Pierre Dansreau Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 915-916

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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PIERRE DANSREAU is one of Hanson county's substantial and influential 
citizens, and his home is situated on a farm in section 30, Wayne 
township, on the banks of the James river. He is a native of Montreal, 
Canada, where he was born March 28, 1844, and his parents, Froswell and 
Mary, were both born in Canada. 

In 1870, Mr. Dansreau moved to Woodbury county, Iowa, made that his 
home for two years, and then went to Nebraska in search of a farm that 
he could till with the assurance that he would realize a reasonable 
profit for his labors. In 1873, he came to South Dakota and worked 
through harvest near Yankton, and in September of the same year he 
located his present farm, making his filings at Springfield, about 
thirty miles from Yankton. After a stay of about six months he went to 
Scotland, South Dakota, and drove a stage between that place and 
Rockport and Firesteel. He was. next engaged by Bishop Hare as overseer 
of the Yankton Agency Missionary School, his wife acting as cook and 
housekeeper of the institution during his service in that capacity. 
Thus they were engaged for four years, and then returned to his farm on 
the James river, in the year 1877. A week later the original log house 
was burned and a stone house was begun, 24 x 24 feet. The lumber for 
the roof and floor was hauled from Yankton and Sioux Falls, and at that 
time cost sixty dollars per thousand. To this house has been added a 
kitchen 12 x 24 feet, and this rough but comfortable building is still 
his domicile. The walls are laid without mortar, but are well laid and 
are two feet thick, so that little sound can penetrate and cold and 
storms have but little effect. 

Mr. Dansreau soon tired of wheat raising, as it was not a very 
profitable crop, and turned the most of his attention to stock and 
conducts a home dairy in the stone basement of his house. Our subject 
started farming with only a team and five or six head of stock, and 
after the log house burned, with no groceries or household goods; but 
by making the most of what he: had, and by perseverance, industry and 
economy he has added to his original farm until he now owns a fine 
tract of land of four hundred and twenty acres, and from time to time, 
as his circumstances will permit, is placing upon it such improvements 
as go to make up a first-class estate. Mr. Dansreau is a Republican in 
political views, and favors prohibition and equal suffrage. In 
religious affairs he is identified with the Roman Catholic church. 

Mr. Dansreau was married in 1872 to Mrs. Breta Rosene, a Swedish lady, 
born in the year 1843. Her parents, John and Martha Anderson, came with 
their daughter to their prairie home, and, in fact, experienced more 
pioneer life than did our subject and his wife, for while the latter 
were near Yankton on the agency, the old people lived alone in the 
little log house on the James river, where neighbors were unknown and 
where visitors were seldom received. The mother departed this life in 
1877, before witnessing the rush of settlement and the improvements 
that have given this section of South Dakota its prosperity. She was 
the first pioneer buried in Hanson county, and was laid to rest on the 
farm near the James river, where her last days were spent.