Hosmer H. Keith Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1177-1178 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	HOSMER H. KEITH was born at North Brookfield, Madison county, New 
York, July 12, 1846, his father having been a farmer and of Scotch 
ancestry. Besides receiving instruction in the common schools, Mr. Keith 
was graduated at Whitestown Seminary and afterwards received the 
honorary degree of Master of Arts from Colgate University at Hamilton, 
New York. During his young manhood he not only worked on the farm, but, 
like many other energetic young men of his time, he also engaged in 
school teaching. He studied law for two years, and then entered the Law 
School at Albany, New York, graduating in 1870. He was admitted to the 
bar at a general term of the supreme court in New York in June, 1870, 
and has since then, first in New York and subsequently in South Dakota, 
been in the active practice of his profession. He came to Sioux Falls in 
the spring of 1883. At the election of officers for the proposed state 
of South Dakota, under the Sioux Falls constitution, he was elected 
judge of the circuit court of the second district. At the election in 
the fall of 1888 he was elected a member of the territorial legislature 
from the counties of Hanson, McCook and Minnehaha, receiving a majority 
of four hundred and ninety-eight votes over his competitor, J. T. 
Gilbert, who had been elected to the previous term by a majority of one 
hundred and sixty-five votes. Mr. Keith was elected speaker of the house 
of representatives and filled the position with marked ability. He took 
a prominent part in the division of the territory and the admission of -
the southern half as a state. He stands high as a public speaker and is 
always listened to with marked attention. As a lawyer he ranks among the 
best in the state. When he is employed in a case, his opponents know 
there is to be a contest from the beginning to the end. He is a 
sagacious trier of cases, a good advocate and when summoned to a court 
of last resort he is well equipped and able to make the best 
presentation of his case. As a citizen he is independent and 
enterprising and takes an active part in all public matters. For several 
years he was president of the Commercial Club and Business Men's League 
of his city. 

	Mr. Keith is a prominent member of the Baptist church, and is also 
well known in fraternal circles, belonging to Masonic blue lodge No. 5, 
the Scottish Rite consistory, the Mystic Shrine and the Benevolent and 
Protective Order of Elks, all at Sioux Falls. In politics he has always 
actively supported the Republican party. He was elected city attorney of 
Sioux Falls in 1901 and has since been retained in that office. 

	On the 9th of August, 1870, he was united in marriage to Mary 
Katherine Spear, the daughter of Philitus B. Spear, D. D., of Hamilton, 
New York, and to them have been born three children, namely: Flora 
Belle, who was graduated from a ladies' seminary at Hamilton, New York; 
Edwin Spear, who graduated from Pillsbury Academy Owatonna, Minnesota, 
and took two years in Chicago University, is now a successful merchant 
in Bremerton, Washington; Albert Jackson, who was graduated from Sioux 
Falls College and the law department of the University of Minnesota is 
now practicing law with his father at Sioux Falls.