88 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA A SYMMETRICAL MAN Farmer 10 per cent, teacher 8 per cent, lawyer 14 per cent, editor 18 per cent, poet 22 per cent, historian, 28 per cent; total 100 per cent, of symmetrical manhood; such is our analysis of Doane Robinson, our present state historian. FARMER He was born on a farm, near Sparta, Wisconsin, October 19, 1856. There he spent his boyhood years and his teens, remaining with his father as boys of the former generation were wont to do, until he had reached his majority. Then he struck westward and filed on a hometsead in Lyon county, Minnesota, Here again he became a tiller of the soil. Robinson's experience and observations on the farm, while a boy, ripened his judgment concerning crops, so that today he is regarded as an authority on prospective grain yields, not only in South Dakota but throughout the west; indeed the grain markets of Minneapolis fluctuate according to his forecast. TEACHER Our Subject was but five years of age when the Civil war broke out. Facilities in the wilds of Wisconsin at that time were not the best for securing an education. Young Robinson worked on his father's farm, and attended a country school for a few months now and then during the winter. Still, his studious habits found reward, and he finally fitted himself for a teacher. During the five years spent on his Minnesota homestead he taught school during the winter months. LAWYER While yet a young man Mr. Robinson saw that if he got ahead in life it would be through strenuous efforts on his own part, owing to the lack of educational advantages in his early DOANE ROBINSON 89 years Therefore, during the time spent in holding down his homestead, and while he was teaching school he spent his even- ings reading law. In 1882-3, he took the senior vear in the Wis- consin law school. Leaving the school he struck west again, going farther than he did the first time, and settled at Watertown, S. D., where he established himself in the practice of law. EDITOR After a few years, tiring of his chosen profession-law, he gave it up to enter the editorial field. For several years he edited the "Monthly South Dakotan," a magazine devoted to a spicy review of the early history of the Dakotas. He finally sold the magazine to the Educator School Supply Company of Mitchell. POET But Robinson, the poet, is far the most fascinating of all. In this field he launched out more than in any of the others, except history. But the latter is limited by the facts it records, and the for- mer has no limitations what- soever, except in the ability of the author. His best poetical produc- tions were published in the "Century Magazine;" later [photo - DOANE ROBINSON] they were gathered together and published in a neat little volume called "The Coteaus of Dakota." In his poetry, Robinson confines himself mostly to var- ious dialects. He is always spicy and entertaining; always original and terse. His poem entitled "About Sunrise," is brim full of good things and causes one to live over again the joyous spring mornings in Da- kota when the dew is on the young grasses, and when in the dis- tance you can hear the prairie chicken sounding his solemn notes, "Ding-Dill-Doo." We quote only the last stanza: 90 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA "The soft sunlight Comes flashin' out, And 'fore you know What makes your singer go, You join the happy shout- The song without the words Sung by the mockin'-birds. I ain't got no ear for singin,' So I jest keep on a-flingin' Clods up in the apple-tree. Until I couldn't nowhere see A bird within a mile of me." His "Plowin'", "Morning in Galilee","Helpin' Hay," and several other choice selections were equally refreshing. Several years ago we remember reading, of cutting out and preserving, a little ditty of his entitled "Consistency." The thing about it which caught our attention then, and which engages it yet, is the wonderful amount of suggestion contained in those few poetical words. It follows: CONSISTENCY Reproach me not, though it appear, While I true doctrines teach, I wholly fail in my career To practice as I preach. Yon guide-post has through countless days "To London" pointed on, Nor once has quit the angled ways And up to London gone. When we were young, twenty--seven years ago, we rode a bare-backed, western-fed donkey, and on him berded cattle on Dakota prairies, ten miles south of Huron, along the Jim river. Anything about herding always distresses us, except Doane Rob- inson's poem: HERDING No end of rich green medder land Spiked out with ever' kind of poseys. Es fer as I kin understand They's nothin' else on earth so grand Es just a field of prairy roseys. Mixed up with blue, gold-beaded plumes Of shoestring flowers and peavey blooms. Take it a warm, sunshiny day. DOANE ROBINSON 91 When prairys streteb so far away Ther' lost at last in smoky gray. And hulkin' yoke-worn oxen browse Aroun' the coteaus with the cows,- The tipsy, stag'rin day-old calf, Mumbles a bleat and slabbers a laugh - And yearlin' steers, so round and slick, Wade in the cool and sparklin' creek While cute spring bossies romp and play With Ponto in the tall slough hay. Ye picket out the gentle Roany, Yer knowin,' faithful herdin' pony. And tumblin' down upon yer back Wher' gray sweet-smellin' beauties bide In posey beds, three counties wide, You take a swig of prairy air, With which old speerits ken't compare. And think and plan, and twist and rack Yer brains, to work some scheme aroun' To get a week to spend in town. Recently Mr. Robinson issued a pamphlet containing only four-lined Poems, entitled "Bits of Four." From it we culled the following: EACH HATH SOME GIFT Nor envy thou thy neighbor's gift; He covets thine in vain; The eagle through the azure drifts, The salmon threads the main. THE PRAIRIE MIRAGE To thirsty lands, where once in rhythm rolled Foam crested waves, to fret the rock girt coast, There comes to frolic in the sea path old The perished water's insubstantial ghost. ONLY A FEW Only a few are the friends I have won; Hearts of my heart in Love's cement set; Trusting me, spite of the ill I have done- Thanks be to God, I hold all of them yet. WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA EVOLUTION Youth pleads,-God taught his children so- "O give me joy; my happines asure." Age prays,-God teaches men to grow- "All peace be thine; 0 may thy joys be pure." THE SCANDALMONGER'S PLEA Ye curse me, but for fear of me A man and maid from sin are free Why, e'en the priest is more discreet Because I wander in the street. HISTORIAN Robinson is the only state official who didn't get his job by popular vote, nor as an appointee of the governor. He was chosen by the State Historical Society, after the position of State His- torian and Collector of Vital Statistics had been created by leg- islative enactment. In all probability he will continue to hold down the job as long as he may care to. He is the author of "History of South Dakota," published by Bowen & Co., Indianapolis; of a "Brief History of South Dakota," published by the American Book Co.; a "History of the Sioux Indians," and dozens of miscellaneous bistorical articles. ROBINSON, THE MAN Doane is a jolly good fellow, with an even, happy temper- ament, always delightful to meet and hard to break away from. One feels as though he had met his brother and you somehow hate to part. When a sight-seer reaches Pierre and inspects our new capitol, after treading on that cuss-ed, dis-cussed-ed $1,200 rug in the governor's office, which refused to remain on the floor during the recent primary campaign, if he desires to know the significance of those weird high-priced Indian pictures painted on the walls of the rotunda, all he has to do is to ask for Doane Robinson, and he will receive an hour's lecture, gratis, that will keep him assimilating for several months to come. Try it! and be convinced. While practicing law at Watertown in 1884, Doane was married to Miss Jennie Austin, of Leon, Wisconsin, Their wedded life brought into being two sons-Harry, aged 24, and Will, aged 19. But Mr. Robinson's life, like that of all the rest of us, has had its thorns. Mrs. Robinson was suddenly snatched away DOANE ROBINSON 93 from him by the Grim Reaper, January 23, 1902. Hereunto re- lated are the words of Taylor: "Life is just a little Of the good and of the bad, Of things that make us happy And the things that make us sad." 94 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA A STATESMAN EDUCATOR At Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1868, three days before Christ- mas, the Angel of Life ushered into being a rugged little young- ster whose parents, afterwards, transplanted him on Soutth Dakota soil, where he grew, studied, traveled and taught; and today there is scarcely a man, woman, or child above ten years of age, in the state, who has not heard of and does not know George Williston Nash. For the past five years he has been president of the Northern Normal and Industrial School at Aberdeen. During this period, the old course of study has been boiled down and then greatly ex- tended, the organization of the school has been made more com- pact; it articulates together better as a completed whole; the faculty has been strengthened, thousands of dollars of new mater- ial and apparatus have been procured, a new building has been erected, the campus has been cleaned up and plotted, the enroll- ment has trebled and things in general have taken on a substan- tial expression. One of Nash's greatest blessings is his strong, pleasing per- sonality. This makes discipline of the school come easy and na- tural to him. We recall that one day a few years since he sum- moned into the president's office at the normal for discipline, a young fellow who had been using tobacco on the premises. Pres- ident Nash did not scold him as some men would have done. He walked up to him manfully, placed his left hand on the young fellow's shoulder, looked at him kindly and said in a low broth- erly tone, "Now, see here, Mr. -, I don't want this matter to go before the whole faculty. Won't you just promise me pri- vately that you won't use any more tobacco on the school grounds, and then keep your promise?" "I will!" said the young fellow in a firm, nianly, semi- apologetic tone; and it's safe to say he never broke that pledge. Such power of discipline emanates from a big brotherly heart. GEORGE W.NASH 95 As Ohio has become the mother of presidents, so Lincoln county, South Dakota, has become the mother of state officers. Gee whiz! they simply manufacture candidates down there for state officers. Cassill, the progressive state treasurer, was suc- ceeded two years since by George Johnson, a good husky stalwart from the same county. This year Johnson was a candidate for re-election, Lawrence was a candidate for superintenent of public instruction, and Tom Thorson wanted to go to Congress. The first two won. Think of it! Two state officers at the same time from the same town. This is, of course, one of the customary possibilities under the primary law. If some- thing isn't done to stop it, the first thing you know we are going to have a whole [photo - GEORGE W. NASH] state ticket from Canton. But they are a jolly good bunch- bright, energetic, capable fel- lows; so, after all, what's the difference? Back to our subject! Nash was educated at Canton, in Lincoln county. Then he went away to school, taught, etc., and all of a sudden he jumped back to Lincoln county, bobbed out in 1902 as a can- didate for superintendent of public instruction, and he won. Since then, Lincoln county has had the intemittent state-office fever: and instead of getting weaker, as most fever patients do, she is actually growing stronger. Gracious! Since 1902, she has had two superintend- ents of public instruction, two state trehsurers, and several dis- appointed aspiring nominees. PREPARATION FOR LIFE If there is any truth in the theory that a man's success in life is proportioned according to his preparation to succeed, it certainly can find substantiation in the life of G. W. Nash. After finishing his public school work at Canton he went to Yankton College. Here he was graduated from the academy in 1887; from 96 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAK0TA the college proper in 1891, being given his B. S. degree; and in 1895 the institution presented him with his Master's degree. (Since this was written, with his LL. D.) Not satisfied with his preparation, he went to Europe and entered the University of Leipzig, where he attended school in 1894-5. Returning to this country he went to the University of Minnesota where he remained during '96-7, specializing on mathematics and astronomy. With a super-abundance of native talent, with his latent powers now developed and vibrating for action, he returned to his alma mater at Yankton in the fall of 1897, and became pro- fessor of mathematics and astronomy, holding this position until he was nominated for superintendent of public instruction in 1902. NEW FIELD Everybody who was engaged in educational work in the state, and thousands of others, will recall when he entered office in 1903, how quickly a state was throbbing with renewed life. There was a college professor, untrained in the new line of work he was to follow, doing it more than successfully. Here was a man of energy, of foresight, of action, and of deteminition. He was called all over the state to deliver commencement addresses. He went into every county in the state, spoke to school officers at their annual meetings, lectured before