Alexander Bertrand Biography


	This biography appears on page 629 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm


				ALEXANDER BERTRAND.

	Alexander Bertrand is superintendent of the Lawrence county poor 
farm at Deadwood. He was born in Bordeaux, France, October 18, 1855, a 
son of Marcell and Marcelle (Levis) Bertrand, the former a native of 
Bordeaux, while the latter was born in northern Italy. The father was a 
farmer by occupation and in the year 1864 he left France and with his 
family sailed for the new world, making his way to Montreal, Canada. He 
conducted a farm on the Ottawa river near Point Fortune to the time of 
his death, which occurred in 1893. For a number of years he had 
survived his wife, who died in 1880.

	Alexander Bertrand was brought to America at the age of nine 
years and was reared upon the home farm to the age of fourteen years, 
when he left the parental roof and began steamboating on the St. 
Lawrence river, being connected with the steward's department. He 
worked there for three summers and then went to Michigan, operating a 
blacksmith shop in partnership with an old friend, Mr. Bouillian. On 
leaving that state in 1876 he went to Aspen, Colorado, where he engaged 
in prospecting for a short time, when with some companions he started 
on foot for the Black Hills of South Dakota. En route he remained at 
Cheyenne, Wyoming, for a year and a half and arrived in the Black Hills 
in the spring of 1879. He then secured employment as a cook in the old 
Merchants Hotel at Deadwood for a short time, after which he obtained a 
position in the Gilmore Hotel and in the fall of 1880 became proprietor 
of a boarding house in Blacktail Gulch, where he remained until 1882. 
He afterward conducted the Overland Hotel in Deadwood until 1883 and 
subsequently conducted a summer hotel at Hudson, Quebec, for two years. 
In 1885 he returned to the Black Hills and became a cook in a 
restaurant at Lead for a year. He afterward conducted a restaurant in 
Galena, South Dakota, until 1890, when he entered the employ of 
Lawrence county as the jailer in Deadwood, remaining in that capacity 
until 1906, when he was appointed county superintendent of the poor 
farm. He has since occupied this position, covering a period of about 
nine years, and has made an excellent record in the office.

	In 1905 Mr. Bertrand was married to Mrs. Mabel Lindscott, of 
Deadwood. He is a republican in his political views and is well known 
in fraternal connections, being a prominent Mason. He holds membership 
in Central City Lodge, No. 22, A. F. & A. M.; Dakota Chapter, No. 3, R. 
A M.; Dakota Commandery, No. 1, K. T.; and Black Hills Consistory, No. 
3, S. P. R. S., having thus attained the thirty-second degree of the 
Scottish Rite. He is likewise a member of Naja Temple of the Nobles of 
the Mystic Shrine at Deadwood and he belongs to Eureka Lodge, No. 3, I. 
O. O. F. Deadwood. Starting out in life on his own account when but 
fourteen years of age, he has since been dependent entirely upon his 
own resources and has led a busy life, there being few idle hours in 
all the years that have since come and gone.