John S. Vetter Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1286-1287 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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	JOHN S. VETTER has the distinction of being a native of the great 
western metropolis, the city of Chicago, where he was born on the 4th of 
March, 1857, being a son of George and Ursula (Knecht) Vetter, both of 
whom were born in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany. There also was 
born the paternal grandfather, George Vetter, who is a land owner and a 
man of influence in his community, having lived a retired life in 
Wurtemberg for a number of years prior to his death. The maternal 
grandfather of our subject was a merchant tailor by vocation. George 
Vetter, Jr., father of him whose name initiates this review, came to 
America before attaining his legal majority, arriving in 1849 and 
remaining a resident of Canada until 1851, when he removed to the city 
of Chicago, which then gave slight evidence of becoming a great 
metropolis. There he was for a time employed in the old Gage foundry and 
later became a minister in the German Evangelical church. He continued 
to be identified with the Illinois conference of this church until his 
death, and was assigned to various pastoral charges under its 
jurisdiction. In 1856 he was sent to Germany by the general conference 
of the church in the United States, passing two years in his fatherland 
and one year in Switzerland, and being accompanied by his family. He had 
previously served one year in the Union army during the war of the 
Rebellion, having enlisted as a member of the Seventy-sixth Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry and having been in the command of General Grant a 
portion of the time, while he was incumbent of the office of sergeant of 
his company at the time of his discharge, on account of physical 
disability. The father died in Aberdeen March 14, 1903. They became the 
parents of three children, of whom the subject is the youngest. 

	John S. Vetter was reared in Illinois, and after attending the 
public schools in various towns and cities in which his father was 
established as pastor, he entered Northwestern College, at Naperville, 
that state, where he continued his studies for two years. He then took 
up his abode in Kankakee, that state, where he became bookkeeper in the 
clothing establishment conducted by his uncle, John G. Knecht, with whom 
he remained five years, at the expiration of which he returned to 
Chicago, where he was for some time identified with the men's 
furnishing-goods business. In 1882 Mr. Vetter came to what is now the 
state of South Dakota and took up homestead, pre-emption and tree claims 
in Brown county, twelve miles northwest of Aberdeen. He at once began 
the work of developing and improving his property and still owns the 
same, while he has since added to his landed possessions until he now 
has a fine estate comprising two entire sections, while the same is 
devoted to diversified agriculture and to the raising of live stock. The 
permanent improvements on the place are of excellent order, and include 
a fine artesian well, sunk to a depth of eleven hundred feet. He raises 
principally wheat and corn, having had ninety acres of the latter in 
1903, while he gives special attention to the growing of the shorthorn 
type of cattle and the raising of hogs. 

	In politics Mr. Vetter is a staunch advocate of the principles of 
the Republican party, and has been an active worker in its cause. In 
I89r he was chosen clerk of the courts of Brown county, in which 
capacity he served four years, and in 1885-6 he was deputy sheriff, this 
being in the formative period of the history of the county, when 
lawlessness was often in evidence, making the office no sinecure. On the 
1st of February, 1898, Mr. Vetter was appointed register of the United 
States land office in Aberdeen, and on the 1st of March, 1902, was 
reappointed, by President Roosevelt, being the present incumbent of this 
responsible position and having given a most able administration of the 
affairs of the office. He has passed the degrees of York Rite Masonry 
and is also identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the 
Modern Woodmen of America and the Royal Arcanum, while he and his wife 
are zealous members of the Presbyterian church. 

	On the 12th of September, 1889, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Vetter to Miss Elizabeth Cole, who was born in New Jersey, being a 
daughter of James Cole, who came to South Dakota in 1883, and resided in 
Edmunds county on their removal to the state of Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. 
Vetter have two children, James H. and Ursula E.