Frank J. Tracy 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 729

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

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FRANK J. TRACY, the efficient clerk of the courts of Edmunds county and 
one of the leading and influential citizens of Ipswich, was born in 
Mazomanie, Dane county, Wisconsin, in September, 1861, and is the 
fourth in order of birth in a family of six children. His father, John 
Tracy, a native of Ireland, came to America with his parents when quite 
young, and his first employment was track work for a railroad company. 
He has been roadmaster for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad 
for the past forty-four years, his work being carried on in Wisconsin, 
Illinois and Iowa. 

Our subject was educated in the common schools of Freeport, Illinois. 
At the age of seventeen he began his business career as telegraph 
operator, and in that capacity and as station agent was in the employ 
of the railroad for about sixteen years. He next entered the 
construction department and built roads, being thus engaged in Illinois 
for five years. In 1883 he came to Edmunds county, South Dakota, and 
took up land, which he held for six months and proved up. In the fall 
of that year the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad established a 
station at Ipswich, and he was made the first agent in charge of the 
same, occupying that position until 1887. The following year he was 
engaged in railroad construction, helping build the lines north and 
south of Roscoe, and also the Madison and Bristol line, and between 
Merrill and Minocqua, Wisconsin. In 1888 he took charge of the Faulkton 
station, but during the fall of the following year came to Ipswich and 
established the "Edmunds County Democrat," the only Democratic 
newspaper in the county. He has farming interests here, but his land is 
all operated by renters. 

In September, 1891, Mr. Tracy married Miss Mary Barron, who was born 
and reared in Carroll county, Illinois, and died at Ipswich, in 1893. 
Her father, Thomas Barron, was a farmer and stock-raiser of Illinois. 
The Democratic party has always found in our subject a stanch supporter 
of its principles, and he has ever taken quite an active and prominent 
part in local politics, serving as a delegate to county and state 
conventions and as chairman of the county central committee for the 
past five or six years. In 1896 he was elected clerk of the courts of 
Edmunds county, and so acceptably did he fill the office that he was 
reelected in 1898, and is now serving his second term with credit to 
himself and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents.