James H. Pond Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1257-1258 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 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	JAMES H. POND is a native of Calhoun county, Michigan, where his 
birth occurred on January 7, 1853. His father, James E. Pond, a native 
of Franklin county, New York, and a farmer by occupation, was one of the 
pioneers of Michigan, settling in the county of Calhoun as early as 
1842, and taking an active and prominent part in its development. He 
married in Michigan Eliza Stillson, daughter of Baker Stillson, who was 
also an early settler of Calhoun county, moving there about the year 
1844. The boyhood and youth of James H. were spent on the family 
homestead in Michigan, and after a preliminary training in the common 
schools he entered the high school of Marshall, from which institution 
he was in due time graduated. Later he took a course in the Northern 
Indiana Normal at Valparaiso, after which he taught of winter seasons in 
his native county, until 1880, when he came to South Dakota, and took up 
a homestead in Brown county, about six miles north of Aberdeen. From 
that time until 1897 he devoted his attention to fanning and to the 
improvement of his land, also taught several terms the meanwhile and 
earned an enviable reputation as a successful instructor and able 
manager of schools. Since coming to South Dakota Mr. Pond has improved 
two farms and now owns three hundred and twenty acres of fine land in 
Brown county, nearly all of which is in a high state of cultivation. 

	In 1882 Mr. Pond effected a copartnership with G. L. Farnham in 
the real-estate business, opening an office in Ordway, which place at 
that time entertained hopes of becoming the state capital. After one 
year the firm was dissolved, from the expiration of which time until 
1897 the subject devoted his attention to agriculture and educational 
work, meeting with encouraging success in both lines of endeavor, 
especially the former. In the latter year he discontinued farming and 
since then has been engaged in the real-estate business, his operations 
the meanwhile taking a wide range and returning him liberal profits. Mr. 
Pond handles all kinds of real estate and commands a large and lucrative 
patronage, buying and selling lands and city property in nearly every 
county of South Dakota, besides acting as special agent for C. E. 
Gibson, of Boston, who owns about one hundred and fifty farms in this 
state, the renting and management of which are left entirely to the 
subject's judgment and discretion. He is empowered to sell or trade 
these farms when he can do so to advantage, also inspects other lands 
which his employer contemplates purchasing, the latter being guided very 
largely in the matter by such representations and suggestions as the 
subject makes. In addition to the Gibson agency, Mr. Pond has charge of 
about fifty farms in Brown county owned by other parties, which he 
rents, manages, sells or trades, as the case may be, and in an early day 
he rendered valuable service to settlers by locating claims and 
otherwise assisting them to get a start in the new country. While thus 
engaged he met with many thrilling experiences and not a few dangers, 
traveling as he did over all parts of the country in all seasons. Upon 
several occasions he encountered terrific blizzards, from some of which 
he narrowly escaped with his life, and in all experienced hardships and 
suffering in which were tested to the utmost his strength and endurance. 

	Through the medium of his business Mr. Pond has been instrumental 
not only in advertising the advantages and remarkable natural resources 
of South Dakota to the world, but in attracting to the state an 
intelligent, enterprising class of people, who have accomplished great 
results in the matter of its material development. He is first of all a 
business man, and as such ranks with the most enterprising and 
progressive of his contemporaries, and everything making for the 
prosperity of his city and county or for the welfare of his fellow men 
receives his encouragement. In politics he affiliates with the 
Democratic party, but is not a partisan in the sense of seeking official 
position. 

	Mr. Pond was married on April. 7, 1886, at Ordway, to Miss Lizzie 
Smith, daughter of Captain William Smith, one of the pioneers of 1880.