Alice M. A. Pickler Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1618-1619 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
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	Photos of Maj. John A. Pickler and Mrs. Alice M. A. Pickler are 
	bound between pages 1616 and 1617.


	ALICE M. A. PICKLER is the daughter of Joseph and Eliza Alt. She 
was born in Johnson county, Iowa, near Iowa City, in 1848. She comes of 
a family very old in America. A paternal ancestor, Michel Drew by name, 
left the service of the king a few years prior to the outbreak of the 
Revolution, came to America, and enlisted and served in the Continental 
army. An ancestor on her mother's side, Frederick Kepford, was with 
Washington at Valley Forge. A family tradition has it that upon one 
occasion, as he slept one winter night at his accustomed place under a 
baggage wagon, his cue froze fast to the ground. The names of these 
ancestors still survive among the Christian names of the family. Mrs. 
Pickler's father was born near Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and when a few 
weeks old was taken by his family to Springfield, Ohio, where he lived 
until 1840. He then came to Johnson county, Iowa, and resided on land 
which he obtained from the government, until his death, in January, 
1904, a period of sixty-four years. Her mother, Eliza Kepford, removed 
with her people from Pennsylvania to the same county in the 'forties, 
where she married Mr. Alt and where they had their home together for 
fifty-six years. She died February 5, 1904, one week after the death of 
her husband. They were the last of the early Iowa pioneers in that 
vicinity. 

	The subject of this sketch lived with her parents upon the farm 
attending the district school and engaging in the duties devolving upon 
a girl living in the country at that time. She attended the Iowa State 
University for a period of six years, commencing when at the age of 
fourteen. She was one of the early students of that institution and is a 
member of the Elder Daughters of the University. She taught school a 
portion of the time during her attendance at the university, a part of 
the time in the model school of that institution. While attending the 
university she became acquainted with her future husband, J. A. Pickler, 
who was attending at the same time. They were married November 16, 1870. 
She accompanied her husband during his law course at Ann Arbor, 
Michigan; afterwards they resided at Kirksville, Missouri, two years and 
at Muscatine, Iowa, seven years, from whence they came as pioneers to 
Faulkton, Faulk county, South Dakota, their present home. She was 
accompanied to Dakota by her two younger sisters, Kate E. and Nellie 
Alt, the wives respectively of W. G. Faulkner, county auditor, and D. H. 
Latham, state's attorney of Faulk county, both Mrs. Pickler's nearest 
neighbors. 

	Mrs. Pickler's parents were quiet, but aggressive and positive, 
people, who loved good principles as their own lives, and in this 
atmosphere their oldest daughter, Alice, grew to womanhood. The church 
and the temperance reform found in her parents warm friends. During the 
great Civil war eight of their immediate relatives had a part, serving 
with fidelity and distinction. Mr. Alt was a Whig and cast his vote for 
John C. Fremont for President. So intense was their loyalty that it was 
deeply impressed on the minds of the children who were old enough to 
understand the editorials in the New York Tribune, which was the 
standard paper in the family. The enthusiasm that sent hospital supplies 
to the army at the front was shared by the children and young people. 
When the war ended a number of the younger soldiers attended school at 
the Iowa State University, among them Major J. A. Pickler, then twenty-
two years old. A four-years acquaintance in this pleasant college ended 
in the marriage of Alice M. Alt to him. 

	Up to the time of their removal to Dakota, Mrs. Pickler's field 
of work was most and first of all, her family of three children, the 
Methodist' church and a membership in the Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union. When she, with others in that great territory of Dakota, began to 
make homes and "plant the roots of states," a desire for the same happy 
environments in the new state that had been left in the old, led her 
into more active work along broader lines. Her husband was a member of 
the territorial legislature of 1885, which gave her a wide acquaintance 
with many of the best and most active men and women of the two Dakotas. 
This friendship she cherishes at the present time. Her sphere of 
opportunity was still more widened upon the accession of statehood and 
during the eight years following she became acquainted with a number of 
representatives of the western states, who made their home for a time at 
the national capital. 

	Mrs. Pickler has been a member of the executive board of the 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union in her state for many years. Also was 
honored as the unanimous choice for president of the State Relief Corps. 
She was also national chaplain of that body in 1900. She was one of the 
first trustees of the Methodist Episcopal church at Faulkton. She is at 
present president of the State Suffrage Association. She is also a grand 
officer of the Order of the Eastern Star. In all of these organizations 
she is an earnest member, but to her family she is most devoted. The 
children, Lulu A., wife of W. J. Frad, late editor of the Mitchell 
(South Dakota) Gazette; Madge E., Alfred A. and Dale A., have all done 
honor to themselves and parents in their college work and in assuming 
other responsibilities. 

	In their pioneer home a large lamp always hung in the window to 
guide the lost traveller on the great prairies to a place of shelter. 
The home has grown to one of ample size, of the colonial type. The light 
still shines and friend or caller there finds the same open-handed 
hospitality which helped in the early 'eighties to weave the ties that 
bind in unbroken friendship those pioneers who have made the history of 
the state of South Dakota.