Beadle County Biographies

 

PYLE, Gladys, a Senator from South Dakota; born in Huron, Beadle County, S.Dak., October 4, 1890; attended the public schools; graduated from Huron (S.Dak.) College in 1911; taught in the public high schools at Miller, Wessington, and Huron, S.Dak., 1912-1918; first woman member of the State house of representatives 1923-1927; served as secretary of State of South Dakota 1927-1931; unsuccessful candidate for Republican nomination for governor 1930; member of the State securities commission 1931-1933; engaged in the life insurance business; elected on November 8, 1938, as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Peter Norbeck and served from November 9, 1938, to January 3, 1939; was not a candidate for election in 1938 to the full term; resumed the life insurance business and also engaged in farm management; member of the South Dakota Board of Charities and Corrections 1943-1957; agent for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. 1950-1986; died in Huron, S.Dak., March 14, 1989; cremated, ashes interred in Riverside Cemetery.
–Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present; transcribed by A. Newell.

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Who’s Who in South Dakota, Vol. 1
By O. W. Coursey
Educator School Supply Co., Publisher, 1913
Contributed by Jim Dezotell

RICHARD O. RICHARDS

A NORSK IN AMERICA

Along the southeast coast of Norway, the "Land of the Midnight Sun," the land of countless fjords and resplendent cascades, the realm of good old King Oscar, is the little, aged, seaport town of Sandefjord. It was in this little Norwegian burg that the Hon. Richard O. Richards, of Huron, S. D., came into being on January 2, 1866. Mr. Richards came from prominent old Norwegian and Danish maritime families. Very rugged, with light complexion, rosy cheeks and deep blue eyes, he is a typical Norskman and a splendid representative of that valiant race.

Sandefjord is a ship yard. Mr. Richard's father was a ship owner and ship builder, at the place. It was here that "Dick" as everybody calls him, spent his boyhood and secured his academic education. After completing his course he clerked for a short time in a ship-chandler's store.

Tired of his limitations, eager to seek a country where a man has a chance to become a leader on his own initiative without waiting for the rule of primogeniture, fired with ambition to try the New World, at the age of fifteen he struck out for America. Our Norwegian arrival went direct to Traverse City, Michigan, which he reached in May, 1881. In the fall of that year he moved to New York where for two years he acted as an interpreter at Castle Garden. After this, for about a year, he engaged in business as a ship broker in New York city.

A STREET VAGRANT

Finding that America was not proving to be the immediate Eldorado that he had anticipated, he struck west again in 1884 and settled in Dakota Territory. Rumor has it that he reached the city of Mitchell, which at that time was only a village, penniless; that he was set to work on the streets as a vagrant; but that his ability was soon detected by his friends who got him a job as bookkeeper in the Mitchell National bank.

"Fail! Fail? In the lexicon of youth
Which Fate reserves for a bright manhood,
There's no such word as fail."

Does any man think that a fellow of young Richard's determination might fail? Would he get home-sick, give up and go back to the little old ship-building, ship-laden seaport town of his youth? Not on your life! Our young viking had better blood in his veins than that. 

"So close is glory to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When duty whispers low, 'Thou Must,'
The youth replies, `I can.' "

"I can! I will!" said the determined youth who turned his face toward the line of greatest resistance, set his teeth, and buckled in.

BECOMES WEALTHY

Now, here we go! It is 1886. Young Richards is only twenty years of age. Most boys at this period in life still have mamma putting on their collar and ties for them, and are slipping around on the Q. T. asking dad for a little more spending money. Not so with Dick. Our adopted Norwegian youngster was making his own way. He had already demonstrated his ability as an organizer and had become manager of the American Investment Company for Dakota Territory. Then he became president of the National Land & Trust Company, the Consolidated Land & Irrigation Company and at present, the Richard's Trust  Company. 

Think of it! A poor ship builder's boy, an immigrant, a hod-carrier. Today only forty-four years of age, and one of the richest men in the state and in the northwest; president of a great trust company, owner of several banks, of vast areas of land and of numerous other interests. How did he get it? By application and determination. Jame Lane Allen's new book, entitled "From Poverty to Power," in which he shows that success is in the man himself, is laid around just such a character as this flaxen-haired personification of the vikings of old, this determined son of a Norsk, this born organizer and leader of men, this uncrowned knight of a sister world, this man whose personal magnetism and whose foresight command the admiration and respect of his friends and foes alike— the Hon. R. O. Richards.

