Charles Leavitt Hyde Biography


	This biography appears on pages 443-445 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				CHARLES LEAVITT HYDE. 

	Pierre, which justly merits the title of "the city beautiful" 
owes its development and upbuilding in large measure to the efforts and 
support of Charles Leavitt Hyde who never for a moment loses faith in 
the future of the city because he reckons upon known conditions and the 
natural resources of the surrounding country. Moreover he is a 
capitalist and business man of marked ability, his keen insight, sound 
judgment and unfaltering energy enabling him to pass many upon life's 
journey who perhaps started out under more advantageous circumstances. 
He has made his time and talents count to the utmost and never in all 
of his successful business career has he forgotten his duties of 
citizenship nor failed to give more than adequate return for the 
privileges which he enjoys as a resident of this fair land. 

	He was born in Pike county, Illinois, June 23, 1861, a son of 
James Franklin and Harriett (Blake) Hyde. The father was descended from 
English ancestors who established their home in Connecticut in colonial 
days. He was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1813, and when a 
youth of six years accompanied his parents on their removal to Ohio, 
where they remained until he was twenty-three years of age. At that 
time the family home was established in Pittsfield, Pike county, 
Illinois, but afterward James Franklin Hyde removed to Lincoln, Logan 
county, Illinois, where he made his home for forty-six years. In early 
life he took up the profession of school teaching which he followed for 
an extensive period, contributing much to the educational progress of 
the communities in which he lived. In his later years he was considered 
a most proficient expert accountant and was the author of a popular 
volume upon bookkeeping and accounts. For twenty years he served as 
county treasurer of Pike county, Illinois, and likewise filled many 
municipal positions, serving in the city of Lincoln as a member of the 
city council and city comptroller. He was also city treasurer for more 
than twenty years, retiring from that position in May, 1911, when he 
had reached the remarkable old age of ninety-seven and a half years. He 
took the office at a time when most men are considered long past their 
prime and when the weaknesses and inability of old age are upon the 
great majority. He handled more than one million dollars of the public 
money of Lincoln after he was eighty years of age. He was a remarkable 
mathematician and a seemingly tireless worker, doing more than two 
men's clerical work up to his ninety-fifth year. He was elected 
treasurer for his last term when ninety-six years of age and on 
retiring from the position on the 1st of May, 1911, he turned over to 
his successor public funds amounting to almost fifty thousand dollars. 
His fellow townsmen whom he had so honorably and faithfully served paid 
him a beautiful tribute on his ninety-third birthday, at which time he 
was undoubtedly the oldest municipal officer in the United States in 
sole and active charge of such a responsible office. After his 
retirement from office in May, 1911, he came to Pierre, South Dakota, 
where he died later in the same year. 

	James F. Hyde was twice married. He lost his first wife in 1850 
and two years later wedded Harriett L. Blake, of Erie, Pennsylvania, 
who was born in Maine, in 1832, and comes of Irish ancestry. She is now 
living at Long Beach, California, in the enjoyment of good health. By 
this marriage there were three children, but the daughter, Clara, died 
in early life. The elder son, Franklin R. Hyde, is living in Winnipeg, 
Manitoba, while the younger son, Charles Leavitt Hyde, is the immediate 
subject of this review. 

	James F. Hyde was an honored member of the Masonic fraternity for 
more than three score years and ten, having joined the order in Barry 
lodge, Illinois, when twenty-four years of age. In writing of Mr. Hyde 
one of the local papers said: "Of Mr. J. F. Hyde an elaborate eulogy is 
not needed. In his life a model has been set up before us of what all 
lives ought to be. To tell what this means would be to repeat the whole 
life story, and it is only necessary to sum it up in a few words. 'To 
bring into our lives these virtues and graces which made, him a perfect 
example to follow.' There was an absolute rectitude about that life 
that those who have scanned it only for a short time, as with a 
microscope, cannot find a flaw. There was no rush, no worry about his 
daily life, because he put the responsibility where it belonged, on the 
shoulders of his God. Kindness was a predominant trait in his 
character. He was gentle, conscientious, upright. He shunned publicity, 
but his nobility and steadfastness of purpose, his loyalty to friends 
and duty, caused all to realize that in his death we have lost a truly 
great man. A public officer for many years, his life is known to all 
and his actions and accomplishments are inseparably interwoven with the 
history of the locality in which he lived so well. He gave his strength 
and his talents unsparingly to his work, and this united with 
conscientious industry that never wavered, brought to him in full 
measure, success in whatever he did. We sorrowfully tender out 
heartfelt sympathy to the members of his family, especially to the 
faithful wife whose love and friendship for the husband has never been 
broken until now, and whose devotion to the duty that has been before 
her so many weeks, has won that respect and affection which her 
exemplary character so richly merits." 

	While James F. Hyde resided in Pierre for only a brief period, 
his son, Charles Leavitt Hyde, has been a resident of South Dakota 
since 1887 and has left the impress of his individuality and ability 
upon its material growth and upbuilding. He is today one of the most 
prominent and influential citizens of the state. He supplemented his 
public school education, acquired in his native county, by three years, 
study in the Presbyterian College at Lincoln, Illinois, but did not 
graduate on account of a partial failure of his eye sight due to too 
close application to his books. He was a youth of seventeen when he 
went to Colorado, where he was employed as a farm hand or cowboy. 
Between the ages of nineteen and twenty-four years he was a traveling 
salesman for a hardware house and a newspaper reporter. In 1886 he was 
married and established his home in Lima, Ohio, where he engaged in 
merchandising for a year. 

