Hosea Bridgman Biography


	This biography appears on pages 667-668 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	HOSEA BRIDGMAN. - The subject of this sketch is a native of Cook 
county, Illinois, and the son of Chauncy and Betsy Jane ( Miller) 
Bridgman, the father born May 1, 1814, in Tioga county, New York, and 
the mother on October 2, 1817, in the same state. These parents were 
married November 1, 1835, and two years later moved to Cook county, 
Illinois, settling near Elgin, where Mr. Bridgman engaged in farming, 
in connection with which he also did considerable building in that city 
and the country surrounding. He died November 8, 1846, while on a visit 
to New York, after which his wife and children moved to Wisconsin, 
where the latter were reared and educated. Mrs. Bridgman, who was a 
daughter of Alvah and Sarah Jane Miller, survived her husband a number 
of years, departing this life at Springfield, South Dakota, on April 3, 
1883. She was the mother of four children, namely: Alvah T., born July 
25, 1836, present postmaster of Springfield, South Dakota; Mary L. was 
born June 24, 1840, and died on July 4th of the same year; Hosea, of 
this review, is the third in order of birth, and Helen, who was born 
March 21, 1844, lives with the subject and owns valuable real estate in 
Bon Homme which she entered a number of years ago when she first came 
west.  

	Hosea Bridgman spent the greater part of his childhood and youth 
in Wisconsin and when a young man traveled quite extensively over the 
counties of Rock and Green, as a photographer, devoting several years 
to this kind of work. Subsequently he opened a meat market and 
continued to operate the same until 1873, when he disposed of his 
business interests in Wisconsin and came to South Dakota, locating at 
Springfield, Bon Homme county, in the spring of 1874. During his 
residence in Springfield, which covered a period of twelve years, Mr. 
Bridgman devoted his attention to freighting and built up a lucrative 
business, running a number of teams and handling a vast amount of 
merchandise and other goods and heavy articles. Discontinuing this line 
of work in 1885, he took up a quarter section of land in section 61, 
township 93, to which he moved his family in 1885 and from that time to 
the present he has given his attention to agriculture and live stock, 
meeting with encouraging success as a tiller of the soil and breeder 
and raiser of blooded and high-grade domestic animals. 

	Mr. Bridgman has added to his realty until his farm now contains 
four hundred and eighty acres of fine, productive land, nearly all of 
which is under cultivation and highly improved. He has good, 
substantial buildings, including a comfortable and commodious dwelling, 
supplied with many of the conveniences and not a few of the luxuries of 
life. All things considered, he is well situated to enjoy the liberal 
fruits of his labors, being in independent circumstances, with a 
sufficient competence laid up for future years. Mr. Bridgman has many 
warm friends in the community where he resides and his popularity is 
bounded only by the limits beyond which his name is unknown. He stands 
high in the esteem of his neighbors and fellow citizens, and by a 
course of conduct above the suspicion of wrongdoing demonstrates his 
right to the confidence reposed in him. Politically he is a Republican, 
but not a zealous partisan.  

	Mr. Bridgman was married in Green county, Wisconsin, to Miss 
Hannah H. Van Curan, of Edinburg, Erie county, Pennsylvania, the union 
resulting in the birth of three children, viz: Arthur, manufacturer and 
dealer in harness, Perkins, South Dakota; Edith, one of the county's 
efficient and popular teachers, and Nettie, who, in addition to 
teaching, is skillful in the art of photography. Mr. Bridgman spared no 
expense in educating his children, all three having taken courses in 
the State Normal School, at Springfield They are intelligent, more than 
ordinarily cultured and greatly respected in the social circles in 
which they move. In addition to his long and successful career as a 
farmer, Mr. Bridgman can also boast of creditable military record, 
having served during the latter part of the late Civil war as a member 
of Company I, Forty-Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He spent the 
greater part of his period of enlistment in Alabama, and later did 
guard duty principally until the downfall of the rebellion.