IN POLITICS

Whatever may be said against Mr. Richard's political views, no man who knows him has ever doubted his sincerity as a reformer. He believes that railroad and other corporate domination of politics should cease. He works to this end. It doesn't matter to him what faction or what man or set of men he works with, all he asks is loyalty to his cause. 

Richards is the father of the progressive reform movement in South Dakota He began the fight in 1903 at Huron, over the postmastership at that place. He lost. In 1904, he brought out Coe I. Crawford as a candidate for governor on three reform issues; anti-pass law, primary law, and equitable railroad taxation. He lost. What next? Discouraged? Never! There is on the statute books of this state an initiative law which provides that the people themselves may present their own laws to the legislature, by petition. For the next few months Mr. Richards quietly went about the state during his spare time and secured 9,000 signatures to a petition to the legislature to enact a state-wide primary law. What happened? The legislature turned down the monster petition, on the claim that it was invalid. Discouraged? No! He had our legislators so badly scared that in order to square themselves with the people they enacted "The Honest Caucus Law." Encouraged? Yes! The fight must never stop till victory came. In 1906, he again backed for governor, his chosen candidate, Coe I. Crawford. This time he won. 

Mr. Richards managed the primary campaign for the progressive wing of the party in 1908 and succeeded in nominating Governor Crawford for United States senator, and Mr. Vessey for governor. They were elected. But these gentlemen failed to carry out Mr. Richard's views. He began to scold them. Last February a meeting of the progressive forces was held at Huron. Mr. Richards, cognizant of his own strength, immediately announced that he could either "sink their ship or float it." They knew it also. In order to save themselves they made Mr. Richards manager of their primary campaign. He saved all of their
former strength, which did not include the two congressmen and the state treasurer, losing to them only one office—that of state auditor. So much for his leadership.

But the end is not yet. Twenty progressive leaders signed at Huron last spring a compact drawn up by Mr. Richards himself in which they agreed if he would save their new ship at the June primaries they could in turn write into the state republican platform such additional reform measure as Mr. Richards might desire. When the time came they either couldn't or wouldn't "deliver the goods." This set the political pot to boiling. There are some of the progressive leaders in the state who never can again secure Mr. Richard's support. It is now an open secret that irreconcilable differences have sprung up between them. Without his support in the future, some who won in the past can never win again.

Verily, verily; he can "sink their ship or float it."

Mr. Richards was married to Miss Grace May Durell, formerly of Mitchell, S. D., on January 8, 1891. Six children have been born to them, of whom four are girls and two are boys. Mrs. Richards is a native of Laconla, New Hampshire, and comes from old Revolutionary-war ancestry. She is descended on her mother's side from the Sargent-Pierce families, and on her father's side from the Hutchinson-Durell families, all very prominent in the history of New England, since the early days of that section.

Few men in South Dakota have given public questions more or closer attention than has Mr. Richards. He possesses an exceptionally analytical mind. He is quick to perceive selfish interests and evil causes, and able to suggest practical remedies. It is said of him that he posseses little or no diplomacy, and is not at all given to compromising on the principles he advocates. He has earned the reputation of being a good fighter for the public welfare, and ever faithful to the interests of friends. Nobody doubts the unselfish genuineness of his attitude on public questions, and because of his intelligence and ability and effort, we have today on the statute books of South Dakota laws like the primary, the anti-pass, the anti-divorce and other progressively restrictive measures. Mr. Richards has made himself a force to be seriously dealt with in the politics of South Dakota. His friends feel that he has already done much and is likely to do more.

