Conrad Von Wald 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 883-884

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

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CONRAD VON WALD. The business as well as farming interests of Brown 
county, South Dakota, have been enhanced in a financial and social way 
by the subject of this review. He is one of the early settlers of that 
region and has been closely identified with its development in many 
ways. He is one of the enterprising, industrious men of the community, 
and has gained a comfortable competence and a good reputation. 

Mr. Von Wald was born in Switzerland, on a farm, in 1846, and was the 
son of Ulrich and Anna Margaret (Gadent) Von Wald. His father was a 
school teacher in Switzerland, and came to America in 1849 and settled 
in Sauk county; Wisconsin, where he engaged in farming. The grandfather 
of our subject was in the war with Holland four years. The mother of 
our subject was born in Switzerland and was reared on a farm. 

Of a family of ten children our subject was the fourth in order of 
birth, and was raised on a farm. He attended the public school and 
spent one year in college, and at the age of fifteen years began to 
learn the carpenter's trade, serving thus two summers. He then learned 
the wagon-maker's trade, spending two years as an apprentice, at that 
time having attained the age of nineteen years. He worked out two years 
at his trade in Wisconsin and Iowa, and in 1879 went to Buffalo county, 
Wisconsin, and in Alma established a wagon and blacksmith shop, and 
later started a machine shop and enjoyed an extensive business. He had 
a ten-horse-power engine for running his lathes and machinery, and did 
all of the repairing for a sawmill located at Alma, which branch of the 
business alone amounted to eight hundred dollars per year. He remained 
in Wisconsin twelve years, and did some carpentering and run a 
threshing machine during several seasons. He went to Brown county, 
South Dakota, in 1882, and settled on a homestead on the southwest 
quarter of section 3, township 123, range 60, and erected a dwelling, 
14 x 20 feet, with a lean-to, 12 x 14 feet; also a barn, 14 x 20 feet. 
He had three horses, a harvester and a rake, and his first crop was two 
hundred bushels of wheat off thirty acres of land, and he remained on 
that homestead about ten years. Ten years ago, in company with A. 
Ringer and August Klabunde, he went into the threshing business, and 
has made that a feature of his work since. He has had two different 
rigs, the first a- thirteen-horsepower and the present one a twenty-two 
horse-power, and they thresh from one thousand three hundred to one 
thousand five hundred bushels per day. The same company started the 
digging of artesian wells in 1894, and dug two wells which were a 
success at the time, but one has since stopped. He also opened several 
wells which had stopped, and was in the business three years. He moved 
to the northwest quarter of section 8, township 122, range 60, in 1889, 
and has erected a complete set of good farm buildings, a barn 32 x 100 
feet, and a granary that will hold seven thousand bushels and is 
supplied with an elevator. He now operates a farm of six hundred and 
forty acres, all of which is under cultivation with the exception of 
fifty acres. He engages principally in grain raising and has made a 
success of farming. His barn was torn to pieces by a storm in 1883, and 
January 12, 1888, his children were forced to stay in the school house 
during the night on account of the blizzard of that time. Our subject 
is thoroughly acquainted with the workings of machinery, and has run a 
threshing engine for the past fifteen or twenty years without serious 
accident, and he and his brother made fully half of the engine which 
they used in their machine shop in Wisconsin. Both he and his brother 
are fine mechanics and the brother has devoted his life to that work. 
On one occasion, but for the timely assistance of our subject, the 
engine would have blown up, owing to the careless handling of the 
machinery by the men left in charge. 

Mr. Von Wald was married in Wisconsin, in 1869, to Elizabeth Eccola, a 
native of Sauk county, Wisconsin. Mrs. Von Wald's father was born in 
Switzerland and was a farmer in Wisconsin. The following children have 
been born to Mr. and Mrs. Von Wald: Lizzie, Anna, Margaret, Barbara, 
Mary, Ulrich Conrad, Valentine, George J., Christina, Orie A. and 
Walter. Our subject attends the Lutheran church and is a member of the 
Presbyterian church, and is a gentleman of the highest character. He 
has been called upon to serve in various township offices, was chairman 
of the town board two years and a member of the township school board, 
and is an earnest worker for the advancement of his county and 
township. In political sentiment he is a Populist, and is a man well 
versed in public affairs and stands for reform principles.