Complete text of "Who's Who in South Dakota" by O. W. Coursey (1913) This file contains the complete text of "Who's Who in South Dakota" by O. W. Coursey (1913) Scanning by John Rigdon , final editing by Joy Fisher from a book in the possession of Joy Fisher. This file may be freely copied for non-profit purposes; all other rights, including the right to publish this file in any format is reserved. Copyrighted 1913 by O. W. Coursey WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA By O. W. COURSEY AUTHOR OF "Simplified School Laws" "Woman With a Stone Heart" "History and Geography of the Philippine Islands" Etc., Etc., Etc. Vol. I First Edition DEDICATED To The Good People of Our Fair Young State. May she never cease to prosper! - O. W. Coursey INTRODUCTION Most of the "Who's Who" articles contained in this book were formerly published in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, "Daily Argus-Leader." However, eight of them were first published by "The Sioux Falls Daily Press;" and the rest of them were orig- inally published in various papers scattered throughout the entire state. Two of them were written by Charles M. Day, editor of the "Daily Argus-Leader." These two bear his signature. The editorial announcement of the intended publication of the first series which appeared in 1910, was made by the "Argus- Leader" as follows: The Argus-Leader has started the publication of a series of biographic articles by Major O. W. Coursey, one of the "live wires" of the state, on "Who's Who in South Dakota." The first article had for its subject, Professor C. G. Lawrence of Can- ton, and the second one deals with former Senator A. B. Kit- tredge of this city. The other articles will follow from time to time and will, we believe, make a most interesting series for the consideration of the Argus-Leader's increasing army of readers in South Dakota. In the presentation of these articles, Major Coursey is given an absolutely free hand. The line is drawn on no one, and fac- tional and party distinctions are going to be forgotten in the pre- sentation of this series of articles about the men who "cut ice" in this state. Major Coursey will select the list of subjects, will secure the data and will write the matter, and it will be pub- lished exactly as it comes from his pen, without being "treated" in any way by editorial prejudice or favoritism. Keep your eye upon the "Who's Who" articles which are likely to prove as in- teresting as the series of articles on "The Birds of South Da- kota," by Charles E. Holmes, published some time ago in these columns. The newspaper comments given herein are but two out of several hundred collected, yet these show the reception given the articles as they appeared, by newspapers throughout the state. ------------------------------- Parker New Era: Those pen-portraits by Major O. W. Cour- sey, on "Who's Who in South Dakota," running in the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, are attracting wide notice and very favor- able comment. The pen-portraiture of former Senator Kittredge, Congressman Burke and Senator Crawford have already appeared. We will watch the Argus-Leader for further pen-portraits of the large galaxy of South Dakota's illustrious sons. ------------------------------- Vermillion Republican: "Who's Who in South Dakota," is being made known from time to time by O. W. Coursey, the well- known literateur, in the Daily Argus-Leader. He has already listed in his repertoire such celebrities as Senator Kittredge and State Superintendent-elect Lawrence, and will include others equally notable, in due season. Coursey's contributions always are readable when reduced to print. ------------------------------- These playful sketches were first written for mere pastime while I was sitting around depots waiting for delayed trains and while riding along on the cars. They were struck off in rough lead-pencil form, and not single one of them was ever re-written, in whole or in part, before being sent to press. They have, therefore, been reproduced in the same crude form in which they originally appeared, with but very few minor alterations. It will at once be evident to any person who may read one or more of them that they were written exclusively for news- paper use; hence, the unusual amount of freedom in both thought and style. To convert them now into a stiff, labored style, for book purposes, would be to rob them of much of their cheerful- ness and reality. They are merely off-hand literary sketches of various persons' lives, written in an "impromptu" manner, just as though one had spoken them without previous meditation. The same playful spirit was breathed into them that a cartoonist would impart to a caricature sketch of some popular person. dur- ing one of his chalk-talks. Any "re-touching-" which might now be given to them could but detract from their original charm, if any they possessed. With regard to literary technicalities, it will be noticed that at some places "South Dakota" is spelled out in full; at others it is given its commercial abbreviation, "S. D.," while at others it appears in its correct abbreviated form "S. Dak." So also with the names of other states. In most of the articles the author refers to himself, when necessary, as "we," in true editorial style, While in others he uses "l." This change was sometimes necessitated by the very nature of the articles themselves: at oth- ers, it resulted from a temporary attack of "lapsus memorae," or from habit. Although these apparent literary discrepancies, and some others not herein mentioned, may prove sweet morsels under the tongues of occasional would-be literary critics, it has been determined to let them practically remain as they originally were. Gathering the information was somewhat tedious, as may well be imagined; but the preparation of the articles themselves, was decidedly a "labor of love." It is greatly regretted (more than mere words can herein ex- press) that many other equally deserving South Dakotans could not have been incorporated in this work; but time and space forbade. However, another volume will appear later, in which only new names will be found. -By The Author. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Notice of Copyright ----------------- 2 Title Page -------------------------- 3 Dedication -------------------------- 4 Introduction ------------------------ 5 Table of contents ------------------- 8 A. B. Kittredge --------------------- 9 C. N. Herreid --------------------- 14 C. G. Lawrence---------------------- 22 Coe I. Crawford -------------------- 27 R. S. Vessey ----------------------- 35 O. L. Branson ---------------------- 39 C. H. Burke ------------------------ 45 E. W. Martin ----------------------- 51 G. H. Grace ------------------------ 59 R. J. Gamble ----------------------- 64 E. C. Perisho ---------------------- 71 R. O. Richards --------------------- 77 G. G. Wenzlaff -------------------- 81 Doane Robinson --------------------- 88 G. W. Nash ------------------------- 94 C. W. Downey ---------------------- 100 F. L. Cook ------------------------ 106 J. F. Halladay -------------------- 110 C. H. Lugg ------------------------ 114 Clate Tinan ----------------------- 117 W. C. Cook ------------------------ 121 Myrtle E. Lee (Sofia Stephali) ---- 124 H. K. Warren ---------------------- 130 E. L. Abel ------------------------ 135 Samuel Weir ----------------------- 140 C. M. Day ------------------------- 145 S. J. Conklin --------------------- 152 F. E. Walker ---------------------- 157 Tom Burns ------------------------- 161 S. H. Elrod ----------------------- 164 E. T. Pierce ---------------------- 171 J. W. Taylor ---------------------- 176 The Beaumonts --------------------- 182 W. E. Johnson --------------------- 189 T. J. Spangler -------------------- 193 F. B. Gault ----------------------- 196 A. C. Shepherd -------------------- 200 G. A. Silsby ---------------------- 205 C. H. French ---------------------- 210 W. M. Mair ------------------------ 215 W. S. Bowen ----------------------- 219 R. S. Gleason --------------------- 223 Asher F. Pay ---------------------- 230 S. F. Kerfoot -------------------- 233 W. H. H. Beadle ------------------- 238 L. E. Camfied [Camfield]----------- 245 Dick Woods ------------------------ 249 James Elliott --------------------- 254 E. E. Wagner ---------------------- 261 Isaac Lincoln --------------------- 270 A. B. KITTREDGE 9 A CAESAREAN SENATOR "The president," said Senator Kittredge - and nothing more - as he introduced President Roosevelt, a few years since to a large out-door audience that had gathered in Sioux Falls to hear him speak. This is the shortest public speech introductory, or otherwise, on record. It reminds one of that dainty scriptural passage, the shortest verse in the Bible, "Jesus wept." Incident- ally, it also suggests the speech made recently by Lieutenant Governor Horace White, of New York state, while introducing Colonel Roosevelt to an up-state audience. He said, "We are here today to welcome and to honor Theodore Roosevelt." With- out adding another syllable, he sat down. "Do I speak now?" interrogated the Colonel. This style of speaking is characteristic of "Kit." He is the briefest man on earth. To him words are jeweled instruments for the conveyance of thought, and he uses them sparingly. "A" is an indefinite article, "the" is a definite one. Many a man has been "a" president, but just at that psy- chological moment Mr. Roosevelt was "the" president. How apt! How significant! Just so in trying a lawsuit, the Senator has little to say; yet we doubt if any man in the state has won so large a percentage of the cases he has tried. Kittredge's ascendancy to the United States senate, as an ap- pointee of Governor Herreid, soon won for him recognition as a man of great brain power and a tireless worker. His early ap- pointment to a position on the judiciary committee bore prima facie evidence that he was at once regarded at Washington as an able constitutional lawyer. Likewise. his immediate selection for a place on the Committee on Inter-Oceanic Canals, awakened to him the opportunity of a life-time. Quietly - meditatingly - manfully - Mr. Kittredge went to work, and the pulse of South Dakota was soon throbbing with the recognition which her junior senator was receiving at our na- tional capitol. Old soldiers got their pensions increased, public 10 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA buildings were springing up here and there; new political life was in evidence. But it was not until the senate called for the brief on the purchase of the Panama canal from the French company that Senator Kittredge's great legal ability excited public comment. Here was a young lawyer-a senator, if yon please-from the "wild and woolly" west. The senate has in it some mighty clever legal talent. When the "bachelor senator" from South Dakota arose to make his report, all ears were at eager attention. It was an herculean proposition to draw up a brief on such a technical, complicated, international proposition. Not a word was struck out, not a syllable added. It was perfect; and it will be referred to as authority by coming generations when Senator Kittredge has embarked for another world - lo! these hundred years. But Mr. Kittredge performed another public act while sen- ator that will bless mankind forever. He introduced and secured the passage of a new copyright law which gives authors, artists and musicians ample protection for the products of their efforts. Two South Dakotans were among the very first to take advantage of the new law when it went into effect, July 1, 1909. Largely on account of his silent nature, Senator Kittredge has never been properly understood, except by his nearest asso- ciates. He is a man of great poise. He can stand more fire without flinching during a political battle than any man in the state. During that eventful, personal campaign of 1908, while Mr. Kittredge was addressing an audience in Lincoln county, he was violently interrupted by State Treasurer Cassill who sat in the audience, and whose official record Mr. Kittredge was fear- lessly exposing. Calm, cool headed, collected, he retained his poise and in a sober, dignified manner, characteristic of his great personality, the speaker, without stopping to "Swear" his wit- ness, cross-examined Mr. Cassill so closely about his own record, in the presence of his neighbors and his friends, that the latter lost his renomination and had to leave the state. During his official life Senator Kittredge was openly accused of being a "corporation hireling," etc. A few months ago he tried a personal damage suit at Flandreau, against the Milwaukee railroad company, and he won his case, securing a verdict of $22,000 damages in favor of two orphan children whose parents were killed by a train. After the trial, an old Norwegian far- mer came up to him and said, "Why Mr. Kittredge, Ay always heard that you bane for the railroad company and against the people. Ay voted against you the last time, but Ay bet your life Ay bane going to vote for you next time." A. B. KITTREDGE 11 BIOGRAPHICAL Senator Kittredge is dis- tinctly a self-made man. To begin with he was only a poor farmer's son down in Cheshire county, New Hampshire, where he came into being just one week to the day before Abe Lincoln was first inaug- [Photo of A. B. Kittredge] urated president of the United States. His early education was acquired in the rural schools of his native state. A private tutor prepared him for Yale which he entered in June 1878, graduating from the academic department with the class of '85. Young Kittredge was twenty-four years of age when he had finished his education. Tired of the wind-swept copies" of old New England and being thrilled with the inspiration of "Young man go west, and grow up with the country," he at once struck for South Dakota. At that time the territory had not been divided. It was a vast empire carved from what was geographically known in the old geographies as "The Great American desert." Settling in Sioux Falls he stuck out his shingle A. B. Kittredge Attorney at Law Long years ago he pulled down this sign,-his whereabouts were known; his record as an attorney had been made. From this time on we see him climbing the political ladder. Politics were his natural choice; he couldn't keep out. When the doctor vaccinated him against the smallpox he must have injected into him some political virus, for it is in his blood. 