Joseph Weatherer 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 795-796

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

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JOSEPH WEATHERER, a prominent merchant and-stock raiser of Lebanon, is 
one of the early settlers of Potter county. He has been closely 
identified with the growth of that region and has engaged in the 
pursuit of agriculture a great share of his time since taking up his 
residence in Dakota. He is well known and enjoys an enviable 
reputation. His farming interests claim a share of his attention, but 
he more particularly attends to his mercantile business in the city of 
Lebanon. He has risen to prominence by dint of honest efforts and well 
merits his success. 

Our subject was born in England in 1858 and was the son of William and 
Elizabeth (Parker) Weatherer, the father a native of England and a 
farmer by occupation. Our subject was the youngest of a family of four 
children who grew to maturity, and was given a common-school education. 
At the age of twenty years he worked in the coal mines of his native 
country and in April, 1881, at the age of twenty-four years, came: to 
America and settled in Ohio. He did coal mining four years and then 
went to the Indian territory, spending three years in the coal mines 
there. While mining at Savannah, Indian territory, he was in two gas 
explosions, in which eighteen to twenty men lost their lives, and he 
was locked in the mine several hours and on one occasion was shut in 
the mine one night. He went to Lebanon, Potter county, March 22, 1888, 
and took a homestead on the northwest quarter of section 13, township 
118, range 74, and erected a shanty, 12 x 16, sodded outside, and a 
board barn. His first crop in 1888 was sod corn, and sixteen acres of 
rented land planted to wheat. He had one cow, a team, wagon, plow and 
drag with which to make his start and he resided on the farm five 
years. His barn, 100 x 30 feet, and corral and two loads of lumber were 
shattered by a cyclone June 17, 1889, entailing a loss of three hundred 
dollars. From 1889-92 he did all of his farming with an ox team. He 
engaged principally in stock raising and when he left the farm, in 
1892, he had three hundred and twenty acres of land and a complete set 
of farm buildings, with plenty of small fruits and modern machinery and 
forty or fifty head of cattle. He purchased the general store of Rippa 
& Close in Lebanon in 1892, which they had established in 1884. In the 
meantime he disposed of his farm interests and chattels and was engaged 
in the mercantile business four years, and then sold out and returned 
to farming for one year. In the fall of 1897 he established the general 
store which he now operates, and he is also largely engaged in the 
cattle business and keeps from seventy to one hundred head. He has two 
hundred acres of cultivated land and makes a success of farming. 

Mr. Weatherer was married December 28, 1882, to Miss Emily Dudley, a 
native of Westershire, England, and the daughter of David Dudley, a 
merchant of England, whose death occurred when Mrs. Weatherer was but 
two years of age. She came to America in company with a brother's wife 
and landed in New York, July 9, 1882. Mr. and Mrs. Weatherer are the 
parents of seven children, five of whom are living, as follows: Claudia 
A., born in Ohio, August 18, 1884; Amely, born in Savannah, Indian 
territory, February 25, 1887; Alfred Henry, born in Dakota, May 6, 1 
892; Elsie May, born in Dakota, May 6, 1894; and Pearl Marie, born in 
Dakota, October 8, 1 897. The two eldest, Laura Emily and Joseph 
Howard, are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Weatherer are members of the 
Congregational church, and our subject affiliates with the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen. He takes an active part in the affairs of his 
county and state, and keeps abreast of the times. He is a worker for 
reform and is a Populist in political belief. He is chairman of the 
county central committee, and has attended numerous county and state 
conventions.