Fred. W. Dricken Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1402-1403 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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	FRED. W. DRICKEN, an able and representative member of the bar of 
South Dakota, being now engaged in the practice of his profession in 
White. Brookings county, is a native of the state of Wisconsin, having 
been born in West Bend, Washington county, on the 2d of September, 1875, 
and being a son of William and Caroline (Seibert) Dricken. William 
Dricken came to South Dakota and located in Brookings county, as a 
pioneer. 

	Judge Dricken was a child of about three years at the time of his 
parents' removal to this state, and he passed his boyhood days on the 
homestead farm, in Afton township, where he secured his preliminary 
educational discipline in the district schools, later continuing his 
studies in the public schools of White, which he attended until he had 
attained the age of sixteen years. In 1893 he entered the Northern 
Indiana Normal School, at Valparaiso, Indiana, from which institution he 
received the degree of Bachelor of Science. 

	He was educated in the law, in the law department of the 
celebrated University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and was admitted to the 
bar of South Dakota, September, 1897, and forthwith established himself 
in the practice of his profession in White. His intrinsic loyalty and 
patriotism, however, soon led him to lay aside for a time the work of 
his profession, for in the spring of the following year he enlisted as a 
private in Company G, First South Dakota Volunteer Infantry, with which 
he shortly afterward proceeded to the Philippine Islands, where he 
remained in service for the following eighteen months. He was twice 
promoted for bravery and meritorious service and was recommended for a 
third promotion, having been mustered out with the rank of sergeant. He 
participated in all the engagements in which his regiment took part, and 
with the others of his command made a record which reflects lasting 
honor upon his state. He returned to his home in the autumn of 1899 and 
the next day after his arrival reopened his office in White and resumed 
the work of his profession. in which he has been eminently successful, 
gaining a prestige which many an older practitioner might well envy. He 
now practices before the United States district and circuit courts and 
has presented not a few important cases in the former. In 1900 he was 
elected county judge, and so ably exercised his functions on the bench 
that he was chosen as his successor in the fall of 1902, for a term of 
two years, so that he remains in tenure of the dignified and responsible 
office at the time of this writing. Politically the judge was reared in 
the faith of the Republican party, and he has never wavered in his 
allegiance to the same, while he has taken an active part in furthering 
the party cause and has been a delegate to various state, congressional 
and county conventions. He is affiliated with the Masonic order and with 
the Order of the Eastern Star, of which last his wife likewise is a 
member. 

	On the 29th of July, 1902, Judge Dricken was united in marriage to 
Miss Mabelle A. Brown, who was born in Chicago, and who is a daughter of 
Dexter G. Brown, a prominent citizen of Aberdeen, South Dakota. Mrs. 
Dricken is a communicant of the Episcopal church.