12 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA Possessed of all the sturdy instincts of a natural born leader, he soon forged his way to the front. In 1888 he was made chairman of the Minnehaha county re- publican committee. Later he was state senator from that county during the first two terms of our state legislature, after the division of Dakota. His ability commanded attention and respect. From 1892 to 1900 he was national committeeman. It has often been said that "He made Herreid governor." He did! But Herreid made him a senator and cancelled the obligation When Senator Kyle. a democrat of life-long training, but a compromise, semi-republican legislative senatorial creation, suddenly died at Washington in 1901, there was a great scramble among politicians for an ap- pointment to the vacancy. Herreid was unyielding. He simply said, "I'll give the appointment to the man who has done more for me politically than all others, A. B. Kittredge." The appointment was made; the commission was written out, and all was over-.for the time being. At the hands of the state legislature, in 1903, Mr. Kittredge was given the united and complete support of the republican party and unanimously elected by them to succeed himself in the senate for six years longer. Thus Governor Herreid's selection of him for the appointment in 1901 was vindicated by the republican party in 1908, and the pic- ciyunish, idle criticism of the governor's selection melted away. A MODERN CAESAR When dissension arose in Rome and Cassius plotted the downfall of Caesar, the latter's friends came to him and said, "Don't go back to the senate chamber, you will be assassinated." Caesar calmly replied, "I'll go where duty calls me." He went, and in a abort space of time, pierced with a score of wounds, he fell at the feet of the statue of his old rival, Pompeii. At the holiday recess of congress in 1907, Senator Kittredge was urged by his friends not to reti3rn to the senate, or be would be assas- sinated (politically) He replied, as did Caesar, "I'll go where duty calls me." He went-and then came back-too late-only to go down to defeat at the hands of his old political enemies. To those of his constituents who backed him so faithfully in the fight, the tragedy of his defeat seemed appalling. Caesar and Brutus had been great military friends at one time; yet Brutus joined Cassius in Caesar's downfall. Accepting his fate phil- osophically, the great ruler of Rome, as he sank before the final thrust of-a dagger, calmly looked up at his old friend and mut- tered those memorable words, "You too, Brutus.' Kittredge A. B. KITTREDGE 13 and-had at one time been great political friends. As Kit- tredge saw the primary election returns coming in and felt the danger of defeat penetrating his heart, he calmly mattered, "You too,-----;" and then quietly returned to his lucrative law prac- tice. Thus closed the most vicious, personal political fight that has ever occurred in South Dakota. Every man connected with it had his character assassinated. Yet, after all, its dire effects are rapidly passing away, and "Time, sweet restorer, a victory gaineth, In hearts where the vials of wrath were outpoured." A new day has dawned upon us. New "bed-fellows" are being made in politics. The "old guard" that went down to de- feat with Kittredge when he met his "Waterloo" at the hands of Crawford, who, acting in the capacity of Lord Wellesly, mar- shalled all of the opposing forces against him, will never stand together in another fierce fight as before. The conservative field held by Kittredge and the advanced position assumed by Mr. Crawford will both be vacated and midway-somewhere close to the ground taken by the state republican platform this year,- under new leaders, the diminishing remnant of the "old guard" and a workable portion of the less radical element of the opposing forces, will come together and fight for political preference, along new lines, and for the common good of the state. Regardless of what the future may bring forth, Senator Kittredge will remain a great character in the history of the state, and be revered and admired by his many friends whom he never betrayed. May we never cease to love him! [Later.-Senator Kittredge was suddenly taken ill, and died at Hot Springs, Arkansas, May 4, 1911. At this time funds are. being voluntarily contributed by his friends to erect a marble bust of him in our new State Capitol. - 0. W. C. ] 14 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA A MANLY MAN One of America's most gifted orators, Col. Robert Ingersoll, standing beside the bier of his dead brother, delivering a funeral oration over the deceased, said, "There never was a manlier man." These inspiring words could never have had a more per- fect application than to be applied to Charles N. Herreid ex- governor of South Dakota. How passionately fond we all are of him, not merely for the unexcelled record which he made as gov- ernor, but for his manly virtues. GOVERNOR HERREID As governor of the state, Mr. Herreid made an enviable rec- ord. Undoubtedly his greatest service to the state was in the unusually large number of legislative enactments which he vetoed. True; the legislators who served during this time were equally intelligent with those that have served under other governors; but many of them, as will always be the case, had never been trained in the interpretation of law. During Governor Her- reid's predecessor's adminis- tration, that of Governor Lee. the Initiative and Referendum had been enacted. Nobody paid much attention to them during Governor Herreid's two terms. Why? Well, simply because everybody was con- tented; and, above all,. they had confidence in Herreid. He scrutinized every act of his two legislatures with the eye of an eagle Every law en- [Photo of CHARLES N. HERREID] acted, that conflicted with the constitution, virtually re- pealed some other law, or within itself bore obnoxious features, was promptly vetoed by the Governor. He didn't wait for the referendum nor CHARLES N. HERREID 15 for the supreme court. He was a court unto himself. Let it be said for Governor Herreid that he vetoed more bills than all of the other governors of the state put together. On the other hand this may be accounted for from another standpoint. In his three messages to the legislature he recom- mended far more legislation than any other governor. His last message, delivered as he turned the reins over to Governor Elrod, is the finest state document on record. It will remain for the future historian to bring out and properly classify this able state paper. HERREID, THE PATRIOT More or less trouble has arisen during the several adminis- trations of our various governors since statehood, with the state appointees. Governors Sheldon and Lee each one asked the state legislature to enact a law authorizing the governor to remove any one or all of his own appointees at will, but they refused. Charles N. Herreid renewed this recommendation; it was done. The wisdom of it became apparent more quickly than its legislators anticipated. President McKinley was assassinated shortly there- after. A notary public at Sturgis,-an appointee of Governor Herreid's-upon hearing the sad news of the president's assas- sination, exclaimed, "It served him right!" No sooner had the news of the fellow's reprehensible conduct reached Governor Herreid, than he issued an executive order revoking the fellow's commission and removed him from office; at the same time no- tifying him by wire of what he had done, in advance of the mails. This one instance justified the enactment of the law. FRIEND OF EDUCATION Just before the legislature of 1901 adjourned, the committee on education, thought to slip one over on the governor and get through a sweeping change in our educational laws, that would make our school children assets to local politicians; but, O! no, not while the scrutinizing Herreid was governor. Here is what the records in the Secretary of State's office reveal: "Having received said bill and having only a few moments in which to return it to the House of Representatives, in which it originated. before its adjornment, sine die, I can only very briefly mention a few of the many serious objections to the bill. This bill provides that the State educational institutions 'may re- ceive, free of tuition, ten students appointed by each State Sen- ator and ten students appointed by each Representative of the State Legislature,' * * * 'not more than three of whom shall be students of the same institution.' * * * 16 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA "Our educational institutions are supported by the people and for the people of our state. That tuition should either be free to all or all should pay tuition equally. This bill discrim- inates and the discrimination will almost invariably be against those who are poor and without friends of prominence and influ- ence; in other words, against those who are specially entitled to sympathy and assistance. Why should those only having a polit- cal 'pull' receive free education at the expense of the state? Why should the young men and women of our state, who seek an edu- cation at our institutions, become the political trading stock of politicians?" * * * * * * * "The iniquity of this bill is indeed complete. Those who desire to pay must be excluded for those receiving free tuition! A senior who has paid his tuition may be forced to leave to make room for some one on the 'free list' and graduate from some in- stitution in another state where the Legislative 'pass' system does not exist. Respectfully submitted, CHARLES N. HERREID, Governor. Pierre, March 9, 1901." Again in order to show the extremely careful analysis which he gave to all bills coming up to him for his signature, we have only to cite the following: "To the Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives: "I am unable to approve House Bill No. 90, which is here- with returned to the House of Representatives, although the rec- ord does not show a vote against said bill in either branch of the Legislature. " Think of it! Every vote in both branches of the legislature cast in favor of a bill concerning taxation, etc., and not one of them saw a flaw in it. Back it goes to the House, vetoed, with a 1,000-word opinion from Governor Herreid attached to it- shooting it so full of holes that it looked like an old fish net which had been caught In the snags at the bottom of some limpid stream, and then torn to shreds in trying to pull it out, so as to save the floaters. Here is an exposure of only one of its 'dodgers': "This bill aims to give peculiar meaning to certain letters and characters but specifically states that it shall apply only to tax proceedings. * * * * * The concluding portion of said bill reads as follows: Whenever the abbreviation "do" or the character ",," or other similar abbreviations or characters shall be used in any such CHARLES N. HERREID 17 proceedings, they shall be respectively construed and held as meaning and being the same name, word, initial, or letter or letters, abbreviations, figure or figures as the last proceeding such "do" or ",," or other similar character. "Here again we have a remarkable perversion of well-known marks and abbreviations. 'Do.' is an abbreviation for 'ditto,' but 'do' is a syllable attached to the first tone of the major dia- tonic scale for the purpose of solmization, or solfeggio,' and the marks ",," doubtless intended for 'turned commas' are, as found in this remarkable bill, the last half of quotation marks"' PARDONS In his inaugural address to the Seventh Biennial Legislature, in 1901, touching upon 'The Pardoning Power" of the executive, Governor Herreid said: "The pardoning power is a consequence of 'the imperfection of law and human nature.' A person may be convicted of a crime on false testimony. After sentence by the Court, the false- hood may be discovered, but the Court cannot reverse its decree. Reprieves may become necessary or expedient on account of doubt of guilt, arising from the discovery of new testimony after sen- tence and before execution, or considerations of public policy may demand an exemption from punishment. The pardoning power exists, and was conferred by the constitution upon the Governor, not for exercising his tenderness of heart but to fur- ther the ends of justice. Of late years there has been an in- creasing tendency towards executive clemency, resulting in gross abuse of this important prerogative. A convict with numerous friends and abundant means promptly begins preparations for se- curing a pardon after he has had a fair trial, and his guilt has been legally established. The Governor's office becomes an ap- pellate court, where the case is re-tried. largely in the nature of an ex parte proceeding. The victim may be slumbering in a for- gotten grave Human sympathy is apt to be with the living rather than the dead. Or the injured party is persuaded to join the forces appealing for sympathy, ignoring the no less sacred rights of society. "These observations are for the purpose of announcing to the people of this state that it is not the purpose of the Executive to usurp the functions of courts and juries; that the pardoning power will be exercised strictly according to the theory of our system of jurisprudence and the spirit of our constitution." In keeping with these sentiments, Governor Herreid was firm in his dealings with offenders. He granted fewer pardons than 18 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA any other governor we have ever had. In fact the pardons granted by other executives stand about "16 to 1" as compared with those extended by him. His refusal to "pardon" and his read- iness to "veto" kept his two administrations consistent through- out, and left behind him an unsullied record of administrative justice. AS LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR But Herreid had had great training for his work as governor. He had previously been elected lieutenant-governor for two con- secutive terms. In this capacity, he had been schooled in hand- ling legislation. "As president of the state senate in 1893 and 1895 he dis- played in a marked manner his fitness and capacity to deal public affairs. His failures and candor as well as his evident comprehension of purpose to decide all questions without bias or prejudice in conformity with the rules of the senate, were rec- ognized by men of all political parties, and so well did he succeed in the task that no appeal was ever taken from any of his rulings at either session of the legislature. It is said that no other pres- ident of a state senate in the United States has ever made a similar record." Ordinarily, any man who accepts the second place on the state or on a national ticket, digs his own political grave, and the bells which peal forth his success at the polls, at the same time tingle out his political death knell. But Herreid was born to to be an exception. The ability and fairness which he displayed as president of the senate commended him to the people of the state as the logical man for the higher field of responsibilities. Think on it! Lieutenant-Governor for two terms, Governor for two terms. No doubt many decades will have passed into state history his record will have been duplicated. HERREID'S DICTION Each of Governor Herreid's public documents is a literary gem. He stands in a class by himself as a classical writer. No other public official in the state has ever equaled him as a man of letters. The most perfect style of diction is demanded of the state supreme court, so that no possible misinterpretation can be placed upon any of their opinions. Yet Judge Fuller, (deceased, whom we all now mourn) said to us one day in his official chamber: "This man Herreid beats anybody I ever knew in his diction. Frequently he comes to me and asks about a certain point, yet it CHARLES N. HERREID 19 is never for information direct that will enable him to reach a conclusion, but merely to see if my judgment reinforces his own. " His public letters and addresses are so evenly balanced throughout that it is hard for any man to select from the many passages more choice than the rest, any which might tend to em- phasize his style. We think a couple extracts taken from the Address of Welcome in behalf of the state which he delivered to the American Mining Congress which convened at Deadwood dur- ing his governorship, will suffice: "We all rejoice over the prevailing universal prosperity. I am proud of the fact that I can welcome you to a state where the people are superlatively prosperous, contented and happy; where the spirit of success dominates the commercial and industrial at- mosphere; where everybody has surrendered to the magnificent energy which is building a new and splendid empire. I welcome you to the people who for six years have produced more wealth per capita than any other state in the Union; to a state famous for the large number, according to population, of newspapers, churches, colleges and school houses; to a state absolutely free from conflict between labor and capital; to a state settled largely by the children of the pioneers who were the empire builders of the great west-children who from infancy were taught the lesson of vigorous manhood: a people who adopted as the state motto: Under God the People Rule,' find who, as individuals and com- munities, with reverence for all law, human and divine, are liv- ing up to their high standards of right. * * * * "Ten years ago the real value of all property within the state was less than one hundred million dollars; to-day it is one thousand millions! "To-day every South Dakotan is proud of his state and with joy and devotion ready to join the grand chorus of thanksgiving and praise: 'I love every inch of our prairie land. Each stone on her mountain side, I love ev'ry drop of her water clear That flows in her rivers wide. I love ev'ry tree, ev'ry blade of grass Within Columbia's gates, The queen of the earth is the land of my birth My own United States.' " 20 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA BIOGRAPHICAL Governor Herreid is a Wisconsinite by birth and a South Dakotan by adoption, Again, the old Badger state has shown her marked influence over the new territories that one after another were gradually carved out of the great domain to her westward. A proud father and mother, calmly viewing their baby boy on October 20, 1857, evidently little dreamed that they were the parents of a future South Dakota governor. His boyhood was spent knocking around on the farm, devel- oping a good healthy physique. Later, he spent three years at Galesville University. Then he read law for one year in a law office. Afterwards, he graduated in 1882 from the law depart- ment of the Wisconsin University. The same year that he graduated he was married to a Wis- consin lady who has since blessed Dakota with her happy traits, noble womanhood, and her charming example, Miss Jeanette Slye. The next year the young couple decided to cast their fortune in the "golden west," and so they packed up and went to Dakota, settling in McPherson county, where they became a part of our sturdy pioneers. Mr. and Mrs. Herreid's neighbors soon learned to esteem them. Then their neighbors' neighbors found out about them, and so on until like a pebble dropped in the center of a still pool, their influence radiated itself in a succession of wavelets until it had reached the far distant shoals of the state. As a result, here is what happened: Charles N. Herreid elected States Attorney of McPherson county, then county judge; next a member of the Board of Trustees of our State University, and later a Regent of Education; elected and re-elected lieu- tenant governor, member of the Republican State Central Com- mitee; member National Republican Committee; elected and re-elected Governor. He has also been Grand Chancellor K. of P., of the domain of South Dakota. He is a member of the A. 0. U. W. and was chairman of the committee to revise the constitu- tional statutes of the grand lodge, and has held various important positions in this organization. lie is also a member of the Eastern Star and a thirty-third degree Mason. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian church. Governor and Mrs. Herreid are the proud parents of two children-a daughter, Miss Grace, and her loving and affectionate brother whom the state will recall as having died during Mr. Herreid's incumbency of the governor's office. as the result of an operation for appendicitis. He was a charming lad, universally CHARLES N. HERREID 21 beloved and a general favorite among the South Dakota National Guard, in which he held the rank of Captain. After retiring from the governor's chair in 1904, Mr. Her- reid removed to Aberdeen and took up again the practice of his chosen profession which he followed for three years. During this time he gradually and rapidly became so interwoven in the busi- ness affairs of Aberdeen that he has been obliged to drop his law practice for other enterprises. He is secretary of the corporation that recently built at Aberdeen the beautiful Citizens' Bank Building, which, including the basement and roof garden, is eight stories high. Governor Herreid is also president of the Aberdeen Railway Company which has built five miles of street railway in that city and which contemplates the construction of three or four miles in the early spring. In addition to these responsibilities, he is a director and Vice-President of the Dakota Central Tel- ephone Co., and the Citizens Trust and Savings Bank, and he is, in other ways, not herein enumerated, identified with the busi- ness interests of Aberdeen. Such has been the phenomenal career of a young man who was not afraid to break away from "dad" and to strike out into the world for himself. It has been repeatedly asserted by careful political students throughout the state, and it is now quite gen- erally admitted by both factions of the Republican party, that had the city of Aberdeen forced him into the race for the gov- ernorship nomination at the June primaries in 1908, he would have swept the state and easily have become governor for at least a third term-simply on the strength of his past record as a pub- lic servant. which is untarnished by a single blot, and which will stand for years hence among the most illustrious pages of our state's history. "There never was a manlier man!" 22 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA A PROGRESSIVE EDUCATOR Among South Dakota state offices, second only in popularity to that of the governorship (in its lasting influence it greatly outclasses the latter)is the Department of Public Instruction. This year the republican party of this state, by their selec- tion made by popular vote of the party at the primaries held in June, presents to the people of South Dakota for endorsement by their ballots at the November election, as their candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction, a man of sterling worth, endowed with great natural talents, enriched by education and experience-one whose record as an advanced thinker in the edu- cational world and whose activities in the superlative execution of his ideals, have already found concrete expression in the schools of Lincoln county- Prof. C. G. Lawrence, of Canton. LAW OF PROMOTION Inasmuch as the work of the state superintendent is largely supervisory of the work done by the various county superintend- ents, it is but natural that an out-going county superintendent should aspire to the state position. Fundamentally, a man cannot inspire another man to do a thing which he himself has never done and which the one whom he is directing has reason to be- lieve that the one giving the instructions is perhaps not able to do. The principle holds true in every walk of life. The suc- cessful military commander is he who rose from the ranks. The successful district superintendent (formerly designated a "pre- siding elder") is he who has been a successful preacher first. The successful Bales manager is the man who was first a success- fail salesman. And so on through the various activities of life. There are of course exceptions to this. South Dakota had one rare exception to the rule in the services of Hon. G. W. Nash, a former Superintendent of Public Instruction. Nash was distinctly and decidedly a college man. He was college bred and had taught only in college, without ever having served a day as C. G. LAWRENCE 23 county superintendent. (And. by the way, he too, hailed from Canton ) Yet he gave to the state one of the most successful administrations of her educational affairs that she has ever en- joyed. In fact Nash was so "large," and he filled the office so full, that he could be seen projecting out beyond it, on all sides of it. But, again we emphasize, he was an exception. SCANDINAVIAN ASCENDENCY The Scandinavians are among the most progressive and in- telligent citizenry of the state. Their numerical strength at the polls is so great that no party or faction dares now to go before the public for endorsement without reckoning on the Scandina- vian vote. One of the most successful governors the state ever had or ever will have, Charles N. Herreid, came from this lineage. Hon. Hans Ustrud is of the same stock. With the state strongly "progressive" in politics a "stalwart" Scandinavian, H. B. Anderson, of Mitchell, in the primary campaign of this year, won out by 7,000 votes over his opponent who had everything but na- tionality in his favor. Clay county, the hot-bed of "insurgency," but peopled largely by Scandinavians, went over to Anderson who is of their own blood. This political adhesion is but natural. Just so with Superintendent Lawrence. Born of Norwegian parentage he commanded the united Scandinavian vote of the state-and won. Married to a Scandinavian lady, he had in his family affairs, proven his loyalty to his blood. His father came to America in 1843, and afterwards taught school for many years in Wisconsin, and in Illinois. One of this distinguished ancestor's teacher's certificates, secured in Illinois, is still held as a sacred memento in the Lawrence home. It is dated 1854. It will thus be seen that the subject of this sketch came honestly by his educational proclivities. BIOGRAPHICAL Professor Lawrence was born January 12, 1871, at Madison, Wisconsin. His early education was acquired in the public schools of that place. Later, he was graduated by the University of Wisconsin, taking his B. L. degree. In 1896-97 he did post graduate work in the same institution. He was married August 22, 1900, to Miss Gunda Jacobson, of Canton, his assistant principal in the high school of that place. Mrs. Lawrence is a graduate of the Madison, South Dakota State Normal School. Therefore, the schools of Madison, Wis- consin, and of Madison, South Dakota, gave to us the two educa- tors who will, in all probability, lead in the educational thought 24 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA of the state for the next two, and possibly for the next four, years. To this union have been born two boys-one nine, and the other six years of age. LAWRENCE, THE EDUCATOR The best endorsement any man can have is the longevity of his service in a certain position or, with a certain firm. No word from, his employers can attest more truthfully to his worth than the fact of his long continued employment by them. Hoff has been city superintendent at Mitchell for seven years. His predecessor, the lamented Quigley, held the same position for ten years. Strachan has served for twenty continuous years as superintendent of the Deadwood city schools; while Cook is rounding out a quarter of a century as president of the Spearfish Normal. We perfect this line of thought by citing the record of him who constitutes our theme. After teach- ing two months in a rural school in Wisconsin, he was called to Augustana College, Canton, S. D., in 1894, where hp. served four years on the faculty of that school, and then yielded to the request of the citizens of Canton [photo of PROF. C. G. LAWRENCE] to become the head of their public schools. He held the latter position for eight consecutive years: and only surrendered it in 1906 to become a candidate for superintendent of Lin- coln county. He was elected, and re- elected in 1908. Recapitulating, we give a resume: two months teacher in a rural school, four years a college pro- fessor, eight years city superintendent, four years county super- intendent. Fine record! eh? AS COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT it was not until Lawrence entered the county superintendent's office, got out among the people of his county and the educators of he state, that his real work began to be known. True; he had attended district and state educational gatherings and had read some able papers before them, but the "bigness" of the fellow, aside from his domineering six-foot-four stature, had not com- manded general attention. C. G. LAWRENCE 25 Entering upon his duties as superintendent of Lincoln county, he took one year to get his bearings and to find out the neces- sities of his schools. Then, his convictions crystallized that when a child comes into the world, it begins to move and to use its tiny hands; that as soon as it is able to sit up, if given blocks, it will begin to build; that at a later age it longs to mix mud pies and to cook; that its whole tendency is one of physical usefulness; that as soon as it enters school we begin to educate it away from the use of its hands which should by their economical use, earn its bread and butter for life, and instill into it the idea that its brain and not its hands were intended for use only, and that the latter should not be soiled; that the whole underlying scheme is wrong. And there was plenty of evidence. Not a girl could be found who would condescend to do house work. She had been educated to think but not to act, Hotels were putting in Japanese waiters and negro cooks, because American girls bad been taught not to soil their hands, but to preserve them for piano use. The farmer, taking advantage of our state law which compels his school dis- trict to pay practically all of his son's high school tuition, had sent his son away to school, the lad had failed to return; be had been taught to think while his hands hung idly by his sides. The "dignity of labor" was unintentionally assailed and credence given to the old Chinese proverb, "Those who labor with their minds govern others; those who labor with their hands are gov- erned by others." Lawrence said: "Halt! We'll 'about face' and go at this thing right. Lincoln county has as rich soil as to be found on earth. Our boys should learn to till it right and to love to do it. Our big buxom farmers' daughters, pictures of health and strength, should be taught economy in their household work, and be instilled with the idea that there is nothing better." Accordingly. for the past three years he has carried on in Lincoln county, in addition to his regular educational work, boys' corn-growing contests and girls' sewing and baking clubs. True; South Dakota has a common school course of study which by law county superintendents are compelled to require their teachers to follow. Lawrence abridged it. He went beyond it. He put do- mestic science into his schools and demanded that each teacher in the county give to the girls in their respective schools instruction for one and one-half hours every Friday afternoon, in sewing and preparing themselves for the responsibilities of a practical and happy life; while special instruction was given to the boys in the soil, the germination of cereals and the care they demand 26 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA through the period of their growth, in order to harvest a full crop; the value of birds as insect destroyers, etc. As a climax he has arranged for a short course in Agriculture and Domestic Science to be held at Canton in December of this year by six from the faculty of the South Dakota State College, at Brookings. Such is the leadership and such is the man (in the natural order of events if the republican party is successful at the polls in November-and it is generally concede that it will be) upon whom the eyes of the state will be centered after January 1, 1911. Talented, educated, experienced, cultured, he brings to the posi- tion an intellectual equipment that bespeaks success, and a moral and mental force that never knew defeat. P. S. Lawrence was elected by an overwhelming majority and re-elected in 1912. COE I. CRAWFORD 27 A FIERY ORATOR "You're a liar!" (apologies to T. R.) ripped out a big red- faced fellow sitting mid-room in the 1. 