James M. Lawless Biography


	This biography appears on page 653 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm


				JAMES M. LAWLESS. 

	The name of Lawless has figured long and prominently in 
connection with farming interests in Lake county and representatives of 
the name have taken an active and helpful interest in bringing about 
the present conditions of the county, especially in advancing its 
agricultural development. James M. Lawless, now extensively and 
successfully engaged in farming on section 11, Farmington township, 
Lake county, was born in Fillmore county, Minnesota, on the 8th of 
September, 1866, and is a son of Richard and Bridget Lawless. Upon his 
arrival in Dakota territory in 1877, the father homesteaded on section 
11, township 107, range 53. He secured a tree claim and afterward owned 
an entire section of land, having extended the boundaries of his 
original tract by later purchases. He continued to carefully, 
systematically and successfully till the soil until he retired from 
active business life. He is now living in Madison, enjoying the fruits 
of his former labor, and his wife also survives. 

	James M. Lawless spent the first eleven years of his life in his 
native county and then accompanied his parents to South Dakota. He 
supplemented a district-school education by study in the Madison State 
Normal School and afterward helped his father in the work of the home 
farm, being thus engaged until twenty nine years of age, when he began 
farming on his own land. He now cultivates the old homestead, farming 
altogether six hundred and forty acres, and he is accounted one of the 
progressive and enterprising agriculturists of South Dakota, making 
continuous advance in his business affairs. His fields produce good 
crops of corn, wheat and other cereals and he has upon his place sixty-
five head of shorthorn cattle, thirty-five head of horses and one 
hundred and fifty head of hogs. He has helped to make all of the 
improvements upon the farm and he utilizes the most modern implements 
in furthering the work of the place, upon which he has lived for 
thirty-six years, this being one of the oldest developed properties of 
the county. He is also a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator at Ramona, 
in the Farmers Elevator at Madison, in the Fair Ground at Madison and 
in the Battle Creek telephone lines. 

	Mr. Lawless is a Catholic in religious faith. He has no club nor 
fraternal associations, preferring to concentrate his efforts upon his 
business affairs, which, carefully directed, are bringing to him 
substantial success. There is no phase of farm life with which he is 
not familiar. He has studied with scientific thoroughness the best time 
to plant his crops, the best methods of tilling his fields and knows 
what the soil will best produce. His efforts are therefore attended 
with substantial results and he is now numbered among the leading 
agriculturists of Lake county.