudable ambition lead the way.
History of Dakota Territory, George W. Kingsbury, Vol. 4, 1915
CLARK B. ALFORD, M. D.
In April, 1907, Dr. Clark B. Alford retired from the practice of medicine after
having been continuously connected with professional interests of Huron since
1886, winning prominence and distinction in this field. He is now in the second
term of his able service as surveyor general of South Dakota. He was born near
Plattsburg, New York, May 7, 1839, a son of Reuel and Sylvia (Chase) Alford. He
acquired his early education in the schools of Beckmantown and Plattsburg and
when he was nearly eighteen years of age removed to Illinois. He studied
medicine in the Louisville Medical College and after receiving his degree turned
his attention to practice. In 1886 he came to South Dakota and located at Huron,
where he has since resided. He soon built up a large and lucrative practice and
became known as one of the leading physicians in the city and state, for he
possesses a comprehensive and exact knowledge of the underlying principles of
medicine, was capable and conscientious in the diagnosis of his cases and ever
watchful over the interests of his patients. In 1907 Dr. Alford retired from the
practice of medicine and on the 1st of January, 1908, by appointment by
President Roosevelt assumed the duties of United States surveyor general for the
district of South Dakota. He has since served in that capacity under
reappointment by President Taft and has proven capable and efficient in the
discharge of his responsible duties.
On the 14th of March, 1886, Dr. Alford was united in marriage to Miss Lucinda
Carroll, of Morris, Illinois, and they have two sons. The Doctor is a member of
the Methodist church and is connected with the Masonic fraternity, of which he
has been a member for the past forty-eight years, belonging to the blue lodge,
chapter, commandery and Shrine. He gives his political allegiance to the
republican party and served for three terms as president and superintendent of
the state board of health. He is widely and favorably known in Huron, where he
has resided for over a quarter of a century.
History of Dakota Territory, George W. Kingsbury, Vol. 4, 1915
COLONEL WHEELER S. BOWEN.
During practically the entire period of his active life Colonel Wheeler S. Bowen has been identified with the newspaper business and since 1909 has been editor of the Huronite, published at Huron. As such he has exerted a great influence over the development of the city along many lines and his work has won him an important place among the men of ability and worth in the community. Colonel Bowen is a veteran of the Civil war, having served as a member of the Twelfth Wisconsin Battery. He was born in Ohio, April 8, 1843, and is a son of Hiram and Martha (Wheeler) Bowen, who moved to Wisconsin in 1849, settling at Janesville. The father conducted a newspaper there for many years, having previously been in the newspaper business at Akron, Ohio, as founder and editor of the Summit County Beacon. Hiram Bowen edited the Janesville Gazette and later the Milwaukee Sentinel. He came to South Dakota in 1876 and moved from this state to California, where his death occurred.
Colonel Wheeler S. Bowen acquired his education in the public schools of
Janesville In 1862 he enlisted in the Twelfth Wisconsin Battery and served in
the army until the close of the Civil war. Following his honorable discharge he
returned to Janesville, where he became connected with the newspaper business,
editing the Gazette until 1873. In that year he moved to Yankton, this state,
and bought the Press and the Dakotan, starting the first daily in the Dakotas.
Colonel Bowen moved to Sioux Falls in 1901 and edited the Press there until
1907, after which he spent one year in Boise City, Idaho. In 1909 he located In
Huron and bought the Huronite and the State Spirit which he merged under one
management with the former name. Since that time he has edited the paper, making
it one of the leading influences for progress in the community. It has become an
excellent news and advertising medium and its popularity is evident in a large
and growing circulation.
In 1874 Colonel Bowen was united in marriage to Miss Ella Davis of Janesville,
Wisconsin, and they have become the parents of a son, George H., who is in
business with his father. Colonel Bowen is well known in the local post of the
Grand Army of the Republic and in this way keeps in touch with his comrades of
fifty years ago. He is progressive and public-spirited in matters of citizenship
and has held a number of offices of public trust and responsibility, serving as
postmaster of Yankton under Presidents Arthur and Harrison and as clerk of the
senate committee on Indian affairs in Washington under Pettigrew. Since taking
up his residence in Huron his influence has been a tangible force for good in
the community and he is held in high honor and esteem wherever he is known.
History of Dakota Territory, George W. Kingsbury, Vol. 4, 1915
HON. LORING ELLIS GAFFY.
Hon. Loring Ellis Gaffy, lawyer, jurist and Dakota pioneer, now one of the
leading citizens of Pierre, was born in Clinton county, New York, on the 12th of
January, 1850, a son of James Gaffy, whose birth occurred in County Westmeath,
Ireland, and who in the year 1834 crossed the Atlantic to the United States,
settling in New Yrork, where he remained until 1855. In that year he removed
westward to Wisconsin with his family, settling near Fond du Lac, where he
engaged in farming until his death, which occurred in 1886 when he was on a
visit to North Dakota, He wedded Nancy Dale, a native of Vermont, and of their
family of three children, Judge Gaffy is the second in order of birth. His
sisters are Mrs. C. A. Walker, of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; and Mrs. W. J. Young,
of Seattle, Washington.
The public school system of Fond du Lac afforded Judge Gaffy his early
educational privileges, which were supplemented by study in De Lands Commercial
College. His review of the broad opportunities of the business world led to his
selection of the law as a life work and he began his preliminary reading in the
office and under the direction of Judge Drury in his home city. In 1871 he went
to Greeley county, Nebraska, where he remained until 1873, when he became
compass man on the United States survey of western Nebraska. In 1874 he went to
Grand Island, Nebraska, where he continued his studies in the office of George
H. Thummel, and in 1876 was admitted to the Nebraska bar. The following year he
came to Dakota territory, settling at Deadwood, where he continued in active
practice until 1884. In the meantime he had become recognized as one of the
leaders of the republican party in that locality and was made the candidate for
the territorial senate in his district in 1880.
Four years afterward Judge Gaffy removed to Pierre, where he has since resided,
and throughout the intervening years he has been almost continuously in office,
his official duties, however, always being in the strict path of his profession.
He was elected states attorney of Hughes county in 1888 and was the incumbent in
that office for four years, or until 1893, In 1894 he was appointed judge of the
sixth judicial district and was thereafter elected and reelected to the bench
until he had served continuously for twelve and a half years. His decisions were
strictly fair and impartial and were characterized by a masterful grasp of every
problem presented for solution. On his retirement from the bench he resumed the
private practice of law as a member of the firm of Gaffy & Stephens and is now
senior partner in the well known and leading law firm of Gaffy, Stephens &
Fuller. He has always made the practice of law his real life work and there is
no one who more fully recognizes the necessity for a most thorough preparation
or prepares his cases with greater care. In argument he is strong, logical and
convincing and his utterances lead through the steps of orderly progression to
the logical conclusion upon which the decision of every case finally turns. His
interests outside of his profession are those which have to do with general
business development as well as with individual success. In 1912 he was elected
president of the First National Life & Accident Insurance Company and now
largely devotes his time and energies to his important and responsible duties in
that connection. He is also president of the Suburban Acreage Company and
through that medium is largely interested in irrigated lands.
Judge Gaffy has been married twice. In March, 1878, he wedded Fannie B. Price, whose death occurred in Pierre in 1887, In February, 1900, he wedded Adelaide W. Warwick, of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, a daughter of Judge William I. Warwick, and again death entered his household on the 14th of February, 1913.
Judge Gaffy is prominently known as one of the foremost leaders of the
republican party in South Dakota. He was among those most active in the spirited
contest which finally resulted in the choice of Pierre as the state capital and
he has always been found in the van of every movement of a progressive nature
affecting his city or the state at large. His fraternal relations are with the
Masons and Huron Lodge, No. 444, B. P. O. E., and along professional lines he is
known as a member of the South Dakota Bar Association and the American Bar
Association. He has broad insight into the basic principles of the law,
supplemented by an intellect keen, discriminating and analytical. Moreover, he
is a profound student along many lines and an omnivorous reader of the best
English literature. Outside the diverse activities of an especially busy life he
has found time to devote to the many complex questions arising from the
development of a new country from the condition when sod and claim shacks were
prevailing features of the landscape to that of modern civilization. His
influence has ever been a potent force for progress and development. For many
years he has been deeply interested in prison labor reform and the general
betterment of prison conditions and is a member of the Prison Labor Reform
Society. In fact, he has studied deeply the grave political, sociological and
economic questions of the day and at all times keeps abreast with the best
thinking men of the age. He finds pleasure and recreation in hunting, fishing
and horseback riding and through these means has maintained that even balance in
life which is lacking when business cares monopolize attention. The state
accords him position as one of its foremost lawyers and Pierre places him among
its most prominent citizens.
History of Dakota Territory, George W. Kingsbury, Vol. 4, 1915
RICHARD OLSEN RICHARDS.
The political history of South Dakota has been influenced in a vital and
beneficial way through the activities of Richard Olsen Richards, whose public
spirit, energy and initiative ability have made him a powerful factor in state
development. Almost continuously since 1883, Mr. Richards has lived in South
Dakota and in addition to his prominence in politics has had an enviable
business success.