0. 0. F. hall at Alpena, during the red-hot political campaign of 1896. The speaker in a dramatic pose, with clinched fists and with his voice pitched in stentorian tones, had just reached a terrific climax, as he sought to show that the salaries of the daily wage-earner had steadily increased in this country since the Civil War, except during Grover Cleveland's two democratic administrations. This insult hurled into his teeth caused the campaigner's face to flush. Seizing a book of statistics with which to prove his assertion, the speaker rushed down the aisle to the brazen- faced scape goat, held the book firmly against the fellow's nose, and said in a manner that was in keeping with the excitement, "Did you say I was a liar?" The fellow's head kept going far- ther back. Every red corpuscle in his blood spontaneously crowded themselves into the veins of his face. "Did you say I was a liar?" thundered the speaker at him again. And the speaker-ah! yes, the speaker! Who was he? None other than the fiery, fearless, eloquent young attorney-general of South Dakota-himself a candidate for congress-the Honor- able Coe I. Crawford. Crawford is by far the most spirited, logical and convincing campaign orator that the state has ever produced. The campaign of 1896 was the hottest political contest this country has seen since the Civil War. During its progress Senator Crawford de- livered 105 telling speeches-speeches that were filled with pith and unanswerable arguments; and although he lost the fight for himself, he helped to stem the tide of popocracy and democracy combined and saved to the republican party of the state a part of the state ticket. The scene at Alpena was mild beside the one that was enacted at Mound City in Campbell county. At this meeting, J. H. Kipp, 28 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA who afterwards became insurance commissioner under Governor Lee, and a bunch of rowdies, stationed themselves in one corner of the room in which the meeting was being held, and deter- mined to break it up. Every time Mr. Crawford would make a point they would groan and then hurl ugly remarks at him. The speaker's patience became exhausted. Being a master of invective, by birth, and a sovereign at sarcasm, by training, he suddenly stopped his address to pay his respects to Kipp and his friends. If ever fiery darts of burning invective, spat from the end of a human tongue, pierced the social armor of men, it was those that were sent seething into the skins of Kipp and his rowdies that night by Crawford After giving them a tongue lashing that would have caused the soul of a cannibal to shrivel in its casement, the speaker went on uninterrupted. Again at Bowdle, during the same campaign, when Mr. Crawford had gotten his audience to a fever pitch of excitement, some licentious cur gulped out, ''You got $20,000 for selling out to Taylor." (Taylor was the defaulting state treasurer whom Mr. Crawford, as attorney-general, was compelled to prosecute.) Quicker than a flash and in a tone of voice that showed he was not too young to begin nor "too old to come back," the speaker shot at his accuser this penetrating rejoinder, "I don't know who you are, but I know one thing and that is that you are a brazen liar." There was a slight shuffling of feet - a silence - a few coughs, when finally some one said "sic 'um" -then silence, as accuser and accused, liar and lyee (no charge for this new word), stood glaring into each other's eyes. The accuser settled down deeper and deeper into his seat until his crown played tag with his coat collar; -the speaker went on. Once more -this time at Hartford. Owing to a railroad ac- cident, Mr. Crawford was obliged to drive to Hartford from Salem. The night was blinding dark; the driver got lost and they did not reach Hartford until ten o'clock. Meanwhile an old farmer had been ''filling in" until the regular speaker could ar- rive. As Mr. Crawford entered the hall and was recognized, pent-up feelings gave vent to out-spoken threats, men jumped onto chairs and called each other liars; some shook ten, twenty and even hundred dollar bills in other men's faces and told them to put up or shut up." A fist fight was going on outside, and oaths rent the air. Mr. Crawford spoke till after midnight; then the crowd re- fused to depart. Both sides prepared huge bonfires which they re-kindled until their fiery tongues intermingled in the morning skies with the reddened streaks of dawn, Such are only a few of COE I. CRAWFORD 29 the stirring scenes through which he who constitutes our subject has passed. CRAWFORD, THE ORATOR Senator Crawford has a style of oratory peculiar to himself. It comes natural to him. It is different from all other men in the state. His climaxes are not built up on previous meditation. He gathers his inspiration from his surroundings, ignites it with a fuse of soul, and immediately there is an outburst of high keyed rhetoric that causes one to feel his chair lifting him from the floor. Your hair stands pompadour; your scalp puckers as though it had been rubbed with alum; the muscles of your face twitch; your heart thuds; you lean forward; you hold your breath; -you have been touched by the magic tongue of the orator. Then as his oratory subsides, you relax, settle back, feel as though you were being lowered into an abyss, catch your breath, feel your heart-throbs become normal, and sit meditating over the argument being adduced; when suddenly the speaker's eyes flash again, his voice raises, his fists clinch, he comes nearer, you tremble under the spell, and then as if touched by an electric battery you leap upon your seat and cheer! What's wrong? Nothing! You have merely felt the power of human words, the accents of a soul-stirring voice, the effects of natural, inspira- tional impassioned, spontaneous eloquence. Such is the oratory of Crawford. His silvery tongue, pivoted on a diamond swivel, glistens with sparkling verbiage and brings upon you an incanta- tion that is overpowering, awe-inspiring, magical, grand. Again Crawford speaks in epigrams. When he uncorks a new can of them they spurt forth with a hissing, squelching effect like a punctured tube of patent fire extinguisher. His "imps of hell", "toads in a cellar", "machine whelps," and dozens of other epigrams hurled at his personal enemies during the bitter campaigns of 1906 and 1908, are now matters of state pride in a chosen son's vocabulary. Mr. Crawford was one of the ten law students, selected by the faculty out of a class of 130 for commencement honors at the Iowa University Law School. He acquitted himself with oratorical honors, even at that early day in his career. AS A LAWYER Senator Crawford earned the money to put himself through law school, by teaching school. After graduation, he again taught for a brief period, to get money with which to start up in his practice. 30 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA Nearly every lawyer has to go through this starvation period. Young Crawford was no exception. He became the junior mem- ber of a law firm at Independence, Iowa, and at the end of a year he found himself $300 in debt. He got together $25 (enough to pay his carfare to Pierre, S. D.) and started west, to "live or die, sink or swim, survive or perish." Reaching East Pierre, he rented a shack and stuck out his shingle. His first cases were defending frontier ruffians in justice's court. He soon built up a practice that was phenomenal. It was these early efforts at oratory in justice's court that in later years caused his subsequent law partner, the learned Charles E. De Land, to write of him: "Boundless energy, fearless advocacy of his client's cause, stern and drastic invective against those who sought to trample upon his own rights at the bar-these were the qualities, the memories of which mark my first information of him who is the subject of this sketch, the then young man who, in his maiden efforts in justice's court, after settling in Pierre in 1884, had by sheer force of manhood, expressed in matchless eloquence, arous- ing inquiry and astounded listeners passing by, and who eagerly inquired 'Who is he?' to be told 'He is Coe I Crawford.' " This promising young attorney soon lost his entire law library in a fire; re- moved to Pierre, stuck out his sign, started in all over again, and in a short time became one of the recog- nized criminal lawyers of the state. In 1897 he re- moved to Huron to become attorney for the North- [photo of SEN. COE L CRAWFORD] western Railway company, where he soon distinguished himself at the Beadle county bar. His defense of young Hubbard, in the famous Hubbard-Cakebread murder case which occurred on the Miller ranch four miles north-east of Alpena, was perhaps the ablest effort of his life. In the first trial Hubbard was found guilty COE L CRAWFORD 31 of manslaughter and was sentenced to the Penitentiary. Crawford was dauntless in his efforts and at the end of fourteen months he secured a second trial for him. It was his argument before the jury in behalf of his client at this second trial to which we specifically refer. Business was largely sus- pended in all of the surrounding towns. Hundreds made their way to Huron to hear Crawford's closing argument. These who could be squeezed into the court room will never forget the magic spell of his oratory. Not a dry eye in the jury box; not a dry eye in the entire court room; women sobbing in the audience; strong men burying their faces in handkerchiefs; even the court became visibly effected; as hour after hour, building up climax after climax, while he held his audience in tragic suspense, the gifted oratory mounted from the hill-top to mountain-top in gilded flights of almost supernatural oratory until at last he sud- denly broke the chains of bondage and set his prisoner free! IN POLITICS No man will pretend to deny but that Senator Crawford has few equals and no superiors in state Politics. His rise from that dismal law shack at old East Pierre to the United States senator- ship fully attested his capabilities along this line. He is not only a good campaigner, but he is an adept at campaign execu- tion. He is a born leader. You simply can't down him. The next year after settling at Pierre he was elected states attorney for Hughes county. At the same time he formed a partnership with Mr. De Land, which lasted for twelve years. After serving only two years as states attorney, Mr. Crawford was elected to the Territorial Senate in 1888. Two Years later he was elected state senator from Hughes county. Two years after this he was elected attorney-general for the state, filling this position for two terms. during a very trying time. This took him up to the eventful campaign of 1896 when he was a candidate for con- gress, and in which, during the tide of Populism, he lost by only a few votes. In 1904, he made a fight for the Governorship and lost, In 1906, he renewed his fight and won. Crawford's ability to foresee the culmination of Public sentiment and the probable turn of Political events, is his greatest asset. After serving only one term as governor, he declined to become a candidate for re- nomination, but plunked head-long into the senatorial fight, winning the nomination in the June primaries of 1908, and his election at the bands of the state legislature in 1909. It will thus be seen that his political record has been a phenomenal one. WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA 32 CRAWFORD, THE REFORMER Crawford's political rise was finally due to the reforms for which he stood. During his administration as governor there were enacted into state law some of our most wholesome reforms. There will of course always be honest differences of opinion con- cerning some of these laws. He came forward upon the theater of political operations just at the psychological moment. LaFollette had just led off in Wisconsin; Cummings was leading off in Iowa; the spirit of in- surgency, born in the northwest, had taken root and had begun to spread. Dolliver, Beveridge. Lenroot, Bristow, Hubbard, Cooper and others caught the echo and responded. It has plainly become the West against the East, and the former is going to win, even at the expense and peril of turning the country democratic. PERSONAL HISTORY Senator Crawford came from good, old, Presbyterian, Scotch- Irish stock. His father was a wagon maker and an honest, up- right, conscientious, Christian gentleman. In 1851, he removed from Ohio to Allamakee county, Iowa, and settled on a farm. Here Coe I. came into being January 14, 1868. His boyhood was on the farm. During the winter he did chores and attended district school for a few months each year. At fifteen years of age he entered a semi-graded school at Rossville. During his two years at this school he stayed with Dr. Simeon H. Drake, who gave him private lessons in Latin, Geometry and English Literature. He drifted to Ohio, taught school, traveled two years for a publishing house and then entered the law school at Iowa City, where he graduated with honor with the class of '82, and since that time be has repeatedly honored his Alma Mater. Mr. Crawford was married in 1884 to Miss May Robinson of Iowa City. Two children blessed this union. Mrs. Crawford died in 1894. Complying with the mandates of the scriptures, he married ber sister in 1896. Three children were born to this second union. CRAWFORD'S HUMANITY When the Revolutionary army was spending its trying winter at Valley Forge, Isaac Potts, at whose home George Washington was making his headquarters, overheard the general in prayer on his knees one day along the river bank. He reduced the prayer to writing. It is still preserved in both history and literature. COE L CRAWFORD 33 In it may be found these words. "Let all our victories be seasoned with humanity." In the naval battle