Julius Putney 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 872-873

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

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JULIUS PUTNEY. The days of pioneering in South Dakota are long since 
passed away, but the early settlers who braved the discouragements and 
privations of those days remain to recount with ever increasing 
interest to the listener the struggles which they surmounted. Among 
those who first turned the soil of Brown county, Julius Putney is 
entitled to a prominent place. He has gained a comfortable competence 
and a fine estate in Hanson township, and is one of the respected men 
of his community. 

Our subject was born in Appleton, Outagamie county, Wisconsin, in 
March, 1854. His father, E. D. Putney, was born in the state of New 
York, and followed farming during a part of his life and also followed 
staging in Minnesota and Dakota. He went to Wisconsin at the age of 
twenty-five and was one of the early settlers of that state. He was of 
Scotch descent, and his father, Alfred Putney, was a native of New 
York, and was also a farmer by occupation. The mother of our subject, 
who bore the maiden name of Hulda Van Olstein, was born in New York, 
and was of Holland Dutch and American descent. The parents of our 
subject were married in New York and came to Wisconsin to make their 
home. They were the parents of ten children, of whom our subject was 
the third in the order of birth. The family moved to Minnesota when he 
was nine years of age, residing in Winona county two years and later 
moving to Steele county. When he was fourteen years of age his mother 
died and he then left home and worked at farm work fourteen years. 

Mr. Putney went to Brown county, South Dakota, in the spring of 1881, 
and took the southwest quarter of section 10, township 122, range 61, 
and erected a claim shanty, 14 x 14 feet, eight feet high, of boards, 
sodded on the outside. He had acquired a team, wagon, and four hundred 
dollars in cash, and he put up a sod barn, 16 x 20 feet, and broke 
fifteen acres the first summer. This he sowed to wheat and oats in 1882 
and it was one of the best crops he ever raised. In 1892 he sowed one 
hundred and thirty acres to wheat and twenty acres to oats, and the 
wheat yielded twenty five bushels per acre, and. the oats forty bushels 
per acre. He has a comfortable residence, barn 35 x 35 feet, granary, 
all necessary machinery, and cultivates his entire farm to grain' 
comprising one hundred and sixty acres of land. He raises his work 
horses and now has eight head, but does not engage in stock raising for 
income or profit. A small creek, which is fed by an artesian well and 
is named Artesian creek, flows through his farm, and furnishes good 
water. Our subject has witnessed all of the blizzards of that region 
since locating there, but has always been fortunate enough to be 
indoors at the time. When he went to his farm he hauled his supplies 
from Bristol, about twenty miles distant, and but three shanties that 
side of the Jim River in that locality were to be seen. His team was 
one of the first to stop at Groton and he lived there three months in a 
tent. His farm bears little trace of those early days, and he now owns 
one of the best estates in the vicinity, and has met with success. 

Mr. Putney takes much interest in the affairs of local importance and 
in all public enterprises gives his support. In political sentiment he 
is a Republican and stands firmly for the principles of his party. He 
is a man who always performs his duties faithfully and well, and his 
success is due entirely to. his own efforts. He had little to aid him 
in his early days, aside from his natural ability and energetic spirit 
but these have brought their reward.