Richard B. Hughes Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1658-1659 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	RICHARD B. HUGHES, of Spearfish, was born April 14 1856, in 
Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and is the son of Michael J. and Mary L. 
(Height) Hughes, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of 
Bedford, Pennsylvania. His mother's ancestors emigrated to this country 
in colonial times, her grandfather being a gallant soldier in the war of 
the Revolution and fighting in that memorable contest under Washington. 
During the Civil war the family lived at Cumberland, Maryland, where 
they kept a hotel until 1864. In that year they moved to Illinois, and 
after living a short time at Dixon, moved to Peoria. In 1867 they 
changed their residence to Nebraska, the year that state was admitted to 
the Union, locating at West Point in the Elkhorn valley, where the 
father took up a homestead and engaged in farming. Owing to the 
migratory life of the family the son Richard had but broken and 
irregular opportunities for securing an education, but in 1869 he was 
sent to Chicago, where he attended a business college for two years. 
Returning to West Point at the end of that period, he went into the 
office of the West Point Republican where he served his apprenticeship 
to the printer's trade, remaining four years. In the spring of 1876 he 
came to the Black Hills, arriving at Custer on May 7th and at Deadwood 
gulch five days later. He then engaged in prospecting, alternating his 
work in this line with service on the newspaper of Deadwood, the Pioneer 
and the Times. During a portion of 1880 he edited and managed the News, 
an evening paper at Deadwood, and in December of that year he moved to 
Rapid City and took editorial charge of the Journal, then a weekly and 
later a daily paper, which he conducted nine years, in 1883 and 1884 
serving as county treasurer. Rapid City was then in a vigorous boom and 
he was president of the board of trade and also city treasurer. In the 
fall of 1889 he was elected to the first state legislature as a Democrat 
and was one of the eighteen members of his party in a house of one 
hundred and twenty-five. Prior to this he had been in the real-estate 
business, and after leaving the Journal he devoted his attention to that 
until 1892, when he was appointed United States surveyor general for the 
district of South Dakota, an office he held four years, during which he 
made his home at Huron. He has always been more or less interested in 
mining and since leaving the office of surveyor general has devoted his 
whole time to that industry. Coming to the Hills with a number of 
capitalists from the eastern part of the state, he organized the 
Cleopatra Gold Mining Company, whose property is located in the 
carbonate district on Squaw creek, eleven miles northwest of Deadwood. 
From the organization of this company he has been its manager, and in 
March, 1902, he also became manager of the Holy Terror Mining Company, 
succeeding John S. George in this position, which he still holds. Since 
1899 Mr. Hughes has made his home at Spearfish, where he has an elegant 
residence. He has other mining interests in stocks and claims in 
addition to those mentioned, and is also engaged in the cattle business, 
principally in the northern part of the state. He was one of the 
founders and is a charter member of the Pioneers' Association of the 
Black Hills, and takes a leading and serviceable part in its 
proceedings. 

	On March 19, 1884, Mr. Hughes was married, at Rapid City, to Miss 
Mattie E. Lewis, a native of Illinois. They have two sons, Richard L. 
and Clarence W.