Charles L. Hyde, born on June 23, 1861, in Pike County, Illinois, is the son of James F. and Hattie (Blake) Hyde. After attending Cumberland Presbyterian College, he moved to Colorado at 17, working as a cowboy. Later, he became a commercial traveler in the hardware trade. Hyde transitioned into real estate, moving to Pierre, South Dakota, in 1889, where he amassed extensive land holdings. He owns significant properties across multiple states and is considered one of South Dakota’s wealthiest citizens. Hyde, an independent in politics, is actively involved in several fraternal organizations and is a member of the Congregational church.
Charles L. Hyde was born in Pike County, Illinois, on the 23d of June, 1861, being a son of James F. and Hattie (Blake) Hyde, the former of whom was born in Massachusetts in 1812, and the latter in Maine in 1830. The father of the subject is an expert accountant and mathematician, and though now more than ninety-two years of age he is incumbent of the office of city treasurer of Lincoln, Illinois, and is also acting as deputy city auditor, having charge of five different sets of books. He is certainly one of the most remarkable men of his age, both mentally and physically, that can be found in the entire Union. The subject of this review received his early education in the public schools and supplemented this by attending for three years the Cumberland Presbyterian College, at Lincoln, Illinois. He early became imbued with a great ambition to prepare himself for the medical profession, but overstudy caused a difficulty with his eyes and he was compelled thereby to leave college. At the age of seventeen he went to Colorado, and for two years was there employed as a “cowboy” on the great cattle ranches, the free and exhilarating life enabling him to fully recuperate his energies. At the age of nineteen he became a commercial traveler in the hardware trade, following this vocation until he had attained the age of twenty-five. In the meanwhile he began investing his surplus earnings in western lands and town properties. In the fall of 1886 he was married and shortly afterward engaged in the wall paper and carpet business at Lima, Ohio, the venture proving successful. In January, 1888, Mr. Hyde disposed of this enterprise and came to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, turning his attention to the real-estate business. In April, 1889, he removed to Pierre, where he had previously acquired large realty holdings, and from that time forward his operations in the real-estate line have increased in scope and importance until he is now one of the most prominent and successful representatives of this great branch of industry in the northwest. His holdings at the time of this writing include about fifty thousand acres of land in South Dakota; town property in Pierre, Sioux Falls, Aberdeen, Watertown, Huron, Brookings, Chamberlain and Rapid City, this state; together with large holdings at Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin; Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Spokane, Washington; Bismarck, North Dakota, and other towns and cities. He also owns land and town property in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Tennessee, Alabama and other states, besides large mining interests in Colorado and some in the Black Hills. He is the owner of a large and finely equipped flouring mill in Pierre, and it is stated upon competent authority that he is today the largest taxpayer in South Dakota and is probably its wealthiest citizen, while he is yet a comparatively young man and has gained this great prosperity through his own well directed endeavors and business sagacity. Of him it has been well said, “He has unflinching confidence in the future greatness of Pierre, his chosen city, and in South Dakota as a whole, and is ever ready to defend the state against criticism. He is a man who will do much toward the upbuilding of our state and its capital city, Pierre.” In fact, Mr. Hyde states emphatically that, initiating his business career with no capital, he has gained his fortune through the manifestation of his confidence in the future of the western states and cities, especially South Dakota. He is a man of unassuming and genial personality, tolerant in his judgment of his fellow men and imbued with a deep appreciation of the dignity of honest toil and endeavor. He finds his greatest solace and pleasure in the sacred precincts of his beautiful home, is a staunch advocate of temperance, has been a student of science from his youth up, is fond of hunting, being an expert shot with rifle, shotgun and revolver,—in short is a clean-cut, sane and vigorous man and one whose labors both dignify and advance the interests of the great state with which he has so prominently identified himself. While engaged as a traveling salesman he acted also as a detective and as a reporter for the Chicago Inter Ocean. In politics Mr. Hyde maintains an independent attitude, following the dictates of his own judgment without fear or favor. He was originally a supporter of the Republican party and was a delegate to its national convention in Minneapolis, in 1892, while in 1900 he was a delegate to the Democratic national convention, in Kansas City. He and his wife are prominent and valued members of the Congregational church, and fraternally he is identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Knights of the Maccabees, the American Brotherhood, the Yeomen and the Knights of Pythias.
In Trumbull County, Ohio, on the 28th of July 1886, Mr. Hyde was united in marriage to Miss Katherine Robinson, whose ancestry is of Scotch-Irish extraction, her parents having been pioneers of Ohio, where her father took up government land in 1835. Mr. and Mrs. Hyde have four children, whose names are here entered, together with respective dates of birth: Ruth Elizabeth, October 23, 1888; Charles L., Jr., February 27, 1892; Dorothy, July 8, 1896; and Franklin R., June 9, 1901.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.