teachers' institutes, and delivered dozens of other addresses. The, eyes of a whole state were upon him. He was "making good," with some left over. His re-election came; the governor's chair awaited him; his friends implored; but oh! no, Nash knew, his business; he remained firm and declined. Presently the board of regents offered him the presidency of the normal at Aberdeen. He re- signed the superintendency of public instruction and accepted the job. Why not? It was in his chosen field of work. True, it re- duced his influence to a smaller field, but it sunk it deeper. His state job was temporary, at best; the usual school presidency might last through his useful days. He, did the right, the sen- sible thing. VOTE GETTER Be it said to the everlasting credit of Nash that he is the best vote getter whom the state has yet developed. In 1902, he was the high man on the republican ticket, having received 48,464 votes. In 1904, he came back with an increase of 20,716 (almost 50 per cent) and polled 69,180 votes--the largest number of votes that has ever been received by any candidate in the state for the office of superintendent of public instruction. GEORGE W. NASH 97 NASH'S BI-ENNIAL REPORT By all odds the greatest act thus far in Nash's life was the preparation and publication of his bi-ennial report at the close of his first term as superintendent of public instruction. The state law provides that the state superintendent shall send to each county superintendent in the state a copy of his bi-ennial report, and that the latter shall, in turn, keep the same permanently on file in the office. Ordinarily, these reports consist of nothing but dry educational statistics, and nobody ever looks at them. Not so with the one Nash got out. In it he covered the entire field of educational thought and progress. The demand for copies of it was so great that the edition was entirely exhausted, and there is still a constant demand for it. The report contains an historical review, of the educational development of the state; recommends uniform courses of study for the high schools of the state, better salaries for teachers, five day inspirational institutes, the introduction into our schools of ETHICAL, CULTURE and manual training, state aid for high schools, a revision of the common school course of study, an ex- amination of the eyes and ears of the duller pupils to ascertain if their apparent sluggishness is not the result of physical rather than mental defects, and that the entire school law of the state should be re-written. He also embodied in it the extensive written reports and recommendations of the various county superintendents through- out the state; brief reprts of all the state and denominational institutions of higher learning: his elaborate and tasty Arbor Day annual; extended educational reviews and comments by thirty- eight of the leading newspapers of the state; a digest of the school laws and all the educational statistics of the entire state. Men who have since won, distinction in certain lines of edu- cational endeavor, have each, in turn, found that G. W. Nash previously recommended the very thing they were doing, and that he was, withal, the, pioneer in the forward educational movement of the state. PERSONAL In 1903, Professor Nash was united in marriage to Miss Adelaide Warburton, of Pierre, step-daughter of the late Judge Fuller. Their home is now blessed with a bright little junior Nash nearly old enough to attend school. President and Mrs. Nash are each trained singers and thor- ough lovers of music. This happy faculty woven into their home life, makes it ideal; and their services are in constant demand. 98 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA President Nash is one of the very best educators in the state, and a man whose work has attracted the attention of the nation. He has dignified and successfully prosecuted every field of work in which he has been engaged. Here is a symmetrical man -- an all-round man, if you please --- one who can do well anything as- signed to him. Nash has that widening influence that comes from travel. During his career at Leopzig he went to all of the prominent cities in Europe including the Seven-Hilled City of Rome. He drank into his young life the vital truths of history and art first hand. He climbed Vesuvius, and was nearly ready to peek into its crater when the huge mountain, like an angry dog, began to growl at its intruder. This year he went abroad again and took in the Passion Play at Oberammergau. It is travel and observation, added to book knowledge, that makes the completed man. He has an exceptionally pleasing address. His friends have repeatedly urged him to give up educational work and to take up law. There could be no doubt about his success in this other field of labor; but President Nash has a mind of his own, and having fitted himself for educational work, and having met with such decided success, he will in all probability continue in it. Personally, we should like to see him enter the field of jour- nalism. He is a brilliant student in English, and a prolific writer. On the other hand, his political instinct and his foresight are as keen as a Damascus blade. While at home in Canton, during his younger days, he used to assist his father in his editorial work on the "Sioux Valley News," and his breezy editorials were watched for with an unusual degree of expectancy by all of their subscribers. We shall all watch his future career with abiding good will. NEWSPAPER COMMENT Wednesday's write-up of Professor G. W. Nash in the "Who's Who" column of the Argus-Leader called forth much favorable comment in Canton, the land of his birth and the home of states- men. The professor is well known here, both as boy and man, and all are proud of his record. ---Canton Leader. POSTSCRIPT Since this article on Dr. Nash's life was published, he has been called upon to deliver his lecture on "The Passion Play" over fifty times (eight times within his home city of Aberdeen); GEORGE W. NASH 99 has been elected president of the South Dakota Educational As- sociation; and, in 1912, he conducted the teachers' institutes for one-fourth of the counties of the entire state, and lectured, all told, in thirty-three and one-third per cent of them. 100 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA A NEWSPAPER MAN "Who's Who?" May we never overlook that splendid gal- axy of self-sacrificing individuals who deny themselves many privileges to make reports of public functions, who record the personal deeds of their respective communities, who visit the sick and paint scenes of the dying, who devote columns to weddings and pages to politics, who mould the opinions of readers and shape the destiny of our conmonwealth,--the newspaper men of our state. Conspicuous