Charles F. Hackett Biography


	This biography appears on pages 542-546 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (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


				CHARLES F. HACKETT. 

	Newspaper history in South Dakota contains the record of no more 
courageous, determined and successful man than Charles F. Hackett, 
proprietor and editor of the Parker New Era. He is a newspaper man by 
training and preference, understands journalism and the printing 
business in principle and detail, and through his own energy, 
enterprise and rightly directed ambition has worked his way upward to 
success in this field. He has made his activities vital forces in the 
accomplishment of a great deal of public-spirted work, and he is 
numbered today among the great individual factors in the upbuilding and 
development of Parker, in which city he lives. 

	Mr. Hackett was born in Mannington township, Salem county, New 
Jersey, May 20, 1853, his birth occurring on the old Hackett homestead, 
which has been in possession of this family for two hundred and twenty-
five years. The line is one of the oldest in America and is of English 
origin, the name being derived from the old English word Har'court. Mr. 
Hackett's paternal ancestors came from England after the fall of 
Cromwell and settled in Connecticut. The great-grandfather of the 
subject of this review afterward removed to southwestern New Jersey and 
there engaged in lumbering and shipbuilding. His paternal grandmother 
was Sarah Reeve, whose ancestors came from England in 1660 and also 
settled in New Jersey. On his mother's side his grandfather was of 
Holland nativity and his grandmother was English, and they settled in 
Salem county, New Jersey, in 1780. The family has had many 
distinguished representatives, among them Hackett, the commentator, and 
Hackett, the actor. The father of the subject of this review engaged in 
school teaching for a number of years, then in farming, and for about 
thirty years was a local Methodist Episcopal preacher. 

	When Charles F. Hackett was fifteen years of age he began his 
independent career and apprenticed himself to William S. Sharp of 
Salem, New Jersey, publisher of The Standard. He received for his 
services two dollars per week and since his board and lodging cost him 
three dollars a week, he was obliged to earn the difference by doing 
chores. About the close of his first year of apprenticeship his salary 
was raised to three dollars a week. In 1869 Mr. Hackett's employer 
became bankrupt and the apprentice lost several weeks of his wages. He 
then went to Philadelphia and apprenticed himself for four years to the 
American Baptist Publication Society, beginning at a salary of three 
dollars and seventy-five cents a week. In order to pay for his board 
and room which were four dollars a week, he took on the extra work of 
carrying the locked up forms from the composing room on the third floor 
to the press room in the basement, and received seventy-five cents a 
week extra for this task, this arrangement enabling him to pay his 
living expenses and leaving him a surplus of fifty cents. By the end of 
the first two months the apprentice had won so enviable a place in the 
regard of his employers and had made himself so valuable in various 
ways that he was given a raise in salary. This was increased again in 
another sixty days and every two months thereafter during the entire 
period of the four years. Mr. Hackett did not, however, grow 
extravagant in his expenditures because his earnings had increased but 
instead pursued the same rigid economy throughout, saving his money 
until he had accumulated enough to put himself through school. He 
attended first the academy in Salem for one year and then spent two 
years in the State Normal School at Trenton, New Jersey, working during 
vacations in order to earn mole money to increase his diminishing 
resources. 

	In the vacation of 1874 he edited and superintended the 
publishing of the Woodstown (N. J.) Register, while the proprietor, 
William Taylor, a cousin of the famous novelist, Bayard Taylor, toured 
Europe. The Taylors took a decided liking to Mr. Hackett and were 
deeply impressed with his keen editorial pronunciamentos. Accordingly, 
in 1876, the two brothers who had gone west to establish a newspaper 
business at Yankton, South Dakota, sent for Mr. Hackett to come and 
join them. He arrived in Yankton with two dollars and forty cents in 
his pocket, a trunk and two suits of clothes, and immediately became a 
leading factor on the Herald. His duties soon extended, and he found 
himself obliged to set type, run the presses, do the soliciting, 
collecting, etc. He acted also as field solicitor, curing the second 
year, over northeastern Nebraska and southeastern Dakota, visiting the 
new settlements, taking subscriptions and writing up for publication in 
the Herald the villages and the lives of the prominent men. In addition 
to this he made his way overland to the military forts at and above 
Yankton along the Missouri river to Bismarck, and in this way he 
increased the circulation of the Herald to a considerable extent. 

