Daniel W. Pillsbury 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 554-557

	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


DANIEL W. PILLSBURY, of whom a portrait appears on another page, is one 
of the prominent farmers of Faulk county, and has a comfortable and 
commodious home in township 118, range 67. He is a native of Cannon, 
New Hampshire, and was born June 30, 1847. 

The Pillsbury family came from England in colonial times, and the 
grandfather, of our subject, Joshua Pillsbury, was born in 
Massachusetts. The father of our subject, J. D. Pillsbury, was born and 
reared in Cannon, New Hampshire, and was a farmer by occupation, and 
also was master of the carpenter's trade. The mother of our subject was 
born in Concord, New Hampshire, and her family were Americans from the 
early days of the settlement of the country. Our subject was the only 
child in the family on the father's side, and at the age of fourteen 
years, by misrepresenting his age, he was accepted as a soldier and 
entered the service as a member of Company B, Fifty-seventh Illinois 
Veteran Volunteer Infantry. He was engaged at Forts Donelson and Henry, 
the battle of Shiloh, siege of Corinth, battle at Chattanooga, the 
campaign around Atlanta, and on the famous march to the sea, and 
participated in the grand review at Washington. He received a bayonet 
wound at the battle of Altona-Pass, Georgia, when a small body of 
troops held an army of several thousand at bay during one whole day, a 
hand to hand conflict waging at times. Our subject carried a musket 
three years, and was mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1865. He 
returned to his home in Illinois, where the family had removed in 1848, 
and soon afterward worked in the glass works at Iowa City, where he 
remained four years. He went to farming at Millersburg, Iowa, in 1871, 
and engaged in that pursuit for thirteen years. His farm consisted of 
two hundred and forty acres, all under cultivation, five acres in 
orchard, and two acres in grape vineyard, and all kinds of small 
fruits. He followed that occupation with success, and had a good set of 
farm buildings. He disposed of his land for thirty-five dollars per 
acre in the spring of 1883 and went to South Dakota, landing in Faulk 
county, on the southeast quarter of section two, township 118, range 
67, March 7. He erected a claim shanty, 12 x 16, and started farming, 
hauling his goods from Athol. To guide him to his home he planted a 
pole on the top of a high hill, until a track was made across the 
prairie. His mother joined him in 1884 and he then erected a 
comfortable dwelling. His first barn was built of sod, and was 60 x 70 
feet. In the fall of 1893 his granary, measuring 12 x 24 feet, was 
picked up by a wind storm and carried ten rods, and dashed to pieces. 
During 1892, '93 and '94 he lost his crops by hail storms, and despite 
these losses and discouragements, he has acquired a good property, and 
has a competence sufficient to tide him through the rainy days. His 
farm consists of three hundred and twenty acres, with eighty acres 
under cultivation, and he has thirty head of cattle, six horses and 
three colts. 

Mr. Pillsbury is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the G. A. R. He 
is a Republican in political faith, and takes an active part in the 
advancement of his locality. He is an old soldier who can look back 
with pride upon his army record, and review his life while defending 
his country, knowing he was among those who are the pride of our 
nation.