Theodore Rix Biography

	This biography appears on page 735 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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	THEODORE RIX, well known as a leading and representative 
agriculturist of Yankton county, South Dakota, was born in Denmark on 
the 11th of January, 1845, and is a son of Joachim and Sarine Rix. His 
mother died at his birth and his father passed away in 1864, both being 
lifelong residents of Denmark. The latter was twice married and had 
four children by the first union, our subject being the youngest, and 
three by the second.  

	Theodore Rix was reared and educated in the land of his birth and 
was twenty-five years of age when he crossed the Atlantic in 1870, 
landing in New York city. He had previously learned the carpenter's 
trade and soon found employment in a sawmill in Michigan. After the 
great Chicago fire in the fall of 1871, he worked at his trade in that 
city for a time and was also employed on brick work in Indiana. 
Subsequently he worked in lumber camps and sawmills in Michigan and in 
1876 went to Waterloo, Iowa, where he was employed on a farm for two 
years. On the expiration of that time he came to South Dakota, arriving 
in Yankton county in January, 1878, and there he bought one hundred and 
sixty acres of government land. For some time he lived in true pioneer 
style, his home being a dugout, and he began the cultivation of his 
land with ox-teams. In 1879 he took a timber claim of one hundred and 
sixty acres and has since added another eighty acres to his farm, so 
that he now has four hundred acres on which there is a nice grove of 
about sixty thousand trees. Mr. Rix has not confined his attention 
wholly to agricultural pursuits but has continued to follow his trade 
and has erected many houses throughout the county besides the buildings 
on his own place. In 1899 he built for himself a fine story-and-a-half 
residence, the main part of which is twenty-four by twenty six feet in 
dimensions, while the L is eighteen by twenty-four feet, and he has 
also erected a good barn and substantial outbuildings upon his place, 
making it one of the best improved farms of the locality.  

	On the 19th of December, 1883, Mr. Rix led to the marriage altar 
Miss Katherina Jensen, and to them have been born an interesting family 
of nine children, namely: Joachim, Christian, Maria Anna, Frederick, 
Bertha, Louisa, Sarah and Ida. They have been provided with good 
educational advantages, and Joachim has attended high school in 
Nebraska and college in Des Moines. The sons assist their father in the 
operation of the home farm and are very industrious, energetic young 
men.  

	Mr. Rix is now a member of the board of directors of the Farmers' 
Mutual Insurance Company and is president of the Irene Creamery 
Association. He carries on general farming and stock raising, feeding 
quite a number of cattle and hogs for market. His political support is 
given the Republican party and its principles and he is actively 
interested in school work. Religiously both he and his wife are members 
of the Lutheran church and they are held in high regard by all who know 
them.