Byron D. Southwick 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 428-429

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

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BYRON D. SOUTHWICK is a prominent farmer and stockraiser of Grant 
county, residing on section 30, Mazeppa township. Mr. Southwick was 
born in Sheffield, Illinois, June 9, 186o, and is a son of Benjamin F. 
and Hannah (Washburn) Southwick, both natives of New York. His father 
is a carpenter by trade. He served through the Civil war, having 
enlisted in Company C, Sixty-sixth Illinois Volunteers, and after he 
close of the great struggle went west, finally settling in Mazeppa, 
Wabasha couny, Minnesota, he now residing in Redwood Falls, Redwood 
county, Minnesota. 

Our subject, who was the sixth in a family of seven children, spent the 
earlier years of his life with his parents, and remained in Minnesota 
until about twenty years old, He then removed to Grant county, Dakota, 
and filed upon his present farm in Mazeppa township. He moved to his 
homestead in the spring of 1882, into a shanty 12 x 16 built on the 
line. In this cabin both his family and that of another settler, George 
Stoddard, his brother-in-law, lived for upward of six months. Mr. 
Southwick then built a large and comfortable farm-house, and began to 
systematically cultivate and improve his farm. He succeeded with the 
work admirably, and soon had one of the best and most prosperous 
country places in Grant county.  He began life in Dakota with one yoke 
of oxen, a cow, a few household goods and about one dollar in cash, and 
not only that, but he was in debt at the same time, and the creditors 
even hankered for that unfortunate dollar.  In 1886 our subject sold 
his farm and removed to Nebraska.  Three years were spent there and in 
Colorado, and meanwhile he visited Pike's Peak overland, driving a mule 
team which he still owns.  After three years he finally decided that 
South Dakota offered more attractions to the agriculturist than the 
other states named, and accordingly returned to Grant county. He 
succeeded in getting back his original farm, which is now known as Ash 
Grove dairy and has since resided upon it.  He is more enthusiastic 
than ever about it now, and declares that "There's no place like a 
South Dakota home."  In politics Mr. Southwick is a Republican and 
warmly endorses prohibition.  He is a member of the Congregational 
Church of Mazeppa.

In 1881 our subject was married at Appleton, Minnesota, to Miss Mary E. 
Stoddard, the marriage license having been the first ever issued in Big 
Stone county, in that state.  Mrs. Southwick is a native of Minnesota 
and a daughter of Albin and Mary Stoddard.  She has borne her husband 
ten children, whose names follow: Paul M., Eva M., Curtis C., Gertrude 
M., Sherman and Logan, twins, David R., Herbert R., deceased, Gladys R. 
and H. S. Alice.