George H. Baxter Biography


	This biography appears on page 654 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	GEORGE H. BAXTER is one of the representative business men of 
Watertown, the attractive capital city of Codington county, where he is 
now the sole stockholder in the Kampeska Milling Company, owning a 
finely equipped mill, in which is installed the most modern machinery, 
making it one of the best flouring mills in the state.  

	Mr. Baxter was born on the parental farmstead, in Schuyler 
county, Illinois, on the 16th of September, 1860, and is a son of John 
H. and Mary E. (Bell) Baxter, the former of whom was born in West 
Virginia and the latter in Illinois, while they were numbered among the 
pioneers of Illinois, where the father devoted his attention 
principally to agricultural pursuits, having been a cooper by trade. He 
died September 4, 1902, in Hamlin county, South Dakota, where his widow 
still resides. They became the parents of four sons, all of whom are 
living, while the subject of this review was the first in order of 
birth. 

	George H. Baxter received his early educational training in the 
public schools of his native county, and supplemented this by a course 
of study in the Chaddock College, at Quincy, Illinois. He continued to 
attend school until he had attained the age of eighteen years, and in 
the meanwhile assisted in the work of the home farm, with which he 
continued to be identified until 1882, when he accompanied his parents 
to South Dakota and took up land in Hamlin county, where he developed a 
valuable farm, making excellent improvements and being prospered in his 
efforts as an agriculturist and stock grower. He continued to reside on 
his ranch until 1893, when he came to Watertown and turned his 
attention to his milling business, having become a stockholder in the 
Kampeska Milling Company at the time of its organization, in the fall 
of 1887, at Kampeska, while he had held various official positions in 
the company, having been vice-president at the time of taking up his 
abode in Watertown. In 1900 he purchased all the stock not previously 
controlled by him, and has since conducted the enterprise individually. 
The original capacity of the mill was fifty barrels per day, and it has 
since been increased to one-hundred-barrel capacity, while the 
facilities of the plant throughout are of the best and most modern 
type, requiring an investment of about fifty thousand dollars and about 
forty thousand bushels of grain are shipped annually. The Kampeska 
Milling Company was organized at Kampeska in 1887 by E. D. and E. S. 
Whitlock, and in 1888 it was removed to Watertown, and E. S. Whitlock 
continues as superintendent. Mr. Baxter owns four hundred acres of 
particularly arable farming land. He raises on this ranch large 
quantities of wheat, barley and oats. He is a man of marked business 
sagacity, is straightforward in all his dealings and has the 
unqualified respect of all who know him. In politics he is staunchly 
arrayed as a supporter of the principles of the Republican party and 
fraternally he is identified with the Ancient Order of Pyramids and 
with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His commodious and attractive 
modern residence is located in close proximity to the mill, and is one 
of the hospitable homes of the city.  

	On the 13th of June, 1900, Mr. Baxter was united in marriage to 
Miss Hattie M. Stone, a daughter of Samuel and Harriet (Tuttle) Stone, 
now retired, of Watertown, who were pioneer settlers in the state. Mrs. 
Baxter is prominent in the social circles of Watertown, where she has a 
host of warm friends. Both are members of the Methodist church.