Turner County, SD Biographies.....Cotton, Philip J. July 8, 1859 - 
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Source: MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF Turner, Lincoln, Union and Clay Counties, South Dakota. (1897)
Author: Geo. Ogle & Co.

PHILIP J. COTTON is the fortunate owner of one of the fine farms of Hurley township,
Turner county, consisting of 320 acres in sections 18 and 6. It was enclosed and
sub-divided by neat fences and devoted to the twofold purposes of grain and stock
raising. Good buildings have been erected upon it and the latest improved machinery
is used in carrying on the work. A substantial, home-like dwelling also graces the
property, and everything upon the place indicates the thrift that has acquired and
the good judgment that carries on the estate, leading passers-by to decide that the
owners are people of prominence among agriculturists.

The parents of our subject, Thomas and Catharine (Hare) Cotton, the former born in
1820 and the latter in 1832, left England and settled with their family in Prince
Edwards isle about the middle of the century. Mr. Cotton was a seaman for eighteen
years during his early life and visited all parts of the globe, being a participant
in many whaling expeditions and also a sailor and member of the naval militia at the
time of the war with Mexico. After abandoning a seafaring life he settled in Indiana
and in 1848 started from the Hoosier state across the plains to California, where he
prospected and mined for gold and also operated a store. On returning from the
Pacific coast he settled in Livingston county, Ill., but later removed to the city
of Peoria, in which place he worked at the trade of cooper, and after the close of
the war between the north and south, again settled on a farm in Livingston county.
Mr. Cotton came to Dakota territory in 1869, at which time he settled on a farm near
Wakonda, being one of the earliest settlers there. This property, which he took up
as a homestead, he improved and in 1874 sold out and located on the farm whereon his
son, the subject of this sketch, now resides. Here again he was one of the pioneers,
there being but few settlers in the neighborhood. He built first a little board
shanty and later a 24-foot square frame house in which he passed to the shore of a
brighter and better world September 16, 1879, leaving behind him the record of a
well-spent life. Religiously he was a Baptist and his faithful wife, who went to
take her place by his side January 12, 1888, belonged to the Methodist Epis-1 copal
church. They were the parents of six children, but two only of this little family
survive, the gentleman whose name introduces this biography, and John D.

Philip J. Cotton was born July 8, 1859, in Livingston county, Ill., but since his
tenth year has been a resident of what is now South Dakota. He attended the district
schools of the neighborhood where he made his home, and later the graded
institutions at Vermillion, where he acquired a good practical education. He
remained a member of the parental household until he attained his twentieth year and
then homesteaded a claim of 160 acres, it being the northwest quarter of section 6
of the same township in which he now lives. Forty-five acres of this property he
broke and got under cultivation and then sold out and bought with the proceeds a
farm just north of Marion Junction, which he operated until 1884, buying his present
farm at that time.

January 15, 1893, Mr. Cotton was married to Miss Lucy Dresbach, of Mount Carroll,
Ill., and to this union have been born two children, Ross V. and Henry Wales. Mrs.
Cotton is a Methodist, and a member of the church of that denomination. Mr. Cotton
socially is a member of the I. O. O. F., and politically a Republican.


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