Socrates Drew Biography


	This biography appears on pages 752-755 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				SOCRATES DREW. 

	Socrates Drew, founder, promoter and manager of the Bank of 
Highmore and therefore a well known representative of financial 
interests in Hyde county, dates his residence in South Dakota from 
1871, at which time he settled in Yankton. He was born in Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin, July 3, 1852, a son of Thomas and Alma (Ruge) Drew, natives 
of England and Germany respectively. In early life the father learned 
the tailor's trade and in 1848 became a resident of Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin, where he resided until 1854, when he removed to Portage, 
Wisconsin, where he engaged in the same business, spending his 
remaining days in that state. 

	Socrates Drew acquired his education in the public schools of 
Portage and remained at home with his parents until nineteen years of 
age, when he came to Dakota. For a time he clerked in a store at 
Yankton and afterward was employed in the first bank of Dakota 
territory at that place. At the age of twenty-six years he went to 
Kansas, where he conducted a lumber business, but in 1880 returned to 
South Dakota and through the succeeding three years was a lumber 
merchant of Egan, Moody county, South Dakota. In 1883 he took up his 
abode in Hughes county, where he engaged in the banking business and in 
1885, in connection with his brother George, under the firm name of 
Drew Brothers, organized and established the Bank of Highmore, which is 
the largest private bank in the state. They have since successfully 
conducted it, carrying on the business along safe, substantial lines, 
progressiveness being evenly balanced by conservatism. In 1907 they 
erected a fine bank building which is one of the most modern and 
completely equipped structures of the kind in that part of the state, 
and they now devote practically their entire time to their banking 
interests. In 1893 they established the Bank of Tomah at Tomah, 
Wisconsin, Frank Drew having the management of that institution. 
Besides his bank property Socrates Drew owns considerable land in South 
Dakota. 

	In 1877 Mr. Drew wedded Miss Martha S. Higby, who was born in 
Iowa and died in 1910, leaving four children. Christopher R., who is 
associated with his father in the banking business at Highmore, wedded 
Miss Ida Paulson, by whom he has three children: Beatrice, Martha and 
Thomas. Abbie is the wife of John Badwell Perkins, editor of the 
Highmore Herald, and has four children, namely: Drew, Louise, Jeannette 
and Ethelyn. Richard J., who is associated with his father in the 
banking business, wedded Miss Marie Grant. John R. is a student in 
Huron College. Having lost his first wife, Mr. Drew was married again 
in March, 1914, his second union being with Mrs. Lennoe S. Smith, a 
widow, who was born in New Orleans. They spend a portion of the winter 
either in New Orleans or in Biloxi, Mississippi. 

	In politics Mr. Drew is a republican and has held various local 
offices yet has not been a politician in the sense of seeking office. 
He was the first mayor of Highmore and served on the school board for 
several years. He has always preferred to concentrate his energies upon 
his business affairs and is today the oldest banker in the state in 
years of continuous connection with the business. He sustains an 
unassailable reputation for integrity and has an enviable record for 
enterprise. He has never waited Micawberlike for something to turn up 
but has sought out the business opportunities which he has enjoyed and 
in their utilization has made for himself a creditable position in 
financial circles.