The original Loftus Store still stands and was one of the first businesses on Main Street in 1880. Daniel Henry Loftus, born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on March 9, 1853, came to De Smet in late 1879 and established a general merchandise store with his old chum Billy Broadbent. Loftus soon bought him out, and the business continued in the same building until Loftus's death in 1921. Known as “The Quality Store,” it became associated with the quality of goods on its shelves. Loftus married Helen Katie Cornwall at Rochester, Minnesota, on January 20, 1885. Their one child, Helen Maude, died young in 1919. Over time, the building also served as a clothing store, beauty shop, bowling alley, and variety store. It is also remembered as the store where Laura and Carrie bought a pair of blue suspenders for Pa, and where Loftus tried to overcharge the hungry settlers of De Smet for sorely needed wheat during the long and cold winter.