William Bushnell Biography


	This biography appears on pages 969-970 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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W1LLIAM FRANCIS TEEMAN BUSHNELL was born at Peru, Illinois, 
December 3, 1857. At fourteen years of age his parents removed 
to Evanston and there he attended the Northwestern University 
for two years. He possessed great natural musical talent and 
much attention was given to his musical education both at 
Evanston and at home. At that period he hoped to make music his 
life work. His father was a government contractor in the con-
struction of lighthouses and life-saving stations on the great 
lakes and at seventeen he was given charge of workmen upon these 
structures and for three years was so engaged upon his father's 
undertakings. At the age of twenty he set out upon his long 
cherished musical career, teaching, composing and publishing his 
compositions and giving concerts through Illinois, Iowa and 
Dakota, whither he came in 1884 and established himself at 
Huron. In his boyhood he had earned his first money in a 
printing office and that class of work still had some 
attractions for him and, finding the Dakota Farmer struggling 
for an existence, he took it up and soon became the owner of the 
property and under his management, though it required long years 
of untiring effort and unremitting industry, he made a splendid 
success of it. He was most discriminating in his efforts to 
secure for his journal a standing in the confidence of his 
readers and was tenacious in his purpose to exclude from it 
everything of a questionable or misleading character. Mr. 
Greeley relates a circumstance in point. It was during one of 
the hard years in the reactionary period following the boom. 
Times were everywhere hard and cash for ordinary expenses almost 
unobtainable. One morning Mr. Bushnell was opening his mail in 
Mr. Greeley's presence when a check for a large sum dropped from 
a letter. It was from a commission house of questionable 
standing enclosing an advertisement which it desired run in the 
Farmer. Mr. Bushnell promptly refused the advertisement and re-
turned the check, although the advertisement of that firm at the 
very time was found in all of the leading farm papers of the 
country. He was of an intense and enthusiastic temperament and 
most of the great farmers' enterprises owed their promotion to 
his initiative. Among these are the State Agricultural Society 
and the state fair, the State Dairymen's and Buttermakers' 
Society, the Woolgrowers' Association, the Farmers' Alliance and 
kindred organizations.

From boyhood he was a consistent member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and continued this relation throughout his 
life, ever foremost in every movement requiring effort and 
money. For twelve years he was superintendent of the Sabbath 
school and his musical talent made him an indispensable member 
of the choir and a leader in all musical functions of the 
church. He gave his time, money and energy unreservedly to 
missionary work and his charities were only limited by his 
means. He was intensely interested in the promotion of the great 
moral reforms, and especially in efforts looking to the 
suppression of the evils of the liquor traffic. In the campaign 
for prohibition accompanying the adoption of the state 
constitution he accepted the most burdensome position of 
secretary and field manager, and, practically setting aside his 
personal business, took hold with his tireless vigor, directing 
the movement of the speakers, the arrangements for meetings and 
all of the tiresome details of the campaign and the splendid 
victory at the polls was due in a large measure to the energy 
and enthusiasm with which he inspired the workers throughout the 
state.

Mr. Bushnell was married at Huron, on June 2, 1886, to Miss 
Blanche Van Pelt, of Indiana, who throughout the remaining years 
of his active life was his sympathetic assistant and advisor. To 
them three children were born, Paul, Frederick and Helen.

On August 16, 1900, almost for the first time in his 
persistent struggle to permanently establish the Farmer, having 
called his brother-in-law, N. E. Carnine, to assist him in the 
management of the rapidly growing enterprise, Mr. Bushnell felt 
that he was justified in leaving his post and taking his family 
for a short vacation. They started for the mountains of 
Colorado. At Omaha he was detained by an attack of appendicitis, 
but rallying after a few days went on to Colorado Springs, where 
he was again taken ill and died after a day of intense 
suffering, which he bore with the courage and fortitude of the 
true Christian. His remains repose in Riverside cemetery at 
Aberdeen. His memory will long be held in reverence by the 
people of South Dakota as a model of high Christian character 
and true manhood.