Alice Cope Biography This biography appears on pages 308-309 in "History of Dakota Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm MISS ALICE COPE. Under the able direction of the county superintendent of schools, Miss Alice Cope, the educational interests of Clay county have been well provided for and the schools have made a steady gain in efficiency. She is a native of Muscatine county, Iowa, and a daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth (Lyons) Cope, who were born respectively in Ohio and Indiana. The father was a Quaker, a descendant of the colonists who crossed the Atlantic with William Penn and settled in the northern part of Delaware. The family emigrated westward and Isaac Cope, who inherited the pioneer spirit of his forbears, came to Dakota territory in 1870, and took up government land six miles east of Vermillion, where he continued to farm for several years. In 1874 he was elected sheriff of Clay county and so satisfactorily discharged the duties of the office that he was several times reelected, serving for ten terms of two years each. He passed away in 1893, but his widow survives and lives in Vermillion with her daughter, the subject of this review. The latter has three brothers: John F., who is a railroad man and resides at Deadwood, this state; Theron L., a rancher living near St. Ignatius, Montana; and Charles William, a resident of San Jose, California. Miss Cope accompanied her parents to South Dakota in 1870 and grew up under the parental roof. After completing her preparatory education in the public and high schools she entered the University of South Dakota, where she took a normal course. She then began teaching and followed that profession for ten years in the rural schools and then for a similar period in the Vermillion public schools. She next taught school in Gayville, Clay county, and in the fall of 1910 was elected county superintendent of schools of Clay county. She served in that capacity until January 5, 1915, and proved an able administrator, maintaining a high standard in the schools of the county. She did much to deepen the professional spirit among the teachers and secured their cooperation and that of the patrons as well. She planned well in making improvements in the work of the schools and was also often able to aid teachers in solving the problems that confront them by drawing upon her own long successful experience as a teacher. She was elected to the office by a large majority. She is a republican in her political views and fraternally is connected with the Rebekahs and the Ladies of the Maccabees. She is well known and not only respected as a teacher and executive of ability, but also well liked because of her many womanly qualities of character.