Joseph Ward was born at Perry Center, New York

Perry (town), New York

Perry is a town in Wyoming County, New York, USA. The population was 6,654 at the 2000 census. The town is named after Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry....

. After attending public schools, he taught and farmed before entering Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...

, in Andover, Massachusetts

Andover, Massachusetts

Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...

. He graduated from Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

 and Andover Theological Seminary. Accepting a missionary appointment, he was ordained in 1869 at Yankton

Yankton, South Dakota

Yankton is a city in, and the county seat of, Yankton County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 14,454 at the 2010 census. Yankton was the original capital of Dakota Territory. It is named for the Yankton tribe of Nakota Native Americans...

, capital of the Dakota Territory

Dakota Territory

The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...

, where he organized and directed church efforts. 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.

Ward was instrumental in the founding of Yankton College

Yankton College

Yankton College was a small liberal arts college in Yankton, South Dakota, affiliated with the Congregational Christian Churches .Founded in 1881, it was the first institution of higher learning in the Dakota Territory...

, 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

North Dakota State Hospital

The North Dakota State Hospital, on the southern rim of the James River valley overlooking Jamestown, North Dakota, has since 1885 been North Dakota's primary institution for treating the mentally ill and confining the criminally insane.-Early history:...

.

Ward was a leader in the movement for South Dakota

South Dakota

South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

 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

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

. 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

Seal of South Dakota

The Great Seal of the State of South Dakota was designed while the area was a territory, in 1885. The outer ring of the seal contains the text "State of South Dakota" on the top and "Great Seal" on the bottom. Also the year of statehood, 1889. Inside the inner circle of the seal contains the state...

. Bedridden and unable to attend the final constitutional convention

Constitutional convention (political meeting)

A constitutional convention is now a gathering for the purpose of writing a new constitution or revising an existing constitution. A general constitutional convention is called to create the first constitution of a political unit or to entirely replace an existing constitution...

 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

United States Capitol

The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...

 National Statuary Hall Collection

National Statuary Hall Collection

The National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol comprises statues donated by individual states to honor persons notable in their history...

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