Joel Fry Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1536-1537 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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	JOEL FRY, who is now living practically retired in the city of 
Sioux Falls, is one of the sterling pioneers of the state, with whose 
industrial development he has been prominently concerned, and the 
following brief record of his interesting career will be read with 
pleasure by his many friends. Mr. Fry was born in Lower Windsor 
township, York county, Pennsylvania, on the 7th of December, 1832, being 
a son of Frederick and Elizabeth (Tyson) Fry, the former of whom devoted 
his life to agricultural pursuits. Martin Fry, the paternal great-
grandfather of our subject, came to America from Switzerland in 1733, 
accompanied by his wife and five children, and they settled in what is 
now York county, Pennsylvania, with whose history the name has been ever 
since identified. Martin Fry, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, 
was for four years a soldier in the Continental line during the war of 
the Revolution. The maternal great-grandfather of Mr. Fry also came to 
this country prior to the middle of the eighteenth century. 

	Joel Fry was reared on the farm, attending the district schools 
somewhat irregularly during the winter terms, but finding the major 
portion of his early discipline that involved in the swinging of the 
scythe and grain cradle, following the plow and performing the manifold 
other duties in connection with the home farm. At the age of eighteen 
years he entered upon an apprenticeship at the carpenter trade, to which 
he devoted his attention about twelve years. In the spring of 1854 Mr. 
Fry removed from Pennsylvania to Freeport, Stephenson county, Illinois, 
where he purchased one-third interest in a sash, door and blind factory 
and planing mill, the venture proving successful until the interested 
principles took stock in the company formed for the building of the 
Racine & Mississippi River Railroad, through which they lost their 
entire plant. In the spring of 1857 Mr. Fry removed to Waterloo, Iowa, 
where he was engaged in the drug business until the following fall, when 
he returned to Freeport, where he worked at his trade until the summer 
of 1863, when he tendered his services in defense of the Union, 
enlisting as a member of Company D, Forty-sixth Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war, being 
mustered out in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and receiving his honorable 
discharge and his pay in Springfield, Illinois. After the close of his 
military service Mr. Fry removed to Boscobel, Grant county, Wisconsin, 
in the spring of 1866, and there engaged in the manufacturing of flour 
barrels, staves, etc., continuing the enterprise three years, the same 
then proving a financial failure. On the 21st of May, 1869, Mr. Fry 
arrived in Yankton, Dakota territory, and for the first six years he was 
engaged in the work of his trade, as a carpenter and builder, and since 
that time he has been successfully engaged in farming and stock raising, 
owning a well-improved ranch of four hundred and eighty acres, in Turner 
county, and giving a general supervision to the same, though he is now 
living practically retired from active labor. In 1894 he took up his 
residence in Irene, Turner county, and on the 1st of July, 1903, came 
with his family to Sioux Falls, where he now maintains his home. 

	Mr. Fry has been a supporter of the Republican party from the time 
of its organization, and has voted for every one of its presidential 
candidates, casting his first vote for Fremont. He served two years as a 
member of the village council of Irene and has also been a school 
officer, while in 1894 he was elected a representative in the state 
legislature from Turner county, serving through the assembly of 1895. 
His religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
fraternally he was formerly affiliated in an active way with the Odd 
Fellows and the Union League, having joined the latter in 1861. He is 
also a member of Phil Kearney Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at 
Yankton. 

	In Freeport, Illinois, November 4, 1856, Mr. Fry was married to 
Miss Elizabeth Forry, and of their children we enter the following brief 
record: Jemima Agnes was born April 20, 1858; Alice Elizabeth, December 
23, 1859; Gilmore Grant, June 10, 1863; and Irene May, August 28, 1870. 
The youngest child was born in Yankton county, this state, while the 
others are native of Freeport, Illinois.