W. B. Wolcott Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1679-1680 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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	W. B. WOLCOTT, who is one of the leading merchants and honored 
citizens of White Lake, Aurora county, is a native of the Empire state 
of the Union, having been born in Batavia, Orleans county, New York, on 
the 28th of January, 1863, and being a son of J. Warren and Susan 
(Hayward) Wolcott, of whose six children four are living, namely: Kate 
M., wife of E. M. Chamberlain, of Findlay, Ohio; Nellie A., wife of E. 
F. Janes, of Erie county, Pennsylvania; Margaret H., a resident of 
Alden, New York; and W. B., the subject of this sketch. J. Warren 
Wolcott was born in Orleans county, New York, in 1828, his parents 
having emigrated thither from Connecticut, where the family was founded 
in the colonial epoch, the ancestry being of French Huguenot derivation. 
Oliver Wolcott, Jr., a great-uncle of the subject was the first 
comptroller of the United States treasury and upon the death of 
Alexander Hamilton was appointed secretary of the treasury. The father 
of our subject devoted his active life to agricultural pursuits in 
western New York and is now living retired in the town of Alden, that 
state. He is a Democrat in politics and while never an office seeker he 
served for one or more terms as sheriff of Orleans county. His wife, who 
was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, in 1830, of English ancestry, 
died in 1871, at the age of forty-one years, having been a devoted 
member of the Presbyterian church, with which her husband likewise has 
been identified for many years. 

	W. B. Wolcott was reared on the home farm and his early 
educational advantages were those afforded by the public schools of the 
city of Buffalo, New York. At the early age of fifteen years he secured 
employment as clerk in a grocery in that city, and to this line of 
effort he there continued to devote his attention until 1883, when he 
came to the territory of Dakota, working on a farm in Aurora county for 
the first two years and then securing a position in the lumber yard of 
Warren Dye, of White Lake, with whom he remained two years. He then 
returned to the state of New York, where he remained about seventeen 
months, at the expiration of which, in February, 1888, he again took up 
his residence in White Lake, securing a clerkship in the general store 
of H. Hofmeister, in whose employ he continued about eleven years. In 
the spring of 1900 Mr. Wolcott engaged in the same line of enterprise on 
his own responsibility, and he has now a well-equipped store and 
controls a large business, the same being the result of his correct 
methods and marked personal popularity in the community. He is a staunch 
adherent of the Republican party, and fraternally is prominently 
identified with the Masonic order, being a member of White Lake Lodge, 
No. 85, Free and Accepted Masons; Pilgrim Chapter, No. 32, Royal Arch 
Masons; St. Bernard Commandery, No. 11, Knights Templar, at Mitchell; 
Oriental Consistory; No. 1, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, at Yankton; 
and El Riad Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the 
Mystic Shrine, in Sioux Falls while he also holds membership in White 
Lake Lodge, No. 84, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

	On the 25th of August, 1898, Mr. Wolcott was united in marriage to 
Miss Ida Ponto, of Charles City, Iowa, she being a daughter of the late 
Martin Ponto, a prominent farmer of that locality.