James D. Reeves Biography


	This biography appears on pages 666-667 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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	JAMES D. REEVES, of Groton, Brown county, is a man who has 
wielded no little influence in the public and civic affairs of South 
Dakota, having been prominently identified with the newspaper business 
and having served the commonwealth for four years in the responsible 
office of state auditor. He is a citizen who commands public confidence 
and esteem and his life record is such as to well entitle him to 
representation in this work.  

	Mr. Reeves is a native of the state of Minnesota, having been 
born in the village of Pleasant Grove, Olmstead county, on the 1st of 
March, 1858, and being a son of Rev. Michael D. and Martha Reeves, the 
former of whom is a clergyman of the Baptist church, while he was also 
for a number of years successfully engaged in farming in Minnesota. The 
early educational advantages of the subject of this sketch were such as 
were afforded in the public schools of his native state, while as a 
youth he served an apprenticeship to the trade of printer, at Spring 
Valley, Minnesota, where he devoted his attention to this preliminary 
discipline from 1874 to 1878, becoming a skilled workman and not 
failing to duly profit by the experience to be gained in a newspaper 
office, - an experience which has been pertinently designated as 
equivalent to a liberal education. On the 8th of September, 1881 Mr. 
Reeves established in Groton, South Dakota, its first newspaper, to 
which he gave the name of the Groton Mirror. In the following year he 
here founded the Brown County (Columbia) Sentinel, while in 1884 he 
established the Groton Independent, of which he is still editor and 
publisher, this paper being practically the successor of the Groton 
Mirror, the Groton News, the Groton Eagle, the Groton Advocate and the 
Groton Gazette, so that the application of the law of the survival of 
the fittest may be a subject of incidental reference in the connection. 
Mr. Reeves is recognized as a thoroughly trained newspaper man and as 
one of progressive ideas, and these facts predicate success, which has 
not been denied him. In politics he has been known as an uncompromising 
advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and 
his services in the connection have been unstinted and effective during 
the years of his residence in South Dakota. He served for two years as 
a member of the Groton school board and for an equal period as mayor of 
the town, his administration as chief executive of the municipal 
government being such as to gain to him unequivocal commendation. In 
1899 he was elected auditor of the state, remaining in tenure of this 
office until 1903 and proving a most discriminating and efficient 
incumbent. Mr. Reeves has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 
1879, having been initiated and raised in the lodge at Hastings, 
Minnesota, and he is also identified with the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America.  

	In Glencoe; Minnesota, on the 20th of June, 1883, Mr. Reeves was 
united in marriage to Miss Bertha Snyder, and her death occurred on the 
25th of December, 1894. Of the children of this union we record that 
Gertrude V. was born August 13, 1884 ; Jay E., May 25, 1886 ; and 
Jackson D., October 21, 1888; while twin sons, born November 25, 1894, 
died in infancy. The other three children remain at the paternal home. 
On the 19th of April, 1899, Mr. Reeves consummated a second marriage, 
being then united to Miss Mona B. Taubman, of Aberdeen, South Dakota, 
no children having been born to them.