John
H. Sanford
From: The History of South Dakota
by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904); p. 1073-1074
JOHN H. SANFORD is the owner of a fine ranch of six hundred and forty acres in Bon Homme county, while he maintains his business headquarters and residence in the attractive town of Tyndall, the county seat. The state of Illinois figures as tine place of his nativity, since he was horn in Ogle county, on the 12th of December, 1847, a son of Jared W. and Henrietta (Sturgis) Sanford, of whose eight children only three are living at the present time — James W., who is a resident of Santa Clara county, California; Sarah, who is the wife of Aaron Rood, of Pueblo, Colorado; and John H., who is the subject of this sketch. Jared Sanford was born in the state of Connecticut, where he was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and where his marriage was solemnized. Some time after thus assuming connubial responsibilities he removed to Ogle county, Illinois, where he was engaged in farming until about 1870, when he removed to Missouri and later to Dickinson county, Kansas, where he passed the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1876, at which time he was seventy-one years of age. While his vocation in life was farming, he had distinctive mechanical ability, and for a number of years he did much work along this line, in connection with his agricultural operations, while he was also a successful stockgrower, our subject having gained his initial experience in the breeding of stock under the effective direction of his father. Jared Sanford was a stanch Republican in his political proclivities and he and his wife were zealous members of the Congregational church, the latter having entered into eternal rest in 1854, at the age of forty-five years.
John H. Sanford was reared to farm life and secured his early educational discipline in the public schools, supplementing the same by a course in F. E. Arnold,s business college, at Rockford, Illinois. On attaining his legal majority he came into possession of a valuable farm, of one hundred acres, the same having been a part of his father’s old homestead in Ogle county, Illinois, and he devoted his attention to the cu1tivation of the same until the time of his marriage, which occurred on the 30th of December, 1869, when he led to the hymeneal altar Miss Louisa E. Stone, the only daughter of Joseph and Mary Stone, of Ogle county, Illinois, and thereafter he was associated with his father-in-law in the management of the latter's farm until 1880, while for a number of years he was extensively engaged in the buying and shipping of live stock, in which line of enterprise he was very successfu1, gaining a knowledge which has made him one of the best judges of stock to be found in South Dakota. In 1880 he came to South Dakota and secured a quarter section of land in Bon Homme county. He has since added to his landed estate in the county until he is now the owner of an entire section, as previously stated, and though the tract is valuable farming land he devotes his attention more specially to the cattle industry, being an extensive feeder of stock and a breeder of registered cattle and hogs. He has done much to improve the grade of stock raised in this section and his finely improved farm shows some of the finest specimens of cattle and hogs to be found in the confines of the state. He is progressive and discriminating in his methods and has been very successful in his operations since conning to South Dakota. In politics he gives his support to the Republican party, but he has never been an aspirant for public office. Fraternally he is identified with Bon Homme Lodge, No. 101, Free and Accepted Masons. He and his wife are the parents of one child, Harry Otis, who is a veterinary surgeon, being successfully established in the practice of his profession at Tyndall.
