A. M. Houck Biography


	This biography appears on pages 888-889 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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				A. M. HOUCK. 

	A. M. Houck is a lumber dealer of Summit and one of the 
landowners of that section of the state. He possesses the spirit of 
western enterprise and has always been connected with the development 
of the west. His birth occurred in Winneshiek county, Iowa, October 5, 
1857, his parents being Martin and Eva (Hollenbeck) Houck. He 
represents an old American family, his ancestors having come from 
Germany to the new world almost three centuries ago. Representatives of 
the name have since lived in New York, where the grandparents of our 
subject were born and reared. Martin Houck, the father of A. M. Houck, 
was a native of Cattaraugus county, New York, born in 1821, and at 
Hinsdale, that state, he wedded Eva Hollenbeck, who was born in Potter 
county, Pennsylvania, in 1824. Soon after their marriage they removed 
to Illinois and later became residents of Bluffton, Iowa, Mr. Houck 
building the first sawmill in Winneshiek county. In that county he 
entered a claim from the government and lived upon the place for ten or 
fifteen years, after which he removed to Burr Oak, Iowa, and still 
later to Minnesota, where he lived retired. He died in 1895, having 
long survived his wife who passed away in 1874. She was descended from 
ancestors who came from Holland more than two hundred years ago. In his 
political views Mr. Houck was always an earnest democrat. To him and 
his wife were born five children, of whom three are yet living: Elmira, 
who is the widow of W. J. Greiner, and now lives in Minneapolis; A. M.; 
and Peter, a farmer of Carlton county, Minnesota. 

	After completing his education by graduation from the high school 
at Lanesboro, Minnesota, with the class of 1875 A. M. Houck began 
learning the milling business and afterward had charge of a large mill 
at Lanesboro for about eighteen years. He began work as a miller in his 
early youth and became an expert in that line. He removed to Summit in 
1892, at the opening of the reservation, taking up a homestead and 
proving up his claim, which he still owns. He has also added to his 
landed possessions by purchase from time to time until his holdings now 
total about thirteen hundred acres in Roberts and Grant counties, now 
all well improved. He is extensively engaged in general farming and is 
also raising shorthorn cattle and Belgian horses. He came to this state 
practically empty-handed and his prosperity has been won through the 
intervening years by his own unaided efforts. Soon after his removal to 
Summit he established an elevator business and later embarked in the 
lumber and coal trade. He also conducted a very large implement 
business for ten years. He now sells lumber, grain and fuel and is 
accorded a liberal patronage which has made his a very profitable 
concern. 

	On the 17th of October, 1883, Mr. Houck married Miss Myrta A. 
Buck, a daughter of C. F. Buck, a prominent attorney of Winona, 
Minnesota, who was postmaster under President Lincoln, also served as 
United States marshal under Lincoln and was again postmaster of Winona 
under President Cleveland. He was a very prominent and influential 
resident there and he had charge of the troops that aided in fighting 
the Indians at the time of the outbreak during the Civil war. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Houck have been born seven children, of whom four are living: 
Stanley Buck, who has engaged in the practice of law in Minnesota since 
his graduation from the university of that state, at which time he won 
a prize for his ability in debate; Norman A., a graduate of the law 
department of the State University of Minnesota, which he represented 
in debating contests for two years, and now a resident of Corona, 
Carlton county, Minnesota, where he and his father own a large amount 
of land; Margaret Eva, who won the prize medal over all high-school 
students in the state and became a pupil in the University of 
Minnesota, from which she was graduated, since which time she has 
engaged in teaching, being now assistant principal of the schools of 
Rathdrum, Idaho; and Lawrence Decouteau, who is a graduate of the 
Agricultural College of Minnesota and is now operating one of his 
father's farms. 

	In politics Mr. Houck is a republican and was chairman of the 
county convention at the time when the progressive party withdrew from 
the standpatters. For six years he has been and is now president of the 
school board and has put forth effective and earnest effort to advance 
the interests of education in Roberts county. Fraternally he is a 
Mason, in which order he has attained the Knight Templar degree. He 
belongs to that class of men whose success should serve as an 
inspiration to higher achievement on the part of others.