Hiram A. Park, born March 28, 1838, in Montrose, Pennsylvania, was a prominent wholesale grocer in Watertown, South Dakota. After moving west in 1858, Park served in the Civil War with the First Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. Following the war, he established a grocery business in Red Wing, Minnesota, before relocating to Watertown in 1886 to open a successful wholesale operation. He later co-founded Park, Grant & Morris, a major grocery house in Fargo, North Dakota. Park was married twice and had four sons, two of whom predeceased him. He was active in the Episcopal church and Masonic order.
Hiram A. Park, who is engaged in the wholesale grocery business in Watertown, is a native of the old Keystone state of the Union, having been born in Montrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of March, 1838, and being a son of Dr. Ezra S. and Mary A. (Warner) Park, both of whom were natives of Connecticut and members of old and honored New England families, the latter having been a direct descendant of Colonel Seth Warner, who was an officer in a regiment of sharpshooters during the war of the Revolution. The father of the subject was an able and successful physician and surgeon, and continued in the practice of his profession for many years, both he and his wife dying at Red Wing, Minnesota. They became the parents of six children, of whom four are living at the present time. The subject of this review received an academic education in his native state, and there continued to reside until 1858, when, as a young man of twenty years, he came west to seek his fortunes, locating in Minnesota, and being there engaged in clerking in mercantile establishments until the outbreak of the Civil War. In June 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company L, First Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, with which he continued in service for four years, taking part in many important battles and skirmishes and being once captured by the enemy, his command having been assigned to the Army of the West for two years and from that to the Army of the Potomac. He received his honorable discharge in June 1865, being mustered out as first lieutenant of his company, and having served until victory crowned the Union arms. Having thus made the record of a valiant and loyal son of the republic, Mr. Park returned to Minnesota, locating in the city of Red Wing, where he engaged in the grocery business, to which line of enterprise he has ever since continued to give his attention. In 1886 he came to Watertown and established his present wholesale business, having disposed of his interests in Minnesota. In 1893, in company with F. F. Grant and E. L. Morris, Mr. Park started a similar establishment at Fargo, North Dakota, under the name of Park, Grant & Morris, and the growth of this house has been such that its annual business now surpasses that of the Watertown house. He has never been troubled with political ambition, though he is a staunch advocate of the old and recognized principles of the Democratic party. His religious faith is that of the Protestant Episcopal church, being a communicant of the church in Watertown. Fraternally, he has advanced through the chivalric degree of the Masonic order, still holding relation to the lodge, chapter, and commandery at Red Wing, Minnesota.
On the 1st of June 1863, Mr. Park was united in marriage to Miss Theodosia C. Warner, who was born and reared in Pennsylvania, where their marriage was solemnized. She was summoned into the life eternal on the 2d of December, 1884, at the age of forty-two years, having been a devoted wife and mother and a woman of noble and gracious character. She was survived by four sons, namely: Robert E., a tutor in Harvard University, having graduated at the famous University of Strassburg, Germany; Asa E. died in 1885, at the age of fifteen years; Herbert A. assists his father in the management of his grocery business; and Augustine H. died in 1899, at the age of eighteen years. Mr. Park was married a second time, June 1, 1887, to Miss Anna H. Oleson, of Red Wing, Minnesota, a lady who is active in all church and social life in Watertown.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.