John S. Hart Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1259-1260 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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	JOHN S. HART.—Among the leading commercial enterprises represented 
in the thriving city of Aberdeen is that conducted under the title of 
the J. S. Hart Lumber Company, and of this important concern, which 
operates a chain of several retail lumber yards throughout the state, 
the subject of this sketch is the executive head, while he is known as 
one of the representative business men of Aberdeen, in which city he has 
made his home and headquarters since 1898. In 1898 Mr. Hart engaged in 
the retail lumber business in Aberdeen, and the enterprise so rapidly 
increased in scope and importance that in 1900 it was found expedient to 
increase its facilities, and Mr. Hart then associated himself with 
George H. Hollandsworth, of Sioux City, Iowa, and effected the 
incorporation of the business under the present title, while the company 
is capitalized for one hundred thousand dollars Since the incorporation 
retail yards have also been established in Ipswich, Faulkton, Mellette, 
Warner, James, Columbia, Houghton and Plana, while the main offices of 
the company are in Aberdeen. It is scarcely needless to state that full 
and complete lines of lumber and builders' material are kept in stock at 
all times and in each of the several yards, while the concern has grown 
to be one of the largest and most important of the sort in the state. 
The company gives employment to a corps of about twenty-five men and the 
business is conducted with that progressive and alert spirit so 
characteristic of the west. 

	John S. Hart, who has been mainly instrumental in the building up 
of this enterprise, is a native of the state of Iowa, having been born 
in Clinton county, on the 10th of December, 1863, and having passed his 
boyhood days on the farm, while his educational training was secured in 
the public schools of his native state. He is a son of H. A. and Mary 
Jane Hart, the former of whom was born in the state of Ohio and the 
latter in Indiana. In early days the father was a trader on the Ohio and 
Mississippi rivers. He removed to Iowa in 1847, purchasing a large tract 
of land near Camanche, in Clinton county. He then returned to Indiana, 
but in 1859 he came back to Iowa and built on his land, at the same time 
building a flouring mill, which he operated for several years, carrying 
on farming operations at the same time on a large scale. He raised a 
family of four sons and four daughters, of whom seven are still living. 
He died in 1885, aged seventy-seven years. His widow survived until 
1902, when she died, aged seventy-three years.

	In his political proclivities, though never ambitious for any 
official preferment, Mr. Hart is a Democrat, and fraternally he has 
attained the thirty-second degree in the Masonic order, having completed 
the round of the York and Scottish rites so far as conferring of degrees 
in America is possible. He is an enthusiastic sportsman and finds 
recreation afield and afloat during his vacations, while he is one of 
the prominent and popular members of the Aberdeen Gun Club. 

	At Charter Oak, Iowa, on the 12th of August, 1889, Mr. Hart was 
united in marriage to Miss Celia M. Marshall, who was born and reared in 
that state, being a daughter of Clark T. and Dora Marshall. Of this 
union have been born three children, Harry, Maud and Cloe M.