Thomas H. Quinney 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 370-371 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 THOMAS H. QUINNEY, one of Hanson county's leading general farmers, living on the southeast quarter of section 21, Beulah township, is of Irish extraction, both his father, John, and his mother, Bridget (Keefe) Quinney, being natives of the Emerald Isle. They migrated to America in 1855, shortly after their marriage, and their five children were born in America. Thomas H., the subject of this brief life history, was next to the eldest of the family, and the Empire state was the home of the Quinneys at the time of his birth, which was December 22, 1858. Soon after this, however, the family moved to Walworth county, Wisconsin. Here the father engaged in farming, and Thomas worked with him and at other kinds of work until 1881. Starting from White Water, Wisconsin, February 15, 1880, in company with C. H. Nott, he traveled by rail to Algona, Iowa, and was there blockaded and four days were spent in shoveling snow. The train then pushed on to Emmetsburg, and again stopped to shovel snow. Here our subject was taken with a back trouble and was forced to lie quiet for two weeks. Finally Canton was reached and the road was cleared for a run to Mitchell, but during the night the cuts were again filled, and becoming discouraged of reaching their destination by rail and finding their funds running low, they decided to walk. Pushing out across the snow covered prairie, the white unbroken expanse reflecting painfully the sunlight, it was but a short time before their eyes became affected and his companion totally blinded before they reached Marion Junction and had to be led. Pushing forward the next morning, the same bright reflection dazzled the eyes, and our subject also lost his sight, and they were two men grouping, as it were, in fatal darkness, in a strange country and without even so much as a trail to follow. They struggled on, now sustained by the hardened snow crust, and suddenly sinking where the tall grass had weakened the crust; stumbling up the hills and plunging through the ravines, until finally they heard, from a distance, a man calling his cattle. By calls and answers, they succeeded in reaching him and passed the night in his shanty. The next morning, not yet being recovered from their snow blindness, they hired the man to lead them to the Barker brothers, who had been old friends of theirs in Wisconsin, and who lived but a few miles distant. As soon as they recovered from the effects of their walk, our subject and his companion went to Mitchell and filed their claims. Lack of money compelled them to walk back, and after purchasing three dollars worth of roof boards for their sod shanty, a sack of flour and a jug of molasses, they took an inventory of cash, and found themselves possessed of just fourteen cents. From this start, the subject of our sketch has obtained a fine property and a comfortable fortune. In politics he early identified himself with the new party, and has served at many of its conventions, and has held various local offices of trust. He supports high license and favors anti-suffrage. Socially he affiliates with the Farmers Alliance, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In 1881, Mr. Quinney was united in marriage to Miss Florence Loomer, of Wisconsin, and they have a family of two children; the oldest, Lillie, aged sixteen years; and the younger, Elwin, aged twelve.