Mr. Richards was born in Sandefjorde, Norway, in 1866, and is a descendant of
several prominent Norwegian and Danish families, among them the well known
Ahlefeldt family. His ancestors were numbered among the foremost men in Norway
and Denmark in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He was educated in a
private school. At an early age his love for liberty and progress and his
fellowmen prompted his coming to America which afforded greater opportunities
for development. He landed in America at the age of fifteen and immediately
began to carve his own way. Having a good command of English and German, as well
as of his native tongue, he secured a position as interpreter at Castle Garden,
where he remained for two years. He next engaged in the ship brokerage business
in New York for one year. Then, following the footsteps of thousands of other
Scandinavian emigrants, he came to the northwest, locating first at Luverne,
Minnesota, then Mitchell, South Dakota, and lastly at Huron, where he built up
an extensive investment business. He prospered and soon became known both as a
successful business man and an influential citizen.
Since 1898 Mr. Richards has devoted almost his entire time and spent a large
fortune in forwarding public welfare, and was the instigator of the progressive
movement in this state. Among many measures for the public interest which Mr.
Richards championed to success are the divorce law, anti-pass law and in a
general way the abolition of spoils which commercialize government. Everything
that South Dakota has had in way of primary laws have been builded around and
upon his efforts.
To Mr. Richards has been given the initiative to evolve an organization law
whereby state government can be made responsive and responsible to the will of
the people in order to forward equity and progress for the interests of all the
people. The so-called Richards primary law is a masterpiece of construction for
organization of public welfare, through the state. Its principles are eternally
right and it is safe to say that it will ultimately serve as a pattern for
political organization laws in United States.
The Richards primary law first eliminates the spoils system and provides for an
intelligent initiatory. It lays the foundation for conservative progress by
making a legal division of minority and majority proposals within the party for
principles, instead of division on personalities between candidates for office.
The people elect committeemen by a direct vote to meet at the state capitol.
These committeemen act in cpmmittee of the whole and elect the paramount issue
and principles for public policies, together with candidates guaranteed as to
character and ability, as standardbearers, by majority vote, the committeemen at
all times casting their vote by "unit representation."
Following the state proposal meeting, copies of the proposals, with arguments in
their behalf and short biographies of the candidates are filed with the
secretary of state, whose duty it is to compile the same into the State
Publicity Pamphlet, a copy of which is mailed, at the expense of the state, to
every elector. In addition to this means of publicity, the law provides for
public joint debates between the candidates for governor and for president, to
discuss the paramount issue. In this way the people are given state-wide
information as to the issues and are furnished a uniform ballot throughout the
state which enables them to cast an intelligent vote at the primary election and
obtain majority rule. In this manner a harmonious ticket is nominated as a
result of the primary election. And the candidates nominated, when confirmed at
the general election, are in a position to properly carry out the policies
indorsed by a majority of the people.
The law also provides for meritorious distribution of the official patronage.
The postmaster indorsements are made through postmaster primaries, held in the
municipality where the candidate for postmaster seeks appointment. The
candidates for postmaster are nominated by the electors affiliated with the
national party in power; but when the postmaster primary takes place, all the
electors living in the municipality, who are patrons of the office, may vote,
regardless of party affiliation.
Other essential features of the law are the provisions for registration of
electors, unit representation, state publicity pamphlet, the corrupt practice
act and the party recall by jury trial. Checks and balances are provided
throughout the law, so that equilibrium is the result, making the state
government the people's automaton.
Mr. Richards went to the legislature with his primary law twice. The politicians
persuaded the legislature to turn down the law on both occasions; but the people
adopted and sustained it at the elections of 1912 and 1914. Immediately after
its adoption, by an overwhelming vote in 1912, the politicians sought to repeal
the law by submitting another primary law, known as the Coffey law, under the
initiative and referendum, to a vote of the people in 1914. The people rejected
the Coffey law by a large majority. Thus the people have twice declared in favor
of the Richards primary law—once by directly voting it in and a second time by
refusing to accept a substitute. Yet, when the legislature convened in 1915, a
few weeks after the people had emphatically approved the Richards law for the
second time, the politicians again sought its repeal, but this time by a
legislative enactment in direct violation of the constitution governing direct
legislation. Meanwhile over eight thousand electors petitioned for the
re-enactment of the law, with certain necessary amendments, and it is now
submitted for the third time to a direct vote of the people in November, 1916.
The Richards primary law has never been given a fair trial and those in charge
of the state government have blocked its practical workings in every conceivable
manner. All in all the Richards primary law, like everything else of merit, has
had a hard road to travel. Nevertheless the real progressives (thinkers) in the
state have always come forward to its rescue and now anxiously await an
opportunity to re-enact and put the law in favorable hands for administration.
Then only can its practical workings be properly demonstrated to perfect state
government, by consideration of the paramount issue of one public policy at a
time, and thus make good the motto of the great seal of South Dakota—"Under God
the People Rule."
History of Dakota Territory, George W. Kingsbury, Vol. 4, 1915
GEORGE W. WRIGHT.
Among those who have achieved prominence as men of marked ability and
substantial worth is numbered Senator George W. Wright, of Huron, who has served
for two terms as a member of the South Dakota senate. He is moreover connected
with business interests of the city as a real-estate dealer and has large
interests along this line, the successful conductof which indicates his keen
sagacity and unfaltering enterprise. Senator Wright was born in Illinois in 1872
and is a son of S. F. and Nancy E. Wright, who moved from Illinois to Beadle
county, South Dakota, in 1882. The father took up government land and resided
upon it until 1896, when he moved to Nebraska. In that state his death occurred
and there his wife still resides.
George W. Wright acquired a public-school education and later attended college
in Huron. He engaged in fanning for some time but at length disposed of his
interests and moved into Huron, where he turned his attention to the general
merchandise business. Later he spent some years as a traveling salesman. He is
now concentrating his energies upon the real-estate business, in which he has
been engaged for a number of years, and he has won a gratifying degree of
success along this line. He is an expert judge of land values and all of his
investments are proving profitable, a fact which indicates his sound judgment
and clear business discrimination.
In 1901 Mr. Wright was united in marriage to Miss Luella Biddle, a native of
Miller, South Dakota, and they have become the parents of two children, George
W., Jr., and Evelyn. Mr. Wright is a member of the Presbyterian church, is a
trustee in Huron College and is connected fraternally with the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, the Elks and the Woodmen. He gives his political allegiance to
the republican party and has at all times stood high in its councils, being an
active worker in the support of progressive measures and projects. He was
elected a member of the council at Huron in 1908 and two years later was named a
member of the state senate, serving by reelection from that time until January,
1915. He has accomplished a great deal of constructive and important work as a
member of that body. He was instrumental in securing an appropriation for the
state fair held at Huron, was also active in the passage of the public utility
bill and during the last session of the legislature was chairman of the railway
committee. His activities in public affairs have proven of great value to the
community at large and in business he has won a gratifying measure of
prosperity. He stands today among the honored and eminent residents of Huron.
History of Dakota Territory, George W. Kingsbury, Vol. 4, 1915
ALBERT W. WILMARTH.
Albert W. Wilmarth, engaged in the practice of law at Huron, was born at
Harford, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, February 15, 1856, and was one of
twin members of a family of four children whose parents were George P. and
Martha (Payne) Wilmarth, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. The father
was a farmer by occupation and in 1885 came to this state, establishing his home
in De Smet, where he remained until called to his final rest. He was descended
from English ancestry, the first representatives of the family in America
arriving about the time of the close of the Revolutionary war.
Albert W. Wilmarth acquired his education in the district schools near his
father's home and in the high school at Harford, Pennsylvania. After reviewing
the opportunities offered by various occupations he decided to study law and in
preparation for the bar began his reading at Montrose, Pennsylvania, where he
studied until admitted to practice in 1879. He then opened an office in the
east, where he remained in active practice until 1883, when he removed to the
west, settling at Huron, Dakota territory. Immediately afterward he opened an
office and now for almost a third of a century has followed his profession in
Huron. It was not long before he had gained a good practice and his clientage
has always been large and of a distinctively representative character. He has
never been in a partnership relation and thus it has been his individual ability
entirely that has brought him to a prominent place as a member of the Huron bar.
For six years he filled the office of city attorney and for two years was county
attorney, while for two terms he represented his district in the state
legislature, leaving the impress of his individuality upon the laws enacted
during that period.
