H. Van Ruschen Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1002, 1003 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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				H. VAN RUSCHEN. 

	H. Van Ruschen is a practicing attorney of Marion, Turner 
county.. He was born in Illinois on the 4th of April, 1877, a son of W. 
and Johanna (Addengast) Van Ruschen. The family came to South Dakota in 
1879 and settled on a homestead near Chancellor. During the first year 
of their residence here a cyclone destroyed their cabin, then the 
grasshoppers and the drought came and no crops were produced. The 
family bore many hardships and privations incident to frontier life 
under such conditions, but in time their courage and determination 
triumphed and success came to them. The father is now living retired in 
Marion 

	H. Van Ruschen was educated in the district schools and afterward 
held various clerical positions. At length he determined upon the 
practice of law as a life work and with that end ill view began reading 
in the office and under the direction of the firm of Jones & Jones of 
Parker. In 1906 he took the bar examination and was admitted to 
practice and in December of the same year was admitted to practice in 
the United States courts. He is the pioneer lawyer of Marion and has 
resided there continuously since 1888. From the first he has been 
accorded a large and distinctively representative clientage and his 
ability has advanced him to a front rank among the able lawyers of his 
part of the state. 

	On the 16th of September, 1909, Mr. Van Ruschen was united in 
marriage to Miss Susan Vogt, her father being Jacob F. Vogt, a pioneer 
of this state. To this union has been born a daughter, Mildred. 

	In religious faith Mr. Van Ruschen is a Protestant and in 
politics is independent, with leanings toward the progressive party. 
Fraternally he is an Elk, an Odd Fellow, a Woodman, a Yeoman and a 
Loyal American, and he is also connected with the Rebekah degree of Odd 
Fellowship. He has been identified with the local newspaper of Marion 
and he has served as president of the Commercial Club and of the local 
improvement club. He is treasurer of the Cemetery Association. On 
several occasions he has been called to public office, as he served as 
city attorney from 1908 to 1912, and has also been justice of the peace 
and school clerk, while in 1909 he was elected to represent his 
district in the state legislature. He made a creditable record and 
received the endorsement of his fellow townsmen but declined a 
reelection. In 1915 he was again appointed city attorney. He has ever 
worked for the advancement and upbuilding of the community in which he 
makes his home and has ever endorsed those plans and movements which 
are a matter of civic virtue and civic pride. His worth is widely 
acknowledged by his fellow townsmen, who find in him a man worthy of 
public trust and one whose devotion to the general good stands above 
question.