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Who’s Who in South Dakota, Vol. 1
By O. W. Coursey
Educator School Supply Co., Publisher, 1913
Contributed by Jim Dezotell

ASHER F. PAY

A GOOD SAMARITAN

The most sacred lesson in the Bible is the story of the "Good Samaritan." The man who exemplifies in his daily life the virtues of the Samaritan rises to the highest and best deserved distinction of his day. Such a man is Asher F. Pay, of Huron. His kindly heart finds an ever ready echo in that of his devoted wife. Between them -often at a sacrifice -they have schooled other people's boys, found legitimate employment for the idle, and have redeemed wayward girls. Their Christianity has been of the practical sort - of the good Samaritan type - and their thoughtful deeds of kindness will not be "interred with their bones."

Asher F. Pay, of Huron, Beadle county, South Dakota, was born in Jefferson county, New York, the year that the Mexican War broke out. Like Lincoln, he got most of his education at night, after the old folks had retired, lying near the fire-place, reading from borrowed books. Later on he attended Todds' School for Boys for a brief period.  Left fatherless at the age of ten years, he not only had to make his own way through life, but he was compelled to help earn a livelihood for the rest of the family. After his father's death, the family drifted to Woodstock, Illinois; and from there they made their way west to Washington, Iowa, where fifty-five years ago last October, young Pay apprenticed himself for three years to A. R. Wickersham of the Washington Press, to learn the printer's trade. 

In 1862 he went to Chicago, and united with the firm of Dunlop, Sewell & Spaulding, railroad printers, to learn book and job printing. At the end of twenty months he returned to the "Washington Press," but shortly thereafter gave up his work to respond to his country's call, and enlisted in the Union army.

NEWSPAPER REPORTER

Although Asher F. Pay has never published in South Dakota a newspaper of his own, he is, nevertheless, usually referred to as a newspaper man. This arises somewhat from his early training as a printer and writer, but more especially from his work in South Dakota as a reporter for the Metropolitan papers of the east. 

During his first four years in Dakota, he corresponded for several large papers; - first for the Minneapolis Tribune. His early reportorial work for this paper, wherein he heralded praises for Dakota prairies and showed the possibilities of this empire of the west, soon won the attention of the Chicago Inter-Ocean. They wrote to the Tribune to find out who their Dakota correspondent was. This led to his additional employment by the Inter-Ocean. His work on the latter paper soon won for him national recognition, with the result that the Journal, the Times and the World, all of New York city, were added to his list.

Of recent years he has gradually eliminated his reportorial work until today he contents himself with furnishing material for the Minneapolis Journal, and a few other metropolitan newspapers, with which he has been identified for many years.

MILITARY SERVICE

At sixteen years of age young Pay enlisted in the 45th Iowa Infantry, commanded by Colonel Berryman, and, as a result, he was united with the Army of The Tennessee. As stated, Pay's father was dead. His mother was an English lady. America was her adopted country. Yet young Asher was the fifth one of her noble sons on whose patriotic brow she had implanted a loving mother's farewell kiss, and said: "Go! my boy. 'God bless you! Abe Lincoln needs you." 

The boys went; they served their country well. One was wounded at Atlanta; another at Chicamagua; one fell in the capture of Jeff Davis, but finally survived; another froze his feet and lost the use of them in the famous campaign through Dakota against Indians who had taken part in the New Ulm, Minnesota, massacre and were fleeing westward; while young Asher himself sustained injuries that have troubled him ever since. He was mustered out at Keokuk, Iowa, in October, 1865.

LATER YEARS

After the war Pay went to Galesburg, Illinois, where, for five years, he engaged in the printing business. From there he went to Keokuk, Iowa, then to Carthage, Illinois, where for ten years he managed a business establishment for a Keokuk firm. Removing to Springfield, Illinois, he managed a dry goods business for two years at that place, for a New York firm, and then, owing to ill health, resigned to come to South Dakota.

He landed at Huron in 1882 and homesteaded a farm in Beadle county. Later, for several years, he worked on the Daily Huronite. Finally, he received an appointment in the U. S. Land office at Huron, holding this position for two years.

An unwritten political code of ethics has sprung up in South Dakota whereby the office of clerk of the courts in a large number of counties - particularly those that have at their respective county seats a strong G. A. R. post - is given to an old soldier, his local post not infrequently deciding for themselves who the honored member shall be. Just so at Huron. For fourteen consecutive years Pay has held the position. Two years ago he announced that he would not be a candidate for re-election in 1912. Therefore, at the state G. A. R. encampment held in Pierre, last June, his admiring comrades got busy and formulated a plan informally to make him the "old soldier" candidate this year for Secretary of State. His candidacy, although strenuously objected to by himself, at once became popular throughout the state, and it has now acquired an apparently irresistable momentum.

