“Eliza Tupper Wilkes”

Arriving in Sioux Falls, Dakota Territory in 1877, Eliza Tupper Wilkes quickly became one of the community leaders of the prairie boom town. She had been born Eliza Smith Tupper on October 8, 1844 in Houlton, Maine. As a young woman she was influenced by Quaker friends who encouraged her to study for the ministry and was ordained a Universalist minister on May 2, 1871.

Eliza married a young Wisconsin lawyer, William A. Wilkes, and the couple eventually settled in Sioux Falls. Encouraged and supported by her husband in her work, she functioned for eight years as a missionary, working alone without direction or aid from any denomination. She corresponded with many, arranged study groups and classes, and traveled by horse and buggy covering the plains of southeastern Dakota Territory and western Minnesota. She conducted services in many scattered communities. She was the first ordained woman minister to publicly preach in Dakota Territory. Usually speaking to a crowded hall, she was ‘beloved for her faithfulness out of the pulpit as well as for her ability in it.' It was said that her modest, gentle demeanor was much admired by all women of that era. In the autumn of 1886, she helped organize the All Souls Church (Unitarian). She was a major force in the building of the original church at the southeast corner of Dakota Avenue and 12th Street, which was dedicated on April 25, 1888.

Pastor Wilkes managed a very full life, raising five sons and daughter. She and her husband, by then a Minnehaha County judge, built several homes in the North Summit and Prairie Avenues area, now a part of Cathedral Historical District. She was known as a gracious and busy mother and hostess. Her children often camped at ‘Ford’s Grove, west of town,' which is now lower Sherman Park.

Eliza Tupper Wilkes also played a leadership role in civic affairs. She was active in the WCTU campaigns to control or abolish liquor. An early champion of woman’s suffrage, she helped found the Ladies’ History Club, which later became the Sioux Falls Woman’s Club, formed in 1879, which donated the first $50 toward a book fund to establish the city’s first library, and was appointed a committee of one to select and buy books. Widely recognized as an intellectual and cultural leader, she was ‘one of the foremost workers’ in the establishment of the Sioux Falls Public Library.

She died on February 5, 1917, at the age of 73, but her legacy remains. Several of her contributions made over 100 years ago continue to thrive and improve and benefit the community today.

Erected in 1996 by the Minnehaha County and South Dakota State Historical Societies and the Unitarian Universalists Association

Minnehaha County, 12th Street and Dakota Avenue, Sioux Falls (2006)