Joseph W. Parmley Biography


	This biography appears on pages 28-32 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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				JOSEPH W. PARMLEY.  

	Joseph W. Parmley is an exponent of the spirit of progress which 
is dominating the development of South Dakota and the northwest. He 
makes his home at Ipswich, Edmunds county, and has been closely 
associated with its development along educational, agricultural and 
commercial lines. His interests, however, have even wider significance 
and effect, for he is concerned in the good roads movement and in 
various other plans and projects which have to do with the development 
and upbuilding of the state, not only for the immediate present but 
also for the future. Mr. Parmley is a native of Iowa county, Wisconsin, 
born January 12, 1861, and is a son of Joseph and Jane (Ashton) 
Parmley. After completing a common-school course he attended the State 
Normal School of Platteville and the Lawrence University at Appleton, 
Wisconsin .  

	His residence in Dakota territory dates from 1883. After looking 
over the northwest he concluded that it would eventually be a great 
agricultural empire. The railroads had reached Aberdeen and already 
extensions were being considered. Mr. Parmley studied the map and said 
that some day the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company would 
build west to the Pacific and felt that there was no more feasible 
route than from Aberdeen straight to the coast. He started out on foot 
and when forty miles west stopped on the present town site of Roscoe 
and looked around him for miles, the meeting of sky and prairie 
constituting his horizon. He secured a part of the present town site of 
Roscoe as his preemption, then returned to Aberdeen, purchased lumber 
for a shanty and drove back to his claim. In connection with Charles P. 
Morgan of Chicago he named the "town"  Roscoe, in honor of Roscoe 
Conklin, who was then at the zenith of his career. Other settlers soon 
came and in connection with Henry Huck, Mr. Parmley in September of 
that year began the publication of the Roscoe Herald, of which he 
afterward became sole owner. He continued to publish that paper until 
1910, when he purchased the South Dakota Tribune and merged the two 
journals under the name of the Ipswich Tribune. All this time he was 
working earnestly for the development of the district in which he had 
located and his efforts extended beneficially along many  lines.  

	When Edmunds county was organized in August, 1883, Mr. Parmley 
was appointed superintendent of schools and was elected to that office 
in the fall of 1884. He was instrumental in organizing the educational 
system of the county, and when he retired from the position of county 
superintendent the educational work had been placed upon an excellent 
basis, leading to its continued growth and development. When he left 
the position of county superintendent he was elected register of deeds 
and county clerk. In 1887 he studied law and was admitted to the bar 
but has never engaged in active practice. His knowledge of the law, 
however, teas been of the utmost value to him in conducting his private 
business interests and in promoting public projects. Moreover, he 
served as county judge for a number of terms both by election and by 
appointment of the governor, and he has also been numbered among the 
lawmakers of the state, having for two terms been a member of the state 
legislature. He has been urged by a large constituency on several 
occasions to become a candidate for congress, for governor and for the 
United States senate but has always declined. He has ever regarded the 
pursuits of private life as in themselves abundantly worthy of his best 
efforts and has preferred that his public service should be done as a 
private citizen. Those who know aught of his career recognize, too, 
that his efforts have been far reaching and effective and that many 
public movements owe much to his endorsement and active support.  

	Mr. Parmley is intensely interested in better farming methods and 
was a pioneer in introducing Durum wheat, better varieties of corn, 
alfalfa and drought resistant forage crops. He has also introduced and 
bred herds of registered cattle and at the present time has the largest 
herd of Shetland ponies in the northwest. Moreover, he is the owner of 
the business conducted under the name of the Edmunds County Abstract 
Company and is half owner of the McPherson County Abstract Company at 
Leola. His resourceful business ability has not been exhausted even 
through these connections and into other fields he has extended his 
efforts, being at the head of the  Aberdeen Pressed Brick Company and 
active in developing an industry that promises much for the  northwest.  

	Moreover, Mr. Parmley is known as the father of the good roads 
movement in the state and is president of the South Dakota Good Roads 
Association. He was the originator of a plan to build an improved 
public highway from Aberdeen to Mobridge, which against his protest was 
named the Parmley Highway. Later he led the movement for the extension 
of the road to the falls of St. Anthony east and to the falls of the 
Yellowstone west, thus making a great road from the Twin Cities to the 
Yellowstone National Park. This has developed into a great cross-
country road and is now extending east as far as Chicago and west to 
Seattle, while the plan is to continue east to Plymouth Rock, making a 
great transcontinental highway. Mr. Parmley has been at the head of 
this undertaking and for the past two years has been president of the 
organization known as the Yellowstone Trail Association. The value of 
such a project cannot be overestimated and the promoters of such an 
undertaking deserve the gratitude of their fellow men.  

	Mr. Parmley is also intensely interested in the world peace 
movement and is in demand as a lecturer on the subject of the 
settlement of disputes between nations by arbitration or a world court. 
He is now president of the South Dakota Peace Society. He has traveled 
extensively in the United States, Canada and Mexico and his writings 
descriptive of his journeys, as well as of subjects of general 
discussion, are in demand by many magazines. Beside the honorary 
positions above mentioned that he fills, he is a trustee of the Dakota 
Wesleyan University and is a member of the National Scientific and 
other societies. It would be tautological in this connection to enter 
into any series of statements showing him to be a man of broad culture, 
of liberal knowledge and wide public spirit, for these have been 
shadowed forth between the lines of this review. He looks at life from 
a wide standpoint, recognizes the opportunities for national and world 
progress and attacks everything with a contagious enthusiasm. Mr. 
Parmley is a member of a number of secret societies, including the 
Modern Woodmen of America and the United Workmen. He is also a thirty-
second degree Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine.  

	In 1886 Mr. Parmley was united in marriage to Miss Lissie E. 
Baker, of Dodgeville, Wisconsin, a daughter of Francis and Mary (Dony) 
Baker. Two children have been born of this union: Loren, now twenty 
years of age, who is attending the State University of South Dakota; 
and Irene, who is attending high school in Ipswich.