P. R. Hardt 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 332-333

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

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P. R. HARDT. The natural advantages of this section attracted at an 
early day a superior class of settlers, thrifty, industrious, 
progressive and law-abiding, whose influence has given permanent 
direction to the development of the locality. Among the worthy pioneers 
of Brule county Mr. Hardt holds a prominent place, and the results of 
the labor and self-denial of these early settlers is manifest in the 
comfortable homes and fertile and well-arranged farms which we to-day 
see. 

Mr. Hardt was born in 1833, at Winchester, Virginia, and belongs to a 
highly respected family of the Old Dominion. His paternal grandfather, 
Peter Hardt, was born in Germany . and came to America about 1775, 
locating at Frederick City, Maryland, where for many years he taught in 
an Episcopal parish school. Here he married an American-born girl and 
during their residence in Frederick City occurred the birth of Peter 
Hardt, father of our subject. Like his father, he, too, engaged in 
teaching school, and was also a musical director and teacher of 
considerable note in his community. He married Miss Catherine Sides, 
whose ancestors were Americans as far back as they can be traced. To 
this worthy couple were born eight children, of whom our subject is the 
fifth in order of birth. When about six years old his parents removed 
to Lewistown, Pennsylvania, where he was reared. and educated, 
graduating from the Lewistown Academy. 

After finishing school Mr. Hardt went to work in a general store in 
Lewistown, where he was employed for three years, and then started in 
the dry goods business on his own account at Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, where he conducted a store for four years. Selling out at 
the end of that time he returned to his old home in Lewistown, where he 
engaged in the same business until the panic of 1857. The following 
year he came, west to Minnesota and bought five tracts of land and also 
embarked in the mercantile trade at Lake City, where he made his home 
for twenty-one years or until coming to Dakota. 

In the meantime, Mr. Hardt was married, January 16, 1862, to Miss S. 
Helen Powell, who is of Welsh descent but of American parentage. Two 
children have been born of this union, Addie and Kate. In 1879, Mr. 
Hardt came to Brule county, South Dakota, and took as a homestead the 
southeast quarter of section 9, Brule township. At that time there were 
no railroads or wagon roads of any kind in the county, and the party of 
three of which he was a member came overland from Sioux Falls by the 
aid' of a compass. Plenty of antelope still roamed over the prairies 
and the remains of buffalo could everywhere be seen. Mr. Hardt stopped 
for a time at what is now Brule City, where he expected that a large 
town would soon spring up, but in this he was disappointed. While there 
he traded a great deal with the Indians and learned to speak their 
language to some extent. The first town established in the county was 
Chamberlain,which rapidly grew to a flourishing city. In 1881, Mr. 
Hardt was joined by his family and removed to the farm which he had 
previously secured, living there until the novelty of farm life wore 
off, and then locating in Chamberlain, where they made their home until 
1896. During that year they returned to the farm in order to put the 
property in good shape for selling. 

In his political affiliations, Mr. Hardt is a stanch Republican and he 
has ever given his support to those enterprises which he believes 
calculated to prove of public benefit. He is a prominent member of the 
Episcopal church in Chamberlain, which he was largely instrumental in 
organizing, and he contributed most liberally to the erection of the 
house of worship, built under the direction of Bishop Hare and Rev. 
John Babcock. He was made church warden at that time and still fills 
the office. He stands today in his mature years a strong man, strong in 
the consciousness of well-spent years, strong to plan and perform, 
strong in his credit and good name, and a worthy example for young men 
to pattern after.