at Santiago, Cuba, during our recent war, one of our gun-boats hove near to a shell-riven, dismantled Span- ish gun-boat that was on fire and was sinking. When the Amer- ican crew beheld the terrific effect of their gunnery on the enemy, they began to cheer. Raising his hand, the commander said to his men, "Don't cheer boys, the poor devils are dying." The humanity displayed by these military heroes was also displayed by Mr. Crawford in his great political battle for the senatorship. During the campaign, his integrity as a citizen, his manhood and his personal record, were attacked in a most vicious manner. Volley after volley of political vituperation was hurled against the armor plate of his character, yet he come out of the fight without sustaining any permanent injury. He was siting in the governor's office when the united republican ballot of the legislature, in joint-session, was cast for him as United States senator. His presence was immediately demanded and a speech was loudly called for. In a moment be appeared, escorted by a special committee, and took the platform. Raising his hand, to allay the cheering, be calmly said. "Out of the heat of the campaign, I bring no malice toward any man." After completing a neat speech in the senate chamber he returned to the governor's office, where he was met by Governor Vessey who said to him: "This is the first time I have ever felt right about the senatorship since you were denied the appointment eight years ago. The fight has been a bitter personal one, and I congratulate you on your victory " Senator Crawford replied: "Governor, I could never have stood it if it hadn't been for such loyal friends as yourself, who have stood with me bravely through it all." Interviewed a few hours later about his speech of forgiveness delivered before the legislature he said: "No man has any right to harbor malice in his soul. He has a right, of course, to de- fend himself in a dignified way, when attacked, but he has no right to harbor malice toward any man when it is over." Two days later he was summoned to the Governor's office to accept his commission from the state as United States senator from South Dakota. Taking Governor Vessey by the right hand, and placing his left hand on the Governor's shoulder, Senator Crawford said: "I know of no man in South Dakota whose name I would rather have on this commission than yours,-not simply because of the political strife through which we have passed to- gether, but because of your personal friendship." 34 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA Thus, "out of the heat of the conflict," Mr. Crawford came forth a forgiving, high-minded, Christian gentleman, ready and willing to practice the daily prayer left for us by the Nazarene, two thousand years ago, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." AS A SENATOR Men have already begun to criticize the senator pro and con for his record at Washington. We feel that judgment should be suspended for the present. His term is six years. He has served only eighteen months. Why jump at conclusions? The "National Magazine" for this month has this to say about him: "A new senator, who in debate displays all the self-poise and ease of a veteran, is Hon. Coe I. Crawford of South Dakota. Always forceful and effective, although he keys his voice a trifle higher than most speakers, he is never asked to repent a sentence because it has not been heard. In his recent speech in the Senate he announced that he should ask attention for only a short time, but he was kept on the orator's witness stand for over an hour. A senatorial debate reminds one of a gridiron dinner, because of the quizzing that goes on across the floor, when the 'broilers' are all red hot, and each senator is ready for carving with his sharp- est knife." ROBERT S. VESSEY 35 OUR GOVERNOR Rising to an impassioned outburst of eloquence, while deliv- ering an address at Ethan, during the recent political campaign, Senator Coe I. Crawford said: "My Fellow Citizens When you look into the face of Governor Vessey, you look into the face of a man! -a man who has written his own splendid character on the hearts and in the lives of the people of our entire state!" (Pro- longed applause ) The word "man" has in it only three letters; yet, after all, how few of our own sex (let's be honest) really incorporate into their lives all of the constituent elements em- bodied in this little word. Senator Gamble, upon be- ing asked recently what gave the governor such a hold on the people of our state. said, "His face." That's it! Any man with Bob Vessey's face can win in politics. He isn't like one of our former public men who was prominent in national life and who, upon being ac- cused of being "two-faced," declared "It isn't true! If it were, I wouldn't be wearing the face I now have." [Photo of ROBERT S. VESSEY] Have you never noticed the dimple in that stern chin, and the protruding lower lip -each of which ar, indica- tive of determination? And the deep-set, kindly eyes with their wealth of shadowy eye- brows, denoting his pleasing temperament? What an open countenance! What a man- hood revealed from within! 36 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA Fortunate, indeed! His face is his political asset, and not a liability. Another campaign has come and gone in our state's proud history. Robert S. Vessey has been triumphantly re-elected gov- ernor at the hands of the republican party. His past record bas been accented as a criterion for the future. The people, by their ballots, have said, "We are content." His unsullied manhood will now become more conspicuous than ever before. The eyes of the state are riveted upon him. The smoke of the last cam- paign is clearing away, and above the clouds of strife, like the sphinx on the Egyptian desert, there stands out in bold relief against the historic sky the resplendent character of the man. Governor Vessey is a Badgerite by birth. It seems that about sixty per cent of the fellows who have won distinction in the public life of South Dakota, came from Wisconsin. No won- der when that state began to "insurge" in politics that we should "follow suit" or "trump" as the case may be. (We don't play cards either-we borrowed these expressions.) Our governor - grand, good man that he is - was denied the advantage of an education. He got his training in the universe instead of a university. But, after all, this counts in life; Vessey has proven it. In 1882, he was united in marriage to Miss Florence Albert, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Picture if you will an ox team hitched to a covered wagon, wending its way across the prairies in the spring of 1883, toward Wessington Springs, driven by a sober- minded young groom. with his bride by his side. Watch them reach their destination; see the young couple climb out, kneel down and thank God for the scanty blessings of life; and you will have before you the image and circumstances of the man who was destined to become the governor of the state that had just adopted him, Robert S. Vessey. For a few years he played the "good shepherd" and raised sheep. Then he organized at Wessington Springs a mercantile business which he recently sold; and later he went into the bank- ing business also. At present he is the head of a large trust com- pany organized at Pierre, and be is a trustee of the Wessington Springs Seminary, and of Dakota Wesleyan, at Mitchell. In 1905 and in 1907, he was state senator from Jerauld county. During this period he was steeped in reform. The old political methods employed in the state did not appeal to him. He was open and above board in all of his contentions. He in- troduced the measure compelling campaign committees to keep an account of their expenses and to make public report; also the ROBERT S. VESSEY 37 measure compelling railroads to build connecting tracks at inter- secting points; and he secured the adoption of better state bank- ing laws. Always on the side of the people his determined and manly stand on public questions invited the attention and commanded the respect of the state. When Governor Crawford decided not to stand for re-election as governor but to make the race for the United States senate, Vessey's geographical position, the fact that he was in accord with Crawford's program and that he had organized the first Crawford club in the state, made him the log- ical candidate for governor. He went into the primaries, won a decisive victory at the hands of the republican party; was elected by 17,000 majority in the fall of 1908; was renominated by a tremendous lead over his two republican opponents in 1901, and on November 8, skinned his democratic opponent by over 23,000 votes. Going some, eh? AS A PUBLIC SPEAKER Vessey went into the political campaign of 1908, wholly un- prepared by experience on the platform to make the fight that was facing him. Every time he tried to speak his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth. and you could scarcely have pried it loose with a crow-bar. His friends took him over west of the river in Lyman county where the population was not nearly so thick as it is to-day, and gave him the opportunity of practicing on some small audiences. The first night was awful. The fellow was frightened half to death. The next night was no better - possibly worse. Here, the nifty, versatile, experienced Crawford took him under his Demostenesian wings and gave him a bit of Platonian advice. Said be, "Now to-day, think up some good story; and when you get up to speak tonight, tell it first of all." Vessey thought, the story was born; he told it; it took like a Dakota prairie fire; his audience responded, he had found the key to the situation, and he has been talking ever since. Would you believe it? - this bashful, untrained business man has made more public addresses during his two years in office than any other governor whom we have ever had. This may sound start- ling, but it's true. He has addressed old settlers' picnics, stock growers' associations. conservation congresses, educational gath- erings, Political meetings, Sunday school conventions - in fact a multitude of associations and organizations, both within and without the state. 38 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA WRITINGS But whatever may be said pro and con for his work as a speaker, no one will deny but that he is an ideal writer. His first message to the legislature was absolutely faultless in its English, and it rang true with humanity and did him and the state great credit. Read two paragraphs taken from his lost Thanksgiving proc- lamation: "The absence of the opening buds of spring, the faded blos- soms of departed summer, the gray veiled skies of autumn, the chill of lengthening nights and the tang of frosty mornings, - all serve to remind us of the approaching end of the present year and bring again to our minds our beautiful custom of National Thanksgiving. The sunshine of prosperity has smiled upon our land, and peace and plenty have been among our people and blessed our homes. Civic conditions in our state have been improved, and the plane of morality among our citizens has been lifted, for which let us be especially grateful." When Mr. Vessey goes out of the governor's chair in 1912, he will be but fifty-four years of age. There still lies before him fifteen years of active usefulness. What his intentions are we do not know; what his political am- bitions may be we are not prepared to say He has twice suc- cessfully withstood not only the democratic campaign fire, but the cross-fire of his own powerful party as well. One thing is certain -- the little mound that marks his final bivouac will be revered by the people he has served, and on his tombstone will be engraved the loftiest epitaph in our language, HERE LIES A MAN. 0. L. BRANSON 39 A POLISHED ORATOR In the quietude of eventide, when the stream of life's activ- ities is softly burying itself in the bosom of night, when its wavelets are falling asleep, and when its current no longer speaks even in whispers, 0. L. Branson - quiet - meditative -- all alone- wrapped in the tinted shroud of twilight, goes out into the gar- den of rhetoric, plucks from the flowrets of language the choicest garlands of speech that ever rang forth from the palate of a man, arranges these posies of thought in superb diction with the dainty touch of an artist's skill, plaits them into full-bloom wreathes of oratory; and then comes forth again, in the wee small hours of the night surcharged with roseate eloquence, ready to deliver a flowery address on the morrow. Ah the sweet peonies of human thought - the gladiolases of entrancing speech! How they warble forth in musical resonance over that magnolia tongue! How the inmost recesses of the hu- man soul unfold like huge poppies to receive into their daised cells the nectar of his magic words. Branson is easily the most polished orator in the state; and a collection of his model orations should be published in book form, be adopted by the state superintendent of public instruc- tion, and be placed in the school libraries throughout the entire state. ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY The line of demarcation between eloquence and oratory is more pronounced than most people think. Eloquence is logic and diction built up together in perfect climaxes, and effectively de- livered; oratory is an inspiration born of the occasion, gathered from one's audience and hurled back at them with telling effect. The orator on such occasions is merely a verbal clearing house for a multitude of burning ideas that have been transmitted to him telepathically from his audience. These he assimilates and class- 40 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA ifies, sub-consciously, and then reflects them back to his hearers in a current of beatiful and fluent language. Branson's ad- dresses are usually thoroughly prepared in advance. In this sense he may not always be oratorical, but he is invariably eloquent. Size and voice are two of the greatest assets to a public speaker. A dwarf excites sympathy, while a giant commands respect; each of them, on account of his size, finds it easy to gain and hold attention. An out-reaching voice that is clear and full is also indispensable. Branson has all of these advantages. He is tall, graceful. dignified, of commanding presence; has a good voice, thoroughly trained; speaks slowly and articulates perfectly. Following are a few extracts taken from his superbly elo- quent address delivered to the high school graduating class at Volga, S. D., in May, 1905: "I always feel an inspiration on an occasion of this kind that I never experience upon any other; for while it brings its sorrow in a measure, because from this time forward those who are grad- uating here are expected to fight the battle of life for themselves, Yet I never stand in the presence of the youth of our land but what I feel as though the joyous hour of spring is here - 'Mighty nature bounds as from her birth, 'The sun is in the heavens and life on the earth; Flowers in the valley, splendor in the beam, 'Health on the gale, and freshness in the stream.' "Hail! beautiful morning time, when to these young men and women all nature seems to be in harmony. The golden sun- light of morning is resting upon the horizon and shedding its brilliant rays over their young lives; fresh buds are bursting, song birds are singing, the whole Universe is joining in that glad hallelujah chorus.