C. A. Melgaard Biography


	This biography appears on pages 259-260 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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				C. A. MELGAARD.  

	C. A. Melgaard, who is engaged in the automobile and implement 
business at Volin, belongs to that class of enterprising men who have 
been the real builders and promoters of the west. He has been a 
resident of South Dakota since the spring of 1875 and in every possible 
way has cooperated in the work of general development and improvement 
as the years have gone by. He was, however, but a small child at the 
time of his arrival in this state. His father, G. A. Melgaard, was born 
at Odalen, Norway, while his mother, who bore the maiden name of Anna 
Maria Jensen, was a native of Denmark. They came to America when single 
and settled in Racine, Wisconsin, where they were married. The father 
worked in the wagon factory of Fish Brothers at that place but 
afterward removed to Chicago, where he engaged in clerking in a dry-
goods store. In the spring of 1875 he brought his family to Dakota and 
settled on a claim in Turner county two and a half miles southwest of 
Viborg, then known as Daneville. Mr. Melgaard and his sister were the 
only Norwegians in the settlement, all the other residents of the 
district being of Danish birth.  

	C. A. Melgaard was born in Chicago and was only about two and a 
half years old when the family removed to Dakota. He was reared upon 
the home farm and remembers many incidents of the early days, including 
the periods when the crops were destroyed by grasshoppers. His father's 
crops were thus devastated for four or five years. In his youth he 
aided in fighting prairie fires and vividly recalls one that was nearly 
fatal to him when he was a little fellow. With his mother he was 
visiting in Clay county. He and a little girl playmate were out on the 
prairie when the fire came down, driven before the wind. His mother ran 
and gathered both children in her arms and escaped to plowed ground but 
the smoke almost strangled them.  

In 1898 Mr. Melgaard married and began farming on his own 
account, living on rented land for ten years. He then removed to Volin 
and in 1908 embarked in the implement business. A year later, in 
connection with W. O. Nelson, he opened a hardware store, the 
partnership continuing for three years, at the end of which time Mr. 
Melgaard sold his interest. In 1912, in partnership with T. A. Wright, 
he engaged in the implement and automobile business and in 1913 his 
partner sold out to Ira S. Myron, so that the firm is now Melgaard &; 
Myron. They do an extensive business, for they are situated in the 
midst of a fine agricultural region and there is a demand for farm 
machinery of all kinds. They also handle the Ford and Overland 
automobiles and have an excellent sale for those machines and they 
maintain a garage and sell all kinds of automobile supplies.  

It was in Sioux Falls, on the 1st of March, 1898, that Mr. 
Melgaard was united in marriage to Miss Lily Meberg, who died ten years 
later, leaving a son, Duane. Mr. Melgaard holds membership in the 
Methodist Episcopal church and his life is guided by its teachings. His 
political support is given to the republican party. He is a member of 
the Masonic lodge and has taken the thirty-second degree in the 
Scottish Rite, belonging to Oriental Consistory, No. 1, at Yankton, and 
is a most exemplary representative of the craft. He is a good business 
man and a good citizen, loyal to the interests of his community and 
thoroughly reliable in all relations of life. Energy and determination 
are carrying him far on the road to success and the firm of Melgaard & 
Myron is rewarded as one of the strong commercial combinations of 
Yankton county.