George Nelson Breed Biography This biography appears on pages 252-253 in "History of Dakota Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (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 GEORGE NELSON BREED. George Nelson Breed was born near Bloomington, Wisconsin, October 16, 1857. At the age of sixteen years he entered the office of the Advocate, a newspaper published at Lane caster, Wisconsin, as an apprentice. A year later the Advocate suspended and he secured employment with M. P. Rindlaub on the Platteville Witness, with which paper he was connected for three years. He afterward worked as a printer at Galesburg, Illinois, and at River Falls and Brodhead, Wisconsin, and after coming to Brookings, South Dakota, on the 26th of October, 1880, he worked on the Press. During that memorable winter of deep snow, blizzards and blockades, with the consequent deprivations, Mr. Breed twice made trips to Aurora, a distance of six miles and return, to secure paper on which to print the Press. He organized the first temperance society in Brookings county and was otherwise connected with the moral progress and uplift of the community, being elected the second Sunday-school superintendent in Brookings at a time when all denominations met together in the Methodist Episcopal church. With almost every feature of benefit in the life of the community he was connected. He was a member of the first cornet band in the city, organized in 1882, and the same year he launched the Brookings County Sentinel, which he sold but afterward bought back and merged with the Brookings Register, which he started in 1890. In 1907 he organized the Register Publishing Company and also began the publication of the Minnesota and Dakota Farmer, which had a phenomenal growth under his able management. In 1908 he was appointed postmaster of Brookings and held the office for four years. He devoted his entire time to his duties and assisted in the organization of the Tri-State Postmasters, Association, composed of postmasters of Minnesota and North and South Dakota. Of this he was elected the president. In the establishment of the handsome new post office building in Brookings he had all the preliminary details to work out for the department. His record as postmaster is an enviable one and he left the service with a splendid reputation for initiative and efficiency. In 1913 he launched the South Dakota Home Messenger, making this the fourth newspaper which he had started in his city, where he has resided continuously for thirty-five years. Men who are aggressive, even though unselfish in their motives, always have enemies. This criterion holds good in the subject of this sketch. His fight against the saloons, which were dispensed with by the city twenty-five years ago and have since been kept out, his fight for the municipal ownership of all public utilities, including the electric lighting, telephone, waterworks and central steam-heating systems, have proven a boon to the city and furnish revenues for public improvements. All these have received his determined support against the strongest opposition of those who were personally interested in controlling them. He has never faltered, however, in his course for the benefit and upbuilding of Brookings and the advancement of its interests along material, intellectual and moral lines and also the line of social reform and civic progress. Mr. Breed was a representative for Brookings county at the first convention held for statehood in Sioux Falls and also attended the pioneer editorial association held at Huron, November 16, 1882. It would be impossible to measure the extent of his influence, but the work has gone forward and the public acknowledges its indebtedness to him for his untiring and resultant efforts.