Peter Duhamel Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1647 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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	PETER DUHAMEL, of Rapid City, was born December 22, 1839, near 
Montreal, Canada, and he remained there until he reached the age of 
seventeen. In April, 1857, he came to the United States, and after short 
stops at Chicago and St. Louis, proceeded to the mouth of the Sioux 
river, where Sioux City now hums with its myriad enterprises and busy 
life. The settlement at that time consisted of a store and a few uncanny 
residences built in the rude manner of the period and locality. He 
remained in this vicinity working on a farm until the fall of 1859, when 
he engaged to drive an ox-team from there to Fort Randall and on to Fort 
Pierre, his compensation to be fourteen dollars per month. He was 
therefore in the territory when almost all its inhabitants were Indians 
and soldiers. He remained at Fort Pierre until May 3, 1860, when, with 
two other men, he started for Pike's Peak. Nineteen days were consumed 
in reaching Denver on horseback, this place then consisting of two 
shacks and a few tents in the way of human habitations. The journey was 
tedious and trying, but otherwise uneventful, not a white man being met 
by the party in the whole of its course. Mr. Duhamel and his companions 
went up the South Platte to a point about nineteen miles north of 
Denver, where they took up land and he began to raise cattle on a small 
scale and gradually enlarged his operations, remaining there nineteen 
years. In July, 1879, he left there with his family and eight hundred 
cattle for southwestern Dakota, and arrived at Rapid City on September 
29th. The following winter was an unusually severe one and he lost one-
half of his stock. In the ensuing spring everybody in the neighborhood 
was discouraged and ready to sell out. But although he had lost heavily 
during the winter, he still had faith in the section and at once 
invested all he had in cattle. His confidence has been fully justified 
by subsequent experience, as he is now one of the largest and wealthiest 
stock men in the western part of the state. He later bought land all 
over the region, at one time owning extensive tracts, but in 1900 he 
sold both land and stock, not, however, intending to retire from the 
business, for he went south and bought more cattle which he placed in 
the northwestern corner of the state near the North Dakota and Montana 
lines, where his sons are now managing the business. He has for a long 
time made his home at Rapid City, where he has a fine residence. Here he 
is living retired from active pursuits, having turned all his business 
over to the management of his sons except his interest in the First 
National Bank of Rapid City, in which he is a leading stockholder and 
serves as vice-president. 

	On October 6, 1871, at Denver, Colorado, the subject was married 
to Miss Catherine Lappus, a native of Germany. They have eight children: 
Matilda (Mrs. Babue), Alexander, Mary (Mrs. Waldron), Josephine (Mrs. 
Horgan), Adeline (Mrs. Fallon), Joseph, Annie and Agnes.