Stephen Douglas Wadsworth Biography


	This biography appears on pages 881-882 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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				STEPHEN DOUGLAS WADSWORTH. 

	Sioux Falls is fast becoming a center of notable industrial and 
manufacturing activity. One of the important productive industries of 
the city is the Rock Island Plow Company, of which Stephen Douglas 
Wadsworth is the manager. Long training in similar fields well 
qualified him for the duties which he assumed upon appointment to his 
present position and that he is competent to handle all the important 
phases and details of the business is indicated in the success which 
has attended the undertaking since he assumed charge. Mr. Wadsworth was 
born in a district whose central industry is akin to that in which he 
is now engaged. his birth having occurred in Grand Detour, Illinois, 
June 23, 1861. His parents were Christopher and Matilda (Feaster) 
Wadsworth, both of whom were natives of Maryland. The paternal 
grandfather, Christopher Wadsworth, Sr., was also born in that state 
and was a son of Christopher Wadsworth, a native of Yorkshire, England, 
who founded the family in America prior to the revolution. 

	In the acquirement of his early education Stephen D. Wadsworth 
attended the country schools of Ogle county, Illinois, and afterward 
spent three years as a student in Dixon, Illinois, putting aside his 
textbooks when in his teens. In 1876 he went to northern Michigan, 
spending about three years there in the employ of an iron company in 
locating iron ore lands. In 1878 he went to Leadville, Colorado, for 
another firm, making explorations for gold and silver. He next went to 
North Platte, Nebraska, and became fireman on an engine of the Union 
Pacific Railroad running between North Platte and Denver. He was thus 
engaged until 1885, v hen he removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he 
was connected with an implement house, there continuing until 1891, 
representing the company upon the road as a traveling salesman. In the 
spring of 1892 he arrived aft Sioux Falls, where he embarked in the 
wholesale implement business under the name of the Foley-Wadsworth 
Implement Company. This was the first wholesale implement company in 
South Dakota. He retired from that connection in 1893 and removed to 
Des Moines, Iowa, where he became traveling salesman for an implement 
house in that city. He spent thirteen years in that way and in 1906 
went to Moline, Illinois, where he occupied a position in the office of 
the Moline Plow Company until July, 1909, when he returned to Sioux 
Falls and organized the Rock Island Plow Company, of which he was made 
manager. He has since remained at the head of this business, covering a 
period of about five years, and under his guidance its development has 
been continuous and gratifying. Mr. Wadsworth seems to understand every 
phase of the implement trade, knows the demands of the public in this 
connection and finds in the rapidly developing agricultural regions of 
the northwest a good field for the expansion of his business. He is 
also a director of the Sioux Falls Savings Bank. 

	On the 20th of June, 1888, at Houston, Texas, Mr. Wadsworth was 
united in marriage to Miss Hattie Hyatt, and they have become the 
parents of two daughters alla a son: Marguerite, now the wife of 
Theodore M. Bailey, of Sioux Falls; Horace Hyatt, living in Duluth, 
connected with the Oliver Iron Company; and Augusta Marie, the wife of 
Lester C. Camper, of Des Moines, Iowa. The family attend the Episcopal 
church and Mr. Wadsworth is a democrat in his political views. He 
belongs to the Masonic fraternity, being a Scottish Rite Mason and a 
Mystic Shriner, and holds membership also with the Benevolent 
Protective Order of Elks and the Country Club. His is a well rounded 
character. His experiences have been varied and interesting and have 
developed in him that broad mindedness which comes when an individual 
gets beyond the narrow confines of the home district and learns much of 
the world its people and their habits. He has a free and easy manner, 
which never, however, descends into familiarity, and his attractive 
social qualities have gained for him an ever increasing circle of 
friends.