Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis, for whom the town of Sturgis is named, came from a military family that included officers who had served in the American Revolution and the War of 1812. He graduated from West Point in 1846 and was promoted to the rank of Major General during the Civil War. He commanded the famed Seventh U. S. Cavalry from May 6, 1869, until his retirement in 1886. One of his sons was killed in the historic Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876.

Another son, Samuel D. Sturgis II, was a general in World War I and a grandson, Samuel D. Sturgis III, became a general during World War II. Colonel Sturgis was one of the earliest post commanders at nearby Fort Meade when it was established in 1878 with his Seventh Cavalry as the principal garrison. He was a member of the Townsite Company that founded the town named for him. He was also a vigorous booster of the Black Hills and an active participant in the early development of the region. His retirement at Fort Meade on June 11, 1886, at age sixty-five, marked the end of forty years of outstanding service to his country. He died at St. Paul, MN, on September 29, 1889, and was buried with honors at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

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