Tancred Burdette Thorson (1898-1949), Tancred Peter Blain (1868-1918)

From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, December 31, 1931.

 

    Although he lived to just fifty-one years old, Tancred Burdette 'Ted" Thorson figured prominently in South Dakota law circles for over twenty years. A graduate of the University of South Dakota, Thorson served as state's attorney for Brule County and was afterward appointed as special counsel for the state banking department. In the 1930s he was again elected state's attorney (this time for Pennington County)  and also gained distinction in two decidedly non-political areas: polo-playing and show horses. Thorson was severely injured in 1949 after being struck by a vehicle in  Rapid City and succumbed to his injuries several days later. 

  Born in Cabery, Illinois on February 18, 1898, Tancred Burdette Thorson was the son of Thor Endreson (1855-1927) and Helen (Gaard) Thorson (1870-1959), both natives of Norway. The family removed to South Dakota during Thorson's childhood, where he grew up "on a farm northeast of Centreville." He would graduate from the Canton High School in Lincoln County, where he won first prize in an April 1916 oratorical contest, speaking on "The Injustice of Justice." 

  Following graduation, Thorson pursued a law degree at the University of South Dakota Law School. After graduating in the early 1920s he removed to Kimball in Brule County, where he established his practice. He married in 1921 to Bernice Margaret Byrnes (1897-1970), to who he was wed until his death. The couple would be childless. 

  Thorson quickly advanced to the front rank amongst the lawyers in his community, and in 1922 was elected to the first of two terms as state's attorney for Brule County. He served from 1923-27, and in October of the last-named year was appointed as special counsel for the state banking department in Pierre. Thorson's appointment necessitated his removal to South Dakota's capital, where he was acknowledged as "one of the youngest men ever hold a major official position in the state government". His time as special counsel extended four years, and on January 1, 1931, he resigned to return to private practice in Rapid City, where he specialized in criminal cases. 

From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, December 31, 1931.

  After leaving the state banking department Thorson wasn't out of the political spotlight for long, and in November 1932 was elected as state's attorney for Pennington County. He served two back to back terms from 1933-37 and was succeeded by Charles H. Whiting. He continued in private practice after leaving office and gained additional repute through his musical and horsing interests. 

  Remarked in his Rapid City Journal obituary as "one of the few polo players in the state", Thorson had a lifelong interest in horses and in addition to polo owned several show horses, participating in the West River Horse Show and the Black Hills Range Days rodeo. He was also musically inclined, founding a civic choral club in Rapid City and held memberships in the Elks Male Chorus and the Trinity Lutheran Church choir. 

  Thorson continued his law practice in Rapid City until May 1949. On the night of May 5, he was severely injured while crossing the street in downtown Rapid City during a rainstorm. While crossing, Thorson ran into the side of a panel truck driven by local businessman Grover Ru'we and was struck by the truck's rear fender. He was thrown to the pavement where he sustained cranial injuries and was transported to a hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. Thorson succumbed to his injuries at the hospital on May 15, 1949, aged 51, and was survived by his wife Bernice. Following her death in 1970, Bernice Thorson was interred alongside her husband at the Mountain View Cemetery in Rapid City.

"Ted" Thorson, from the Rapid City Journal, January 16, 1940.

From the Deadwood Pioneer Times, May 16, 1949.

From the 1905 South Dakota Legislative Manual.

   Prior to Tancred Thorson's political activity, another South Dakotan with that curious first name entered public office. That man was Tancred Peter Blain, a resident of Redfield. Like Tancred Thorson, Blain's early life began in Illinois, being born in Kankakee County in November 1868. The son of Nazaire and Marie Louise Blain, his formative education was obtained in Illinois, and in 1882 he removed with his family to Spink County, South Dakota.

  Following his family's resettlement, Blain continued his schooling and later enrolled at the South Dakota Agricultural College at Brookings. By 1895 he was residing in Redfield, and in that year was awarded a patent for "a combined tongue and thills", utilized in farming equipment. Blain married in the early 1890s to Alberta Estella Bull (1872-1942), with who he had two daughters, Gleva Lucille (1894-1964) and Gladys Augusta (born 1896).

  Blain made his first foray into local politics in 1890, when he assumed the post of deputy clerk of courts for Spink County. He served until January 1895 and continued in public service with his appointment as assistant engrossing and enrolling clerk of the state house of representatives.

  Active in banking concerns in his region, Blain became cashier of the First State Bank of Ashton, South Dakota in December 1901, and was for many years a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His membership in that organization saw him designated receiver for its grand lodge in South Dakota, a post he occupied for several years. 

