Edwin 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. Page 435

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

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EDWIN PUTNAM, one of the pioneer settlers of Ree Heights, South Dakota, 
and one of the first to settle in that region, is now a resident of 
Stockton, Missouri. He is a native of Jackson county, Michigan, and was 
born in 1843, the son of Jerome Putnam, a native of New York. He was a 
wagon maker by trade, and followed it for many years. At the breaking 
out of the Civil war he enlisted in a Michigan regiment, and served 
three years, engaging in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Missionary 
Ridge, Chickamauga, and other smaller engagements. He returned to 
Michigan in 1865, and in the early seventies went to Whiteside county, 
Illinois, remaining there until his removal to South Dakota, in April, 
1882. He took a claim one mile west of Ree Heights, erected a sod 
shanty, and began the improvement of his farm. He moved to Ree Heights 
when his home was the first dwelling in the town, and continued to 
reside in Hand county until 1886, when he moved to Wessington and other 
Dakota towns, and finally to their present home in Stockton, Missouri. 

Mr. Putnam was married, in 1865, to Juliette Lawrence, a native of 
Jackson county, Michigan. Mrs. Putnam is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Putnam, 
as follows: May, now Mrs. S. V. Ghrist, of Miller, South Dakota, the 
first public school teacher in the county, holding certificate Not 1, 
issued January 1, 1883; her school-room was the upper story of a 
hardware store; Edward L.; Richard J.; Nellie M.; William R., now in 
the Philippines with the Twentieth Kansas; and Joseph.