Carl Braatz Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1717-1718 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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	CARL BRAATZ was born in Prussia March 23, 1801, and is the third 
of a family of seven children born to Carl and Minnie (Cole) Braatz. 
These parents were also natives of Prussia and never left the 
fatherland, both having died near the place where they were born and 
reared. The following are the names of their children, in order of 
birth: William, a farmer of Winona county, Minnesota; Amelia, deceased; 
Carl, the subject of this sketch; August, a resident of Minnesota; 
Robert, Fred and Bertha, who remain in Germany. 

	Carl Braatz was reared in his native land and grew to maturity on 
his father's farm, receiving a good education in the public schools. He 
early became inured to honest toil and while still a mere youth could 
perform a man's duty at almost any kind of manual labor, in consequence 
of which he was able to care for himself when thrown upon his own 
resources. Thinking to better his condition in America, whither so many 
of his countrymen had preceded him, Mr. Braatz, in 1867, came to the 
United States and spent the ensuing three years in Winona county, 
Minnesota, where he turned his hands to various employments, devoting 
especial attention to agricultural pursuits. At the expiration of that 
time he engaged in steamboating, in which capacity he plied various 
rivers in the west and south, and to this line of work and to 
railroading he devoted the greater part of six years. Severing his 
connection with his employers in 1878, he went to Hutchinson, South 
Dakota, where he took up a quarter section of land which he at once 
proceeded to improve and on which he lived for a period of sixteen 
years. Disposing of his original homestead in 1894, he purchased his 
present place and at this time he owns a fine farm, the greater part of 
which has been improved by his own labor and from which he realizes 
every year a liberal income. Like all progressive tillers of the soil in 
this state, he gives considerable attention to live stock, raising fine 
cattle, horses and hogs, and from this source no little of his 
prosperity has been derived. Mr. Braatz is in independent circumstances 
and has succeeded in accumulating a sufficiency of this world's goods to 
render useless every anxiety for the future. He has held various local 
offices, though by no means an aspirant for public honors, and in 
politics votes the Democratic ticket. 

	The domestic life of Mr. Braatz dates from September 13, 1879, at 
which time he contracted a matrimonial alliance with Miss Sarah M. 
Stonebrake, who was born January 19, 1860. The result of this union has 
been the birth of the following children: Millie, born May 24, 1880; 
George, July 30, 1881; Ferd, October 11, 1882; Hattie, February 9, 1884; 
Seymour, July 15, 1885; Eliza, December 22, 1887; Isaac, July 25, 1890; 
Bertha, January 9, 1897; John, June 14, 1900.