- singing to the angels beyond the stars; and what message shall I bring to them that will help to guide them In the great journey they are soon to begin? * * * * * "Then too, whatever you do, do well. Don't be a weakling; don't be a frittering frailty; but in everything you undertake, be master of the situation See the greatest of the Roman sen- ators quietly walking down the aisle of the Roman senate, never dreaming of danger; see those sixteen blades of steel pierce his flesh, and as the blood flowed from sixteen wounds his soul went to make its peace with the Great Judge in Heaven. The angry mob that gathered about his prostrate form demanded justice and swore vengeance upon Brutus, but quietly and calmly Mark Anthony stood over the dead body of Julius Caesar, master of the situation. O. L. BRANSON 41 "Hear the thunder of cannon and the rattle of musketry upon the field of battle; see the charge and countercharge at the point of the bayonet, and finally see the Union forces in disorderly retreat. But, listen! away in the distance I hear the clattering of hoofs, and finally I see a black charger all covered with foam hurrying to the scene of action, and Phil Sheridan rides up the Shenandoah, master of the situation. * * * * * "Take your lesson from the 'thunderbolt of war.' More than a hundred times he led the armies of France to victory. He lowered the colors of the enemy at Austerlitz, and stood trium- phant in the face of shot and shell at Lodi Bridge. He led his conquering heroes to the summit of the Alps and carried the Eagles of France to victory beyond the clouds. But, in an un- guarded moment, 'There was a sound of revelry by night, And Belgium's capital had gathered there Her beauty and her chiverly,' and while the red wine flowed and the merry dance went on, the Duke of Wellington was marshalling the forces that carried the day at Waterloo; and the pendulum of time ceased to swing for Napoleon on the rock-bound coast of St. Helena." Once more we catch our orator in a different mood. This time with his silvery tongue inlaid with "pearls from many seas," we see him standing before a joint-session of our state legislature, sounding forth the praises of the martyred McKinley. Space forbids the use of more than a few paragraphs of this able eulogy: "When I think of the greatness of my theme, I almost hes- itate at the thought of even attempting to approach it, but when I think of his splendid character that shines forth as brilliantly as the light-house that marks the pathway of the mariner at the midnight hour, I am inspired to go forward and do my duty; not because I believe I can tell the story better, not because I believe I can sing his praises more sweetly, but because I believe down deep in my heart that some of the most beautiful lessons in the world's history are to be found in the life of William McKinley. "In June, 1896, in the city Of St, Louis, the Republican National Convention was held. That mighty host of delegates from every state in the Union was determined to bring back to our country that confidence and prestige that seemed to be swiftly departing from us. They called for a leader; the trumpets were sounding, the bugles rang forth; and the knightly McKinley 42 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA came forward as the man of the hour. His spurs had already been won in the halls of our national congress, and the voters of the nation were quick to rally around his standard. The contest came - one of the fiercest that has ever been known in the history of politics. For days and weeks two great political parties of the nation were doing battle royal; but on the evening of election day, when the smoke of battle had cleared away, it was found that the hosts of democracy were retreating, and the victorious banner of the republican party went streaming by. "Was there ever such an hour as that? Have you ever stood by the sea-shore and watched the ebbing of the tide? the receding waters drifting - drifting, until it seemed as though they were gone forever? Then the change comes. You can see the return- ing waters, the sea-gulls, the canoe and all that ride upon the bosom of the mighty deep, come gliding merrily in to greet the sea-shore. So with the condition of our nation. After hope had fled and confidence had gone almost forever, the incoming tide brought us the greatest period of prosperity ever known in the history of our country." A man may say certain things to you and mislead you temporarily in shaping your estimate of his real make-up; but when - he begins to write, then you see the real man himself come to the surface. A few days since while doing a little Pinkerton work in the north central part of the state with a view to picking up [photo of O. L. BRANSON] some. more data in the life of Mr. Branson with which to enrich this article, we ran across a letter dated July 20, 1910, written by him to one of his friends, which shows better than we can express, the sincerity of he man about whom we are writing and his loyalty to his friends. We herein publish a part of it: "As the years have come and gone I have made many new acquaintances, but when- O. L. BRANSON 43 ever I want a real good visit, I cling to the old ones. I have always appreciated your friendship and goodwill. "As I grow older I think I can truthfully say I become stronger in the hope that every transaction which the First Na- tional (the bank of which Mr. Branson is president) may have may be honorable and square in every particular. I appreciate fully the value of our friends, for without them we could never have accomplished the few things that we have. "That your future may be bright and your business career successful is the wish of one of the best friends you have ever had, 0. L. Branson." BUSINESS MAN It is seldom that a man of strong literary tastes is successful in business. Branson is an exception. He is a happy combina- tion of oratory, business, refreshing sociability and tact. On the stump he is an effective political orator. Always unique in his opening remarks, he catches his audiences with ease and holds them to the end. On the other hand, as a banker and business man, he is quiet, considerate, approachable, fair, honest and aggressive. At present Mr. Branson is president of the First National Bank of Mitchell, an institution which he took hold of thirteen years ago and when its existence was hovering in the balance, placed it upon a Gibraltar basis; raised it's capital stock from scarcely enough to meet its pay roll, to $100,000 and has watched its deposits climb up from mere nothing to $850,000. He took the institution out of its old one-story, rented building and housed it in an elegant new pressed-brick, three-story structure of its own. He is also president of the corporation of O. L. Branson & Co. of Mitchell, and is president of a number of smaller banks throughout the state. POLITICS In his younger days Mr. Branson held various minor offices. In 1902 he was sent to the state senate from Davison county; two years later he was re-elected. In 1906 he was elected Mayor of Mitchell, and at the close of his first term he refused to become a candidate for his own successor. He was however, a candidate for Congress that year. Early in the campaign he said: "Our boys are going to lose; I am going to withdraw." He withdrew. His prediction came true. The "boys" with whom he had trained, lost; but O. L. Branson had withdrawn in time to save himself 44 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA for future days. He says he is out of politics except to repay his friends for their support in the past. Nonsense! A new story will be written inside of ten years. BIOGRAPHICAL Mr. Branson was born in Whiteside county, Illinois, Feb- ruary 3, 1861; moved to Iowa with his parents who settled at La Moille, Marshall county in 1868. A few years later the fam- ily removed to Manning, in Carroll county, where his parents still reside. His early days were spent on a farm. At the youthful age of fifteen he became a teacher in the public schools of Carroll county, and at eighteen, he was elected principal of the Arcadia schools. In 1885 he was elected cashier of the Rawlin County Bank, in Atwood, Kansas. This position he held for two years. He then organized at Atwood a bank of his own, remaining at the head of the institution four years. During these six years in Atwood, he spent his nights reading law, and he was finally ad- mitted to the Kansas bar. Later he removed to Osmond, Ne- braska, where be engaged in banking and in the practice of law. His marked ability as a trial lawyer soon won attention, and despite the fact that he only used litigation as a side -line, his legal practice soon became so large that it demanded all of his time. At the high tide of his success he left Osmond to come to Mitchell, South Dakota, where he bought the controlling interest of the First National Bank, yet when he left Osmond he turned over to other attorneys for trial thirteen cases in district court, besides all of the smaller cases which he had listed up. Had he remained active in the legal profession he would no doubt today be one of the conspicuous legal lights of the country. One of Mr. Branson's leading traits is his ability to make friends. and to hold them. He is never too busy to be inter- viewed and he is always ready to shake hands. As be takes you by the hand you can instantaneously feel the pulsations from him great heartstrings vibrating through your whole being. At once you feel the magnetism of an abiding friendship. When you start to leave, he invariably accosts you with the appeal, "Don't be in a hurry! sit down and stay awhile longer." Blessed - thrice blessed, is any man with such a temperament! Enviable record! Noble manhood! Illustrious statesman! - South Dakota will ever be proud of him and she will continue to honor him. C. H. BURKE 45 A STEADFAST REPUBLICAN When the good people of our state, who remained at home, heard that a few young up-stars in attendance at the Republican state convention held in Sioux Falls in June 1906. had actually hissed Congressman Burke when he arose to speak, and that John Lockart had been compelled to rise up in the midst of the tumult and plead for a higher expression of citizenship, they said quietly to themselves "If we ever get a chance, we'll right that wrong." The chance came. Mr. Burke became a candidate for congress again in 1908. The public righted this wrong at the June pri- maries of that year; they righted it again at the primaries this year, and they will right it again in November. Mr. Burke is a born vote-getter. He knows nothing about the tricks of the average politician in this regard. He gets them on the strength of his past record, on his ability to assimilate good hard work, on his political consistency; in fact they just sort o' come to him. Any man who would hesitate to vote for Charlie Burke, either doesn't understand Mr. Burke, or else he has a grudge at himself, commonly known as "political dyspepsia." Charlie's political career is not at an end in South Dakota yet. Oh! no; not by any manner of means. In a large number of states, the capital thereof is not the metropolis. It is true in New York, in Illinois, in North Dakota, and in a long list of other states. It is equally true in South Dakota. Every state capital wants a senator or a congressman, so does every metrop- olis. There is a lot of good political prestige goes with a sen- atorship that is worth looking into. The capital of South Dakota has a congressman - The metropolis had a senator. She delib- erately threw him overboard. Today, Sioux Falls' loss is Huron's gain. Nevertheless, the time may not be far distant when the city of Pierre will be clamoring for a senator. If she does, keep your eye on Charlie Burke. 46 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA It has been a great many years since Congressman Burke entered public life. During this long interval of time there has been a steady influx of settlers into our state. Many of them know little about him or his public work; therefore, we deem it proper to give him a little biographical introduction. BIOGRAPHICAL Burke is an Irishman. (Hardly necessary to mention his nationality, so long as he spells his name exactly like Edmund Burke, the famous Irish leader in the House of Parliament during the latter part of the eighteenth cen- tury.) He is just in the prime of life---forty-nine years of age. Born in New York state, he, too, saw the advantages to a young man in going west. and so in 1882 he settled on a homestead in Beadle county, South Dakota. In 1883 he re- moved to Hughes county, [photo - CONGRESSMAN C. H. BURKE] where he has since resided. He is married and has four children. Congressman Burke was admitted to the South Dakota bar in 1886, but he has never been active as a practitioner. Charlie is, first of all, a business man. In his own private busi- ness affairs. he has been pre-eminently successful,-just the kind of a man we need on our congressional delegation. POLITICAL Mr. Burke was elected to our State Legislature in 1894, was re-elected in 1896, and two years later, he was sent to congress; was re-elected in 1900, in 1902, in 1904, (missed in 1906), in 1908, and be will be again on November 8, 1910. When he left the national capitol, March 4, 1907, after his temporary defeat in 1906, the men in congress, with whom he had trained for so many years, gathered about him and bade him an affectionate farewell, each one saying as he shook hands with C. H. BURKE 47 him, "Charlie, I hope you'll come back at the next election." As he walked down the capitol steps. he said to a friend, "I'll never come back to this building again so long as I live, unless I can come with a commission from my state." Charlie came back, and he'll keep coming. Why not? Look at his record. Follow- ing are only a few of the splendid measures which he favored and worked hard to have enacted into law: The extension of rural free delivery of the mails; The Act prohibiting freight rebates by railroads; The Act to expedite the bearing and determination of suits in equity brought under the Sherman anti-trust act of 1890 to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies; The Act to promote the safety of employees and travelers upon railroads by compelling common carriers to equip their cars with automatic couplers and continuous brakes, and their loco- motives with driving wheel brakes; The Act authorizing the Interstate Commerce Commission to employ safety - appliance inspectors; The Joint Resolution directing the Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate and report an block signal systems for the control of railroad trains; The Act requiring common carriers engaged in interstate commerce to make full reports of all accidents, both as to the nature and cause; The Joint Resolution directing the Interstate Commerce Com- mission to make investigations into the subject of railroad dis- crimination and monopolies in coal and oil; The