Richard T. Elrod Biography


	This biography appears on page 878 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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				RICHARD T. ELROD. 

	Real-estate activity at Vienna finds a worthy representative in 
Richard T. Elrod, who negotiates extensive property transfers and is 
conducting a business of large and gratifying proportions. He was born 
in Hendricks county, Indiana, on the 15th of July, 1876, a son of 
Charles W. and Mary Ellen (Orth) Elrod. The family name has figured on 
the pages of South Dakota's history since 1887, at which time the 
parents took up their abode in the village which bears the family name. 
There Mr. Elrod engaged in buying grain for five years and also carried 
on general farming. He survives, making his home at that place, but his 
wife has passed away. 

	Richard T. Elrod received a public-school education and was thus 
qualified for life's practical and responsible duties. When his school 
days were over he concentrated his energies upon agricultural pursuits 
and was engaged in farming until he attained his majority. He afterward 
learned the barber's trade, which he followed for eleven years, and in 
1908 he opened a real-estate office in Vienna. In the intervening 
period, covering more than six years, he has continued active in that 
field of business and is now largely engaged in handling land in Hamlin 
and Clark counties, his sales having amounted to two hundred thousand 
dollars in a single year. He knows thoroughly the values of realty in 
this part of the state, is acquainted with the property that is upon 
the market and is thus able to promote negotiations that have been 
equally beneficial to buyer and seller. 

	On the 14th of January, 1901, Mr. Elrod was united in marriage to 
Miss Hariett M. Coe, a daughter of Samuel A. Coe, a pioneer of Clark 
county, and they have become parents of four children, Lucille, Burton, 
Alice and Maxine. Mr. Elrod enjoys a hunting trip or a country run in 
his motor ear and thus finds recreation from the arduous cares of 
business. He is a member of the school board and cooperates heartily in 
plans for the improvement and upbuilding of his town. In politics he is 
a republican, while fraternally he is a Woodman and in religious faith 
is a Methodist.