Henry C. Mussman Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1360-1361 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 
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	A photo of Henry C. Mussman faces page 1360.


	HENRY C. MUSSMAN, proprietor of the Mussman House, one of the 
well-equipped and popular hotels of the state, is one of the 
representative citizens of Chamberlain and is now a member of the state 
legislature from his district. He was born in Cook county, Illinois, 
April 25. 1857, and is a son of William and Sophia (Heitzig) Mussman, of 
whose four children he is the eldest of the three surviving. His sister 
Sophia is the widow of Frank Parker and resides in Minneapolis 
Minnesota, as does also the younger sister, Mary, who is not married. 
The father of our subject was born in Hanover Germany, where he was 
reared and educated and where he learned the trade of ship carpenter. He 
followed a seafaring life for many years and visited all the principal 
ports in the world. About 1848 he located in Cook county, Illinois, 
where he was engaged in farming until December, 1857, when he removed 
with his family to Houston county, Minnesota, where he purchased 
government land and became a pioneer farmer, there continuing to reside 
about seven years, at the expiration of which he sold his farm and 
engaged in the hotel business in Brownsville, that county. About eight 
years later he removed thence to Iowa, locating in the town of Decorah, 
where he continued in the hotel business until his retirement, in 1890, 
when he removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he passed the remainder 
of his life, his death occurring in December, 1899, while his devoted 
wife passed away in 1860. In early years he was a Democrat, but 
subsequent to 1875 was a staunch advocate of the principles of the 
Republican party. Both he and his wife were members of the Lutheran 
church and were folk of sterling character, honored by all who knew 
them. 

	The subject of this sketch remained at the parental home until he 
had attained the age of fourteen years, when he began to depend upon his 
own resources. For several years he was in the employ of the lumber firm 
of Knapp, Stout & Company, of St. Louis, Missouri, making his 
headquarters in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and being engaged principally in 
rafting logs down the Mississippi river to the headquarters of the 
company. Later he was employed about three years as traveling salesman 
and then took up his abode in Iowa, where he was engaged in traveling 
for a brewing company for three years, at the expiration of which, in 
1880, he came to Running Water, Dakota, where he became interested in 
the business of the firm of Chester B. Dyke & Company, wholesalers and 
distributors of beer over a wide area of country, and also proprietors 
of the Riverside hotel. A disastrous fire wiped out their business in 
February, 1881, and shortly afterward our subject came to Chamberlain, 
which was scarcely a year previous a village of a few tents and no 
permanent buildings, and here he was engaged in the liquor trade until 
1888, when he sold out his business. He was thereafter variously engaged 
at different points in the Union for several years. Being a machinist by 
trade, he worked for a time in Minneapolis, where he had charge of the 
Lowrey's electric-car shops, while in 1892-3 he assisted in installing 
the sewerage system in Grand Forks, North Dakota. In 1895 he returned to 
Chamberlain and assisted in the construction of the pontoon bridge 
across the Missouri river at this point, and during the summer of the 
following year he was collector of the bridge, operated on the toll 
system. In 1897 Mr. Mussman was appointed water commissioner of 
Chamberlain, in which capacity he served one year. He has been 
identified with the hotel business in the town for about nine years, 
Mrs. Mussman having assumed the management of the Arlington hotel here 
about a year prior to his return to Chamberlain. Later they conducted 
the Tremont and the Merchants' hotels, in turn, and in December, 1898, 
rented their present building, known as the Mussman house, and this is 
one of the leading and most popular hotels in the city, no pains being 
spared in catering to the wants of the traveling public, while Mr. and 
Mrs. Mussman are known as the most genial and courteous, as well as 
capable, hotel folk. 

	Mr. Mussman has ever been a stalwart Republican' and has taken an 
active interest in the party cause. In the fall of 1902 he was elected 
to represent the seventeenth district in the state legislature, and he 
is proving an able member of that body. He is identified with Sioux 
Falls Lodge, No. 262, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and also 
with the local organizations of the Modern Woodmen of America and the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

	On the 24th of April, 1879, Mr. Mussman was united in marriage to 
Miss Mary Takal, of Decorah, Iowa, and they have five children: Mack H., 
who assists in the management of the hotel and who is secretary of the 
state fire commission; and Gertrude, Fannie, Charlotte and William, all 
of whom are at the parental home.