Alexander A. Shoemaker, born June 18, 1849, in Keokuk, Iowa, was the son of Jesse and Henrietta Shoemaker. His family moved to Council Bluffs in 1849 during the California Gold Rush, and later to near Omaha, Nebraska, in 1857. In 1877, Alexander relocated to the Black Hills of Dakota Territory, engaging in freighting and surviving numerous Indian encounters. He later settled on a ranch near Rapid City, then moved to Hermosa, Custer County, and eventually to a ranch on the Bad River. A successful cattle and horse rancher, Shoemaker served as a government scout and deputy sheriff. He married Anna Lawson in 1874, and they had five children.
Alexander A. Shoemaker was born in Keokuk, Iowa, on the 18th of June, 1849, being a son of Jesse and Henrietta (Hurley) Shoemaker, who removed to that state in 1842, becoming pioneers of Keokuk county, their nearest neighbors at the time being ten miles distant. In 9, the ever-memorable year of the great exodus of gold seekers to California, the father of the subject started with his family to cross the plains to the new Eldorado. The Indians were on the warpath, and this fact, together with the condition of the mother of the subject, which was such that she was not able to continue the journey, caused them to stop at Council Bluffs and to return to their homestead. The maternal grandfather of the subject continued onward with the wagon train, however, and they finally reached California in safety, having had several skirmishes with the Indians while en route. Mr. Hurley remained in California for about three years and was very successful in his mining operations. In 1857 Jesse Shoemaker removed with his family and located within a short distance of the present city of Omaha. There he remained until 1865, when he moved up the Platte river to Fort Kearney, where he started a ranch and road house, the same becoming a stopping place and outfitting point for parties en route to Montana and other parts of the west. The emigrants were compelled to wait at this point until they had recruited a sufficient number to form a train and thus secure more effective protection from the Indians and border outlaws. Mr. Shoemaker continued to reside there until 1877, and he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives in Pennington county, South Dakota.
The subject of this sketch was reared on the frontier of civilization and accompanied his parents on their various removals. The conditions were such that his early educational advantages were very meager, but he has ably overcome this handicap by the lessons of experience and by personal application. Prior to 1877, he had made many freighting trips with ox teams from Texas to Montana, Colorado, and other points. In that year, he came to the Black Hills of Dakota, making the trip by the Kearney route and through the Sioux Indian reservation. In the party were twenty-five men, and their equipment comprised fifteen wagons in the train. They were stopped by the Indians a number of times but escaped serious difficulty, the wife of the subject being the only woman in the company. They reached Hayward, Pennington county, on the 4th of July, 1877, where they participated in the rousing celebration in honor of the day in the ragged little mining town. There the company divided, and Mr. Shoemaker and his wife proceeded to Rapid City, to which point and Deadwood he engaged in freighting from Fort Pierre during the summer, and from Sydney, Nebraska, in the winter, making the venture a success financially. The Indians attempted on several occasions to stampede his stock, but were not successful in their efforts. At one time, he and his partner, James Arbuckle, held off the hostile Indians for four hours, on Rapid creek, the same party of savages having killed an emigrant family at Bear Butte about two days prior to this. In 1880 Mr. Shoemaker removed to a ranch on Rapid creek, eight miles below Rapid City, and was there engaged in farming and stock raising until 1884. He then removed to Hermosa, Custer county, and there established himself in the livery business, while he also dealt in and raised horses, having a number of horses on the ranch, which he still retained in his possession. He was very successful in his efforts and continued in business at Hermosa until 1893, when he took up his residence on a ranch ninety miles distant from Fort Pierre, on the Bad river. There he gave his attention to the raising of horses and cattle, having an excellent supply of water and a good range, and he remained there until 1902, when he purchased a ranch almost adjoining his former property, and has since made his home on the same, having a well-improved place of three hundred and twenty acres and raising cattle and horses on an extensive scale. He has an average of about a thousand head of Hereford cattle on his range each season, while he is one of the leading horse raisers of this section, having some thoroughbred stock and raising standard-bred trotting horses and light driving horses, for which he finds a ready demand at excellent prices. In politics, Mr. Shoemaker is a staunch Democrat, and while residing in Custer county, he served as deputy sheriff, in which connection he met with a number of hazardous experiences. In 1889-90, during the outbreak of the Sioux at the time when Sitting Bull and Big Foot were killed, he served as a government scout, and also as lieutenant under Colonel Day, and when the Wounded Knee massacre took place, he was engaged in scouting duty. Eighteen out of the company volunteered to go to the Bad Lands and discover how many Indians were in the camp, this being some three days prior to the battle. Mr. Shoemaker served as commander of this brave little band, under the title of lieutenant, and after they had approached to within ten miles of the camp, the Indians discovered them and made an attempt to surround them, but the company managed to escape, falling back to the Cheyenne river, where the remainder of their company came to their support. They entrenched themselves in a log corral and gave battle to their wily foes, twenty-two Indians being killed, but none of the company being badly injured. They afterward had several other spirited encounters with the savages. In 1900, the subject was elected a member of the board of county commissioners, serving one term, and he has also been a member of the school board of his district. Fraternally, he is a Master Mason.
On the 18th of June, 1874, Mr. Shoemaker was united in marriage to Miss Anna Lawson, who was born and reared in Iowa, and of their children, we enter the following brief record: F. A. is a successful young stock grower, his place being near the home ranch; H. W. is likewise engaged in the stock business on the Bad river; Jessie is the wife of H. J. Baird, of Wallace, North Dakota; and Kate and Leo remain at the parental home.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.