Nicholas I. Lowthian Biography


	This biography appears on pages 681-682 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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	HON. NICHOLAS I. LOWTHIAN one of the honored pioneers of Grant 
county, has been prominently identified with the industrial and civic 
development of the state. He is a native of Ontario, where he was born 
in the 17th of March, 1840, being a son of Timothy and Dinah (Irvin) 
Lowthian, both of whom died when he was an infant. He was reared by his 
sister and attended the public schools of his native province until he 
had attained the age of fourteen, after which he was employed in a 
telegraph-office until 1856, when he removed to Worth county, Iowa, 
where he was identified with farming until March 9, 1862, when he 
enlisted as a private in Company C, Fifth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, 
the regiment being assigned to the Army of the Tennessee. He 
participated in thirteen battles and for eighteen months was in the 
medical department assisting in hospital work and in caring for the 
wounded. He received his honorable discharge, at St. Paul, on the 8th 
of March, 1865, and then returned to Iowa and engaged in farming in 
Worth county. In 1867 he removed to Freeborn county, Minnesota, where 
he continued to follow agricultural pursuits until his removal to South 
Dakota, having in the meanwhile served for five years as captain of a 
company of the Minnesota National Guard. In 1879 Mr. Lowthian came to 
what is now Grant county, South Dakota, and entered a homestead in 
Melrose township, and there developed and improved a fine farm, 
including one hundred and sixty acres which was owned by his wife. 
There he continued to be actively and successfully engaged in farming 
and stock growing until the spring of 1903, when he removed to Milbank, 
purchasing a pleasant and commodious residence on South Grant street, 
where he has since lived practically retired from active business, 
though still maintaining a general supervision of his farming 
interests.  

	Mr. Lowthian accords an unswerving allegiance to the Republican 
party, and he has been a prominent figure in public affairs since 
coming to the state, having been incumbent of various local offices, 
while he was a delegate to the constitutional conventions of 1883 and 
1885, and a member of the state senate in 1893 and 1895. From 1867 to 
the present he has served officially in connection with schools in 
Minnesota and Dakota.  

	On the 22d of December, 1859, at Gordonsville, Minnesota, Mr. 
Lowthian was united in marriage to Miss Susan Beighley, who was born 
and reared in Butler county, Pennsylvania, being a daughter of Peter 
and Elizabeth Beighley, and they are the parents of three children, 
namely William, who carries on the farm in Melrose; John P., who is now 
engaged in the drug business at International Falls, Minnesota; and Dr. 
George H. Lowthian, who is now engaged in the practice of his 
profession in Hewitt, Todd county, Minnesota. The subject and his 
estimable wife also adopted two children, Kate, who is now the wife of 
M. McMillan, of Kansas City, Missouri, and Nina, who still remains at 
the home of her foster parents. Also on his return from the south, Mr. 
Lowthian brought a Mississippi boy, Jacob Des Muke, to Iowa and who 
remained in the family till his marriage. He is now a resident of 
Conde, Spink county, South Dakota.