Isaac Stainbrook Biography

	This biography appears on pages 976-978 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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	ISAAC STAINBROOK. — Conspicuous among the leading farmers and 
prominent citizens of Hutchinson county, South Dakota, is Isaac 
Stainbrook, than whom few men in this part of the state are as 
well known or as highly esteemed. His father was John 
Stainbrook, a native of Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, and 
his mother, who bore the maiden name of Susan Keiser, was born 
in Westmoreland county, the same state. John Stainbrook was a 
farmer and millwright, in addition to which vocations he also 
manufactured spinning-wheels, made boots and shoes, worked at 
stone and brick  masonry,— in fact was a mechanical genius who 
could turn his hand to almost any kind of skillful workmanship. 
He left his native state in 1845 for the west, migrating to Dane 
county, Wisconsin, where he purchased land from the government, 
developed good farm and spent the  remainder of his life on the 
same, dying in the year 1872. His widow subsequently came to  
South Dakota, where her death occurred, in March, 1880. Mr. 
Stainbrook was a man of  considerable prominence in his various 
places of residence, and he was honored at different  times with 
official positions' among which were those of justice of the 
peace, township treasurer  and others. He was, with his 
excellent wife, a faithful, devoted and liberal member of the  
Methodist Episcopal church, The family of John and Susan 
Stainbrook originally consisted of  ten children, four of whom 
are living at the present time, the subject of this sketch being 
the oldest of the survivors;  the others are John, oŁ Hutchinson 
county; Solomon, a resident of  Hanson county, this state; and 
Samuel, whose home is in Clay county, South Dakota.  

	Isaac Stainbrook was born in Meade township, Crawford county, 
Pennsylvania, on the 4th day  of February. 1831, and there spent 
the first fourteen years of his life, removing with his parents  
to Wisconsin in 1845. His early educational advantages were 
limited and by reason of his time  being required at home he had 
few opportunities to become acquainted with books. Reared to  
agricultural pursuits, he naturally turned, his attention to the 
same after leaving home and  beginning life for himself, and he 
continued to till the soil in Wisconsin until his removal to 
Iowa  in 1875. After spending one year in Adair county, that 
state, he changed his abode to the  county of Buchanan where he 
lived three years, at the expiration of which time he moved to  
Hutchinson county, South Dakota, and settled on the place where 
he has since resided and  where he now owns a beautiful and 
well-improved farm of four hundred and forty acres, which  has 
been brought to its present high state of cultivation 
principally by the labor of his own hands.  

	When Mr. Stainbrook came to Hutchinson county the country 
was comparatively wild, there  being no roads, while the 
settlers were few and far between. He worked diligently to get a 
start, experienced the vicissitudes and hardships peculiar to 
pioneer life in the west, gradually  reduced his land to 
cultivation, and at intervals made improvements as his means 
would admit until in due season he found himself the owner of a 
beautiful and well-tilled farm and a fine  home, which in point 
of location and attractiveness is now considered one of the most 
desirable  country residences in the county. His success in 
material things has resulted in a fortune  sufficiently ample to 
place him in independent circumstances and insure a competence 
for the  future, while his high standing among his neighbors and 
fellow citizens gives him a place in their  confidence and 
esteem, such as few of his contemporaries enjoy. Mr. Stainbrook 
is a  Democrat in polities, and as such was elected a member of 
the board of county commissioners,  in which capacity he served 
very effectively for a period of three years, and in addition to 
this  responsible position he also spent a number of years on 
the school board of his township. In  religion he is a 
Methodist, in which church he was born and reared and the 
teachings of which  have had a little to do in forming his 
character and shaping his life and destiny.  

	In the year 1854 the subject contracted a marriage with 
Miss Elizabeth Middleton, of Elkhart, Iowa, the union 
terminating in 1897. The fruits of this union were ten children 
whose names are  as follows: Mahala, married and living in 
Hutchinson county; Rohenna, also married; Malvina,  now Mrs. 
Carl Braatz, of this county; George W., who married Frances 
Klatz and is engaged  in farming and stock raising in the same 
part of the state; Albert, also a farmer of Hutchinson  county 
and a married man, his wife having formerly been Miss Anna 
Klatz, Harriett, wife of  William Adams; Elizabeth, who married 
Charles Thompson; Emma, now the wife of Charles  Michaelson, 
lives in Hutchinson county, as do also Andrew J. and John E., 
both of whom are married and the heads of  families, the former 
choosing for a wife Mabel Harrington, the latter entering the 
bonds of  wedlock with Miss Lorinda Biers.