Here is a kind hearted gentleman who has extolled the virtues of our state, who is leaving the imprint of his own splendid manhood upon the lives of the state G. A. R. encampments; one whom we all love, and whose memory we shall be pleased to honor. He has lived a long, useful life of repute and service; and the question arising is: "Does it not "Pay"?

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Who’s Who in South Dakota, Vol. 1
By O. W. Coursey
Educator School Supply Co., Publisher, 1913
Contributed by Jim Dezotell

J. F. HALLADAY

PIONEER EDITOR

"Pussonally speakin'," as they say in New England, I like a thoroughbred. I like the man who can march to known defeat, without a whimper, and take his medicine, and smack his lips, and lie like a pirate when he says, "it's good." I like the chap who can finish as well as he can score. I cannot refrain from admiring the man who can take success or failure with even mind; the grim, steady, true-souled chap who can break the shaggy nut of experience, and whose poker face will not disclose to the onlooker whether he found within a kernel that was sound or one that was not. J. F. Halladay, editor of the Iroquois Chief, former state auditor, managing bank director, astute political manager, steadfast friend, as true a soldier as ever carried musket, or ate hardtack, or slept in the trenches, is one—a thoroughbred. I mean—and it is about him that the "Who's Who" column concerns itself today. A man who can spend his last ten cents for a good cigar is a thoroughbred, and that is what "Dick" Halladay did when twenty- ight years ago he crossed the border into Dakota territory to begin a career which has been a credit to himself, a joy to his family, and a pride to his hundreds of personal friends.

J. F. Halladay was born in Kansas but he must not be blamed for that. It was a good while ago—in 1860—and he got out of that state as soon as he could. At the age of fourteen his education was completed so far as school is concerned, but it isn't completed yet, for each year adds to his better equipment for the things that count—just as it always does with the man who keeps everlastingly doing things. He came to what is now South Dakota, twenty-eight years ago, from Beatrice, Nebraska. It was an overland trip, and Dick was absolutely "broke" after he had bought that choice Havana, but he was a millionaire in pluck and purpose and he set out to make good. He got a job on a Huron morning daily, filed on a claim between Iroquois and Cavour, looked wise, and began to hustle. In January, 1888, he went to Iroquois and for two years worked on the Herald but two years later got a position in the Bank of Iroquois. He resigned this place in 1883 and started the Iroquois Chief with a partner, whom he bought out two years later, and ever since he has been the editor of one of the most influential weekly newspapers of the state. Only a short time ago, he became a stockholder in the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Iroquois, of which institution he is a now one of the managing directors.

In politics, Mr. Halladay is a stalwart. He has always been active, and everybody always knows just where Dick Halladay is at. He is not only not a trimmer, but he cannot understand the man who is. Hence his closest friends are men of the same sturdy type, who stay put, and won't wobble, and who fear defeat less than they do the play to the galleries.

President Harrison appointed Mr. Halladay to position of postmaster at Iroquois, and he served for four years giving way to a democrat named by President Cleveland. He was appointed to the same position by President McKinley and served all told nine years as postmaster, resigning in 1902. Eight years ago, he was brought out for state auditor. He received the support of practically every republican paper in the state and was unanimously nominated. His public work was of a particularly high grade and he was renominated and re-elected by a big majority He was a member of the Herried and Elrod administrations which made such a fine record in reducing the floating debt of the state and paying off the bonds, and as state auditor he took an important part in that work.

Mr. Halladay was elected secretary of the South Dakota State Press association when it was a feeble and struggling association and served for seven years doing much to build the association up to its present standard. He was also honored by being selected as president of the association. Dick has hosts of friends everywhere in the state, but literally everybody in the newspaper bunch like him and most of them are his warm personal friends.

