Frank Abt was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1838, the son of Francis and Mary (Schneider) Abt. He immigrated to the United States in 1861, settling in Iowa and later enlisting in the Second Iowa Volunteer Cavalry during the Civil War. After his service, he moved west, engaging in gold prospecting and mining in Montana and the Black Hills. Abt eventually settled in Lead, South Dakota, where he became a successful businessman, hotelier, and local political figure, serving as mayor and postmaster. He married Mary Distel in 1867, with whom he had several children.
Frank Abt was born in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, on the 28th of August, 1838, and is a son of Francis and Mary (Schneider) Abt, both of whom were likewise natives of Bavaria, where the father followed the vocation of stonemason until his death, the subject being a child at the time. In the family were two children, of whom he is the elder, his sister Katharine being deceased. Mr. Abt attended the excellent national schools of his fatherland until he had attained the age of fourteen years and then entered upon an apprenticeship at the shoemaker’s trade, becoming a skilled workman, while he also served the required term in the Bavarian militia. Each county furnishes its quota to the German army, and the selection is made by drawing lots from the various local military organizations. Mr. Abt drew the second highest number and thus was not called into active service. He was offered twelve hundred dollars for his chance but refused the same, as he desired to come to America. Had he thus disposed of his exemption privilege, he would have been required to serve six years in the army. In 1861 he bade adieu to home and fatherland and set forth to seek his fortunes in America, landing in New York and thence coming westward to Davenport, Iowa, where he was engaged in the work of his trade for the ensuing four weeks, at the expiration of which, on the 23d of June, 1861, in response to President Lincoln’s first call, he gave significant evidence of his loyalty to the country of his recent adoption by enlisting in Company E, Second Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Elliott. With his command, he proceeded to St. Louis, and there they remained in Benton Barracks about four weeks, when they started for the front, having an engagement with the enemy near Paducah, at the mouth of the Ohio River. Thence they came up the river to Pittsburg Landing, where they remained some time, participating in the engagement at that place, after which they went on to Corinth, Mississippi, where, under General Rosecrans, they assisted in defending the city against the attacks by the forces under General Price. Their next engagement was at New Madrid, and at Tipton the command succeeded in surrounding the enemy during the night and captured thirteen hundred prisoners. Thence they proceeded to Nashville, Tennessee, where our subject was incapacitated by illness, resulting primarily from a wound received at Corinth, and he was sent to the marine hospital at Evansville, Indiana, where he received his honorable discharge in August 1862. He then returned to Davenport, Iowa, where he remained until February of the following year, when he started for the newly discovered gold fields of Colorado, where he remained a brief interval and then started for Idaho in company with a party of about one hundred men. They had a skirmish with the Indians while en route but lost none of their number, though a party three days ahead of them lost three men. He engaged in prospecting for gold in Idaho for several months and then came eastward into Montana, stopping in Bannock, the original capital of the territory, and thence proceeding to the chief mining camp, Virginia City, in Alder Gulch. The country was at the time infested with border outlaws and other desperate characters who were a constant menace to life and property, and it became necessary for the better class of citizens to take drastic measures for protection, resulting in the organization of the vigilantes, of which Mr. Abt became a member. It is unnecessary to enter into details in regard to the action justly taken by these bands of law-abiding citizens, who had recourse to severe means of dealing with the offenders, for all is a part of the written history of the locality and period, but it may be said that through their efforts many desperate characters were brought to expiate for their many crimes, Mr. Abt having personally witnessed the hanging of thirty-three men of this type. Each of the accused was granted counsel and a fair trial, and the vigilantes represented the very best element in the community, as may be understood when we state that in Virginia City their attorney was Colonel Wilbur F. Sanders, who later became United States Senator and who still resides in Helena, Montana, a venerable pioneer and distinguished citizen.
Mr. Abt bought a placer claim in Alder Gulch and worked the same at intervals during the ensuing year and then removed to Silver Bow, where he remained about a year, being fairly successful in his mining venture there. He then returned to Virginia City and purchased a claim on German Flat, working the same until May 12, 1866, when the diggings were washed out by a severe flood resulting from a cloudburst. On the 16th of the same month, he started for Helena, where he engaged in the boot and shoe business, doing a prosperous business and there remaining until 1876 when he started for the Black Hills, coming down the Missouri River from Fort Benton to Bismarck, and thence proceeding overland with a party of more than one hundred men, who made up a large wagon train. The first night out they camped at Little Heart, and at three o’clock in the morning were attacked by Indians, who stampeded their horses, securing thirteen head. A party of fifty men started in pursuit and captured all the horses with the exception of two, returning at four o’clock in the afternoon of the succeeding day. That night they camped at Oak Hill, having a guard about the camp, as did they each succeeding night, but they had no further difficulty with the Indians and finally reached their destination. In July, Mr. Abt located at Gold Run, where he became associated with John Roberts, Thomas Bell, and Frederick Istelhurst in the purchase of a placer claim below the present town of Lead for a consideration of three thousand dollars. They worked the claim successfully during that season, and thereafter the subject continued to give his attention to placer mining in various localities for the ensuing three years. He then located some quartz claims, of which he finally disposed, after which he engaged in the hotel business in Lead, conducting what was known as the Abt Hotel, which was a popular resort in the early days. In 1882 he retired from the hotel business and resumed quartz mining, to which he devoted his attention until 1886 when he was appointed postmaster at Lead, serving four years, since which time he has lived practically retired, though he is still interested in a number of valuable quartz-mining properties.
Mr. Abt early became prominent in local affairs of a public nature and has been called upon to serve in various positions of trust. He is a staunch Democrat in politics, and in 1890 he was elected a member of the village council, serving four years, while in 1900 he was chosen mayor of Lead, of which office he was incumbent for two years, giving a progressive and business-like administration of the municipal government. Under his administration, the city sewerage system was installed, and the work of paving the streets initiated. Mr. Abt is a member of a number of fraternal organizations, having been the first grand vice-chancellor of the Knights of Pythias in the state; being at the present time senior sagamore of his camp of the Improved Order of Red Men, and also commander of E. M. Stanton Post, No. 81, Grand Army of the Republic, while he is also affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
On the 4th of March 1867, Mr. Abt was united in marriage to Miss Mary Distel, who was born in Germany and who came to Montana with her brother. She proved a true and devoted wife and helpmeet during the long period of thirty years, having been summoned into eternal rest on the 10th of March 1899, only a few days before the thirtieth anniversary of their marriage. Of the children of this union, we enter the following brief record: John is engaged in mining in Butte, Montana; Frank resides in Chicago; William is a civil engineer with headquarters in Seattle; Annie, who became the wife of R. H. Purcell, died November 18, 1900, and Mary remains with her father in the pleasant home in Lead.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.