William H. Sheward 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 1103-1104

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

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WILLIAM H. SHEWARD, whose name will be readily recognized as that of a 
prominent druggist of Gettysburg, Potter county, was born in Wood 
county, Ohio, on a farm, February 28, 1851. He was the son of Charles 
Sheward, a native of England, who came to America, at the age of 
twenty-one, and settled in Ohio, where he followed the calling of a 
farmer. The mother of our subject, Jennie (Dunn) Sheward, was born in 
Pennsylvania, and was what is called Mohawk Valley Dutch. Her father, 
James Dunn, was a carpenter by trade. The parents of our subject 
married in Ohio, where our subject was born, the second in a family of 
seven children. The family moved to Wisconsin in 1855 and settled on a 
farm and there the mother died before our subject attained his 
majority. 

At the age of twenty-one years our subject left home and went to Iowa 
where he worked as fireman on the Burlington, Cedar Rapid & Northern 
railroad for one year, and then went to farming with his father on land 
which they purchased in Iowa, and where they remained seven years. The 
farm comprised one hundred and sixty acres, and was well improved with 
apple orchard, small fruits, etc. Our subject went to Spink county, 
South Dakota, and settled on the James river in October, 1881, and 
farmed there seven years, and in the spring of 1888 moved to 
Gettysburg, and went into partnership with Dr. S. E. Hurley, in the 
drug business. This partnership continued three and a half years, when 
our subject purchased the Doctor's interest and became sole owner of 
the business. He still owns the farm he settled on in Spink county, the 
northwest quarter of section 27, township 117, range 62, which he rents 
out, and he also owns one hundred and sixty acres in the southeast 
quarter of section 23, township 117, range 75, in Potter county. Mrs. 
Sheward owns the northeast quarter of section 12, in Olida township, 
Potter county, and the home in Gettysburg is also her property. 

In July, about seven years since, our subject's building was damaged by 
a cyclone, which damaged or destroyed twenty-seven buildings in 
Gettysburg and killed a woman and child. When our subject settled in 
Spink county in 1880 he erected a shanty 20 x 20 feet of sod and boards 
and the same kind of barn, and burned hay for fuel for two and a half 
years. He started farming with one old team of horses, one cow, two 
pigs, eight chickens, and a little old farm machinery, and his first 
crop was sod corn, potatoes, rutabagas and turnips. When he left the 
farm he had one hundred and sixty acres of land well improved, thirty-
seven head of cattle, four good horses, wagon, buggy, and modern 
machinery. He had a dwelling, 20 x 24 feet; granary, 16 x 24 feet, and 
a barn and machine shed, 32 x 60 feet. His lot in Gettysburg, with 
house, barn, horses, carriage, and buggy, represent thirteen hundred 
dollars, and his store property and stock are valued at three thousand 
dollars. His farms are worth three thousand dollars, and his first 
assessment in South Dakota was three hundred and ten dollars. 

Our subject was married in 1879 to Miss Mary M. Munson, a native of New 
Oregon, Iowa. Mrs. Sheward's father, Miles Munson, was a merchant, 
real-estate dealer and mill owner, and died wealthy, but his partner, 
through fraud, became possessed of most of the property. Mrs. Sheward 
was raised on a farm, by a family by the name of Tuttle. After fourteen 
years of age she attended the city schools of Cresco, Iowa, and 
afterward taught school nine terms in Iowa, and four terms in South 
Dakota. 

Our subject has held various offices of trust since taking up his 
residence in South Dakota, and is respected wherever he has made his 
home. He held the office of township treasurer in Spink county, three 
years and is now township treasurer in Gettysburg township, which 
office he has held five years, and when he first went to Gettysburg he 
was assessor four years. He holds membership in the Masonic fraternity, 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and is treasurer of the last named order. He is a Republican 
in political sentiment and firmly advocates the principles of his 
party.