Samuel H. Martin Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1309-1310 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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	SAMUEL H. MARTIN, an early settler of South Dakota and for a 
number of years a successful stock raiser and public-spirited citizen of 
the county in which he resides, is a native of Iowa, born in the city of 
Keokuk, on the 3d of May, 1852. When he was a child his parents moved to 
Stephens Point, Wisconsin, thence, eight years later, to Ripon, the same 
state, where he spent his youthful years and received his education, 
attending first the public schools, after which he took a course in 
Ripon College. Subsequently he became a student of the Whitewater Normal 
School, and after leaving that institution went to Atchison, Kansas, 
where he engaged in business until the fall of 1876. Leaving the latter 
place at the date indicated, he located in the town of Peru, where he 
turned his attention to the manufacture of flour, but after conducting 
that line of business until the following spring, disposed of his 
interests in Kansas and came to Dakota, arriving at Deadwood on the 
first day of June, 1877. 

	After reaching his destination Mr. Martin spent some months 
prospecting and mining in various parts of the Hills, but the next 
winter worked in a sawmill, preparatory to engaging in farming and the 
live-stock business. In the spring of 1878 he took up a ranch on 
Whitewood creek, sixteen miles from Sturgis, and at once began improving 
the same and reducing a part of it to cultivation. Being among the first 
settlers on the creek he enjoyed exceptional advantages in the matter of 
location, and it was after a very careful inspection of this part of the 
country that he made a selection which in every way has proven 
judicious, his ranch being one of the finest and most admirably situated 
for agriculture and stock raising in the county. Mr. Martin was a 
leading spirit in establishing Meade county, in 1879, and served as 
chairman of the board of co1mnissioners, by which the organization was 
consummated. He took an active and prominent part in putting the local 
machinery in motion, was largely influential in directing and 
controlling public affairs for several years thereafter, and in the fall 
of 1890 was elected to represent the new county in the state 
legislature. He served one term in that body, proved an able, 
industrious and painstaking representative, and made a record creditable 
to himself, to his constituency and to the state. In politics he was 
always a Republican until 1896, since which time he has been affiliated 
with the Democratic party, and as such has exercised a strong influence 
in party circles, being a skilled organizer, a judicious counsellor and 
an able leader. He is a decided factor in current public and political 
affairs, proving of great importance in the solution of local party 
problems, and there is seldom a convention in which he does not appear 
as a delegate or an influential worker. 

	Mr. Martin, on September 1, 1881, was united in marriage to Miss 
Clara Shaykelt, of Ripon, Wisconsin, the marriage, which took place in a 
tent, on the bank of the Belle Fourche river, South Dakota, being the 
first ceremony of the kind solemnized in what is now Butte county. Since 
that time he has lived on his present ranch, which included the site on 
which General Brook's army encamped in 1876, and his home is beautiful 
for situation and well supplied with the comforts and conveniences 
calculated to make country life pleasant and desirable. Mr. and Mrs. 
Martin have a family of four children, three daughters, Margaret, Agnes 
and Gertrude, and one son, by the name of John, their birth occurring in 
the above order. Mr. Martin was initiated into the Masonic order while a 
resident of Ripon, Wisconsin, and since coming to South Dakota he has 
been identified with the lodge in Sturgis; he is also a member of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, at Whitewood, and manifests an active 
interest in the work and deliberations of both fraternities.