Ole H. Smith Biography

	This biography appears on pages 714-715 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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	OLE H. SMITH is another of the citizens of foreign birth who have 
attained success in connection with the commercial and industrial 
development of South Dakota, of which state he is a pioneer, having 
come here as a young man and without capitalistic resources and being 
today numbered among the representative and influential citizens of 
Dell Rapids, Minnehaha county. where he is president of the Granite 
City Bank and prominently identified with the live-stock industry.  

	Mr. Smith was born near the city of Christiania, Norway, on the 
11th of May, 1846, and is a son of Ove R. M. and Sophie Smith, both of 
whom passed their entire lives in Norway. Our subject received his 
early educational training in the schools of his native land, where he 
remained until he had attained the age of twenty-three years, when he 
came to America, in 1869, believing that in our great republic were to 
be had greater opportunities for attaining success through individual 
effort, while it is needless to say that he has found his faith amply 
justified. He first located in Rushford, Fillmore county, Minnesota, 
where he was for three years employed as clerk in a general store, and 
he then established himself in the same line of business in that town, 
where he continued operations for four years, at the expiration of 
which, in 1876, he came to what is now the state of South Dakota and 
became one of the pioneer merchants of Dell Rapids, where he conducted 
a general store until 1889, having built up a large and prosperous 
business. In the year mentioned he disposed of his store and business 
and effected the organization of the Granite City Bank, of which he has 
been the president during the entire period of its existence, directing 
its executive policy with marked ability and discrimination and making 
it one of the solid financial institutions of this part of the state. 
For the past five years he has also been prominently interested in the 
live-stock industry and is one of the leading stock growers of this 
part of the state, giving special attention to the raising of 
registered Hereford cattle and Poland-China hogs and having a finely 
improved stock farm of nine hundred acres, one mile north of Dell 
Rapids. He came to the state as a poor man and is today one of its 
substantial capitalists, having attained success through his own 
efforts and by properly availing himself of the opportunities 
presented. Mr. Smith has ever shown a deep appreciation of the state 
and nation of his adoption and has been loyal to their government and 
institutions, while he has manifested much public spirit and civic 
pride. He is a staunch Republican in politics and in 1896 was elected 
mayor of Dell Rapids, giving a most creditable administration and being 
chosen as his own successor in 1898, so that his regime as chief 
executive extended over a period of four years. He has shown a lively 
interest in the party cause and has been a delegate to numerous 
territorial and state conventions, besides those of minor order. He and 
his wife are valued members of the Lutheran church, and fraternally he 
is identified with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows.  

	In 1873 Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Albertha Olson, 
who died in the following year. In 1876 he wedded her sister, Miss 
Jacobina Wilson, whose death occurred in 1892. Of the children of this 
union we record that Rammel M. is a resident of New York city; Gina A. 
is at the present time taking a course of musical instruction in 
Berlin, Germany; Henrietta J. is a student in the University of Chicago 
and is also a student in the Chicago Musical College; Valborg S. is 
attending Smith College, at Northampton, Massachusetts; and Henry M. is 
a student in the high school of his home town. On the 28th of April, 
1896, Mr. Smith consummated a third marriage being then united to Miss 
Anna Strom, of Dell Rapids, and they have one child, Bergliot M.