James Donnelly Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1122, 1125 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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				JAMES DONNELLY. 

	There are many progressive and successful farmers in Bon Homme 
county and among them is numbered James Donnelly, of Running Water 
precinct, who is one of the oldest residents of the county in point of 
years that he has lived in the state. He was born near Madison, in Dane 
county, Wisconsin, April 19, 1851, a son of Frank and Nancy (Keegan) 
Donnelly, both natives of County Monaghan, Ireland. They were married 
on the Emerald isle in 1850 and in the same year emigrated to America, 
settling in Dane county, Wisconsin, where the father, who was a 
blacksmith, worked at his trade. In 1861 they came to South Dakota with 
their family and the father took up a squatter,s right in what was then 
known as Todd county, Dakota territory, but which was later added to 
Nebraska, it being situated in that part of Knox county, Nebraska, that 
lies between the Niobrara and the Missouri rivers. The region was not 
then surveyed and white settlers were few and scattered. In 1864 the 
government desired to assign that region to the Ponca Indians as a 
reservation and ordered the settlers to vacate. They had to move in 
1866 but eventually Mr. Donnelly got pay for the buildings he had 
erected. He crossed the Missouri river, settling in Running Water 
precinct, Bon Homme county, Dakota. The stockade of the Ponca agency 
was erected on the land where Mr. Donnelly had settled as a squatter 
Upon locating in Bon Homme county he took up both a preemption claim 
and a homestead claim and later filed on a timber claim, thus becoming 
the owner of a considerable body of valuable land. He resided upon his 
farm until 1901, when he and his wife removed to the cottage on the 
farm where his son James resides. The father passed away there October 
1, 1902, at the age of seventy six, and the mother died in April of the 
same year when seventy-seven years of age. 

	James Donnelly was a lad of ten years when he accompanied his 
parents on their journey from Wisconsin to South Dakota, which was made 
with ox team. They camped along the way and it was six weeks from the 
time they started until they reached the point on the Niobrara where 
settlement was first made. Our subject received valuable training in 
farm work and gained such scholastic knowledge as was afforded by the 
district schools of that time. At the age of eighteen years he began 
his independent career, herding cattle furnished by contractors for the 
Indians of the reservation. For six years he was thus employed, living 
in the open for ten months of the year, January and February being 
usually spent at home or at the agency. After his marriage, which 
occurred in 1873, he took up a homestead claim and resided on it until 
1880, when he took up a timber claim, on which he has since lived. His 
residence was a log house until 1899, when he built a large modern 
dwelling. He owns four hundred acres of land on section 12, Running 
Water precinct, which is the home farm, and has eighty acres of pasture 
land on section 14, which is a part of his original homestead. He 
follows general farming and stock-raising and as his methods are 
practical and his industry untiring his labors secure him a good annual 
income. 

	Mr. Donnelly was married in Yankton on the 23d of June, 1873, to 
Miss Kate Mulleague, a native of Ireland and a daughter of Barney 
Mulleague. Their family numbers nine children. Francis A., residing on 
a farm two miles east of his father, married Josephine Dolin, by whom 
he has one child. James is the owner of a claim near Draper, in Lyman 
county Winnie married Lawrence Malone, who is farming near Running 
Water, and they have two children. Annie, a graduate of the Fremont 
(Neb.) Normal School, is the wife of L. C. Dace, a resident of Fremont. 
May attended the State University of South Dakota at Vermillion and is 
now at home. Margaret was a student at the Fremont Normal School and 
later entered the State University of Nebraska at Lincoln, from which 
institution she was graduated and is now a stenographer in that city. 
Kate, a graduate of the Springfield Normal School, is employed as a 
clerk in the post office of that city. Zoie, who attended the Normal 
School at Fremont, Nebraska, taught school at Niobrara in 1913 and 
1914, and her home school in 1915. Laura, who completes the family, is 
now attending the State University at Lincoln, Nebraska. 

	Mr. Donnelly is a democrat and his religious faith is indicated 
in his membership in the Catholic church. He enjoys looking back to the 
early days of his residence in the state and among his reminiscences is 
the account of a three days, storm in April, 1873. At that time he was 
at Green Island, Nebraska, herding horses. There were a number of 
disastrous floods, the worst, however, being in the spring of 1866. 
During the time of the Indian uprising many of the white settlers fled 
the country but Mr. Donnelly and his family found refuge at the Ponca 
agency. He remembers seeing Custer's men arrive by boat and secure 
lodgement in the homes of Yankton and has many other recollections that 
link the present with that past which seems so far away when the 
difference in the conditions of life is considered. As a pioneer 
settler of the state he is entitled to and receives honor and respect, 
and his personal qualities are such as to win and retain the friendship 
of those who are closely associated with him.