Biography of William Brooksmith

	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, 1898. Pages 400-403

	Scan and OCR by Joy Fisher, 1997. This file may be copied for non-profit 
	purposes. All other rights reserved. 


WILLIAM BROOKSMITH, who resides on section 23, Denver township, 
Kingsbury county, is a well known and highly respected agriculturist, 
and a man of much enterprise and public spirit. Mr. Brooksmith was born 
in the northwestern part of Germany, near Bremen, in 1859. His parents, 
William and Willimina (Winthrop) Brooksmith, also Germans, were born 
respectively in 1827 and 1831, and their marriage occurred in 1857. The 
elder Brooksmith, with his family, came to this country in 1867, 
locating at Brighton, Illinois, where he became a molder in a brickyard. 
In 1870 he rented a farm near Medora, Illinois, which he gave up three 
years later, going to Springfield and resuming his occupation as a 
brickmaker. While at Medora he suffered the loss of his wife, who died 
in 1872. After working for a time in Springfield Mr. Brooksmith returned 
to Germany and spent two years there. In 1875 he crossed the Atlantic 
once more, and took up his residence at Brighton, intending to pass the 
remaining years of his life in this quiet Illinois village. He survived 
but a short time afterward, however, and died in Brighton in 1877. Our 
subject was an only child, and, after receiving his education, remained 
at home until his mother died, in 1872.  He then went to work fore 
neighboring farmer and continued at such employment in the vicinity of 
his home for thirteen years. In 1883 he went to Clark county, Dakota, 
and took up a homestead and tree claim there. In 1892 Mr. Brooksmith 
removed to Arlington, Kingsbury county, and lived in and about that 
village for a period of four years. He settled upon his present farm in 
the fall of 1896, and has since greatly improved the property. He now 
operates a farm of four hundred and eighty acres of land, nearly all of 
which is under the plow. Mr. Brooksmith is a Republican politically, and 
in religious matters professes the creed of the "Disciples of Christ." 
He served for one term as constable in Clark county, South Dakota, and 
has held other minor offices. He is a member of DeSmet lodge, A. F. & A. 
M.

	In 1889 Mr. Brooksmith married Mrs. McCaskell, a widow and a 
former resident of Erwin, Clark county, South Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. 
Brooksmith are the parents of one child, Harry, who is now seven years 
old. Mrs. Brooksmith by her former marriage had two children, Daniel 
Webster McCaskell and Winfred McCaskell, the former twenty years old and 
the latter seventeen.