Biography of Lucius A. Pease
This biography appears on page 1676 in
"History of South Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. 11 (1904)
Lucius A. Pease, who is now living retired in the pleasant village of Hartford, Minnehaha county, was born in the village of Hillsboro, Louisa county, Iowa, on the 18th of March, 1849, being a son of Allen W. and Esther N. (Blivens) Pease, his father having been a schoolteacher by vocation and a man of much ability and sterling character. He died in 1877 and his devoted wife is still living at the age of seventy-five years.
The subject secured his early education in the public schools of Muscatine, Iowa, and when he was ten years of age his parents removed to Kenosha county, Wisconsin, where he continued to attend school until the time of the Civil war, when his youthful patriotism led him to tender his services in defense of the Union.
At the age of fifteen years Mr. Pease enlisted as a member of Company C, Thirty-ninth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with which he continued in service during his term of one hundred days. In 1865 he re-enlisted, at this time becoming a private in Company D, Sixty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, but as the war closed soon afterward he did not see much active service with this command. He received his discharge after his first term in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while the final discharge was received in the city of Chicago.
After the close of the war he rejoined his parents, who were then residing on their farm in Kenosha county, Wisconsin, and there he remained, assisting his father in his labors, until 1873, when he came to the territory of Dakota, taking up a homestead claim of one hundred and sixty acres in Minnehaha county, and also a pre-emption claim adjoining, and to this landed estate he later added until he is at the present time the owner of a valuable farming property of four hundred and twenty acres, the same being equipped with excellent improvements of a permanent nature and maintained under a high state of cultivation.
On this farm he continued to be successfully engaged in diversified agriculture and stock growing until the spring of 1903, when he rented the place, by reason of impaired health, and took up his residence in Hartford, where he is now living practically retired' though he still maintains a general supervision of his farm property.
In politics Mr. Pease gave his allegiance to the Republican party until the organization of the Populist party, when he Joined its ranks, having since been a staunch advocate of its principles and policies. Mr. Pease served for twenty years as postmaster at Lyons, this county, said postoffice being located on his farm, and there he was also incumbent of the office of justice of the peace for a number of years.
On the 31st of December, 1873, Mr. Pease was united in marriage to Miss Josephine A. VanWie, of Salem, Wisconsin, and they are the parents of three children - Luella E., who is the wife of David M. Crooks, of Lyons, this state; Maud May, who is the wife of George Lott, a successful farmer of Grand Meadow township, this county; and Walter L., who resides in Hartford, where he is engaged in farming.
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