W. F. T. Bushnell 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 672-674

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

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W. F. T. BUSHNELL, editor of the "Dakota Farmer " of Aberdeen, South 
Dakota, has been prominently identified with the public affairs of this 
state along various lines for sixteen years, and has been no 
unimportant factor in advancing its interests. He was born in La Salle 
county, Illinois, December 3, 1857, and is a son of W. F. and Mary F. 
(McKean) Bushnell, natives of Connecticut and New Jersey, respectively. 
In 1837 the father removed to Illinois and first located in Bureau 
county. For many years he was one of the most prominent contractors and 
builders in that state, and besides erecting many important buildings 
for private parties all over Illinois, he was also in the government 
service for a time, building life-saving stations, etc. He made his 
home in Mendota, Illinois, until 1873, when he removed to Evanston, and 
there he continued to reside until called from this life in 1886. The 
mother died in Red Wing, Minnesota, in 1898, but the remains of both 
were interred in Rose Hill cemetery, Chicago, Illinois. They reared a 
family of nine children, namely: Mrs. Sarah McCaleb; M. B., a resident 
of Chicago; C. C., a stock dealer of Colorado; Mrs. Rev. J. F. Stout, 
of Red Wing, Minnesota; Lou R., who was at one time a successful 
teacher of Evanston, Illinois; Dr. Kate C., who was an associate of 
Frances E. Willard in the work of the Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union, and is now in London, England; E. S., an architect of Chicago; 
W. F. T., our subject; and John B., a resident of Los Angeles, 
California. 

Mr. Bushnell, of this review, was reared in Mendota and Evanston, 
Illinois, and completed his education in the Northwestern University of 
the latter city. He then assisted his father in his business and also 
taught classes in vocal music in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin 
and South Dakota. He had some experience in newspaper work prior to 
coming to this state in 1883, when he formed a partnership with 
Augustin Davis in the publication of the "Dakota Farmer" at Huron. In 
1885 he purchased Mr. Davis' interest in the paper, and in October, 
1895, moved his plant to Aberdeen, where he has since published it. Its 
subscribers are scattered throughout both North and South Dakota, and 
it now has a greater circulation than any other ten papers in the 
state. It has absorbed the leading farm paper of North Dakota, and 
recently Mr. Bushnell purchased the "Dakota Field and Farm," of Sioux 
Falls, which he has also consolidated with the "Dakota Farmer." It is 
one of the best publications of the kind issued, and its success is 
therefore justly merited. 

In 1886, Mr. Bushnell married Miss Blanch H. Van Pelt, a native of 
Kentucky and a daughter of George W. Van Pelt, who belonged to an old 
Kentucky family and died in 1897. Three children have been born of this 
union: Paul Newton, Frederick William and Helen Mary. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Bushnell are leading and prominent members of the 
Methodist church of Aberdeen, in which he is serving as steward and has 
been superintendent of the Sunday school for two years. He held the 
latter position in Huron for ten years, and was a lay delegate to the 
Methodist General Conference held in Cleveland, in 1896. He is a strong 
temperance man and practically had charge of the state Prohibition 
party when it won in 1879. Politically, he is an independent 
Republican, and has been a delegate to every state Republican 
convention so far held in South Dakota. Socially, he belongs to the 
Masonic order, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern 
Woodmen of America. He was elected the first secretary of the state 
board of agriculture, and during the four years he filled that office 
the association under his able management carried on the state fairs- 
without a dollar appropriated by the state and gave liberal premiums. 
He was reelected to that position but resigned. He is secretary of the 
Sheep Breeders & Wool Growers Association, which he has held most of 
the time since its organization; has been secretary of the State 
Dairyman's Association for years; and has held the same orifice in the 
State Horticultural Association and the State Fine Stock Association. 
He was also the first secretary of the State Farmers Alliance; is state 
statistician for the department of agriculture at Washington, D. C.; is 
president of the Inter-State Grain Palace Association, and has been a 
director of the same for years. It will thus be seen that he is one of 
the most prominent men in agricultural circles in South Dakota, and in 
all the relations of life he has been found true and faithful to every 
trust reposed in him.