P. J. Ladd 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 392-393

	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


P. J. LADD is one of the most reliable, substantial and successful 
citizens of Athol, South Dakota, and it is not difficult to conjecture 
what manner of man he is. 

In a republican country, where merit must win, we can tell much of his 
life. Wealth may secure a start, but it cannot maintain one where 
brains and executive ability are required. Mr. Ladd did not have wealth 
to aid him in the beginning of his business career. His reliance has 
been placed in the more substantial qualities of perseverance, untiring 
enterprise, resolute purpose and commendable zeal, and he has carried 
forward to successful co~npletion whatever he has undertaken. 

Mr. Ladd was born near Brockville, Ontario, Canada, December 11, 1846, 
and is the oldest in a family of four children. His father was a 
merchant of that region until 1855, when, on account of ill health, he 
removed to Winnebago county, Wisconsin, where he clerked in a general 
store for a year. His health did not improve and he died in the fall of 
1856. 

Our subject acquired a good practical education in the village schools, 
which he attended until fifteen years of age, and then began his 
business career, working on a farm for one season. The following fall 
he entered a paint shop, but his health soon failed and he spent the 
season of 1862 as first mate on a lake vessel. In 1863 he was employed 
at Neenah, Wisconsin, as clerk in the depot, and in the spring of the 
following year started on the road as brakeman. In 1865 he became the 
youngest baggage-master in the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern 
Railroad Company, and served as such until he attained his majority, 
when he was appointed state baggage man at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He 
continued to advance in the service of the road until he left their 
employ, in April, 1882, at which time he came to South Dakota. After 
looking over the country, he decided on Spink county as his future home 
and settled on section 6, Athol township, taking the northeast quarter 
as a homestead and the northwest quarter as a tree claim. 

The first year he broke about forty acres of prairie, which he sowed to 
sod corn. At that time provisions and everything was very high, and the 
three horses he brought with him he fed on oats at seventy-five cents 
per bushel and hay at twenty dollars per ton. He now owns nine hundred 
and sixty acres of land, rents three hundred and twenty acres of 
pasture, has about five hundred acres fenced, and a like amount under 
cultivation. Upon this place is a four and one-half inch artesian well 
nine hundred and forty feet deep, which throws a two inch stream one 
hundred and twenty-five feet high. This water he uses to irrigate his 
land and for his stock, having a full system of water-works in house 
and barn. He has given considerable attention to stock raising and 
winters about one hundred head of cattle. For ten years he has been 
engaged in the cheese and dairy business, now milks about thirty cows, 
and his first shipment of butter to New York brought the highest market 
price. 

On the 11th of December, 1861, Mr. Ladd was united in marriage with 
Miss Jennie Stuart, of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; and to them were born 
four children, as follows: William and Edwin, both on the home farm; 
Mrs. Carrie Boyer, who is manager of the creamery at Athol; and Inez, 
at home. The wife and mother died May 31, 1898, and in the fall of that 
year Mr. Ladd removed to the town of Athol to attend to his grain 
buying business, in which he had been interested for a number of years. 
On the 20th of May, 1899, he started a creamery at that place, and has 
already built up an excellent business along that line. He has been 
remarkably successful in all his undertakings, being a man of more than 
ordinary business and executive ability, as well as industrious, 
enterprising and progressive. 

Mr. Ladd has watched with interest almost the entire development of 
this region, has seen the wild game gradually disappear, the last 
buffalo being seen in the summer of 1882, and he has ever borne his 
part in the work of progress and advancement. In politics he is 
independent, and though he voted for William J. Bryan for president at 
the last election, he has supported the present administration in all 
things. He is a member of the Congregational church and belongs to the 
Masonic fraternity, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern 
Woodmen of America