On the 28th of April, 1886, Mr. Wilmarth was united in marriage to Mrs. Alma
Sill, a daughter of Erasmus E. and Maria Hull, of Chicago. Mr. Wilmarth finds
his chief recreation in hunting. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons,
Elks, Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen and his political allegiance is
given to the republican party, which he has always supported since age conferred
upon him the right of franchise. He concentrates his energies, however, upon his
law practice, which is now very extensive. At the present writing he is attorney
for the James Valley and the City National Banks and represents in a
professional capacity other important corporation interests. The professional
work which brought him most largely into prominence perhaps was litigation in
which he engaged following the admission of the state into the Union. At that
time there was a contest between all the larger cities to secure the state
capital and all of them issued bonds and warrants to secure money with which to
aid in their contest. Huron issued bonds and warrants greatly in excess of the
constitutional limit of indebtedness and sold its waterworks to acquire money
for that purpose. As a result of this, money could not be secured to maintain a
city government. A contest was inaugurated to set aside the spurious
indebtedness and recover to the city its waterworks. Mr. Wilmarth was elected
city attorney to take immediate charge of this litigation and mainly through his
efforts the indebtedness in excess of the constitutional limit was annulled and
the 'waterworks recovered to the city without the return of any money to the
purchasers thereof. From that time on the standing of Mr. Wilmarth as an able
and resourceful lawyer has been of the best in the state and he has by far the
most extensive local practice of any attorney in Beadle county. It is said a
crisis ever calls forth the latent powers and displays the real ability of an
individual and Mr. Wilmarth proved equal to the occasion and gained the
recognition to which his powers as a lawyer entitle him.
History of Dakota Territory, George W. Kingsbury, Vol. 4, 1915
WILLIAM H. H. BEADLE.
William H. H. Beadle, the eldest son and fourth child of James Ward Beadle and
Elizabeth (Bright) Beadle, was born in Liberty township, near the northwest
corner of Parke county, Indiana, in a log cabin, built by his father's hands,
and has distinguished himself by life work and especially by his service for
South Dakota, both as a territory and a state. He was prepared for his duties
physically, by his early life on Indiana farms, by extensive reading that gave
him culture and intelligence, by preparation for college and a most successful
course in the University of Michigan, in the literary department; and after his
services in the Union army were closed, by graduation from the law department
under such instructors as Judge Cosley, Judge Campbell and other great jurists
and lawyers who made that department famous. He was thus trained as a scholar, a
writer, a public speaker and a leader of the best sentiment and highest aims of
a new commonwealth that more than any other he made sound and safe.
His life has been sketched by many writers at different times since he entered
Dakota Territory, in April, 1869, and as he became a leader in civil, moral,
educational, legal and state building enterprises, both constructive in
organization and in physical upbuilding and far-reaching enterprise, he is now
worthily called "Dakotas' grand old man" by South Dakota and North Dakota alike.
He is freely acclaimed "the father of education in the two Dakotas, the man who
saved the school and endowment lands in these states and the originator of the
plan that congress applied to many other states that have since been admitted
into the Union." The children of the state of South Dakota, aided by the
educators of the state, have placed his life size marble statue in the corridor
of the capitol of the state as the most honorable memorial to his work as an
educator and because he "saved the school lands." A million dollars is already
annually apportioned to and among the counties of the state for the support of
its common schools and to the higher educational institutions, as the income
from the vested state school fund derived from the sale of a part, of these
lands. To him as the leader belongs the honor for the plan that saved the lands
and the funds. Rev. Walter Whitaker, of Alabama, writes: "Occasionally some man
arises, does his life work and passes, whose personality is so strong, or whose
destiny it is to be a chief factor in so important a work, or period, that aim
pie justice to those who come after demands that they shall have the benefit and
inspiration of his example."
Kipling causes St. Peter to address one of his characters that applies for
admission: "Ye have read, ye have heard, ye have thought, and the race is yet to
run; By the worth of the body that once ye had, give answer, 'What ha' ye done
?' "
The sentiment and philosophy of these quotations should possess the mind and
inspire the pen of every person that reviews the life of Dr. Beadle and his work
in the development of these states. It was not in education alone that he
labored. He impressed himself upon their social and religious life, upon their
laws both constitutional and statutory, and helped to direct, advance and guide
their material growth and general welfare and the moral character of many
hundreds of teachers and pupils, and also helped to uplift the state.
The incentives and principles that were fundamental in this moral power and constant influence were largely from the training given by his mother and father and to the inheritance from his line of ancestry. He inherited directly the qualities and best character elements from both paternal and maternal ancestors and became from childhood familiar with the story of their lives, activities and experiences which was oft repeated, and was thus incidentally and forcefully a part of his daily education and a large inspiration in his life. The Beadles and the Brights were two vigorous and strong stocks of English, Scotch and German derivation and long enough in America to gain all that was desirable in its industry, freedom and vigor. From them he inherited a rugged frame and a strong constitution and was endowed with an active intellect that he lost no opportunity to improve.
The father, James Beadle, was born fifteen miles above Louisville, Kentucky. His
father had gone there from the Shenandoah valley in Virginia, where he was born
and married. His wife was Nancy Hess, from a Pennsylvania family, which included
seven sons who were rather well educated by their mother, and every son and
daughter lived to honorable, industrious lives. The sons and daughters were
equally worthy and industrious. Every son was a thoroughly successful farmer,
and every daughter equally skilled in housework and in domestic manufactures,
using the spinning wheel and the loom to clothe the family in woolen and flax
fabrics. A like devotion to industry was cultivated in all their descendants,
and the same merit belonged to the Bright family, which was more limited in
number, especially sons.
The maternal ancestry in America began with James Bright, who removed to St.
Marys county, Maryland, from Scotland, a seafaring family, who lived in that
part of Kinkardineshire on the coast and nearest to Aberdeen, from which they
sailed to Maryland. John Bright was a worthy and capable son of James, born at
St. Marys, Maryland, in 1767. He was a sailor, or skipper, from youth and later
owned and sailed a ship on Chesapeake Bay and Potomac till the war of 1812
prevented the use of ships, and he scuttled or sank his craft till the war was
over, to prevent its falling into the hands of the British. In 1846 he removed
to Kentucky, in what is now Oldham county, then a part of Jefferson county,
settling near the Beadle family, who had removed to that locality in 1805, and
where James Ward Beadle was born. All but one of the Bright family were born in
Maryland, where for several years they resided on a plantation near Chaptico,
which is upon an inlet of the Potomac, a little east of south from Washington
City. Among the Bright family was a pair of twins, named Elizabeth and Ann, the
former of whom became the wife of James Ward Beadle, in Kentucky, June 2, 1831.
The life of these twins was interesting from many common experiences and
adventures. They sometimes accompanied their father on short voyages on his
vessel. They saw the British fleet that later attacked Fort McHenry and soon
read the famous poem that made the star spangled banner the flag of our country.
Their father and Uncle James were Maryland soldiers in a part of the war. A
small British army camped upon the home plantation, where a large spring
supplied them with water. They killed every animal and fowl on the plantation
and feasted upon them, but they did not otherwise offensively treat the family.
After the British left that locality and the men were absent in the Maryland
service, the people at home anxiously waited for news from the troops. Elizabeth
Bright was sitting one evening upon the dining room step, to accost for war
news, any neighbor that might pass. The twins had retired early and had fallen
asleep, upstairs in the main part of the residence. The mother made an awakening
call to them: "Girls, girls, get up and come down stairs; Washington is
burning!" Hastening down stairs they saw a red light reflected from the clouds
and smoke in the northwest, that had alarmed their mother. They all realized at
once that what was feared had happened—Washington was burning! The Episcopal
chapel in Chaptico was dear to its people. Before the war some English people
had helped to furnish it. Among other things, they placed a handsome marble font
in it. The British soldiers while there had broken the font in pieces and
covered the walls, in charcoal writing, with coarse jests and ridicule. After
the war of 1812-15 the British were hated in the United States much more than
after the Revolution. It was because many of their soldiers of the last war were
taken from the streets and slums of England. These and other like incidents
marked the experience of the twins in their youth, but their home and the family
were decently treated.
The war had an important theater in the region of the Chesapeake and Potomac. Commerce, shipping and all business was prostrated. There was no means of livelihood but cultivating a poor soil, and in 1816 they gathered all their belongings into two large conestoga wagons and started for Kentucky. Stopping two days at Washington, they added needed things to their equipment and saw the work progressing on the new capitol building. They crossed the left of the Potomac at Harper's Ferry. Elizabeth was riding a horse, and the ferryman asked her to dismount and he led the horse on and off the boat. As he helped her remount he told her his name was Harper and that the man helping him was his son-in-law, named Schwartz, and they were the only two people living at the ferry. Harper's Ferry won fame after that. They pushed on across the Great Kanawha, the Little Kanawha, and finally the Big Sandy, into Kentucky. They settled in what is now Oldham county and became neighbors of the Beadles.
There the young men of the latter family, especially James W. Beadle, were
engaged in selling wood to passing steamboats and taking flatboat loads of
produce to New Orleans. He had many struggles and adventures in his calling, at
one time having to walk a long distance to his home because the very dry autumn
weather left the river too low for the steamboats to run. Elizabeth and Ann were
growing to womanhood, and in southern fashion were often called Betsy and Nancy.
When washing the clothes for the Bright family on a gravel bar in the edge of
the Ohio, a bear started to swim across from the Indiana shore toward them.
