Francis Aiken Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 339-340

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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FRANCIS AIKEN. Among the men who are gaining a good support by tilling 
the soil of Brookfield township, McCook county, and incidentally laying 
aside something for a rainy day, there is no better representative than 
the gentleman whose name introduces this brief sketch. 

Mr. Aiken was born in Vermont, in the year 1827. His father was of 
Scotch and his mother of English descent, although the Aiken family has 
been in America for many generations, and even before the Revolutionary 
war. Our subject is the fifth in the order of birth of a family of 
eleven children, and was reared on a farm until he reached the age of 
ten years, and at that age he began life on his own responsibility. 
Moving west to Illinois, he secured employment in a foundry, and also 
worked for a time in the John Deere plow factory. From there he went to 
Texas, and found the wild, frontier life of that state quite to his 
taste. At that time skirmishes with the Indians were very frequent, and 
an encounter between two white men, which generally ended in the death 
of one of the combatants, was not an uncommon occurrence. Here he made 
his home for seven years, and in 1848, the last year of the Mexican 
war, he enlisted in a regiment called Jack Hayes' Mounted Riflemen. 
They were armed with a carbine, horse pistol, and a big knife which 
they carried in their boot tops. During his six months of service in 
this regiment, he saw numberless Indian skirmishes, and as the regiment 
was made up of rough men and discipline was not of the best, they would 
rush into battle without waiting for orders. After the close of 
hostilities, Mr. Aiken joined a surveying party and subsequently opened 
a grocery store which he operated for about eighteen months. From there 
he moved to Ogle county, Illinois, and made that his home for about a 
year, and in 1851 he went to California and engaged in placer gold 
mining, and in one year he made one thousand eight hundred dollars, the 
most of which he obtained in about three weeks. He then returned to 
Illinois. was married. and soon after went to Wisconsin and bought a 
farm which he operated with moderate success for three years. Selling 
his property in that state, he again returned to Illinois, where his 
labors were crowned with unusual success during the entire two and a 
half years of his stay, clearing one thousand dollars in that time. He 
next moved to southwestern Missouri, and there misfortune overtook him. 
Owing to poor crops and other adversities, he lost two thousand seven 
hundred dollars during the seven years of his stay in Missouri, and he 
then moved to Minnesota. He did not stay long in Minnesota, however, 
but soon moved to Iowa and rented a farm for three years, after which 
he bought a farm in Hancock county, of the same state, and made that 
his home for two and a half years. In 1881 Mr. Aiken again sold out and 
moved to Dakota, filed a claim to the northeast quarter of section 3, 
Brookfield township, McCook county, and with two teams, a wagon, twenty 
head of cattle and six hundred dollars in cash, he began a general 
farming business which he has since conducted with fair success. In 
politics he is a Republican and is in favor of a law that will prohibit 
the sale of liquor, but will not support the present movement. 

In 1887 Mr. Aiken was called to mourn the loss of a faithful and 
devoted wife, leaving him with eight children, and now his married son 
is making his home with him on the farm.