Joseph Pope Cheever Biography


	This biography appears on pages 850-851 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				JOSEPH POPE CHEEVER. 

	Joseph Pope Cheever is still engaged in the active practice of 
law at Brookings, South Dakota. and is probably the oldest practicing 
attorney in the state. He has lived through the period of America's 
greatest development along all lines, and his own career has kept him 
in touch with the trend of modern progress and improvement His birth 
occurred August 5, 1846, in a primitive log cabin in the town of 
Walworth, Wisconsin. This was the home of his parents, Moses R. and 
Mary (Pope) Cheever, who left their home in East Hardwick, Vermont, in 
1844, and became pioneer residents of Wisconsin. The family shared in 
all of the hardships and privations incident to life on the frontier. 
The parents were in straightened financial circumstances and the early 
educational opportunities of Joseph P. Cheever were therefore 
necessarily limited. He attended the district schools as he could find 
time and later spent a brief period as a pupil in the Lake Geneva 
Seminary at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Unlike Abraham Lincoln, he did not 
study his lessons by firelight because the humble home of his parents 
was not provided with a fireplace, but he pored over his books by the 
light of a tallow candle dipped by his good mother He never saw a 
kerosene lamp until he was about ten years of age. One day after school 
he had walked to a country cobbler's and was sitting on a stool waiting 
for the cobbler to mend his only pair of boots, when, as darkness 
approached, the shoemaker lit the kerosene lamp. in boy fashion Mr. 
Cheever plied the man with numerous questions in regard to what 
appeared to the boy a most wonderful lamp. The cobbler told him that he 
could work much better by the light of the lamp than by candles, but 
that it was very expensive, as the oil cost seventy-five cents per 
gallon. 

	In the course of a busy life Mr. Cheever has witnessed the 
introduction of many other inventions once regarded as a luxury, but 
now as an absolute necessity. He was ambitious to advance along 
educational lines and improved every opportunity that came to him in 
that connection. He was an apt pupil and in 1869 was graduated from the 
law department of the University of Wisconsin in the first law class of 
that institution. Within three months he opened a law office at 
Harvard, McHenry county, Illinois, and steadily advanced not on]y in 
his calling, but a]so in public regard, as is indicated by the fact 
that within five years of his arrival in McHenry county he was elected 
states attorney, which position he continuously filled for four years. 

	Mr. Cheever dates his residence in Dakota from 1884, at which 
time be took up his abode at Castlewood, Hamlin county. He was for 
several years the only lawyer in that county and he was also the first 
states attorney in the county, which position he filled for six years. 
He has since remained' active at the bar and is still conducting 
important litigated interests, his name having figured prominently for 
many years in connection with the court records of his district. 

	Soon after locating in Castlewood, Mr. Cheever in connection with 
H. E. Curtis organized the first bank of Hamlin county, which was for 
several years the only bank of the county and was conducted under the 
name of the Hamlin County Bank. Later it was reorganized as a state 
bank and still later became the First National Bank of Castlewood, Mr. 
Cheever being the president and one of the principal stockholders of 
these banks until about four years ago. In 1894 he removed to Brookings 
and became a member of the firm of Cheever & Hall, his partner in this 
undertaking being Philo Hall. Later his son, Walter M. Cheever, and 
George Ha]l became members of the firm and upon its dissolution the new 
firm of Cheever & Cheever was organized, the partnership being formed 
of Joseph Pope Cheever and his son Walter. This relation has since been 
maintained. 

	Mr. Cheever filled the office of deputy states attorney of 
Brookings county for six years, was states attorney for four years and 
was a member of the first constitutional convention of South Dakota. 
While states attorney of Hamlin county he secured the conviction of 
several members of the notorious Ball gang, whose headquarters were at 
Watertown, but who frequently carried on their thieving operations in 
Hamlin county. While prosecuting attorney in Brookings county he 
secured the conviction of several members of the notorious Leary gang. 
His conviction of the Balls and Learys led to the complete 
demoralization of these gangs and the removal of most of their members 
from the state of South Dakota. By persistent litigation and 
prosecution he also broke up the gang of swindlers who were swindling 
the farmers of South Dakota by selling steel ranges. He followed them 
so persistently that they were compelled to cease doing business in the 
state of South Dakota and were finally driven into bankruptcy. Mr. 
Cheever was a fearless prosecutor and on various occasions his life was 
threatened by the criminals whom he attempted to bring to justice. 
While addressing a jury in one of the Leary cases he was assaulted by 
one of the gang and his life was saved only by the prompt action of the 
deputy sheriff. 

	Mr. Cheever was united in marriage to Miss Helen Frances Allen, a 
daughter of George Allen, of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and they have two 
living children, Walter M. and Edward M., the latter now of Superior, 
Wisconsin. The family is well known in Brookings county, where the name 
of Cheever stands as a synonym for ability in law practice, for 
progressiveness in citizenship and for loyalty in the various relations 
of life. Mr. Cheever played an important part in the early days when, 
as in other pioneer communities, lawlessness and crime existed in that 
part of the state. His unfaltering support of law and order did much to 
bring about safe conditions for life and property and the county 
acknowledges its indebtedness to him for his efforts in that direction.