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, 1898. Pages 249-250.

	Scan and OCR by Joy Fisher, 1997. This file may be copied for non-profit 
	purposes. All other rights reserved. 



PAUL DUTCHER is editor and the senior member of the firm of Dutcher, Breed & 
Storgaard, publishers of the "Register," at Brookings, Brookings county, one of 
the most prosperous semi-weeklies in the state. Mr. Dutcher was born in 
Stoughton, Dane county, Wisconsin, on the 9th day of August, 1864, and is the 
youngest of two sons born to Curtis E. and Lucinda C. (Mattice) Dutcher. Curtis 
E. Dutcher was born in Bloomfield, Oakland county, Michigan, in May, 1831. As a 
young man he traveled quite extensively and later settled in Wisconsin, where he 
engaged in the mercantile business at Stoughton and afterward at Lone Rock and 
Waterloo. He died at Waterloo, Wisconsin, April 15, 1872, at the age of forty-
one. Mr. Dutcher had been a regimental sutler in the Civil war, and as the 
result of an accident (causing necrosis of the bone) was compelled to have one 
of his legs amputated. He never afterward entirely recovered and his death was 
hastened by this injury, although the immediate cause of death was blood 
poisoning. His ancestors were among the Colonists who early settled upon 
Manhattan Island, which is now New York City, and his grandfather was a 
Revolutionary soldier. His father, William Dutcher, was an attorney at-law, and 
who died at Madison, Wisconsin, at the ripe age of eighty-six, after a very 
active life spent in law practice, politics and civil life. Our subject's 
mother, Lucinda Dutcher, is also a descendant of the Knickerbockers, one of the 
Mattice family having been the first white child born in Schoharie county, New 
York. Mrs. Dutcher was herself born there, Fulton, Schoharie county, being her 
birth place. She was born September 25, 1831, and came west with her parents at 
the age of twelve and located in the state of Michigan. She received her 
education in the common schools and graduated at The Ladies Seminary at 
Schoolcraft. She was married to Mr. Dutcher, September 3, 1861. Mrs. Dutcher was 
a very intelligent woman, being very fond of reading, and having taught school 
for years both before and after marriage. She is now sixty-six years old and 
lives at Aberdeen, South Dakota. Her father, L. B. Mattice, was born near 
Middleburgh, Schoharie county, New York, and lived to the ripe age of ninety. 
Her mother was a Bouck, a relative of the once famous Governor Bouck, of New 
York state.

	Paul attended the public schools in Wisconsin until he attained his 
fourteenth year. At the age of nine he went to work upon a farm, and by working 
summers aided somewhat in the support of the family, his father being dead. He 
learned the printer's trade in the office of the "Evening Wisconsin", in 
Milwaukee. He remained there five years and then with his brother, Ward E. 
Dutcher, bought the Waterloo (Wisconsin) "Journal" and continued its publication 
for two years. At the age of nineteen he entered the newspaper field and has 
remained almost continuously in charge of one from that time to this. In August, 
1884, Mr. Dutcher came to Raymond, South Dakota, and secured control of the 
"Gazette," published there, and conducted it very successfully for the next five 
years. During his residence in Clark county, he took quite an active part in 
politics and held the office of postmaster and justice of the peace in his home 
town. He was a member of the Republican county central committee and also a 
member of the legislative committee of the Ninth district of the then Territory 
of Dakota. Mr. Dutcher arrived in Brookings June 1, 1890, and immediately 
started the "Register," taking as a partner Mr. George Nelson Breed, who is the 
oldest newspaper man in Brookings county and whose sketch will be found in 
another part of this work. The same year the "Sentinal," of Brookings, was 
purchased and consolidated with the "Register," making a very strong combination 
and the largest circulation in the county. In the fall of 1895 the paper was 
converted from a weekly to a semi-weekly and since that time its growth has been 
very rapid and its success most gratifying. The "Register" is a straight 
Republican organ and has done much for the party in Brookings county and in fact 
all over the eastern part of the state. Mr. Dutcher is a member of the blue 
lodge, chapter and council of the Masonic fraternity, and also of the Eastern 
Star. He has always been a Republican and served four years as aide-de-camp upon 
the staff of Governor Sheldon with the rank of colonel. In 1895 he was second 
assistant chief clerk of the South Dakota house. Mr. Dutcher married Miss Susie 
M. Adams, of Columbus, Wisconsin, June 15, 1885. Mr. and Mrs. Dutcher have two 
children, Raymond Adams and Gladys Pauline. Raymond Adams was born March 28th, 
1886, at Raymond, Clark county, and Gladys Pauline was born August 25, 1892, at 
Brookings, Brookings county. The family attend the Presbyterian church at 
Brookings, Mr. Dutcher having been chairman of the board of trustees of that 
society for the past six years.