Gustav Gottlieb Wenzlaff Biography


	This biography appears on pages 749-751 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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				DR. GUSTAV GOTTLIEB WENZLAFF. 

	Dr. Gustav G. Wenzlaff, president of the State Normal School at 
Springfield, this state, is one of the best known educators of South 
Dakota and is making an impress upon the educational system of the 
state that will endure for many years. He is a scion of one of the 
German families that emigrated from Russia to the new world in the 
early '70s when the liberties granted them by Catherine the Great were 
revoked by the reigning czar. His paternal grandfather, Samuel 
Wenzlaff, was a native of the town of Wrietzen-an-der-Oder and early in 
the nineteenth century removed with his family to the village of Alt-
Arzis, near Odessa, being one of the colony of Germans who settled 
there at the invitation of Catherine the Great. His wife, whom he 
married in Prussia, was a native of southern Germany. She was one of 
the Protestant refugees from Salzburg who left their native land during 
the religious uprising caused by the edict of October 31, 1731. During 
the trip she became separated from her family and never found any trace 
of them. 

	John Christian Wenzlaff, the father of Dr. Wenzlaff, was a man of 
higher educational attainments than the average and was a schoolmaster. 
He was also a lay reader in the church and officiated in the absence of 
the minister He married Johanna Christina Heinzelman, who was born at 
Gross Liebenthal. Her father was a native of the Black Forest in 
southern Germany and accompanied his father to Russia. The latter took 
with him a goodly hoard of gold but died of the plague before reaching 
his destination and the gold was buried with him. His children were 
refused permission to recover it and it is probable that the Russian 
officials appropriated it. The parents of Dr. Wenzlaff were married at 
the village of Chabag, near Akkerman, on an arm of the Black sea, known 
as Leman. Near that place, at the village of Johannesthal, Gustav G. 
Wenzlaff was born on the 5th of November, 1865. For some time prior to 
his emigration to America his father was superintendent and manager of 
a large estate whose owner lived in Paris. The father superintended the 
education of his children, one hour of the forenoon being allotted to 
study while the rest of the day was free for recreation and play. At 
night the father heard the recitations and assigned lessons for the 
following day. 

	When the czar refused to allow them the liberties granted them by 
Catherine the Great many of the Germans left for the United States and 
among the emigrants were the Wenzlaff family. They sailed from Hamburg 
on the Pomerania, landing in New York, May 3, 1874, after a voyage of 
twelve days. They journeyed to Yankton, South Dakota, by rail, reaching 
there six days after landing in New York. John C. Wenzlaff was a man of 
some means when he reached the new world and he at once embarked in the 
hardware business in Yankton, prospering in his undertaking. About 
1879, in partnership with a son-in-law and another man, he built a 
grist mill at Janesville, north of Yankton, which in 1884 or 1885 was 
sold to the Mennonite colony. He turned his attention to the publishing 
business, securing the Dakota Freie Presse, a journal which had a 
circulation among the German colonists of the northwest as far as the 
Pacific coast. He later sold it to his son, Salomon, who also disposed 
of it and it was subsequently moved to Aberdeen and still enjoys a wide 
circulation and wields a great influence Mr. Wenzlaff died in 
September, 1894, from the shock of au operation, at the age of sixty-
seven years, when he had the prospect of a number of years of active 
and useful life before him. His widow survives at the advanced age of 
eighty-seven years and makes her home in Yankton. Ten children were 
born to them, as follows. Johanna is the widow of Henry Baisch. Sophie 
married Karl Max and they reside in Scotland, this state. Emilie first 
married Charles Kiener, who died in Switzerland, and subsequently 
became the wife of Rudolph Dedlow but is now deceased. Josephine 
married Gustav Kositzsky, of Miller, South Dakota. Salomon is now a 
banker in Armour, South Dakota. John C. is a resident of Henderson, 
Nebraska. Lena is the wife of John Max, of Yankton. Gustav Gottlieb is 
the next in order of birth. Marie, who was principal of the Yankton 
high school, married Charles B. Lawton and is now deceased. Bertha, now 
Mrs. William Jones, is a teacher of art at a school in Los Angeles, 
California. She studied in the Chicago Art Institute and the Cooper 
Institute of New York, attaining no little celebrity as a portrait 
painter. 

	Dr. Wenzlaff attended the public schools of Yankton, graduating 
from the high school in 1884, and he then entered Yankton College, from 
which he received his diploma and degree of A. B. in 1888. The 
following winter he studied in the Chicago Seminary and was then for 
three years an instructor in his alma mater, after which, in the fall 
of 1892, he departed for Germany, where he took advanced studies in 
Leipzig and Berlin. From 1893 to 1898 he was professor of philosophy 
and German at Yankton College and then took special work in Chicago 
University the following winter. The years 1899 and 1900 were spent in 
much needed rest in California and while there he resigned from his 
position at Yankton. In 1904 he was elected superintendent of the 
Yankton county schools and was just completing his second term in that 
office when called to the presidency of the State Normal School at 
Springfield in 1908. He at once put new life into the institution and 
gave it the benefit of his learning and experience acquired in the best 
schools of two continents. He speaks and writes fluently English and 
German and has a good working knowledge of several other languages. In 
addition to his degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts, the 
degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him in 1911. He approaches 
the problem of the training of teachers from a broad standpoint and 
gives them the fundamental conceptions of education that are so 
necessary as well as the details of method, which, though important in 
themselves, should not be allowed to overshadow the larger phases of 
education. He is a man of executive ability and coordinates well the 
different departments of the institution as well as instilling in the 
faculty and students his own love of learning and his own desire to 
arrive at the truth of any question. Those teachers who go out from the 
Springfield Normal School carry with them in addition to their thorough 
training in the art and science of their profession a desire to be of 
real service to tile state that cannot but result in improved schools. 

	In addition to his work as an educator Dr. Wenzlaff has achieved 
considerable note as a writer, his published works including prose, 
poetry and philosophy. In collaboration with Dr. Burleigh he compiled a 
volume of "Dakota Rhymes," many of which are from his own pen. His next 
work, "The Mental Man," and his later publication, "Teachers, Handbook 
of Psychological Principles," have won the favorable comment of 
educators and the educational press throughout the country. His latest 
volume, which appears under the title of "Sketches and Legends of the 
West," gives promise of as wide and favorable notice as his more 
serious works. 

	Dr. Wenzlaff was married in Chicago on the 1st of August, 1894, 
by Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, to Miss Susan Caroline Rice and three 
children have been born to this marriage, Myra R., Wilbur G. and Eduard 
L. 

	The Doctor and his wife are members of the Congregational church 
He is identified with a number of fraternal organizations, including 
the Modern Woodmen of America and the Yeomen. He was a member of the 
Knights of Pythias lodge at Yankton before the lodge there was 
disbanded. In addition to the wide influence exercised by Dr. Wenzlaff 
as president of the Springfield Normal School he has become`` known to 
many teachers and students of education through his writings upon 
psychology and in this way has taught and impressed more than he could 
possibly reach through immediate personal contact.