South Dakota Industrial (Reform) School


	This information 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, 1899. Page 246

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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SOUTH DAKOTA INDUSTRIAL OR SOUTH DAKOTA REFORM SCHOOL. Among Dakota's 
state institutions none has been advanced with more rapidity or greater 
substantiality or gained greater notoriety for its successful 
management, than has the South Dakota Industrial or Reform School, 
located in Plankinton, Aurora county, and to its superintendent, C. W. 
Ainsworth, LL.D., and his estimable wife, is due the credit of its 
promotion. Their familiar knowledge of its needs, united with their 
readiness in the performance of the duties entrusted to them, has won 
them high esteem in the heart of every public-spirited citizen of the 
state. 

The school was located in Plankinton, through the efforts of Mr. 
McIntosh, in 1882. The state granted one hundred and sixty acres of 
land and in 1887 erected a granite building, at a cost of $30,000.00. 
In 1894 a girls' building was erected, containing a chapel and 
printing-office. On the night of October 5, 1897, this building burned 
and one of the teachers, Miss Tillie Hooper, and six young girls who 
were in her care, met their deaths. A new girls building is almost 
completed, costing $25,000.00. The comforts of its inmates have been 
studied in detail and it is a model building, heated by steam and 
lighted by electricity. A portion of the fund resulting from the 
raising of crops has been expended in the erection of necessary out-
buildings and additional land has been purchased for agricultural 
purposes, the institution now owning six hundred and forty acres. Each 
season from fifteen hundred to two thousand acres are put under 
cultivation. The first child was received November 3, 1888, the second 
on the tenth of the same month. 

Up to the present time the school has enrolled two hundred and seventy 
boys and fifty girls.  

July 13, 1888, Cephus W. Ainsworth was appointed superintendent and 
Mrs. Ainsworth was appointed matron. Mr. Ainsworth's previous 
experience in the same capacity in like institutions and his scholarly 
attainments make him peculiarly fitted for his position, and his wife 
is a lady who has devoted her life to the same cause. They have given 
the school their personal supervision and their efforts have made it an 
influence for good in the state of South Dakota.