Act to promote the security upon railroads engaged in interstate commerce and to encourage the saving of life; The Act to regulate commerce, approved June 30, 1906, commonly known as the Railway Rate Legislation of the Roos- evelt administration; The Act establishing the Department of Commerce and Labor and authorizing the Bureau of Corporations therein to exercise the same power and control in respect to corporations, joint stock companies and combinations subject to the provisions of the act, as the Interstate Commerce Commission exercises over common carriers; The Meat Inspection Act; The Pure Food Act; The Employer's Liability Act; The Denatured Alcohol Act; The Oleomargarine Act; 48 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA The Reclamation Act; Postal Savings Banks. Again the skeptic nays: "I don't care what be has done in the past, what I desire to know is what he is going to do with regard to the reform measures that will come up for enactment during the next session of congress. Very well, Mr. Radical, here is what he has pledged himself to work for. and Charlie has never yet broken faith with his constituents: Support President Taft's administration; Revision by the Tariff Commission of the Payne-Aldrich tar- iff law, after it shall have been thoroughly tested and its weak points ascertained; Amendment of the Interstate Commerce law; Conservation of National Resources; Improvement of the Missouri river as a public highway so as to hold down freight rates; New laws making the American Indian self-supporting; The early opening for settlement of the remainder of the Indian reservations of the state. When Mr. Burke was returned to congress in 1909, he was offered a position on the Ways and Means Committee, one of the most influential and important committees in our national con- gress. He refused this honor, saying: "By refusing this ap- pointment I may get the chairmanship of the Committee on In- dian Affairs. I can then be of far greater service to the people of my state." Always a practical politician, he got the Indian assignment, succeeding Mr. Sherman, vice-president of the United States, who had held the position for fourteen years. It was a well-deserved promotion, and it gave to South Dakota a recog- nition never before equaled, except in the appointment of Sen- ator Kittredge to the chairmanship of the Committee on Inter- oceanic Canals. Speaking of his appointment, our newspapers, without regard to polities or to factionalism, were unstinted in their praise. Among the hundreds of beautiful comments were the following extracts: Aberdeen American: South Dakota has been given notable recognition in the appointment of Congressman Burke to be chair- man of the Committee on Indian Affairs, one of the big plums of the House register. Mr. Burke has long served upon this com- mittee, and his place of seniority recommended the post and his ability and careful participation in the duties of his past mem- bership counseled-that the honor go to him. Some idea of the importance of the position held by the head of that committee C. H. BURKE 49 may be gained when it is known that the committee has the di- rection of the expenditure of about $10,000,000 annually. Blunt Advocate: The elevation of Congressman Burke to the chairmanship of the Indian Committee is certainly a great honor, considering the importance of that committee, and it brings to South Dakota the highest recognition in a national way that has ever been given the State. Hot Springs Star: Congressman Burke has been appointed chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs. Mr. Burke was a member of this committee during his first term in Congress, be- fore insurgency put him out for a term, and he exhibited such a thorough knowledge of Indian affairs and the government's deal- ing with them, that he was the logical man for the chairmanship. He is a keen Congressman, whose push, pull and ability are counting for the state. Northwest Blade (Leola): Congressman Charles H. Burke, of South Dakota, has been made chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, one of the very best and most important com- mittees in the House of Representatives. The honor is no small one to confer, but all who know Mr. Burke will agree that the appointment was the right man in the right place. Mitchell Republican: The Republican is exceedingly glad to know that Mr. Burke has been honored and that he has brought additional honor and credit to the state. As chairman of the committee, the South Dakota Congressman will be the chief fac- tor in Indian legislation and an appropriation bill which carries $10,000,000 annually. The utmost confidence is placed in his ability and business capacity to handle the chairmanship of this very important committee to the end that it will result in credit to himself, his state, and benefit to the Indian affairs of the government. Ft. Pierre Stock Growers' News: This was the most impor- tant appointment to be made at this session and it is certainly a high honor coupled with a great responsibility. Mr. Burke has shown himself to be the man best fitted for this position, and we are of the opinion that no other man so well understands the In- dian's status and needs. His ability to allow competent Indians to acquire title to their lands has done more toward placing them where they can take care of their own affairs than all other leg- islation passed during the last twenty-five years. Huronite: Whether it was an exhibition of wisdom or com- pensation for being good, Mr. Cannon has conferred service on the red people by substituting a Western Congressman for an Eastern Congressman at the head of this important committee. 50 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA Cresbard Beacon: This is not Mr. Burke's first experience in the lower House; our people concluded to try another set of Congressmen, but before their first term had expired they found out their mistake and hurried to remedy it by returning Martin and Burke to their old positions. We congratulate Mr. Burke and the Indians at the same time. The above are only a few of the several hundred choice edi- torial bouquets which were thrown at "our Charlie" by the news- paper fraternity of the state. We wish that space would grant the publication of them all. BURKE'S HONESTY While addressing the citizens of Mitchell and the surround- ing country, during his presidency, Colonel Roosevelt said: "It takes three things to make a good citizen---honesty, courage and common sense." We just believe he had Congressman Burke in mind. The reason Mr. Burke has been so effectual in legislation is because of this inherent honesty; his manly courage to stand up for what he thinks is right; and his good, common-sense, in not antagonizing the administration with which he is compelled to work and at whose hands he must look for favors for himself and through himself for his constituents. No other congressman in all history has been so successful as he in securing "unanimous consent" for the enactment of his proposed bills. It is because his colleagues - Democrats and Re- publicans alike -- have learned to trust him. They know he is honest; they make him a law-making body unto himself; what Charlie Burke asks for he gets. HIS APPROACHABILITY Whether you meet Mr. Burke on the porch of his own mag- nificent home at Pierre, on the streets of his home town, on the train. in Chicago, or at Washington, he is always the same Charlie-always in the same pleasing mood-always a man. He is better than the good, as good as the best, and he side-steps for no man. EBEN W. MARTIN 51 AN ABLE CONGRESSMAN "I'd rather have against me on a case any other lawyer I have ever known, than Eben W. Martin," said Judge Moore at a political convention in Sioux Falls in June, 1900; "He is the shrewdest attorney in watching the fine legal points in a trial, by whom I have ever been opposed. It is simply impossible to out- wit him." True, no doubt, and Martin is just as alert in the halls of congress. Any time that some congressman wants to get through a bill with a "nigger" in it, he wants to make dead sure that Eben W. Martin is not going to be present when it comes up for final passage. Congressman Martin is just as shrewd in politics as he is in trying a law suit, or in watching the course of national legisla- tion. In the campaign of 1908, he was identified with the "old guard" in this state, and the insurgents repeatedly declared, "We can win if we can only find some way to get Martin out of the field." He makes no attempts at impassioned oratory. He is simply a keen, smooth, fluent, logical convincing speaker. He knows the power of argument, and he marshals his thoughts so as to carry conviction to his bearers. As a political campaigner he is an old war horse, and his opponents dread him. He can com- bine fluency and logic, season the mixture with high grade sar- casm, sugar coat it with wit, and then dish it out over his oily tongue, in a silver stream that will invariably turn the heads of his hearers, and make his audience become a united Martin crowd. Just a few nights ago he spoke at Plankinton, and the reporter who was present sent out the following: MARTIN AT PLANKINTON "Congressman Eben W. Martin was the principal speaker at a rousing republican rally held at Plankinton Monday night. His address was the best made at Plankinton thus far during the 52 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAK0TA present campaign, and he was listened to with the closest atten- tion by a mammoth crowd, which filled every inch of available space in the ball in which he spoke. Congressman Martin always has been popular among the republicans of this part of South Dakota, as well as those of other parts of the state, and he won new friends by his able address." His style of oratory is entirely different from that of many others; in fact, he has a style of his own. And he is always sur- charged. Wake him up in the night and call him to the platform, and a stream of prose will at once gush forth over his silvery tongue like a new antigerm foundation. The fellow is actually such a walking dictionary of words that he doesn't even need an index to find them; they are always at his tongue's end in super- fluous profusion, fighting among themselves to be released in rapid, orderly succession. POLITICAL NOTIONS In politics Martin is a free thinker. His recent public utter- ances classify him as a progressive stalwart or else as a conser- vative progressive; that is, he has in a measure divorced himself from the old radical element, yet he has not seen fit to identify him- self with the radical insurgents. In fact the line of demarcation in thought on public questions, between him and such men as Regent Dwight of Sioux Falls who presided so ably over the last republican state convention,-himself a prominent insurgent- has now grown so fine that you can scarcely detect it with a divisible lens, double objective microscope. The political ground on which Mr. Martin stands is feasible. If we are able to read the signs in the political horoscope, he is standing right now on the line of entrenchments where the repub- lican party has got to make its rally against the onslaught of democracy in the future. We believe it is due to Mr. Martin to herein quote briefly from a recent interview of his on public questions, particularly with reference to South Dakota affairs: "The South Dakota Republican platform is abreast of the best progressive thought of the day. With this platform I am in entire accord. Its most prominent principles I have advocated publicly for years as my speeches at State Conventions and in the debates in Congress will disclose. I shall continue to advocate these principles and to labor for their realization in legislation while I remain in public life. * * * * * "There has been some right and some wrong in each of the EBEN W. MARTIN 53 republican factions in South Dakota. The only honorable basis for a permanent union of republican forces in the state is to rec- ognize the fact, and to treat all republicans in a spirit of justice and fairness. "Republicanism is stalwart. And when a man has con- scientiously classed himself as a stalwart republican, he has thought of the strong, fundamental stalwart principles of the party that have formed the basis of its career of fifty years of good government, sound money, protection of American indus- tries, honest and efficient public servants, and he has not been willing to see these principles abandoned or successfully assailed. "Republicanism is also progressive. New conditions develop new issues and new problems. Special interests seek to enlarge their privileges and to perpetuate them. Power is often misused and must be rebuked. Graft and corruption entrench themselves in high places, and there is need of a general house-cleaning. Good government cannot be perpetuated without insisting vig- orously upon the highest moral and political standards. The man who conscientiously classes himself as a progressive republican has his eye upon these new and serious public questions, and em- phasizes the necessity of improvement and progress. The repub- lican party has always been the very party of progress. It has always been blessed with progressive leaders. Only by keeping fully abreast of the advance thought and demands of the people can it hope to maintain its political leadership." Congressman Martin has always been a great admirer of Theodore Roosevelt. He knew the Colonel when he was only a western ranchman, twenty odd years ago. He believes in Roos- evelt and his policies. Mr. Martin was the first public man in the west to advocate the ascendancy of Roosevelt. He came out boldly for the Colonel in a public address delivered away back in May, 1900. And Martin always supported the Colonel. During his re- cent western trip, while speaking at Sioux City, Col. Roosevelt said: "While I was president there were some men from the west who always stood with me. Congressman Martin of South Dakota, was one of the fellows who always stood without hitch- ing." It pleases the people of this state to know that they have in public life a man who is, and who for so long has been, in accord with the Roosevelt policies. CHARACTER IN POLITICS The telegraph diminishes the size of the continent. The cablegram brought the two continents together and diminished 54 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA the size of the world. Wireless telegraphy put on speaking terms and made immediate neighbors of a billion and a half of human souls. Crippen riding along silently on the ocean's heav- ing breast was unknowingly already in the arms of the law. Wellman and his brave crew scrambled into a life boat hung be- neath his giant dirigible, cut the ropes, dropped into the sea, were picked up by the "Trent," and before they had gotten time to exchange their wet clothes for dry ones the story of their rescue had been wafted ashore on ethereal wavelets, and in less than thirty minutes load-voiced newsboys, standing on street cor- ners, were distributing to anxious throngs the daily papers which broke the printed intelligence to a nervous world. This shriveling of the earth into an articulating community has changed con- ditions wonderfully