Getting into the handy canoe, they paddled out, met and passed the bear. Betsy,
in addition to the oar, was armed with a stout forked stick, used to support the
pole and kettles. Turning the boat beside the low swimming bear, Betsy left
Nancy to steer and putting the forked stick behind the ears of the bear, held
his head under water until he drowned. The story was famous in their
neighborhood in Kentucky "how Betsy Bright killed the bear," and this with other
adventures, helped to make Betsy Bright a heroine and to become admired by her
boys, as the father also was for his courage and remarkable experiences on the
western rivers. Many such events in the family life were material to cultivate
admiration and honor for both father and mother and to create character and
courage in the sons.
Both parents were raised to toil and devoted industry and were alike skilled in
their labor, the mother to home work and all the common domestic manufactures,
with spinning wheels and looms and making cloth and clothing from wool and flax.
The father was the most skilled man with the broadaxe and common tools in the
neighborhood. He could and did construct his early homes entirely with his own
hands and was a master builder of flatboats and in loading and running them to
New Orleans from the Ohio and the Wabash, till railroads and canals took their
place.
They were not pleased with slavery but were in contact with it and subject to
its conditions in all their efforts toward advancement and gain, so they formed
a temporary home a little north of the Ohio. Very early in 1837 they removed to
the northwest part of Parke county, Indiana. There he was soon the owner of a
farm with a superior log cabin of his own construction. In this cabin William
was born, January 1, 1838, and his brother John something over two years later.
Three sisters had been born into the family before this, two in Kentucky, and
one during a previous brief residence north of the Ohio. Now real life and some
successes began. He was a very successful farmer and practically every year to
and including 1848, he built, loaded and ran to New Orleans one or two
flatboats. He made some money upon every trip but one and often a considerable
gain.
William was raised as a farmer and stockman and was inured to hard labor of
every sort that belonged to the opening of farms in the timberlands of Parke
county, including the cultivation of as many as four farms owned and managed by
his father at one time. He was familiar with the axe, the plow, the maul and
wedge, the seeder and drill, the hand sickle, the mowing scythe, the wheat
cradle, the reaper and mowing machine and every other tool in use on the farm.
By the time he was fifteen years old he was doing a man's work with all these in
the field and the barn, where the flail and fanning mill were in use. With all
the work of caring for, feeding and marketing farm animals, horses, mules, hogs,
sheep, and large herds of cattle, he was engaged along with all the varied work
of raising, gathering and feeding out extensive crops. A part of his activity
was driving herds of cattle over upon the unoccupied prairies of Illinois, for
herding on the native grasses, and back again to Indiana to feed during the
winter.
In early youth he began to attend subscription schools in the log schoolhouses nearest home, taught by itinerant men teachers who secured schools by the neighbors agreeing, by signing a paper, to send and pay for the instruction of so many pupils each. He had learned by the help of his mother and older sisters, to read at home. His first book that he read through was Robinson Crusoe, which his father had brought as a gift to him from New Orleans. As his mother was at her work be would read it aloud to her and she would, as need arose, look at the page and give the pronunciation of a word or phrase and he would repeat it after her. In this way and at occasional schools he made considerable advancement in reading and spelling.
There was a neighbor family named Tucker, of Scotch descent who had come from
southern Pennsylvania, near Cumberland, Maryland. The father had a little piece
of ground and a plain home where he tried to make a living for his family as a
shoemaker. The mother was in declining health and the eldest daughter had fair
elementary education and was devoted to the aid of her parents. It is not known
certainly whether James W. Beadle aided her in going to school but she was able
to go away from home and attend what was called the "Quaker school," or the
Bloomingdale Academy, of which a Quaker educator, named Barnabas Hobbs, was the
principal. He served with zeal and drew pupils from all parts of the county, not
exclusively Friends, but sons and daughters of good citizens generally, and
those struggling for success. There Miss Lavina Tucker developed into a woman of
admirable character and worth and secured a good scholarship.
Miss Tucker returned home and it was soon reported about the neighborhood that
the school at the Brockway schoolhouse would soon open and be taught by her;
there was the largest attendance in years. It made a prominent impression upon
the community. Few that attended ever forgot it. She gave all her time and
attention to the school and no time whatever to social affairs. She was not a
Quaker, as many have supposed, but was as good a woman as any Quaker in Indiana.
It seemed that she had given all she could be or do for the welfare of her
father and mother. To this end she declined those social attentions that might
create obligations toward marriage, and visited with older and married ladies.
There were young men of fine character and merit who sought her society and
favor, but in vain. Even at the noon hour one of these would come to the
schoolhouse but she evaded his addresses by escaping, as it were, to Mr.
Brockway's nearby home and visiting with his elder daughters. He was a somewhat
skilled penman and would "set copies" for the older girls present and otherwise
seek opportunity, even coming in on rainy days. But he was disappointed
constantly. There were other similar avoidances of obligation and escapes from
favorable addresses, even of a well-to-do widower, and at the same time, his
son's courtesies.
She began her first term and the several that followed without formal
announcement or declaration of rules and her purposed mastery. In the simplest
way she proceeded to the work and called the classes by the subjects and the
names of the pupils that were included in each. Often as a class in reading
stood in line before her she named a pupil who would step forward, turn and face
the class and read to it. All her work was called and done in the simplest way.
Her voice was clear, simple and kindly. She was really good looking, with smooth
features, dark brown hair and dark hazel eyes. When school was dismissed at noon
or four o'clock, the pupils passed out in quiet order and at the door each pupil
faced her, the boys to bow the head and the girls to courtesy. Miss Tucker
taught moral lessons effectively, even religious ones. Her roommate had been a
religious young woman. When they retired she kneeled by the bed and prayed
aloud, closing with a brief prayer for Miss Tucker. One evening Miss Tucker was
absent but not from the house; she was in an adjoining chamber, quietly doing
some sewing. Coming in and preparing to retire, the good woman offered a prayer
but it was wholly for Miss Tucker. That prayer touched Miss Tucker's entire
life.
She strenuously urged her pupils to equip themselves for help and good influence
upon others, and this they could not do unless they were good pupils every day
and good scholars all their lives. That was the course to make good citizens and
influential men and women, and she urged all to excel in these respects. Then
they would all be able to own farms, build schoolhouses and encourage education.
Pointing to the record that Indiana had by the census of 1840, a pretty large
per cent of illiterate citizens, she explained the meaning and cause of that and
asked her pupils to pledge themselves that not one of them should ever be
illiterate, unable to read and write, nor suffer any one else to be if they
could prevent it, and would strive to free Indiana from it and any other state
they lived in. She asked all who would really promise that to rise and hold up
their right hands. William Beadle was seized by a real enthusiasm, sprang to his
feet immediately and lifted his right hand,while the others rose more quietly.
He and all had pledged themselves to education for themselves and everybody.
William was then reading in McGuffy's fourth reader. At the head of every
section in it was a short double column of new words used with a clear
definition after each, made by a word or phrase. These must all be and were
memorized and recited, and some fine paragraphs or brief entire selections were
fully memorized for Friday afternoon declarations, and in all, splendid language
work was done. The drill in orthography was equally thorough, and Webster's
spelling book was mastered until some of her pupils, William and his brother
among them, could spell at call practically every word in it, and could repeat
from memory whole pages of words.
Miss Tucker made a deep impression upon the minds and character of her pupils
and their parents. She was an unconscious and progressive reformer and filled
the minds of many with stronger resolutions and higher motives. She did not
always appear to be aiming at this nor always take specific pledges. Her
character, wisdom and simple life and her unselfish devotion constantly wrought
their work and produced their results. More was done for every one she knew and
it required years to see it returned in living and in useful Uves. That is the
teacher to whom Beadle has declared to South Dakota he is so indebted. She
taught many terms, she kept faithful to father and mother till they were both
gone. After a while one of her best early suitors came back from Iowa and their
marriage was soon announced and was as happy as it deserved to be. In the
cemetery near Terre Haute, Indiana, is her grave, and William and his brother
John often visited it in affectionate and tender remembrance.
Change of residence a little later placed him upon a fertile farm near the
county seat, from which, after a round of morning work, he walked a mile and
three-quarters to the graded school his father had helped to establish in
Rockville. After four o'clock P. M. when school was dismissed, he hastened home
to repeat the farm work, and cleaning up for supper, he later sat by a table
with candles, or "burning fluid" lamps and studied two hours or more in
preparing lessons for the following day. An early call in the morning brought
the round of starting the fires and feeding stock and the rapid walk to school.
In these labors and school attendance he wore the blue jeans clothes, made from
the wool by his mother.
His advance in studies required teachers who were more thoroughly prepared, and
his father joined with others in town and vicinity, paying his share, which was
twenty dollars a month, to secure two college graduates for the work. The school
terms became longer, that is the all day work on the farm ended earlier in the
autumn when winter wheat was sown and school work closed the last of March, when
plowing for corn must begin. In one season he plowed seventy acres for corn in
the month of April, beginning on Monday morning and never working on Sunday. He
led in all farm work and managed it all in the absence of his father. Then
prosperity prevailed and it was a favorable time for money making, when gold was
flowing in from California and Australia and prices of produce were advancing
from this increasing currency, aided also by the markets of Europe arising from
the Crimean war in 1854-5-6. Meanwhile his instructors and professional
acquaintances were encouraging his ambition to secure a collegiate education.