Mr. Halladay has never followed politics for a business, but simply for his love of the game. He has been mixed up in the game since 1883. Only twice in twenty years has he failed to attend the state convention as a delegate from Kingsbury county and he isn't a "boss" either. He is simply a "good guinea" with a genius for making and holding friends, and with plenty appetite for hard work. When the republican party split into two factions, Mr. Halladay lined up with his friends on the stalwart side, and he has been aggressively with that element ever since. In the primary fight between Kittredge and Crawford, Dick was "called from the plow" to help manage the stalwart end of it, and last spring the press bureau for the stalwarts was placed in his exclusive charge. At the conclusion of the campaign, his work was everywhere highly commended and one of the leading insurgent newspapers declared that "Halladay is the best political editor in the state."

When Mr. Halladay was a candidate for a second term as state auditor, Coe I. Crawford was a candidate for the nomination for governor. Insurgency had crept over the line into Kingsbury county, and the convention of that county wanted to give their support to both Crawford and Halladay, and passed resolutions to that effect. The action was unexpected and unprecedented, Dick was fighting Crawford, and the action of the convention would give out the impression that Hallady had sold out his friends. He met the situation like a thoroughbred. When the resolutions were adopted, Dick asked for permission to address the convention, and when he appeared on the platform, was greeted with cheers, the delegates supposing that he was about to make the usual speech of thanks. Instead he plainly pointed out that the double-header endorsement was a stone around his neck that he refused to carry, that it put him in a false light before the people of the state, and would hamper him in the state convention. He therefore announced his refusal to accept the endorsement by his home county, under the circumstances, and declared his purpose to go to the state convention and make a fight on his own merits, without the support of his home county. This he did, The anti-Crawford people controlled the convention and Halladay was unanimously renominated. Old politicians said at the time that this was the nerviest political move that had ever come under their observation. 

Mr. Halladay was a member of the first capital commission that adopted plans and selected the material for the new state house. The judgment of the first commission was criticised at the time by some, and among them were many of Halladay's best friends, but its judgment was later vindicated when the new commission, consisting of members of the rival faction, erected the building in strict accordance with the first commission's plans, although they had made a campaign issue of the fact that the first commission had chosen Bedford stone instead of home material. 

In May, 1886, Mr. Halladay was married to Carrie E. Hammond, of Iroquois. They have two children—Edna May, 20 years old, who is now taking a college course and music at the Wesleyan University of Mitchell, and Clinton Frank, 18 years old, who is studying in the engineering department of the State College at Brookings. Mr. Halladay's family life is ideal—as many South Dakotans know who have been entertained in the beautiful and cozy home at Iroquois. Dick says he is hen-pecked, and I guess maybe he is, but that is simply another proof of his good stuff. He is a wise man who lets a good wife "boss" him in the home.

The Iroquois Chief which is simply Dick Halladay in print has always been a strong and unswerving republican newspaper. It has been on the job all the time, and its influence in western Kingsbury and eastern Beadle counties always shows up when the returns come in. 

Mr. Halladay is not a rich man—but I want to correct that statement. He is. Any man is rich who has a beautiful and interesting family, a good business, a big bunch of friends in every town and county in the state, and the abiding respect of all who know him, and who is always counted on to steadfastly and bravely adhere to what he believes and to those in whom he believes. In the things that really count in this strange experience that we call life, Dick Halladay is one of the richest men in the state, and he has reason to look back over the twenty-eight useful and busy years spent here with the complete satisfaction of a man who has done a man's work and has done it well.

- By C. M. Day

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Who’s Who in South Dakota, Vol. 1
By O. W. Coursey
Educator School Supply Co., Publisher, 1913
Contributed by Jim Dezotell

WHEELER S. BOWEN

OUR CLASSICAL EDITOR

The days of swaying public sentiment through broadsides of oratory from the platform are rapidly passing away in this country, although they will never cease. The reason for this is the establishment of so many monthly and weekly magazines, the springing up here and there of such a multitudinous number of daily newspapers and the creation of local and rural mail carriers or their distribution; also to the diffusion of education and the creation of the reading habit. 

The Revolutionary war period called forth a score of the ablest orators the world has ever produced. The Civil War period gave to us another band of spirited speakers who re-echoed the sentiments of revolutionary days. Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death," found its parting echo three-quarters of a century later in Dan Webster's "Liberty and union, one and inseparable, now and forever."

