Edward Charles Ericson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 632-633 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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	EDWARD CHARLES ERICSON. - Ere this history shall have been issued 
from the press the honored subject of this sketch will have passed the 
milestone which marks thirty years' residence in South Dakota. He has 
been most conspicuously identified with the development and progress of 
the commonwealth, is a representative member of its bar and has served 
in positions of distinctive public trust and responsibility, being at 
the present time actively engaged in the practice of his profession in 
Elk Point, the capital of Union county, and having also the distinction 
of being president of the South Dakota Bar Association at the time of 
this writing - a fact which indicates the estimate placed upon him by 
his professional confreres.  

	Mr. Ericson is a native of Sweden, where he was born on the 24th 
of August, 1856, being a son of Eric and Johanna (Norden) Ericson, the 
father of the subject died in 1859, leaving a widow and two children. 
In 1865 the widowed mother came with her children to the United States, 
settling in the city of New York, and in 1872 the mother and younger 
child, E. W. Ericson, moved to Union county, then in Dakota territory, 
where they still reside. Mr. Ericson initiated his educational 
discipline in the schools of his native land, and was a lad of about 
nine years at the time of the family immigration to America. He was 
reared to maturity in the national metropolis, attending the public 
schools and in 1871 entering the College of the City of New York, where 
he continued his studies for three years. In September, 1874, as a 
young man of eighteen years, Mr. Ericson came to what is now the state 
of South Dakota, and for nearly five years he was successfully engaged 
in teaching school in Union and Clay counties, in the meanwhile being 
also identified with agricultural pursuits to a certain degree. In 
March, 1879, he took up his residence in Elk Point, Union county, where 
he began reading law in the office of Alexander Hughes, one of the 
leading members of the early bar of the territory of Dakota. He was 
admitted to the bar of the territory in 1881 and forthwith entered into 
a professional partnership with his former preceptor, this association 
continuing until 1883, when Mr. Hughes removed to Bismarck, having been 
appointed attorney general of the territory. 
Thereafter our subject continued an individual practice until 1900, 
when he formed a partnership with Charles Stickney, under the firm name 
of Ericson & Stickney, and they have been since associated in practice, 
retaining a large and representative clientage and being considered 
among the leading law firms of the state. Mr. Ericson has ever been a 
close student and is well informed in the minutae of the law, while he 
is known as an able and forceful advocate and safe and conservative 
counsel. In politics he accords an uncompromising allegiance to the 
Republican party, and is one of its leaders in the state. In 1892 he 
was a delegate to the national Republican convention, in Minneapolis, 
while he has been active in forwarding the cause of the party during 
the various campaigns in South Dakota. He served two years as county 
superintendent of schools, declining a renomination. He was mayor of 
Elk Point in 1887, was a member of the territorial legislature in 1887 
and 1889, and also of the first state senate in 1889 and 1890. 
Fraternally he is identified with the local organizations of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of America and the 
Knights of the Maccabees. Though not formally identified with any 
religious body, he and his family attend the Congregational church, and 
he has been a member of its board of trustees for over fifteen years.  

	On the 22d of February, 1881, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Ericson to Miss Sylvia A. Hayes, who was born in Richland Center, 
Wisconsin. on the 22d of April, 1856, being a daughter of Benjamin and 
Phoebe (Marquot) Hayes. Of this union were born three children, namely: 
Harry Francis, who died on the 4th of November, 1903, at the age of 
twenty years and ten months; Nellie H., who is eighteen years of age at 
the time of this writing (1904) and Sylvia Florence, aged ten years.