Alonzo H. Medbery 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 461 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 ALONZO H. MEDBERY, one of the leading citizens and successful agriculturists of Liberty township, Beadle county, South Dakota, came to the county in limited circumstances, and by the exercise of his resolute will and persevering industry, has built up one of its most creditable homesteads. He took up government land over which a plowshare had never passed, and in due time effected the improvements necessary to the complete country home, which now forms one of the pleasing features in the landscape of that section. Mr. Medbery was born in Smithport, McKean county, Pennsylvania, May 27, 1 842, and is the younger of the two children of Chester I. and Alvira (Wilcox) Medbery. He remained with his parents in the town of his birth until his twenty-second year, when he went to Wilcox, Elk county, Pennsylvania, to assist his uncle, who was conducting a wholesale provision store at that place, remaining there one year. He next went to Kane, Pennsylvania, as a clerk, but after three months employment bought the stock and continued to do business on his own account until 1866. In order to prevent a draft during the Civil war, he employed a substitute, and -made sufficient money on one pork deal to pay for the same. On leaving Kane, he returned to his old home in Port Allegany to engage in mercantile business there, and it was not long before he formed a partnership with his father. In 1880 he came to Beadle county, South Dakota, with his brother, and entered the southwest quarter of section 27, Liberty township, as a homestead, and also the northwest quarter of the same section. Since then he has acquired the north half of the northwest quarter of section 27, and the northeast quarter of section 34, Liberty township. Mr. Medbery married Miss Catherine C. Haight, who was born February 27, 1841, a daughter of Theodore and Mary (McKay) Haight, and of this union the following children have been born: Mary E., Walter W. and William P. W. Mr. Medbery's aged mother, who was born in New York, December 29, 1815, finds a pleasant home with him. She is a very intelligent old lady and well preserved for her age. Socially, Mr. Medbery affiliates with the Masonic fraternity and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is an ardent Democrat in politics, and an anti-expansionist. He usually holds some position on the school and township boards, and was county commissioner one term, his home town giving him sixty votes out of a possible sixty one. He refused to allow his name to be presented for re-election and has since devoted his entire time and attention to his business interests. His straightforward methods of doing business and his value as a member of the community, have gained for him a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, who have watched his career with interest and are not slow to acknowledge that he is deserving of all the good that has fallen to him.