Walter Jesse Ellwood Biography

This biography appears on pages 283 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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Walter Jesse Ellwood, a well known attorney of Sioux Falls, has here practiced his profession since 1909 and has been an able representative of the legal fraternity in South Dakota for about a decade. His birth occurred on a farm in Lesueur County, Minnesota, his parents being Benjamin F. and Angeline (Dickinson) Ellwood, the former a native of New York and the latter of Vermont. Benjamin F. Ellwood participated in the Civil war as a soldier of the Union army and the great-grandfather of our subject in the maternal line took part in the War of 1812.

Walter J. Ellwood obtained his early education in the common schools and later pursued a high-school course at Montgomery, Minnesota, while subsequently he began the study of law in the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, winning the degree of LL.B. in 1902. The following year he opened a Law office at Andover, South Dakota, and in 1905 removed to Groton, this state, where he practiced his profession for about five years. On the expiration of that period, in 1909, he came to Sioux Falls and has here remained to the present time. The zeal with which he has devoted his energies to his profession, the careful regard evinced for the interests of his clients and an assiduous and unrelaxing attention to all the details of his cases, have brought him a large business and male him very successful in its conduct. He also acts as secretary of the Mid-West Detective Agency, which was incorporated in 1911.

On the 22d of June 1904, at Andover, South Dakota, Mr. Ellwood was united in marriage to Miss Marion Lewis, a daughter of L. W. Lewis, who fought in the Civil was with a News York regiment for four years. Our subject and his wife have two daughters, Velma C. and Norma Angeline, and one son, Lewis Jesse. Mr. Ellwood exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Republican Party, being convinced that its principles are most conducive to good govern meet. Fraternally he is identified with the Improved Order of Red Men and the Loyal Order of Moose, of which he has been district deputy supreme dictator for the past two years, for the states of North and South Dakota. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church. Those who meet him professionally or socially entertain for him warm regard in recognition of his sterling personal worth.