Charles Francis Biography


	This biography appears on pages 940-941 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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	CHARLES FRANCIS, of Meade county, was born near New Orleans, 
Louisiana, on October 22, 1837, and remained at home until he reached 
the age of sixteen, receiving a district school education. Having a 
love for adventure and a strong desire to see some of the world, at 
that age he accepted employment with an extensive horse dealer whose 
bands of horses he drove across the plains from Missouri to Colorado, 
where he disposed of them. He made a number of trips in this way and 
experienced all the privations and hardships incident to such 
occupation, having had many experiences of adventure and danger that 
were exciting in the extreme. He also drove horses to Central America 
at times, conducting a trade which was very large and profitable. When 
the gold excitement over the discovery of Alder Gulch in Montana broke 
out he joined the stampede to that prolific region and located a number 
of valuable claims there. From Virginia City he went north to the 
neighborhood of Helena with a party and became a discoverer and locator 
of several of the mines that afterward became famous in that section. 
He remained there mining and prospecting with good success until 1867, 
when he made a trip east, and on his return in 1868 located at Fort 
Thompson, where he had charge of the distribution of government cattle 
and supplies to the Indians. He spoke the language of the natives 
fluently and was well adapted to the work in which he was engaged. He 
was well acquainted with Father De Smet, the renowned Catholic 
missionary, who told him of the promise of great riches in the Black 
Hills. In February, 1869, in company with Judge La Moure, he came to 
the Hills to look over the country, and in passing through what is now 
the Rosebud agency he discovered gold there, but as it was against the 
law then to stop in the Hills they continued their journey, Mr. Francis 
never looking up his discoveries until 1902, thirty-four years later, 
when he made other valuable findings. On the trip in 1869 they had some 
renegade Indians with them and these, seeing signs of other Indians in 
the vicinity, and being afraid of being killed in consequence of their 
conduct in leaving the tribes, deserted from Mr. Francis and his party 
while they were encamped between the White and Bad rivers, leaving them 
without a guide in an unexplored country with which they were wholly 
unfamiliar. They were obliged to discard their pack animals and make 
their way to Fort Thompson, which they reached about the last of March 
after many adventures and passing through a terrible storm. In 1870, in 
company with Mr. La Moure and a few others, Mr. Francis went into the 
northeastern corner of North Dakota where they bought scrip from half-
breed Indians and settled on land to which they afterward got a title 
from the government. There Mr. Francis was occupied in the stock 
industry until early in 1876. He then moved to Bismarck where he got 
together a freighting outfit and began freighting between that town and 
the Black Hills, being among the first to engage in this business there 
and running two large teams one with oxen and the other with mules. To 
the management of this enterprise he gave his whole attention, making 
his trips mostly on horseback. He settled his family at Crook City, 
being one of the first to take up a residence at that place and 
occupying land on Whitewood creek not far from the town, which he 
developed into a fine stock farm and equipped with every appliance for 
carrying on its work in the best manner. He also ran a freighting 
outfit between Sidney, Pierre and Deadwood at times, and while doing 
this was engaged in the cattle business as well. His custom was to go 
to Texas and buy cattle and horses and bring them to this state. In 
1879 he placed cattle on the Belle Fourche, and the next year he took 
up land on that stream. He helped to move the effects of the first man 
who became a resident of the present city of Sturgis, the town site 
being located on his ranch. Mr. Francis has interests so extensive and 
varied that he is kept continually on the move during the greater part 
of the time, but makes his home at Sturgis, where his daughter, Mrs. H. 
E. Perkins, resides. For a number of years he has had large interests 
in Arizona and New Mexico, where he owns valuable copper mines, and 
down to the fall of 1902 he was heavily engaged in the stock business 
in South Dakota. He also has extensive mining interests in the Black 
Hills and is one of the directors and heaviest stockholders of the 
Meade County Rank at Sturgis. Thus in almost every line of commercial 
and industrial development in the state he has been engaged, and each 
has felt the force of his active mind and quickening hand. He is one of 
the leading and most representative citizens of the commonwealth, and 
is held in high esteem as such by all classes of the people.