George E. Riley Biography


	This biography appears on pages 704-707 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 E. RILEY. 

	George E. Riley, conducting a real-estate office in Summit, was 
born in Rock county, Wisconsin, June 16, 1849, a son of Volkert and 
Jane (Dow) Riley, both of whom were natives of New York, born in 1825 
and 1831 respectively. They were married at Buffalo, that state, and on 
removing west in 1835 settled in Wisconsin, where the father followed 
farming until 1854. He then took his family to Iowa and secured a claim 
of government land there. Eventually he removed to Dodge county, 
Minnesota, where his wife died in 1894, while he survived for a decade 
and passed away in the same county. The Riley family is of Irish 
descent, while the maternal grandfather, Caleb Dow, was born in 
Holland. In childhood he crossed the Atlantic to New York, where his 
remaining days were passed. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Volkert Riley 
were eight children, of whom four survive: George E.; Charles, who 
follows farming near Staples, Minnesota; H. A., a grain buyer of 
Milbank, South Dakota; and W. H., who follows farming near Milbank. The 
parents were consistent Christian people, holding membership in the 
Wesleyan Methodist church, and in his political views Mr. Riley was a 
republican. 

	George E. Riley attended the common schools of Iowa and Minnesota 
and continued his education in Janesville, Wisconsin. He afterward took 
up the occupation of farming, which he followed in Minnesota until 
April, 1882, when he came to the territory of Dakota, settling in Grant 
county, where he secured a homestead claim upon which he lived until 
1895, devoting thirteen years to general agricultural pursuits. He then 
took up his abode in Summit, where for a year he conducted a hotel and 
later he traveled as representative for a St. Paul house for two years. 
He was afterward upon the road for the Case Threshing Machine Company 
and later turned his attention to the real-estate business, in which he 
has been accorded a very liberal patronage. He buys property outright 
and is thus able to make judicious purchases and profitable sales, 
disposing of his holdings when opportunity permits him to gain a 
substantial advance on his investment. In addition to conducting a 
real-estate business he handles fire and life insurance and writes many 
policies annually. 

	In 1872 Mr. Riley was married to Miss Charity Essington, a native 
of Minnesota and a daughter of Gibson Essington, one of the early 
farmers of that state. She died in 1908 and her death was deeply 
regretted by many friends, who had learned to esteem her for her fine 
qualities of character. She was the mother of nine children: F. E., now 
a farmer of Madison, South Dakota; Lottie, the wife of Frank Fransen, 
who follows farming in Grant county; Frank C., conducting a hotel in 
Summit; Ernest, who is traveling for a furniture company; Alice, the 
wife of Fred Bare, who is engaged in drilling wells in Montana; H. E., 
a lumber merchant of Assiniboine, Canada; Florence, the wife of S. W. 
Matteson, a banker of Twin Brooks, South Dakota; Jessie, who married T. 
B. Anderberg, a lumber merchant of Aberdeen; and Ethel, the wife of T. 
M. Eide, proprietor of a restaurant at Brown's Valley, Minnesota . 

	Mr. Riley belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and in 
politics he has always been active as a stanch supporter of the 
republican party but is not an office seeker, preferring to give his 
undivided attention to his business affairs, and it has been his 
unremitting industry, perseverance, determination and straightforward 
methods which have gained for him the place that he occupies as one of 
the prosperous business men of his community. All that he now 
possesses-and he is today in comfortable circumstances-is the merited 
reward of his efforts in the real-estate field in Summit.