Edwin M. Starcher Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1417-1418 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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	EDWIN M. STARCHER, president of the Gregory County State Bank, at 
Fairfax, Gregory county, is a native of West Virginia, having been born 
in Ripley, Jackson county, on Christmas day of the year 1863, and being 
a son of Jacob L. and Marian G. (Webb) Starcher, the former of whom was 
likewise born in Jackson county, that state, in 1832, while the latter 
was born in the city of Charleston, West Virginia, at that time having 
been still an integral portion of the Old Dominion state. The father of 
the subject was reared and educated in his native state and is a man of 
high intellectuality and marked business acumen. In his earlier years he 
was a successful teacher, having been thus engaged in different places, 
while he also followed mercantile pursuits as a young man, being now 
identified with this line of enterprise in Ripley, West Virginia. where 
he was also engaged in the banking business for some time. He has 
accumulated an estate of four hundred thousand dollars, the same 
representing the results of his own efforts since the close of the Civil 
war. He was a staunch Union man during that crucial epoch and was 
sheriff of his county at the time, and he is a staunch Democrat in 
politics. He visited various portions of the great northwest in a very 
early day, having been with a government surveying party which made its 
way up the Red river through what is the present state of South Dakota, 
the same being then on the very frontier of civilization. He is a member 
of the Masonic fraternity, and both he and his devoted wife are 
communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church. They have only two 
children, the elder of whom, Floyd, is now a resident of the city of 
Richmond, Virginia. 

	When the subject was a child of six years his parents removed to 
the state of Minnesota, and located in Hastings, in whose public schools 
he secured his early educational training. In 1880 he entered the 
Northwestern Ohio Normal University, at Ada, where he continued his 
studies for one year. He then entered the law department of Washington 
and Lee University, at Lexington, Virginia and was there graduated in 
June, 1888, coming forth well equipped for the practice of his chosen 
profession. Shortly after his graduation Mr. Starcher came to South 
Dakota and located in the town of Wheeler, Charles Mix county, where he 
established himself in the practice of law, and that he soon gained 
popularity and professional prestige is evident when we revert to the 
fact that within the first year of his residence here he was elected 
state's attorney of his county, of which office he remained incumbent 
for two years, proving an able and discriminating prosecutor. This was 
before the admission of the state, and he served as the last district 
attorney and first state's attorney in that county, being in office at 
the time of the admission of the state to the Union. He continued in the 
active practice of his profession in that county for a period of ten 
years, at the expiration of which, in 1898, he took up his residence in 
Fairfax, where he has since maintained his home. In his youthful days he 
was employed in a drug store and gained a thorough knowledge of the 
business, being now a registered pharmacist. He has been consecutively 
engaged in the drug business ever since he came to South Dakota, and 
thus it may be seen that he is distinctively a man of affairs, having a 
great capacity for work and that of a successful order, both in 
professional and business lines. When he took up his residence in the 
present thriving little city of Fairfax, in 1898, the county had not yet 
been organized, and he was prominently identified with public affairs 
here from the start. He is a staunch advocate of the principles of the 
Democratic party, and as a candidate of the same he was elected the 
first county judge of Gregory county, to which dignified position he has 
since been three times re-elected, being incumbent of the office at the 
present time and having made an enviable record on the bench, as has he 
also in the active practice of his profession. He has also served for 
four years as city attorney, having been the first and only occupant of 
the position in this city. He is the owner of the only drug store here, 
is president of the Gregory State Bank and is the owner of valuable 
realty in the village and county. As if all these interests were not 
sufficient to tax his powers of supervision, Judge Starcher is also 
engaged in the abstract business, having an excellent system of records 
and being the pioneer in this line in the county. He and his wife are 
communicants of the Episcopal church, and fraternally he is affiliated 
with the Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of 
Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. 

	On the 11th of November, 1901, was solemnized the marriage of 
Judge Starcher to Miss Marian B. Helenbolt, who was born in Minnesota, 
being a daughter of Harry and Mary E. (Blake) Helenbolt, who removed to 
Nebraska when she was a child, her father being now one of the 
successful farmers of that state.