Biography of Joseph Fanset

	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. Page 

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




JOSEPH FANSET, one of the old settlers of Grant county, who is now one 
of the leading business men of Milbank, operating an agricultural 
implement business, was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, October 
4, 1838, a son of John and Mary (Ferdenbagh) Fanset.

	John Fanset was born in England and emigrated from thence to 
America when but a boy and located in St. Lawrence county, New York, 
where he engaged in farming. He died in Canada at the age of seventy-
seven years. His wife was a native of Vermont, and of German descent. 
She died at the age of sixty-nine years. They were the parents of eight 
children, all of whom grew to maturity and of whom Joseph is the 
youngest. He received his schooling in the public schools in the 
vicinity of his birthplace and in the academy of Ogdensburg, New York, 
and remained in the latter place until eighteen years of age. He then 
moved to Canada and a year later to Wisconsin and from there he moved, 
in 1859, to Pennsylvania, and engaged in the lumbering business at 
Penfield, Clearfield county, about five years. He next went to Lake 
City, Minnesota, and there followed the occupation of a farmer until 
1879, the date of his settlement in Grant county, South Dakota, where he 
took up a claim and was engaged in farming for a number of years. In 
1889 he moved to the city of Milbank, where he opened an agricultural 
implement business and gradually built up an extensive and profitable 
trade.

	Mr. Fanset was married in May, 1859, to Miss Sarah A. Hevener, a 
native of Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Philip Hevener, a native of 
the same state. To this union have been born six children, four 
daughters and two sons, of whom we have the following record: Mary M., 
wife of M. S. Kelsey, of Milbank; Emma A., wife of E. L. Farnham; George 
W., of Watertown, South Dakota; Dr. John J. Fanset, of Milbank; Mina, a 
teacher at Appleton, Minnesota; and Josephine, a teacher at Watertown, 
South Dakota. The subject of our sketch has become one of the prominent 
and most well-to-do citizens of the county, and has accumulated 
considerable means as a result of his thrifty and systematic habits. He 
is a man of excellent abilities and understands thoroughly the details 
of his occupation. Politically, he is a Populist.