Andrew D. Darling Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1141-1142 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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	ANDREW D. DARLING, D. D. S., one of the representative dental 
practitioners of South Dakota, maintaining his residence in the thriving 
town of Tyndall, is a native of the state of Illinois, having been born 
in Princeton, Beaver county, on the 19th of September, 1862, a son of 
William D. and Clara O. (Smith) Darling, and the younger of their two 
children, his sister, Alice C., being the wife of James McCartney, of 
Wyncote, Wyoming. The father of the Doctor was born in the state of New 
York, of staunch Scotch extraction, and when he was a boy his parents 
removed thence to Illinois, where he was reared to the sturdy discipline 
of the farm, receiving his education in the public schools. 

	At the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion he tendered his 
services in defense of the Union, enlisting as a private in the Ninety-
third Illinois Volunteer Infantry. At the battle of Lookout Mountain he 
was suffering an attack of measles but insisted upon taking his place in 
the ranks and participating in the engagement. When the retreat was made 
he was too ill to keep in line with his regiment and was captured by the 
enemy and incarcerated in Andersonville prison, where he died shortly 
afterward. His widow subsequently became the wife of John Vanderley, and 
they became the parents of one daughter, Nellie, who is the wife of 
Edward W. Carrell, residing near Plano, Illinois. The devoted mother 
entered into eternal rest in 1873. 

	Dr. Darling was reared in the home of his maternal grandparents, 
in Marion county, Iowa and his early educational advantages were such as 
were afforded in the public schools of that locality, while he began to 
depend upon his own resources prior to attaining his fifteenth year, 
having thus been the architect of his own fortunes. For four years he 
worked as a clerk and general utility boy in a grocery at Pella, Iowa, 
and at the expiration of this period his employer failed in business and 
a local buyer offered to purchase the stock and place our subject in 
charge of the enterprise, but he considered it expedient to refuse the 
overtures thus made and went to Des Moines, that state, where he secured 
a clerical position in a leading dry-goods establishment. The sedentary 
occupation finally made serious inroads on his health and he accordingly 
determined to remove farther to the west. In the spring of 1892, 
therefore, he resigned his position and proceeded to western Nebraska, 
where for the first few months he worked on a ranch, receiving his board 
in compensation for his services but having in view the recuperation of 
his energies by the outdoor life. Later he secured a position as 
bookkeeper for an irrigating company, receiving a nominal salary. In 
July, 1893, he went to Denver, Colorado, arriving in that city in the 
midst of the severe financial panic of that year, and there he remained 
for a period of six weeks, by which time his available financial 
resources had reached a low ebb. being represented in the sum of twelve 
dollars. With this capital he purchased a ticket for Omaha, Nebraska, 
and thence went to Pacific Junction, Iowa, where his elder sister was 
then living. Shortly afterward he secured a position in an abstract 
office in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, where he remained until the 1st of 
March, 1894, when he came to Huron, South Dakota, and entered the dental 
office of his uncle, Dr. William H. Barker, under whose direction he 
made a careful study of operative and laboratory dentistry, continuing 
to be thus engaged for one year, at the expiration of which he went to 
Austin, Minnesota, in company with a Huron merchant, whom he assisted in 
establishing his business in the town mentioned. He remained in Austin 
until October, 1895, when he was matriculated in the American College of 
Dental Surgery, in the city of Chicago, the institution being now a 
department of the Northwestern University, of Evanston, Illinois. Dr. 
Darling continued his studies in this college for two years and then 
opened an office in South Chicago, and in 1899 he resumed his studies in 
the same college, where he was graduated in the spring of 1900. During 
the last year of his college course he worked at night in his little 
office in South Chicago often remaining until the morning hours and 
while he was thus able to gain financial success in his chosen 
profession the dual strain caused a distinct impairment of his health, 
and he was compelled to remain for a short time in a local hospital, 
after which he returned to his home in South Chicago for a short rest. 
The exigencies of his business, however, did not permit him to secure 
the needed quiet and he accordingly removed to South Dakota, taking up 
his residence in DeSmet, where he passed the winter of 1901, and in the 
following spring he came to Tyndall, where he has since been actively 
engaged in the practice of his chosen profession, having built up a 
large and representative business and being known as one of the able 
members of his profession in the state. Dentistry implies both a science 
and a mechanic art, and in all phases of the same Dr. Darling is amply 
fortified for the highest order of work, so that his success has come as 
a natural sequel, while he has attained distinctive personal popularity 
in his chosen field of endeavor. He gives his allegiance to the 
Republican party and he is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal 
church. Fraternally the Doctor is identified with Capital Lodge, No. 
110, Free and Accepted Masons, Des Moines, Iowa, and Des Moines Lodge, 
No. 68, Knights of Pythias. 

	On the 11th of July, 1898, Dr. Darling was united in marriage to 
Miss Hattie Sturgeon, of DeSmet, this state, and of their three children 
two are living, namely: Stephen Foster and Paul Eugene, both of whom 
remain at the parental home. Mrs. Darling is a communicant of the 
Catholic church.