John Brennan was born in 1847 in Ireland and John came to the U.S. in 1848 when he was but one year old, landing first in New York the later Wisconsin. When the Civil War started he enlisted in the 28th WS Infantry at age 16, after a year he went to Colorado He acquired his education by attendance at the public schools of Wisconsin between the years 1855 and 1863 Later he pursued a commercial course in the Bryant & Stratton Business College at St. Louis in 1867. In the meantime he had left home in 1865, going to Chicago, where he obtained a position in the old Adams House, thus making his initial step in connection with the hotel business, in which he continued to June, 1901. From 1865 until 1869 he held positions of responsibility and trust in the Newhall House of Milwaukee, in the Hyde Park Hotel of Chicago, in the Planters House and the Southern Hotel of St. Louis and in the St. Charles Hotel at Cairo, Illinois. In 1869 he removed to Kansas City, Missouri, having accepted the position of manager of the old Pacific House, where he remained until 1871, when he accepted a proffered position as manager of the American House at Denver, Colorado. Not long after his removal to that city he entered into partnership with E. W. Kibble and leased the American House, which he conducted as proprietor until 1875.
John came to the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1875 and in 1876 founded the town of Rapid City in February of 1876 with 11 other men. John was the most prominant founder of the town and its ultimate success was almost solely due to he promotion of Rapid City.
On the 22d of December, 1880, at Fredericktown, Ohio, Mr. Brennan was united in marriage to Miss Ada Jane Leedy, a daughter of J. M. Leedy, who removed to the Black Hills in 1876 and was among the first to settle at Rapid City.Mrs. Brennan followed the profession of teaching in the
Buckeye state until 1879, when she came to the Black Hills, making the trip from Yankton to Fort Pierre by boat and across to the Hills by ox train. She is the mother of three children: Paul, who wedded Miss Mary Brasch, of Sioux City, Iowa; and Ruth, who gave her hand in marriage to F. Web Hill, of Rapid City, South Dakota.
John built the Amercian House hotel at the corner of 6th and Main Streest in Rapid City. He was in buisness with Oscar Nicholson and when he retired John became the sole proprieter, he was general manager of the stage line and express company by January of 1879. The telephone had been invented and he got a phone and soon everyone had one. The American House burned down in 1888, the Harney Hotel had been built so John leased it in May of 1887.
He held many important postions in Rapid City and was Indian Agent on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where he tried to help the Indains help themselves more than probably others before and after did. He was the father of three children Paul, Ruth and John. In the fall of that year he started for the Black Hills, attracted by the opportunities which he heard existed in that section of the country. He arrived at the foot of Harney Peak in Novemberand was one of the
founders of what is now known as Palmer's Gulch. In connection with others he established the town of Rapid City, February 24, 1876, and was elected a member of its first board of village trustees, which position he filled with credit and honor. The town grew rapidly and
along substantial lines and following its incorporation he was elected president of its first city council and has been prominent in its business and public affairs from that time to the present. In 1877 he was named the first postmaster of Rapid City and continued to administer the affairs of the office for nine years, during which period he served also as express, stage and Union Pacific agent, his connection with those offices extending over ten years. Another important public service performed by him covered four years as trustee of the Dakota School of Mines of Rapid City, with two years spent as president of its board.
Mr. Brennan's identification with hotel management and ownership in Rapid City began in 1876 and in the little frontier town his hostelry was a log cabin twelve by fourteen feet; containing but one sleeping room. This was the initial step and in 1878 was followed by the building of the American House, which he conducted for eight years.
In 1886 he erected Hotel Harney, which he operated until July, 1901. Throughout the entire period he held to high standards of hotel service, equipment and conduct and made the Hotel Harney one of the popular hostelries in the western section of the state. His activity along hotel lines has also extended to the Pacific coast, for he was one of a company that furnished, fitted up and opened the Hotel Seattle at Seattle, Washington, in 1898, acting as assistant manager of the property for two years. In addition to his other interests he was a stockholder in the First National Bank of Rapid City and served as vice president of that institution in the early '90s. He was also a director and continued as a stockholder and official between the years 1884 and 1896, when he disposed of his interests. He is now the owner of a farm of five hundred and forty acres in Rapid Valley, two miles east of Rapid City, and his property holdings include valuable business and residence realty in Rapid City.
His activities have extended to various positions of public trust and the public welfare has been promoted through the prompt, faithful and efficient discharge of his duties. He was the first county superintendent of schools of Pennington county, filling the office in 1877 and 1878. He several times served as alderman of Rapid City in addition to the municipal offices previously mentioned and he was chief of the Rapid City fire department for several terms between 1880 and 1900, while through the same period he was president of the Black Hills Firemen's Association. In December, 1894, he was called to the office of state railway commissioner for South Dakota, his four years' term in that position ending in December, 1898. On the 1st of November, 1900, he became United States Indian agent, superintendent and special disbursing agent for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, in which position he yet remains, covering a period of more than fourteen years and having seven thousand Ogallala Sioux Indians under his charge.
He was a veteran of the Civil war, enlisting from Ohio.
Mr. Brennan was reared a Catholic. The military chapter in his life history covers his attempted service as a soldier of Company H, Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry. He enlisted at Highland, Wisconsin, in 1864 and was sent to Madison to be mustered in, but he was rejected
because of his youth, as he was yet under eighteen years of age and did not have his parents' consent. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, which finds in him an unswerving and stalwart
champion. He is perhaps most widely known throughout the state, aside from his business connections, through his prominent identification
with the Knights of Pythias. He became a charter member of Colorado Lodge, No. 1, K. P., which was instituted in 1872, and for two terms, in 1873 and 1874, he was chancellor of that lodge. While a member
thereof he was appointed deputy supreme chancellor for Colorado, which position he filled until he resigned and removed to the Black Hills in November, 1875. Here he again came to prominence in Pythian circles,
being appointed deputy supreme chancellor for the territory of Dakota in 1878. He is a past grand chancellor of Colorado and of Dakota and
was a supreme representative from South Dakota in the supreme lodge of the world for three terms. He has now completed his forty-second year
in the order and he is also a member of Elks Lodge, No. 1187, at Rapid City.