Page 2 - 2019-annual-report

2019 Trail of Governors Annual Report

Gov. Samuel H. Elrod – 5th, 1905-1907

Elrod was raised on a farm and received a law degree in In-
diana before seeking his future in Dakota Territory. Elrod

was pulled to Dakota by his good friend and our territory’s
last and our state’s first governor, Arthur Mellette. Elrod was

a fiscally conservative leader, and a stalwart Republican. His
accomplishments as governor were topped by reforming the

state’s prison system, ramping up railroad regulation, and
launching the building of the state’s Capitol. When he left

office, the state was debt-free. He was a lawyer in Watertown
and Clark before becoming governor, and a farmer in the

Clark area after leaving office. While Mellette adopted Water-
town as his home town, his good friend Elrod adopted nearby

Clark as his. His first memorable visit to Clark came about
when he substituted for Gov. Mellette by giving a Fourth of

July speech, and the visit inspired him to open a law office
there. Elrod and many of his descendants are buried at Clark.

Elrod’s statue by artist James Van Nuys shows the governor in

his early 1900s business suit, holding a book with a small table
at his side. His statue stands next to the historic St. Charles

building along Capitol Avenue.

Samuel H. Elrod- 5th Governor of South Dakota

A vision to create a lasting legacy of South Dakota’s governors.