	In 1887 Mr. Hyde arrived in South Dakota and has since been 
engaged in the real-estate business, largely developing and selling his 
own properties. He is still the holder of extensive landed interests, 
having altogether about forty thousand acres, most of which lies in 
South Dakota. He is likewise the owner of much improved city realty, 
having business blocks in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Duluth, Minnesota, in 
addition to his extensive holdings in Pierre. In 1906 he built the 
Pierre Grand Opera House, which at the time was the best in the state, 
and in 1910 he erected the St. Charles Hotel of Pierre at a cost of two 
hundred thousand dollars. It is a fire proof structure containing two 
hundred rooms and would be a credit to a city of much larger size. In 
addition to handling farm lands and improving the city real estate, Mr. 
Hyde was extensively engaged in raising cattle, in the milling business 
and in banking. He has been the owner of an excellent flour mill 
equipped with the most modern appointments. Several times he has taken 
full train loads of cattle from Pierre to the Chicago markets and that 
branch of his business has been an extensive and profitable one. In 
1890 he assisted in the organization of the National Bank of Commerce, 
which has been Pierre's largest bank. In 1907 he organized the American 
Exchange Bank of Pierre and in 1909 organized the First National Life 
Insurance Company of Pierre, with a paid up capital of two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars. He became its president and is still the 
president of the American Exchange Bank of Pierre. It has been written 
of him: "Mr. Hyde's financial career has been most successful, the 
results solely of his own perseverance, forethought and integrity. 
Though he is but a young man and it is but a few years since he was 
working for a few dollars a month, he is today one of the heaviest 
taxpayers of our state." His unbounded faith in the future 
possibilities of Pierre is shown in the fact that he has built nine 
large handsome brick business blocks and the [unique and interesting 
part is that there has never been a mortgage placed against any of 
them, a record heretofore unheard of or unequaled in the United States. 

	In addition to all of his other activities Mr. Hyde published a 
little paper called the Pierre Rustler, the entire object of which was 
the exploitation of the interests, opportunities and resources of 
Pierre and the surrounding country. His greatest ambition is to see 
Pierre a large and beautiful city, whose people embody high ideals of 
right and citizenship. Statistics show that western South Dakota has a 
greater rainfall, richer soil, milder winters, more pleasant summers 
and larger undeveloped resources than one-third of Europe with over one 
hundred million people where land is worth from one hundred dollars to 
eight hundred dollars an acre. The country offers splendid 
opportunities, affording excellent pasturage and grazing land for live 
stock, an unlimited supply of natural gas which is used, not only for 
lighting and heating, but also for power; good coal mines and a largely 
ideal climate South Dakota has been termed the sunshine state, having 
two thousand nine hundred and forty four hours of sunshine as compared 
to two thousand one hundred and fourteen in California. There are 
splendid mineral springs near Pierre, and the soil and climate are 
adapted to the production of all the cereals grown in the temperate 
zone. Knowing all these things, Mr. Hyde has been an enthusiastic 
advocate of Pierre's opportunities and her possibilities. No city in 
the Union perhaps of similar size can display as fine business blocks, 
public buildings and homes. 

	It was in Warren, Ohio, in 1886, that Mr. Hyde was united in 
marriage to Miss Katherine L. Robinson, a daughter of William Robinson, 
and they have become the parents of five children, three sons and two 
daughters. Ruth, born in 1890, was graduated from the University of 
Chicago with the class of 1912. Charles L., born in 1892, was graduated 
from Beloit (Wis.) College in 1913. Dorothy, born in 1896, completed 
the course in the Pierre High School at the age of fifteen. Franklin 
R., born in 1901, had a severe accident in 1912, when he took the full 
current of twenty-two hundred volts city electricity but he survived 
and is now strong and well, more than one hundred inches of human skin 
having been successfully grafted onto his wounds. The youngest of the 
family, Theodore, was born in 1904. 

	Mr. and Mrs. Hyde are active, prominent and helpful members of 
the First Congregational church of Pierre. For more than a quarter of a 
century he has been one of its trustees. He has always been an active 
opponent of the saloons and all other forms of vice and has always been 
on the side of morality and virtue. Mrs. Hyde has taught a Sunday 
school class continuously for thirty years, beginning when sixteen 
years of age. In politics he was a democrat and was a delegate from 
South Dakota to the Kansas City national democratic convention which 
nominated William J. Bryan. He now votes independently, supporting men 
and measures rather than party. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias 
and filled the chairs in the lodge at Lima, Ohio. He has always been an 
active supporter of the commercial bodies of Pierre and has given 
liberally to further any project for the public good and the upbuilding 
of the city. It is impossible to measure the extent of his usefulness, 
but there are none who question the value of his work. His record has 
become an integral part of the history of South Dakota's capital and 
the consensus of public opinion places him among the most 
distinguished, prominent and valued citizens.