Lewis Rahskopf 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 594-595

	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


LEWIS RAHSKOPF, a native of the province of Quebec, Canada, who was 
born December 8,1840, is now a prominent and well-to-do farmer of 
section 27, township 123, range 63, in the civil township of Bath, 
Brown county. 

The parents of our subject, Lewis and Mary (Burgle) Rahskopf, were 
natives respectively of Germany and France. They were married in 
Buffalo, New York, and subsequently moved into Canada. The father was a 
wagon-maker, having learned the business in Germany, and he followed it 
with success in the town of Preston, Waterloo county, Quebec. Our 
subject as a boy worked in the shop of his father, and under his 
teaching thoroughly learned the trade of wagon and carriage-maker. The 
parents with their family, consisting of six children, four sons and 
two daughters, all of whom were born in Canada, removed to Wisconsin in 
1846, and there the father established his business and continued his 
trade with good success. His death occurred in 1872, and he was a well-
to-do tradesman. The mother survived him thirteen years, her death 
occurring in 1885. 

Our subject, while learning his trade, also attended the public schools 
of his neighborhood, and at the age of twenty-three he started out in 
the world for himself, going to Chicago and working in Schuttler's 
Wagon Works. From there he went to Kansas and worked in an extensive 
carriage works at Leavenworth. He then returned to Batavia, Wisconsin, 
and purchased the business which his father established. He erected new 
workshops and extended the business, and continued thus prosperously 
for fifteen years, having become in the meantime possessor of a farm of 
sixty acres, which gave him a knowledge of agricultural pursuits. He 
went to the Dakotas in 1882 and purchased his present home place of one 
hundred and sixty acres for eight hundred dollars. He had previously 
traveled over that region and looked over the country, and in the 
spring of 1883 the family moved to the new home, where they have since 
resided. He has added to his acreage three more quarter-sections, 
making one section of land which he now possesses, and in addition he 
rents two quarter-sections. He has five hundred acres under 
cultivation, and the balance is devoted to pasture and hay. He engages 
principally in the raising of wheat, and about an equal acreage each of 
corn, oats and barley. His best average wheat crop was twenty-seven 
bushels per acre, and his. farm has never been visited by any violent 
storms of hail or wind. Upon his arrival in 1883 he erected a good, 
substantial frame dwelling, and four years later built a large barn, 
and in 1893 he enlarged and improved his dwelling, and now has one of 
the best farm residences in Brown county, barns, sheds and other 
outbuildings for the shelter of his stock and crops, and at seventy-two 
feet he finds a plentiful supply of good water, and a windmill attached 
materially assists in the labors of tire place. Two years after taking 
up his residence there he sowed seed for a grove, ash, box-elder and 
cottonwood. These were transplanted two years later, and the result is 
one of the thriftiest groves in the country. He has twenty-one horses 
and sixteen head of cattle, and has made a decided success of the 
pursuit of agriculture. 

Our subject was married January 1, 1868, Kathrina Leibenstine, a native 
of Baden, Germany, who came to America when an infant with her parents. 
Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Rahskopf, as follows: 
Lydia, now Mrs. E. M. Merton, residing in Aberdeen township; George W., 
a volunteer soldier, now in the Philippines; Sarah E. married Rev. F. 
H. Brockmiler, an Evangelical minister; John L., who resides at home 
and assists his father on the farm, and is also engaged in, farming for 
himself; and Noah P., a volunteer in the Philippines; for three years 
he attended Neighborville Northwestern College, and being home on 
vacation at the time of the call for volunteers he enlisted. The family 
are all members of the Evangelical church, and are well-known and 
command the esteem of their acquaintances. Our subject for the past 
five years has been school clerk, and six years school-board treasurer 
of the township, and two years a member of the town board. He takes an 
active interest in education and public matters and works zealously for 
the welfare of his community, and is entitled to much credit for the 
share he has taken in the development of that region.