Henry D. Giard

Of the handful of visible gravestones in Peck cemetery, two, although broken, are very legible.  One of those stones belongs to Mary A. Rounding, and information on her life can be found in the previous blog post.  She was in Dakota Territory for only a year and a half, making it challenging to find information on her.  Even more challenging is Henry D. Giard, whose stone is also very legible.  But Henry was in Dakota Territory a mere 4 months before he passed away at the age of 31 - not long enough to leave a good paper trail.

However, an article in the Dakota Huronite (Huron, SD) mentions his arrival in Beadle county in the March 08, 1883 edition.  "H. D. Giard, Levi Giard, Adolph Giard and Dan'l Bottum, who with their families comprise a party of 13, have arrived in the city from Cohoes, N.Y.  The gentlemen are all bright looking, energetic young men who appear to be firm in their determination to make their western venture a success.  They cannot well help succeeding."  Levi and Adolph are documented as brothers, and Daniel Bottom is the husband of their sister, so it's a reasonable assumption, barring the absence of any hard evidence, that Henry is a brother to Levi and Adolph.

Further circumstantial evidence is their choice of land.  Adolph and Levi had cash purchase of land in Cornwall township, as did Henry.  The location of their land, in relation to each other, also suggests a close family tie.  Henry and his wife Alice homesteaded their land, and Alice "proved up" on the claim Dec. 13, 1889, as a widow.

The map above, shows the land of the Giards, NE of Hitchcock, South Dakota.  The blue marker shows the location of Peck cemetery, and to the NE of that marker is where the Giard lands are located.  The Green "L" is Levi's land; the blue "H" is Henry's land, and the red "A" is Adolph's land,

In March, 1883, the brothers and their brother-in-law arrived in Dakota Territory.  In July, 31 year old Henry was laid to rest in Peck cemetery.  What, exactly, happened in those four months may be lost to history.  

Henry and Alice had two children - Blanche, b. 1881 in New York, and Boyd, b. 1883.  Alice appeared to have remarried William Goodman, and left South Dakota.

The Short Life of Mary Rounding

Way out in the middle of nowhere, along South Dakota highway 28, sits a quiet little unobtrusive cemetery.  It’s something you could drive by a million times and never realize it was there – unless you happened to see the white sign saying, “Peck Cemetery - Dakota Territory” hanging from a fencepost.  Although the few remaining stones are toppled and broken, someone neatly mows the final resting place of these pioneers, all of them with their stories that have mostly been lost to time.  Most of the stones are unidentifiable, but among them sits the grave of Mary A. Rounding, a young woman who left this earth in 1883, far from her home.

               Mary was the daughter of John and Cynthia Rounding of Mount Carmel, Illinois.  Her father was in the service of the Union Army and died before his daughter had even turned two years old.  A member of Company G, 41^st Infantry, he fought in the infamous Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee. This bloody, savage battle lasted two days, hard fought by both sides.  It was an important victory for the Union as it allowed Ulysses S. Grant to penetrate the interior of the South and make his way to Corinth, Mississippi.  The wounded hero survived for a short time, but sanitation was lacking and disease was rampant.  Two weeks after the end of the battle, John succumbed to his illness and wounds on April 20, 1862.  His widow was left to raise their tiny daughter without him.  He was a hero.  But not the only hero in his family.

               Young Mary, the namesake of her maternal grandmother, grew to young adulthood with her mother, stepfather, and seven half-siblings.  In the spring of 1882, she left her family behind and accompanied her great-uncle, Capt. Samuel B. Lingenfelter and his wife Mary Eliza to Altoona township, Dakota Territory.  Mrs. Lingenfelter had several children, and also was in the later stage of consumption so Mary’s presence was greatly needed and valued. 

               On a stormy evening in August 1883 everything changed.  A vicious cyclone hit the Altoona area, destroying buildings, crops, livestock, and anything in its path - which unfortunately included the Lingenfelter home.  Mary shielded the children from flying debris and hail the size of chicken eggs.  While trying to rescue them from the rubble, Mary sustained a serious spine injury and died less than a week later.  Mrs. Lingenfelter, who herself would pass away two months afterward, spoke with the highest of praise for Mary.  Heroism must run in their family. 

               Out there in the middle of nowhere, under a broken gravestone, lies Mary Rounding.  She was a valiant soul who, like her father, gave her all – her very life – for the good of others.  Her story deserves to be heard and known and remembered.  SHE deserves to be known and remembered.  

Photo courtesy of Stan Phillippi, Jan. 2025

Source List

Photograph - Stan Phillippi

Jennifer Littlefield

Obituary of Mary A. Rounding, Mount Carmel Register, Sept. 20, 1883.