  In November 1904 Blain was elected as one of two Spink County representatives to the South Dakota state legislature, and during his term became vice president of the state bank of Ashton. In his last year in office, Blain announced his candidacy for state treasurer. Hoping to garner the nomination at the Republican state convention in June 1906, Blain's candidacy didn't extend past the June primary, with victory going to Charles H. Cassill. Cassill went on to win the general election and served as treasurer from 1907-09.

  In the years following his defeat for treasurer Blain continued in business in his native Redfield, being secretary of both the Blain Lumber Co. and the Blain Automobile Co. In 1912 he was an unsuccessful candidate for alternate delegate to that year's Republican National Convention, with little else being known of his life after this date. Blain died aged 49 on June 10, 1918, in Minnesota, and was survived by his wife and children. He was returned to South Dakota for burial at the Greenlawn Cemetery in Redfield.

Fessenden Leverett Ives (1868-1949), Fessenden Brownrigg Turner (1846-1927)

From Taylor's Legislative History and Souvenir of Connecticut, 1903-04.

   An obscure resident of the town of Goshen in Litchfield County, Connecticut, Fessenden Leverett Ives was a successful dairy farmer in the aforementioned town who also served terms in the Connecticut State House of Representatives, the first occurring in 1903. Born in Goshen on February 12, 1868, Fessenden E. Ives was one of four children born to Fessenden and Mary Cook Ives. A prominent figure in his own right, Fessenden Ives Sr. (1826-1910) served as a Connecticut state assemblyman in 1875 and was a first selectman for Goshen for nearly a decade.

  Fessenden L. Ives began his schooling in Goshen and studied at the Goshen Academy. He married in his native town in April 1891 to Ellora Kimberly (1866-1944), with whom he would have three children: Fessenden Edward (1893-1903), Sylvia Esther (1899-1964) and Sherman Kimberly Ives (born 1902). Of these children, Sherman Ives is the most notable, as he served as president of the Connecticut State Grange and also represented Goshen in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1952 to 1954.

  A farmer and dairyman for the majority of his life, Fessenden L. Ives is recorded by Taylor's Legislative History of Connecticut as operating "a fine farm, which has belonged to the family for nearly half a century." Ives is also noted as being a producer of "high-grade butter" which won him first prize at the Connecticut State Dairymen's Convention of 1896 and 1897.

   In November 1902 Ives was elected by the citizens of Goshen as their representative to the Connecticut General Assembly. Taking his seat in January 1903, Ives was named to the House Committee on Expositions and served here for the remainder of his first term. Less than a month after taking his seat Ives suffered a personal tragedy with the death of his eldest son Fessenden Edward, who was killed in a sledding accident on February 15, 1903. Described as a "bright child of unusual promise", Ives' son had just celebrated his 10th birthday a few days before his death, and a brief write-up on the accident appeared in the February 17th edition of the Lowell, Massachusetts Sun, shown below.

  Ives's term in the assembly concluded in 1905 and a decade later became a member of the Goshen town school committee. In November 1926 Ives was reelected to the state assembly, serving another two-year term. Little else could be found on the life of Fessenden L. Ives after 1928, except notice of his death, which occurred in Goshen on his 81st birthday, February 12, 1949. He was interred along with his wife and son at the Goshen Center Cemetery in Litchfield County.

From the Maine legislature composite photo, 1905.

  In an update to a nearly nine-year-old article, on September 10, 2022, another political figure named Fessenden was located---Fessenden Brownrigg Turner of Whitefield, Maine. A one-term member of the Maine House of Representatives, Turner served in the session of 1905-07. Born in Whitefield in 1846, he was a veteran of the Civil War, serving with Co. E. of the 2nd Maine Calvary. He enlisted in 1863, was honorably discharged in 1865, and married in 1869 to Annie Maria Ware (1853-1908). The couple's near four-decade union produced three daughters, Amy (1874-1945), Ethel (1876-1945), and Eva (1880-1942).

  Turner began a brief political career in 1880 with his service as Whitefield town justice, and in 1904 was elected as one of several Lincoln County representatives to the Maine state legislature. He served one term and was a member of the committee on Mines and Mining. Little else is known of his life, except note of his death in Whitefield in 1927, aged 81. Both he and his wife were interred at the Whitefield Cemetery.

De La Mancha Bruggemeyer (1865-1949)

From the Chicago Bar Association Record Volume I, October 1910.

    This curiously named public servant is De La Mancha Bruggemeyer, a prominent Chicago based jurist during the early years of the twentieth century. Listed by sources of the time as "Mancha Bruggemeyer", few details on Bruggemeyer's early life could be found online, but enough has been located to compile a small biography for him here on the site.

   De La Mancha Bruggemeyer was born in Lewisham, Kent, England on July 4, 1865, a son of William J. and Ellen M. Bruggemeyer, and is recorded in the 1871 England and Wales Census as a five-year-old child with three siblings, Ellen M. (aged four), Charles E. (aged two) and Elizabeth W.C. (infant). The origins of his unusual first name are also a mystery, but one can assume that it was a way of honoring the literary figure Don Quixote (the man from La Mancha) who resided in the like-named region in central Spain. The February 19, 1977 edition of the Redlands Daily Facts periodical gives a brief note on his childhood, relating that Bruggemeyer's father died when he was seven and his mother later brought her "brood of five to America" while Mancha was still a child.

  The Bruggemeyer family eventually settled in Chicago, where Mancha is recorded as working as "a cash boy at age nine", and later found employment in a local clothing factory as a shirt cutter. Mancha continued in this line of work into his twenties and later began pursuing the study of law, attending night school in his spare time. He attended the Chicago Law School for three years and was admitted to the state bar in 1892. 

   After being admitted to practice, Bruggemeyer wasted no time in looking for a law office to partner in, which he eventually found in one Joseph G. Strauss. The Bruggemeyer-Strauss partnership lasted until 1895, and afterward, Bruggemeyer operated alone until 1906.

  In November of 1906, Bruggemeyer was elected as a Judge for the newly established Municipal Court of Chicago. His tenure on the bench lasted four years, concluding in 1910, after which he continued in the practice of law. The rare portrait of him below is a campaign postcard made during his re-election bid for judge sometime between 1906 and 1910. Bruggemeyer married in 1912 to Roberta Pauline Zimmerman (a widow then in her 40s), and the two were married until her passing in August 1928. It is unknown at the time of this writing if any children were born to them.

   Mancha Bruggemeyer retired from the practice of law in 1923 and in the following year removed from Chicago to the city of Redlands in San Bernardino County, California. Roberta Pauline Bruggemeyer died in Redlands in 1928 and Mancha established the Bruggemeyer Memorial Library as a memorial to her. Sometime after his wife's passing Bruggemeyer became acquainted with a local librarian named Nell Helen Jones (1889-1960) and married her in April 1929.

   During the latter portion of his life, Bruggemeyer became a prominent civic leader in Redlands, serving a four-year term on the local city council in 1934. In April 1936 he won election as Mayor of Redlands, succeeding mayor Will L. Fowler, and would serve a two-year term. After leaving office in 1938 Bruggemeyer continued to be active in local civic affairs and died at a Monterey Park hospital on June 16, 1949, aged 83. His second wife Nell survived him by eleven years, dying in 1960. Both were buried in the San Gabriel Cemetery in Los Angeles.

From the San Bernardino Sun, April 21, 1936. 

Ephraim Smyser Hugentugler (1869-1949)

Picture courtesy of the "York County Blog".

   Possessing a truly funny name, Ephraim Smyser "Huggy" Hugentugler served as the Mayor of York, Pennsylvania for three terms during the late 1910s and 20s. Descended from German settlers, E.S. Hugentugler was born on May 31, 1869, in Columbia, Pennsylvania, the son of Ephraim and Mary Smyser Hugentugler.
   Early in his life Hugentugler and his family moved to York, Pennsylvania, where he later attended York High School in the mid-1880s. Soon after graduating from this school, Hugentugler began work as a carrier for the local York Dispatch and later became an apprentice printer at this paper. His employment at the Dispatch lasted over twenty years, and in June 1892 Hugentugler married Lancaster, Pennsylvania native Laura Daveler, with whom he had one son, Charles Robert (1895-1973). Sources also note Hugentugler operating "a delicatessen store in the 100-block of George Street."
   In 1901 Hugentugler was appointed as the assistant postmaster of York and later was named as the secretary of the Columbia County Republican committee. In 1915 he mounted a successful campaign for the Mayor of York and officially took office in 1916. A rare campaign button from Hugentugler's campaign has been posted below.

  "Huggy" Hugentugler is remarked as being one of York's most colorful and popular Mayors, and his three terms (1916-1928) prove that he was well respected among the electorate. During his first term as mayor (which coincided with WWI) Hugentugler had to contend with numerous incidents involving anti-German sentiment and used the power of his office to support the war effort. The York County blog (where the top portrait of Hugentugler was found) gives notes that he banned anti-war meetings in the city, prohibited the publishing of anti-war literature, and even went as far as to erect a wooden bust of Kaiser Wilhelm in York's Centre Square that citizens could pound a nail into (at the low price of ten cents a nail!)

