Richard M. Parry 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 323-324

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

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RICHARD M. PARRY. One of the fine stock farms of Aurora county is that 
owned and occupied by this gentleman on sections 29 and 30, Dudley 
township, where for sixteen years he has successfully engaged in sheep 
raising. He was born in North Wales in 1853, and is a son of Griffith 
and Catherine (Williams) Parry, also natives of that country, where the 
father engaged in business as an engineer and as a contractor in 
stonework. Our subject was reared on a farm, and received a very 
limited literary education, but he was early initiated into the 
mysteries of hard work attendant upon a life devoted to agriculture. 

When still quite young, Mr. Parry emigrated to the United States, and, 
on landing at New York, proceeded at once to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He 
first worked by the month on a farm in Waukesha county, that state, and 
then took contracts for building stone fences and grubbing, in which 
occupations he was engaged for several years. 

During his residence in Wisconsin he was married, in 1876, to Miss Mary 
A. James, who was born on the ocean while her parents were coming from 
Wales to America. Four children blessed this union all still living, 
namely: Eleanor, who is now attending Mitchell University; Grace, who 
is successfully engaged in teaching; Aurora and- Morris, both at home. 
Mr. Parry has been called upon to mourn the loss of his estimable wife, 
who died in the spring of 1889. Besides his own family, he was left 
with the care of three of his father-in-law's children, whom they were 
rearing, and, while all were young, it is needless to say the task of 
caring for so many motherless children was a difficult one, but his 
duties to them were always most conscientiously and lovingly 
discharged. They were provided with good school privileges. The eldest, 
Daniel, died when a young man; the other two, Theophilus and George, 
have become useful and honored members of society through his influence 
and care. 

In June, 1880, Mr. Parry came to Aurora county, South Dakota, and took 
up a claim on the northeast quarter of section 30, Dudley township, but 
returned to Wisconsin, and did not locate here until in April, 1883, 
when he brought his family to the county. Since then he has purchased 
the northwest quarter of section 29, 102-63, the same township, and now 
has three hundred and twenty acres of valuable land, of which one 
hundred and ten acres are under a high state of cultivation and the 
remainder devoted to meadows and pastures. He has erected all the 
necessary buildings upon the place, and is engaged in general farming, 
but makes a specialty of sheep raising, having four hundred head upon 
his farm. On coming to the county he owned but seventy five sheep, 
three head of cattle, a team and wagon, but prosperity has smiled upon 
his efforts, and he is now quite well-to-do. For some time his family 
lived in a little house of one room, 14 x 20 feet, but it has since 
been enlarged and improved until they now have a pleasant home. In 
political sentiment Mr. Parry is a Republican, but aside from voting he 
takes no active part in politics. Religiously he is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, and socially belongs to the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen