Edward D. Palmer Biography


	This biography appears on pages 746-749 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm


				EDWARD D. PALMER. 

	Edward D. Palmer, a civil engineer residing in Yankton, has spent 
his entire life in the Mississippi valley and has been actively 
connected with the work of improvement and progress in various 
sections. For a considerable period he was identified with the 
government service and since 1886 has held several local and state 
offices in the line of his profession. He has now passed the seventy-
eighth milestone on life's journey, yet is still active to some extent, 
and a well spent life has won him the respect and honor of all with 
whom he has been brought in contact. 

	Mr. Palmer was born September 5, 1836, in Dubuque, Iowa, long 
before that state was admitted into the Union. In fact it was then 
still a part of the territory of Wisconsin. His parents were John and 
Mary Palmer, the former a native of Kentucky. Both died in Dubuque, the 
father passing away at the age of eighty-six years and the mother when 
sixty five years of age. 

	Edward D. Palmer was the eldest of their four children and while 
spending his youthful days under the parental roof he attended the 
public schools of Dubuque, also the Platteville Academy and Cornell 
College of Iowa. He took up the profession of civil engineering and 
entered into actual practice when but fifteen years of age, carrying a 
chain on the government survey in Minnesota. He was thus engaged all 
through the periods of vacation until after he had completed his 
college course. In 1856 he became a government surveyor and in 1864 he 
was made a deputy surveyor and began taking contracts, continuing in 
that business for over thirty years in Wisconsin, Minnesota and the two 
Dakotas. He probably did more work in North and South Dakota than any 
other civil engineer, and his activity along those lines gave him a 
broad, intimate and accurate knowledge of the country. He was 
especially familiar with the history of the northwest during the period 
of its pioneer development. He retired from government service in 1886 
and since that time has served as city engineer of Yankton. He was also 
surveyor of Yankton county and deputy state surveyor of South Dakota, 
and he is one of the oldest United States deputy surveyors living. 
While now well advanced in years he still does some professional work 
and while closely following his profession he ranked with its most 
eminent representatives in the northwest. 

	In 1866 Mr. Palmer was united in marriage to Miss Rose L. 
Thompson, a native of Ohio, and to them was born a son, George T. 
Palmer, a railway structural iron worker, who is now located in 
Colorado. In his political views Mr. Palmer has long been an earnest 
republican, giving unfaltering support to the principles of the party. 
He is entitled to wear the little bronze button of the Grand Army of 
the Republic and is proud of the insignia of his service. He was at the 
front with the Twenty-first Iowa Volunteer Infantry and was on active 
duty until taken ill before Vicksburg, from which place he was 
invalided home. 

	Mr. Palmer came to Yankton in 1873 and has since continuously 
resided in this city. His life during his active years in the 
government service was almost entirely spent upon the frontier, and 
many times he and the members of his party were the only white men 
within hundreds of miles. There was no scarcity of Indian neighbors, 
however, and the party met the usual experiences and hardships due to 
prevailing conditions in the far west. He is considered one of the best 
authorities on early surveys and is frequently called in consultation 
on matters where early records are involved. He today enjoys in 
substantial measure the regard and goodwill of his fellow citizens, 
among whom he has lived for forty years and who have ever recognized in 
him a man of genuine worth.