John Boland (South Dakota politician)

Boland also owned a number of stores and businesses in the area and helped oversee South Dakota's financial support for World War I.

His father, Abram Boland, had travelled to the Black Hills during the gold rush and established a feed store in Rapid City.

[5] He was also head of the Alex Johnson Hotel Company and president of the Black Hills and Western Railroad.

[4][5] In 1925,[8] while Boland was mayor, Gutzon Borglum arrived in Rapid City with a proposal to build Mount Rushmore.

[9] After the passage of the Norbeck-Williamson Act of 1929, Boland was appointed president of the executive committee for the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission, making him the project manager and treasurer.

Boland became responsible for handling creditors and loans, imposing budget constraints, managing debt, and ensuring all federal funding was spent as required.

However, after budget adjustments in the wake of the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Boland was again installed as supervisor to the project.

He and Borglum subsequently reconciled,[1] and Boland became president of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Society of the Black Hills in 1941.

[4] Boland married Nona Etthel Winne on October 2, 1915, in Buffalo Gap, South Dakota.

The couple had two children together: their daughter, Ethel, died in infancy; their son, John A. Boland Jr., succeeded his father as president of the Rapid City Implement Company.