Willard H. Huff Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1241-1242 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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	WILLARD H. HUFF, one of the pioneers of Lincoln county, South 
Dakota, also one of its successful farmers and representative citizens, 
is a native of New York, and the son of Gabriel and Sarah Huff, who were 
born in Canada. When about twenty-one and twenty years of age, 
respectively, they came to New York. W. H. Huff was born in Orleans 
county, New York, in 1852. When a year old he moved with his parents to 
Green Lake county, Wisconsin, and subsequently to Dover, Minnesota, 
where his father purchased a half section of land, which he improved, 
and on which he has lived and prospered to the present time. In 1873 he 
came to Lincoln county, South Dakota, and entered a quarter section of 
land and after proving up on the same, returned to Minnesota, where he 
is now living a life of retirement, having reached the age of seventy-
three years. Mrs. Huff, who died in 1897, bore her husband four 
children: Sarah, who died in 1896; Willard H., whose name introduces 
this sketch; Ida, living in Minnesota, and George, who lives with his 
father and runs the old family homestead in Minnesota. 

	Willard H. Huff was reared amid the rugged duties of the farm, 
attended of winter seasons, during his minority, the district schools of 
Minnesota and remained with his father until attaining his majority. 
Leaving home at the age of twenty-one, he came to Lincoln county, South 
Dakota, and took up one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 18, 
Lynn township, which he at once proceeded to improve and which, through 
his industry and persevering efforts, has been converted into one of the 
best and most valuable farms in the locality in which it is situated. 
Mr. Huff came west with but a meager capital, the sum total of his 
available cash upon his arrival amounting to only five dollars, but with 
an energy born of a determination to succeed, he addressed himself to 
the task of making a home, met and successfully overcame the many 
vicissitudes and hardships incident to pioneer life and in due time rose 
superior to every obstacle in his way until acquiring the handsome 
competency now in his possession. He is an up-to-date farmer, familiar 
with every detail of agricultural science, raises good crops according 
to the most approved methods and has expended considerable of his means 
very judiciously in improvements, among which are a comfortable and 
commodious residence. good barns and outbuildings and many other 
evidences to prove his place the home of a man of modern ideas and 
progressive tendencies. In I90I Mr. Huff increased his realty by the 
purchase of an additional quarter section, making him at this time the 
owner of four hundred acres of fine land, admirably situated in one of 
the richest agricultural districts of the country, and which, in all 
that constitutes good farm land and pasturage, is not excelled by any 
like number of acres in the township. 

	In politics Mr. Huff is a Republican and for a number of years 
past he has been one of the leaders of his party in Lincoln county. He 
served twelve years as supervisor and in 1903 was elected to the lower 
house of the state legislature, in which body he has already made a 
creditable record, proving an able and judicious lawmaker, and by his 
earnest desire to benefit his constituents and the state at large 
winning the good will of the people of the county, irrespective of 
political ties. 

	Mr. Huff, in 1884, was united in marriage with Miss Alice 
McKillip, of Naperville, Illinois, the union being without issue. Mrs. 
Huff died on the 20th of September, 1903. Mr. Huff is public-spirited in 
all the term implies and has encouraged every enterprise having for its 
object the material advancement of the community and the good of his 
fellow men, and his influence has always been on the right side of every 
moral issue.