Frank Hammer Biography


	This biography appears on page 655 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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				FRANK HAMMER. 

	Frank Hammer, a retired Lake county pioneer farmer, was born in 
Carlsbad, Bohemia, January 7, 1840, a son of Frank Anton and Theresa 
(Garlsch) Hammer. The father, who was an expert brewmaster, came to 
America in 1855, when his son Frank was a youth of fifteen years, and 
settled in Menasha, Wisconsin, where for many years he was brewmaster 
of the Lescher &; Hall Brewing Company. He lived to the advanced age of 
eighty-five years, dying in 1894, while the mother passed away in the 
same year at the age of eighty-three. They had three children but 
Joseph, the eldest, and Charles, the youngest, are now deceased. 

	The surviving son, Frank Hammer, acquired a common-school 
education in his native city and served an apprenticeship at the 
tanner's trade. On coming to America he entered a large woodworking 
plant at Menasha, Wisconsin, as an employee and won promotion through 
successive steps until at the end of a few years he had become foreman 
He continued with that firm for twenty years, after which he came to 
Lake county in 1882 and purchased a three hundred and twenty acre farm, 
to which he afterward added one hundred and sixty acres, so that his 
landed possessions now embrace four hundred and eighty acres of highly 
improved land. Year after year he carefully, systematically and 
successfully tilled the soil until 1900, when he retired from active 
business and is now looking after his private interests and 
investments. He is a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company at 
Chester, South Dakota, and in the Franklin Telephone Company and from 
his farm he also derives a gratifying annual income. 
	In 1861 Mr. Hammer was united in marriage to Miss Mary Prichard 
and they became the parents of two children Mrs. Hammer and one child 
were fatally burned in a fire which destroyed their residence and in 
which Mr. Hammer nearly lost his life in the year 1864. In 1865 he 
married again, his second union being with Esther Ulsner, a native of 
Germany, who died January 14, 1912. To them were born three children, 
Albert C., Delia and Louisa. 

	In his political views Mr. Hammer is a democrat, recognized as an 
active and prominent worker of the party in his section of the state. 
He has served on various township boards and in 1891 was representative 
from the second district in the state legislature. He was also for 
twenty years chairman of the township school board. He belongs to the 
Catholic church and has been a liberal contributor to its support. His 
position in the community is that of a prosperous and highly respected 
citizen, his friends and neighbors recognizing the fact that his 
success has been worthily won and well used, while the salient 
qualities that he has displayed in other than business relations have 
commended him to the goodwill of all with whom he has been brought in 
contact.