South Dakota State Historical Society

MOODY, Gideon Curtis, a Senator from South Dakota; born in Cortland, Cortland County, N.Y., October 16, 1832; attended the common schools and pursued an academic course; studied law in Syracuse, N.Y.; moved to Indiana in 1852 and was admitted to the bar in 1853; appointed prosecuting attorney for Floyd County in 1854; member, State house of representatives 1861; during the Civil War entered the Union Army as a captain in April 1861 and served as captain, lieutenant colonel, and colonel, until his resignation in March 1864; moved to the Territory of Dakota in 1864; member, Territorial house of representatives 1867-1868, 1868-1869, 1874-1875, serving as speaker 1868-1869, 1874-1875; associate justice of the supreme court of the Territory of Dakota 1878-1883; member of the constitutional conventions of South Dakota in 1883 and 1885; upon the admission of South Dakota as a State into the Union was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from November 2, 1889, to March 3, 1891; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; died in Los Angeles, Calif., March 17, 1904; interment in Rosedale Cemetery.