William Hobart Hare

Son of Rev. George Emlen Hare, William Hobart Hare was born at Princeton, N. J., and educated at the University of Pennsylvania, although he never graduated nor attended seminary before his ordination as a deacon in 1859 and as a priest in 1862.[1]

He preached in Philadelphia at St. Luke's Episcopal Church and St. Paul's Episcopal Church in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood until 1863, when he moved to Minnesota, hoping the climate change would help his wife's heath. However, he returned to Philadelphia to take a position at the Church of the Ascension, then for three years, Hare served as the general agent of the foreign committee of the board of missions. In 1872 he was elected Missionary Bishop of Niobrara, named after the Niobrara River in Nebraska. In 1883 that diocese was split, and Bp. Hare's part was extended to include the State of South Dakota. He wrote several pamphlets on missionary work in the West.

One of the leading missionaries in America, Hare earned the title "the Apostle of the West" for his dedicated work in the rural Dakotas among pioneers and Native Americans.

Calvary Cathedral gravesite

Hare died in Atlantic City, New Jersey. His body was returned to South Dakota for burial outside his diocese's cathedral; it was briefly reinterred at the school, and then returned to the cathedral lawn.[2]

Hare is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on May 17.

• Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota

• M. A. De W. Howe, Jr., The Life and Labors of Bishop Hare, Apostle to the Sioux (New York, 1911)
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. Missing or empty |title= (help)