During the nineteenth century, journalism not only took root but multiplied itself and flourished greatly. In 1814, Nathan Hale, a talented nephew of the famous spy of the revolution, bought the "Boston Daily Advertiser," which was, and still is, the leading daily paper of New England. He edited it for fifty years. Down in a little, dingy cellar under an old building on Nassau street in New York City, James Gordon Bennet established the "New York Herald" in 1835; and for over seventy-five years has remained one of the most powerful papers on either continent. Horace Greeley, in 1833, had thrust the "Morning Post" to the arena of newspaperdom. It was the first penny paper ever published in the entire world. The next year it was converted into the "New Yorker," which six years later gave way to the "Logcabin," and which, in turn, yielded to the "New York Tribune," Chas. A. Dana, Henry Raymond, George Curtis and George Childs, each as editorial satellites, glided into prominence and took their respective places in the firmament of journalism. 

While these men were rounding out journalism on a large scale in the far east, Dame Nature was slowly developing at Janesville, Wisconsin, a young lad who was destined to achieve distinction in a smaller way, as an editorial writer in the west; and, who, had he been given a chance with those of the east, would easily have taken rank with the best of them - Editor W. S. Bowen of the "Daily Huronite," the most classical editorial writer in South Dakota, and one of the ablest in the west.

Editor Bowen was born in 1843 at Akron, Ohio, where his father owned and published the "Summit County Beacon." Six years later the family removed to Janesville, Wisconsin, where W. S., as a mere boy, took up city editorial work in a print shop which his father established at that place.

In 1873, he "pulled stakes" and struck out for Yankton, S. D., where he took up and continued for twenty three years his editorial work on the "Press and Dakotan." A political editor of unusual force and ability, he had been one of the strongest factors in the state in sending R. F. Pettigrew to the United States Senate. Mr. Pettigrew was not ungrateful for the service rendered, and Editor Bowen soon found himself called to the Senator's private secretaryship.

He bought a half interest in the "Sioux Falls Daily Press," in 1901, and in 1907 he sold his interest to W. C. Cook, our internal revenue collector. It was during his six years as editor of The Press that he achieved distinction as an editorial writer. During this period, The Press enjoyed a remarkable growth, and it was quoted by all the leading dailies of the west.

Like Napoleon battering out the keystone to a strong-hold by centering his fire constantly on the pivotal spot, so Editor Bowen kept hurling large calibre missiles of political death at his opponents until he had forced a retreat and placed Coe I. Crawford in the United States Senate. Without Bowen's newspaper battery constantly in action, Mr. Crawford never could have won.

After selling his interest in The Press, Mr. Bowen went to Boise City, Idaho, where for one year he edited the "Idaho Scimater." Returning to South Dakota, he bought the "Daily Huronite," in 1909, and later bought and united with it the 'Huron Spirit." Although bowed with the turmoil of sixty-nine years, his editorial pen "still lives, forever young." Dipping it into the "fountain of eternal youth," he writes with the vigor, the courage, the clearness and the coherency of thirty years ago. Could anything be prettier than his editorial in the "Huronite," last year, on Memorial Day? It follows:

MEMORIAL DAY

"Through so many years of prosperous peace has the memorial anniversary in honor of the dead of the Civil War been observed that the event has become as well established as our Christian Sabbath. As the swift years go by, increasing solemnity is attached to the observances of each 30th of May, couched though they are in the forms that admit of no variation.

"It is far away now, the weary march, the bristling line, he sputtering fire, the roar of musketry, the boom of artillery, the weird cadence of flying shells and the hiss of the death dealing minnie, the sobbing away of life, the moans, the shrieks, the shouts of triumph, the groans of despair.

"So far away and covered by so many years of rising and advancing generations that the life of today knows little of the significance of Memorial Day to the survivors of one of the world's bloodiest periods.  "And the appreciation of the soldier of the '60's is somewhat dimmed, for he has lived long since there came unsought into his life experiences that were wrought into his soul in the red-hot crucible of war. He may feel that he, too, would be willing to lie down in his place 'on fame's eternal camping ground,' for the journey is becoming a weary one and the thinned column drags along the line of march. 

