Samuel Loy 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 551-552

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

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SAMUEL LOY, a leading agriculturist and honored pioneer of Faulk 
county, South Dakota, whose home is on the southeast quarter of section 
17, township 117, range 68 west, was born in Stinesville, Berks county, 
Pennsylvania, November 27, 1853, a son of Samuel and Barbara (Henry) 
Loy, the former also a native of Berks county, the latter of Lehigh 
county, Pennsylvania. The family is of German descent and was founded 
in the Keystone state at an early day in the history of this country. 
By occupation the ancestors of our subject were principally farmers, 
and his maternal great-great-grandfather was buried on the farm where 
our subject's mother was born. 

The paternal grandfather and great-great grandfather both bore the name 
of Adam Loy. In connection with the farming the father of our subject 
also engaged in the butcher business. 

Samuel Loy, of this review, is the sixth in order of birth in a family 
of eight children, five sons and three daughters. When four years,old 
he removed with the family to Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, where he 
was reared on a farm and attended the country schools until seventeen 
years of age, when he returned to Lehigh county. There he devoted two 
years to learning the miller's trade, his salary the first year being 
but forty dollars and the second one hundred and fifty dollars. He then 
engaged in the milling business in Berks and Lehigh counties for six 
years. In 1875 he was united in marriage with Miss Janette Faust, who 
is of German descent and was reared in Berks county. Her father, 
Charles Faust, followed farming and slate quarrying. Our subject and 
his wife have two children, Charles Samuel and Earl Richard. The older 
was the first boy to grow up in Faulk county, South Dakota, and to 
graduate from any school. He is also the first lawyer that the county 
has produced. He graduated from the Northern Indiana Law school, and is 
now acting as collector for the Deering Harvester Company. 

On leaving his native state, in 1876, Mr. Loy went to Kansas, where he 
was employed as a house carpenter for one year, and during the 
following four or five years was engaged in milling at Fort Leavenworth 
and Nortonville, that state. Later, after operating a farm in Kansas 
for one year, he came to Faulk county, South Dakota, in 1883, and on 
the 15th of March took up his residence upon his present farm, being 
the first to locate in the township. He brought with him from Kansas 
three horses, and, as a shelter for these, built a barn 12 x 20 feet, 
while his first home here was a house 16 x 22 feet. He now owns three 
hundred and twenty acres, and also operates rented land, having five 
hundred acres under cultivation, and five hundred and forty acres in 
pasture. His place is well improved with a complete set of farm 
buildings, and he is now successfully engaged in general farming and 
stock raising. In 1884 he was unfortunate in having one hundred and 
forty acres of grain, which he was just ready to cut, totally destroyed 
by hail, and the following year he only raised fourteen bushels per 
acre, and this he sold for forty-five cents per bushel, after hauling 
it thirty miles to market. Since then he has steadily prospered, and is 
now quite well-to-do. Wheat is his principal crop, and he gives 
considerable attention to dairying and the raising of stock, having 
eighty-one head of cattle and twenty-two horses at the present time. As 
a Democrat he takes an active part in local politics; has served as a 
delegate to county and state conventions; and in 1886 was the nominee 
of his party for county sheriff. He has served as clerk of the school 
board in his district, and all duties which have devolved upon him, 
either in public or private life, have been most faithfully and 
conscientiously discharged.