His father did not dissuade him from this view and his teachers, he later
learned, commended learning to his father to make his son a useful and capable
citizen, possibly a leader in some learned profession. Everything seemed to
point that way, but the father rather thought of making him a leading, well
trained and educated farmer and citizen. One day as they were returning from the
fine two hundred and forty acre farm the father had recently bought, his father
told him that when he settled down and married he might look to that farm as his
and for his home. Not much over nineteen years of age and not much given to
society, William replied that he had then no thought of marrying anybody, but
did want very much to graduate from college, and if the father would keep the
farm and furnish money enough to enable him to graduate from the University of
Michigan, he would be glad, and if he later wanted a farm he would endeavor to
buy one of his own, as good as that one. It was all a friendly discussion and
the mother and father both generously agreed that the son had already fully
earned all the education they could give him. They would miss him from home and
the farms, and they could not hire any one who could fill his place in the care
and work of the farm. There was a wish expressed by them in favor of one of the
three nearby colleges, two within thirty miles and the State University not much
farther; Ann Arbor was a long way from home for a visit or in case of illness,
but the son pleaded that he would gain advantage among students from many
states.
It came about that the summer work was done and on a Saturday he had finished
sowing one hundred and fifty acres of wheat. On Monday he and his trunk were
hauled in the farm wagon to Crawfordsville, and at 10:40 P. M. Tuesday he took
the first railroad trip in his life, from that station to Michigan City, and the
next day to Ann Arbor. There the problem of entering the University of Michigan
grew more difficult every hour than it had been at home. It seemed to him as if
the university had been newly equipped with learned professors from Yale and
Harvard and all other great schools, and a number of them were fresh from
reviews in Europe, and all were agreed upon advancing the standards of
preparation at Michigan and had the large and very meritorious class of 1861 to
experiment upon. Calling upon Professor Tappan, beloved by all while they lived,
he was asked his name and it was entered upon the form for recording the various
tests of his admission. Then his father's name and residence were entered. "What
is your father's profession." came the question. "He has none," was the frank
answer. Smiling most kindly, the president modified the inquiry: "What is his
calling, his employment?" Thinking over the matter a few seconds, he concluded
that some technical name was required, and, having for several years read a
farmers' periodical, he grasped its title and replied, "An agriculturist."
"Good," said the friendly inquisitor, and wrote the word. Beadle's face, neck
and hands were covered with tan and his hands were much calloused. He wore blue
mixed jeans trousers and vest that were newly made by his mother. So the
evidence of his calling seemed conclusive, though he had been carefully scouring
his face and hands for several days. As he wandered through the halls and
offices, Beadle saw and met other young men nearly as brown as he was, and some
of them as close to six feet tall. He also observed the professors greeting each
other and smiling as they glanced at their big boys, as to say, "They can stand
it; we can get good work out of them."
The examinations were thorough, but Beadle made every subject, except Greek. In
that Professor Boise was rigidly strict and declined to write his name on the
paper. Returning to Professor Williams, Beadle passed out of most of the
freshmen mathematics, in which he had advanced preparation, and this gave him
extra time under a tutor to prepare in Greek. Before the close of the freshman
year the history of the class, later written by two classmates, placed him clear
in all his subjects, and one of the best scholars in the class. And he so
continued throughout his four years' college course. He fairly excelled in all
his language studies, especially including English, and was equally good as a
writer and speaker. The professors in all subjects were particularly cultured
and strictly exacting in English. Beadle was an active member of the leading
literary society and was its president in his senior year. He made a favorable
record as the editor of that society's weekly paper. He appeared in public
debates, was one of the speakers at the junior exhibition and also at the
commencement exercises of his class in June, 1861. We cannot follow his college
course in detail. His life was clean and religious. The record of his
scholarship must have been strong, since in 1864, he received also the degree of
Master of Arts while a soldier in the Union army. When the war closed he was
granted one year's credit in the study of law, and completed that course in 1867
with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. When he was engaged in his great work in
Dakota and became distinguished for it, he received the honorary degree of
Doctor of Laws also from Michigan.
As his college course went forward, he hastened home after the close of each
scholastic year and immediately entered the fields with a man's work every day
up to the hour for departure to college work again. He was all during his early
life a great reader of the best literature. Indiana after 1852 provided an
excellent library in every township, made up of the best classic works. Every
two weeks, or more often, he read one of these standard works in the intervals
of farm labor. His literary society in college (the Alpha Nu) had a select
library of twelve hundred volumes, and he continued this habit of systematic
reading. From 1857 to 1861 he thus secured the best new works of our great
writers, English and American. He could repeat exactly and freely from memory
such poems as "Locksley Hall" and others from Tennyson. He read the Atlantic
Monthly from its first number. In 1858 he read every speech delivered by Abraham
Lincoln and all the debates between him and Douglas. These things are seldom
done by any student. In the study of the Odes of Horace under the direction of
Professor Frieze, he memorized with the class many of the odes and more than
were required, and when the study was finished he could repeat thirty or forty
of them. It is not remarkable that he should become an interesting speaker, for
in addition to all this, he belonged, in college, to a society in extempore
speaking and debate that met and took rigid discipline in that line at least
once each week.
The class of 1861 was called ever after by President Angell and others, "the
famous class of '61, the war class of the university". They were not all
republicans before nor after Lincoln, but every graduating member of the class
voted for him for president. One or two members from the south left the class
when war became imminent.
The majority of the class soon entered the Union army, as many had offered to do
before commencement. Military drill had meanwhile been maintained and most were
well prepared to organize and train companies at their homes, which they did, as
the need for more troops rapidly increased. Beadle soon enlisted with a company
another was forming and was chosen first lieutenant, becoming captain early in
November, 1861. He thus served with Company A, Thirty-first Regiment of Indiana
Infantry, in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. He was discharged for
sickness, but continued some time later by permission of the general in command.
Meanwhile he was arranging to enter a Michigan regiment. In the advance upon
Corinth, Mississippi, he participated in picket duty and some minor skirmishes
until they were closing in upon the defenses of Corinth, when early one morning,
the 30th day of May, 1862, his old company and another of the Thirty-first
Regiment, were ordered to reinforce the Kentucky troops in front in their
attack, by which they were ordered to drive the enemy back into Corinth. Seizing
a gun and buckling on a cartridge belt, he went into the action and "fought all
day from morning till night with great gallantry," as several comrades swear in
their affidavits on file in the pension office. There was no officer with the
company and he was practically in command, leading and directing as occasion
offered. The enemy was driven in and in the night evacuated the town. Early in
the morning the troops marched in, and, heading the column were Beadle and his
old company, carrying the flag.
Reading reports of such service, Governor Austin Blair appointed him lieutenant
colonel of the First Regiment Michigan Sharpshooters and he served till June 14,
1864, most of the time in command of the regiment, because Colonel De Land was
upon other and often higher duty. Passing eastward over the mountains in
Pennsylvania, as a part of the Ninth Army Corps, in March, 1864, the regiment
was exposed to severe snowstorms and cold and many were disabled, including
Colonel Beadle, who was sent to the Naval Academy Hospital, at Annapolis,
Maryland, suffering from a severe attack of pneumonia. He lay there critically
ill for a long time. So severe was the disability that the surgeons and war
department would not permit him to return to his regiment but assigned him as
major to the Veteran Reserve Corps, where he was placed in command of the Third
Regiment of that corps and was on duty in northern Virginia, in the defenses
south of the Potomac and in Washington City. For a time in Virginia he was in
command of a brigade. In Washington his troops were on duty as guards of Old
Capitol and Carroll prisons and for a time the Washington navy yard and the
arsenal. He was sent with a small command of cavalry down into the timber region
in Virginia and upon other like expeditions.
He had the regiment under splendid drill and discipline, and officers and men
alike were kept in fine condition, so that they attracted much attention and the
favorable reports of all inspecting officers. The barracks of the regiment were
at the corner of East Capitol and Second street, in easy reach for any duty. On
the 2d day of March, 1865, he received an order from the adjutant general's
office to have six companies of his regiment in readiness and to report to the
sergeant at arms of the senate to act as guard in and about the capitol upon the
second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as president. It was a fine body of men,
in perfect uniform, guns and brasses polished, and they were trustworthy to the
last man. When all was ready and every one was on watchful duty and the vast
audience assembled, the sergeant at arms called Major Beadle to a chair by his
side, and there within fifteen feet of the president, he sat and heard that
remarkable inaugural address, second only in eloquence, if at all, to the
Gettysburg oration. Beadle had been introduced to President Lincoln before this
by Secretary Usher and others and had accompanied the president from the White
House to the war department late one evening, when Beadle was upon duty as field
officer of the day and inspecting the guards around the White House and
elsewhere about the city. He had several times met the president at his public
receptions and he recognized and called Beadle by name. It was after one of
those cordial recognitions that this special detail was made but whether it was
made at the president's request he never knew.
