Peter F. Ward Biography


	This biography appears on pages 355-356 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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				JUDGE PETER F. WARD. 

	Judge Peter F. Ward, who has a high reputation as a lawyer and 
jurist of Hot Springs and that section of the state, was born in 
O'Neill, Nebraska, on the 3d of May, 1883, a son of M. P. and Mary D. 
(McGrane) Ward, who were born respectively in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 
1844, and in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1866. In his young manhood the 
father resided on a farm in Iowa, near Marshalltown, but later 
emigrated with his family to Nebraska, before the building of the 
Northwestern Railroad through that state. The transportation business 
was almost entirely in the hands of freighters and he found the hauling 
of goods to be a profitable business. From about 1878 to 1884 he 
freighted from Neligh to Valentine, but in the latter year removed to 
Rapid City, Dakota territory, where he entered the grocery business. He 
was also financially interested in mines at Hill City and at Silver 
City He passed away at Rapid City in February, 1891, and the following 
year his widow returned to O'Neill, Nebraska, where she is now living. 
Their children were five in number. 

	Peter F. Ward, the firstborn, was reared under the parental roof 
and was given the advantage of excellent home training. His scholastic 
education was acquired in the public schools of Rapid City, the grammar 
schools of Brimfield and the high school at Peoria, Illinois. As he had 
decided that the legal profession afforded him the most congenial field 
of work, he entered a law school at Omaha, which conferred upon him the 
LL. B. degree in 1910. Before beginning his professional studies he 
had, when sixteen years of age, left home and was for four years 
employed as a cowboy on a cattle ranch in western Nebraska. After that 
he worked at O'Neill, Nebraska, for a concern that conducted stores at 
a number of points in that state, and was so occupied until 1907, when 
he began the study of law. After graduating in 1910 he remained in 
Omaha until the spring of 1911, when ho removed to Hot Springs and 
became a partner of E R. Juckett. That relation was maintained for only 
a year and Judge Ward has since practiced alone. In 1912 he was elected 
county judge and his record was so creditable that on the expiration of 
his first term he was reelected without opposition. As a lawyer he is 
painstaking in the preparation of his cases, convincing in their 
presentation and, always mindful of the high standards of the law, 
represents only such causes as he considers just. His record as judge 
shows him to be possessed in an unusual degree of that fairness and 
detached point of view so essential to securing justice. He is also 
connected with business affairs in Hot Springs, as he is president of 
the Tri-State Land & Loan Company of that city. 

	Judge Ward was married on the 5th of May, 1913, to Miss Aion 
Shouse, who was born in Plankinton, South Dakota, and is a daughter of 
Dr. A. C. and Jennie (Jacobs) Shouse. Her father is a practicing 
physician and surgeon of that city and her mother passed away there. To 
their union were born eight children, of whom Mrs. Ward was the fifth 
in order of birth. Her brother, Willis Shouse, was elected county judge 
of Aurora county in 1912 and in 1914 was reelected without opposition. 

	Judge Ward is a democrat and is stanch in his support of the 
candidates of that party, as he believes that the principles of 
government advocated by that party are those best suited to secure the 
welfare of the country. Both he and his wife are popular socially in 
Hot Springs and, although he has already gained an enviable place in 
the ranks of his profession, his friends believe that still greater 
achievement lies before him.