George W. Lumley, born January 9, 1851, on the Isle of Wight, England, is a prominent figure in Pierre, South Dakota. He is the son of Major James R. Lumley and Clara Faithfull Lumley. Educated in France, Belgium, and England, Lumley moved to the United States in 1871. He initially worked in London and later in Nebraska, where he was involved in the banking and newspaper industries. Relocating to South Dakota in 1883, Lumley founded several banks and engaged in large-scale cattle and horse ranching. He is president of the Pierre Ranch and Cattle Company. Lumley married Anne Amelia Rudderham in 1871, and they have four sons. He is active in the Episcopal Church and the Freemasons.
George W. Lumley, who maintains his home in the city of Pierre, comes of distinguished ancestry and is himself a native of the Isle of Wight, England, where he was born on the 9th of January, 1851, being a son of James R. and Clara (Faithfull) Lumley. The father died in 1874, at Sutton, Surrey, England, and the mother is still living at Bexhill-on-Sea, England. The father of the subject, Major James Rutherford Lumley, was for many years first assistant adjutant general in Bengal, under his father, Major General Sir James Rutherford Lumley, K.C.B., for many years adjutant general of the English army in Bengal. The mother of the subject was a daughter of Major General William Conrad Faithfull, C.B., who was likewise in the military service of England in Bengal.
George W. Lumley secured his early educational discipline in France and Belgium, where his parents resided during his childhood days, and from the age of eight to that of sixteen he was a student in a private college near Dover, England. In 1869 he matriculated at the London University. In 1870-71 he was clerk in the office of the secretary of state for India, in the city of London, and in the spring of the latter year he came to the United States, being for the ensuing two years in the employ of the wholesale dry-goods house of Jaffrey & Company. In 1873 Mr. Lumley came west to Red Willow County, Nebraska, this being before the organization of that County, and he continued to be identified with the business and industrial interests of that section for the ensuing decade, having been concerned in the newspaper and banking business at Orleans, Nebraska. In 1883 he came to Vermillion, South Dakota, and organized the Clay County Bank, disposing of his interests in the same in 1887. In 1884 he effected the organization of the Douglas County Bank, at Grand View (later at Armour), South Dakota. In 1891 he gave up his residence in Douglas County and located in Pierre, South Dakota, where he soon identified himself in a prominent way with the raising of cattle and horses, his place being known as the Pierre ranch. In 1902 he brought about the organization of the Pierre Ranch and Cattle Company, and the same now controls the Pierre ranch and the Spring Creek ranch, as well as the Little Bend ranch, the company controlling an aggregate of eight thousand acres of land and leasing an additional ten thousand acres. This is of the best agricultural and grazing land in the state, and is well stocked with high-grade horses and cattle, while the company is interested in a grazing lease of about three hundred and sixty thousand acres, which fact indicates the magnificent scope of the industry with which our subject is so prominently identified in both a capitalistic and administrative way. He is president of the Pierre Ranch and Cattle Company; his eldest son, George W., Jr., is vice-president of the company and superintendent of the Little Bend ranch; his second son, Harry C., is secretary of the company and superintendent of the Pierre ranch; his third son, William C. F., is assistant cashier of the First State Bank, at Beaver City, Nebraska; and the youngest son, Robert W., is superintendent of the Spring Creek ranch. Mr. Lumley is a staunch advocate of the principles of the Republican Party and is known as a progressive and public-spirited citizen. He is an appreciative member of the time-honored order of Freemasons, belonging to the lodge and chapter, and being past senior warden of the former, while he had the distinction of being the first Mason initiated in Douglas County, South Dakota, in which County he also organized the first banking institution, while his eldest son was the first white child born in the town of Orleans, Harlan County, Nebraska. He is a man of indefatigable energy and determination, and this is best evidenced by the success which has attended his efforts in connection with industrial and business enterprises of wide scope and importance.
On the 6th of May 1871, in London, England, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lumley to Miss Anne Amelia Rudderham, of Wisbeach, Cambridgeshire, and of their four sons due mention has been made in a preceding paragraph. Mr. Lumley is a member of Trinity Episcopal Church, at Pierre, South Dakota, in which he holds the office of warden. Mrs. Lumley is now recording secretary of the State Federation of Women’s Clubs, state delegate to the National Federation of Women’s Clubs, to meet in St. Louis in May 1904, and is worthy matron of Capital City Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star. Mr. Lumley is also now secretary of the capital committee of the Pierre Board of Trade, which has in charge the campaign against the removal of the state capital from Pierre, which question will be submitted to the voters of the state in November 1904.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.