Svante Josephson Biography (SD)


	This biography appears on pages 633-634 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	SVANTE JOSEPHSON. of whose career we are permitted to offer a 
brief sketch in this work, is one of the extensive landholders and 
successful farmers and stock-growers of Brule county, and has been a 
resident of South Dakota for the past twenty years, having been closely 
identified with the development and progress of the commonwealth and 
being one of the honored citizens of the same.  

	Mr. Josephson is a native of Sweden, where he was reared and 
educated, having been born on the 25th of December, 1840, and being a 
son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Swanson) Anderson, while his surname is 
held in accordance with the custom of his native land, he being 
"Joseph's son." He received his education in the excellent schools of 
his native place, where his father was a farmer and tradesman, and 
after leaving school he learned the trade of his father's, to which he 
there devoted his attention until 1863, when, as a young man of twenty-
three years, he set forth to win a home and a position of independence 
in America, to whose hospitable shores have come so many of his 
sterling and sturdy countrymen. He landed in New York city and thence 
came westward to Chicago, where he engaged in carpentering, being 
finally employed by the government in this capacity and assisting in 
the erection of various buildings utilized in connection with the 
federal armies, the Civil war being in progress at the time. He was 
engaged in carpenter work about four years, finally removing to 
Minnesota, where he remained a short interval, after which he located 
in Mitchell county, Iowa, where he devoted his attention to 
agricultural pursuits for the ensuing fifteen years - up to the time of 
his removal to South Dakota, in 1884. In that year he disposed of his 
interests in Iowa and came to this state, locating in Union county, 
where he purchased two hundred and twenty acres of land. He there 
improved a good farm and there maintained his home until 1895, when he 
sold the property at a-good profit and came to Brule county, where he 
purchased a quarter section of land in Willow Lake township. To this he 
has since added until the area of the home ranch is eight hundred 
acres, while he also owns another tract, of three hundred and twenty 
acres, in the county, so that the aggregate area of his landed estate 
reaches the very considerable amount of eleven hundred and twenty 
acres. He has one hundred acres under a fine state of cultivation, and 
the balance is given over to the raising of fodder of various kinds and 
to grazing purposes, as he is engaged in the raising of live stock upon 
a somewhat extensive scale, being progressive and energetic in both 
departments of his farm enterprise and being known as one of the 
reliable and substantial citizens of the county. He has made the best 
of permanent improvements on his ranch property, and his home is one of 
the attractive places of this section of the state. His residence is 
located four miles northeast of the village of Kimball, which is his 
post office address and principal trading point. In politics Mr. 
Josephson is a staunch Republican, and while he has never sought 
official preferment his interest in the cause of education has led him 
to accept a position on the school board of his district. Fraternally 
he is affiliated with Brule Lodge, No. 44, Ancient Free and Accepted 
Masons, at Kimball, and both he and his wife are valued members of the 
Presbyterian church.  

	On the 24th of March, 1873, in Osage, Mitchell county, Iowa, Mr. 
Josephson was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Evans, who was born in 
Pennsylvania and reared in Iowa, and they are the parents of three 
children, Minnie H., who completed her education in the high schools of 
Union county, South Dakota, and who has for eight years been a popular 
and successful teacher in the schools of Brule county, being employed 
as primary teacher in the village of Pukwana, South Dakota, for the 
past three years; Cora M., who likewise was a successful teacher in 
Brule county, for a period of seven years, and Guy, who was born in 
1883, assists his father in the management of the homestead ranch, 
being one of the popular young men of this section, and is now at the 
Agricultural College of Brookings, South Dakota.