1906 Beadle County, South Dakota Plat Map

Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls, Illinois State Archives  https://apps.ilsos.gov/isaveterans/civilMusterSearch.do

"Tempest Tossed - Mr. Carmel People in the Dakota Cyclone" - Mount Carmel Register, Mount Carmel, Illinois.  Thursday, Aug. 2, 1883, Page 1

"Wabash County, Illinois Families" Public Family Tree.  Yelobug author. https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/1567687/person/250040240371/facts

1860 United States Federal Census

1870 United States Federal Census

1880 United States Federal Census

1885 Dakota Territory Census

Illinois GenWeb Civil War, Company "G" 48th Illinois Infantry

https://civilwar.illinoisgenweb.org/civilwar/r050/048-g-in.html

American Battlefield Trust, "Shiloh - Pittsburg Landing."  https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/shiloh

Obituary of Cynthia Riggs Rounding Ravenstein.  Mount Carmel Register, Mount Carmel, Illinois.  Aug. 24, 1914. Page 1.

Obituary of Mary Eliza Harris Lingenfelter.  Mount Carmel Register, Mount Carmel, Illinois.  Thursday, Nov. 8, 1883, page 4.

Find-a-Grave.com

The Window

 

The window.  The little window on the left, with Grandma’s curtains still hanging nicely on either side of the sink. 

I never knew how much that window meant to me.  It was just a window.  We came and went from that house about a million times over the 33 years I spent with her.  And every time we left, there she would be, at that window, waving as we left the driveway, from the time I was a child, through my adulthood and the lives of my children.  She'd wave, and we’d wave back.

That window had never looked so empty as it did the first time I left the house after her death.  There wasn’t just an emptiness, but a cavern on the other side of that glass.   For all the times I’d left the house and waved on my way out of the driveway, I never realized the significance of that simple gesture, or the smile that accompanied it.  I’ll never see that sight in real life again, but I see it in my heart every time I see that window.

Dr. Henry J. Seeman - Specialist in Electrotherapeutics

 

Dr. Henry Seeman was the only physician in his small South Dakota town of Rockham for almost all of his years there, which made him popular enough.  But this advertisement, placed in 1908, also set him apart by specializing in the field of electrotherapeutics.  

Electrotherapeutics was at its height of popularity between 1870 and 1920 when "medical batteries" were sold to physicians, their use requiring a fair amount of training.  These techniques were used to treat a great number of maladies, from localized situations like pain in a knee, to generalized conditions involving the whole body. 

A medical office model, pictured at right, was priced at $200 to $260 at that time, said to be the
equivalent of $5,000-$7,000 in today's money.  The physician would need to carefully consider the illness or injury being treated, the patient, and the kind and intensity of electricity to be used.  The patient would often lie down in a reclining wicker chair, or some other chair without any metal pieces, and hooked up in various ways to the machine, and the treatment was commenced.

Eventually, manufacturers, wishing to capitalize on the popularity of the treatments, produced a "home unit" that actually was identical to those used by their physicians.  An advertisement placed by E. C. Harkness, General Manager of Detroit, claims that this machine would cure "rheumatism, neuralgia, constipation, nervousness, headache, stomach trouble or any other disease."  These home machines and outrageous claims, some experts felt, caused the field of electrotherapeutics to be looked at with a fair amount of skepticism.  Unfortunately, no training in the use of these machines was provided to home users.

About 1905, the "Medical battery" was replaced with newer electrotherapeutic technology.  It was around World War I when the technique began to fall from favor.  Dr. Seeman, however, practiced medicine for some time after that, presumably without electrotherapeutics.

Sources: 

Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Vol. 72, issues 2, April 2017

Electro-therapeutics for Practitioners, Francis Howard Humphris, Jan. 1921

How Pheasants Came to South Dakota

The following is an excerpt from a letter written by Sister Eleanor Joyce after a family reunion.  She tells of her brother, Father Jim, who held Mass at the reunion, and how much it reminded her of the old days back in South Dakota and Mass being held by Father George MacConnachie.  Father MacConnachie was a Scottish immigrant who served St. Bernard's Church for his whole working life, as far as I know, and baptized, married and buried many generations of the Joyce family.  For more information on Father MacConnachie, click here.

Image courtesy of 24HourMoon, license

Sister Eleanor writes:

Fr. Jim celebrated Mass on the Saturday eve at which a large crowd was present on the lawn fronting the Viking Motel where everyone was staying.  Prior to the Mass, which could have reminded one of the parish at Burdette with all the relatives – Fallons, Joyces, Roaches – back in the 1920’s with Fr. MacConnachie, he told how the ring-neck pheasants came to be in South Dakota.  

Fr. Mac had brought pheasant eggs to these families who had them hatched via setting hens or incubators; appointed himself the chief game warden and the men of these families were deputy wardens.  Father had his own private hunting grounds and a parish unknown to Bp. O’Gorman!  Later railroad men scattered the pheasants over the country.  This year we have millions of them for excellent hunting in Hand, Spink, Brown counties and far beyond.

Then and Now - the Home of the Dr. Henry Seeman Family in Rockham, South Dakota

 

The home of Dr. Henry Seeman in Rockham was a grand house indeed.  But time has taken its toll.  Then: Between 1900 and 1920.  Now: 1998.

Corkins Auto Co. Garage - Rockham, SD - Then and Now

 

Corkins Garage in Rockham, South Dakota.  Then and Now.