William E. Hendricks 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, 1898. Pages 444-445

	Scan, OCR and editing by Joy Fisher, jfisher@sdgenweb.com, 1999.

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WILLIAM E. HENDRICKS, a prominent business man of the village of 
Bushnell. Brookings county, South Dakota, was born near Huntsville, 
Ala., January 23, 1848, a son of David and Melinda (Howard) Hendricks, 
both natives of the same locality.  David Hendricks was a farmer in 
Alabama, and of English and French lineage. About 1851 he moved to 
Chippewa county, Wisconsin, where he lived on a farm, doing more or 
less logging during the winters. He was drowned from a raft of logs in 
Chippewa river near Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, May 19, 1857, at the age 
of thirty-six years, and his faithful wife passed away at White, South 
Dakota, April 1, 1893, at the age of seventy-two years, a consistent 
Christian mother.

William E. Hendricks spent most of his boyhood on a farm near Chippewa 
Falls, Wisconsin, where he spent some time at work in the sawmills and 
lumber woods of that section.  He was educated at the Galesville 
university of Galesville, Wisconsin, where he completed the 
mathematical course in 1872.  He then taught several years in Chippewa 
county schools, working at the carpenter trade at intervals. In the 
fall of 1877 he came to Brookings county and located a homestead in 
Sherman township and moved his family thither the following spring, 
becoming one of the first actual settlers in that part of the county. 
Here he resided about six years, built a frame house and improved and 
developed his farm.  He then moved to Bushnell, on the B., C., R. & N. 
railroad, and began work for Finch & Hayward in a grain warehouse and 
later followed the same line of business with other employers.  In 
August, 1895, he built a large elevator, with a capacity of twenty 
thousand bushels of grain, and handles seventy-five thousand bushels 
yearly.  He also deals in lumber, coal, etc. He also owns several farms 
in Sherman and Alton townships, containing in all eight hundred acres, 
part of which he rents and operates a portion of them himself, and 
keeps a large flock of sheep.

Mr. Hendricks was married in 1876 to Miss Maggie Gardner, daughter of 
Thomas B. and Ellen (Thompson) Gardner, of Knights Creek, Wisconsin, 
and their married life has been blessed to them by the advent of four 
children, two of whom are now living: Paul E. and William Claire. The 
deceased are: Katie, died May 15, 1888, at the age of three years, and 
Harry, died in August, 1892, at the age of three months.  The family 
are members of the Methodist church, and Mr. Hendricks is a member of 
the Masonic order, Washington lodge, at White, and is also a charter 
member of White lodge, No. 67, A. O. U. W. Mr. Hendricks is a self-made 
man.  Starting in life with nothing, and throughout it all having 
depended upon his own resources and his own energy, business prudence 
and sagacity have won for him a comfortable fortune.  In all public 
matters he is one of the leaders, and his name is indissolubly 
associated with the history of the growth and development of the 
county.  He has filled numerous township offices in Sherman and Alton 
townships, and was county superintendent of schools of Brookings county 
two years.