Clayton H. Musser 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 459-460

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

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CLAYTON H. MUSSER, a progressive and energetic young business man of 
Bowdle, South Dakota,was born in Lemond, Steele county, Minnesota, May 
25, 1869, and is a son of Chambers V. and Mary (Roberts) Musser, the 
former of German and the latter of English descent. His maternal 
grandfather now owns and conducts a fruit farm in Los Angeles, 
California. The father of our subject became a resident of Wisconsin at 
the age of four years, and there he grew to manhood and was married. 

Clayton H. Musser, who is the fifth in order of birth in a family of 
eight children, was reared upon a farm, and engaged in the country 
schools. After the death of his mother, when he was seventeen years of 
age, the family was broken up, and he began the battle of life for 
himself as a farm hand, being thus employed until he attained his 
majority. In 1889 he and his father came to South Dakota, and the 
latter settled on land in Edmunds county, where our subject worked out 
for a year. In 1890 they established a harness shop in Bowdle, and it 
was not long before Clayton H. had mastered the business, which he has 
successfully carried on alone since his father's retirement, in 1898. 
He still conducts his shop at the place where they began business 
almost ten years ago, but the building, which was then only 20 x 28 
feet in dimensions, has been enlarged, until it is now 20 x 48 feet. 
His trade has also steadily increased from the beginning, and has come 
to be quite profitable. 

Politically Mr. Musser is a stanch supporter of the Republican party 
and its principles, and he takes a deep and commendable interest in 
public affairs. He has most creditably filled the office of town clerk, 
serving in that capacity the first three years after the town was 
incorporated. Socially he is a member of the Masonic fraternity.