Warren D. Lane Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1278-1279 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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	WARREN D. LANE, one of the successful attorneys of the Roberts 
county bar and member of the well-known law firm of Barrington & Lane, 
Sisseton, was born near Cresco, Iowa, May 1O, 1867, the son of Abraham 
and Sarah (Darling) Lane, natives of Pennsylvania and New York 
respectively. Abraham Lane was a farmer and public-spirited citizen, and 
for many years enjoyed distinctive prestige in his community as an 
enterprising man of affairs. Of his family of seven children only three 
are living, Rev. Louis L. Lane, pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal 
church of Sisseton; Theron W., an attorney practicing his profession at 
Bridgeport, Washington, and Warren D., whose name furnishes the caption 
of this review. Mr. Lane moved to Iowa in 1851 and died in that state in 
1879, at the age of forty-eight; his widow subsequently came to South 
Dakota and settled on a claim east of Wilmot, later changing her 
residence to the town of Bristol, where he departed this life in the 
year 1897. 

	The early life of Warren D. Lane was spent in Iowa, and his 
youthful experiences were similar to those of the majority of lads 
reared in close touch with nature on the farm. After attending the 
public schools of Cresco until the age of sixteen, finishing the high-
school course the meantime, he accompanied his mother to South Dakota, 
settling in 1883 on the claim in Roberts county, alluded to in the 
preceding paragraph, where he devoted his attention to agricultural 
pursuits, until engaging with his brother in the furniture business at 
Wilmot two years later. Actuated by a laudable ambition to increase his 
scholastic training, he and his brother disposed of their furniture 
business in 1892, and entered the Northwestern University at Evanston, 
Illinois, from which institution he was graduated four years later with 
the degree of Bachelor of Science. Subsequently he took the degree of 
Master of Science at the University of Minnesota, and in 1898 was 
graduated from the same institution with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, 
after which he began the practice of his profession at Sisseton, where 
in due time he forged to the front as an able and energetic attorney, 
winning a conspicuous place among the leading members of the Roberts 
county bar. Since then he has been admitted to practice in the higher 
courts of South Dakota and the supreme court of the United States, and 
by unflagging industry has built up a large and lucrative legal 
business. 

	While well grounded in the principals of the law and familiar with 
every branch of his profession, Mr. Lane has won especial distinction as 
an advocate, being regarded as one of the strong, logical and eloquent 
public speakers of the west, in consequence of which his services are 
eagerly sought in important jury trials and in cases requiring clear 
exposition of technical points of law and profound discussion before 
courts. While a student of the University of Minnesota, he represented 
that institution in the inter-collegiate debate with the Iowa University 
and at the Northwestern University he was elected class orator and won 
the Lyman F. Gage prize for extemporaneous debate, and was elected to 
membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society, besides gaining various other 
honors for public discourse and scholarship. 

	The same year in which he opened an office in Sisseton, Mr. Lane 
was nominated by the Republican party of Roberts county for state's 
attorney, to which office he was triumphantly elected and the duties of 
which he discharged for two consecutive terms. He has always manifested 
a deep and abiding interest in political questions, and since coming 
west has been actively identified with the Republican party, being one 
of its leaders in this part of South Dakota, while as an organizer and 
campaigner his reputation is widely known throughout the state. 

	Primarily devoted to his law practice, and making every other 
consideration subordinate thereto, Mr. Lane is also interested in 
various business and industrial enterprises, being president of the Iowa 
and Dakota Land and Loan Company, vice-president of the Roberts County 
Abstract and Title Company, and a stockholder in the Citizens' National 
Bank, besides having large and valuable real-estate interests, owning a 
valuable homestead near Sisseton and considerable property within the 
corporation. Mr. Lane belongs to several secret and benevolent 
organizations, notable among which are the Masonic fraternity, Knights 
of Pythias and Improved Order of Red Men, in all of which he has held 
important social station. 

	Mr. Lane and Miss Maude Cross, of Wilmot, South Dakota, daughter 
of Edwin and, Lyle (Smith) Cross, of Minnesota, were united in the bonds 
of wedlock on June 28, 1899, the marriage resulting in the birth of two 
children, Everett, who died September 5, 1900, at the age of five 
months, and Frances F., born August 25, 1902.