William S. Major Biography


	This biography appears on pages 782-783 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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	WILLIAM S. MAJOR is one of the honored pioneers of Hand county, 
in whose organization and development he has played an important part, 
while he represented the county in the state senate for three 
successive terms and is a man of prominence in industrial and civic 
affairs in this section of the state. He is the owner of a valuable 
landed estate of fifteen hundred acres, has been signally prospered in 
temporal affairs and commands the unqualified esteem of the community 
in which he has so long made his home.  

	Mr. Major was born in Clinton county, Indiana, on the 23d of 
January, 1851, being a son of George and Amanda (Snoddy) Major, the 
former of whom was there engaged in farming until his death, having 
been a man of prominence in his section and having served two years as 
a member of the state senate. He died at the age of eighty-two years 
and his devoted wife entered into eternal rest at the age of fifty-
seven years. They became the parents of eight children, of whom five 
are living. The subject early grew inured to the strenuous work of the 
homestead farm, in which connection his services were so much in 
requisition that his educational advantages were much curtailed during 
his youth, this handicap having, however, been fully overcome by the 
lessons which he has learned under the direction of that wisest of all 
headmasters, experience. He has been a close observer, has read and 
studied with discrimination, and has thus become a man of marked 
intellectual breadth and comprehensiveness and definite information in 
regard to the question and issues of the day. After leaving school Mr. 
Major continued to be actively identified with the great basic art of 
agriculture in Indiana until the year 1880, when he went to the state 
of Washington, where he remained about two years. He was not satisfied 
with the outlook in that section of the union, and returned to Indiana, 
where he remained a few months, at the expiration of which, in 
February, 1882, he came to South Dakota and became one of the early 
settlers in Hand county, where he exercised his legal prerogatives by 
taking up three claims of government land - homestead, preemption and 
tree claims. To the improvement of this property he forthwith directed 
his attention with characteristic energy and ability, and the 
prosperity which has attended his efforts has been most gratifying. He 
is now the owner of fifteen hundred acres of valuable land in the 
county, and of this amount six hundred acres are under cultivation 
while the remainder is used for grazing purposes and the raising of 
hay. He has erected substantial modern buildings on his place and it is 
one of the model farms of this section of the state, while he gives his 
attention to diversified agriculture and to the raising of live stock 
of high grade. He was prominently concerned in the organization of the 
county, and was a member of the board of county commissioners at the 
time when the memorable struggle occurred in regard to the locating of 
the county seat, in which connection he favored claims of the village 
of St. Lawrence, as against those of Miller, to which latter the 
victory was finally gained. In politics Mr. Major was reared in the 
faith of the Democratic party, as exemplified by Jefferson and Jackson, 
and he was affiliated with the same until the organization of the 
Greenback party, when he transferred his allegiance to the same and 
supported Peter Cooper for the presidency. Upon the organization of the 
Populist party he joined its ranks and has ever since supported its 
cause, being a man of decisive convictions and ever having the courage 
of the same. In 1890 Mr. Major was elected to the state senate, in 
which he served with distinction, being chosen as his own successor in 
1892 and being again elected in 1896, so that he served three terms in 
the dignified deliberative body-of the state legislature. He is one of 
the prominent and valued members of the Presbyterian church in 
Wessington, Beadle county, which is his post office address, the town 
being five miles distant from his fine home place.