Nehemiah W. Lucas 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 850-851

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

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NEHEMIAH W. LUCAS, a thorough and skillful agriculturist residing on 
section 34, Burr Oak township, Beadle county, South Dakota, was born in 
Ogle county, Illinois, August 28, 1856, a son of Reuben M. and Susan S. 
(Hersey) Lucas. The father, who was a farmer by occupation, went to New 
Bedford, Massachusetts, when our subject was in his tenth year, and a 
year later took his family to Piscataquis county, Maine, where he 
purchased a small farm of fifty-eight acres, his chief object in going 
to that state being to regain his health. After spending three years 
there, he sold his place and returned to Ogle county, Illinois, but 
finally settled in Boone county, Illinois, where he bought a farm. 

The subject of this sketch remained with his parents until his 
marriage, which was celebrated December 21, 1882, Miss Alice A. Abbott 
becoming his wife. She was born in Boone county, IIlinois, January 7, 
1860, a daughter of Parley T. and Nancy (Jackson) Abbott. Mr. and Mrs. 
Lucas have become the parents of five children: Mabel, born October 17, 
1886; Harry and an infant deceased, twins, born October 10, 1888; 
Minnie, born October 4, 1893; and an infant, deceased, born March 14, 
1895. 

In the fall of 1883, Mr. Lucas came to Beadle county, South Dakota, and 
took up the southwest quarter of section 34, Burr Oak township, as a 
homestead, and the northwest quarter of the same section as a tree 
claim. In 1895 he erected thereon his present comfortable residence, 
which is 16 x 20 feet and two stories in height, with a wing, 16 x 26 
feet, making a very substantial and commodious home. Mr. Lucas is 
engaged in general farming and stock raising, and besides operating the 
one hundred acres of his own land which he has broken, he also 
cultivates one hundred and fifty acres of a section which he rents, the 
remainder being pasture and meadow lands. He usually handles fifty head 
of cattle annually, but in 1899 increased the number to one hundred and 
fifty and is now extensively engaged in that branch of business. Though 
formerly a Republican in politics, Mr. Lucas now casts his ballot with 
the Populist party, and he has been called upon to fill almost all of 
the township offices, being clerk in the school board at the present 
time., He is widely and favorably known, and as one of the 
representative citizens and honored pioneers of Beadle county is 
certainly deserving of honorable mention in the history of his adopted 
state. Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Lucas on another page of this volume.