John Richard Brennan Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1162-1164 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				JOHN RICHARD BRENNAN. 

	It has been said that the Irish nation are the most successful 
colonizers among all the races of the world. There is in them an 
inherent power of leadership that brings them to the front and makes 
them up builders of the various localities in which they locate. These 
statements find verification in the life record of John Richard 
Brennan, hotel proprietor of Rapid City and for many years a prominent 
public official. He was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, May 22, 1848, his 
parents being Richard and Katherine (Sherman) Brennan, who on leaving 
Ireland in 1851 made their way to the new world with Wisconsin as their 
destination. They became pioneer settlers of Iowa and of Badax 
counties, residing at Highland, Iowa county, and at Reedsburg on the 
Kickapoo river, in Badax county, in the '50s. 

	John R. Brennan was but three years of age when brought to the 
new world by his parents and acquired his education by attendance at 
the public schools of Wisconsin between the years 1855 and 1863 Later 
he pursued a commercial course in the Bryant & Stratton Business 
College at St. Louis in 1867. In the meantime he had left home in 1865, 
going to Chicago, where he obtained a position in the old Adams House, 
thus making his initial step in connection with the hotel business, in 
which he continued to June, 1901. From 1865 until 1869 he held 
positions of responsibility and trust in the Newhall House of 
Milwaukee, in the Hyde Park Hotel of Chicago, in the Planters House and 
the Southern Hotel of St. Louis and in the St. Charles Hotel at Cairo, 
Illinois. In 1869 he removed to Kansas City, Missouri, having accepted 
the position of manager of the old Pacific House, where he remained 
until 1871, when he accepted a proffered position as manager of the 
American House at Denver, Colorado. Not long after his removal to that 
city he entered into partnership with E. W. Kibble and leased the 
American House, which he conducted as proprietor until 1875. In the 
fall of that year he started for the Black Hills, attracted by the 
opportunities which he heard existed in that section of the country. He 
arrived at the foot of Harney Peak in November and was one of the 
founders of what is now known as Palmer's Gulch. In connection with 
others he established the town of Rapid City, February 24, 1876, and 
was elected a member of its first board of village trustees, which 
position he filled with credit and honor. The town grew rapidly and 
along substantial lines and following its incorporation he was elected 
president of its first city council and has been prominent in its 
business and public affairs from that time to the present. In 1877 he 
was named the first postmaster of Rapid City and continued to 
administer the affairs of the office for nine years, during which 
period he served also as express, stage and Union Pacific agent, his 
connection with those offices extending over ten years. Another 
important public service performed by him covered four years as trustee 
of the Dakota School of Mines of Rapid City, with two years spent as 
president of its board. 

	Mr. Brennan's identification with hotel management and ownership 
in Rapid City began in 1876 and in the little frontier town his 
hostelry was a log cabin twelve by fourteen feet; containing but one 
sleeping room. This was the initial step and in 1878 was followed by 
the building of the American House, which he conducted for eight years. 
In 1886 he erected Hotel Harney, which he operated until July, 1901. 
Throughout the entire period he held to high standards of hotel 
service, equipment and conduct and made the Hotel Harney one of the 
popular hostelries in the western section of the state. His activity 
along hotel lines has also extended to the Pacific coast, for he was 
one of a company that furnished, fitted up and opened the Hotel Seattle 
at Seattle, Washington, in 1898, acting as assistant manager of the 
property for two years. In addition to his other interests he was a 
stockholder in the First National Bank of Rapid City and served as vice 
president of that institution in the early '90s. He was also a director 
and continued as a stockholder and official between the years 1884 and 
1896, when he disposed of his interests. He is now the owner of a farm 
of five hundred and forty acres in Rapid Valley, two miles east of 
Rapid City, and his property holdings include valuable business and 
residence realty in Rapid City. 

	His activities have extended to various positions of public trust 
and the public welfare has been promoted through the prompt, faithful 
and efficient discharge of his duties. He was the first county 
superintendent of schools of Pennington county, filling the office in 
1877 and 1878. He several times served as alderman of Rapid City in 
addition to the municipal offices previously mentioned and he was chief 
of the Rapid City fire department for several terms between 1880 and 
1900, while through the same period he was president of the Black Hills 
Firemen's Association. In December, 1894, he was called to the office 
of state railway commissioner for South Dakota, his four years' term in 
that position ending in December, 1898. On the 1st of November, 1900, 
he became United States Indian agent, superintendent and special 
disbursing agent for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, in which 
position he yet remains, covering a period of more than fourteen years 
and having seven thousand Ogallala Sioux Indians under his charge. 

	On the 22d of December, 1880, at Fredericktown, Ohio, Mr. Brennan 
was united in marriage to Miss Ada Jane Leedy, a daughter of J. M. 
Leedy, who removed to the Black Hills in 1876 and was among the first 
to settle at Rapid City. He was a veteran of the Civil war, enlisting 
from Ohio. Mrs. Brennan followed the profession of teaching in the 
Buckeye state until 1879, when she came to the Black Hills, making the 
trip from Yankton to Fort Pierre by boat and across to the Hills by ox 
train. She is the mother of two children: Paul, who wedded Miss Mary 
Brasch, of Sioux City, Iowa; and Ruth, who gave her hand in marriage to 
F. Web Hill, of Rapid City, South Dakota. 

	Mr. Brennan was reared a Catholic. The military chapter in his 
life history covers his attempted service as a soldier of Company H, 
Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry. He enlisted at Highland, Wisconsin, 
in 1864 and was sent to Madison to be mustered in, but he was rejected 
because of his youth, as he was yet under eighteen years of age and did 
not have his parents' consent. His political allegiance is given to the 
republican party, which finds in him an unswerving and stalwart 
champion. He is perhaps most widely known throughout the state, aside 
from his business connections, through his prominent identification 
with the Knights of Pythias. He became a charter member of Colorado 
Lodge, No. 1, K. P., which was instituted in 1872, and for two terms, 
in 1873 and 1874, he was chancellor of that lodge. While a member 
thereof he was appointed deputy supreme chancellor for Colorado, which 
position he filled until he resigned and removed to the Black Hills in 
November, 1875. Here he again came to prominence in Pythian circles, 
being appointed deputy supreme chancellor for the territory of Dakota 
in 1878. He is a past grand chancellor of Colorado and of Dakota and 
was a supreme representative from South Dakota in the supreme lodge of 
the world for three terms. He has now completed his forty-second year 
in the order and he is also a member of Elks Lodge, No. 1187, at Rapid 
City. His life has been strong in purpose, fruitful and beneficial in 
its results. His business affairs have gained him prominence and his 
official connections have marked him as one of the leading citizens of 
the Black Hills country. Rapid City largely stands as a monument to his 
enterprise, his energy and his progressive spirit. His record is in 
keeping with that of an ancestry honorable and distinguished, for the 
Brennans figured prominently in Irish history from the first settlement 
of the Emerald isle.