Joseph Fernand Marcoux Biography


	This biography appears on pages 976-977 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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				JOSEPH FERNAND MARCOUX. 

	Idleness and indolence are utterly foreign to the nature of 
Joseph Fernand Marcoux, who by reason of his intelligently directed 
efforts has gained a creditable and enviable position in the business 
circles of Hot Springs, where he is now conducting an undertaking 
establishment and also engages in the sale of art goods and does 
picture framing. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 16, 1888, a 
son of Joseph Louis and Marie Louise (St. Hilaire) Marcoux, both of 
whom were natives of Quebec, Canada. The father, who was born March 25, 
1857, engaged in manufacturing shoes in early life, later was a 
salesman and afterward established a retail shoe store in Montreal. On 
first leaving Canada he made his way to Deadwood, South Dakota, in the 
year 1876. For about eighteen months he was a clerk in the store of P. 
A. Gushart, after which he returned to Montreal, where he engaged in 
the shoe business on his own account, as above stated. About two years 
later he went to Providence, Rhode Island, where he was connected with 
the shoe business for a few years. Removing westward to Minneapolis, he 
was in the employ of the North Star Shoe Company for some time and then 
opened a retail business with his father under the name of the J. L. 
Marcoux Shoe Company. At a later date the grandfather of Joseph F. 
Marcoux sold out to a Mr. Lafayette and the firm name of the Marcoux, 
Lafayette Company was then assumed. That connection was continued until 
about 1890, when Joseph L. Marcoux went to Butte, Montana, where he 
opened a shoe store. He also was engaged in the shoe business in Helena 
until the panic of 1893 and in the spring of that year removed to Lead, 
South Dakota, where he opened a furniture and undertaking business, 
operating along those lines until 1906, when he established a furniture 
store in Hot Springs. In 1908 he disposed of his interests in Lead, 
where the business is now being conducted by J. J. Mead. He was 
continuously in business at Hot Springs from 1906 until a recent date, 
when he retired because of impaired health. He also has mining 
interests in the Black Hills, in the Yellow Creek and Strawberry 
districts, and he is the owner of real estate in Lead and Hot Springs 
and is a stockholder in the Peoples National Bank. 

	In the Marcoux family are three children: Antoinette, now the 
wife of G. G. Killinger, of Hot Springs, who is mentioned elsewhere in 
this volume; Stella L., the wife of B. J. Webster, a resident of Hot 
Springs, who is engaged in the grocery business at Buffalo Gap and is 
also connected with the Wausmer Fruit Company at Deadwood; and Joseph 
Fernand. 

	The last named, who is the youngest in the family, supplemented 
his high-school studies, pursued at Lead, by a course in St. Viateur 
College at Kankakee, Illinois, and completed his classical studies at 
St. Thomas, College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was about eighteen years 
of age when he took up the business of undertaking, in which he became 
very proficient, being licensed at the early age of twenty-one years. 
He then began business at Lead. He was associated with his father and 
the relation was maintained until the latter's retirement. He now has a 
well appointed undertaking establishment in Hot Springs and in addition 
carries a line of art goods and engages in picture framing. He devotes 
his entire time to the business and never allows outside interests to 
interfere with his activities in that connection. 

	Mr. Marcoux is a Catholic in religious faith, belongs to the 
Knights of Columbus and is a generous contributor to the church work. 
In politics he is a stalwart republican. He has been carefully trained 
for the business in which he engages and his experience has well 
qualified him to continue in that field, in which he is meeting with 
substantial and gratifying success.