Samuel E. Atkinson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1415-1416 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	SAMUEL E. ATKINSON, who is numbered among the progressive and 
representative citizens of Gregory county, is a native of Toledo, Tama 
county, Iowa, where he was born on the 24th of August, 1869, being a son 
of William and Margaret (Guthrey) Atkinson. The former was born in 
Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, near the old homestead of President 
Buchanan, and as a youth he assisted in planting trees on this historic 
place. William Atkinson lived a life of signal usefulness and honor and 
attained the venerable age of eighty-four years, his death occurring in 
I89I. The mother still lives with her daughter at Little Rock, Iowa. The 
father of the subject was reared to manhood in the old Keystone state 
and was there employed in rolling mills and in the great steel works in 
the city of Pittsburg for a number of years. In 1868 he removed to Tama 
county, Iowa, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1885, 
when he removed to Brown county, Nebraska, where he took up a homestead 
of one hundred and sixty acres, developing and improving a good farm and 
there continuing to reside until about two years prior to his death, 
when he took up his abode in Little Rock, Iowa, where he passed the 
residue of his life in the home of his only daughter, Mary, who is now 
the wife of Romance E. Botkin, of Little Rock, she having been their 
third in order of birth in a family of four children, all of whom are 
living. James resides in Mt. Vernon, South Dakota, and Hamilton is a 
resident of Remsen, Iowa, the subject of this review being the youngest 
of the children. The parents were worthy members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and in politics the father was a staunch Republican. 

	Samuel E. Atkinson received his educational training in the public 
schools of Iowa and Nebraska, and continued to assist in the work and 
management of the home farm until he had attained the age of twenty-
three years, when he began an apprenticeship at the barber's trade, in 
Coleridge, Nebraska, continuing to follow this as a vocation for two 
years, after which he became identified with the real-estate and loan 
business, in which he has since successfully continued, having been 
established at various places and having been a resident of South Dakota 
since 19O1. In 1901 he established himself in this business in Fairfax, 
where he was the first to establish the enterprise of making loans on 
farming properties in the county, having in the year 19O1 placed one 
hundred and sixty thousand dollars on lands. Here he has also built up 
an excellent business in the general handling of real estate, while he 
is the owner of valuable town property and has represented on his books 
at all times many desirable investments. In his political proclivities 
he is a stalwart Democrat, and fraternally is identified with the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

	On the 26d of December, 1887, Mr. Atkinson was united in marriage 
to Miss Gertrude M. Jones, who was born in Toulon, Stark county, 
Illinois, on the 15th of October, 1872, being one of the eight children 
of Reuben S. and Martha (Taylor) Jones, the father being a successful 
farmer of the county mentioned. Mrs. Atkinson was reared and educated in 
the schools of Illinois and Nebraska, where he was successfully engaged 
in teaching for eight years, while she is also an accomplished musician 
and has acted as church organist and choir leader in the various towns 
in which she and her husband have lived since their marriage. Broth 
belong to the Methodist Episcopal church of Fairfax. One child, a girl, 
was born June 27, 1899, but died in infancy.