	Soon after his return from this trip, Mr. Hackett decided to 
return to his boyhood home, and he made part of the journey on the old 
stage line between Yankton and Sioux Falls, operated by Shurtleff & 
Deming, to bid some friends goodbye. It crossed the Vermillion river 
and also passed through the village of Swan Lake, whence Mr. Hackett 
intended to pursue his journey to Finlay and Sioux Falls before going 
east. When he reached Swan Lake, however, Vale P. Thielman, postmaster 
at the village and clerk of the court for Turner county, urged him to 
abandon his plans and settle in Swan Lake and buy the Swan Lake Era, a 
newspaper that had been established at that village in June, 1875, by 
H. B. Chaffee. The deal was put through, Mr. Hackett paying for the 
paper with his savings and with money borrowed from D. M. Inman of 
Vermillion. He gave in payment his note for two hundred dollars payable 
in one year, but within eight months from the time he began the 
publication of his paper was entirely free from debt. This paper was 
established in Swan Lake by H. B. Chaffee in 1875 and continued under 
his direction until the fall of 1877. The plant was then sold to Smith 
& Grigsby, who removed it to Sioux Falls and merged it with The 
Pantagraph. In the next spring William Gardner came from Chicago, 
reorganized the paper, named it the Swan Lake Press, and ran it until 
October 10, 1878, when he sold out to Charles F. Hackett, who has since 
been owner. and publisher. Its original name, the Swan Lake Era, was 
changed by Mr. Hackett to The New Era. 

	When the Milwaukee Railroad was built into Turner county, in the 
fall of 1879, Mr. Hackett removed the paper to Parker and renamed it 
The Parker New Era, which name it bears today. He has made this one of 
the leading papers in this part of South Dakota and through its columns 
has been instrumental in the accomplishment of a great deal of 
constructive and progressive work along many lines. He has made it an 
excellent news and advertising medium and has built up a large and 
constantly growing circulation He has been longer in continuous 
editorial work than any other Dakotan. He has prospered since he came 
to Parker and owns several hundred acres of land and a few business 
blocks. He recently removed his printing plant and the post office, of 
which his wife is the mistress, to a new modern building of his ovary. 
He has demonstrated the fact that success in the newspaper business, 
like success in any field, comes as the result of industry, 
perseverance and hard work, qualities which have formed the basis of 
his own successful career. 

	On the 26th of October, 1880, Mr. Hackett was united in marriage 
to Miss Carrie McIntire. a daughter of Rev. J. J. McIntire, one of the 
pioneers of South Dakota. To this union four children have been born, 
namely: Bessie I., now the wife of Charles H. Rodenbach, of Chicago; 
Charles F. Jr., of Parker, South Dakota; Alma E., the wife of Dr. 
Herman Ludwig, of Parker; and Clara, at home. 

	Mr. Hackett is a member of the Baptist church and of the Masonic 
lodge, chapter, commandery and Shrine, and is also affiliated with the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Odd Fellows. He gives his 
political allegiance to the republican party and has held a number of 
positions of trust and responsibility, serving ill 1889 and 1890 as 
chief enrolling clerk of the first state senate. He was also assistant 
secretary of the second state senate and has served as clerk of the 
Turner county courts, as postmaster of Parker and as president of the 
State Press Association. He is one of the best journalists in his part 
of South Dakota and has accomplished a great deal of valuable work in 
this field, for he has made his paper not only an accurate and reliable 
news medium, but a power in the promotion and support of all movements 
looking toward the general benefit of the community.