in this class of laborers and public benefactors is Clauson W. Downey, city editor of the "Mitchell Daily Repub- lican." Here is a man who for eighteen years and six months has stood at his post of duty, with only two vacations of ten days each, nine years apart. Before making the following assertion, we have carefully gone into, and made a comparison of, the var- ious newspapers of the state, and we have fortified ourselves with the evidence, that during the past eighteen years he has written approximately six times as much matter as any other editor in the state. Until less than a year ago he did all of the writing for the Mitchell Daily, both city and editorial, furnishing on an average six full columns a day; some days furnishing eight col- umns, and he has gone as high as ten. In addition to all of this he has mostly done his own proof-reading; has gathered nearly all of the news himself, acted as special advertising solicitor for his employers, helped to set type when needed, and done many other details peculiar to the printing business. Talk about a strenuous life-there are others besides Teddy. Editor Downey's life, from early childhood has not been as "downy " as others we have known. Born in Atlanta, Illinois, November 15, 1862, he came into this world as a little "sucker." His early experiences were the common lot of most boys. In 1879 he graduated from the high school of his native town. Some editors are newspaper men by birth-that is, through C. W. DOWNEY 101 heredity, others become printers through choice, necessity or en- vironment; Downey entered the profession through natural in- stinct. Late in the afternoon of December 5, 1879, six months after his graduation, while standing in the print shop of the "Atlanta Argus," trying to gratify or to satisfy his smell for printer's ink, young Downey was accosted by the editor of the paper, George L. Shoals, who asked why he did not learn the printer's trade. "That's just what I want to do." snapped out the lad; " can you help me?" "Sure!" said Shoals, "pull off your coat, roll up your sleeves, and start right in." Young Downey did not do like other boys nowadays, pipe out the question, [photo - C. W. DOWNEY] "How much are you willing to pay me?" He belonged to the " old school" that be- lieved a trade was the foundation for success in life and that one would have to he learned, even if it were necessary to be bound out, like Ben Franklin, as an appren- tice lad. The boy was soon into it. He was set to work with a huge hand-roller, inking forms on an old Washington press. Did you ever try it? There are some things in newspaperdom to this day that make one's "back ache," but nothing like lifting and push- ing and pulling an old-fashioned hand inker. Nothing was said about wages. Our youngster was thinking about learning a trade - about becoming a printer - of becoming independent when finally placed on his own resources. Wages? Nonsense! Lucky he did not have to pay for the privilege. 102 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA Saturday night came. The boy marched up and got paid - $1.50 per week. Think of it! Thirty-one years ago; getting $1.50 per week for such drudgery. There isn't a lad on the con- -inent today who would do it for a cent less than $1.50 per day (and yet some people enjoy voting the democratic ticket.) Well, our boy inked himself as well as the type; he blistered his hands and ponged and imposed upon his legs; but he stuck to it for an entire year until he was relieved by another "sucker," and promoted to the type case. Here he worked for three years, setting up forms. He was now of age. Manhood gave birth to new ambitions. Dependence gave way into independence; and the responsibilities of life made the man impatient to earn more money than the boy. He quit the printing business and struck out into the field of telegraphy. One year was enough. The earliest impressions make the most ineffaceable record. A printer once---a printer always. The young fellow got the western fever; he struck for Da- kota, and landed at Northville, a few stations south of Aberdeen, on the Northwestern railroad, in the spring of 1883. At that time Northville was about as bleak as the region around the north pole if Cook and Peary tell the truth.) There wasn't even a roadway up main street. Here our young printer got hold of an old press, got some, space in a breezy board shack, started a newspaper which he called the "Northville Advance," and began to earn a livelihood publishing mostly Notices of Final Proof. Editor Downey harvested his crop of "final proofs" at "harvest" time, sold out the paper, returned to Atlanta, Illinois, and took up his old job on the "Atlanta Argus." Another year at the old stand and our ambitious printer, as is customary with a large proportion of his profession, made a break for Chicago. Here he found employment in the job print- ing room of Culver, Page, Hoyne & Co. (afterwards known as the John Morris Printing Co.), and remained with them for nearly three years. Late in 1886, he got the Dakota fever again. Back he came; went opposite Northville to the town of Ashton on the Milwaukee railroad; bought the "Ashton Leader," which was badly run down, began to build it up, jumped into a red-hot county-seat fight; forced to the wall a competing newspaper in the same town; got the field to himself; bought $1,000 worth of new equipment for his own print shop; and was doing fine until -until-all of a sudden, it ceased to rain. None of us who weathered through the dry years of 1889 C. W. DOWNEY 103 and 1890 in Dakota, will ever forget them. Hot! One pioneer, in Faulk county swore he had to shrink hoops onto his hogs to make them hold swill. Another sturdy pioneer addressing an old settler's picnic in Beadle county, a few years since, had just de- clared with considerable emphasis that he had to feed his hens cracked ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs, when he was interrupted by a rugged, sun-burned gentleman in the audience, who had passed through the same ordeal, with the query, "Where in hell did you get the ice?" Hot! The creeks and lakes all dried up; birds lying dead by thousands along the roadsides and in the old-lake beds; snakes by the half million in the small pools that were left; horses drop- ping dead everywhere in the fields; roadways along the railroads white from early morning until late at night with one continuous chain of immigrant wagons - people driving out of the dreadful place, taking with them everything - except their land which would not produce the taxes. Hot! The buffalo grass was dry as gunpowder. How the great fires used to sweep down from the northwest, driven at from forty to seventy miles an hour by the awful winds; before them, vast droves of fleeing, hungry