Joseph Ward (May 5, 1838 – December 11, 1889) was an American educator.
Biography
Joseph Ward was born at
Perry Center, New York
Perry is a town in Wyoming County, New York, United States. The population was 4,616 at the 2010 census. The town is named after Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry.
The town is on the eastern border of the county. Perry is also the name of a villag ...
. After attending public schools, he taught and worked on a farm before entering
Phillips Academy
("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness
, address = 180 Main Street
, city = Andover
, state = Ma ...
in
Andover, Massachusetts. He graduated from
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
and
Andover Theological Seminary. After accepting a missionary appointment, he was ordained and directed church efforts in
Yankton, capital of the
Dakota Territory in 1869. Because there were no public school funds, Ward opened a private school, which became
Yankton Academy. Later given over to public control, it became the earliest high school in Dakota.
He was instrumental in the founding of
Yankton College, the first collegiate-rank institution of the upper
Missouri River Valley, and served as its president.
[John E. Miller, 'Setting the Agenda: Political Parties and Historical Change,' in ''The Plains Political Tradition: Essays on South Dakota Political Culture'', Jon K. Lauck (ed.), John E. Miller (ed.), Donald C. Simmons, Jr. (ed.), Pierre, South Dakota: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2011, p. 78] He also played an important role in keeping school lands out of the control of eastern speculators, and was the first president of the Yankton Board of Education. He also helped establish in 1879 the
Dakota Hospital for the Insane.
Ward was a leader in the movement for
South Dakota statehood, serving as a delegate to the various conventions and as a member of the 1885 committee to present the petition for statehood to
Congress. He drafted much of the constitution and was chairman of the committee charged with keeping the convention records. He composed the state motto ("Under God the People Rule"), and wrote the description for the
Great Seal of the State of South Dakota. Bedridden and unable to attend the final
constitutional convention Constitutional convention may refer to:
* Constitutional convention (political custom), an informal and uncodified procedural agreement
*Constitutional convention (political meeting), a meeting of delegates to adopt a new constitution or revise an e ...
in 1889, he died on December 11, 1889, a few weeks after South Dakota was admitted as a state.
In 1963, the State of South Dakota donated a
marble statue of Ward to the
United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.
External links
NSHC biography: Joseph Ward
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Joseph
1838 births
1889 deaths
Phillips Academy alumni
People from Perry, New York
People from Yankton, South Dakota
Brown University alumni
Educators from New York (state)
19th-century American educators