Joseph Ward

Joseph Ward was born on May 5, 1838. He graduated from Brown University and Andover Theological Seminary. Accepting a missionary appointment, he was ordained in 1869 at Yankton, capital of the Dakota Territory, where he organized and directed church efforts.

• Ward opened a private school, which became Yankton Academy. Later given over to public control, it became the first high school in Dakota.
• Ward was instrumental in the founding of Yankton College, the first collegiate-rank institution of the upper Mississippi Valley and served as its president.
• He played an important part in keeping school lands out of the control of eastern speculators.
• He 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 and wrote the description for the state seal.
• Bedridden and unable to attend the final constitutional convention in 1889, he died on December 11, 1889.