“Andrew Lee”

Andrew E. Lee was born on March 18, 1847, near Bergen, Norway. When Lee was four, he and his family immigrated to Wisconsin. In 1867, Lee came to Vermillion, Dakota Territory, where he and Charles E. Prentis operated a mercantile store called Lee & Prentis for almost fifty years as well as a successful ranching operation. In 1872, Lee married Annie Chappell of Kingston, Rhode Island, who was active in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. They had one daughter, Jessamine (Lee) Fox. In 1892, Lee entered the political arena when elected to city council, then was twice elected Vermillion’s mayor. In 1896, a coalition of Populists,

Democrats, and Silver Republicans supported Lee as candidate for governor of South Dakota on the Populist ticket. Lee served two terms as the state’s third governor. Lee championed a constitutional amendment allowing for initiative and referendum, to give voters the ability to propose and vote on state legislation. In 1898, South Dakota became the first state to adopt that reform. On March 19, 1934, Lee died in his Vermillion home at age 87. The University of South Dakota built the Andrew E. Lee Memorial Medicine and Science Building on land that Lee had donated.

Clay County, inside the city of Vermillion