Hiram A. Park Biography


	This biography appears on pages 915-916 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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	HIRAM A. PARK, who is engaged in the wholesale grocery business 
in Watertown, is a native of the old Keystone state of the Union, 
having been born in Montrose, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, on the 
28th of March, 1838, and being a son of Dr. Ezra S. and Mary A. 
(Warner) Park, both of whom were natives of Connecticut and members of 
old and honored New England families, the latter having been a direct 
descendant of Colonel Seth Warner, who was an officer in a regiment of 
sharpshooters during the war of the Revolution. The father of the 
subject was an able and successful physician and surgeon, and continued 
in the practice of his profession for many years, both he and his wife 
dying at Red Wing, Minnesota. They became the parents of six children, 
of whom four are living at the present time. The subject of this review 
received an academic education in his native state, and there continued 
to reside until 1858, when, as a young man of twenty years, he came 
west to seek his fortunes, locating in Minnesota, and being there 
engaged in clerking in mercantile establishments until the outbreak of 
the Civil war. In June, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company L, 
First Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, with which he continued in service for 
four years, taking part in many important battles and skirmishes and 
being once captured by the enemy, his command having been assigned to 
the Army of the West for two years and from that to the Army of the 
Potomac. He received his honorable discharge in June, 1865, being 
mustered out as first lieutenant of his company, and having served 
until victory crowned the Union arms. Having thus made the record of a 
valiant and loyal son of the republic, Mr. Park returned to Minnesota, 
locating in the city of Red Wing, where he engaged in the grocery 
business, to which line of enterprise he has ever since continued to 
give his attention. In 1886 he came to Watertown and established his 
present wholesale business, having disposed of his interests in 
Minnesota. In 1893, in company with F. F. Grant and E. L. Morris, Mr. 
Park started a similar establishment at Fargo, North Dakota, under the 
name of Park, Grant & Morris, and the growth of this house has been 
such that its annual business now surpasses that of the Watertown 
house. He has never been troubled with political ambition, though he is 
a stanch advocate of the old and recognized principles of the 
Democratic party. His religious faith is that of the Protestant 
Episcopal church, being a communicant of the church in Watertown. 
Fraternally, he has advanced through the chivalric degree of the 
Masonic order, still holding relation to the lodge, chapter and 
commandery at Red Wing, Minnesota.  

	On the 1st of June, 1863, Mr. Park was united in marriage to Miss 
Theodosia C. Warner, who was born and reared in Pennsylvania, where 
their marriage was solemnized. She was summoned into the life eternal 
on the 2d of December, 1884, at the age of forty-two years, having been 
a devoted wife and mother and a woman of noble and gracious character. 
She was survived by four sons, namely: Robert E., a tutor in Harvard 
University, having graduated at the famous University of Strassburg, 
Germany; Asa E. died in 1885, at the age of fifteen years; Herbert A. 
assists his father in the management of his grocery business; and 
Augustine H. died in 1899, at the age of eighteen years. Mr. Park was 
married a second time, June 1, 1887, to Miss Anna H. Oleson, of Red 
Wing, Minnesota, a lady who is active in all church and social life in 
Watertown.