  Hugentugler continued to serve as York mayor until 1928 and retired from public life in the mid-1930s. He died in his native York on November 23, 1949, at age 80, with death being attributed to "advanced age and hardening of the arteries." He was interred at the Spring Garden Township Cemetery in York County.

From the York Gazette and Daily, November 25, 1949.

     This Hugentugler obit appeared in the Lebanon, Pennsylvania Daily News shortly after his death.

Stogdell Stokes Staples (1859-1949)

From Portraits and Biographies of Members of the Pennsylvania Legislature, 1895.

   An obscure 19th Pennsylvania legislator, Stogdell Stokes Staples further distinguished himself in the business sector of Luzerne County. He was born in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania on March 7, 1859, the son of Richard S. (1818-1893, a Pennsylvania state representative from 1872-73) and Mary (Thompson) Staples (1828-1900). Young Stogdell studied in both public and private schools, attending a seminary in Claverack, New York, and later attended the Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pennsylvania.
   While still a young man, Staples is recorded as helping his father publish the Monroe Democrat in 1878, and after a year in publishing moved to Trenton, New Jersey. Once settled, Staples found employment at the Trenton China Works, and would later serve as the Superintendent of that company for four years. In the mid-1880s he returned to Pennsylvania, and in 1885 purchased the Luzerne Ochre Manufacturing Company. A portrait and biographical souvenir of the Pennsylvania legislature (published in 1895) notes that Staples was "given immediate management" of the plant, and he later became president of this business, as well as holding "a half interest in its enterprise". This business is also noted as "furnishing material to four-fifths of the oil-cloth manufacturers in the country."
  Staples married in March 1886 to Stroudsburg native Hattie Raubenald, and it is unknown at the time of this writing if any children were born to them. While his business exploits are of note, Staples also began seeking local political office, eventually winning election as Burgess of White Haven, Pennsylvania for two terms. He would later be named as Postmaster of the Borough of Moosehead and was still the incumbent in this post at the time of his election to the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives.
   Staples was elected as a Democrat to the Pennsylvania legislature in November 1894, defeating Republican candidate Ellsworth L. Riley by only fifty-two votes! Two other candidates (representing both the Prohibition and People's parties) also ran for this seat, and the blurb featuring those election results has been posted below.

   Staples's election to the legislature is recorded as a "great triumph in view of the demoralized condition of the Democratic party" and during his one term in the legislature held a seat on the following committees: Congressional Apportionment, Corporations, Insurance, Iron and Coal, Mines and Mining, Railroads, and Rules. His two-year term was characterized by the earlier mentioned legislative souvenir as one of "close attention to the details of lawmaking, and displayed to advantage his unusual business qualities". Staples would also take a firm stand against a proposal for the establishment of a new county in Pennsylvania called Quay (named after Matthew Quay, then serving in the U.S. Senate), which was later shot down by a house vote of 92 to 82.

Stogdell Staples in old age, from the Wilkes-Barre Record, April 13, 1949.

  After the conclusion of his term in January 1897, Staples would lose a 1900 race for state representative by a wide margin and continued prominence in his region well into his eighties. From 1914-1919 he served as U.S. Postmaster of White Haven, and in 1917 partnered with G. Robert Baetz and Robert Teel to establish the White Haven weekly newspaper. In the mid-1930s Staples was appointed to a vacant seat on the White Haven borough council. Several months prior to his death he suffered a fall at his home in White Haven, and in March 1949 celebrated his 90th birthday. He died a few weeks later on April 12, as a result of the fall he'd suffered. Staples was preceded in death by his wife Hattie in 1946 and both were interred at the Stroudsburg Cemetery.

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily Record, April 13, 1949.

  

A visit with Stogdell Stokes Staples at the Stroudsburg Cemetery

 In a postscript to the seven-year-old article above, I was able to visit and photograph the gravesite of Stogdell S. Staples in Stroudsburg on September 15, 2019. After twenty or so minutes of searching by car and on foot, the Staples plot was found. Buried beneath an unassuming, modest headstone, no mention is given on this stone to Staples's assembly service or business successes. Buried next to him is his wife Hattie, and behind their stones are the oblong gravestones belonging to Staples' parents  Richard and Mary, the former having served a term in the Pennsylvania legislature in the 1870s. And now some photos from the trip!

September 15, 2019.