Hare, William Hobart, 1838-1909

Bishop William Hobart Hare (1839-1909), known as the "Apostle to the Sioux," was appointed in 1872 Bishop of Niobrara, which was expanded and renamed the Missionary District of South Dakota. Hare continued working in Dakota unitl his death.

Bishop of the Missionary District of Niobrara and its successor, the Missionary District of South Dakota.

Bishop William Hobart Hare (1839-1909), known as the "Apostle to the Sioux," was appointed in 1872 Bishop of Niobrara, which was expanded and renamed the Missionary District of South Dakota. Hare continued working in Dakota until his death.

Bishop of South Dakota; Smith was Bishop of Kentucky and presiding Bishop.

Hare was an Episcopal bishop and missionary to the Sioux Indians.

Episcopal Missionary.

Consecrated by the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1872, Bishop Hare was assigned to the Dakotas. Hare initiated an ambitious program of building schools, chapels, and rectories at the various Sioux and Ponca reservations throughout the region. With the active cooperation of federal authorities, the Episcopal Ministry of the Dakotas became firmly established on the reservations by the 1880s.

William Hobart Hare (1838-1909) was an Episcopal bishop and missionary to the Dakota [Sioux] Indians. Hare was born in Princeton, New Jersey, the son of Elizabeth Catherine Hobart and George Emlen Hare. His father was a biblical scholar and dean of the Philadelphia Divinity School. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, though he did not graduate. He began his ministry as an assistant at St. Luke's Church in Philadelphia, where Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe was the rector. In 1861 Hare married Howe's daughter Mary Amory Howe. By 1863 he moved to Michigan and then Minnesota to help his wife's health, but soon returned East and in 1866 his wife died in Philadelphia. They had one child, a son Hobart Amory Hare.

Hare held various positions in the Episcopal church and in November of 1872 he was elected missionary bishop of Niobrara and ordained and consecrated in January of 1873. In 1883 he became missionary bishop of South Dakota, then including both white districts and native peoples. He divided the district into divisions, each connected with a United States Indian Agency, each with a experienced overseer to supervise the Indian ministers while Hare served as general superintendent. He also established numerous Indian boarding schools to train Indian boys to be teachers and missionaries, as well as the All Saints School for girls in Sioux Falls for the daughters of his missionaries and other white girls. He came to be known as the "Apostle to the Sioux."

In February of 1891-1892 he spent many months in Japan to administer the affairs of that jurisdiction, and also spent some time in Europe to ease his heart problems. Hare died in 1909 and was buried beside Calvary Cathedral in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. May 17 is celebrated on the Episcopal calendar as a feast day in honor of William Hobart Hare.

Source: Donald S. Armentrout "Hare, William Hobart" American National Biography Online, Feb. 2000.