Henry E. Phelps

	This biography appears on page 1019 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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	HENRY E. PHELPS is a native of Ford county, Illinois, and was born 
in August, 1863, being the son of Jasper and Mary Ann (Davis) Phelps, 
both of whom died in the year 1864, leaving their son to be brought up 
in the family of a friend by the name of John Wood. As this gentleman 
and his good wife cared for their young protege and sustained toward him 
almost parental relations, it is proper in this connection to present a 
brief outline of the benefactor to whom the subject is so greatly 
indebted and whose memory he so fondly cherishes. Mr. Wood was born in 
Dutchess county, New York, May 6, I8~4, and at the age of eighteen went 
to Norwalk, Ohio, between which place and Mt. Vernon he drove stage for 
a number of years. In 1846 he married Sarah J. Lyons, of Beaver county, 
Pennsylvania, and in 1858 moved to Huntington county, Indiana, locating 
at the town of Andrews, where, in partnership with a Mr. King, he 
operated a sawmill for a period of three years, changing his residence 
at the expiration of that time to Woodford county, Illinois. After 
farming about two years in that part of the state, Mr. Wood moved his 
family to Livingstone county, thence, in 1872, came to Lincoln county, 
South Dakota, and entered land in Dayton township, which he improved and 
on which he spent the remainder of his days, dying on November  
30, 1893.  

	H. E. Phelps spent his early life in the home of Mr. Wood and was 
reared to agricultural pursuits. He accompanied his foster parents to 
South Dakota in 1872 and from that time until 1889 had charge of the 
Wood farm in Lincoln county, but purchased forty acres of his own two 
years previous to the latter date. On March 13, 1889, he was united in 
marriage with Miss Florence Lyon, of Andrews, Indiana, daughter of John 
J. and Ruth (Beauchamp) Lyon, and immediately thereafter set up a 
domestic establishment of his own, purchasing an additional eighty acres 
of land the same year, which he has since improved and reduced to a 
successful state of cultivation. Mr. Phelps has one of the finest farms 
in Lincoln county, from which he derives every year a handsome income. 
He devotes his attention to general agriculture, raises abundant crops 
of grain, especially corn, and feeds considerable live stock, being 
among the most successful raisers of hogs and horses in his 
neighborhood. Since coming west he has applied himself closely to his 
chosen calling, with the result that he is now in comfortable 
circumstances, with ample competence against possible adversity, and has 
long occupied a conspicuous place among the representative citizens of 
the community in which he resides.  

	In 1895 Mr. and Mrs. Phelps made a trip to Indiana on account of the 
latter's health, and from there went to Fitzgerald, Georgia, where he 
operated a meat market for a short time with his brother-in-law, H. L. 
Beauchamp. Later he, with his wife, visited Tampa, Florida. He was 
absent on this sojourn the greater part of two years, returning home in 
1897, since which time he has carried on farming and stock raising, with 
the success already indicated. In politics Mr. Phelps votes the Populist 
ticket and in religion belongs, with his wife, to the Methodist 
Episcopal church, both being faithful and consistent members and active 
workers in the local congregation with which they are identified. Mr. 
and Mrs. Phelps have no children of their own, but some years ago they 
opened their hearts and home to an adopted daughter, upon whom they have 
lavished the same love and affection as if she had been their own flesh 
and blood.