Sydney Denekamp | Staff Intern
A Memorial for Elihu Increase Oaks, Hartford’s first homesteader, will be held at the Hartford Cemetery on September 26.
With the sponsorship of Downtown Hartford Inc., the Hartford community will be coming together to put on this event. The event is open to the public and will start with the local boy scouts placing American flags on the 28 headstones of American Civil War veterans in the local cemeteries at 1:30pm.
The event will involve reenactors of the 13th infantry attending the service for the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The group will be performing a gun salute during the memorial service.
After the ceremony, Bill Hoskins, the museum director and a member of the 13th infantry group, will be giving a Civil War walking tour around the cemetery.
Sandy Dean, a secretary for Downtown Hartford Inc., called Oaks, “the root of all Hartford.”
Elihu Oaks died of pneumonia on April 22, 1912 at the age of 71. He was survived by 28 grandchildren as well as by his children and siblings.
Previously, Oaks did not have a headstone in the Hartford Cemetery. Karl Person, Oaks’ great great great nephew, along with the help of the Veterans Administration, is responsible for recently procuring a headstone for the historic community member.
Oaks was an integral early community member in Hartford. He was one of the original 13 signers who started the Hartford Cemetery as well as a Justice of the Peace at Hartford.
As an active member of the constitutional convention, Oaks helped draft the articles that created the states of North Dakota and South Dakota.
Oaks was very active in politics. He served as the President of the Farmers Alliance for many years and was also a member of the Colonel Campbell post of the GAR.
Hartford, SD was previously named Oaksville after Elohu Increase Oaks. The town name was changed to Hartford with the arrival of the railroad in 1879. Neither Oaks nor his family were said to have resisted the change. Oaks seemed to value his community more than his legacy.
Oaks was born in January of 1841 in the recently settled town of Wauconda, IL. He married Cornelia Fowler in 1864 in Rochester, MN. The pair had five children.
In 1861 Oaks enlisted in the Union Army, Minnesota 3rd Infantry, Company G. After his discharge, Oaks farmed near Viola, Minnesota for a time before moving the family to South Dakota in 1876. Oaks and his family settled in what is now Hartford, SD.