Wm. H. H. Beadle

The rule behind the bronze's twenty million acres was a price. As territorial superintendent of public instruction from 1879 to 1885, Beadle held that school land should never sell for less than ten dollars an acre, and he wrote that floor into the state constitution; Congress then required states admitted with or after South Dakota to carry the same school-land principles. For the centennial of his birth in 1938, South Dakota gave a bronze of him by H. Daniel Webster to the National Statuary Hall Collection in the Capitol. He died in San Francisco on November 13, 1915.

What the plaque says

Brigadier General Wm. H. H. Beadle 1838 - 1915 Soldier Statesman Educator Conservationist Through his leadership twenty million acres of school lands were saved for posterity in South Dakota, North Dakota Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington President of this school 1889 - 1905 Professor of History 1905 - 1912 Erected by the alumni, community and friends during the Beadle Centennial Dedicated November 22, 1937

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ingalls Homestead and the De Smet Historic Homes — 32 mi
  The quarter section a mile from De Smet that Charles Ingalls filed on in 1880 and proved up in 1886, the house in town he built, and the cottonwoods he planted.

More markers nearby

• C. B. Kennedy — steps away
• Lake Herman - Historic Points — 2.9 mi
• Old Madison - First County Seat — 4.0 mi
• Badus - Pioneer Swiss Colony — 9.7 mi