James G. Mangin 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 506-509 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 JAMES G. MANGIN, a representative farmer and highly respected citizen of Brule township, Brule county, residing on section 22, was born in France, in 1842, and is a son of Dominick G. and Margaret Mangin, who were the only ones of their respective families to leave that country and come to America. It was the year of our subject's birth that they crossed the Atlantic and took up their residence in Lewis county, New York, twelve miles from Lowville, where five or six other families from their native land located at the same time. They were pioneers of that section of the state, which was then nearly all wild and unimproved. A portrait of Mr. Mangin appears in this work. Upon his father's farm, James G. Mangin grew to manhood, and as he was never sent to school, the education he obtained is all self-acquired. At the age of twenty-one, he was united in marriage with Miss Harriet Larget, a native of New York and a daughter of Poly and Jane Larget. Her [ether was born in France, her mother in Little Rock, New York, of German ancestry. Of the three children born to our subject and his wife, two died in South Dakota. Mary, the only one living, is now Mrs. Buser, of Chamberlain, Brule county. The year after his marriage, Mr. Mangin removed to Wisconsin, and after a year spent there, he entered the Union army, in 1864, enlisting in Company I, Seventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He was sent direct to the front, and participated in eleven engagements and seven regular battles. He was in the campaigns around Petersburg and Richmond, and witnessed the surrender of General Lee With his regiment he then went to Washington, D. C., where he spent three weeks and there returned to Madison, Wisconsin, where he was honorably discharged. He remained in Wisconsin another year, during which time he was variously employed, working for a while on a pier on Lake Michigan. At the end of that time, Mr. Mangin returned to New York and commenced farming upon a tract of thirty acres of land which he owned. There was a nice spring in front of the house, but as the soil was sandy he engaged principally in dairy farming, though he rented other land and raised small crops. Selling his farm about 1873, he again went to Wisconsin, this time accompanied by his family, and bought eighty acres of land for one hundred and ninety dollars. This was located a mile and a half from Lake Michigan and was covered with wind-fallen timber, it having previously been visited by a forest fire. During his residence there of nine years he cleared about twenty-five acres, erected a good set of farm buildings thereon and raised small grain, the soil being especially adapted for the raising of peas and wheat. Mr. Mangin sold that place for twenty-one hundred dollars in 1883 and came to Chamberlain, Brule county, South Dakota. He took up the southeast quarter of section 22, Brule township, but after residing there for three years he removed to the village of Brule, where he made his home for seven years. There he operated two hundred acres of land and engaged extensively in stock raising, keeping about three hundred head of cattle most of the time. In 1893 he returned to his farm on section 22, Brule township, and to its development and improvement he has since devoted his energies. He has erected thereon comfortable and substantial buildings, and is now engaged in the raising of wheat, corn and hogs, having sold all his cattle. A ditch from an artesian well flows through the place, and from this he has made a lake covering about two acres, so that he always has an abundance of water. Religiously Mr. Mangin prefers the Catholic church, while socially he belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, and while a resident of Wisconsin was a member of the Temple of Honor and the Blue Ribbon Society, a temperance organization, which broke up as soon as he left, as he was one of its most prominent and leading members. He casts his ballot with the Republican party and has most efficiently served his fellow citizens in the capacity of chairman of the board of supervisors for nine years, and chairman of the school board for the past six years. Mr. Mangin followed hunting in the state of New York on the peninsula, along the same line where John Brown marched his army when he made his raid on Canada. For eighteen years he saw one of the cannons left on the road by Brown.