E. B. Putnam 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 681-682 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 E. B. PUTNAM, a prominent and energetic agriculturist of Afton township, Sanborn county, South Dakota, was born on the 7th of November, 1857, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is a representative of a New England family. His paternal grandfather, a stone cutter by trade, was born in Alstead, New Hampshire, while the father is a native of Wayland, Massachusetts. The latter, in connection with farming, has engaged in carpentering to some extent. Our subject, who is the second in order of birth in a family of four children, spent the first nine years of his life in the city of his birth and then accompanied his parents on their removal to a farm sixteen miles northwest of that place, where he lived until twenty-two years of age, his education being acquired in the country schools. On leaving home he went to Buena Vista county, Iowa, where he engaged in farming on his own account for two years. In 1883 he and his father came to Sanborn county, South Dakota, and located on the southwest quarter of section 23, Afton township. Although there was but one shanty in sight when they took up their residence there, within two weeks the country was covered: with the rude dwellings of the early settlers who had flocked in. For two years Mr. Putnam and his father lived alone on the latter farm, devoting their energies to the cultivation of the land. Our subject brought with him to the county a team, a wagon, breaking plow, but only fifty cents in money, and he still has one of the horses of that first team. In the fall of 1884, Mr. Putnam married Miss Lena Roust, a native of Norway, who, when only five years old, was brought by his parents to the United States, and after a short stay in Illinois, located in Iowa, where she was reared. By this union five children have been born, namely: Benjamin, Roy, Martha, Elida and Lester McKinley. The year of his marriage, Mr. Putnam erected upon his farm a house, 12 x 14 feet. On the 9th of October, 1883, he had the misfortune to lose by fire twenty acres of flax, all his hay and his stable, but has since added many improvements to the place in the way of buildings. He has all the necessary machinery needed by the progressive farm, a well one hundred and sixty-seven feet deep with a windmill attached, a little grove of forest trees and some small fruits, and four hundred and eighty acres of valuable land, of which one hundred and sixty acres are under cultivation. He is also interested in the dairy and creamery business and keeps one hundred and forty head of cattle and many hogs. During his residence in this state there have been three very dry seasons, four in which he has raised excellent crops, and the remaining years have been fair. Socially, Mr. Putnam is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and politically is identified with the Republican party, but takes no very active part in politics, having never but once served as a delegate to a county convention. For the past ten years he has most creditably filled the office of township clerk; in 1894 was elected county commissioner, and so satisfactory did his services prove in that position, that he was re-elected in 1898 and is the present incumbent.