John H. Graese 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. Page 483

	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


JOHN H. GRAESE is one of McCook county's solid men and is making a 
living and incidentally laying up something for a rainy day by tilling 
the soil of Sun Prairie township, his home being situated on the 
southwest quarter of section 7. He is a native of Washington county, 
Wisconsin, where he was born October 28, 1858, the third child in the 
order of birth of a family of ten children born to Henry and Mary 
(Hoge) Graese. The parents were married in Wisconsin and became 
pioneers of that state. 

At the age of fourteen years; our subject began the battle of life for 
himself as a farm laborer, and L~efore he had attained his majority he 
succeeded in saving eight hundred dollars fro~n his wages and sent it 
to his father for the support of the family. He then worked on the 
railroad in Wisconsin for one year, after which he spent one summer in 
Minnesota. The winter of 1880-81 he spent in the pineries of Wisconsin, 
and the following spring his father advanced forty dollars for our 
subject and his brother to go west and try their luck on the frontier. 
With this they went as far Rock Valley, Iowa, by rail and made their 
way from there to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on foot. There they worked 
for about a month, when our subject heard of the government land in 
McCook county that was open for settlers, and he at once made his way 
thither, and in June, 1881, he filed a claim to the quarter section 
that now is his home. He then returned to Wisconsin for the winter, but 
in the following spring he again went to Dakota to look after his 
interests there. He was not yet able to start farming for the lack of 
means, so he again began working out and spent his meager wages for 
improvements on his farm. He was soon able to crop a small portion of 
his land, but he continued his outside work until he could get fairly 
established in his agricultural business. He built the first 
schoolhouse in Sun Prairie township, and, though not a carpenter by 
trade, there was such a demand for that class of work that he was busy 
at that line considerable of the time during the first few years in the 
pioneer state. All of his interests, however, were centered about his 
farm and in whatever work he was engaged, his sole object was to 
improve his farm and make for himself a home and in this venture he has 
been eminently successful. His farm now has a fine line of 
improvements, including a windmill and an inexhaustible well and his 
home is a place of mental comfort and refreshment. Politically he is a 
Republican and voices the policies of high license and anti-suffrage. 
He has been a member of the board of supervisors for six years, and for 
one year he has been school treasurer. Religiously our subject is 
identified with the German Lutheran church. 

In 1885, Mr. Graese was united in marriage to Miss Augusta Faske, and 
seven children have blessed their home, namely: Emil, Lesata, Adele, 
Helena, Benhardt, Amanda and Dora T.