Charles Francis, born near New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1837, became a prominent pioneer in the American West. At 16, he joined a horse-driving business, leading herds across the plains to Colorado and Central America. Drawn by the 1860s gold rush, he prospected in Montana and later worked in Fort Thompson, aiding in Native American relations. By the 1870s, he was freighting goods to the Black Hills and developing ranches in South Dakota, notably in Sturgis. Francis also held significant mining and banking interests, contributing to the region’s growth until the early 20th century.
Charles Francis, of Meade County, was born near New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 22, 1837, and remained at home until he reached the age of sixteen, receiving a district-school education. Having a love for adventure and a strong desire to see some of the world, at that age he accepted employment with an extensive horse dealer whose bands of horses he drove across the plains from Missouri to Colorado, where he disposed of them. He made a number of trips in this way and experienced all the privations and hardships incident to such occupation, having had many experiences of adventure and danger that were exciting in the extreme. He also drove horses to Central America at times, conducting a trade which was very large and profitable. When the gold excitement over the discovery of Alder Gulch in Montana broke out, he joined the stampede to that prolific region and located a number of valuable claims there. From Virginia City, he went north to the neighborhood of Helena with a party and became a discoverer and locator of several of the mines that afterward became famous in that section. He remained there mining and prospecting with good success until 1867, when he made a trip east, and on his return in 1868, located at Fort Thompson, where he had charge of the distribution of government cattle and supplies to the Indians. He spoke the language of the natives fluently and was well adapted to the work in which he was engaged. He was well acquainted with Father De Smet, the renowned Catholic missionary, who told him of the promise of great riches in the Black Hills. In February 1869, in company with Judge La Moure, he came to the Hills to look over the country, and in passing through what is now the Rosebud agency, he discovered gold there, but as it was against the law then to stop in the Hills, they continued their journey. Mr. Francis never looked up his discoveries until 1902, thirty-four years later, when he made other valuable findings. On the trip in 1869, they had some renegade Indians with them, and these, seeing signs of other Indians in the vicinity, and being afraid of being killed in consequence of their conduct in leaving the tribes, deserted from Mr. Francis and his party while they were encamped between the White and Bad rivers, leaving them without a guide in an unexplored country with which they were wholly unfamiliar. They were obliged to discard their pack animals and make their way to Fort Thompson, which they reached about the last of March after many adventures and passing through a terrible storm. In 1870, in company with Mr. La Moure and a few others, Mr. Francis went into the northeastern corner of North Dakota where they bought scrip from half-breed Indians and settled on land to which they afterward got a title from the government. There Mr. Francis was occupied in the stock industry until early in 1876. He then moved to Bismarck where he got together a freighting outfit and began freighting between that town and the Black Hills, being among the first to engage in this business there and running two large teams, one with oxen and the other with mules. To the management of this enterprise, he gave his whole attention, making his trips mostly on horseback. He settled his family at Crook City, being one of the first to take up a residence at that place, and occupying land on Whitewood Creek not far from the town, which he developed into a fine stock farm and equipped with every appliance for carrying on its work in the best manner. He also ran a freighting outfit between Sidney, Pierre, and Deadwood at times, and while doing this was engaged in the cattle business as well. His custom was to go to Texas and buy cattle and horses and bring them to this state. In 1879, he placed cattle on the Belle Fourche, and the next year he took up land on that stream. He helped to move the effects of the first man who became a resident of the present city of Sturgis, the town site being located on his ranch. Mr. Francis has interests so extensive and varied that he is kept continually on the move during the greater part of the time, but makes his home at Sturgis, where his daughter, Mrs. H. E. Perkins, resides. For a number of years, he has had large interests in Arizona and New Mexico, where he owns valuable copper mines, and down to the fall of 1902, he was heavily engaged in the stock business in South Dakota. He also has extensive mining interests in the Black Hills and is one of the directors and heaviest stockholders of the Meade County Bank at Sturgis. Thus, in almost every line of commercial and industrial development in the state, he has been engaged, and each has felt the force of his active mind and quickening hand. He is one of the leading and most representative citizens of the commonwealth and is held in high esteem as such by all classes of the people.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.