John Charles Daly was born on December 16, 1858 in Santa Fe, Clark County, Missouri to John Daly and Elizabeth (Beahan) Daly. He was the sixth of a family of nine children. His father was a native of Ireland, and his mother was an American an Irish extraction. The first home he remembered living in was in Genesee County, Michigan. He worked on his father’s farm until he was eighteen years old, then opened a produce store.
In April of 1880, he and six others who had gone to Watertown, South Dakota, together purchased a team and went to Brown County in search of land. He selected the farm which he owned for the rest of his life, and the others settled nearby. All of the party then drove through to Jamestown to make filing on the land, then one of the party was sent to Fargo, North Dakota (the nearest land office at the time), and all the papers regarding the land are dated April 10, 1880. The party of seven consisted of the following men (who were young, unmarried men): J.D. Lavin, Henry Lavin, John Lambert, Philip Lynch, John W. Meenan, George B. Daly, and John C. Daly.
Each of the men built a sod shanty and settled down to make social calls. Poles were hauled from the James River for roofing, and all the lumber for doors was hauled from Watertown. John had about two hundred dollars with him, and after the first harvest he and his brother George went to the Red River Valley. In the winter, they went to Michigan, where they passed the season, then returned in the spring with an ox team. The railroad took them as far west as New Ulm, Minnesota, then they had to drive overland with a party of five.
This trip of about three hundred miles across the country with a sleigh and ox team during the month of March took about four or five weeks. John’s farm in Brown County was about four hundred eighty acres. It was located on Section 7, Township 125, Range 61. He usually cropped four to five hundred acres and wintered from thirty to fifty head of stock. He had a ten acre grove of box-elder trees on the farm, to add to the beauty of the place. His residence was about 20×28 feet, with a 16×22 foot wing, a “pleasant rural home.”
Topographical Map of Columbia, 1893
On February 11, 1884 John was married to Miss Minnie Sullivan (a native of Michigan) in Aberdeen, Brown County, South Dakota. They possibly met during his winter in Michigan in 1881. John and Minnie had five children: Walter Edward (b. 1885), Charles “Charlie” Carl (b. 1886), Florence E (b. 1888), Marion Agnew (b. 1890), and Dorothy (b. 1894).
John was a member of the Catholic Church and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He served various official positions, was the township assessor for nine years, and served as school treasurer since the organization of the township. He was frequently a Republican delegate to county and state conventions. A man of good education, he advanced the standard of schools in the township, and otherwise worked zealously for the interests of his community. He was a respected man with a large circle of acquaintances. He was one of the pioneer settlers of Brown County.
Minnie died in 1923, and John continued farming till his death fourteen years later. He passed away on September 10, 1937 in Columbia, South Dakota.
An in-depth account of the life of Johnnie’s brother George Beahan Daly, whose claim was right next door to Johnnie’s at Daly Corners, can be found here:
