Milton Frease Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1633-1634 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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	MILTON FREASE was born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, on January 
27, 1846, and in that county was reared and educated, remaining there 
until he was twenty years old. In 1866 he moved to Ohio, where he 
remained five months, then went to work on the Northwestern Railroad in 
Iowa. After working on that enterprise for a period he went into the 
service of the government, teaming to Fort McPherson and Fort Sedgwick. 
In 1867 he accepted employment on the Union Pacific Railroad which was 
then building through Nebraska. Two years later he returned to Colorado 
and until 1876 was engaged in herding and riding the range in the 
neighborhood of Denver. At the end of this time he went to southwestern 
Nebraska and started a cattle industry for himself, remaining there four 
years. In the spring of 1880 he brought his cattle to the Black Hills 
and placed them at the mouth of Elk creek and on the Belle Fourche 
river, making his home at Rapid City. In 1888 he took up the ranch he 
now occupies on Box Elder creek eighteen miles from Rapid, and in 1890 
he moved his family to the place where they have since made their home. 
He has been continuously engaged in the cattle business since his 
arrival in the state and has a fine ranch which is devoted exclusively 
to the use of his stock and raising hay for their support. In political 
affiliation he is an ardent Republican, and to the welfare of his party 
he is zealously devoted, being county commissioner in 1883 and county 
treasurer in 1884. For a number of years he was also a stockholder in 
the First National Bank of Rapid City. He is a member of the Masonic 
order, belonging to the lodge of the order at his home town. On 
September 5, 1886, he was married at Rapid City to Miss Hattie S. Ryan, 
a native of Indiana. They have four children, Paul, Hazel, Kate and 
Helen.