James H. Kyle Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Page 236

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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HON. JAMES H. KYLE. - -No compendium, such as the province of this work 
defines in its essential limitations, will serve to offer fit memorial 
to the life and accomplishments of the honored subject of this review,-
a man remarkable in the breadth of his wisdom, in his indomitable 
perseverance, his strong individuality; and yet one whose entire life 
has not one esoteric phase, being an open scroll, inviting the closest 
scrutiny. There is in him a weight of character, a native sagacity, a 
far seeing judgment and fidelity of purpose that commands the respect 
of all, and his name is now deeply engraved on the pages of the history 
of this state. He is now serving as. United States senator from South 
Dakota, and is an honor to the commonwealth which has so honored him. 

Mr. Kyle makes his home in Aberdeen. He was born in Xenia, Ohio, 
February 24, 1854, and traces his ancestry back to Samuel Kyle, the 
proprietor of Clifton Hall, and the father of seven sons who valiantly 
served in the colonial army in the war of the Revolution. One of his 
sons was Joseph Kyle, the great-grandfather of our subject. Joseph Kyle 
was born in Clifton Hall, near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and married 
Catharine Chambers, a sister of the founder of the city of 
Chambersburg. Leaving the Keystone state, they became pioneers of Green 
county, Ohio, in 1803, and in Xenia, that state, Joseph Kyle departed 
this life in 1821, while his wife's death there occurred in 1823. Judge 
Samuel Kyle, the grandfather of our subject, served as a judge at Xenia 
for thirty-five consecutive years, and was a soldier in the war of 
1812. He married Rachel Jackson, a cousin of General Andrew Jackson, 
and their son, Thomas B. Kyle, was the father of the Senator. He was 
born in Xenia, Ohio, January 8, 1824, and having arrived at years of 
maturity wedded Margaret J. Henderson, who was born in Westmoreland 
county, Pennsylvania, May 30, 1829, a daughter of Daniel and Isabella 
(Ralston) Henderson, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and a granddaughter of 
Adam Henderson. Her marriage to Mr. Kyle occurred in Green county, 
Ohio, April 30, 1851. He served as captain of Company C, Sixtieth Ohio 
Infantry, during the Civil war, and was with Grant all through the 
campaign of the Wilderness, the siege of Petersburg and on to the close 
of the war. He was wounded in the knee by a bursting shell, and had a 
ball shot through his hat while he was in the trenches before 
Petersburg. In September, 1865, he removed to Urbana, Illinois, where 
he yet makes his home, but his wife died August 3, 1897. They reared 
six children: Samuel R., James H., Joseph and Frances E. (both 
deceased), Martha Jackson and Anna Mary. The eldest daughter, Dr. 
Frances E. Kyle, was a practicing physician at Sioux Falls, South 
Dakota, and was president of the Minnehaha County Medical Association 
at the time of her death, which occurred July 24, 1895. 

James H. Kyle spent the first fourteen years of his life on his 
father's farm, and then went with the family to Urbana, Illinois. In 
the fall of 1871, when seventeen years of age, he became a student in 
the University of Illinois and there completed a course in civil 
engineering. In the autumn of 1873 he entered Oberlin College and was 
graduated on the completion of the classical course in 1878. He then 
studied law and at the same time was superintendent of a school for a 
year, after which he entered the Western Theological Seminary in 
Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in 1882. All through 
his ten years of college work he depended entirely upon his own 
resources, spending the forenoons in recitation, the afternoons in 
teaching and the evenings in study. Thus was shown forth the elemental 
strength of a character that has enabled him to rise to a position of 
distinction in more than one walk of life. 

