Ernest Jasper Lacy Biography


	This biography appears on pages 819-820 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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	ERNEST JASPER LACY, present official surveyor of Stanley county, 
South Dakota, was born November 2, 1873, at Austin, Minnesota, the son 
of John S. and Katherine (Gibbs) Lacy, natives of Ohio and New York 
respectively. The father, a farmer by occupation, removed to South 
Dakota in 1881, and built the first hotel at Roscoe, later known as 
Egan, which he conducted for a time, subsequently, by reason of 
financial embarrassment, changing his residence to the subject's ranch, 
six miles west of Flandreau, Moody county.  

	Ernest J. was but four years of age when his parents moved to 
South Dakota, and from that time to the present his life has been 
mainly spent within the boundaries of his adopted state. His early 
experiences on the farm were similar to those of the majority of 
country lads, and he grew up with a practical acquaintance with 
agricultural labor in its various phases, attending of winter seasons 
the public schools of his neighborhood As stated in a preceding 
paragraph, his father met with severe business reverses, resulting in 
the loss of nearly all of his property, which, with failing health that 
followed, reduced the family to somewhat strained circumstances. These 
misfortunes occurring when Ernest J. was a youth of twelve, he nobly 
gave up some of his ambitions and started out to make his own way in 
the world, and at the same time to assist his parents. Leaving school, 
he joined a surveying party under F. W. Pettigrew, hoping to save from 
his salary money sufficient to prosecute his legal studies, after 
contributing a certain amount to the object above noted. He started 
with this party in the summer of 1895 as flagman, discharging his 
duties faithfully and well, and while thus engaged concluded to give up 
the idea of studying law and turn his attention to civil engineering. 
He made such rapid progress in the latter profession that during the 
summers of 1896 and 1897 he was given charge of a party running a 
transit, under the direction of Mr. Pettigrew, and the winter of the 
latter year he spent drawing plats and writing notes of the self-same 
survey. From 1898 to 1900 inclusive Mr. Lacy was joint contractor with 
Mr. Pettigrew in surveying government lands in South Dakota west of the 
Missouri river, and during those years he had personal charge of a 
party that helped survey over four thousand miles of the general 
domain, an experience beneficial to him in many ways, especially in 
that it enabled him to master the principles of his profession and 
become a skillful and thoroughly reliable surveyor. In addition to 
engineering Mr. Lacy is also largely interested in the live stock 
business, owning since 1900 a fine sheep ranch in Stanley county, on 
which he makes his home and which, plentifully stocked with the best 
grade of sheep obtainable, yields him a large share of the liberal 
income he every year receives. He has made many valuable improvements 
on his property, which have added greatly to its beauty and 
attractiveness, and in addition to his live stock interests he is at 
the present time vice-president of the South Dakota Horticultural 
Society. He is also engaged in real estate business in connection with 
his other lines of endeavor, and since 1900 has been official surveyor 
of Stanley county. Mr. Lacy was reared a Republican, but of recent 
years he has been practically independent in politics, though inclining 
somewhat towards the Prohibition party. He supports the candidates best 
qualified, mentally and morally, for the positions to which they 
aspire, but keeps himself well informed relative to the leading 
questions and issues of the day, on all of which he has strong 
convictions and decided opinions. Religiously Mr. Lacy is a Methodist, 
and he exemplifies his faith by his daily life and conversation, being 
a liberal contributor to the local church with which himself and wife 
are identified, and a supporter of all charitable and benevolent 
institutions and enterprises.  

	Reference is made in a preceding paragraph to Mr. Lacy's limited 
school privileges during his youth, and how his education was 
interfered with by circumstances over which he had no control. With a 
laudable ambition to make up in part at least for this deficiency, he 
afterwards entered high school at Sioux Falls, where he pursued his 
studies with great assiduity until completing the full course, 
graduating with a high standard of scholarship in the year 1894. While 
attending the above institution he was a member of Company B, South 
Dakota National Guards, and in due time rose by successive promotions 
from private to the rank of second lieutenant. In a general examination 
on tactics and drill he had the honor of standing second to but one 
member of the organization in the state, making ninety-nine points out 
of a possible hundred, an achievement of which he and his friends feel 
deservedly proud.  

	September 11, 1900, Mr. Lacy was happily married to Miss Estelle 
Mae Lyman, whose father, Lewis Lyman, was one of the early pioneer 
settlers of Minnehaha county. Standing forward as one of the 
representative young men of his county, and as one of its most 
intelligent, enterprising and valued citizens, Mr. Lacy owes his 
pronounced success in life solely to his own efforts and is clearly 
entitled to the proud appellation of a "self-made man." He possesses 
great force of character and a pleasing personality, which, combined 
with fine social qualities and superior professional ability, make him 
not only a useful man in his day and generation, but also popular with 
all classes and conditions of his fellow citizens. Warm-hearted, 
affable and pleasing in address and manner, he numbers his friends by 
the score and the respectable position he has already reached in 
professional, business and social circles is indicative of the still 
greater and more influential career that awaits him in the future.