Gilman J. Barker 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 528-531

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

	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


GILMAN J. BARKER, whose portrait is presented on another page, is one 
of the most successful and prominent business men of Ipswich, South 
Dakota, and few lives furnish so striking an example of the wise 
application of sound principles and safe conservatism as does his. The 
story of his success is short and simple, containing no exciting 
chapters, but in it lies one of the most valuable secrets of the 
prosperity which it records, and his business and private life are 
pregnant with interest and incentive, no matter how lacking in dramatic 
action,-the record of a useful life, consistent with itself and its 
possibilities in every particular. 

Mr. Barker was born in Houlton, Aroostook county, Maine, May 6, 1846, 
and on the paternal side traces his ancestry back to one of the 
Pilgrims who came to this country in the "Mayflower." His grandfather, 
Isaac Barker, was a farmer in Maine, and had several brothers, one of 
who~n was a doctor, another a poet. Isaac Barker, Jr., our subject's 
father, was reared in Kennebec county, Maine, and at Houlton, married 
Miss Catherine A. Gilman, a daughter of Jesse Gilman, also a farmer of 
the Pine Tree state. Leaving his family in Maine, Isaac Barker, Jr., 
went to California in 1855 in search of a fortune and remained on the 
Pacific slope for about five years, and then returned to his native 
state to engage in farming. 

Our subject is second in order of birth in a family of five children, 
and was reared on the home farm, his education being completed in the 
Houlton Academy. In 1867 he went to Wisconsin, where he worked in a 
wholesale lumber yard for three years, and in the fall of 1870 
purchased a yard at Sun Prairie, that state, which he carried on until 
1873. During the following three years he had charge of a cranberry 
marsh in northern Wisconsin, in which he owned an interest. 

Mr. Barker was married in 1875, to Miss Adele Jackson, a native of 
Tomah, Monroe county, Wisconsin, who was one of the first white 
children born in that county, her father, W. W. Jackson, of Tomah, 
Wisconsin, a farmer, being one of its first settlers. He was county 
judge for eight years and served three consecutive terms in the state 
legislature and held many other positions of trust. Miss Adele grew up 
on a farm and attended the Black River Falls high school, and 
subsequently engaged in teaching in the Tomah and Black River Falls 
high school with marked success. Our subject and his wife have four 
children, namely: Arvid Jerome, Edgar Jackson, Blanche Jessie and 
Harold Jene. 

After spending several months in the east in 1876, Mr. Barker accepted 
a position as traveling salesman for the lumber firm of Spaulding-
Badger Company, with which he was connected until the spring of 1880, 
and then traveled in the interest of a patent medicine house. He 
arrived in Ipswich, South Dakota, in October, 1883, on the day the town 
lots were opened for sale, picked a location and -established a lumber 
yard. The following year he took a pre-emption and tree claim in 
Edmunds county and later, in 1888, a homestead, upon which he erected a 
shanty, 12 x 16 feet. Today he is the owner of one of the finest 
residences in the county. It is pleasantly located in the residence 
portion of Ipswich, the grounds and garden covering a half block and 
forming a most beautiful spot in summer. Besides his own lovely home, 
Mr. Barker owns several other residences in the place and his business 
property. In addition to lumber he deals in coal and farm machinery, 
and in early days he often handled seventy-five thousand dollars worth 
of lumber annually. He is the owner of eight fine farms and is quite 
extensively engaged in breeding standard-bred carriage horses. In this 
line of his business he takes a just pride, as he raises some of the 
best horses in the country, which he sells chiefly in Minneapolis and 
Chicago at the highest market prices, receiving from one hundred and 
fifty to five hundred and fifty dollars per head, while one colt 
brought as high as seven hundred and fifty dollars. As a farmer wheat 
has been his principal crop, but he raised the first apples ever 
produced in Edmunds county, which he exhibited at the state fair, and 
now has a fine bearing orchard of fifty trees. He also has an immense 
garden and raises small fruit in abundance, and attributes his 
remarkable success in this branch of agriculture to his ceaseless care 
and labor. It will thus be seen that he has not confined his attention 
wholly to one line of endeavor, and in all his undertaking he has met 
with marked success, being a man of unusual business ability, sagacity 
and energy. He how carries forty thousand dollars life insurance in 
different companies. 

Socially Mr. Barker is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
and politically is a Republican with prohibition tendencies, though at 
local elections he is not bound by party ties. He has served as 
alderman of Ipswich at different times, and at present is a member of 
the city council and was for three consecutive years a member of the 
board of education. His strict integrity and honorable dealing in 
business commend him to the confidence of all; his pleasant manner wins 
him friends; and he is one of the popular and honored citizens of 
Ipswich. 

Mr. Barker, wife and family are members of the First Baptist church; he 
has always held an important office in the church and is at the present 
time trustee. Mrs. Barker is a great worker and leader in all matters 
pertaining to the church.