Ellsworth E. Dye, born on May 14, 1863, in Decatur County, Iowa, was the son of Robert E. and Elizabeth (Trippett) Dye. Raised on a farm, he completed his early education in public schools and continued his studies at Des Moines University. Dye alternated between farming and teaching before moving to Buffalo County, South Dakota, in 1887, where he claimed 160 acres of land. After selling his farm in 1891, he taught in Gann Valley and then served two terms as county treasurer. Partnering with Arthur G. Hill, he entered the real estate business and co-founded the Dakota Chief newspaper and the Bank of Buffalo County. A dedicated Republican, Dye was active in local politics and fraternal organizations. He married Anna E. Lockwood on January 14, 1894, and they had two children, Wayne and Warren.
Ellsworth E. Dye was born in Decatur county, Iowa, on the 14th of May, 1863, being a son of Robert E. and Elizabeth (Trippett) Dye, of whose seven children all are living. The father was born in Monroe county, Ohio, and the mother at Long Reach, West Virginia, at which place they were married in 1851. They removed to Iowa in 1856, becoming pioneers of Decatur county, where the father engaged in agricultural pursuits, becoming one of the prominent and honored citizens of that section of the Hawkeye state. The father died at Leon, Iowa, on March 13, 1904, having retired from the farm a few years ago. The mother still resides at that place. The subject of this sketch passed his boyhood days on the homestead farm and after completing the curriculum of the public schools continued his studies in the Des Moines University. After leaving this institution he was alternately engaged in farming and teaching in the public schools of his native state until 1887, when he came to Buffalo county, South Dakota, where he entered claim to one hundred and sixty acres of government land, in Arlington township, and there engaged in farming for the ensuing five years, developing and improving his property, of which he disposed at an appreciable profit in 1891. He then located in Gann Valley, where he taught in the public schools for the ensuing three years, with marked success. He was then elected to the office of county treasurer, of which he remained incumbent for two terms. At the expiration of his effective service in this office Mr. Dye entered into partnership with Arthur G. Hill, concerning whom individual mention is made on other pages of this work, and engaged in the real-estate business, in which they have ever since continued operations most successfully, being one of the leading concerns of the sort in this section of the state and having the only set of title abstracts in the county. In 1898 the firm of Dye & Hill purchased the weekly newspaper known as the Dakota Chief, and they have since continued to be associated in its publication, having a well equipped plant and issuing a most creditable paper, which is a welcome visitor in the majority of the homes of the county. In 1898 Messrs. Dye and Hill founded the Bank of Buffalo County, which is now one of the popular and solid financial institutions of this section of the state and one which controls a large and constantly increasing business. It would be a work of supererogation to state in the connection that the members of this firm are among the most enterprising and progressive young business men of the county, for the fact is patent from the data already given in this sketch.
In politics Mr. Dye is a stalwart advocate of the principles of the Republican party, and through personal effort and editorial utterances in his paper, he has done much to promote the party cause. Fraternally, he is affiliated with Gann Valley Lodge, No. 120, Ancient Order of United Workmen. It may be said in the connection that Mr. Dye is most loyal to the state and county of his adoption and has unqualified confidence in the still brighter future in store for the commonwealth. As an active real-estate man he is thoroughly familiar with property values, and thus full credence can be given his assertion to the effect that realty in Buffalo county has appreciated in value by more than two hundred percent within the last three years and that the farmers of this section are uniformly independent and prosperous.
On the 14th of January, 1894, Mr. Dye was united in marriage to Mrs. Anna E. Lockwood, who was born and bred in the state of Indiana, being a daughter of Levi A. Creager, a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, who died at his home at Burlington, Iowa, on June 1, 1903. Of this union have been born two children, Wayne and Warren.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.