Col. Lee Stover (b. 1867, Iowa County, Iowa) was a prominent land and corporation attorney in Watertown, South Dakota, and served as the register of the U.S. Land Office there. After earning degrees in science and law from Iowa State University, Stover began his legal practice in Watertown in 1889. In 1898, he was appointed register of the land office but resigned to serve as lieutenant colonel of the First South Dakota Volunteer Infantry during the Philippine-American War. Returning in 1899, he resumed his legal career and was reappointed as land office register. Stover was also active in various fraternal organizations and served as a state attorney for Codington County. He married Maude Newell Gipson in 1890, and they had two children.
Col. Lee Stover, register of the United States land office at Watertown, Codington County, and who is also prominent as a land and corporation attorney, was born in Iowa County, Iowa, on the 16th of June, 1867, being a son of M. W. and Laura R. (Ricord) Stover, the former of whom was born in Ohio and the latter in Iowa. M. W. Stover was engaged in the banking business at Marengo, Iowa, for many years, was a man of marked influence and sterling character, commanding the unequivocal confidence and esteem of all who knew him. At the time of the War of the Rebellion, he was a member of the Twenty-second Iowa Volunteer Infantry, with which he saw long and arduous service, being captain of Company K at the time of the battle of Vicksburg, where he received a wound which necessitated the amputation of his right arm, his regiment having been the only one to enter the works of the enemy in this memorable conflict, while of those who were wounded in the regiment in that engagement, he was one of the very few to survive. This valiant regiment placed its flag on the works and there maintained it for seven hours during the sanguinary conflict on the 22nd of May, 1863. The paternal grandfather of the subject was George Stover, who was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and who served with distinction in the War of 1812, while his father, Colonel Hiram Stover, served as colonel under Washington during the War of the Revolution, so that it will be seen that our subject comes of patriotic stock, while he himself has seen military service, as a representative of the fourth generation of the family in this department of the country’s service.
Lee Stover received his early educational discipline in the public schools of Marengo, Iowa, and then entered the Iowa State University, at Iowa City, where he completed the scientific course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1887. He then became a student in the law department of the same institution, and was graduated in the same in 1889, in June of which year he came to Watertown, South Dakota, and initiated the active practice of his profession, his devotion to his work and his legal acumen and power soon gaining him representative clientage. On the 1st of April, 1898, Colonel Stover was appointed register of the United States land office, but on the 30th of the same month, he resigned the office to accept the position of lieutenant colonel of the First South Dakota Volunteer Infantry, which was sent to the Philippine Islands, where it remained in active service until October, 1899. The subject made a record worthy of the name he bears, was known as a bold and fearless commander, was loved by all his men and revered by his fellow officers. On his return to Watertown, at the expiration of his term of service in the Orient, Colonel Stover resumed the practice of his profession, his absence having greatly interfered with his regular work in the line, but he soon regained his precedence and today controls a large and lucrative practice. On the 1st of November, 1899, he again received appointment as register of the land office, of which position he has since been incumbent, giving a most able administration of its affairs. He served four years as state’s attorney of Codington County and is known as a strong and skillful advocate and prosecutor and a counselor well grounded in the science of jurisprudence in its various branches. Fraternally, he is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and Modern Woodmen of America, all of Watertown. While in service in the Philippines, Colonel Stover was one of the three members of the supreme, or provisional, court of the island of Luzon, and while there was also with his regiment on the line for one hundred and twenty-six days and nights without removing clothing, shoes, etc.
On the 11th of February, 1890, at Burlington, Wisconsin, Colonel Stover was united in marriage to Miss Maude Newell Gipson, who was born and reared in that state. Of this union have been born two children, Walter E. and Lee Roy.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.