Charles E. Beardemphl Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 768-769

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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CHARLES E. BEARDEMPHL, general farmer, living on the southwest quarter 
of section 20, in Jefferson township, is one of the substantial 
citizens of Spink county, and has been closely identified with the 
growth of his locality, his practical knowledge of his calling 
assisting in giving the present prosperity to that portion of South 
Dakota. 

Our subject is of German parentage, but was born in New York city, 
February 13, 1858. He was the eldest son and second child born to 
Charles and Bertha Beardemphl. The mother resides at the present time 
in New York. The father died when our subject was but nine years of 
age, and the mother re-married. Home life was not pleasant to our 
subject and he went to live with an aunt. In answer to an advertisement 
he secured a position as errand boy for Ed. Just, on Broadway, 
remaining in that position until fifteen years of age, when he went to 
Black River Falls, Wisconsin. He there worked as a farm hand for seven 
years, most of which time he was in the employ of S. W. Bowman, a 
sketch of whose life appears elsewhere in this volume. In the spring of 
1879, Mr. Bowman decided to locate in Dakota, and our subject drove 
with horses and cattle to the western home and during the summer 
continued in Mr. Bowman's employ. He spent the winter of 1879-80 in 
Watertown, and in the spring returned to Spink county, taking land 
about one mile from the James river. He was without means and worked at 
teaming until he secured a span of mules. He built a frame house on his 
wife's homestead, near Old Ashton, in the fall of 1881, where they 
resided for fifteen years. He purchased three hundred and twenty acres 
of land on the river, with the intention of engaging in stock raising. 
He now has under plow four hundred acres, and is the possessor of three 
quarter-sections, all well improved. He arrived in the new country with 
nothing on which to depend but his energy and pluck, and he is one of 
the few settlers of those early times who remained through the 
struggles and now have a comfortable competence. He has every reason to 
feel a pride in the result of his efforts, and to consider his adopted 
state one of the best in the west. 

Our subject was married in the fall of 1881 to Miss Lydia E. Ward, 
daughter of John and Mary (Roust) Ward, who located in Dakota in the 
pioneer days. Mr. and Mrs. Beardemphl are the parents of nine children, 
named as follows: George E.; Sadie NJ., deceased; Bertha, deceased; 
Charles O., deceased; Henry C., Amzi Alonzo, Josephina, Mary and Lydia. 

Our subject devotes much time and attention to the interests of his 
community, and as a representative of the Populist party is an active 
worker. Among the German citizens of the southern part of Spink county, 
he is known as the "German War Horse," and is a conspicuous figure in 
all conventions and public gatherings of his party. He favors high 
license and equal suffrage, and stands for reform for the people. He is 
chairman of the township board in Great Bend township, and is a member 
of the Modern Woodmen of America.