Fred Dickson Jewett Biography


	This biography appears on pages 981-982 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


				FRED DICKSON JEWETT. 

	Among the younger generation of business men in Sioux Falls whose 
energy, enterprise and ability make them powerful forces in progress is 
numbered Fred Dickson Jewett, connected with the wholesale grocery firm 
of Jewett Brothers & Jewett. He was born in Newark, Ohio, November 29, 
1880, and is a son of David Clinton and Olive A. (Dickson) Jewett, who 
came to Sioux Falls in 1889. The Jewett family is one of the oldest in 
the United States and enjoys the distinction of being an incorporated 
concern under the name of the Jewett Family of America. The genealogy 
traces the ancestry beyond the time of the Jewett advent into America 
in 1638, when Joseph and Maximilian Jewett, two sons of Edward Jewett 
of England, settled in Rowley, Massachusetts. From them have sprung ten 
thousand Jewetts, now living in every part of the United States. The 
family coat of arms was granted many years ago in England, when a 
member of the family was knighted. Edward Jewett was a clothier in 
England when clothiers not only sold clothing but also manufactured it, 
and it is claimed by the Jewetts that their ancestors founded the 
clothing industry in America, which, as history records, began at 
Rowley, Massachusetts. Every two years a family convention is held at 
Rowley, at which time new officers are elected. George A. Jewett, of 
Des Moines, Iowa, is now president of the corporation. 

	Fred Dickson Jewett was reared in Sioux Falls and acquired his 
preliminary education in the public schools of the city. He later 
attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison and was graduated from 
that institution with a degree in law in 1903. He returned to Sioux 
Falls following the completion of his studies and joined his father and 
his uncle, Charles A. Jewett, in the wholesale grocery business now 
conducted under the name of Jewett Brothers & Jewett. The original firm 
came to Sioux Falls in May, 1889, opening their wholesale grocery in 
the Peck building on Main avenue, where the enterprise was located for 
about one year. During this time the company employed only four 
traveling salesmen, but the business was steadily growing so that 
within the year it was clearly shown that larger quarters were 
necessary and arrangements were made with Silas Blauvelt to construct 
the Blauvelt building on the corner of Fifth and Main for their use. To 
this building they moved as soon as completed and occupied it until 
larger quarters were again necessary in 1898, at which time their 
present modern home was built, a sixty-six by one hundred and thirty 
foot building, with four stories and basement. In 1910 their steadily 
growing business necessitated more floor space and an addition, twenty-
two by one hundred and thirty feet in size, was erected on the south 
wall of the main building, giving them nearly sixty thousand square 
feet of floor space in a building modern and complete in every 
particular, with their own track and unloading platform on their own 
property in the rear of the plant. Their territory now covers 
southwestern Minnesota, nine counties in northwestern Iowa and South 
Dakota from the eastern line of the state to the Black Hills, south of 
the "St. Paul to Aberdeen" line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 
Railway. 

	In addition to their successful and growing grocery business in 
Sioux Falls the Jewetts own and operate a large wholesale grocery house 
and a wholesale drug house in Aberdeen and are heavily interested in 
the Manchester Biscuit Company of Sioux Falls and the Manchester 
Biscuit Company of Fargo, North Dakota. To the efforts of the Jewett 
Brothers in a great measure are due the advantageous freight rates and 
service which Sioux Falls enjoys and which years ago put Sioux Falls on 
the map as a jobbing center. 

	On the 8th of February, 1909, Mr. Jewett was united in marriage 
to Miss Julia M. Fish, and they have become the parents of a daughter, 
Helen Olive, and a son, David G., who was born January 30, 1914. Mr. 
Jewett is a member of the Episcopal church, belongs to the Dacotah and 
the Country Clubs and gives his political allegiance to the republican 
party. He is a young man of resource and capacity and his record is a 
credit to an honored and worthy name.