wolves, jack-rabbits, and other wild animals; behind them, dead bodies burned to crisps, remnants of charred homes, an endless black veil, desolation. Cold! The winters were the opposite extreme. How well we all remember the "big blizzard" of '88. What a dismal task for the ensuing week, going over great snow banks hither and thither, hunting for burial the hundreds that perished in that awful storm, before the surviving wolves should devour them. Will any of us ever forget it? This digression, and the incorporation herein of the misfor- tunres of the latter '80's., is made intentionally, to show that any man in busness who might fail in times like these is not to blame. Editor Downey was in the newspaper business. Business men could not afford to advertise. Subscribers could not and would not pay their subscriptions (they don't always pay, even during good times.) There was not much left at Ashton but "ash"-es. Mr. Downey was forced to pack up his outfit and go south. He stopped in the older potion of the state - the south- east part - and settled at Beresford, where he unpacked his por- table print shop, established the "Beresford Sentinel," and got out the first issue of the paper, in December, 1890. This plucky chap knew that "all things good come to them that wait." He decided to "stick." In the midst of all this adversity, he took unto himself a bride. 104 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA "Foolish man," you say. No; not at all. Some wives are a burden, some are not. Mrs. Downey at once learned the type- case, took her place in the print shop, helped her young hus- band, and thereby saved the expense of a hired man. At the end of six months he sold the "Sentinel;" he and his wife traveled around for a few months, looking for a suitable location, and finally settled in Mitchell in 1891, where Mr. Dow- ney accepted a position as foreman in the newsroom of the "Mitchell Daily Republican." In May, 1892, the company made him city editor and when the prolific Ralph Wheelock sold his interest in the plant in 1895, Mr. Downey not only succeeded him as editor of the paper but kept up the local work as well, thereby shouldering the responsibility which two men had previously carried. It will thus be seen that Mr. Downey is not only an editor, but an all-round printer as well. This experience makes his ser- vices valuable to his employers. During the printers' strike in 1905 when the entire force of the Mitchell Printing Co. walked out of the office one Monday morning, Editor Downey, for two days, wrote all of the news, set it up, proof-read his own work, ran the press, and did a large part of the job work. For three days more, after some non-union help had arrived, he made up the forms, in addition to his other work. Again, on top of all these other anxieties, Editor Downey has for the past fifteen years corresponded for nine outside daily newspapers, and he has placed Mitchell on the foreign map as well. Each year he sends a four-page article with illustrations of the Corn Palace at Mitchell, to the "World-Wide Magazine," and other material to the metropolitan press. TWO CLASSES OF EDITORS With editors, as with other people, there are but two gen- eral classes - pessimists and optimists. The former curse their race, the latter bless it. With what brotherly pity we all remem- ber the fate of a former newspaper man who lived in south- central South Dakota: how he left his home town, after a res- idence therein of some nine years, friendless; how he established himself in another nearby town and after a residence there of some ten or eleven years, left for another city not far away, and what a public jollification meeting was held by his townsmen when he left; how at the third place he abused every single man in the coinmunity, supposing foolishly that by exposing to the entire neighborhood the sins of each man (either imaginary or real), hc was purifying society, how he was finally tried for libel, C. W. DOWNEY 105 sold his plant at a low figure and left the state. What was wrong? Nothing; only his every thought was festooned in moral garlic. "There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill-behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us." Another writer saw it in this light: "In men whom men condemn as ill, I find so much of goodness still; In men whom men pronounce divine, I firid so much of sin and blot, I hesitate to draw the line Where God has not." May we implore forgiveness in advance for incorporating herein a tiny poem of our own? It hits on the head the nail which we are trying to drive: TAFFY vs. EPITAPH(Y) If thou hast good to speak of me, Say it while, my soul responds; Don't pen it up within your bosom, Waiting for my fettered bonds. If thou hast ill to speak of me, Say it after I am dead; 'Twill be harmless then through ages, Now 'twould ache my weary head. Now's the time to speak good sf me; Shower on me e'en your "taffy", When I'm soulless in my clay-house, Use your grudge for epitaph(y). Mr. Downey belongs to the other class (optimists). He sees only the good in his fellow townsmen. He lives to bless his community. It is safe to say there is no more cheerful news- paper in South Dakota than the "Mitchell Daily Republican." Why? Because its editor is cheerful. The severest test of an editor's work is not in finding something interesting to write (there are hundreds of new things of interest coming up every day), but in know what NOT to write. Editor Downey has gained this knowledge. 106 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA NOT DR. COOK Cook. Let's see - have we not heard that name before? Never mind! You need not "bring on your Eskimos." We shall adduce nothing that needs corroboration. Our case is proven. No instruments be brought from Etah. We are not on the road either to or from the north pole - just merely taking a pleas- ant trip up Spearfish canyon with Fayette L. Cook, pres- ident of the Spearfish Normal School. Here is a man whose life is an open book; who never faked a trip up a mountain, saw the "midnight sun," had his moral vision obscured by the aurora borealis, or confessed a brain-storm through Hampton's Magazine - at so much per line. Here is a man who went west instead of north, who staid instead of re- turned, who became a monumental benefactor instead of a mon- umental malefactor, who is embellishing his name instead of rel- ishing his shame, who tells the whole truth instead of playing the sleuth, who looks onward and upward, not backward and downward. In our "Who's Who" series, we have seen that one of our men, prominent in the public life of the state, came from New Hampshire, two from New York, two from Iowa, and a super- lative abundance of them from Wisconsin; but this is the first time we have picked up a victim