The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1912-06-06
WHO'S WHO
In SouM .Uukofa
By o. ". cou,,<y
Another Adopted Son.

ih'ouSN MS 1 cJuTeS DeIOrS grad
uating .lasses and other popular au-
dlehces, his wide range of sermons,
and his activity in the educational
world as teacher and superintendent,
the Reverend w. NJ. llair-that little,
sa wed-oif Scotcl-American preacher,
at present pastor of the Congregations
al church in the city of Mitchcll-has
brought himself into prominence. and
is beginning to make his name Il
household word in South Dakota.
Malr is a persuasive fellow. Born
in Peterhead, Scotland, in 1870, tits
said, as the story goes, that at the in
fant & OF four years, he had al
ready familiarized himself with so
much history and had become so in.
%noculated with the spirit of liberty,
that he persuaded his parents to take
him and move TO America where he
might rise to greatness and pave The
way for his fellow Scotchmen, An
drew Carnegie, to make a fortune.
The parents yielded, and Mair has
already achieved both objects. Carne-
gie's name will remain chiseled in
stone over the doors of public libra
ries long after Mair is dead and for
gotten, but the normal stimulus be-
ing given by Mair to those about him
will widen in the wake of its influ-
enc, like the tail of a comet, and
continue to inspire men to higher
ideals, long after the stone structures
| N ttninin ~ 49,, nio', -, n,,, ,Ml 40 ,N,N
have crumblcd to dust.
Strange! Isn't it? How one man
seeks fortune and builds for today,
while another seeks righteousness
and builds for tomorrow. Wealth is
doing all it can to perpetuate its own
appetite. Philanthropy is today being
conducted in too many cases under a
mask of hyprocritital self-aggrandiZe-
ment. The name of the richest man
on earth. 1912 years ago last Christ
mas morning, is not known and cam
not be found among the sacred pages
of contracting history, while the
name of a little Child who entered
life in the manger OF a glotto in old
Bethlehem, on that day, now lives ev-
erywhere. The name of the richest
litti Al EhIiSi So VII tittI q
when the emancipation proclamation
was promulgated to the nation, is
either unknown or forgotten, while
the name of that impoverished coun-
TRY lawyer who penned it, today stirs
the patriotic instinct OF every Ameri-
can at its very utterance. Wealth is
today struggling as never before to
buy q place of prominence to perpet-
uate itself in the history of the race.
Dedications here. Dedications there!
Names chistled on prominent stones
in massive structures, of those whose
gifts erected them Qor the ultimate
sake of self 1.-THE palsied struggle
of wealth for self perpetuation. Yet
these give way in the human heart
to the towering shafts of granite
builded by the tiny gifts of the poor,
that point their illumined spires heav-
onward, at Springfield, Illinois, at
Canton, Ohio. at Gettysburg, in the
city of Washington, and amid the pin
es of Boston. Mair is building Nsll.
The Mair family first settled AT Tor
onto, Manada. From there they soon
removed to Kansas, and later crossed
over into Tennessee, Here w. NJ. at
tended the public schools, and later
graduated from Pleasant Hill Normal
Institute. Dissatisfied with his prepar-
alton for life, he persuaded his father
to send him to Oberlin, where
through s%elf-support, self-eXertion
and honest application, he fitted him
self for a ministe' of the Gospel, and
graduated with d. stinction.
Preachcs-~cachcr.
Filled with unquenchable enthus-
iasm, the young pastor did not go
back to the old family haunts of Ten
nessee, but rather he struck westw; I'd
and accepted the pastorate offs church
lat Henry, South Dakota. where he
preached 1 S9T-99 inclusive. Accepting
a call to Garfetson, s. d., he occupied
the pulpit at that place for several
years, and then resigned to accept the
principalship of the Garretson schools.
In 1908. he took Il trip back to his
native land, looked over the Moses
(on the) Old Mause," filled himself
full of European ozone and then re-
tt ned to his adopted land to work
out his destiny. This trip opened a
new field of endeavor to him. His OBJ
lSeI NuLIOlIS Iluu given DlIlu 10 Il SUIT
ring lecture on the Old World. Re-
luests for its repetition came from all
over the state. Mair's gifted tongue
was rapidly earning back for him
the money he spent abroad.
Always possessed of an inherent
longing for school work, and realiz-
ing how closely connected are the liv-
es of the teacher and the breaches,
MAR returned to the school-room at
Garretson-using this as a stepping
stone to the superintendency of Min
nehaha county, 1907-10. In this po-
sition he made an enviable record. He
superintendent, taught, lectured, prea-
ched, wrote, conducted corn-growing
contests, and gave a general impetus
to the school work, and, as we'll to
the sociability of the entire county.
A. Craig Bowdish, pastor of the
Congregational church in the city OF
Mitchell, resigned his passionate in
1910, to r%e-enter school. The member
ship of the church, who had been
reading in Sioux Falls papers, and
consequently were somewhat familiar
a