S. H. Cockins is a retired rancher of Basin who has now reached the eightieth milestone on life's journey. He has been variously identified with the development, interests and business activity of the northwest for forty years and the careful management of his affairs has brought to him a substantial return that has for some time relieved him of the necessity for further labor. He is now enjoying the comforts and some of the luxuries of life amid pleasant surroundings at his attractive home in Basin.
    He was born in Ohio, February 3, 1838, and is a son of Vincent and Hannah E. (Wright) Cockins, the former a native of Pennsylvania, while the latter was born in Maryland. Following their marriage they removed to Ohio, settling on a farm in that state, where they began their domestic life in true pioneer style. Their first home in Ohio was a log cabin and the other buildings upon their farm were also built of logs. Upon the old homestead the parents spent their remaining days and there they reared their family of ten children, four of whom are yet living.
    S. H. Cockins spent the period of his boyhood and youth on the old homestead and received his education in the public schools of Ohio, dividing his time between the mastery of his studies and the work of the fields. He continued a resident of that state until 1877, when he started for the west, locating first in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where he remained for eleven years. In the spring of 1888 he came to the Big Horn country and engaged in the live stock business, which he continuously followed until 1909, when he retired and took up his abode in Basin, where he has since made his home. He still owns farm interests, and is also one of the directors of the Bighorn County Bank and also a heavy stockholder in the First National Bank of Greybull and in the Kane Bank of Kane, Wyoming, of which he is the vice president.
    Mr. Cockins is an honored, veteran of the Civil war. When the country became involved in hostilities between the north and the south Mr. Cockins responded to the call of the Union and in 1861 joined Company A of the Seventy-eighth Ohio Infantry, with which he served until September 7, 1863, He was severely wounded at the battle of Raymond, Mississippi, sustaining a wound in his left arm which incapacitated him for further field service and he was mustered out at St. Louis, Missouri, returning to his home with a most creditable military record. He then resumed the live stock business in Ohio, with which he was connected until he removed to South Dakota in 1877.
    He maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades through his membership in the Grand Army Post, No. 110, at Basin, Wyoming. He is also a member of Temple Lodge, No. 20, A. F. & A. M., in which he has filled all of the chairs. He is numbered among the pioneer settlers of his section of the state and is one of those men who have helped to make Bighorn county what it is today. He has been an active factor in its business progress and in its development along civic lines and his influence has always been an element for general improvement.