Edwin H. Prescott 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 409-410

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

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EDWIN H. PRESCOTT, until recently a coal dealer and proprietor of a 
general merchandise business, in Cortland, South Dakota, is a gentleman 
whose business tact has placed him in comfortable circumstances, with 
an enviable reputation among the people of his community. He came to 
Dakota during the days of the early history of that state, when his 
resources were limited as to dollars, but possessed of natural ability, 
energy and foresight, and with these to serve him he marched steadily 
to success. His career has been marked with a desire to advance the 
interests of those for whom he worked, as well as his personal 
interests, and his reward has been sure. He has devoted much of his 
time to the buying of grain, and is one of the best judges of this 
product to be found in the county. Among the younger members of the 
community, none has a more promising future than the subject of this 
review. 

Mr. Prescott is a native of Chester township, Wabasha county, 
Minnesota, and was born May 1, 1868. His grandfather, William Prescott, 
was a native of New Hampshire and settled in Buffalo, New York, in 
1826, where he was a merchant, dealing in safes, and was a manufacturer 
of shoe polish, ink, and other commodities of that nature. The maternal 
grandfather of our subject, Elijah Corbin, was a farmer in New York 
state, and the mother of our subject, Lucina J. (Corbin) Prescott, was 
born in Chautauqua county, New York. William C. Prescott, the father of 
our subject, was born in New Hampshire in 1826, and went to Buffalo, 
New York, where he worked in his father's store, and about 1840 went 
into partnership with his father, under the firm name of William 
Prescott & Son. During the '50s they disposed of the business and the 
father of our subject worked at the tinner's trade and later at market 
gardening. He was captain of the Cataract Engine Company for seven 
years in the city of Buffalo, and was alderman in the thirteenth ward 
while residing there. He removed to Selma, Missouri, in the spring of 
1860, and was foreman of Colonel Ferd Kennett's fruit farm, comprising 
six thousand acres, and the labor on the place was done by slaves. In 
the spring of 1862 he moved to Wabasha county, Minnesota, and took a 
homestead claim and went to farming for himself. He later went to 
Dakota, and February 4,1898, his death occurred in Big Timber, Montana. 

Our subject was the youngest in a family of five children, and attended 
the country schools, and at the age of seventeen left home for the 
northern part of Minnesota, and located in Grant county. He clerked in 
the hardware store of Oleson & Company, and in the spring of 1886 went 
to Ipswich, South Dakota. He worked as carpenter for the Chicago, 
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, from the spring of 1886 till the 
fall of 1888, and traveled over Dakota and Wisconsin. He was employed 
as assistant in the station at Ipswich for the same road in the spring 
of 1889. The following October he took charge of the station at Mina, 
South Dakota, and was thus engaged until 1893. He began buying grain 
for the Victoria Elevator Company in 1891, and until 1895 continued to 
purchase for this company. He then started a general merchandise store, 
and dealt in coal, until his recent sale of his business interests to 
Mrs. E. D. Ferrill, June 14, 1899. 

Our subject was married in 1893, Miss Catherine Peterson, a native of 
Norway, being the lady of his choice. Mrs. Prescott's father, August 
Peterson, is a far~ner in Brown county, South Dakota, and for sixteen 
years previous to his engaging in farming was in the employ of the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company. Two children have been 
born to Mr. and Mrs. Prescott, as follows: Leon Chester, born in 
January, 1894; and Iona Luella, born in October, 1898, died in January, 
1899. 

Our subject is an active worker for the advancement of his community, 
and has acted as township treasurer four years and school clerk, and as 
a member of the Republican party has served as delegate to various 
county conventions. He is well and favorably known throughout Edmunds 
county, and the people among whom he chooses to make his home accord 
him the highest respect.