Charles Rossow 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 1099-1100

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

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CHARLES ROSSOW, an extensive land owner and enterprising farmer of 
Garden Prairie township, Brown county, has gained a comfortable 
competence in South Dakota, by dint of his own efforts. He is one of 
the early settlers of that state, and is connected with the growth and 
development of Brown county. He resides on section 3, and has erected 
such buildings as make a model country home. 

Our subject was born in Germany, April 1, 1855, and came to America 
with his parents, Charles and Sophia (Hazleman) Rossow, in 1867. His 
father was a laborer, and after two months spent in Chicago, went to 
Alma, Buffalo county, Wisconsin, where he worked out for some time, 
after which he engaged in farming. 

Our subject was the eldest in a family of seven children and worked on 
his father's farm. and at the age of twenty-one left home and spent two 
and a half years in Texas as a cow-boy, going from thence to New 
Mexico, where he worked in the mines two and a half years. He came to 
Brown county, South Dakota, in July, 1882, and purchased a 
relinquishment to the northeast quarter of section 3, township 121, 
range 61. He borrowed the money with which to buy the relinquishment 
and built a 12 x 16 foot shanty which served as barn and dwelling, and 
during the winter of 1882-83 worked in the woods of Wisconsin. He 
bought a team and wagon in the spring of 1883, and he and his brother 
"bached" in the shanty three years. He made a start without means and 
is now the possessor of a fine estate free from all encumbrances. His 
farm comprises five hundred and sixty acres of land, all but twenty-
five acres of which is under cultivation, and the improvements 
including a substantial and commodious residence and other buildings, 
and a fruit orchard, complete a home of more than usual comforts. Hail 
destroyed part of the crops in 1896, and the following year caused a 
total failure. Mr. Rossow started on a trip to the Klondike gold 
regions February 27, 1 898, going via Seattle, Dyea, and Chilcoot Pass, 
and after prospecting on the Stuart river, where he obtained some 
samples of gold, he returned via the Yukon and St. Michaels, reaching 
home October 27, of the same year. While there he barely escaped being 
in the track of a snow slide, as he was only about two hundred feet 
away at the time. 

Mr. Rossow was married in 1886 to Minnie Greuer. Mrs. Rossow was born 
and raised in Germany and her father was a shepherd in that country. 
Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Rossow, as follows: 
Albert, Paul, Clara, Hattie, Ore, Amanda and Lester. All were born on 
the farm in Garden Prairie township, Brown county. Our subject is a 
member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He has had an eventful career, 
and while in Texas was many times in close proximity to the Indians and 
came near getting into skirmishes with them on several occasions. He is 
a man who keeps posted on current events, and has the welfare of his 
adopted land at heart. He votes independent of party, lending his 
influence for the man who in his opinion will best serve his community.