Edwin T. Fryer 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 1087-1088

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

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EDWIN T. FRYER, who located in Dakota when a compass was the only guide 
to travelers and settlers, and became familiar with the lay of the 
land, and assisted in locating claims during the early days, was born 
in Rome, New York, in 1860. His farm is one of the finest in Spink 
county, and the buildings are the models of comfort and convenience, 
and are the result of his earnest work, and lend an air of thrift to 
the entire community. His home is located on section 34, in Harrison 
township. 

Our subject was the son of English parents, who married in their native 
land, where his father was a blacksmith by trade. He emigrated to 
America about 1855, and settled in New York on the Mohawk river, where 
he engaged in farming, and later moved to McHenry county, Illinois, in 
1872. 

At the age of thirteen years our subject left the home farm, and 
engaged as a farm laborer, working thus in McHenry and Boone counties 
until removing to Dakota in 1882. When he located in Spink county there 
was not a building in sight, Watertown, Redfield and Huron were the 
only railroad towns, and all supplies were hauled from Redfield. Elk 
were to be seen, and as late as 1884 antelope were to be found, and in 
this year our subject picked up and polished the finest pair of buffalo 
horns ever found. During the first days of the settlement of the 
country, Frankfort had no hotel accommodations, and people were forced 
to sleep around the depot. Butter was fifty cents per pound, eggs were 
fifty cents per dozen, chickens fifty cents each, oats fifty cents per 
bushel, wheat, a dollar and a quarter per bushel, wages two dollars per 
day, and a man and team were five to seven dollars per day. 

Our subject erected a ten by twelve shanty on his claim, and the first 
year assisted in erecting many of the buildings of Frankfort. He was 
his own housekeeper and traveled day and night locating claims, and 
became an expert in this line. He took other government land in the 
spring of 1883, and the same year erected his present dwelling, barn, 
granary, and other buildings. He now owns six hundred and forty acres 
of land, cultivates about two hundred acres, and the balance in pasture 
and hay land. Four hundred and sixty acres are fenced into three 
pastures, for sheep, horses and cattle. He has two first-class twenty-
five foot wells, stoned up and windmill attached. His first crop was 
good but was a total loss from hail storm, and the storm of that year 
was the most severe the country has ever seen, some of the stones being 
larger than tea cups, and killed smaller animals of the neighborhood, 
including cats. The crops of 1884 and 1892 averaged: wheat, thirty five 
bushels; corn, fifty bushels; barley, fifty bushels, and oats sixty 
bushels per acre. 

Our subject was married in January, 1885, to Miss Cynthia Whiting, a 
native of McHenry county, Illinois, and a daughter of one of the early 
settlers of that state. Mr. and Mrs. Fryer are the parents of four 
children, all of whom are daughters. Mr. Fryer is a member of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. In political faith he is a Republican, 
but does not take an active part in political affairs.