Arthur T. Amsden 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 912-915

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

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ARTHUR T. AMSDEN, a well known and prosperous agriculturist of Hanson 
township, Brown county, was born in Oronoco, Minnesota, in 1859, and 
was the son of L. and Maria (Davis) Amsden. 

The father of our subject was of English descent and was born in New 
York state, and the mother was born in Massachusetts, of American 
parentage. During the early life of our subject the father was a miner 
in the lead mines of Wisconsin, where the family located when he was 
but one year of age. Of a family of six children Arthur T. Amsden was 
the second in order of birth. Until his fourteenth year he resided in 
Wisconsin, and then moved with his parents to Iowa, and assisted his 
father at farming. He attended the country schools, and at the age of 
twenty-one rented land in Iowa, and engaged in farming for himself one 
year. In the spring of 1881 he went to Brown county, South Dakota, and 
took a homestead on the south west quarter of section 4, township 122, 
range 61, and erected a claim shanty 10 x 12 feet, and with three 
horses, a wagon, and a breaking plow, and enough cash to enter his 
claim, he began the improvement of his farm. The first summer he broke 
land for others, earning enough to buy feed for his horses and provide 
himself a living, and followed a bachelor's life until the fall of 
1881, when he took his team and went to the pineries of Wisconsin and 
remained during the winter. During the summer he had succeeded in 
breaking for himself and others one hundred and five acres of land, and 
the following season he raised twenty acres of wheat and corn. The 
wheat yielded twenty six bushels per acre, but the corn was poor. 
Altogether his first crop amounted to nearly one thousand bushels. When 
he located there the only landmark for Groton was the side track 
grading, and his shanty was of sod, and his horses were left staked on 
the prairie. In 1883 he erected a dwelling, 14 x 22 feet, which was the 
best house in the neighborhood at that time, and now forms the kitchen 
part of his residence. He has a comfortable and substantial dwelling, 
good barn built. in 1888, 30 x 40 feet, and another barn acquired 
through purchase, 28 x 40 feet, and has a complete set of farm 
buildings, and all necessary machinery for the work of the place. He 
engages principally in the raising of wheat and some corn, and to some 
extent is interested in stock raising and dairying, and keeps about 
fifteen horses. His house is surrounded by a nice grove of forest 
trees, and elsewhere on his farm he has two and a half acres of grove. 
He is the fortunate possessor of six hundred and forty acres of land, 
all of which is under cultivation, with the exception of seventy acres 
which he has set aside for pasture. He and his father brought the first 
threshing machine into the neighborhood in 1881, and did all the 
threshing in that section during the season. He has continued to 
operate a thresher each season since with the exception of two 
harvests, and in 1884 purchased a steam rig, and at present has the 
same engine. He lost a separator and a setting of grain by fire in the 
fall of 1886. He has been successful in his farming and is one of the 
well-to-do men of his township. 

Our subject was married February 22, 1883, to Miss Rachel Herron, a 
native of Springville, Wisconsin, and the daughter of W. A. Herron, a 
farmer by occupation. He was one of the early settlers of Dakota, but 
is at present a resident of Wisconsin. Mrs. Amsden is a lady of good 
education and taught several terms of school in Wisconsin prior to her 
marriage. Nine children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Amsden, as 
follows: Jessie, Willie, Dora, Ralph, Amy, Katie, Bruce, George and an 
infant, unnamed. Mr. Amsden is a member of the Modern Woodmen of 
America, and was affiliated with the Farmers' Alliance during its 
existence. He is a Populist in political sentiment and was one of the 
organizers of that party, and has been a delegate to both county and 
state conventions. He is popular in his community, earnest in his work 
for the welfare of those around him, and withal is a man of whom the 
citizens of Brown county may well be proud. Portraits of Mr. Amsden and 
family will be found on another page of this volume.