from Michigan. President Cook made his advent into this world in Ottawa county, Michigan, sixty years ago last August. He deceives the public in one thing only -- his looks portend him to be a man of not over forty-five. We wish he might live forever. In fact, we think he will. The good men do is not always "interred with their bones." Like the others who have won distinction, at an early age, CooK went west. Few men ever became "big" by going east (Taft tried it.) Down east is a good place to spend your for- tune - out west is the place to make it. FAYETTE L. COOK 107 President Cook is a graduate of the state normal school at Winona, Minnesota. He taught in country and village schools for three years; in the Minneapolis Commercial school one year; was city superintendent 1872-4; taught in the Winona normal 1876-9; was superintendent of Olmstead county, Minnesota, 1881-4; was instructor in thirty-eight teachers' institutes in Minnesota; and continuously, since 1885, he has been president of the Spearfish (S. D.) state normal school. It will keep any other man in the state running to beat this record. Think of it! Twenty-five years - a quarter of a century - at the head of one of our schools. During this time we all know what has happened to the others. Trouble? Politics! Cook has been over in that western re- gion where he has been left alone. [Photo - FAYETTE L. COOK] By the way, if those phil- osophical literary students who contend that a man has no right to digress from his theme, will not be too severe on us, we should like to halt here for a moment to interject the proposition that those chaps over in the Black Hills region have demonstrated the fact that they are a pretty sturdy set of pioneers. They have kept Martin at Washington through six congresses, Strachan as city superintendent of schools at Deadwood for twenty con- secutive years, and Cook at the head of the Spearfish normal for twenty-five. Suppose the constitutional limitation on county superintend- ents of schools, embodied city superintendents and the heads of our state schools; where would Cook be? Where would the Spearfish Normal be? Well, it might as well have been the law, so far as the region east of the river is concerned. But a new day has just dawned upon us. The flippancy of early days and the formative period of a young state are just sinking beneath 108 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOYA the horizon; the east is reddening with the rosy-tipped fingers of a more stable period. "SKIDDOO'S" COMMENT The students of the Spearfish normal issue an "Annual" which they have named "Skiddoo." In the one issued in June, 1909, they paid a most deserved tribute to their esteemed pres- ident. We clip and use only a small portion: "When Mr. Cook came to Spearfish, he found educational matters in a deplorable condition. From a small school in which he himself did all the teaching, a school devoid of apparatus, library, and other necessary material, has grown the present in- stitution with its splendid faculty, well equipped laboratories and excellent library; its training school which affords excep- tional advantages for the training of teachers; its dormitory, which through its excellent management, provides a comfortable home at such a reasonable rate, that it affords an opportunity for girls in the most meager circumstances to get an education, and to live in an atmosphere of culture and refinement. All this has our president accomplished for us. From day to day he has lab- ored, bearing up under difficulties and trying situations, because of lack of funds, but each day through his untiring energy and zeal, the institution has grown until it now stands in one of the most picturesque spots in Spearfish, a monument to the efforts of one of nature's noblemen. * * * We, the senior class of nineteen hundred nine, extend to Mr. Cook our warmest congrat- ulations for the wonderful success of his undertakings, and our sincere gratitude to him who has made it possible for us to look back with pleasure on the happy days spent with our alma mater. -Sentiments of Senior Class, '09." COOK, THE BUSINESS MAN Napoleon said: "Man is the product of his surroundings." In other words, if a man associates with children all his life, he becomes childish. This explains the uselessness of old worn-out pedagogs. Teachers, in general, are mere theorists. They are not at fault; they see and teach only theortical things. Few of them ever come in contact with the practical side of life. Not so with President Cook. He has made the commercial side of Spearfish and of Lawrence county as much his business as school affairs. The businesss men of that community have great regard for his judgment. We recall having attended a "good roads" convention held in the opera house at Deadwood in the spring of 1909, at which President Cook, as a member of the FAYETTE L. COOK 109 committee from Spearfish, was present; and how attentively he was listened to by the large class of business men in attendance at the meeting; and how one of these substantial chaps, leaning over to a friend, when President Cook bad finished speaking, said: "There's an eductor with some common sense." This incident reveals only too plainly the light in which those of us are held by the business world, who have been engaged for a number of years in the teaching profession. We recall just now that splendid paper read by President Cook before the S. D. E. A. at Lead, in November, 1909, on "Waste in Education;" how he approached his subject, and dealt with it, from a hard-headed, practical business standpoint. We need in educational affairs more men of Cook's calibre. MARRIAGE Most men marry about the time they reach their majority, or at least before they are twenty-five. Cook knew that his mar- riage contract was perhaps the longest one he would ever sign, so he took plenty of time to consider it well. If the idea entered his head at twenty-one, then he must have taken another twenty- one years to think it over, for he did not marry until his forty- second year. This was long enough to win both a Rachael and a Leah, with an equal margin for a third. However, on August 25, 1892, he was united in marriage at Winona, to Wenonoa Culbertson. TITLE It will thus be seen that Cook is a great man. He has no use for "grandstand;" he doesn't care for titles. Plain "Mr." is good enough for him, As yet he has not been honored with "Dr." Mighty lucky just at present. 