Lafayette Cowdin Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1274-1275 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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	LAFAYETTE COWDIN is a native of Wyoming county, New York, where 
his birth occurred on the 10th day of June, 1854. Reared on a farm, he 
grew up a strong, well-developed lad and at an early age learned to 
appreciate the dignity of honest toil and to rely upon his own exertions 
in the matter of obtaining a livelihood. He attended at intervals during 
his youth the public schools of his native place, and after assisting 
his father on the farm until twenty years old, he severed home ties and 
turned his face towards the great west, starting in September, 1876, for 
South Dakota, with the Black Hills as his objective point. 

	Reaching Deadwood on the 24th of the following month, Mr. Cowdin 
accepted a position with his brother-in-law, G. W. R. Pettibone, in 
whose company he came west, the latter shortly after their arrival 
opening a store in the town of Gayville. After clerking there for a 
short time the subject was sent to Sydney to buy goods, which being 
accomplished he returned to Gayville and looked after the store until 
the following spring, the meanwhile doing considerable prospecting for 
himself in different parts of the country. The following summer he 
returned to the Hills where. he was variously engaged until the next 
spring, when he started in an express business in Deadwood, beginning in 
a modest way with one horse and a light wagon with which he soon secured 
a lucrative patronage. Some time later, in the fall of 1878, he began 
carrying passengers from Deadwood to Rockfort, his being the first 
public conveyance between the two places, but after devoting a few 
months to staging, he discontinued the business to run a sprinkling 
wagon in the former city. Subsequently he was engaged in hauling lumber 
to Deadwood, which line of work he followed until February, 1880, and 
then took up a ranch on Alkalie creek, where he turned his attention to 
agricultural pursuits. 

	After farming one summer, Mr. Cowdin sold his ranch and returning 
to Deadwood, resumed staging, running from that city to Galena. This 
proved a remunerative enterprise and he continued it until May, 1883, 
when he sold out and located at Sturgis, where he has since been engaged 
in the livery business. Shortly after settling in his present place of 
residence, he purchased a well-equipped barn on Main street, which with 
the improvements since added is now the largest and most successful 
establishment of the kind in the city, one of the best patronized and 
most popular livery barns in this section of the state. Mr. Cowdin keeps 
a number of the finest horses obtainable, both for saddle and driving 
purposes, and his rolling stock is first-class and up-to-date, 
consisting of carriages, buggies, phaetons, broughams and ether 
vehicles, all of modern style and selected with an eye to beauty and 
comfort as well as to utility. Without invidious distinction, it has 
been asserted that Mr. Cowdin is without doubt the most popular business 
man in Sturgis, being kind and obliging, cordial in his relations with 
his patrons, genial in disposition and the life of any social circle in 
which he may be found. 

	Mr. Cowdin is a married man and the father of an interesting 
family that is well known and favorably regarded by the best social 
element in the city of Sturgis. His wife was formerly Miss Martha 
Tourtillott, a native of Minnesota, and the ceremony by which her name 
was changed to the one she now bears was solemnized at Fort Pierre, 
South Dakota, on December 1st of the year 1884; the three children born 
to this union are Emma B., Edna L. and M. J.