David M. Powell Biography


	This biography appears on pages 883-884 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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	DAVID M. POWELL had the distinction of being a representative of 
Davison county in the first state legislature of South Dakota and is 
also a member of this body at the time of this writing, while he is 
known as one of the progressive and successful farmers and stock 
growers of said county, where he has maintained his home since 1883, 
thus being one of the pioneers of this section. He served long and 
faithfully in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is 
still active in church work, though not exercising his clerical 
functions in a specific way.  

	Mr. Powell was born in Roxbury, Delaware county, New York, on the 
13th of April, 1836, and is a son of Reuben and Catherine (Gould) 
Powell, the former of whom was born in the state of New York, to which 
the family had removed from Connecticut a few months previously, and 
the latter was a native of Connecticut, both families being of Welsh 
and English extraction and both having been established in New England 
in the colonial epoch of our national history. The mother of our 
subject died when he was but nine months of age, and his father 
subsequently consummated a second marriage, passing his entire life in 
the old Empire state where he followed the vocation of farming. David 
M. was reared on the home farm and secured his early educational 
discipline in the common schools of his native town, while later he 
continued his studies in an academy at Harpersfield, Delaware county, 
New York, and supplemented this by a course in an academy at Roxbury, 
that state. Thereafter he taught for two years in the schools of 
Halcott, Greene county, and three years at Stone Ridge, Ulster county, 
New York. In April, 1859, after due preliminary preparation, he was 
ordained to the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
thereafter continued uninterruptedly in ministerial labors until the 
spring of 1883, when he came to what is now the state of South Dakota 
and purchased three hundred and twenty acres of deeded land, in Davison 
county, where he has ever since maintained his home. He has made the 
best of permanent improvements on his farm and has been successful in 
his operations as an agriculturist and stock grower, notwithstanding 
the serious obstacles which he was compelled-to encounter in connection 
with the transformation of virgin prairies to a condition of 
fruitfulness in the production of crops for the support of man and 
beast. He may well look with naught of regret on the toils and 
privations of the pioneer days, in view of the success which has come 
to him individually and the magnificent civilization which has been 
established in the great domain of the sovereign commonwealth of which 
he was an early settler. Mr. Powell became a subscriber to Horace 
Greeley's Tribune in 1854, and was not a voter at the time of the 
inception of the Republican party, being thus unable to exercise his 
franchise in support of its first presidential candidate, General John 
C. Fremont, but he voted for Lincoln in 1860 and has ever since been 
staunchly arrayed in support of the "grand old party," for whose every 
succeeding presidential candidate he has voted. In the autumn of 1888 
he was elected a member of the last territorial legislature of the 
territory of Dakota, and in the ensuing general assembly did effective 
service in the framing of wise legislation for the new commonwealth, 
while he was again elected to represent his district in the first state 
legislature, in the election of November, 1889, thus being a member of 
the first state general assembly. His interest in the work of the 
Methodist Episcopal church continues to be of fervent and practical 
order, and his services are in demand not infrequently as a clergyman, 
his membership in the church dating back to the time when he was but 
sixteen years of age.  

	On the 4th of February, 1864, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Powell to Miss Ada Elvira Sherwood, who was born in Liberty, Sullivan 
county, New York, on the 4th of February, 1838, so that the marriage 
was celebrated on her birthday anniversary. The result of this marriage 
was one son Arthur S., who was born January 12, 1865, but who was 
summoned into eternal life November 2, 1886. Mrs. Ada Powell died 
September 6, 1870, and on the 24th of October, 1871, Mr. Powell married 
Adaline Annette Sherwood, a sister of his first wife, and to this union 
also was born a son, Jason Gould, the date of his nativity being 
November 24 1873. He is engaged in farming and resides in Sanborn 
county, South Dakota. Mrs. Adaline Powell died January 28, 1877, of 
quick consumption, and on May 4, 1878, the subject was married to 
Adelia Davidson, of Rockland, Sullivan county, New York, and to them 
was born a daughter, Elvira. Mrs. Adelia Powell was stricken with 
peritonitis and after an illness of but four days passed away April 8, 
1882. On the 4th of December, 1883, Mr. Powell was united in marriage 
to Virginia E. Crary, of Roxbury, Delaware county, New York.