Edwin W. Powers 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 491-492

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

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EDWIN W. POWERS, a man whose determination to succeed in his vocation, 
and whose fine property bears evidence of the result of his labors, is 
one of the first men of his community. As an agriculturist he has few 
equals and as a man of ability and energy he stands at the front. He 
now controls the largest tract of land in Richland township, and is 
considered one of the substantial citizens of Edmunds county. He has 
added modern improvements and has a farm fitted with conveniences 
rarely found in farm labors, and his buildings lend an air of beauty to 
the surrounding country and make a pleasing view for the artistic eye. 
His success is due to the strictest honesty in his dealings and the 
best of management and he is ever awake to the best methods, discarding 
impractical ideas, and selecting only those which appeal to his better 
judgment. He is one of the pioneers of Edmunds county, and his home is 
on the southwest quarter of section 22 in Richland township, where he 
is engaged principally in stock raising.  

Mr. Powers was born in Elyria, Loraine county, Ohio, February 9, 1862, 
and was. the fifth in the family of six children born to Moses and Jane 
(Hitchcock) Powers. His parents were married in Loraine county, and the 
[ether was a native of Ohio, where he engaged in farming until 1863, 
when he located in Michigan, and his death occurred: October 2, 1870, 
in Bloomingdale, Van Buren county, that state. The paternal grandfather 
of our subject, David Powers, was a farmer by occupation and died in 
Ohio. The grandfather, Manly Hitchcock, was a native of Connecticut and 
settled in Loraine county, Ohio; after four years he removed to 
Cleveland, Ohio, when there were no buildings within miles and woods 
was all that was to be seen, and his death occurred near Elyria, Ohio, 
previous to the birth of our subject; but the grandmother, Cloy 
Hitchcock, resided with the parents of our subject and died in 1870 at 
the age of eighty-eight years.  

Our subject received a country schooling, the best afforded in the 
early days in Michigan, when the nearest railroad town was Lawton, 
thirty miles from their log cabin home. At the age of twelve years he 
began earning a livelihood for himself, having lost his father when but 
eight years of age. He worked at any employment he could find, and at 
the age of sixteen years went to Oconto county, Wisconsin, and there 
worked on a farm and in the lumber camp two years, after which he 
returned to his home in Michigan and engaged in farming for two years. 
He went to Edmunds county, South Dakota, in the fall of 1882, and took 
the southwest quarter of section 22 in Richland township. He erected a 
12 x 14 shanty, and lived the life of a bachelor until his marriage the 
following year. The first summer he farmed with two yoke of oxen, and 
his labors extended from the early. morning hours to the late hours of 
the evening. He soon erected a good barn, and added to the shanty, and 
they made their home in that dwelling for many years. A modern 
residence, built in 1897, 28 x 28 feet with nineteen-foot posts, and an 
addition, 14 x 14 feet with sixteen-foot posts, furnishes more than 
usual comforts. The barn, 40 x 60 feet, built in 1888, and a shed 16x 
60 feet, give commodious quarters for shelter of both stock and crops, 
and a wind mill with underground pipes leading to tanks in the barn, 
greatly facilitates in the work attendant to the life of a farmer. Our 
subject now possesses the largest farm in the township, comprising 
eight hundred acres, five hundred of which is under cultivation and 
three hundred is devoted to pasture. He makes it a special feature of 
the place to fatten his own stock, and raises wheat and corn for that 
purpose, never having had a failure in crops. His cattle are of the 
Durham strain, and the feature of fattening them on his own farm adds 
materially to the profits derived from this branch of the farm. He 
raises some small fruit and has everything in the way of vegetables in 
abundance. His best crop was in 1887, but the average yield is over ten 
bushels per acre. His stock interests include cattle and hogs.  

Mr. Powers was married June 4, 1884, to Miss Gelie Feller, a native of 
Findlay, Ohio, and daughter of Samuel J. Feller, a farmer near Groton, 
South Dakota. Mrs. Powers lived in Dakota with two uncles, and took 
land near that of her husband in 1883. Five sons have been born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Powers, as follows: Alvy, Grover, Herchel, Edwin W., and an 
infant, unnamed. Mr. Powers is a firm advocate of excellent school 
advantages and is exerting his efforts toward advancing the educational 
standard of South Dakota. He has been an active worker for the better 
interests of his county since locating in Richland township, and as 
such is highly respected and well known. He has been called upon to 
fill various offices, and was the first township assessor in Richland 
township, was deputy United States marshal for the north half of South 
Dakota under Cleveland's second administration, and from 1890 served 
six years as deputy sheriff of Edmunds county. In political views he is 
a stanch Democrat, and has attended every county, state and national 
convention since attaining his majority, and has been delegate to many 
county and state conventions. He holds membership in the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America.