On March 12th Colonel Beadle was ordered to Utica, New York, to succeed the
provost marshal of the twenty-first district of New York that was then
represented in the congress by Hon. Roscoe Conkling, and he remained on duty
there and in the state until the autumn. It was out of the affairs of that
office that the differences arose between Representative Conkling and Hon. James
C. Blaine. While he furnished many of the facts from the records, he personally
had nothing to do with the dispute but was familiar with it all and personally
acquainted with the leaders therein that affected politics for several years.
Being sent to Brattleboro, Vermont, till December, 1865, with some troops of the
Third Regiment Veteran Relief Corps, Mr. Beadle had charge "of the guarding and
care of the barrbarracks, hospitals and their furniture and equipment until all
were sold. Then he was ordered to report to General O. O. Howard at Washington
for duty in the Freedman's Bureau, thence successively to Richmond, Virginia,
Raleigh, North Carolina and finally to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he had
command of the southern district of that state, and where his duties were
extensive and very responsible. In the region of the rice fields and lowlands
generally, his health again failed from malaria and he became desirous of
returning to the north and to his family. There was an unwillingness to
discharge experienced officers. His resignation was refused because his service
was needed but through the active solicitation of the senators from Michigan,
his discharge was secured, becoming effective March 26, 1866.
It will be seen that nearly all the time he held a command and duty above his
nominal rank. While a major he was in command of a regiment and even a brigade,
and of posts, districts and special duties, equaling the command at least of a
colonel. There were no vacancies for promotion, and for responsible and
meritorious service he received brevets. In the summer of 1864 he was breveted
lieutenant colonel, and March 13, 1865, was made brevet colonel and brevet
brigadier general "for gallant and meritorious services during the war."
Returning to private life Mr. Beadle resumed the study of law and was graduated
from the law department of the Michigan University. He entered the practice of
law at Evansville, Indiana, but found the profession crowded with those who had
not given so much time to the military service of their country, and the climate
was unfavorable to his health. He then went to Wisconsin and formed a
partnership in the practice and worked hard but found his partner was more
devoted to political activity, in which he made an honorable success, neglecting
the law. In March, 1869, General J. D. Cox, secretary of the interior, and
President Grant appointed him surveyor general for the United States in the
Territory of Dakota, a calling for which he had special preparation. He arrived
at Yankton, then the capital of that extensive territory, late in April. As he
rode up the broad valley of the Missouri, or saw the limitless prairies, he
talked to his companion, his predecessor in office, about the future prosperous
state and declared his devotion to the cause of popular education and the
importance of securing good prices for all the school land. From the first day
of his arrival in Dakota and continuously thereafter he gave thought and effort
to create and spread a sentiment to save a great school fund from the lands set
apart for the benefit of the public schools. His opinions and energies in this
direction had been aroused by events in Indiana and Michigan. In his native
state a new constitution was framed and submitted to the state in 1851, and the
question of free public schools supported by taxation for all the children of
the state equally, and without tuition charges was separately submitted. It
resulted that then and for some years later "free public schools" was an issue
until they were fully established, township libraries created and all the power
of the state directed to educate all the children of the state, whether they
were children of the rich or of the poor. The people by their votes for the
constitutional clause, for members of the legislature and every measure, public
officer and tribunal, strongly and steadily supported the entire educational
policy. Eloquent public speakers discussed these issues and aroused popular
opinion and enthusiasm for the cause. William tells of a scene that became fixed
in his memory. He was turning a grindstone, upon which his father and two
employes, who were not landowners but each had several children to educate, were
grinding scythes. They were discussing the public school issues, and his father
declared his intention to vote in favor of free schools for every child. "I am
perfectly willing to pay taxes on my land," said he, "to help educate the
children of both of you, if," he added, "they had saved the school lands for the
good prices the other land brought, we would not have to pay heavy school taxes
now and never would. We wasted them and must pay for it. We must educate the
children of everybody." That was the unquestionable logic of the situation. The
son pertinently asked "Why did not honest men prevent the waste?" The father
replied substantially, ''The school lands, section 16 in every land township,
belonged to the township in which each section lay and were not under state
ownership and management but could be sold by each township, so it required
little influence and interest to secure a sale at a low price. A few townships
in the state held to their school land and they brought a large increasing
income." William heard many similar explanations. He also thought of the pledge
against illiteracy, given to Miss Tucker, and a great resolution was formed in
his mind.
During the first year he was in Ann Arbor a visit was made to the university by
an aged man who had been superintendent of public instruction in Michigan when
it was a territory. The burden of an address he delivered was that the waste of
the school lands imposed an obligation to freely pay large taxes for the support
of the schools. His name was Pierce and he had secured through the delegate in
congress an act providing that the school lands should all pass to the state for
one general fund for the common schools, and not as before, to the several
townships. But he failed in not placing limitations upon the management and
price of the lands at the sales. So Beadle had another lesson, one from Miss
Tucker's required obligation, one from his father at the grindstone and another
good one from former superintendent, Pierce. Each was good and was an incentive
he never lost, but the limitation on prices, the holding for higher and just
prices and other features were left to be applied in South Dakota and other
states.
To secure them all for the Dakotas and for other new states, since admitted, was
the self-imposed obligation he assumed and laboriously devoted his time and
talents to for twenty years. At first his efforts were mainly with individuals
and groups of men, when he found them willing to listen. He found legislators,
county superintendents, ministers of the gospel and leading citizens of high
integrity and unselfish aims, and one by one, or group by group, secured more or
less their full endorsement of the plan, or at least lodged the great purpose in
their minds and left them thinking it out or talking of it to others. Some were
slow to adopt or go forward in what seemed to many impracticable and many
thought it too eary to moot the issues of statehood. This was his work on that
question, while he was largely engaged in other duties.
He continued his duties as surveyor general for nearly four years and retired
from that position to engage in extensive and responsible field work in surveys
which widely extended his knowledge of the great territory and the quality of
its lands. He was convinced of the great value of its school lands, which
included sections 16 and 36 in every land township.
Some of his most valuable services attracted little attention at the time, among
which were his duties in assisting to codify the laws. Three distinguished
judges and lawyers, the weight of whose talent and experience was of great
importance, were appointed a commission to codify the entire body of the laws.
They immediately appointed General Beadle as the secretary of the commission and
in their councils, and especially with his pen and judgment in the work, he was
invaluable. A great share of the careful labor fell upon him. The two judges
were extensively engaged in holding their courts and the attorney, later a
distinguished judge, was busy with his practice, and during a part of the year
was very ill. Occasionally two of them, rarely three, sat in consultation, and
from their dictation he took notes and wove them and printed codes of New York
or California into order and fitted it all to civil system. The manuscript was
the work of his hands and the proof reading and corrections all passed under his
scrutiny.
He was elected to membership in the lower branch of the legislature that met in
January, 1877, and therein was made chairman of the judiciary committee. The
codes were not ready and Miss Haskell performed excellently the closing work of
the secretary. When the governor received the report of the commission he sent
it to the house and it was immediately referred to the judiciary committee.
General Beadle reported the codes back to the house in a series of bills, which
he managed with untiring industry and great ability till the whole were enacted
into law. His success was complete. All special and local legislation was
defeated, and at the close of the session Dakota had the best codes of law ever
enjoyed by any territory.
After further service in land surveying, Mr. Beadle was called by Gov. William
A. Howard, the very able and thoroughly beloved governor, to serve as his
private secretary, owing to his knowledge of the territory, its people and its
legislation. Desiring to promote the educational progress of the territory,
Governor Howard appointed General Beadle superintendent of public instruction.
The position was hardly desirable on account of its very low salary and its
responsible work. In a conference with the governor, General Beadle declared to
him if he accepted it would be his aim to establish a township system of schools
in place of the small district plan, to build up the schools and to lead in
creating a sentiment in favor of selling the school lands at not less than ten
dollars an acre when statehood was attained. These and minor propositions were
approved, as they were by later governors, who reappointed General Beadle, as
the conditions upon which he would accept and continue in office. Thus he was
superintendent for somewhat more than six years, working incessantly for the
permanent success of all these propositions. He found difficulties on every
hand. The labor was very great, schools were increasing, travel was difficult,
the laws were inadequate, confusion and neglect were common, and everywhere a
sort of "do as you please" system prevailed. The school lands were being settled
upon by trespassers in the belief that the future state would provide a safe way
out. School lands were included by speculators in their great wheat farms
without a shadow of title. School lands were being settled upon by greedy and
selfish adventurers. All this army of plunderers was assailed and a war waged
upon them. An appeal was made to the public conscience and gradually a sentiment
against them was formed. Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz decided against
the trespassers at General Beadle's solicitation and their cases were placed
before the United States grand juries who made a formal presentment of the wrong
that caused many to hesitate and refrain from a repetition of the offense.
