Rudolph Alexander Biography

	This biography appears on pages 1060-1061 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	RUDOLPH ALEXANDER was born in Germany, on the 20th of April, 1849, and 
is the third in order of birth of the eight children of William and Mary 
Alexander, while all of the children are still living. The parents of 
the subject bade adieu to their fatherland and emigrated with their 
children to America, taking up their abode in Sauk county, Wisconsin, 
where the father engaged in agricultural pursuits, reclaiming a good 
farm and being one of the sterling pioneers of that section of the 
Badger state, where both he and his wife passed the remainder of their 
lives. Their eldest son, Richard, was about nineteen years of age at the 
outbreak of the war of the Rebellion, and in 1864 he enlisted as a 
member of a regiment of Wisconsin volunteers, and served until the close 
of the war. Though a mere boy at the time, our subject was desirous of 
emulating the example of his brother, but his age prevented his being 
accepted as a volunteer. He was reared on the homestead farm and early 
began to assist in reclaiming and cultivating the land, while his 
educational advantages were such as were afforded in the somewhat 
primitive schools of the locality and period. After leaving school he 
remained on the home farm some time and later engaged in farming on his 
own responsibility, in Sauk county, where he continued to reside until 
1882, when he came to South Dakota. arriving in March of that year and 
visiting various sections of the prospective state in search of a 
suitable location. The following summer he took up his residence in 
Faulk county, whose organization had been effected but a short time 
previously, and here took up a pre-emption claim near the present 
village of Rockham, and there continued to reside about twelve years, 
bringing his farm under cultivation and meeting with excellent success 
on the whole, though he met with the misfortunes entailed throughout 
this section by droughts and grasshoppers in the earlier years. In 1895 
he disposed of his property and purchased a portion of his present fine 
ranch of Frank Bacon. He has since added to its area by additional 
purchases in the locality until he now has a landed estate of one 
thousand acres, of which a very considerable portion is under a high 
state of cultivation while the remainder is used for grazing purposes, 
as he runs an average herd of about two hundred head of Durham and 
shorthorn cattle, while of late he is giving attention also to the 
raising of the Hereford breed. His ranch adjoins the corporate limits of 
Miranda on the north and he also owns considerable real estate in the 
village, while his residence is one of the finest in the county and his 
ranch building large and substantial, affording ample accommodations for 
stock and farm products. As the line of the Northwestern Railroad is in 
juxtaposition to his ranch he has the best of shipping facilities, and 
he has reason to be proud of his valuable ranch as well as of the 
success which he has attained since casting in his lot with the people 
of South Dakota. In politics he is a stanch advocate of the principles 
of the Republican party, though never a seeker of public office, and 
fraternally he holds membership in the Knights of the Maccabees.  

	On the 12th of April, 1877, Mr. Alexander was married to Miss Mary 
Trueb, who was born in Switzerland, where she was reared and educated, 
being a daughter of John Trueb, who came from Germany to America in 1857 
and became a pioneer of Wisconsin. Of the children of this union we 
enter the following brief record: Louis is now associated with his 
father in the management of the home ranch; Annie is the wife of Henry 
Metz, of Miranda; and Edward, Ella, Edna and Hilbert remain at the 
parental home.