Olaf Melby Biography


	This biography appears on pages 215-216 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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				OLAF MELBY. 

	For the past ten years Olaf Melby has been successfully engaged 
in business as the proprietor of a drug store and implement shop at 
Summit, conducting the only establishments of the kind in the town. His 
birth occurred in Norway on the 7th of February, 1883, his parents 
being Ole and Ingeborg Melby, who were born in the years 1840 and 1845, 
respectively, and were married in 1863. They emigrated to the United 
States in 1890 and took up their abode at Westby, Wisconsin, where they 
have resided continuously to the present time. Olaf Melby Sr., worked 
as a shoemaker throughout his active business career and is now living 
retired in the enjoyment of well earned rest, having won a gratifying 
competence. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, 
while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the United 
Lutheran church. In manner he is quiet and unassuming, but the sterling 
traits of his character have been manifest in various relations and 
have gained him the regard and esteem of all with whom he has come in 
contact. To him and his wife have been born ten children, eight of whom 
survive. 

	Olaf Melby, the seventh in order of birth in his father's family, 
was a dad of seven years when he accompanied his parents on the voyage 
to the United States. He supplemented his early education by a grammar-
school course at Bloomingdale, Wisconsin, and subsequently entered the 
School of Pharmacy of Valparaiso University at Valparaiso, Indiana, 
from which institution he was graduated in 1905. He was president of 
his class which indicates his high standing among his classmates. He 
secured a position as clerk in a drug store of Wisconsin but later in 
the same year located in Summit, South Dakota, and there purchased the 
drug store of Clay Carpenter, having since conducted the same with 
excellent success. This is the only drug store in the town and he is 
likewise the proprietor of the only implement shop in Summit. In both 
lines he is accorded an extensive and well merited patronage, having 
gained an enviable reputation as an enterprising, reliable and 
progressive merchant. 

	In 1907 Mr. Melby was united in marriage to Miss Pauline Unseth, 
of Westby, Wisconsin, by whom he has two sons, Orville and Lyman, who 
are six and three years of age respectively. He exercises his right of 
franchise in support of the men and measures of the democracy and has 
been an active worker in the local ranks of the party, while for five 
years he has ably served in the capacity of town clerk. Both he and his 
wife attend the services of the Lutheran church, and fraternally he is 
identified with the Woodmen. Though still a young man, he has already 
made a record in business circles which augurs well for a future of 
continued and growing prosperity.