Martin P. Ohlman Biography


	This biography appears on pages 265-266 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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				MARTIN P. OHLMAN.  

	Important and extensive are the business connections of Martin P. 
Ohlman, who since 1870 has been continuously connected with the 
commercial and industrial development and financial interests of 
Yankton. Notably energetic, prompt and reliable, he possesses in large 
measure that quality of common sense which is too often lacking in the 
business world and which has enabled him to correctly judge of his 
opportunities and advantages. A native of Germany, he was born in 
Schleswig-Holstein, on the 12th of September, 1846, a son of Peter M. 
Ohlman, who spent his entire life in Germany, his birth having there-
occurred in 1797 and his death in 1847. He was proprietor of a tannery 
and also engaged in the manufacture of gloves. He married Marie 
Krimling, who has also long since passed away, her death occurring in 
1853. They had a family of six children, three sons and three 
daughters. All of the sisters came to America and two are yet living, 
but the brothers of our subject have passed away.  

	Martin P. Ohlman was educated in the Hadersleben Academy and the 
desire for broader experience and wide business opportunities led him 
to bid adieu to the fatherland when in his twentieth year and come to 
the United States. He made his way direct to Yankton, where he arrived 
on the 7th of July, 1866, being a guest of the old Ash Hotel. He had no 
capital, but was willing to work at anything that would yield him an 
honest living. He was employed at various occupations during the three 
months of his stay there, after which he went to Sioux City, where he 
secured a clerkship in the Northwestern Hotel, spending a year there. 
He next took a position in the wholesale grocery house of Tootle & 
Charles in the capacity of salesman and buyer. In those days that house 
was the great shipping and forwarding house for the upper Missouri 
river, handling all supplies for the government and Indian agencies. 
Their business reached mammoth proportions, for they loaded many boats 
daily. Mr. Ohlman occupied that position of responsibility for three 
years and then, in 1870, returned to Yankton, where he established the 
wholesale house of Adler & Ohlman. From the beginning the enterprise 
proved a profitable one and was successfully conducted for twenty 
years, or until 1890. At that date Mr. Adler removed to Chicago and the 
business was closed out, Mr. Ohlman turning his attention to other 
things. On the 1st of July, 1890, he incorporated the American State 
Bank and became its first president. He has since continued in that 
position and has helped to make the bank one of the strong financial 
institutions of the northwest. It is capitalized for twenty-five 
thousand dollars, has a surplus of twelve thousand five hundred dollars 
and undivided profits of ten thousand dollars and is the third in size 
of the Yankton banks. The scope of his business activities and 
investments, however, is a broad one, for he is a director and 
treasurer of the Yankton Gas Company, a director of the Yankton 
Telephone Company, a director and treasurer of the Yankton Bridge & 
Ferry Company, a stockholder in the Yankton Brick & Tile Company, and a 
director of the United States Annuity Life Insurance Company, Chicago. 
He also has large real-estate holdings, having made extensive purchases 
of property in Yankton, and he likewise has various investments outside 
of the city.  

	It would be but to give a one-sided view of Mr. Ohlman, however, 
to mention him only as a business man, for he has been active along 
other lines, especially in matters of public concern. His political 
endorsement has long been given to the republican party and he has ever 
kept well informed on the questions and issues before the people. For 
four terms he served as county commissioner and for three terms filled 
the office of alderman. He was likewise city treasurer of Yankton for 
one term and for twelve years was a member of the board of education, 
doing much to further the interests of public instruction in this city. 
He has stood for its moral development as an active member of the 
Episcopal church, in which he served as vestryman for a number of 
years. Since early in the year 1885 he has been a member of the Masonic 
fraternity and upon him has been conferred the honorary thirty-third 
degree. He has held high office in the Royal Arch chapter and in the 
commandery and is the present grand treasurer of the grand commandery 
of South Dakota, which position he has filled with credit and honor to 
the organization for the past ten years. He holds membership in St. 
John's Lodge, No. 1, A. F. & A. M.; Yankton Chapter, No. 1, R. A. M.; 
De Molay Commandery, No. 3, K. T.; Oriental Consistory, No. 1, and in 
1907 was made inspector general honorary of the thirty-third degree at 
Washington, D. C. Since 1868 he has been affiliated with the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, which he joined in Sioux City, 
afterward transferring his membership to the Yankton lodge, in which he 
has filled all of the chairs. He has likewise served as grand treasurer 
of the grand lodge of Dakota Territory for six years.  

	On the 7th of November, 1871, Mr. Ohlman was united in marriage 
to Miss Emilie Oesterling, a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and a 
daughter of Joachim and Marie Oesterling. They were married in Dakota 
City, Nebraska. The family home was established in Sioux City in 1856 
and there Mr. Oesterling opened the old Des Moines House, the first 
hotel of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Ohlman have become parents of three 
daughters and two sons: Maud E., the wife of Dr. D. R. Rudgers, of San 
Diego, California; Wilfred Julius, who is a druggist and chemist at 
Sioux City, Iowa; Amy, the wife of C. H. Ross, president of the Ross 
Lumber Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Martin. P., Jr., who is 
engaged in the insurance business in Yankton; and Marie Augusta, at 
home.  

	Mr. Ohlman is interested in the support of the Sacred Heart 
Hospital, of which he is one of the trustees, and he is taking a most 
helpful and active part in the construction of the new hospital 
building. He has traveled extensively over America and Europe, finding 
in this a pleasurable source of recreation, and he also enjoys 
motoring. Persistency and hard work have been potent factors in 
bringing him his success and his has been a creditable record inasmuch 
as he started out in life in the new world empty handed and without 
influential friends to aid him. The period of struggle of the early 
years has given way now to the comfort enjoyed through the competence 
which he has acquired. lee was never afraid of hard work and as he 
advanced step by step in his business career there came to him broader 
opportunities and better advantages lentil he has long been accounted 
one of the foremost business men of Yankton, in which city he has 
resided since pioneer times.