in the past ten years. Today, a man in public life betrays his con- stituents; and in a moment, as it were, after the evidence has been made public, people living in far-off island depend- encies are informed by the press, of the fellow's mis- [photo - EBEN W. MARTIN] deeds, and they are advised to turn him down at the polls. For this reason no man can long stay in public life now- adays whose character and whose public services are not above reproach. One careless step - suspicion is aroused- the X-ray of public opinion is turned on - an investigation held; and down goes McGinty. Herein lies Martin's strength. He has set up and maintained before the people of our state, and, as well, the nation at large, an unimpeachable character, an untarnished manhood and a standard of public ser- vice that have inspired unbroken confidence and commanded uni- versal respect. While a student at Cornell, be identified himself with the Christian work of the school. The moral lessons incul- cated at that impressionable period of his life, have lingered with him. Today he is, and has been for many years, a member of the EBEN W. MARTIN 55 great Methodist Episcopal church. The church folk of all denom- inations have stood by him to a certain extent. It may truth- fully be stated that today ninety per cent of the voters of the state are members of some religious denomination, either Protest- ant or Catholic; and he who in his political life ignores the church, will soon find himself counted out. He might have done so twenty years ago; he dare not do it now. One of our sages said. "Character is three-fourths of life." In politics it is just the reverse-four-thirds; that is, you have got to have character enough to go round and then have some left over (just like the biblical story of the loaves and fishes), so as to fill up the dents in your armor plate, that have been made during a political bombardment. MARTIN, THE MAN Eben Martin is an Iowa product. He was born in the old- fashioned burg of Maquoketa, in Jackson county, situated on a branch line of the N. W. R., R. running from Clinton to Ana- mosa, April 12, 1855. On one side of the parental house he came from English stock; on the other, from Scotch-Irish. This mix- ture of bloods from Johnny Bull, from the Land of Mary, and from Old Erin, is enough to produce just exactly such a specimen as the Martin whom we have heretofore pictured. Every man's success depends largely upon: (1) his prep- aration. (2) his application, and (3) his determination, to suc- ceed. Martin laid a broad foundation for his success in life. Handicapped in childhood by being passed into another home for rearing, be nevertheless worked his way through Cornell college where he graduated in 1879. at the age of only twenty-four. He took his B. A. degree and three years later he was again honored by his alma mater which granted to him his Master's degree. But this was only a part of his preparation. From Cornell he went to the University of Michigan, entered the law depart- ment, became a leader in the school, was elected president of his class, and graduated at the end of one year with signal honors. Upon the completion of his law course, young Martin was admitted to the bar, and he immediately struck west to "grow up with the country." He did not stop in the settled eastern portion of Dakota, as most professionally inclined men would have done, but he made his way overland to a little lonely village neatly tucked away along the sun-kissed hillsides of a deep Black Hills canon, stuck out his newly-stenciled law sign, went to work; and for thirty years Deadwood has echoed with his name and responded to his call. 56 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA HOME STRENGTH Martin's triumphant success in polities has been due largely to his strength in his home town and county. He has repeatedly come up to state conventions with a MAJORITY of over 2.000, from his own county. The entire Black Hills region has always stood loyally by him. This year, be did not even return from Washington to look after his own political interests, but remained at his post of duty; yet he carried not only Lawrence county, but his opponent's county as well. When a man continuously on the ground during a campaign, cannot overcome the influence of a man who is continuously absent, then the absentee must have a hold on the affections of his opponents' home folk which is pretty hard to break. MARRIAGE AND PROSPERITY Mr. Martin was married in 1883 to Miss Jessie A. Miner, of Cedar Falls, Iowa. They are the proud parents of five children, three boys and two girls-all living. He has prospered greatly in a business way in the Hills. Investing the small savings of his early law practice, he has seen these investments double, triple, quadruple, quintuple and even sextuple in value so many times over that today he is one of the richest men in the Black Hills He has a large ranch just north of Buffalo Gap that is rapidly developing in earning power. In addition to this he has heavy interests in Hot Springs and at Deadwood. MARTIN THE STATESMAN Congressman Martin has never "tooted his own horn." He has kept on plugging, and evidently intended to let the next gen- eration tell of his work. Here is where we shall, in this respect. thwart his inclinations. His speech on the trusts and how to curb them, delivered before the students of the State University at Vermillion, some four or five years ago, is now regarded by able critics as the most powerful public utterance on this all impor- tant theme that has ever been delivered. President Roosevelt in one of his latter messages to congress urged that all interstate corporations be compelled to take out federal licenses. Where did he get the idea? From Eben W. Martin. Bless you! we have it on good authority, not gained from either of the inter- ested parties, that Congressman, Martin wrote that portion of Roosevelt's message for him, and the latter only recast the phrase- ology here and there so as to put it more nearly into his own lan- guage. Not one single man dare deny that Martin was the pio- EBEN W MARTIN 57 neer advocate of this reform. He introduced a bill in congress to this effect, and came very near getting it through. Powerful corporations all over the country sent delegations to Washington to defeat it. They wrote certain people in South Dakota and even sent secret agents to see them, in an effort to get Mr. Mar- tin's constituents to hold him in check. But, let us tell you that Congressman Martin was right, and that the Martin idea of regulating the trusts is the one that is yet going to find its way into the federal statutes of the country, -and in the not far-distant future either. In his next message to congress President Taft is going to recommend the Martin scheme. It was our original intention to incorporate herein a long list of the meritorious measures that Mr. Martin introduced into congress, which have now become laws, but space forbids. How- ever, this part of his worthy public life is already largely famil- iar to our people. MARTIN'S RISE Martin got into the political game early in life. At twenty- nine he was a member of our territorial legislature. Then he was elected to the fifty-seventh, fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth con- gresses, in succession. At the eventful Sioux Falls convention of 1906, he went down to defeat with the "old guard" before the tide of insurgency. Called to the platform by his friends for a speech, he laughingly remarked, "Vox populi, vox dei," added a few pleasing words and sat down. But Fate said, "This worthy son shall not remain in private life." Congressman Parker of Martin's own town, who was nominated in his stead, died during his congressional career. A clamor went up from the whole state for Martin's immediate re- turn to congress. A campaign was already in progress. Martin had been nominated. He confidently expected to be elected, but in this event he could not take his seat until March 4, following. The governor called a special election, in conjunction with the regular election, to elect a congressman for the four months of Mr. Parker's unexpired term. Martin's name was placed on the special ballot. He was, therefore, elected twice the same day; and as a result he took his seat in December following. Under these peculiar circumstances, Mr. Martin was out of congress only a portion of one term. He was renominated at the primaries in June of this year, and he will be overwhelmingly re-elected on November 8, 1910. WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA 58 ft will thus be seen that he has been a member of five con- gresses in succession, and he will be a member of the sixth. What the future will bring forth in the career of this ambitious, ably-qualified and far-seeing westerner, none can definitely say. He is yet a comparatively young man filled with vigor. The west is gaining more and more recognition in the larger field of na- tional polities. In the last national campaign, the lamented Dolliver, of Iowa, was favorably talked of for vice-president, but he declined the honor. Nebraska, on our south, has been honored with a presidential candidate for three campaigns. "Westward, the march of empire takes its way." The whole migratory movement of the United States is westward. 'Western states are rapidly settling up. Railroad developments have opened to set- tlement vast empires that heretofore were occupied by only an occasional ranger. Westward! Westward! Ohio can no longer claim the balance of power between the east and the west and set herself up as the mother of presidents. Iowa will be the divid- ing line in the future, and the west is going to demand recog- nition. A competent, progressive, congressman's services be- come valuable to his state in direct proportion to the number of years he is kept in public life. Let South Dakota keep at Wash- ington our legislative twins, Martin and Burke. (Later.-Martin was-again elected to Congress this year- 1912). GEORGE H. GRACE 59 A "GRACE"-FUL MAN The apostles repeatedly referred to the "grace of God." Throughout the union, except where there is a special statute or agreement providing otherwise, three days of "grace" are given on promissory notes. However, it is not either of these kinds of "grace" that we are going to write about; but just simply Professor Grace, Editor Grace, Postmaster Grace-plain George Grace, if you please. In years gone by we have worked with Grace and worked for him. stood with him and stood for him, taught with him and taught for him; therefore, if perchance this article should at cer- tain angles take on a little unintentional personal coloring, we ask for liberty of judgment, and invite our possible critics' at- tention to the fact that the associations of school days and during the years of young manhood or womanhood, are the most lasting in life, and that from them spring friendships that are as endur- ing as the hills. Few men, in their quiet, unpretentious, hum- ble way, have done more for South Dakota and for building up strong, rugged, genuine character and manhood throughout the state, than George Grace. We knew him as a boy on the farm; we were one of his institute instructors when he was superin- tendent of Buffalo county; we were intimately associated with him while he was principal of the Mitchell high school; we were in close touch with him while he had charge of the Miller schools; we articulated with him while he was superintendent of Hand county; we have played ball with him, fished with him, swam with him; heard him teach, preach, lecture and joke; and yet, in all these intimate and cherished associations, we never knew him to do an unmanly thing. Hence, it will be readily seen, that to us he becomes a congenial theme. NATIVITY In preparing our articles on "Who's Who in South Dakota," we have been agreeably surprised to find that so many men who 60 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA have exerted an influence in this state, came from Wisconsin. Just so with Grace, he was born and raised, until he was twelve years of age, at Monroe, Wisconsin. PARENTAGE George Grace came from good, patriotic stock,-a mixture of "Yank" and "Brit". His father, John Grace, served with distinction in the Union army. He was a member of the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry, and as such he was in the hardest fighting of the war, including the Battle of Gettysburg. He was wounded in the stubborn fight at Chancellorsville Court House. George's mother is an English lady-she having come to America but a short time before her marriage to John Grace. Her maiden name was Harriet Thorpe. She is a dear old lady, with one of the most fascinating English brogues to which we have ever listened. Personally, we should like very much to yield to temptation and stop right here and pay her a just tribute for the many kind- nesses we have received at her hands, but she is not our theme and we dare not digress too far. The old couple still reside at Mitchell, South Dakota, where they are universally loved and revered, and where they are esteemed as types of that town's best citizenship. MIGRATION When George was twelve years of age, in 1883, his parents brought their family westward and settled on a farm in Lincoln county, this state, near the present town of Hudson. In 1885 they again pushed westward and settled in Buffalo county. Here is where Grace spent his teens and grew to manhood. A SELF-MADE MAN Young Grace was a studious chap, by nature. He longed for an education. Finally, in the fall of 1889, an opportunity came. He got a chance at Wessington Springs to pay for his board by doing chores, and he was enabled thereby to attend the Free Methodist Seminary, located at that place. By leaving school occasionally to teach and earn a little money, he finally succeeded, as a result of this alternating ar- rangement in graduating with honor in the summer of 1894. Later be did post graduate work at some school in Iowa. HIS RISE Watch his rise and progress! The same year that he grad- uated at Wessington Springs he was elected clerk of courts in GEORGE H. GRAGE 61 Buffalo county. The next year he was appointed county super- intendent of schools in that county, and he did the work of both offices. The next year he was elected county superintendent without any opposition, and the very next year he resigned and accepted the principalship of the Mitchell high school, which position he held for three years. Then he jumped over to Miller to become city superintendent of their schools. He served them for three years, and then quit to become a candidate for super- intendent of the Hand county schools. He was elected; served one term; declined to accept a second term, owing to ill health; removed to Lead, at the doctor's instigation, so as to be in a higher altitude; bought a half interest in the "Lead Daily Tribune," in 1905; later bought the "Lead Daily Call" and con- solidated it with the Tribune; got into the political game again, played it successfully, and was nominated for postmaster at Lead on January 20, 1910; was confirmed in April and took charge of the office on May 1. Such is the record of the man who bas enjoyed public con- fidence in this state to an ex- tent