Harlan P. Packard Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1563 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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	HARLAN P. PACKARD, executive head of the Merchants' Mutual Fire 
Insurance Company, and a representative citizen of Redfield, Spink 
county, was born in Madrid, St. Lawrence county, New York, on the 2d of 
June, 1845, and is a son of Hiram and Caroline (Dimick) Packard, the 
former of whom was born in Massachusetts and the latter in Vermont, 
while both were representative of staunch old Puritan stock. Hiram 
Packard was a son of Abisha Packard, who was a valiant soldier in the 
Continental line during the war of the Revolution and who was a great-
grandson of Zaccheus Packard, who landed in North Bridgewater, 
Massachusetts, in 1638. Zaccheus Packard married Mercy Alden, a 
granddaughter of Priscilla Alden, whose gentle fame has been so 
beautifully perpetuated by the great New England bard, Longfellow, in 
his poem of "Miles Standish." 

	Mr. Packard completed his educational discipline in the Potsdam 
Academy, at Potsdam. New York, and in the early part of the year 1864 
tendered his services in defense of the Union by enlisting as a member 
of the Fiftieth New York Engineers, with which he served until the close 
of the war. He then came to the west and located in Janesville, 
Minnesota, in 1871, being there engaged in the mercantile business for 
the ensuing decade, at the expiration of which, in 1881, he came to 
Redfield, Spink county, South Dakota, where he has ever since maintained 
his home and where he was for a number of years prominently identified 
with general merchandising, while since 1895 he has been at the head of 
the well-known and exceptionally popular and prosperous insurance 
company mentioned in the initial paragraph of this sketch. He is a 
stalwart Republican in his political proclivities and has served his 
county as representative in the state legislature for three terms. He is 
identified with the Masonic fraternity, the Grand Army of the Republic 
and the Knights of Pythias, while both he and his wife are communicants 
of the Protestant Episcopal church. 

	In 1872 Mr. Packard was united in marriage to Miss Hattie B. Lee, 
who died within the same year, and in 1874 was solemnized his marriage 
to Miss Mary E. Wentworth. who was born in Michigan, being a daughter of 
Virginia Wentworth. Mr. and Mrs. Packard have five children, namely 
Harlan C., Frank H., Lillian G., M. Hazel and Clayton W.