Frank Mullen Biography


	This biography appears on pages 700-701 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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	FRANK MULLEN is one of the honored pioneers of South Dakota, 
where he has maintained his home for more than thirty years while for 
more than two decades he has held the responsible office of clerk of 
the Rosebud Indian agency, with headquarters in the village of Rosebud, 
Meyer county. He is held in high esteem by all who know him, is a 
typical westerner in spirit and is well deserving of representation in 
this historical compilation.  

	Mr. Mullen is a native of the great Lone Star, state of the 
Union, having been born in Bexan county, Texas, on the 6th of July, 
1848, and being a son of Ralph and Caroline (Black) Mullen, natives 
respectively of North Carolina and Virginia and both of staunch Irish 
lineage. They were numbered among the early settlers in Texas, where 
they passed the closing years of their lives, the father having there 
devoted his attention to the vocation of law. The subject of this 
sketch received his educational training in the schools of Austin, 
Texas, and in 1863, when but fifteen years of age, he was appointed to 
a clerkship in the quartermaster's department of the Confederate army, 
the Civil war being in progress at the time. During 1864-5 he served as 
captain and assistant quartermaster of the Confederacy in his native 
state, and after the close of the war he became clerk in the same 
department of the Union service, thus serving in Texas from 1866 to 
1869, inclusive. In 1870 he engaged in business in the city of San 
Antonio, that state, continuing operations there until 1872, when he 
came as a pioneer to the great undivided territory of Dakota, where he 
was in the employ of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company until 1874, 
when he took up his residence at the old Spotted Tail Indian agency, 
with whose affairs he became identified. On the 23d of August, 1883, he 
was appointed clerk at this agency, whose name had been changed to 
Rosebud its present cognomen. and he has since remained incumbent of 
this office, in which he has given most discriminating and acceptable 
service. In politics he gives an unqualified allegiance to the 
Republican party, and fraternally, he is one of the prominent Masons of 
the state, having passed the degrees of the lodge, chapter and 
commandery in the York Rite and attained the thirty-second degree and 
been proclaimed a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret in the consistory 
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at Aberdeen, while he is also 
affiliated with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. Both he and his wife are communicants of the 
Protestant Episcopal church.  

	On the 25th of July, 1880, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Mullen to Miss Jennie Colomb, who was born on the 16th of December, 
1859, being a daughter of John B. and Josephine (Dorion) Colomb. They 
are the parents of three children, Amy, Norah and John.