110 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA PIONEER EDITOR "Pussonally speakin'," as they say in New England, I like a thoroughbred. I like the man who can march to known defeat, without a whimper, and take his medicine, and smack his lips, and lie like a pirate when he says, "it's good." 1 like the chap who can finish as well as he can score. I cannot refrain from admiring the man who can take success or failure with even mind; the grim, steady, true-souled chap who can break the shaggy nut of experience, and whose poker face will not disclose to the on- looker whether he found within a kernel that was sound or one that was not. J. F. Halladay, editor of the Iroquois Chief, for- mer state auditor, managing bank director. astute political man- ager, steadfast friend, as true a soldier as ever carried musket, or ate hardtack, or slept in the trenches, is one-a thoroughbred. I mean--and it is about him that the "Who's Who" column con- cerns itself today. A man who can spend his last ten cents for a good cigar is a thoroughbred, and that is what "Dick" Halladay did when twenty-eight years ago he crossed the border into Da- kota territory to begin a career which has been a credit to him- self, a joy to his family, and a pride to his hundreds of personal friends. J. F. Halladay was born in Kansas but he must not be blamed for that. It was a good while ago -in 1860-and he got out of that state as soon as he could. At the age of fourteen his edu- cation was completed so far as school is concerned, but it isn't completed yet, for each year adds to his better equipment for the things that count-just as it always does with the man who keeps everlastingly doing things. He came to what is now South Dakota, twenty-eight years ago, from Beatrice, Nebraska. It was an overland trip, and Dick was absolutely "broke" after he had bought that choice Havana, but he was a millionaire in pluck and purpose and he set out to make good. He got a job on a Huron morning daily, filed on a claim between Iroquois and J. F. HALLADAY Cavour, looked wise, and began to hustle. In January, 1883, he went to Iroquois and for two years worked on the Herald but two years later got a position in the Bank of Iroquois. He resigned this place in 1883 and started the Iroquois Chief with a partner, whom he bought out two years later, and ever since he has been the editor of one of the most influential weekly newspapers of the state, Only a short time ago he became a stockholder in the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Iroquois, of which institution he is a now one of the man- aging directors. In politics, Mr. Halladay is a stalwart. He has always been active, and everybody always knows just where Dick Halladay is at. He is not only not a trimer, but he cannot understand the man who is. Hence his closest friends are men of the same sturdy type, who stay put, and won't wobble, and who fear defeat less than they do the play to the galleries. [photo - J. F. HALLADAY] President Harrison ap- pointed Mr. Halladay to the position of postmaster at Iroquois, and he served for four years giving way to a democrat named by President Cleveland. He was appointed to the same position by Pres- ident McKinley and served all told nine years as postmaster, resigning in 1902. Eight years ago, he was brought out for state auditor. He received the support of practically every re- publican paper in the state and was unanimously nominated. His public work was of a particularly high grade and he was renom- inated and re-elected by a big majority. He was a member of the Herried and Elrod administrations which made such a fine record in reducing the floating debt of the state and paying off the bonds, and as state auditor he took an important part in that work. Mr. Halladay was elected secretary of the South Dakota State 112 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAK07A Press association when it was a feeble and struggling association and served for seven years doing much to build the association up to its present standard. He was also honored by being selected as president of the association. Dick has hosts of friends every- where in the state, but literally everybody in the newspaper bunch like him and most of them are his warm personal friends. Mr. Halladay has never followed polities for a business, but simply for his love of the game. He has been mixed up in the game since 1883. Only twice in twenty years has he failed to at- tend the state convention as a delegate from Kingsbury county and he isn't a "boss" either. He is simply a "good guinea" with a genius for making and holding friends, and with plenty of appetite for hard work. When the republican party split into two factions, Mr. Halladay lined up with his friends on the stal- wart side, and he has been aggressively with that element ever since. In the primary fight between Kittredge and Crawford, Dick was "called from the plow" to help manage the stalwart end of it, and last spring the press bureau for the stalwarts was placed in his exclusive charge. At the conclusion of the cam- paign, his work was everywhere highly commended and one of the leading insurgent newspapers declared that "Halladay is the best political editor in the state." When Mr. Halladay was a candidate for a second term as state. auditor, Coe I. Crawford was a candidate for the nomina- tion for governor. Insurgency had crept over the line into Kings- bury county, and the convention of that county wanted to give their support to both Crawford and Halladay, and passed resolu- tions to that effect. The action was unexpected and unprecedented, as Dick was fighting Crawford, and the action of the convention would give out the impression that Hallady had sold out his friends. He met the situation like a thoroughbred. When the resolutions were adopted, Dick asked for permission to address the convention, and when he appeared on the platform, was greeted with cheers, the delegates supposing that he was about to make the usual speech of thanks. Instead he plainly pointed out that the double-header endorsement was a stone around his neck that he refused to carry, that it put him in a false light be- fore the people of the state, and would hamper him in the state convention. He therefore announced his refusal to accept the endorsement by his home county, under the circumstances, and declared his purpose to go to the state convention and make a fight on his own merits, without the support of his home county. This he did. The anti-Crawford people controlled the convention and Halladay was unanimously renominated. Old politicians said J. F. HALLADAY 113 at the time that this was the nerviest political move that had ever come under their observation. Mr. Halladay was a member of the first capital commission that adopted plans and selected the material for the new state house. The judgment of the first commission was criticised at the time by some, and among them were many of Halladay's best friends, but its judgment was later vindicated when the new commission, consisting of members of the rival faction, erected the building in strict accordance with