John R. Francis 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 1068-1069

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

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JUDGE JOHN R. FRANCIS, a prominent and well-to-do attorney of 
Wessington Springs, South Dakota, is an early settler of that region. 
He was born in Monroe county, New York, in 1835, and his parents were 
natives of the same state. The father was a mechanic and followed 
various occupations. 

Our subject was reared at Scottsville, New York, and his first work was 
clerking for the Rochester Transportation Company in that state, at 
which work he was engaged when he enlisted in Company F, Thirteenth New 
York, in April, 1861. He was sent to Washington and engaged in the 
first battle of Bull Run, and was discharged in 1862. He reenlisted in 
1863, and was through the campaign with Grant from the Wilderness to 
the surrender of Lee. After his return from the service he conducted a 
forwarding house, and in 1871 went to Michigan in the employ of the 
Michigan Central Railroad Company at Grand Rapids. He went to Jerauld 
county, Dakota, in 1882, and took a soldier's homestead claim one and a 
half miles from Wessington Springs. He taught school five years after 
taking up his residence there, and in 1886 was elected county justice. 
and in 1888 probate Judge. He was admitted to the bar in 1889, and 
three years later elected county judge, and after four years state's 
attorney. He has followed the practice of his profession more or less 
since that time, and also has large cattle-raising interests in the 
county and valuable residence property in Wessington Springs. 
Politically he is a Democrat, and has attended as a delegate numerous 
conventions.