Meanwhile Mr. Beadle was holding teachers' institutes and delivering addresses
in all the leading counties of the state, and in all these the school land
question was a prominent feature, in which he early stood for the principle that
none of it should be sold for less than its appraised value and never for less
than ten dollars an acre. He became more and more insistent on this limitation,
and when he met old friends they would ask jocularly if he had sold any more
school land at ten dollars an acre; if he needed any more they had some to spare
at that figure. Meanwhile the movement toward a division of the territory and
admission into the Union became prominent and added force to every issue that
related to state policy. These questions grew active in the minds of the people
and legislative action looking toward statehood, was prominent. Bills were
introduced in congress providing for it. Voluntary state conventions were held
to promote the cause, and in these the safety of the school and endowment lands
was a leading issue. Three policies were advocated: the division of the
territory, the admission into the Union and the saving of the school lands. Many
who were in favor of the first two, gradually adopted the third also. Some
devoted themselves to one or another of the issues and some made favor for the
protection of the school lands and funds, a condition of favor for the admission
of the state. General Beadle was one of these, though he favored all three. In
1884 it became a recognized fact that the school land provisions were essential
to success in all.
There were great difficulties to be encountered and the salary was not
sufficient to support his family, to whom he was fondly devoted, but he was
encouraged by the sympathy and solicitation of the best men in the territory and
by the feeling that it was a patriotic work, and if accomplished it must be done
at once, but there was no one ready or prepared to do it but him. He had to
organize counties and schools everywhere. He framed a system of laws thoroughly
adapted to the exigencies of a rapidly growing and extensive country, Long
journeys had to be made in common vehicles, on horseback or even afoot. The
office work was heavy enough to have employed two or three men constantly, and
he lacked means to employ one. He rented an office and secured the help of
A. W. Barber near the close of his many years of service. A much more vivid
picture might be drawn of his great labors—toil that was intense and incessant.
The more men who added their support, the more the work was increased in
consultation and advice. Notwithstanding all his talk and addresses, there was
much confusion in the public mind as to the purposes in view, and many false
representations were made by those who aimed at profit from cheap sales.
It is impossible to mention the many able men who faithfully cooperated with him and with one another in all these issues and struggles. In his memoirs, published by the State Historical Society, are given many details and liberal praise of the devoted work of Rev. Dr. Joseph Ward, the fouhder of Yankton College, who gave his services to the statehood movement and the protection of the school lands, also of the similar labors of Rev. Dr. James Moore, who as faithfully served through the constitutional convention as chairman of the committee on education and the school lands, and who was true to the cause when Dr. Ward was the only man who stood loyally by his side in every step of their great struggle.
Through the labors of these and many others it came about that under and by
virtue of a special act, secured from the legislature and the governor, a
convention was chosen by the free votes of the people of all parties, crafts,
churches and professions. The special election to choose members of this
convention was not controlled by the political parties. It was a movement of the
people, organized by committees formed during the long campaign by friends of
statehood, division of the great territory and the school land movement. There
were politicians among them who saw prominent state offices, United States
senatorships and memberships in congress open to their active ambition, and some
of these became very helpful to these three aims. It was on the whole, a highly
moral movement. Righteousness was in it and back of it. The local committees
that had been formed to solicit the cooperation of good men and disinterested
citizens in the cause were bodies of the best men, who reached other good men
for associates in the movement. Hon. Hugh J. Campbell, who was United States
district attorney, is gratefully remembered for his laborious services in these
organizations. At that time the choice of United States grand jurors was largely
under the attorneys' control, assisted by the United States marshal. The best
men in scattered neighborhoods were placed upon the venire. In the intervals of
their service as jurors they were more fully enlisted in the cause of statehood
and the school lands and returned to their homes devoted helpers in the
movement.
Before the grand jury that assembled at Fargo in the United States court, the
decision of Secretary Schurz on the trespassers upon the school lands, secured
by General Beadle, was presented and many witnesses were subpoened who testified
to trespasses, among them, in many cases, big farmers. Finally a presentment of
the great evil and wrong involved was made by the jury to the court and by it,
caused to be read. A crowd of people heard it and it made a marked impression
upon public opinion. The people took notice, the newspapers spread the matter
and many withdrew from their trespasses. General Beadle had spoken at many
places in the northern part of the territory on the issue. Sympathy for the
cause extended and later the people of "North" Dakota largely favored the
movement in South Dakota for division, statehood and the protection of the
school lands, and they have never regretted it. North Dakota today honors
General Beadle, giving him the credit for saving the school lands.
The convention chosen by the people in pursuance of the legislative act met at
Sioux Falls, in September, 1885, and organized by electing Judge Edgerton as its
president. He appointed the various committees to prepare the parts of the
constitution, but it is not the purpose here to follow the details of its work.
Dr. James Moore, then residing in Beadle county, and a presiding elder of the
Methodist Episcopal church, was named as chairman of the committee on education
and the school lands, while Dr. Joseph Ward was appointed as the second member
of that committee. Four other members of character and ability were placed with
them, in charge of that responsible subject. It may be said that all were
favorable to the saving and safe investment of the proceeds from their sale when
made. The issue arose upon the question of the reasonable holding of these lands
for time and the development of the state to advance their value and bring
higher prices for them. Chairman Moore and Dr. Ward stood firmly for what may be
called Beadle's original proposition that only the lands of highest value should
be sold first, that lands should be offered only when the proposed list, after a
certain time should be approved by the governor, that the lands so proposed for
sale should be appraised by the state auditor and the land commissioner, joined
to the county superintendent in the several counties, and then, after due time
for advertisement at the state capital and in the counties where they were
situated, they should be sold at public auction to the highest bidder. However,
they were not to be sold lor less than their appraised value and never for less
than ten dollars an acre.
Another provision was added that none of the lands should be sold in the first
year of statehood, a limitation of one-fourth only in a certain number of years.
These provisions and others of some value were finally secured and placed in the
constitution. This was a great victory, considering the formed opinions met with
in the minds of the committee members. If we go back to the struggle in the
convention or "statehood meeting," held at Canton, June 21, 1882, and to the
text of the resolutions and the proceedings of that body, we can see what an
advance was gained in the interval. Major Dollard in his "Recollections," says
"Rev. Wilmot Whitfield was the chairman of the committee on school lands, but
the motion and general characteristics point to General Beadle, who was
superintendent of public instruction, as its author. He was deeply interested
and thoroughly informed on the subject."
Other provisions were added, that none of the lands should be sold in the first
year of statehood, and not more than one-fourth of them in periods of five
years. Both limitations aimed at preventing immediate or wholesale waste. If we
go back to the "statehood meeting" held at Canton, June 21, 1882, and know its
proceedings and struggles for lower prices and quicker sales, we can see that
much had been gained meanwhile for safety. One great effort in that body was to
make the limitation in price six dollars an acre instead of ten. There was a
proposition also to limit the ten dollar price to fifteen years and there were
many other similar ideas. There were capable, able and faithful men in the
Canton meeting, as well as reactionaries on the school land issue. Major Dollard
in his "Recollections," says "Rev. Wilmot Whitfield was the chairman of the
committee on school lands, but the motion and general characteristics point to
General Beadle, who was superintendent of public instruction, as its author. He
was deeply interested and thoroughly informed on the subject." The resolutions
declared ten dollars as the lowest price and Whitfield and his committee won a
valuable victory. All the off side notions were inherited by our Sioux Falls
convention of 1885, and the strong affirmative ideas were also there in full
force, with more political ambitions and willingness to let others take
responsibilities. The final victory was not yet won, and it is not yet fully
won, for many of the old ideas are yet potent in the minds of people and even in
the legislation about the lands and in the discussions and administration of the
school land interests.
General Beadle was not a member of these statehood meetings or constitutional
conventions. It was late in the spring of 1885 before he was fully discharged
from responsibilities of other offices and he did not seek an election. The work
went on at the Sioux Falls convention in varied but more hopeful arguments but
for the decisive action sought, the committee stood four opposed to two in
favor,—the chairman, Dr. Moore, and Dr. Ward. Finally at the suggestion of the
two, a kindly invitation was sent to General Beadle to attend the committee
meetings and lend his aid to the good cause. Here was another chance to do some
hard work without pay, of which there was not a penny. It was like the 30th of
May, 1862, before Corinth, when he had taken a gun and cartridge box, and like
much of his service to South Dakota. He was called secretary of the committee,
but had no election thereto. He sat with the committee and worked in their room
when they were absent. He discussed the various points with them individually
and took close counsel with Moore and Ward. Then General Beadle, taking the work
the committee had begun, wrote in full the article in the constitution on
education and the school lands, as adopted, except one slight amendment as to
the security for laws. It was complete, systematic and most definite, and
contained the clauses he had already advocated. All the arguments upon the issue
were gone over by the committee. The clear form General Beadle had given to the
article won support for it and it was finally adopted by a unanimous vote of the
committee and by a great majority of the convention the day before it adjourned.
Rev. James Moore has written, among, other things, the following: "In making out
the details of their report the committee were greatly assisted by Gen. W. H. H.
Beadle, then of Yankton, who at their request met regularly with them during the
last half of the session of the convention. His thorough knowledge of the
conditions in the territory and his sound discriminating judgment were of
incalculable worth in perfecting what has been pronounced a very perfect
constitutional provision for well endowed free public schools. The state owes
much to General Beadle for the generous, broad minded and magnificent service he
has rendered her school interests."
