Samuel C. Hedger Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1474-1475 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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	SAMUEL C. HEDGER, one of the representative business men of the 
city of Aberdeen, is a native of Michigan, having been born on a farm in 
Monroe county, on the 15th of March, 1853, a son of B. H. and Mary A. 
Hedger, both of whom died in this state. He received his early 
educational training in the common schools and supplemented this by a 
course of study in that celebrated institution, the Michigan State 
Agricultural College, near Lansing, this having been the first college 
of the sort established in the Union and one which has ever remained a 
model for all others. After leaving college he was variously engaged for 
a time and finally engaged in the general merchandise business in South 
Lyon, Oakland county, Michigan, where he remained until 1882, having 
been successful in his operations. In March of that year he came to 
Brown county, South Dakota, and located in Columbia, this county, but 
shortly afterward took up a homestead near the present village of 
Detroit. He was the founder of this village, having platted the town on 
his land and having named the same in honor of the metropolis of his 
native state. In 1885 Mr. Hedger was elected auditor of Brown county, 
and this caused him to take up his residence in Aberdeen. He was twice 
re-elected to this responsible office, thus serving for six consecutive 
years and gaining unqualified popular commendation. After retiring from 
office he was for eight years employed as traveling salesman for George 
D. Barnard & Company in South Dakota, still retaining his residence in 
Aberdeen, and since that time he has here been established in the real-
estate and insurance business, receiving a large and representative 
support in both departments of his enterprise, while he is also one of 
the stockholders in the Aberdeen Gas and Electric Light Company and 
other local enterprises. In politics he is staunchly arrayed in support 
of the principles and policies advanced by the Republican party, and 
fraternally he has attained the Knights Templar degrees in the Masonic 
order, thus completing the York rite. 

	On the 22d of February, 1878, in Oakland county, Michigan, Mr. 
Hedger was united in marriage to Miss Mary Bullock, who was born and 
reared in the state of Michigan, and who was summoned into eternal rest 
in-Columbia, South Dakota, August 16, 1888. Her only child, Ivy, is now 
the wife of Frederick Bartholomew, of San Francisco, California. On the 
28th of April, 1896, Mr. Hedger wedded Miss Elizabeth Chalmers, who was 
born in Illinois, where she was reared and educated, and they have one 
child, Jeanette.