Mahlon T. Lightner 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 856-859

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

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MAHLON T. LIGHTNER, a business man of Edmunds county, is well known 
throughout the state. A portrait of of him is presented of him on the 
opposite page. He has been a central figure in the history of Dakota, 
and it would be a mistake to place him other than at the head of those 
who are interested in the welfare of that region. His residence in that 
locality dates from the early days of its settlement, and no personal 
gain has been give a precedent by him over the upbuilding of his state. 
He has, as a private citizen, given his time and attention in behalf of 
better laws and measures for the people, and as a business man and an 
agriculturist and ranch man he stands at the front. His home is located 
one-half mile northeast of Roscoe, and is known as "Beulah Hill;" he is 
also the owner of residence property in that city. 

Our subject was born in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, May 28, 1854. 
His first paternal ancestor to locate in America was Henry Lichtner, a 
native of Bavaria, who settled in central Pennsylvania about 1750. The 
family included merchants, professional men, stock raisers, farmers and 
all were members of large families, some of whom served in the wars of 
1776 and 1812. The grandfather of our subject, Adam Lightner, was a 
farmer and raiser of fancy stock in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, 
and it was here the father of our subject, Adam Lightner, was born and 
grew to maturity and afterward assumed the business of his father, and 
is now a resident of Huntingdon, at the advanced age of eighty-nine 
years. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Eliza Stryker, 
and was born and reared on a farm and married Adam Lightner, the father 
of our subject, in 1838. The Stryker family can be traced to the 
twelfth century, and the name was originally Van Strycker, but was 
changed to Stryker by the brothers coming to America. Jan Stryker, born 
in 1615, at Ruinen, Holland, and Jacobus Gerritsen Stryker, the former 
with a family of two sons and four daughters, emigrated to America and 
located et Manhattan Island in 1651. The grandfather of our subject, 
John Stryker, was a farmer in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, and was 
a native of New Jersey. 

Our subject was the seventh in a family of ten children, and was raised 
on a farm near Petersburg, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the 
Pennsylvania State Normal school at Shippensburg in 1877, and taught 
two years, and during the summer months was principal of the County 
Normal school at Mooresville, Pennsylvania. He also read law under the 
instruction of W. H. Woods, one of the leading attorneys of the state. 
He went to Schenectady, New York, in 1880, and entered the Albany Law 
College, and graduated May 28, 1881, receiving the degree of LL. B. 
Until 1882 he engaged in the law business in Schenectady, and from 1882 
until 1885 was also in the real estate business in the southern states, 
with southern office in New Orleans, spending his winters only in the 
south and remainder of his time in Schenectady. He went to Dakota in 
the spring of 1886, and the following fall established a grain business 
at Faulkton, and the following spring formed a partnership under the 
firm name of Lightner and Bickelhaupt for the handling of grain and 
coal, with headquarters at Roscoe. Their business was extensive and was 
carried on at every station west of Aberdeen, some ten in number, on 
the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway, with the exception of Mina. 
The partnership was dissolved August 5, 1892, and our subject 
established a grain, coal and lumber business of his own on the same 
railroad, with headquarters at Roscoe. He has gradually changed his 
interests, and now engages principally in cattle raising. He now has -
two hundred and twenty-five head of cattle on his land, seven miles 
north of Roscoe, and is the owner of other property interests. 

Our subject was married in Schenectady, New York, in 1879, to Miss 
Belle Clute, daughter of Colonel John B. Clute, a member of the old 
firm of Clute Brothers & Co., manufacturers of marine boilers and 
engines. During the Civil war this company armed several monitors and 
torpedo boats, among them the one Lieutenant Cushing used in sinking 
the rebel ram "Albemarle" at Plymouth, North Carolina. Mr. Clute was 
also a member of the old firm of Clute, Westinghouse & Co, of 
Schenectady. Mrs. Lightner died in 1881. Our subject married the cousin 
of Mrs. Lightner, Miss Jessie Clute, in 1883, and she died November 4, 
1884. Mr. Lightner remarried August 2, 1887, Miss Mary Williams, 
daughter of William R. Williams, former proprietor of the Metropolitan 
Hotel of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, becoming his wife. 

Our subject is a member and ruling elder of the Presbyterian church; 
was a lay delegate to the general assembly of said church in New York 
city, 1 889. He is prominent in secret society circles and holds 
membership in the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen 
of America, the Knights of Pythias and the Masonic fraternity. His 
political views are tin accord with the principles of the Republican 
party and he is an ardent worker for the success of his party. He has 
attended, as a delegate, nearly all of the state and territorial 
conventions of Dakota, and in 1892 was a delegate to the national 
convention at Minneapolis when Harrison received his second nomination 
for the presidency. He is a valued and respected citizen and a 
representative man of the community in which he makes his home.