Alice J. Shouse 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. Pages 532-533

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

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ALICE J. SHOUSE. South Dakota, in common with many of her sister states 
of the new west, has shown a commendable inclination to look for merit, 
and to refuse to be hampered in its search by considerations of sex. 
Among those who stand as worthy exponents of the capacity of women for 
duties of a public character an enviable rank is accorded the lady 
whose name heads this article. Miss Shouse is performing the duties of 
superintendent of schools of Aurora county with a sagacity, ability and 
fairness unsurpassed by any like official in the state. 

Alice J. Shouse was born in Scott county, Iowa, September 24, 1875, a 
daughter of Dr. Hiram C. and Jennie (Jacobs) Shouse, with whom she 
makes her home in the city of Plankinton. The name was originally 
spelled "Schouse," thus indicating German origin. Dr. Shouse enlisted 
early in the Civil war in Company G, Eleventh Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry. He was wounded at Fort Donelson, and for some time thereafter 
served in the quartermaster's department, until sufficiently recovered 
to rejoin his company in the field. After the close of the war he took 
a literary course at Fulton, Illinois, and then took up the study of 
medicine, graduating in 1873. from Hahneman Medical College, Chicago. 
He then located with his family in Davenport, Iowa, and established 
himself in the practice of his profession. In 1885 he took his family 
to Plankinton, South Dakota, where he now resides. To this worthy 
couple nine children were born, named as follows: Alice J., the subject 
of this article; Willis D., a student of the State University at 
Vermilion; James B., a student and a tutor in mathematics in the same 
institution; Robert P., deceased; Arthur C., Aion W., Kara O., Raymond 
M. and Gerald E. 

Miss Shouse entered the Sioux Falls Baptist College and finished the 
course with honors in 1893. She then began teaching in Aurora county, 
and in 1896 was chosen a tutor in the Sioux Falls College, but shortly 
afterward resigned to accept the office of county superintendent of 
schools of Aurora county, to which she was elected the same year, and 
reelected to the same position upon the expiration of her first term. 
Her nomination to this office was tendered her before she had reached 
her majority, and when elected she was the youngest county 
superintendent in the state, and perhaps in the United States. In 1898 
she was chosen as a delegate to the Populist state convention at 
Aberdeen, and was made assistant secretary of the convention. She took 
a leading part in the deliberations of that body, making her influence 
felt upon some of the gravest questions that came before the assembly 
at that time. She is a fluent and impressive speaker, gifted with 
natural wit and ready repartee. She is exerting a beneficial influence 
upon the seventy-three schools under her supervision, the fountains of 
knowledge for a school population of about twelve hundred children, and 
her name has passed beyond the boundaries of her own county, and is 
becoming familiar in educational and political circles throughout the 
state. This cultured woman, still in her youth, has little to suggest 
the so-called "strong-minded woman" of hackneyed phrase. Modest, self-
reliant, and of a retiring disposition naturally, she is the most 
womanly of women.