Joseph Wilhelm Wipf Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1220-1221 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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	JOSEPH WILHELM WIPF.—The subject of this sketch comes of staunch 
old Swiss lineage, though his ancestors for several generations have 
been established in the southern portion of Russia. The original 
representatives proceeded from Canton Unterwalden, Switzerland, into the 
Tyrol, Austria, and thence into Russia. Mr. Wipf is one of the 
enterprising and prominent young business men of Freeman, Hutchinson 
county, and has been a resident of South Dakota since 1879, in which 
year his parents emigrated from Russia and became pioneers of this 
commonwealth, the father having become one of the successful farmers of 
Hutchinson county. 

	Joseph W. Wipf was born in the colony of Huterthal, southern 
Russia, on the 12th of August, 1869, a son of Joseph and Susanna (Wurz) 
Wipf, who were reared and educated in Russia, the former there learning 
the blacksmith trade, to which he devoted his attention for a number of 
years, also engaging in farming. He continued to follow the later 
vocation after coming to South Dakota, and he died in Hutchinson county, 
on the 11th of November, 1888, respected by all who knew him. His wife 
survived him by nearly a decade, being summoned into eternal rest on the 
6th of November, 1898. Both were devoted members of the Mennonite 
church, and the father was a staunch Republican in politics, his life 
having been one of honest and earnest endeavor. 

	The subject of this sketch was eight years of age at the time his 
parents took up their abode on the pioneer farm in this county, and here 
he was reared to manhood, securing his early educational training in the 
public schools and supplementing this by a six-months course in the 
South Dakota State University, at Vermillion -—in 1888-9. In 1896-1897 
he was matriculated in the pharmaceutical department of the University 
of Iowa, at Iowa City, and was there graduated as a member of the class 
of 1897. In 1886 Mr. Wipf began teaching in the district schools of 
Hutchinson county, and continued in pedagogic work until 1892, in which 
latter year he held a clerkship as bookkeeper in the Bridgewater State 
Bank, while during the years 1893-4 he was bookkeeper in the hardware 
establishment of Meyer Brothers, in Bridgewater. Since 1897 he has been 
engaged in the drug business in Freeman, owning a half interest in the 
drug store conducted under the firm name of J. W. Wipf & Company. He 
also holds a half interest in the Freeman Telephone Company. In politics 
he gives his allegiance to the Republican party, and his religious faith 
is that of the Mennonite church, of which he has been a member since 
1889. Fraternally he is identified with Eureka Lodge, No. 71, Free and 
Accepted Masons, and Menno Camp, No. 3071, Modern Woodmen of America. 

	On the 13th of October, 1897, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Wipf to Miss Mary Graber, daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Graber, of 
Storkweather, North Dakota, and they became the parents of three 
children: Evelina, born November 11, 1898; Elva, born September 8, 1901, 
died two days later, and Edmund Filmore, born January 20, 1902.