Union County, SD Biographies.....Lass, Peter 1836 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 20, 2022, 3:22 am

Source: MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF Turner, Lincoln, Union and Clay Counties, South Dakota. (1897)
Author: Geo. Ogle & Co.

PETER LASS. It is a pleasure to record the main events in the life of one who has
attained an enviable position solely through his own efforts and exertions, and who,
though close on to man’s alloted three score and ten years, can still look forward
to quite a few years of usefulness in his chosen field of labor. It is, therefore,
gratifying to place before the reader a brief outline of the life struggles of one
of Union county’s pioneer citizens.

A native of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, Mr. Lass was born in 1836, and grew up to
fifteen years of age in the old country. He was raised on a farm and educated in the
common schools of his native land, and in 1852 came with an uncle to America. He
located in Clinton county, Iowa, and worked on a farm there for three years,
receiving as remuneration for his services his board and clothing. By that time he
had attained the age of eighteen years, and decided on striking out for himself. He
hired out as farm laborer by the month, and continued to make his home in the
vicinity until he married, in 1862. This happy event in our subject’s life occurred
at Sugar Creek, when he led to the hymeneal altar Miss Regina Cooper. This lady is
also a native of Germany, and was born in the kingdom of Prussia in 1842. After
marriage the young couple took up their domestic life on a rented farm, and later
Mr. Lass bought a piece of property in Jackson county, Iowa, on which they took up
their abode until coming to Dakota territory. In 1870 he came to Union county, and
selected the homestead on which he now resides, as a claim, and then returned to
Iowa. The following spring, accompanied by his family, he located on the property,
and has ever since made it his home. The first house he put up was a shanty made of
cottonwood slabs, and the stove used for cooking was placed outside. As one of the
first settlers in the neighborhood, he has been an eye-witness of the marvelous
growth of the county, and himself assisted in the development of one of the finest
farming sections of the state. The present prosperity of the community, however, was
preceded by much hardship and privation, which the early settlers passed through
unflinchingly, and our subject, like other of the pioneers, met with and conquered
the trials of those times. He withstood the grasshopper plague, the hailstorms, in
fact, all the hardships which any of the old settlers experienced, fell equally
forcibly on his shoulders. From the small amount of $60, with which he started his
career in Union county, Mr. Lass has accumulated a large property, and is possessed
of a competence which will more than tide him past the time which must occur in
every one’s life. He is now the owner of 480 acres in section 5 of Prairie township,
on which he is conducting a thriving general farming business, raising principally
hogs in the live stock line and corn in the cereal. The farm is all nicely fenced,
and is adorned by a large grove, which he planted himself. Mr. Lass, politically, is
a Democrat, and has always interested himself more or less in politics. While a
resident of Iowa he served as township trustee, school officer and road supervisor,
and has also been a member of the school board of the district where he now
resides.

Mr. and Mrs. Lass are the happy parents of twelve children, of the following names:
Barbara Henle, Mary Henle, John, married to Miss Annie McGuire; Peter, married to
Miss Mary McGuire; Anton, Joseph, Catherine McGuire, Bernard, Henry, Nettie, Annie
and William. All the children have been given the best advantages for education by
their parents, Mr. Lass believing that, as “knowledge is power,” his children should
have every facility for acquiring that knowledge. One son, John, has quite a
reputation as a teacher and instructor. The family are members of St. Joseph’s
Catholic church, of Prairie township, of which Mr. Lass has been treasurer for a
period of eighteen years.

Mr. Lass is a general reader and well informed on current topics, and a man of more
than average ability. Were we to sum up his life labors in one word, that word would
be “success,” for he has ably and admirably managed his affairs, and justly deserves
the credit.


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