Biography of Horace H. Sheets

	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. Page 302.

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

HORACE H. SHEETS, a prominent member of the farming community and one of 
the leading stock raisers of Esmond township, Kingsbury county, South 
Dakota, was born at Watsburg, Erie county, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1838.

	His father, J. M. Sheets, was born at Watsburg, Pennsylvania, in 
the year of Lincoln's birth. He was married in 1833, at Walworth 
Corners, New York, to Miss Eveline Rawson, of that place. By occupation 
he was a tanner and currier and followed his trade at Watsburg, 
Pennsylvania, until 1838, when he moved to Blackberry, Kane county, 
Illinois, forty miles west of Chicago. Here he opened a farm of one 
hundred and twenty acres which he kept increasing in acreage until he 
owned four hundred and forty-eight acres of land. He then moved to 
Batavia, Illinois, and in 1 868 bought an interest in the Challenge Wind 
Mill Company, together with three of his sons. In 1872 the plant was 
burned and, owing to the Chicago fire the year previous, the insurance 
companies of the West were worthless and the firm lost at least one 
hundred thousand dollars. The firm rebuilt, however, and got along 
nicely until the panic of 1873, when they sustained a loss of forty-nine 
thousand dollars, but continued in business until 1882 and then sold 
out, settling all claims. Mr. Sheets then moved to Kingsbury county, 
South Dakota, and in the summer of 1883 filed a homestead claim to the 
northeast quarter of section 18, township 109, range 58. He suffered 
from ill health the most of his life and died in 1891. He was the fourth 
in the order of birth of a family of eight children, four sons and four 
daughters. The mother of our subject was born at Walworth Corners, New 
York, five years younger than her husband, the second in the order of 
birth of a family of seven children, five daughters and two sons. She 
died October 5, 1896. Her father, Abner Rawson, a farmer, was also born 
at Walworth Corners.

	In 1862 Mr. Horace H. Sheets began farming on his own 
responsibility, in Kane county, Illinois, on the farm on which his 
father first settled, it being the first claim taken in that township. 
It was originally taken by William Lance, sold to Abner Rawson in 1837, 
to J. M. Sheets in 1854, and remained in possession of the family until 
1886. In 1868, Mr. Sheets went into partnership with his father in the 
Challenge Wind Mill Company, and remained with the company until 1882. 
He then moved to Kingsbury county, South Dakota, and filed a homestead 
claim in the southwest quarter of section 8, township 109, range 58, and 
again began farming. In 1883, he bought the relinquishment of a tree 
claim to the northwest quarter of the same section. Besides general 
farming Mr. Sheets has been operating a dairy since 1895, and in 1897 he 
added to the line of stock on his farm a flock of two hundred sheep.

	Mr. Sheets was married in 1862 to Miss Emily M. Young, of 
Kaneville, Kane county, Illinois. Her father, Franklin Young, was born 
at Lee Center, Oneida county, New York, in December, 1804. He was a 
capitalist and followed the loan business. In 1855, he went to Rockford, 
Illinois, to look for an opening in business when he was taken suddenly 
ill and died in 1856. His wife, the mother of Mrs. Sheets, bore the 
maiden name of Miss Mary Ann Ward, and her home previous to her marriage 
was Lee Center. After the death of her husband, the family moved to 
Kaneville, Illinois. Mrs. Sheets is the third child in the order of 
birth of a family of five children, two sons and three daughters.

	Politically Mr. Sheets is a Republican. In 1885 he was a member of 
the Sioux Falls constitutional convention, and in 1887 was a member of 
the last territorial legislature in Bismarck, and was chairman of the 
committee on banking and was a member of several other committees. He 
was a member of the first school board of Esmond township. In the spring 
of 1891 he went to Pierre. where he was engaged as clerk in the office 
of commissioner of schools and public lands for a little over a year. In 
1892 he was appointed deputy warden of the penitentiary at Sioux Falls, 
and was there until November of the same year, and has at different 
times been tendered township offices, but has refused. He served for a 
time as president of the creamery board of Esmond, but in 1897 resigned 
the same in order to take the management.` In 1894 Mr. Sheets sold his 
homestead in section 8, township 109, range 58, but has since bought 
back the buildings, which consist of a house 16 x 24 feet, one and a 
half stories high, with a lean-to 14 x 20 feet, one story high; a barn 
22 x 36 feet, with sixteen-foot posts; and a granary 14 x 22 feet, with 
eight-foot posts. He has also two wind millsÑone pumping mill and one 
power mill Ñ with double eighteen-foot wheels, both "  Challenge " 
manufacture. Mr. Sheets is a member of the Methodist church of Esmond, 
which he is serving in the capacity of trustee. He is also a Master 
Mason and a member of the A. O. U. W.