On the completion of his theological course Rev. Kyle went to Utah in 
charge of educational work for the Presbyterian board, and while so 
engaged was called to the pastorate of the Plymouth Congregational 
church at Salt Lake City, in 1884. In the latter part of the following 
year he came to Dakota and served as pastor of the Congregational 
churches in Ipswich and Aberdeen until 1889. He then became secretary 
of Yankton College, and was filling that position at the time of his 
entrance into political life. His political labors began with the 
delivery of an address from the balcony of the Sherman house, in 
Aberdeen, July 4, 1890, in which he made statements that seemed to 
strike the keynote of the issues of the local elections. This speech 
was published throughout the state as a public campaign document, and 
since that time he has taken an active part in campaign work, 
advocating measures of progress and reform wherein the welfare of the 
country is concerned. He has long made a close study of economics, and 
few men are better informed on the subject. He realizes most fully the 
duties and obligations of citizenship and the necessity for men of 
strong mental and moral natures to concern themselves with politics and 
thus secure what will indeed be a government "of the people, for the 
people and by the people." He was elected to the state senate in the 
fall of 1890, and at once took prominence among the leaders of that 
body. In the spring of the following year he was elected United States 
senator as an independent candidate and took his seat on the 4th of 
March of that year. In 1897 he was again chosen, so that his present 
term will continue him in office for twelve consecutive years, or until 
1 903. He favors the principles of low tariff and bi-metalism, and for 
the past six years has been chairman of the committees on education and 
labor. The Minneapolis "Journal" said of him: "Mr. Kyle's constituents, 
particularly those at Aberdeen and several other points in the state, 
regard with much satisfaction his record during the late congress. The 
state of his health did not permit of his active participation in the 
great debates hinging on the war, but his vote was in every instance 
cast as the patriotism and honor of his country would direct. He gave 
more time than was heretofore his practice to detail work in both 
houses of congress, and in consequence pushed through a large number of 
measures of immediate concern and advantage to the people. Among these 
were the public building for Aberdeen, for which he secured an 
appropriation of eighty-seven thousand dollars; appropriations 
aggregating one hundred and seventy thousand dollars for Missouri river 
improvements; various pension claims; rights to construct a bridge over 
the Missouri river in the vicinity of Chamberlain, and others. The 
Aberdeen appropriation required almost constant attention, especially 
in the house and its committees. Its success must be directly 
attributed to the watchfulness and alertness of Mr. Kyle, who spent 
about as much time in the House during the closing days of congress as 
in the body to which he belonged." In this connection it should be 
stated that among his contemporaries in South Dakota Mr. Kyle stands 
alone in his stanch adherence to the government policy pertaining to 
the present war in the Philippines. 

Mr. Kyle is also chairman of the National Industrial Commission, which 
consists of nineteen members, five from the United States senate, five 
from the House and nine appointed by the president with the advice and 
consent of the senate. The duty of the commission is to gather data and 
make investigations, original and otherwise, along five lines: labor, 
agriculture, manufactures, immigration and trade. It sits for two years 
and makes its reports to congress. Mr. Kyle is now doing a very large 
amount of work in this connection and expects to a make report of about 
twenty-five volumes, in line with similar investigations made by order 
of the English parliament. Such in brief is a history of the public 
career of Mr. Kyle; but the influence of his labors in behalf of 
progress, reform and improvement is incalculable and shows patriotic 
spirit that places the national welfare before party preferment and the 
general good before personal aggrandizement. 

Mr. Kyle was married April 27, 1881, to Anna I. Dugot, who was born in 
Medina, Ohio, March 19, 1857, a daughter of Captain Frank and Elizabeth 
(Lampson) Dugot, the former a lake captain. Mr. and Mrs. Kyle became 
the parents of three children, but Ethelwyn is the only one living, 
Lucile and Mary having passed away. Mrs. Kyle was a student at Oberlin 
College, Ohio, and in the same class with Mr. Kyle prior to her 
marriage, and finished her musical education at the musical 
conservatory of Cincinnati, Ohio, and in that city was married. They 
,are members of the Congregational church, and Mr. Kyle also belongs to 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen and Knights of Pythias fraternity. 
He has manifested a deep and active interest in educational matters for 
the past twenty years and has assisted many young men and women in 
acquiring a college course. He is earnest, sincere and wholly 
trustworthy; an indefatigable worker and consistent student; modest, 
easily approachable and kindhearted. He is highly esteemed by those in 
humble life and in the most exalted station. Honor and integrity are 
synonymous with his name, and he enjoys the respect and confidence of 
all who know him throughout the entire nation. A portrait of Senator 
Kyle is presented on another page of this volume as a supplement to 
this brief biography.