Loring E. Gaffy Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1529 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	HON. LORING E. GAFFY, who is presiding with marked ability on the 
bench of the sixth judicial circuit, is a native of the old Empire state 
of the Union, having been born in Clinton county, New York, on the 12th 
of January, 1850, and being a son of James and Nancy (Dale) Gaffy, who 
removed to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, when he was five years of age. He 
there attended the public schools, completing the curriculum of the high 
school and also taking a course in a local commercial college. In 1869, 
when nineteen years of age, he took up the study of the law under the 
direction of Judge Derry, a distinguished legist and jurist of Fond du 
Lac, prosecuting his technical reading for two years under this able 
preceptor, and being admitted to the bar in 1871, in which year he 
located in Grand Island, Nebraska, where he has successfully engaged in 
practice until 1877. He then came to the territory of Dakota and became 
one of the early law practitioners of the Black Hills district, having 
taken up his residence in Deadwood, where he continued to follow the 
work of his profession until 1884, when he came to Pierre, which has 
ever since been the scene of his professional endeavors, while he has 
gained prestige as one of the most able lawyers of this section of the 
state and as a jurist of great discrimination and unrivaled technical 
acumen. In 1888 he was elected state's attorney of Hughes county, and 
was re-elected in 1890, having thus been incumbent of this office at the 
time when South Dakota was admitted to the Union, and having made a most 
creditable record as a public prosecutor. In January, 1894, he was 
appointed to the bench of the sixth judicial circuit of the state, and 
at the expiration of his term, in 1898, was elected to succeed himself, 
while in 1902 he was again elected to the dignified office, so that he 
is now serving his third term on the bench. The Judge is one of the 
leaders of the Republican party in the state, being prominent in its 
councils. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order and 
Knights of Pythias. 

	On March 8, 1879, Judge Gaffy married Miss Fannie B. Price, who 
died October 8, 1897. On the 14th of February, 1900, he was united in 
marriage to Miss Adelaide Warwick, of Grand Island, Nebraska. They have 
an adopted son, Floyd W., who is nineteen years of age at the time of 
this writing and who is attending a commercial college in the city of 
Aberdeen, this state.