Eugene Reiley Biography


	This biography appears on page 576 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				EUGENE REILEY. 

	One of the representative and able citizens of Sioux Falls and 
one of the most popular men in public life who ever held office in 
Minnehaha county is Eugene Reiley, who on December 31, 1914, ended the 
second term of his efficient and conscientious service in the office of 
sheriff. He was born in Burlington, Iowa, February 11, 1864, and is a 
son of Michael and Sarah N. (Ingraham) Reiley. The grandfather, Deocis 
D. Reiley, came to America from Scotland in 1848 and in 1849 went 
overland with ox teams to California, where he was murdered for his 
gold. 

	Eugene Reiley acquired his education in the public schools of 
Burlington and in Elliott's Business College in that city. At the age 
of seventeen he entered a wholesale shoe house and remained in this 
connection until 1888, when he came to Sioux Falls. Here he established 
himself in the retail shoe business, conducting this enterprise until 
1895. Two years hater he was appointed deputy circuit court clerk and 
served two years, after which he was appointed clerk to fill a Vacancy 
caused by a resignation. Upon the close of his term he engaged in the 
real-estate business until 1907, when he was made deputy sheriff of 
Minnehaha county, serving in that position for four years. In 1910 he 
was elected sheriff by a majority of fourteen hundred and nineteen, 
taking the office January 1, 1911, and so remarkable a record did he 
make that at the expiration of his term he was reelected to that 
position This is the more noteworthy from the fact that Mr. Reiley ran 
on the democratic ticket in a county which normally showed a republican 
majority of twenty-five hundred. 

	On the 16th of June, 1885, at Brighton, Iowa, Mr. Reiley was 
united in marriage to Miss Molly Swisher, a daughter of Benedict 
Swisher, and they have become the parents of six children: Ethel Fern, 
the wife of P. I. Neister; Ruth Eva, who married Ray F. Manary; Michael 
Eugene; Sarah Eliza; Floyd Benedict; and Florentine Molly. 

	Mr. Reiley is a member of the Presbyterian church, is a blue 
lodge Mason and is connected also with the Knights of Pythias and the 
Elks. He is probably one of the most popular men in public life in 
Minnehaha county. His election as a democrat in a strong republican 
county, the first time by a large majority and the second time without 
opposition, proves this assertion to the fullest extent. He is 
pronounced by attorneys generally as the most efficient, most courteous 
and most absolutely impartial sheriff who ever held office and his 
friends and opponents alike speak in the highest terms of his 
accomplishments and of the qualities in his character which made them 
possible. Mr. Reiley is a gentleman at all times and as such holds the 
trust, confidence and high regard of all who are in any way associated 
with him.