In a personal letter to General Beadle in 1905, Rev. Moore wrote: "I am sorry
not to have seen you when I passed through Madison. I am desirous the people of
your state should know how much they are indebted to General Beadle for their
most excellent, complete and successful foundation for public schools. Accept
assurances of most exalted esteem of, Yours very truly, James H. Moore."
There were large land grants in aid of railroads in the northern part of the
great territory where the big farms, then famous, were made up of purchases from
these grants and preemptions upon the other sections, except school lands, which
they included in their farms, by cultivation without authority. Against these
General Schurz's decision was used. There were no land grants in the southern
part of the territory but the arguments from the facts were effective in
creating public sentiment in both sections. Speculation in lands was active. The
campaign took a national turn. When James A. Garfield was elected president but
before his inauguration, General Beadle visited him at Mentor, Ohio, his home,
and had a most satisfactory conference upon the idea that congress might be
induced to give special national protection to the school lands in all the
territories and thus aid their future school systems. He argued that because the
lands were promised to the future state and reserved by law for this purpose,
the government owed this protection meanwhile. The assassination of President
Garfield frustrated this measure.
About the same time, three men of large means who were for a time in the
territory, approached Beadle with the suggestion that great difficulty would be
met with in carrying out his ideas and that long struggle be abated; that when
the state was organized and admitted they would purchase one million acres to be
then selected, at five dollars per acre, the lands to be selected in a period of
five years. Their names have never been given publicity, but the danger was
exposed and proved a useful argument. It will be seen that there would have been
five million dollars. As but a small part of the lands would have been required
at one time, a small revolving fund would have handled it all.
The state was admitted into the Union, November 2, 1889, and the delay of one
year before any lands could be sold gave much time to the advocates of slower or
delayed sales. The article on education and the school lands remained the same
as was made at Sioux Falls in 1885.
"We can follow the author of the beneficent measure but slightly beyond the
accomplishment of this, his great purpose," writes one who was one of the
coadjutors in the Madison State Normal School, to the presidency of which he was
called early in August, 1889. "Perhaps a majority regard the saving of the
school lands and the article in the constitution on Education and the School
Lands as his most eduring monument. To us his work as president of the Madison
(South Dakota) State Normal School, in which position he served so long, is one
of equal merit and usefulness, though it chiefly affects that state alone. The
appreciation of the great work he did for education in the state is now
expressed on all sides. Though the world is usually slow to recognize, it
already sees the immeasurable usefulness of that accomplishment, and the other
six states to which congress extended its application, also see its wisdom. Time
alone can measure the results in all. He has the most unusual happiness of the
conscientious service he rendered and of seeing his hopes realized. Beyond this
he sees it acknowledged by the people he served and the chief honor of the state
he so greatly aided in creating.
"But there has been another work, a greater as we believe, that even those for
whom it was done cannot realize. What he has put into the lives of our boys and
girls is worth more and will tell for more in the generations to come than even
the other powerful influence wields, though it, too, will inspire the youth of
the state. We refer to his work in the State Normal. We have seen it transform
lives. We have heard acknowledgment of it that never came to his ears. And it
still continues and will grow for years through other generations. We heard Dr.
Henry Van Dyke preach upon 'The Contagion of Virtue' and it was fine but it has
been better preached in lives. No man in either Dakota has so loyal a
constituency as the graduates who were under this man. We have seen and admired
many but he was the best all around man we ever knew.
"What was the man whom we thus eulogize and how did he appear to those who saw
him and worked under him for so many years? His personality alluded to by his
college classmates was striking enough to cause their remembrance and mention.
It was a direct source of power. Six feet and nearly one inch tall, weighing
then about one hundred and ninety pounds, now two hundred and ten pounds, or
more, he had a firm step and the erect bearing of a soldier. His shoulders were
broad and square; his head required a number seven and three-quarters hat then,
and now, with the hair less heavy, about seven and five-eighths, with heavy dark
brown hair, now nearly gray, and a well trimmed full beard and mustache. With a
clear, distinct and even ringing voice he was always a noticeable man and
usually a master before an audience. Of course he was intelligent. He had read
from boyhood and was yet a student. He often praised the excellence of that
system of school township libraries that Indiana provided in which he found and
read all the best books. His memory is fine and he often repeats favorites in
English classics and some of other languages. He has a fine and definite command
of English which he pronounces with almost faultless accuracy. He was a fine,
natural reader and could thus delight his hearers. His face and action were very
expressive and added to his vocal emphasis of thought and feeling.
"There were many such elements of personality and expression and they gave him
great influence over students, and he inspired them wonderfully toward high aims
and noble efforts. All men have faults and he thought he had many. Whatever they
were to him, they never affected his honesty, his high integrity and his
unselfish devotion to others and the high interests he represented. Born in a
rude time, raised in days of struggle and the hardest labor, and even hardship,
often make the tasks of life seem hard. In the midst of his best work some one
would charge him with selfish and ambitious aims. Yet he lived and probably will
die a poor man. He was generous to the extent of his means. He gave all he was
and all he had to the interests of public education. Most of his early work was
done under a salary of six hundred dollars a year as superintendent of public
instruction.
"In 1884 he received an offer of three thousand dollars a year as an agent for
the sale of school books, and discussing it with his friend, Rev. Dan F.
Bradley, the successor of Dr. Ward, as the pastor of the Congregational church
at Yankton, who suggested that a man had a right to accept a good salary in an
honorable business and care for and educate his family, he replied that the
school land and other issues were not yet settled, but only at their crisis. He
quoted from Paul: 'Necessity is upon me that I do this thing.' This feeling and
this language were the incentive and motto of his laborious and successful life.
It was the form that religious duty, obligation to God, took in his life. 'His
high motive', he said, "was not from will, but a sort of conscience, a sense of
must—this clearly ought to be done and I must do it.' Necessity, conscience, a
feeling that he ought or must do the work was the power in him. Calculating will
and mere ambition will not achieve such ends. Moral necessity mounts to higher
compulsion and masters the man to attain success in the duty before him. To
other points, replying, he said, This is my call, my vision; my duty led me and
holds me to the service of popular education; to that I am devoted and I cannot
leave it voluntarily; to that for some reason I have an eye single.' Such was
the conversation and such the decision that he made or had before made; such was
his preparation for 1885 and the final, victorious struggle."
We have devoted these pages to General Beadle's official and public life and
services, but have omitted reference to his social relations. When about to
depart for college he had refused all thought of marriage in reply to his
father's suggestion of a fine farm and home when marriage became his purpose.
Throughout his four years of college activity, his social life was slight both
in Ann Arbor and at home. He saw the young people of his early life, whose age
was near his own, married, and in Ann Arbor he formed no attachments. When his
graduation had occurred he made a final call upon President Tappan, who warmly
shook his hand and said: "That is our misfortune; we get a fine body of young
men about us and grow attached to them, then we have to lose them. I suppose you
will be getting married soon," he added. Beadle's reply was that he had no
particular plan for that. "Well, may it come soon," he said, and smiled, "and I
trust it will bring you happiness." "When I am to be married," Beadle replied,
"I very much wish you may come and celebrate the act." "Good", said he, "I shall
come and do that wherever you may be; just let me know and I will respond," and
he never forgot it.
Mr. Beadle had arranged to be married May 18, 1863, and on the 15th wrote Dr.
Tappan of the plan and recalled his agreement. Dr. Tappan took the letter to his
class in philosophy the day before the wedding and read it to them, recalled his
promise and said, "the class will not meet on that day." He even added that
Colonel Beadle would pass on the afternoon train on his way from his regiment,
to Albion, where the event would occur. And a crowd of "the boys" were at the
train to greet and congratulate Beadle.
On the morning of the 18th, Dr. Tappan came to Albion, and Ellen S. Chapman and
William H. H. Beadle were happily married and left for Chicago upon the noon
train. It is impossible to follow the details of their lives, which were
unusually happy. They were devoted to one another and to their family. The
happiness of the wife and three daughters, and their education and comfort were
the controlling motives of his life. When he was severely ill at Annapolis,
Maryland, his wife was quickly by his side, and also upon other occasions when
need appeared, and the lives of all were for the happiness of all.
Upon a visit to the home of the youngest daughter at Chicago, in July, 1897,
Mrs. Beadle was stricken with a sudden and critical attack of hernia and the
skill of five able surgeons was in vain. She died under the necessary operation,
leaving the husband and three daughters prostrated with grief. All three
daughters were married. Of these, Mrs. Wallace Bruce died many years ago. Mrs.
Fred B. Hughes lives in San Francisco, California, and Mrs. Mae B. Frink resides
in Eugene, Oregon. Mrs. Hughes has one daughter and one grandson. Mrs. Frink has
two daughters and one son, who excels in school studies.
Though written some time ago, the following is occasionally reprinted:
General Beadle's Beautiful Tribute To His Parents
"Born in Parke county, Indiana, in a log cabin built wholly by my father's own
hands, I wish to declare the great indebtedness I owe to him and my dear mother
for the inheritance both gave me of a life of great and devoted labor and their
lessons of the highest integrity and morality, of which they were the best
examples.
"They gave me an opportunity to labor for and save money for my own education,
and I shall ever be glad that I devoted myself to that cause."
