George B. La Croix Biography


	This biography appears on pages 222-223 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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				GEORGE B. LA CROIX. 

	George B. La Croix, conducting business as a dealer in farm 
implements at Mellette, opened his store in 1909. In the intervening 
period he has built up a good trade, having the patronage of a large 
surrounding territory. He has lived in South Dakota since 1885, coming 
to the west from Forestville, New York, where he was born on the 21st 
of September, 1863. His father, Alexander La Croix, was a native of 
France and from that country came to the United States. He was married 
in New York and his wife's maiden name was Fuller. In early life he 
learned the cooper's trade, which he followed for many years, utilizing 
it as a source of income for himself and family. With the outbreak of 
the war with Mexico in the '40s he joined the army to defend the 
interests of this country and again he enlisted under the stars and 
stripes for service in the Union army during the Civil war. No native 
son or America was more loyal or devoted to its interests and when he 
passed away in 1903 at the venerable age of eighty-five years and was 
laid to rest in a cemetery at Forestville, New York, the community 
mourned the loss of one of its valuable and honored citizens. His widow 
now resides in Lancaster, Ohio. 

	George B. La Croix acquired his education in the country schools 
of the Empire state, pursuing his studies to the age of fourteen years. 
He then began work upon his father's farm and continued actively 
therein until he had attained his majority. He then came to South 
Dakota and was employed at farm labor during the first year. He 
afterward rented hand and started to buy and sell stock at Mellette, in 
which he has been engaged for the past two decades, successfully 
following the business at the present time. In 1909 he established his 
farm implement business and his fair prices and earnest efforts to 
please his patrons have gained for him a gratifying measure of 
prosperity. 

	On the 1st of September, 1887, at Mellette, Mr. La Croix was 
married to Miss Winnie Lee, a daughter of Jacob and Sarah Lee. The 
former was a hotel proprietor and died at Long Beach, California, and 
his remains were brought back to Mellette for interment. His widow 
survives and still makes her home at Long Beach. Mr. and Mrs. La Croix 
have a daughter, Hazel, who is a graduate of the Mellette high school 
and of the Comnoch school at Los Angeles, California, in which city she 
makes her home with her grandmother. 

	Mr. La Croix is an exemplary representative of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows and of the Masonic fraternity and in the latter 
has advanced to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is a 
member of the Mystic Shrine. He is in thorough sympathy with the 
purposes of the craft, which recognizes the brotherhood of mankind. 
Politically he is a democrat and has filled the office of deputy 
sheriff and marshal of Mellette. Throughout his entire life he has 
depended solely upon his own efforts, never having the assistance of 
inherited wealth or of influential friends. He early realized that 
industry is the key that unlocks the portals to prosperity and his has 
been a very active life, in which diligence and determination have 
brought to him the merited reward of labor.