S. Eugene Wilson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1101-1102 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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				S. EUGENE WILSON. 

	S. Eugene Wilson, of Hot Springs, is well known both as a lawyer 
and lawmaker. In the courts he is a forceful advocate and he has also 
left the impress of his individuality upon the laws of the state 
through his service as a member of the legislature. He was born in 
Princeton, Bureau county, Illinois, a son of Stephen B. and Eliza A. 
(Jones) Wilson, both of whom were natives of the state of Virginia. On 
leaving the Old Dominion they went to Ohio and thence removed to 
Illinois in the year 1851. Subsequently they took up their abode on a 
farm in Bureau county and later lived in Putnam county upon a farm. 
From that locality they drove by team to Fremont county, Iowa, where 
the father secured a raw tract of land of one hundred and sixty acres, 
which his son Eugene broke the following year. The father and mother 
there spent their remaining days. Their family numbered five children. 

	Eugene, the youngest of the family, attended a country school of 
Putnam county through the winter months until he reached the age of 
seventeen years, when he successfully passed the required examination 
and obtained a teacher's certificate. He taught school in Iowa and then 
entered Simpson College at Indianola, Iowa, where he was graduated with 
the degree of Bachelor of Science, and later with the Master of Science 
degree. He first took up the profession of teaching when seventeen 
years of age and he worked his way through the advanced schools which 
he attended. He served as deputy county auditor of Warren county, 
working nights and Saturdays and in vacation periods for two years 
while in college. While principal of schools at Essex, Iowa, he was 
elected to the office of county superintendent of schools of Page 
county, Iowa' in which position he served for six years. During that 
period the hours usually termed leisure were devoted to the study of 
law, and following his admission to the bar he went direct to Hot 
Springs in 1886. There he tried the first case in a court of record in 
Fall River county, and has continued in practice there continuously 
since July, 1886. 

	Mr. Wilson served as states attorney of Fall River county for ten 
years. While acting as prosecuting attorney he was the last to hold 
that office under territorial rule and the first under the state 
government. He prosecuted the first case in Fall River county before a 
jury for selling liquor and convicted the first man ever convicted in 
the Black Hills by a jury for the illegal sale of liquor. The 
certificate under the seal of the circuit court of Fall River county 
September 6, 1895, shows "that eighty cases of indictable offenses were 
tried in Fall River county between the years 1887 and 1897, thirty-
eight of which cases were tried during 1889, 1890, 1891 and 1892, 
covering the time of Mr. Wilson's first two terms as states attorney, 
and that among the thirty-eight cases tried thirty-two convictions were 
obtained, and six found not guilty." Still higher official honors were 
conferred upon him in his election to the state senate. He served as 
president pro tem of the senate, and also on no less than eight 
important committees. He was chairman of the committee on state 
affairs, was a member of the appropriations, judiciary, public health, 
irrigation and education committees, the latter committee being 
presided over by George Kingsbury, of Yankton. He has served on the 
board of education at Hot Springs for more than twenty years and is 
still acting in that capacity. He has recognized fully the obligations 
and responsibilities incident to the public offices which he has 
filled, and his record as an official is above reproach. He is serving 
on the board of irrigation commissioners for the United States, being 
one of its two members from South Dakota. He was a member of the Trans-
Mississippi Congress in St. Louis, and also of the Trans-Mississippi 
Congress held in Omaha in 1897. He also represented South Dakota in the 
Reclamation Congress which met in Denver in 1913. The foregoing shows 
how broad has been his study along lines affecting the material 
development of the country, the use of its natural resources and the 
conservation of its interests. He is a landowner in South Dakota, 
having valuable ranch property, and has one of the best modern 
residences in Hot Springs. 

	On the 13th of September, 1882, Mr. Wilson was married to Miss 
Lucy E. Allen, of Chariton, Iowa. They have a son and a daughter. The 
son, Clifford Allen, is now associated with his father in the practice 
of law. He graduated from the law department of the University of 
Colorado in 1911 with the highest honors of his class. He was admitted 
to the bars of both Colorado and South Dakota, and has since been 
associated with his father in the practice of his profession. Edith 
Eugenia, who is a graduate of the high school of Hot Springs, attended 
Morningside College at Sioux City, Iowa, and afterward completed a 
course in the Lincoln Business College, of which the son, Clifford A., 
is also a graduate. 

	Mr. Wilson and his family hold membership with the Methodist 
Episcopal church. In politics he is a republican, and for many years 
was chairman of the Fall River delegations to the state conventions. He 
is well known in fraternal circles, and is chairman of the board of 
directors of the Yeomen, a fraternal insurance order having over two 
hundred thousand members, covering thirty-five states of the Union and 
parts of Canada, with headquarters at Des Moines, Iowa. In the Odd 
Fellows society he is a past grand master and is the present grand 
representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the World. He is a 
charter member of Hot Springs Lodge and was its first representative to 
the Grand Lodge of South Dakota. For eighteen years he has been a 
member of the board of trustees of the Odd Fellows' Home. He is also 
connected with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen. He is likewise a member of the board of managers of the 
Commercial Club of Hot Springs. Mr. Wilson is indeed a man whose life 
has been a moving factor in many phases of modern life, and whether as 
an attorney, legislator, representative of his state on important 
committees, or fraternal officer, his course has been such as to 
reflect credit upon his ability and integrity, as he has displayed 
marked qualities of initiative and courage, directed by sound judgment, 
and his rectitude and probity have at all times been above question. It 
is to such men as he that the growth and development of the middle west 
have been due, and it is to such as he that the state of South Dakota 
looks to secure her further advancement.