Frank Cottle Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1312-1313 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	An engraving and the signature of Frank Cottle face page 1312.


	FRANK COTTLE.—For more than twenty years prominent and active in 
the commercial and public life of South Dakota, and earnestly devoted to 
its interests in every way, Frank Cottle, of Smithville, the postmaster 
and leading merchant of the place, has made his mark in legible and 
enduring phrase in the history of the state and risen to consequence and 
influence among its people. He was born on April 19, 1853, near Augusta, 
Maine, and when he was a year old the family moved to Charlestown, 
Massachusetts, his father having secured employment there as master 
mechanic or chief engineer in the Boston navy yard. Here, in the midst 
of the highest intellectual development and activity, and surrounded by 
all the concomitants of the most cultivated life, Mr. Cottle grew to the 
age of sixteen and received a good education. But in boyhood he made two 
trips west to Nebraska, and the spice of western life lingered on his 
palate in an impressive way, keeping up a continual longing for the 
enjoyment of more of it. So at the age of twenty-three he once again 
turned his steps towards the setting sun and came west to Des Moines, 
Iowa, where he remained five years, during a portion of the time 
clerking in a grocery store and then conducting one of his own. In 1883 
he made a trip to the Black Hills with a party of fortune seekers, and 
on his way back found what he deemed a good opening for merchandising on 
Mitchell creek at a point where the freight trains between Pierre and 
Deadwood crossed the stream. Here he bought a general store which he 
conducted until the completion of the railroad through this section, 
when freighting became unprofitable and was largely abandoned. His was 
the only store on the trail, and as he conducted it in a progressive and 
enterprising way, carrying an extensive stock embracing everything 
required by its patrons, he did an enormous business with freighters and 
travelers and carried on considerable trading with the Indians, whose 
language he thoroughly mastered. He also had large cattle interests and 
was easily the leading business man in all this section of the country. 
In 1887 he came to the Cheyenne river, and buying another person's claim 
to land he filed on it and built the store and residence he now 
occupies. Hither he moved his stock of merchandise and his cattle, and 
here he has since dwelt and carried on his extensive business of various 
kinds. When the surveys were made later he realized his necessity for 
more land, and he has since secured an additional body of considerable 
magnitude, having now the finest estate on the Cheyenne. In politics he 
is an earnest and devoted Republican, and in the service of his party he 
has ever been active and zealous. In 1898 he was elected a member of the 
state legislature, and he has been postmaster at Smithville from the 
establishment of the office. 

	On May 20, 1900, at Rapid City, Mr. Cottle was married to Miss 
Martha Christensen. They have three children, Antoinette, Clara and 
Albert Henry.