Christian Rempfer (b. 1859, southern Russia) was a successful businessman and state legislator from Parkston, South Dakota. After emigrating to the U.S. in 1880, he settled in Hutchinson County in 1885, initially focusing on farming before transitioning to business. In 1895, Rempfer established a thriving agricultural implement business in Parkston, later shifting to grain trading and co-founding the South Dakota Grain Company. An active Republican, he served two terms in the state legislature, starting in 1900. Rempfer married Christina Krin in 1883, and they raised four children, with the family playing a prominent role in local Baptist church activities.
Christian Rempfer, representative from Hutchinson County in the state legislature and recognized as one of the most prominent and influential business men of Parkston, was born in southern Russia on the 18th of July, 1859, and was there reared to manhood, securing excellent educational advantages. In 1880 he severed the ties which bound him to home and fatherland and emigrated to America, believing that here were afforded superior opportunities for the attaining of success and independence through personal endeavor. From New York City, he came westward to South Dakota, which was at that time still an integral portion of the great undivided territory of Dakota. He remained for a short interval in Yankton, which was at the time the capital and most populous city of the territory, and then removed to Scotland, Bon Homme County, where he secured a clerical position in a grocery, being thus employed about two years, within which time he filed a claim to a homestead in Douglas County. In 1885 he came to Hutchinson County, where he has ever since retained his home. Upon taking up his residence here, he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, in which he was successfully engaged for about eight years. In the autumn of 1893, Mr. Rempfer removed with his family to the village of Parkston, having previously disposed of his livestock and grain, from the sale of which he realized four thousand dollars.
It was his desire to engage in a different line of business, and, feeling the need of more technical knowledge in regard to business methods, in the autumn of 1894 he entered the Dakota University at Mitchell, where he completed a commercial course. After which, he returned to Parkston, where, in the spring of 1895, he engaged in the handling of agricultural implements and machinery. He developed marked executive and business ability, and his enterprise was attended with most gratifying success. He continued the same until the 1st of January, 1902, when he disposed of his mercantile interests and turned his attention exclusively to the buying and shipping of grain. In the following summer, he associated himself with other prominent business men in the purchase of a series of elevators, twelve in number, operations being conducted under the corporate title of the South Dakota Grain Company, with Mr. Rempfer being made president of the company at the time of its organization. The concern handles a large amount of business, having the best of facilities and being one of the most important of the sort in the state. The subject is the owner of extensive tracts of valuable farming land and is also interested in other business enterprises of important order.
Mr. Rempfer is an uncompromising Republican in his political allegiance and has been an effective worker in the promotion of the party cause in this section of the state. In the autumn of 1900, he was made the candidate of his party for representative of his district in the legislature, and his able and straightforward course while a member of the legislative body at this time led to his being chosen as his own successor in the fall election of 1902, so that he is now serving his second term. He and his wife are active members of the Baptist Church.
On the 16th of February, 1883, Mr. Rempfer was united in marriage to Miss Christina Krin, of Scotland, Bon Homme County, and they are the parents of four children, namely: Henry G., who is a student of telegraphy at Janesville, Wisconsin; William C., who is a student in the State University of South Dakota, at Mitchell; and Helena and Emma, both of whom are attending the Parkston high school.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.