Fred Donaldson, Sr. Biography


	This biography appears on pages 720-721 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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				FRED DONALDSON, SR. 

	One of the important commercial enterprises of Yankton is that 
conducted under the name of Fred Donaldson Company, of which the 
subject of this review is the president, its location being at Nos. 300 
to 310 East Third street. The enterprising methods followed in the 
conduct of the business make it a standard for others and the life 
record of Mr. Donaldson constitutes an example of what may be 
accomplished when energy, determination and ambition point out the way. 
Born in Stockholm, Sweden, on the 21st of January, 1849, he is a son of 
Frederick and Matilda Donaldson, both of whom were natives of Sweden 
and are now deceased. With their family of three children they 
emigrated to the United States in 1851, landing in New York, and from 
that city made their way westward to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where they 
remained until the death of the father. 

	Fred Donaldson, Sr., never had a day's schooling in his life. 
Circumstances, the result of his father's death, made it necessary for 
him to earn his own living from a very early age and assist in the 
support of the family. His youth was a period of earnest and 
unremitting toil, his manhood has been one of intense and well directed 
business activity, and the most envious cannot grudge him his success--
so worthily has it been won. He was a youth of but fifteen years when 
he enlisted in the Fifty-second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry as a 
member of Company D in 1864. Being still too young to enlist according 
to the age of military restriction but being large and strong for his 
years, he claimed that he was eighteen and thus was allowed to join the 
regiment, with which he served until the close of the war. After 
hostilities were over he returned to Manitowoc, where he remained until 
1869, when he brought his mother to Dakota Territory, settling in 
Yankton county, ten miles northeast of the city of Yankton, taking up a 
preemption on one hundred and sixty acres. This he proved up on and 
thus laid the foundation for his fortune. He arrived in Yankton with 
but three dollars in his pocket and slept in a barn the first night. 
His first work was cutting wood on the Nebraska side of the river and 
in this way he made a little money, with which he purchased the skiff 
that he used as a means of crossing the river with freight and 
passengers. He afterward built a flat boat and began ferrying teams, 
cattle, etc., over the river. The following summer a regular ferry boat 
was brought to Yankton by the Bramble & Miner Company and by that firm 
he was employed for eleven years, acting as captain of the ferry boat 
for seven years of that time. At length the ferry boat was sold to 
Captain Grant Marsh and Mr. Donaldson continued in his employ as 
captain of the boat. 

	In 1881 he established a feed mill and wood yard, which he 
conducted for four years, meeting with splendid success in the 
undertaking. He lived frugally and with his earnings he purchased 
property. He continued to handle wood and coal and in 1893 he enlarged 
the scope of his commercial pursuits by adding a grocery department to 
his established business which included a feed mill as well as fuel 
yard. He was also in the lumber business independently. His activities 
constantly reached out and in addition to his other interests he 
operated an elevator, engaged in the butter and egg business and bought 
stock on the local market for shipment to Chicago. In 1899 he erected a 
store building on East Third street, a part of his present location, 
although the original structure was but twenty-five by one hundred and 
ten feet. This building was built of brick made on his farm and 
contains the grocery and bakery which were added to the original store. 
The second building, in which is the large meat market, was erected in 
1903, and in 1912 he added the third room, in which he carries a 
complete line of hardware, tinware, etc. He still further broadened the 
scope of his interests by adding the most complete mechanical 
refrigerating plant in the northwest. On his farm, "Wonderland," where 
complete feed yards are maintained, he has a slaughter house, where the 
meat is killed for the fine meat market which he conducts This concern 
is the largest of its kind in the northwest, employing twenty men and 
four delivery wagons. His mercantile interests have continually 
increased, bringing a most satisfactory financial return, and in other 
fields of business equal success has come to him. On his farm, which he 
calls "Wonderland," situated a mile and a half from town, he has a fine 
lake, eight hundred by three hundred feet, and there are the 
possibilities of an amusement park, with bath houses, etc. He purchased 
the property in 1899 and developed the artificial lake, which is now 
well stocked with game fish. Mr. Donaldson has developed his business 
himself and made it the largest in the west. In addition to his 
extensive interests which have been mentioned Mr. Donaldson has two 
farms near Rapid City, South Dakota. 

	On the 11th of September, 1872, was celebrated the marriage of 
Mr. Donaldson and Miss Hilda Christina Nyberg, daughter of Hans 
Fredrick Nyberg, of Hjorsderga, Hakafors, Sweden Mr. and Mrs. Donaldson 
have become the parents of five children: Fred Oscar; Alma, the wife of 
Harry M. Beck, of Yankton, this state; Sanford, who is secretary and 
treasurer of the Fred Donaldson Company; Helen, the wife of Robert 
Ferris, of Yankton; and Arthur, who is vice president of the Fred 
Donaldson Company. 

	In his political views Mr. Donaldson has long been an earnest 
republican, but never au aspirant for office. He belongs to the Grand 
Army post at Yankton and thus maintains pleasant relations with the 
boys in blue who were active in the defense of the Union while he, too, 
was a soldier upon the battlefields of the south. He is affiliated with 
the Congregational church and honorable principles have guided him in 
every relation of life. He works hard and persistently and it seems 
that there is no phase of business with which he has become connected 
that he has not successfully handled. He has always been his own 
architect, making the plans for the numerous buildings which he has 
erected. There have been in his life few idle moments. In fact, an 
unremitting concentration and strict attention to the duties at hand 
have been salient features in his growing success, which has brought 
him eventually to a foremost position among the men of enterprise in 
South Dakota. A spirit of progress has actuated him at every point in 
his career and, while he has met with individual success, his 
undertakings have also been of a character which has contributed as 
well to public prosperity.