Ferdinand Erdmann 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 953-954

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

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm


FERDINAND ERDMANN, who is entitled to prominent mention among the 
younger members of the agricultural district of Garden Prairie 
township, Brown county, has one of the best farms in that locality, and 
settled on section 9 coring the early settlement of that country. 

Mr. Erdmann was born in Theresa, Dodge county, Wisconsin, in 1861, and 
was the third in a family of thirteen children. He attended the country 
schools, and at the age of fifteen left home and learned the 
shoemaker's trade in Theresa, serving three years, and getting for his 
labor one hundred and twenty-five dollars and his board. After serving 
his apprenticeship he worked at his trade in Theresa for one year, and 
in the spring of 1881 went to Blue Earth county, Minnesota, and worked 
at farm labor there nine months, and the following spring went to Brown 
county, South Dakota, and entered claim to the southeast quarter of 
section 9, township 121, range 61, as a homestead. During the summer he 
worked out and hired his breaking done on his farm, and in the fall of 
1882 put up a shanty, 8 x 14 feet, and the following season hired a 
small crop put in, hired it harvested and sheltered in the granary, 
from which it disappeared, and he could not find trace of it 
thereafter. He worked out breaking with oxen the first seven years, and 
his possessions when he located in Dakota consisted of but the clothes 
which he wore. He erected a granary in 1888, and moved his family into 
it, and in the fall of that year put up a good residence. He has a good 
barn, 40 x 50 feet, one of the largest in the neighborhood, and a 
granary with a capacity of about four thousand bushels, and is the 
possessor. of three hundred and twenty acres of land, all of which is 
under plow with the exception of sixty acres which is meadow and 
pasture land. Hail destroyed about half of his crop in 1896, but 
prosperity has attended him amid the discouragements which beset the 
settler in a new country, and he has one of the well-improved farms of 
the vicinity. In partnership with his father, August Erdmann, and his 
brother, William Erdmann, he purchased a threshing machine in 1886, 
since which time they have engaged in that line. and our subject is the 
engineer. They have owned three outfits, and their present rig is the 
largest in the county and threshes more grain per day. The engine is a 
double cylinder and of the best pattern. 

Ferdinand Erdmann was married in 1888 to Miss Bertha Bush, daughter of 
Fred Bush, who was a native of Germany, and settled in Dakota, where he 
engaged in farming until his death. Mrs. Erdmann was born and raised in 
Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Erdmann have been the parents of four children, 
three of whom are living, as follows: Matilda; Deno, born in Dakota, 
and Oscar, born in Dakota. The family are members of the Lutheran 
church, and are highly esteemed in their community. Mr. Erdman is 
prominent in local affairs, and takes a deep interest in the welfare of 
his township, and has held numerous offices of trust, including two 
years as town treasurer, five years school treasurer, three years 
constable, and minor offices. He favors the principles of the Populist 
party, and has attended many of the county conventions. He is 
industrious and progressive, and keeps pace with current events, and 
withal is one of the rising young men of Brown county.