Charles Gobler 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 792, 795

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

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CHARLES GOBLER, stock and general farming, Patten township, Aurora 
county, South Dakota. The monotony of the rolling prairie is broken in 
the northwestern part of Aurora county by the Wessington Hills, which 
extend through Patten township, and from these hills looking east and 
south the prairie stretches as far as the eye can see. In this portion 
of the county little attention has been given to farming, the hills 
region having in fact been settled at a much later day than was the 
surrounding country, and even at the present time there are but few 
residents in that section. 

The few who have located here are engaged almost exclusively in stock 
raising, for which industry the hills offer special advantages in 
respect of water, furnished by innumerable flowing springs, abundant 
pasturage, and natural shelter for stock as a protection from the 
fierce winds in winter, and to some extent a natural enclosure, 
preventing their wandering too far. 

A two miles drive in to the hills brings you to the homestead and ranch 
of Charles Gobler, a review of whose life is given in the following 
sketch: 

The father of our subject married Miss Dorothea Jern, and to this union 
seven children were born, Charles being the fourth in order of birth. 
He was born in Wisconsin, January 4, 1860, and at the age of fourteen 
years he was apprenticed to the harness making trade, and afterwards 
followed that occupation for six years. He became proprietor of a shop 
in Appleton, Wisconsin, and continued there for two years more. In 1882 
he went to Dakota in search of a location, but did not locate land 
until the year following. For about seven years in this region he 
worked and expended his means in attempting to make a success of 
growing small grain, but at the end of that period was compelled to 
acknowledge that wheat could not be successfully raised in that section 
of South Dakota. Upon the financial ruins of this farming experiment he 
determined as a last resort to build up a stock business. In 
partnership with a Mr. J. Barnes, be began sheep culture, starting with 
four hundred head, which was soon increased to a flock of one thousand. 
This venture proved entirely successful, and when the partnership was 
recently dissolved, his sheep were traded for cattle, and our subject 
now conducts a stock and dairy business. He breeds red polled cattle, 
and keeps from thirty to thirty-five milch cows, and usually winters 
about one hundred head of young stock. Much of the land which he 
unsuccessfully cultivated in the early days has gone back to pasture 
lands. 

In 1881 Mr. Gobler was married to Miss Katie Wertz, and to this 
congenial union have been born two children, Eva M. and Lorena Belle. 
Mr. Gobler is a Republican in political views, and endorses the 
doctrine of equal suffrage. He was elected chairman of the township 
board, and was one of the organizers of Patten township.