Charles Fantle Biography


	This biography appears on pages 915-916 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


				CHARLES FANTLE. 

	The name of Charles Fantle has come to be regarded as a synonym 
for progress and development in Sioux Falls, for during the period of 
over nineteen years that he has been connected with business interests 
there his influence has been a powerful force ill community 
advancement. From a small beginning he and his brother Sam, comprising 
the firm of Fantle Brothers, have developed one of the leading dry-
goods stores in the state and in consequence of this have taken their 
places among the substantial and able men of the city. 

	Charles Fantle was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, November 18, 
1862, and is a son of Charles and Regina (Gregor) Fantle. He acquired 
his education in the public schools of his native state and since 
laying aside his textbooks has been engaged in business. He and his 
brother Sam located in Sioux Falls in May, 1896, and opened up a dry-
goods store in a single storeroom twenty-two feet wide, near their 
present location. A year later a building forty-four by one hundred and 
twenty-five feet was erected especially for the firm and at the end of 
another year a second store was added. Some years later the adjoining 
lot was purchased by Fantle Brothers and the store was enlarged to 
occupy these three fronts, sixty-six feet each, the business taking up 
both floors and the entire basement. In 1910 Fantle Brothers rebuilt 
the store and added a third story. They have modernized the entire 
property and the store is today ideal in its appointment, modern in 
detail and beautiful from every view. It has the advantage of 
elevators, rest rooms and writing rooms and free telephones for the 
customers. 

	When the Fantles opened their store in Sioux Falls it was a small 
dry-goods establishment but it has grown step by step with the 
advancement and development of the northwest. Not content with keeping 
pace with the growth of the city, Fantle Brothers have looked beyond 
the present, foreseeing the certain development of the northwest, and 
they planned the business and built the store for the future. Because 
of this attitude Fantle Brothers have always been reckoned with when 
predictions have been made of what Sioux Falls is yet to be. They have 
done more than build additions to their store, add new lines and 
increase their stock. They have built a name that counts for more than 
the magnitude of the business. To mention Fantle Brothers means to call 
to mind clean and honest merchandising, fair and honorable business 
methods, a policy of giving a dollar's worth of value for every dollar 
received. It has always been a custom for these merchants to keep in 
close personal touch with their customers and they employ only clerks 
who make friends with their patrons. 

	They not only study how to sell merchandise but they strive to 
meet the wishes of the people and to completely satisfy their 
customers. This has been a dominating characteristic of Fantle 
Brothers. They do not permit their clerks to make extravagant claims 
for their merchandise when endeavoring to make a sale and their 
advertisements contain no untruthful or misleading statements. On the 
great first floor is found a varied stock comparable to that been in 
great department stores of the largest cities. The ladies, ready-made 
suits and coats, the millinery, the muslin underwear and the furs are 
on the second floor. The third floor has the carpets, draperies, 
linoleums, crockery and chinaware and house furnishing goods. The 
dressmaking department, which has been instituted in recent years and 
where the alterations in suits and cloaks are made, is in a building 
adjoining the main store. The basement is used for a stock room. 

	At St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1892, Charles Fantle married Miss 
Lillie Plechner and the children of this union are Bernice and 
Benjamin. Mr. Fantle belongs to the Elks and to the Country Club, is a 
blue lodge Mason and is identified also with the Knights of Pythias. He 
is a director in the State Bank and Trust Company of Sioux Falls. His 
career furnishes many splendid examples of the value of energy, 
perseverance and enterprise in the development of success. for his 
present great prosperity has been won solely by his own efforts.