Charles D. Tidrick Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1507-1508 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	CHARLES D. TIDRICK, one of the representative and highly esteemed 
citizens of Chamberlain, is a native of Winterset, Iowa, where he was 
born on the 24th of May, 1863, being a son of Levi M. and Martha (Bell) 
Tidrick, of whose eleven children seven are living, namely: Lee; a 
resident of Winterset, Iowa; Addie, wife of O. M. White, of that place; 
Grace wife of E. W. Geiger, of Ottawa, Kansas; Hoyt, Joseph and George, 
all residents of Winterset. and Charles D., the immediate subject of 
this sketch. Levi Tidrick was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, in 1827, 
and when twenty years of age he removed thence to St. Louis, Missouri, 
where his brother, Robert L., a prominent attorney and receiver of the 
land office, was then residing, and in 1848 they both went to Winterset, 
Iowa, where the father of our subject took up his perrmanent abode, his 
brother eventually removing to the city of Des Moines. Levi Tidrick was 
married at Winterset, and took up the study of medicine, being enabled 
to defray nearly the entire expense of his course in the St. Louis 
Medical College, and receiving some financial assistance from his 
brother Robert. After his graduation in this institution Dr. Tidrick 
continued in the active practice of his profession in Winterset until 
his death, in 1896, at the age of sixty-nine years. His death was the 
result of exposure in Florida. where he passed the winter of that year 
on his orange farm, the season being one in which the severe frosts did 
do great damage to the Florida fruit crops. The Doctor was widely known 
and much loved in his section of Iowa, and his death was deeply lamented 
in his home town. His widow still resides in Winterset. 

	Charles D. Tidrick acquired his early educational discipline in 
the public schools of his home village, being graduated in the Winterset 
high school and then entering the Normal School at Ladoga Indiana, later 
continuing his studies at the State University of Iowa at Iowa City, 
where he was a student for four years. After leaving school he passed a 
short interval in Indian Territory, and in the spring of 1884 came to 
Beresford, South Dakota, where he secured a position as auditor for F. 
M. Slagle & Company, lumber dealers. He retained this responsible office 
about five years, being located at the firm's yards in Alton, Iowa. In 
1888 he was elected recorder of Sioux county, that state, on the 
Democratic ticket, his victory at the polls being the more noteworthy by 
reason of the fact that the county had a normal Republican plurality of 
about one thousand at the time. He was re-elected in 1890, thus serving 
two terms. 

	In 1893 Mr. Tidrick effected the organization of the German 
Savings Bank in Alton, disposing of his interests in the same in the 
fall of that year, when he came to Chamberlain. Here, in the spring of 
1894, in company with G. W. Pitts, he organized the Bank of Iowa & 
Dakota, of which he became president. In 1896 they sold the bank and 
purchased the electric-lighting and gas plants of Chamberlain, which 
they have since owned and operated. Mr. Tidrick is the owner of twenty-
five hundred acres of valuable land in Brule county, and fifteen hundred 
acres in contiguous counties, while he conducts a large business in the 
real-estate line, and in the extending of financial loans, as well as in 
the insurance and abstracting departments of his business. Mr. Tidrick 
built and now owns the gas plant at Chamberlain. He is a stalwart 
Democrat in politics, and is now a member of the board of aldermen of 
his town. In 1897 he was appointed United States commissioner for this 
district, and is strictly serving in this capacity. Fraternally he is 
identified with Chamberlain Lodge, No. 56, Free and Accepted Masons; 
Chamberlain Lodge. No. 88, Ancient Order of United Workmen; Sioux Falls 
Lodge, No. 262. Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Castle Lodge, 
No. 10, Knights of Pythias, and Sioux Tent, Knights of the Maccabees. 

	In 1893, Mr. Tidrick was married to Miss Lillian Love, of Albion, 
Indiana, and they have three daughters, Eugenia, Mary and Frances.