Mini Bios of People of Scots Descent
Albert Jackson Keith Biography

Albert Jackson Keith, a successful representative of the legal fraternity in Sioux Falls, has here practiced his profession continuously since 1900. His birth occurred in Hamilton, New York, on the 5th of June, 1877, his parents being Hosmer Hale and Mary (Spear) Keith. The first representative of the family in this country came from Scotland on the Mayflower. Albert J. Keith, who was a little lad of six years when his parents took up their abode in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1883, acquired his education in this city and was graduated from Sioux Falls College in 1894. Subsequently he pursued a classical course in the University of Chicago and then prepared for a professional career in the University of Minnesota, being graduated from the law department of that institution in 1900. He was admitted to the bar in the same year and opened an office in Sioux Falls, having since practiced in the United States and state courts. His practice is extensive and of an important character. He is remarkable among lawyers for the wide research and provident care with which he prepares his cases. At no time has his reading ever been confined to the limitation of the questions at issue. It has gone beyond and compassed every contingency and provided not alone for the expected but for the unexpected, which happens in the courts quite as frequently as out of them. 

On the 28th of June, 1900, at Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, Mr. Keith was united in marriage to Miss Iva Gress, a daughter of G. M. Gress. Their children are three in number, namely: Hale Gress, Granville Spear and Katharine. 

In his political views Mr. Keith is an unfaltering republican, and fraternally he is identified with the Masons, belonging to the Knights Templar commandery and the Mystic Shrine, and holding the office of illustrious potentate. He has also attained the thirty second degree of the Scottish Rite and likewise belongs to the Elks, the Country Club and the Dacotah Club, while his religious faith is that of the Baptist church. Mr. Keith is interested in all matters of progressive citizenship to the extent of giving his cooperation wherever his aid can be of avail, but he has little time for work outside of his profession, his practice having constantly grown in volume and importance. He is also the founder and president of the Credit Reference Company, of Sioux Falls, which is the credit rating guide for the merchants and professional men of the county, and is likewise president of a similar company at Sioux City, Iowa.