Faulk County, SD Biographies.....Harrington, John 1854 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 9, 2005, 12:56 pm

Author: C. H. Ellis
    JOHN HARRINGTON was born 1854 in Freeport, Illinois, and in 1884 he came to

Faulk county, South Dakota, and located in the present town of Scatterwood. He

then had seven hundred dollars, all of which was lost the first year by reason

of hail storms and fire.



    On June 1st, 1,886, he was married to Miss Louisa B. Chambers, who was born

in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1861, and came to Faulk county in June, 1883, and

located on a homestead one and one-half miles west of Scatterwood lake. To them

have been born eight children, seven of whom are now living, viz: Lawrence, Inez

M., James Ray, Austa, Clara Edna, Mabelle, and John D.



     Mr. Harrington had a large experience in the hardships and privations of

Dakota pioneer life, for the first ten years, hail, dry, hot winds, drought and

tornadoes all were in his pathway. Every dollar he could earn was expended in

improving his land, in sinking wells and in exerting every effort to make a

home, never loosing faith that it would be a Faulk county home. Passing over the

intervening years we find one of the most complete and perfect farm homes in

Faulk county. First of all he settled the water question. An artesian well, 1100

feet deep, was put down on the bank of a deep depression, covering an area of

about thirteen acres, which in six months was filled to a depth of eleven feet,

which has been stocked with black bass, from the United States fish commission

to which has been added several other kinds of fish, and now he has sufficient

fish for home use and will soon have them for the market. In addition to the

supply of water for his beautiful lake, Mr. Harrington has installed a five

horse power water motor which supplies power for his twelve thousand bushel

elevator, together with mills for grinding corn and other grain for stock and

house use. This elevator hss scales for weighing and all improved facilities in

modern elevators for handling grain. The barn, that years ago was destroyed by a

tornado, has been replaced by one 48x60 feet with water piped to the barn and to

the pastures. He has sufficient water for irrigating a small tree claim.



    In 1907 a fine residence, at a cost of $5000.00 outside of all labor of

teams and personal labor, which was no small amount, was erected. A fine cut of

his buildings, with all modern improvements, can be seen on page 99 of this
history.



    In addition to the usual plan of American farming, he has irrigated for his

strawberries and other garden products, raising at the rate of one hundred and

sixty bushels of strawberries per acre; and sold from only a few square rods,

$45.00 worth of cabbage, and from a car load of steers fed on Dakota corn he

received $1400.00 on the Chicago market, and by actual experiment knows that

more small grain can be raised in ten years from a given number of acres if two

of those, years the ground has been planted and thoroughly cultivated to corn,

than if it had been planted every one of the ten years to small grain.



    Mr. Harrington has not only found time for the accomplishment of all these

lines of diversified farming but has done a large amount of work in the

advancement of public enterprise. He has been chairman of the board of trustees

of United Bretheren church in his own town and has been one of the principal

promoters of the Mansfield & Scatterwood Telephone Company, incorporated with a

capital of $25,000.00. He has been on the board of supervisors for several

years, and member of the school board and a road superintendent.



    In the year 1906 he raised and sold from four acres of ground $400.00 worth

of melons, and many were left to rot on the ground by reason of a lack of market

and the time to gather them.





Additional Comments:
From:



HISTORY OF

FAULK COUNTY

SOUTH DAKOTA

CAPTAIN C. H. ELLIS



TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND PROMINENT CITIZENS



ILLUSTRATED

19O9

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