Eminent Farmer
County: Dewey
Frank Cundill was born Aug. 26, 1887 in Maquoketa, Iowa, and was educated there. He later studied photography at McMinnville, Tennessee and worked with his father in that business for five years.
He homesteaded on his present farm in miles south of Firesteel in March 1911. He later filed on an additional 640-acres under the Federal Grazing Act. Cundill’s farming activities include mixed grain and registered Herefords, which he has raised for twenty-four years.
He married Josephine Gormally, a school teacher, in 1914.
He is well known for his thirty years of public service to the state: 1923-1927 as state legislator, 1931-1937 as director of Fish and Game commission and 1937-1955 as a member of the South Dakota Regents of Education.
He is also active in farm organizations: as director of the South Dakota Crop Improvement Association, as charter member of the South Dakota Hereford Breeders’ Association, and as member of the South Dakota Livestock Growers Association, State Livestock Council, county Farm Bureau and the county corn-hog allotment committee as well as the Firesteel Cooperative Elevator Association. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1940.
Cundill is a member of the Masonic Lodge, Royal Arch Masons, Knights Templar and Yelduz Temple of the Shrine and the Episcopal Church.