James Madden Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1591-1592 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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	JAMES MADDEN, of Worthing, who has been a resident of Lincoln 
county for more than thirty years, was born near Newcastle, Schuylkill 
county, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of November, 1847, and is a son of Owen 
and Ellen (Tulley) Madden, both of whom were born in County Galway, 
Ireland, whence they came to America when young, their marriage having 
been solemnized at Pottsville, Pennsylvania. They were descended from 
staunch old Irish stock, identified with the annals of the province of 
Connaught for many generations. The father of the subject was employed 
in the mines in Pennsylvania, and met his death as the result of an 
accident while thus working, our subject being but eighteen months old 
at the time; while his mother died when he was but nine years of age, so 
that he was early thrown upon his resources and is to be considered as 
essentially the architect of his own fortunes. He attended the common 
schools of Pennsylvania until the death of his mother and later 
contrived to effectively supplement this training by doing farm work in 
summer and various chores in winter, during which latter period he had 
the privilege of attending school, receiving his board in compensation 
for his services in the line noted. In 1856, wishing to find some other 
occupation than that which had cost his father his life, he accompanied 
an unmarried uncle to McHenry county, Illinois, where he worked on a 
farm for several years, in the meanwhile attending school, as before 
stated. In 1864 he signalized his patriotism by enlisting in the defense 
of the Union. becoming a private in Company A, Ninety-fifth Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, with which he proceeded to the front, taking part in 
the battle of Nashville, Tennessee, and the engagement at Spanish Fort, 
Alabama, which was captured by the Sixteenth Army Corps, on the evening 
of April 8, 1865, General A. J. Smith commanding the corps. Mr. Madden 
continued in active service until the close of the war, when he received 
his honorable discharge and returned to Illinois, where he remained 
until 1868. when he removed to Steele county, Minnesota, where he was 
engaged in farm work during the summer of that year and employed in the 
lumbering woods during the ensuing winter. In the spring of 1869 he 
returned to Illinois, and with the money saved from his earnings he 
purchased a team of horses, with which he returned to Minnesota, where 
he was associated with a friend in farming for one season, disaster 
attending their enterprise, as their crops were destroyed by a severe 
hailstorm. Mr. Madden then abandoned agricultural pursuits and passed 
the winter of 1871-2 in the south, and in the spring of the latter year 
he came as a pioneer to what is now South Dakota and filed on a 
homestead claim in Lincoln county, and on this place he has ever since 
maintained his home, while he has added to his holdings until he now has 
a valuable and finely improved landed estate of one hundred acres, being 
part of the town site, continuing to devote his attention to diversified 
agriculture and to the raising of stock, while for the past twelve years 
he has also controlled a prosperous business in the buying and shipping 
of grain. He held for several terms the office of chairman of the 
official board of Lynn township, and has also been a valued member of 
the board of trustees of the village of Worthing, which is located on 
his old homestead. He gave his allegiance to the Republican party until 
its repudiation of bimetallic monetary system, and since that time he 
endeavors to support the men and measures which seem most fully American 
and make for the perpetuation of the principles on which our republic is 
founded. Fraternally he is an appreciative member of the time-honored 
Masonic order with which he has been identified since 1882 having at the 
time of this writing attained to the thirty-second degree in the Ancient 
Accepted Scottish Rite and being ~ affiliated with Oriental Consistory, 
No. 1, of the valley of Yankton. He has also been a member of the Grand 
Army of the Republic since 1885, and takes a deep interest in his old 
comrades in arms. He is liberal and tolerant in his religious views and 
recognizes the good accomplished by all denominations. He is 
straightforward and sincere in all the relations of life, his integrity 
is beyond question, and thus he has gained a wide circle of loyal 
friends, and ever holds this friendship inviolable. 

	On the 12th of December, 1876, at Canton, this county, Mr. Madden 
was united in marriage to Miss Mary Gerber, a daughter of Frederick and 
Augustine Gerber, the former of whom was born and reared in Switzerland, 
while the latter was born in Germany. The following record is entered 
concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Madden, the respective dates of 
birth being given in the connection: Ernest, December 13, 1877; Cora, 
May 29, 1882; Maud, May 18, 1885; Frederick July 2, 1886; Marv Ellen, 
July 3, 1894; June, October 18, 1896; and Edwin Tulley, September 25, 
1903.