"Today, under the stars that were saved and the stripes that wreathed about them, all over the loyal portion of our land, the people have turned their thoughts to the men of the sixties, have honored them as they will again on each recurring 30th of May, giving to the present the glorious lesson of the past, that the future may be saved against the conspiracies of evil."

AS A SOLDIER

During his busy life Editor Bowen found time to detach himself for three years from newspaper work to serve his country. At twenty years of age he enlisted in the 12th Wisconsin Battery and served till 1865, being mustered out on May 1, of that year, at Newburn, N. C., where he was marching northward with General Sherman's victorious army.

RETROSPECT

Mr. Bowen looks backward upon his early time experiences in the territory of Dakota with keen interest, feeling that they covered the most important and the most enjoyable period of his life. The making of a state out of nature's raw material had just begun. Settlements had fringed the large rivers of the territory, the Red, the Sioux and the Missouri, and the advance guard had begun to creep up the Jim. The vast interior was an unpeopled stretch, awaiting the advent of railroads and inhabitants, a scene of summer beauty and winter desolation. To witness the occupation of this wonderful agricultural and pastoral realm by the people who have since developed it, and to have participated in the creation of two important commonwealths is something to call up pride and gratifying retrospection. Yankton, his home, was the headquarters of the legislative and executive force of the new empire, and a resident of that city came into close touch with the builders of the two Dakotas. Many of them are now only memories and about their work the coming generations will know but little. They left their impress. Their names are passing with their lives. All of the nearly forty years of Editor Bowen's residence within the Dakotas have been years of growth and expansion, and one who has given the larger part of his life to such experiences treasures them in memory as the best achievements of an earthly pilgrimage.

Our gray haired sires, like Editor Bowen, who builded with blistered hands and weary feet our young empire of the west, are gradually, and of late, quite rapidly, taking their places "in the silent halls" of eternal rest, while their sturdy sons are pressing forward with manly vigor to complete the tasks their sires began. Hail! Chieftains of yesterday! Hail Bowen! Hail! All Hail!

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from "Who's Who in South Dakota, Vol. II"
by O. W. Coursey, 1916

REV. CHARLES BADGER CLARK, D. D.
THE PRAYING CHAPLAIN

Dr. and Mrs. C. B. Clark were sitting in the parlor of their cozy Deadwood home, reading. Presently, Mrs. Clark looked up and said: "I see they are going to have a chaplain at the new national sanitarium for old soldiers, in Hot Springs. I wonder if it would be possible for you to secure the appointment."

Dr. Clark, looking up, meditatingly, replied: "It would be a nice position, I presume. But, in a measure, the appointment will be a political one. I suspect that Congressman Martin will control it." (Martin was one of Dr. Clark's church members at Deadwood).

"Well, it's worth trying for, isn't it?" responded Mrs. Clark.

A letter was promptly dispatched to the active, loyal Martin. He, in turn, sent one with equal promptness to the board of control. Said he: "All I want in the way of appointments in the sanitarium at Hot Springs, are the chaplain and the quartermaster." His request was immediately granted; and the Reverend Dr. C. B. Clark was promptly appointed chaplain of Battle Mountain Sanitarium.
This was back in 1907, and he still holds down the job—to the satisfaction of the management and the hundreds of soldiers and sailors admitted to the institution. In fact, it would have been quite impossible to have gotten a better man for the place. Mrs. Clark's suggestion has found suitable reward.

Dr. Clark was born at Saquoit, Oneida county, New York, December 29, 1839. He came west with his parents in 1857 and entered college in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.

At the breaking out of the Civil War he enlisted in the 25th Iowa Volunteer Infantry and after serving one year was wounded in the first attack on Vicksburg and at the same time lost the hearing of his right ear by the concussion of heavy artillery. He lay in the hospital until discharged for disability from his wound. On his return to Mount Pleasant he re-entered college, but his health had been so shattered by army service that he was obliged to give up the completion of his university course.

He entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1864 and became a member of the Iowa conference, where he completed the four years' study course pre-scribed by the church. His first appointment in southern Iowa contained twelve preaching places, so far apart that in order to encompass the circuit he rode one hundred miles and regularly preached three times each Sunday. The outdoor life was beneficial to his health and from the very first his ministry met with success. The "boy preacher," as he was generally called, succeeded in adding a hundred and fifty people to the membership of his circuit in his first year, and he so enlarged the work that the conference divided his circuit, giving to him what was known as the Cincinnati division and the brick church. The next year was wonderfully fruitful in his endeavors, and two hundred and fifty people were brought into the church.

Feeling well established in his life work, he went back to Mount Pleasant and married Miss Mary Cleaver, who proved to be, in the highest sense, a helpmeet, not only in the home but in the work of the church. After being ordained as deacon and elder he was sent to the larger stations of the conference, filling the pulpits of Pella, Newton, Oskaloosa, Burlington and Ottumwa. At the last place, after building a large church, costing $35,000, his nerve force being exhausted by nineteen years of strenuous and unbroken service his physician peremptorily ordered a change of climate and occupation.

In 1883 he moved, with his wife and children, to South Dakota and settled on a homestead near Plankinton. The freedom and wholesome outdoor life of the farm re-stored his health and he was very happy in his new situation, but the authorities of his church soon "found him out" and he was persuaded to resume his life work at the end of two years of farming, taking the pastorate of the First M. E. church at Mitchell. After two years here he served a full term of six years as Presiding Elder of the Mitchell District and enjoyed the love and fellowship of the twenty-two preachers under his charge. During his years at Mitchell he was particularly happy in his relation to the then newly-established Dakota university, and he was one of the first trustees of that institution. It was as a representative of this college that his gifted son, Fred (deceased), won the state oratorical contest at the age of seventeen, while still in the preparatory department.

At the end of his presiding eldership he was called to the pastorate at Huron, where he spent five years and completed the. term of his labors in the "East-of-the-River" country. These were all glorious years in the youthful days of the new state and Doctor Clark often recalls them with deep pleasure.

By an unmistakable call of Providence he became the pastor of the First M. E. church in Deadwood in 1897 and moved to the Black Hills. He served this station four years and was then appointed superintendent of the Black Hills M. E. Mission, which he held for the regular term of six years. During his first year in Deadwood he lost his wife, the devoted mother of his four children, two of whom had preceded her to the other home. Three years later he married Miss R. Anna Morris, of Cleveland, Ohio, who has proven a most worthy companion and assistant in his work.

During forty-nine years of strenuous service for his church, Dr. Clark has received over two thousand persons into the church fellowship; and he has officiated in hundreds of marriages, funerals, and other occasions of joy or sorrow, close to the hearts of thousands, both in and out of the church. August, 1914, marked the golden anniversary of his entry into the ministry. While Dr. Clark has a long past to look back upon he is by no means ready to stop growing mentally, and the present has no more interested spectator then he. He has fond memories of the "good old times" but is of the declared opinion that the new times are as good or better. He often quotes "Tis an age on ages turning, To be living is sublime," Brownings lines, "God's in His heaven, All's right with the world," which are favorites of his, come near expressing his optimistic faith in the present and the future. "The voice of the church of Christ in these days," he says, "is as the voice of many waters. One mighty impulse pervades the Christian nations and it is en-circling the globe with the message that Jesus saves."

Dr. Clark's interest and influence have always been wider than his own town or his own church. In 1892 and 1896 he was sent as a delegate from the Dakota conference to the great general conference of his church.

In 1897 he was elected department commander of the G. A. R. of this state, and has lectured in dozens of conventions and chautauquas. He has always taken an earnest interest in politics, and in 1900 he nominated E. W. Martin for congress the first time at the state republican convention in Sioux Falls.

Probably the main elements of success in Dr. Clark's career have been his magnetic eloquence as a speaker and his no less magnetic kindliness of heart. He is and always has been a brotherly man, not only to his fellow Methodists and fellow Christians but to every human creature whom he meets. From the tenderness and inspiration of his public prayers he is sometimes called the "Praying Chaplain." He is now seventy-five years old, and is yet in remarkably good health. In his present position he cornbines his devoted Christian life with his ardent patriotism, and serves the church and the country, both of which have honored him, and both of which he has loved and honored, throughout his long life.
 

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