John Paul Bleeg Biography


	This biography appears on pages 928-931 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				JOHN PAUL BLEEG. 

	John Paul Bleeg, one of the progressive and successful business 
men of Sioux Falls, prominently connected with automobile interests 
being at the head of the John P. Bleeg Company, was born in Davenport, 
Iowa, October 5, 1870. He is a son of George and Katharine (Corht) 
Bleeg, the former born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the latter in 
Hamburg, Germany. 

	When John Paul Bleeg was eleven years of age his parents removed 
to Ainsworth, Iowa, where he attended school for five years, and was 
afterward for four years in school at Lenox, Iowa, and for five months 
a student in a business college at Creston, Iowa. At the age of twenty-
two he went on the road as salesman for a Council Bluffs business house 
and remained in that connection until the spring of 1902, when he came 
to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where, in partnership with E. H. Van 
Brunt, he opened a wholesale implement house. This business existed 
until August 1, 1909, when the partners disposed of their stock and 
began dealing in automobiles. In 1911 H. H. Van Brunt died and his 
brother, W. K. Van Brunt, became a member of the firm. In June, 1912, 
the company was reorganized under the name of the Van Brunt-Bleeg 
Company, but in the spring of 1914 Mr. Bleeg sold his interest and 
organized a new concern under the name of the John P. Bleeg Company. In 
that year he erected a fine modern building, in which he has since 
conducted a wholesale automobile business and garage. It is located on 
Ninth street and is known as the Bleeg building, it being the finest 
and most complete of its kind in the state. Mr. Bleeg handles the 
Hudson cars exclusively and his enterprise and business ability have 
done much toward promoting the material prosperity of Sioux Falls. He 
is known as a resourceful, farsighted and discriminating business man 
and has made these qualities the basis of a well deserved success. 

	On the 23d of November, 1903, at Andover, New York, Mr. Bleeg was 
united in marriage to Miss Agnes Pardon, and they have become the 
parents of two children: Katharine and John Pardon. Mr. Bleeg is a 
member of the Presbyterian church and gives his political allegiance to 
the republican party. He holds membership in the Elks, the Dacotah and 
Country Clubs and is widely and favorably known in the social life of 
Sioux Falls. He is one of the representative and popular citizens of 
the community and in business circles has made for himself an enviable 
position.