Biography of H. A. Park

	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 357-358

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


H. A. PARK. - The citizens of Watertown and vicinity recognize the above 
name as that of one of its leading and most influential citizens, who is 
engaged in the wholesale grocery business in that place. He was born at 
Montrose, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, March 28, 1838.

	Mr. Park's father, Dr. Ezra S. Park, was a native of the same 
place, and a practicing physician there, and a graduate of the medical 
college at Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In 1859 he moved to Earlville, 
Iowa, and in 1862  moved from thence to Redwing, Minnesota, where he 
died at the age of seventy-six years. He was an old-time Whig in early 
days, and an intimate friend of Hon. David Wilmot and Galusha A. Grow, 
who were the most prominent men in that part of the state at that time; 
and also Hon. William H. Jessup, who was chairman of the Republican 
convention at Chicago at which Abraham Lincoln was nominated president. 
Ezra Park's father, Dr. Asa Park, was a native of Connecticut and moved 
to Pennsylvania with an ox team and settled there when that state was a 
wilderness By occupation he was a practicing physician, and supposed to 
be of Scotch descent. Our subject's mother, Mary Ann Warner, was also a 
native of Montrose, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. Her father, Dimock 
Warner, was a descendant of Seth Warner, who commanded the Vermont 
sharp-shooters during the Revolutionary war. Mr. and Mrs. Ezra S. Park 
were the parents of six children, one of whom died in infancy, viz: 
Lorana P., of Red Wing, Minnesota, and wife of Silas B. Foot; Bessie A., 
widow of Charles Haines, of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Sidney W., of Red 
Wing, Minnesota; Jessie F., wife of Lucus Campbell, of Duluth, 
Minnesota.

	H. A. Park is the second child and the oldest son, and was reared 
in the place of his nativity until twenty years of age, and was educated 
in the public academy of that place. In 1858 he went west and located at 
Red Wing, Minnesota, and one year later, moved to Earlville, Delaware 
county, Iowa, and made that his home until 1861, when he enlisted in 
Company L, First Iowa Cavalry, in Colonel Warren's regiment, as a 
private soldier. In 1863, he was transferred to the Sixth Iowa Cavalry 
and was promoted to the office of lieutenant of Company L, but in the 
fall of that year the regiment was ordered across the plains to fight 
the Indians, and Mr. Park resigned, returned to his native home in 
Pennsylvania and re-enlisted as a private in the Third Pennsylvania 
Cavalry and served in that capacity until the close of the war, and was 
present at the surrender of General Lee. After the close of hostilities, 
he returned to Red Wing, Minnesota, and opened a retail grocery store, 
but later engaged exclusively in the wholesale business, continuing the 
same until 1886. He then sold out and moved to Watertown, Dakota, where 
he again opened a retail grocery business, built up a trade, and 
continued same about one year when he established his present wholesale 
business. He is also interested in a wholesale grocery business at 
Fargo, North Dakota, which is managed by Mr. Park's partner, F. F. 
Grant.

	Mr. Park was first married in Pennsylvania in 1863, to Theodosia 
Warner. Mrs. Park died in Red Wing, Minnesota, in 1884,  leaving four 
sons: Robert E., a journalist; Asa E., who died in February, 1885; 
Herbert A., who has charge of the shipping rooms of the wholesale 
grocery at Watertown; and Augustine H., now attending school at Shattuck 
Military school, at Faribault, Minnesota. In 1887 Mr. Park was united in 
marriage to Anna Olson, of Red Wing, Minnesota. Politically, Mr. Park is 
a gold Democrat. He is a member of the Masonic lodge, No. 8, of Red 
Wing; and the Red Wing commandery, No. 10. He is also a member of the 
Episcopal church.