John H. Gaskin Biography


	This biography appears on page 937 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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	JOHN H. GASKIN, proprietor of one of the largest mercantile 
establishments in Columbia, Brown county, is a native of Dane county, 
Wisconsin, and spent his early life on a farm in that state, receiving 
a fair intellectual discipline in the district schools and an academy, 
which he attended at intervals until a youth in his 'teens. In the fall 
of 1882 he came to South Dakota and since that time has been actively 
identified, being especially interested in the commercial advancement 
of the city and in its prosperity along general business lines. Having 
early manifested decided predilection for business pursuits, it was but 
natural that he should decide upon a career which would call into 
exercise the faculties of judgment, concentration and foresight with 
which nature so bountifully endowed him. On leaving school he turned 
his attention to mercantile life, and in due time was sufficiently 
experienced to embark in business for himself, accordingly in 1882 he 
established the well-known house of which he has since been the head 
and which under his able and effective management has become one of the 
largest and most successfully conducted establishments of the kind in 
Brown county. Mr. Gaskin carries a complete stock of general 
merchandise, including full lines of dry goods, clothing, hats, caps, 
gents' furnishings, boots, shoes, hardware, provisions, groceries, in 
fact every article for which there is any demand, his stock 
representing a capital of from five to eight thousand dollars, and his 
sales averaging as high as thirty-five thousand dollars a year. In 
addition to the general goods business, he buys and ships all kinds of 
produce, which constitutes no small share of his trade, and his 
patronage, already extensive and far-reaching, is steadily growing. Mr. 
Gaskin is widely known throughout Brown and adjacent counties, and his 
honor and integrity have been such as gain him notable popularity and 
the universal esteem and confidence of his fellow men. He is a Democrat 
in politics, but not an active worker, and his fraternal relations are 
represented by the Masonic order, of which he has been an earnest and 
consistent member for a number of years.  

	Mr. Gaskin is essentially a man of the times and possesses in a 
marked degree the sterling qualities of head and heart that command 
respect and make him an influential factor in business circles and a 
power in the world of affairs generally. Mr. Gaskin married, in the 
state of Wisconsin, Miss Louise J. Martin, and his home at, this time 
is made bright by the presence of two children, a daughter by the name 
of Effie Jean and a son, Frank Jay.