J. F. Halladay Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1429-1430 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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	J. F. HALLADAY, editor and proprietor of the Iroquois Chief and a 
journalist and politician of state repute, also present state auditor, 
is a native of Kansas, born in the city of Topeka on the 9th day of 
September, 1860. Albert Halladay, the subject's father a native of New 
York and son of Comelius and Priscilla Halladay, was reared in 
Wisconsin, where his parents settled in an early day, and at the age of 
twenty-one went west, spending a number of years in Kansas, Nebraska and 
Colorado, before those states were open for settlement. Later he came to 
Kingsbury county, South Dakota, and engaged in farming and stock 
raising, to which he subsequently added the livery business. He has now 
retired from active business and is living at this time in the town of 
Iroquois at the age of sixty-nine years. Mary E. Thompson, wife of 
Albert Halladay and mother of the subject of this review, is also 
living, having reached the age of sixty-four years. Of her three 
children, two are living, J. F. and Charles, the youngest of the number, 
a daughter by the name of Carrie, having died in early childhood. 

	When J. F. Halladay was quite young his parents moved to Nebraska 
and it was in the town of Beatrice, that state, that he grew to manhood 
and received his educational training. After attending the public 
schools until his fourteenth year, he entered the office of the Gage 
County Courier, with which paper and the Beatrice Express he spent the 
ensuing seven years, the meantime acquiring efficiency as a typo, 
besides becoming familiar with other branches of the printing business. 
Leaving Nebraska in 1882, he came to South Dakota and accepted a-
position on the Huron Daily Times, which he held until some time the 
following year, when he resigned and began work on the Iroquois Herald, 
one of the leading papers in Kingsbury county. After two or three years 
of active and effective service with that journal, he became assistant 
cashier of the Bank of Iroquois, but three years later resigned his 
position and in 1888, in partnership with Karl Gerner, he started the 
Iroquois Chief, the entire interest of which he purchased in 1891, since 
which time he has been sole owner of the plant and editor of the paper. 
From the start the Chief proved successful and so rapidly did it grow in 
public favor that within the course of a few years its neighhor, the 
Herald, was obliged to suspend publication for lack of support. The 
Chief is a neat, well-edited paper, designed to vibrate with the public 
and under the able management of Mr. Halladay it has become not only the 
leading Republican organ of Kingsbury county but one of the most 
influential political journals in South Dakota. The present circulation 
is between eight hundred and a thousand, which, with a liberal 
advertising patronage, returns handsome profits on the capital invested, 
to say nothing of the lucrative business the office does in the line of 
general printing. Mr. Halladay is a terse, clear and forceful writer, 
fearless in discussing the issues of the day, and his able editorials 
have been influential in shaping the policy of the Republican party in 
South Dakota, and promoting its success in a number of campaigns. With a 
single exception he has been a delegate to every state convention within 
the last twenty-one years, and his influence in these, as well as in 
local conventions, has always been commanding by reason of his ability 
as an organizer and leader. 

	Mr. Halladay served as postmaster of Iroquois during President 
Harrison's administration, was re-appointed by President McKinley, and 
held the office for a period of nine years, resigning in July, 1903. In 
1902 he was endorsed by every Republican newspaper of South Dakota for 
auditor of state, and when the convention convened in July of that year 
he received the nomination by acclamation. His election followed as a 
matter of course, and he is now filling the high and responsible 
position with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the 
public. At the Republican state convention held in May, 1904, he was re-
nominated by acclamation for state auditor, no other name being 
suggested. Mr. Halladay served seven years as secretary of the South 
Dakota Press Association and one year as president, during which time 
the organization thrived in its every department. He is interested in 
the local telephone company and the Iroquois State Bank, in both of 
which he is a stockholder and director, and he is also a director in the 
Publishers' Mutual Insurance Company. 

	Mr. Halladay is a staunch and uncompromising Republican, and at no 
time during the great Populist uprising throughout the west did he 
swerve a hair's breadth from the time-honored principles, but on the 
contrary, did yeoman service personally and through the medium of his 
paper in preserving the integrity of his party and saving it from 
dissolution. His influence, always strong and forceful, was felt in 
every part of the state, and he continued the fight against the popular 
fallacy until in due time its opposition began to give way and the 
triumph of true Republican principles became assured. 

	Mr. Halladay owns one of the most beautiful and attractive homes 
in Iroquois, the presiding spirit of which is an estimable and refined 
lady to whom he was united in the bonds of wedlock on May 20, 1886. The 
maiden name of Mrs. Halladay was Carrie E. Hammond, daughter of Lewis 
and Lucy Hammond, who were among the early settlers of Kingsbury county, 
the father now a retired farmer living in Iroquois. Mrs. Halladay 
attended Paxton College, Illinois, and has borne her husband two 
children, Edna May and Clinton Frank, aged fourteen and twelve years 
respectively.