the first commission's plans, although they had made a campaign issue of the fact that the first commission had chosen Bedford stone instead of home material. In May, 1886, Mr. Halladay was married to Carrie E. Ham- mond, of Iroquois. They have two children-Edna May, 20 years old, who is now taking a college course and music at the Wesleyan University of Mitchell, and Clinton Frank, 18 years old, who is studying in the engineering department of the State College at Brookings. Mr. Halladay's family life is ideal --as many South Dakotans know who have been entertained in the beautiful and cozy home at Iroquois. Dick says he is hen-pecked, and I guess maybe he is, but that is simply another proof of his good stuff. He is a wise man who lets a good wife "boss" him in the home. The Iroquois Chief which is simply Dick Halladay in print has always been a strong and unswerving republican newspaper. It has been on the job all the time, and its influence in western Kingsbury and eastern Beadle counties always shows up when the returns come in. Mr Halladay is not a rich man-but I want to correct that statement. He is. Any man is rich who has a beautiful and in- teresting family, a good business. a big bunch of friends in every town and county in the state, and the abiding respect of all who know him, and who is always counted on to steadfastly and bravely adhere to what he believes and to those in whom he be- lieves. In the things that really count in this strange experience that we call life, Dick Halladay is one of the richest men in the state, and he has reason to look back over the twenty-eight useful and busy years spent here with the complete satisfaction of a man who has done a man's work and has done it well. -By C. M. Day. 114 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAK0TA A STURDY EDUCATOR Once moie we ask "Who's Who in South Dakota?" and this time the pendulum stops overthe little town of Parkston, twenty- two miles south of Mitchell, on the Milwaukee railroad. Aside from the unfortunate death of Anges Polreis, and the two murder trials which grew out of it, this town might scarcely ever have been heard of outside of the immediate community in which it is situated, were it not for the fact that there resides therein a great overpowering personality-a leader in the educational thought of the state, a man of unyielding convictions, Professor Charles H. Lugg. The searchlight of educational thought is reaching out into the dark unknown, seeking hidden truths, just as the silvery moonbeams flicker themselves across the bosom of a placid lake and penetrate the dark recesses in the under-brush along the op- posite shore. Back of this investigation as one of its unyielding pilots, stands Charles H. Lugg. Ever alert, deep, far seeing, well balanced-he has been associated with practically every ad- vanced educational movement in the state for nineteen years. Lugg has repeatedly declined to become a candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction. His reasons for it are that the $1,800 salary attached to the office does not justify the cash out-lay necessary to secure it; furthermore, that among the lead- ing politicians in both factions of his party there has come to the surface a strong disposition to use this particular office for "trading stock," and that if he entered the fight-even with all the backing which had been pledged to him-there is no telling where he might land. BIOGRAPHICAL Our subject was born on a farm at Geneva, Minnesota. He got his early education in the rural schools. Later he attended the high school at Albert Lea. Upon leaving the high school he C. H. LUGG 115 entered the country schools as a teacher. Although his salary was comparatively small, through rigid economy he managed to save enough money in a few years to put himself through Valparaiso University. His next move was to come to South Dakota where he took charge of the graded schools at Otivet, in the year after he had done his first country school teaching in Minnesota. The death of his mother early the next summer compelled his return to Minnesota where he remained for a year. Returning to South Dakota in 1893, he was elected principal of the Parkston graded schools. Lugg's first task was to prevail upon the good people of Parkston to ex- tend their course of study and to educate [photo - C. H. LUGG] their children at home. It took him several years to get a new high school building and a three-year course of study; yet with that persistence charac- teristic of the man he stuck to his convictions until he succeeded. After nine years as principal at Parkston, the people of Hutchinson county called him into a larger field of service and made him county superintendent of schools. He was re-elected and served four years, from 1902 to 1906. In the latter year his services gained state recognition and he was called to the presidency of the state educational association. 116 WHO'S WHO IN SOUTH DAKOTA Lugg also received other recognition. He was made chairman of the committee that revised our common school course of study, and Governor Elrod appointed him a member of the commission that revised the school laws of the state. Upon the completion of his county superintendency, Pro- fessor Lugg was made assistant principal of the Parkston schools, In the spring of 1909 when the principal, Professor Karns, re- signed to accept the principalship at Wessington Springs, Lugg succeeded him as principal at Parkston. He is still there, and he seems to have a life lease on his job. This year when Lugg refused to become a candidate for state superintendent, his party prevailed upon him to become a can- didate again for superintendent of Hutchinson county; but he re- mained firm and declined the honor. Lugg knows from exper- ience that the county superintendency leads nowhere; that if a man has a good job at home it is best to keep it, unless one has determined to give up educational work and desires to use the county superintendency as the juniping-off place. Professor Lugg is a broad-minded, rational Christian gentle- man. He finds God in Nature instead of merely between the lids of an unauthenticated book. Go with him into the Bad Lands, and Lugg will begin to point out to you the finger prints of God in the furrows of the sedimentary dunes; accompany him through the Black Hills, and he will point you to the same signs in the grooves of the rocks; sit with him on his lawn at the twilight hour, and he will show it to you in the tinted glow of the sunset; ride with him at night, and he will show it to you in the shaggy cirrus and in the twinkling stars. Ah! the reason for it all is that Lugg has been trained to observe. May his great life find itself being repeated in the lives of those whom he has had the privilege to train!