Lester H. Bentley Biography


	This biography appears on pages 685-686 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	LESTER H. BENTLEY, who is actively engaged in the practice of his 
profession in Milbank, is also engaged in the real-estate and loan 
business and is prominently identified with industrial affairs. He has 
been a factor in political and civic matters since coming to the state, 
and commands unqualified esteem wherever known.  

	Mr. Bentley is a native of Minnesota, having been born in Viola, 
Olmsted county, on the 28th of January, 1871, and being a son of A. L. 
and Tamar (Wiltse) Bentley. In 1881 they settled on a homestead near 
Andover, Day county, South Dakota, and there Lester learned every 
detail of farm work, driving cattle to break the original sod. Lester 
H. was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm in Day county, and 
his preliminary educational discipline was secured in the district 
schools, while he later continued his studies in the high school at 
Montevideo, Chippewa county, Minnesota, where he was graduated as a 
member of the class of 1889. He shortly afterward began the study of 
law in the office of Smith & Fosnes, of that place, and in September, 
1889, entered the University of Minnesota, where he spent one year in 
the academic course and was then matriculated in the law department of 
the same institution, being graduated in the spring of 1892, with the 
degree of Bachelor of Laws, while he was simultaneously admitted to the 
bar. Soon afterward he engaged in the active work of his profession in 
Montevideo, where he entered into a professional partnership with C. A. 
Fosnes, with whom he was associated until 1893, when he came to 
Milbank, where he has since resided and where he has gained high 
prestige in his profession and marked success in business connections. 
In 1892 he stumped Minnesota in the interests of the Republican party, 
of whose principles he is a stalwart advocate, and at each ensuing 
campaign his services have been in requisition. He is attorney for a 
large number of financial institutions, and has personally identified 
himself with prominent industrial concerns. He was one of the 
organizers of the Wagner Milling Company, of Milbank, of which he is 
still a stockholder, and is also one of the interested principals in 
the Wagher-Bentley Cattle Ranch Company, while he is vice-president and 
a large stockholder of the People's Kanmare Dry Coal Company of 
Kanmare, North Dakota. He owns and is president of the First State 
Bank, of Strandburg, Grant county, South Dakota. He is also identified 
with the farming and stock-growing industry, and is a man of marked 
business acumen and progressive ideas, his executive and administrative 
powers being exceptionally pronounced. He is agent for large and 
valuable tracts of farming and grazing land in Assiniboia, and during 
the year 1902 sold more than a million dollars' worth of land in South 
Dakota, Minnesota and Assiniboia, while he also has the best of 
facilities for the extending of financial loans upon real estate 
security. In the fall of 1902 his name was brought prominently before 
the people of the state in connection with the office of railroad 
commissioner, for which he was candidate for the nomination on the 
Republican ticket, and is an earnest worker in his party. With his 
manifold professional and business interests he considers himself 
favored in having "escaped" public office. Fraternally he is identified 
with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Bentley has one of the 
finest residences in Grant county, which he completed in 1903, at a 
cost of about ten thousand dollars.  

	On the 6th of May, 1893, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Bentley to Miss Mabel I. Taylor, of Alexandria, Minnesota, in which 
state she was born and reared. They have two children, Lester H., Jr., 
and Charles E.