Ephraim Corliss 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 453-454 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 EPHRAIM CORLISS is not only one of the pioneers of Sanborn county, but also one of the first settlers of South Dakota, and is therefore especially worthy of notice in a work of this kind. He was one of the first men to locate at Yankton, an] being possessed of a rare amount of energy, proved a most valuable member of the young and rapidly growing community. Mr. Corliss was born in Vermont in 1830, and is the youngest in a family of twelve children whose parents were life-long residents of the Green Mountain state and were farming people. Our subject attended the country schools to a limited extent, but his school days were over at the age of ten years, as his father died at that time and he left the home farm to make his own way in the world. Until he attained his majority he was employed by others as a farm hand, and then became interested in the livery business. On the 18th of December, 1850, he was united in marriage with Miss Ruby Rounds, who was also born in Vermont and reared on a farm. Only one of the six children born of this union are now living. In 1869, Mr. Corliss came to Yankton, South Dakota, arriving there when there was practically no town at that place, though it grew rapidly. He embarked in the livery and cattle business, and in the interests of the same he traveled extensively over the state during his eight years residence in Yankton. He made several expeditions up the Missouri river, and while on one of these trips he was caught in a blizzard, being out three days without food or shelter, but finally reaching an Indian camp, where he was treated to coyote soup. In 1877, Mr. Corliss came to what is now Sanborn county, South Dakota, and located on the banks of the James river, on section 11, Butler township. At that time his nearest market was ninety-five miles away, to which place he made a trip for provisions, etc., twice a year. He has shot antelope in his own cattle yard, and wolves and other wild animals were numerous. The Missouri valley was then infested by a set of gamblers and desperadoes, and Mr. Corliss once witnessed a shooting match across the river from old Fort Whetstone. where two men were killed over a game of cards, but so little effect did this have on the remainder of the crowd that in less than fifteen minutes after the fight they were again gambling as if nothing had happened. Upon his place in Butler township, our subject constructed a sod house, 14 x 24 feet, in which he lived several years. The winter . of 1880 proved the hardest in his experience. He has engaged in raising, buying and selling cattle, mostly of the Durham breed. Until 1896, he was away from home the greater part of the time, leaving the management of the farm to his son-in-law, but since the latter's death in that year he has remained on the farm. Of his three-hundred-and-twenty-acre tract, he now has two hundred acres under a high state of cultivation and improved with good and substantial buildings, and he keeps upon the place about ninety head of cattle and one hundred hogs. Politically, Mr. Corliss is a Populist, and he was chairman of the board of commissioners that organized Sanborn county. He is one of the most prominent and popular citizens of his community, and has been no unimportant factor in the development and prosperity of his adopted county.