D. A. Lundquist Biography

	This biography appears on pages 988-989 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.



D. A. LUNDQUIST, the first settler of the thriving town of Irene, 
South Dakota, and in point of continuous residence its oldest 
inhabitant, is a native of Sweden, where his birth occurred on the 22d 
day of February, 1858. His father, A. G. Lundquist, a well-to-do 
merchant and landowner, also interested for a number of years in 
factories and various other industrial enterprises, departed this life 
in his native land in the summer of 1888. The mother, whose maiden name 
was Eva Wennerstrom, also born and reared in Sweden, is still living in 
that country, as are other members of the family, the subject and two 
brothers who reside in New York city being the only representatives in 
the United States.  

Mr. Lundquist received a liberal education in the schools of his 
native place and after finishing the same, in the summer of 1872, took 
up the study of telegraphy, which in due time he mastered. For six years 
he had charge of a railway station in Norway, during which time he 
creditably filled the positions of operator, ticket agent and 
bookkeeper. At the expiration of the time noted he resigned his position 
and on December 4, 1879 left Norway for America, bound for Minnesota, 
reaching Delavan, that state, twenty-three days after bidding farewell 
to the shores of his native land. The winter following his arrival he 
attended a country school and after spending the next summer herding 
cattle, he accepted, in the fall of 1880, a clerkship in a general store 
in the town of Easton. During the ensuing five years he served as clerk 
and bookkeeper for different mercantile establishments in Faribault 
county, Minnesota, and in the fall of 1885 went to La Crosse, Wisconsin, 
as bookkeeper for a construction company which was building a branch 
line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad to that city.  

Severing his connection with this company, Mr. Lundquist subsequently 
returned to Minnesota and for some time thereafter held the position of 
bookkeeper and cashier in the bank at Wells, Faribault county, which 
place he resigned in the summer of 1887 and went to Sioux Falls, South 
Dakota, to enter upon his duties as bookkeeper for a contractor who was 
constructing into that city a section of the Illinois Central Railroad. 
When this work was done, he concluded to remain at Sioux Falls, and 
after spending five years there as bookkeeper in a wholesale house, he 
again turned his attention to railroading, engaging in the winter of 
1892 with the Great Northern, which at that time was being constructed 
between the cities of Sioux Falls and Yankton. Since the completion of 
this work, in the fall of 1893, Mr. Lundquist has lived at Irene, with 
the history of which town he has been very closely identified ever since 
the place was located. Mr. Lundquist came to Irene before the town was 
laid out, locating on the present site April 15, 1893, shortly after 
severing his connections with the Great Northern Railroad. When the town 
was, in the summer of the above year, surveyed and platted, and the 
proprietor, Jacob Schaetzel, Jr., of Sioux Falls, placed the lots on the 
market, Mr. Lundquist was appointed agent and continued as such until 
the fall of 1894, during which time he disposed of the greater number of 
lots, besides using his influence to advertise the advantages of the 
place to the world and induce a substantial class of people to locate in 
the new and rapidly growing town. He not only erected the first building 
in Irene and became the first permanent resident, but is also the father 
of the first child born in the town, besides being the first merchant, 
served on the first school hoard, was the first justice of the peace, 
and the first man in the place to be commissioned notary public. Shortly 
after locating at Irene Mr. Lundquist opened a general store, which he 
has since conducted with a large and steadily growing patronage.  

Mr. Lundquist is a member of the Masonic brotherhood, belonging to 
Lodge No. 5, Sioux Falls, having joined the order at Blue Earth City, 
Minnesota, in 1885; he is also a charter member of Camp No. 2323, Modern 
Woodmen of America, with which society he united in June, 1894, and in 
addition to these fraternities, he has been identified since November, 
1899, with Council No. 24, Ancient Order of Pyramids, besides belonging 
to the order of Home Guardians, Temple Lodge No. 1, at Canton, South 
Dakota, joining the last named organization in November, 1902.  

On September 20, 1890, at Spirit Lake, Iowa, was solemnized the 
ceremony which united Mr. Lundquist and Miss Etta Capitolia Cassidy in 
the holy bonds of wedlock. Mrs. Lundquist was born August 4. 1869 in 
Missouri, and she has presented her husband with five children. whose 
names and dates of birth are as follows: Viva Rose, January 1, 1892; 
Vera Maud, September 19, 1893; Elsie Ruth, November 4, 1894; Esther May, 
Tune 9, 1896, and Eva Grace, April 20, 1899, all living, and all born in 
Irene except the oldest, who first saw the light of day in the city of 
Sioux Falls.