M. K. Judy 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 349-350

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

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M. K. JUDY. Among the prosperous farmers of Sanborn county, the record 
of whose lives fills an important place in this volume, it is a 
pleasure to commemorate the name of this gentleman, who since the 
spring of 1883 has successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits on 
section 29, Oneida township, where he now owns a highly cultivated and 
well improved farm. 

Mr. Judy was born in Ohio, 1859, and is a son of Joab and Sarah Judy, 
the former of German descent, the latter of Yankee birth. Both parents 
died before he was a year old and he was reared by an uncle on a farm 
in Ohio, his education being obtained in the common schools of the 
neighborhood. At the age of twenty-two he went west to Missouri, where 
he worked on a farm until coming to Dakota in 1881. 

Mr. Judy first located in Silver Creek township, Sanborn county, and 
after erecting a shanty, 10 x 12 feet, he lived there alone for one 
year and six months to prove up his claim. From the end of that time 
until the spring of 1883 he did railroad work, clerked in a store and 
followed other occupations. He then homesteaded eighty acres, the north 
half of the southwest quarter of section 29, Oneida township, Sanborn 
county moved his shanty from the first farm to that place, and built on 
an addition. After making these improvements, he married Miss Isabelle 
McGilvray, a native of Lisbon, N. H., whose father, a shoemaking by 
trade came to South Dakota in 1880 and turned his attention to farming. 
Five children have been born of this union, two sons and three 
daughters, namely: Elmer I., Sherman S., Laura M., Anna C. and Hazel. 

The first crops Mr. Judy raised in this state considered of five acres 
of oats and three acres of wheat. In the cultivation of his land he 
used a yoke of oxen which he bought in the county and which served him 
for all purposes in farming. As a shelter for his stock he first 
constructed a sod stable. Until 1893 he had no well upon his farm and 
had to haul all water from the James river just west of his place, but 
now has a good well eighty feet deep with plenty of water. He has added 
to his original purchase five hundred and sixty acres, and has placed 
under cultivation two hundred and ten acres, while the remainder is 
meadow and pasture land. He has ten acres of fine forest trees, and 
also has plenty of small fruit such as gooseberries, currants, etc., 
upon his farm. In connection with general farming he devotes 
considerable attention to the raising of cattle, and now keeps about 
sixty head, making a specialty of the Poll Angus breed. In the early 
days of his residence here he owned a threshing machine, which he 
successfully operated for several years. In 1889 and 1894 his crops 
were almost total failures on account of dry weather, but in spite of 
these misfortunes he has made a grand success of farming, and now owns 
a valuable farm well watered by the James river. 

In 1891 the government established a weather report station at his 
place, where the temperature, amount of moisture, direction and 
velocity of the wind must be recorded daily, and Mr. Judy has made some 
very interesting tables on the amount of moisture that has fallen each 
month since 1891. In his political views he is a Republican, but takes 
little part in politics aside from voting. He is, however, a public-
spirited and progressive man, who gives his support to all enterprises 
for the good of his township and county.