Oscar W. Geranen Biography


	This biography appears on pages 493-494 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				OSCAR W. GERANEN. 

	Oscar W. Geranen, a general merchant of Lake Norden, is wide-
awake, alert, enterprising, watching constantly for opportunities that 
mean advancement and conducting his business in a manner that is 
beneficial to the community as well as to himself. His stock of goods 
is as large as can be found in any town of the same size and in the 
conduct of his business he is meeting with well merited success. He was 
born in Frederick, Brown county, South Dakota, November 2, 1885, and is 
a son of Paul and Fredericka (Lippo) Geranen, both of whom were natives 
of Finland, where they were reared and married. In 1877 they eame to 
the United States, settling in Hancock, Michigan, where the father 
secured employment in the mines, and he was also employed in the 
Michigan pineries. In 1882 he eame to South Dakota, settling in Brown 
county, where he homesteaded a quarter section of land, upon which he 
resided until 1906, when he retired from active farming and removed to 
Bryant and two years later to Lake Norden. In the meantime he had 
converted his claim into richly productive fields and had added to his 
farm all modern equipments and accessories. He had also extended the 
boundaries of his holdings by additional purchases and is now one of 
the heavy landowners of his section of the state, his possessions 
aggregating eight hundred acres in Brown county and four hundred acres 
in Hamlin county. 

	Oscar W. Geranen spent his youthful days under the parental roof 
and is indebted to the public-school system for the educational 
opportunities which he enjoyed. He was but sixteen years of age when, 
in 1901, he had his first experience in the mercantile business, his 
father admitting him to a partnership in the ownership of a general 
store in the village of Savo, in Brown county. For three years he 
remained a member of the firm of P. Geranen & Son. In 1904 the father 
secured an interest in the Bryant Mercantile Company of Bryant, Hamlin 
county, and Oscar W. Geranen was sent to Bryant as manager of the 
business, continuing in charge in that connection for a year. Later he 
and his father became sole proprietors of the business changing the 
firm name, after a year, to P. Geranen & Son and Oscar W. Geranen 
directed and managed the enterprise until 1908. The previous year they 
opened a branch store in Lake Norden and in 1908 the Bryant store was 
transferred to Lake Norden, where the business was continued under the 
firm style of P. Geranen & Son, with the junior partner as the business 
manager. In February, 1913, he purchased his father's interest and has 
since owned and operated the business independently. He conducts a 
modern general mercantile establishment, which is one of the largest 
and best appointed in the county and which is known as "Geranen's, The 
Big Store." He is most careful in making his purchases knows the latest 
that the market affords, studies the wishes and demands of his patrons 
and as the years have gone by has worked up a business of gratifying 
and substantial proportions. 

	In 1911 Mr. Geranen was married to Miss Mamie C. Isaacson, of 
Terraville, South Dakota, a native of Calumet, Michigan, and they have 
become the parents of two children, Ernest W., born September 4, 1911; 
and Paul Reynold, born June 12, 1913. Mr. Geranen is a progressive 
republican and is also well known as a stanch advocate of the 
temperance cause. His life has been guided by high and honorable 
principles and there is in his career much that is commendable and 
worthy of emulation. In his business record there are no esoteric 
chapters, his entire course being such as will bear the closest 
investigation and scrutiny. His ideals of life are high and he seeks 
always to embody these in his daily conduct. Starting out as an active 
factor in the business world at the age of sixteen years, be has 
steadily worked his way up and the simple weight of his character and 
ability has carried him into important relations.