Turner County, SD Biographies.....Costain, Thomas B. 1827 - 1888
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm
************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 26, 2007, 6:27 pm

Author: Geo. A. Ogle & Co. (1897)

THOMAS B. COSTAIN, deceased, formerly a resident of section 23, Parker township,
Turner county, was a native of the Empire state and was born November 30, 1827.
He passed his boyhood in his native county, acquiring his education in the
district schools of his day, and when ten years old started as an apprentice at
the tailor trade. He served his "time" and then went to Florida and engaged in
business for himself. He continued there about a year and a half and then came
back to New York, going west that same year to Rockford, Ill., where he secured
employment as foreman and cutter with a large clothing concern. From Rockford he
went to Amboy and engaged in the merchant tailoring, ready-made clothing and
gent's furnishing goods business, selling out in 1866 to go to Webster county,
Iowa, where he followed his trade and managed a farm which he owned in that
locality. He was engaged there for five years and then came direct to Turner
county, Dak. Ter. He was one of the early settlers and pioneers of the region;
from the claim on which he located at that time he couldn't see a building of
any kind in any direction. He worked hard in the improvement of his homestead
and resided, there until his death which occurred June 11, 1888. He was a man
well known and universally liked for his many excellent traits of character,
kind-hearted to a fault, a good husband and an indulgent father. He was a devout
member of the Baptist church and also a member of the I. O. O. F. Politically he
affiliated with the Republican party and was the first treasurer of the Findlay
school district. His parents were both born in England and died there. On their
return to their native land they left their two sons and a daughter in the
United States, who became scattered after their mother's death, the daughter
remaining in New York, our subject's brother going to Australia where his demise
occurred, and Mr. Costain coming to Rockford, Ill., as stated-above.

   Mr. Costain was married November 12, 1861, to Miss Hannah Blocher, a native
of Susquehanna county, Pa., born March 2, 1843. Her father, John Blocher, was a
native of Germany and emigrated to the new world from the fatherland when but a
small boy with relatives. He first settled in New York and then Connecticut, and
in the latter state was married to Miss Hannah Shafer, a native of Holland but
reared in Connecticut from an early age. Mr. and Mrs. Blocher lived to be
eighty-three and seventy-six years old respectively, and were the parents of
nine children, three of whom died in infancy. The living are as follows: Mrs.
Mary E. Gamble, of Turner county; Mrs. Costain, the widow of our subject; George
J. of Lee county, Ill.; Henry S., residing in Benton county, Iowa; Mrs. Rebecca
Bridgman and Mrs. Agnes Blackman, both of Lee county, Ill. Mrs. Costain was the
second child and about four years old when she left Pennsylvania and accompanied
her parents to Illinois. Her first schooling was obtained in Amboy, where she
was reared, grew to maturity and married Mr. Costain. By this union she is the
mother of thirteen children, viz.: Minnie, deceased, was the wife of Howard
Cheney and died in 1888; Sylvia is the widow of Charles Martin; Frank N. is a
carpenter and resides in Parker; Delia, deceased, married Freeman H. Mabee, and
died in 1895; Lillian, deceased; Eva, deceased; Clyde; Berton J.; George H.;
Herbert R.; Earl T.; Ernest E.; and Raymond H. All of the daughters with the
exception of the youngest were school-teachers. Mrs. Costain now has a fine farm
of six hundred and forty acres all in a body on which she carries on with good
success general farming and stock-raising. She has two hundred and fifty acres
of pasture, and keeps constantly on hand a large lot of stock of all kinds. She
was appointed administratrix of her husband's estate, and has adjusted the
business to the entire satisfaction of the family.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
OF 
Turner, Lincoln, Union and Clay Counties,
SOUTH DAKOTA.

Containing Biographical Sketches of Hundreds of Prominent Old Settlers and
Representative Citizens, with a Review of their Life Work; their Identity with
the Growth and Development of these Counties; Reminiscences of Personal History
and Pioneer Life; and other Interesting and Valuable Matter which should be
Preserved in History.

ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO.
GEO. A. OGLE & CO.
Publishers, Engravers and Book Manufacturers.
1897.


Biography is the only true history.—EMERSON.

A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
generations.—MACAULAY.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/sd/turner/bios/costain221gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/sdfiles/

File size: 5.2 Kb