Horace C. Palmer 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 725-726

	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


HORACE C. PALMER. The vocation in which this gentleman is engaged has 
been beset by more difficulties perhaps than that of any of the 
industries of a pioneer settlement. Mr. Palmer is following the calling 
of an agriculturist, and his present competence in no wise indicates 
the struggles through which he was compelled to pass for the first few 
years in Dakota. He is now the possessor of a fine estate and has a 
comfortable home on the southwest quarter of section 14 in Mellette 
township, where he enjoys the esteem of the members of his community. 

Our subject was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, July 12, 1858. 
The family is of English extraction and our subject is the only 
surviving child of four born to Platt and Mary E. (Curtis) Palmer. The 
mother is of English and Irish extraction and both parents are now 
residents of New York state. Our subject lived at home and with his 
father farmed about three hundred and twenty acres of land until the 
fall of 1880, when he decided to stop grubbing among the stones of his 
native state and started for the west. He spent the winter of 1880-81 
in Cottonwood county, Minnesota, but was not satisfied with that 
location and the following spring, hearing of the James river valley 
through an old school mate and friend, Mr. Jenkins, he accompanied him 
with an ox team from southern Minnesota, via Watertown, and filed on 
his. farm, arriving in June. He broke two and a half acres on his 
homestead and started the erection of a sod shanty. In the fall of 1881 
he shipped his effects to Redfield and after a stop of a few days went 
to his new home penniless. He sold a fine neck scarf for five dollars 
and bought some provisions, and moved to Mr. Jenkins' home, staying one 
week, until the completion of the sod house. Their provisions when 
moving into the shanty consisted of part of a sack of flour and a small 
pail of molasses. Here in the partially completed shanty the measles 
broke out, the three children, his wife and finally he himself gave up 
to the disease and they were all sick at one: time. Recovering from the 
attack he sold his oxen and by the closest economy weathered through 
the winter. Both husband and wife were of families of means and the 
entire change of circumstances was discouraging indeed, but they worked 
with a courage never before experienced and their energetic efforts 
soon brought better times for them. In the spring of 1882 our subject 
obtained work on the railroad and the following year he raised a crop 
of eleven acres of wheat, soon purchased a team and in 1884 added two 
span of horses and more land, paying for the land on time. He now 
cultivates over eight hundred acres of land and is the possessor of 
four hundred and eighty acres. 

Our subject has had an able helpmeet in the person of his estimable 
wife, to whom he was married in 1875. Mrs. Palmer's maiden name was 
Mary E. Smith, a daughter of Marvin D. and Mercy (Norton) Smith. She is 
a native of New York, and is possessed of those thrifty ways generally 
belonging to the New England housewife. Eleven children have been born 
to Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, as follows: Marvin P., a resident of Mellette 
township; Herbert, a student of the South Dakota Agricultural College 
at Brookings; Irwin H., at home; George; Earl; Harry; Mattie; Gay; 
Daniel; Carl and Lawrence. 

Mr. Palmer is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In 
political sentiment he is a Republican, favors prohibition, and opposes 
equal suffrage. He is one of the few men of his county who can look 
back over a successful career amid the struggles which forced many of 
the early settlers to leave the country in quest of easier 
circumstances, and his industry and strict honesty are appreciated by 
the people among whom he has resided for many years, and he is accorded 
a high place in the minds of all with whom he comes in contact.