A descendant of Moody County’s namesake visited the community last week.
Brett C. Moody stopped in Flandreau for an overnight stay at the park and toured the courthouse and museum while in the area. Moody County was named after his great-great grandfather Gideon C. Moody, a Dakota Territory lawyer and judge who became the first U.S. Senator for South Dakota.
“It was quite exciting to see what was named after my great-great grandfather,” he said.
Moody, 58, has lived all over the country and has visited all 50 states, saving South Dakota for last. He was on his way to move from Connecticut to Seattle, where his mother lives and where he was born, in order to help her out.
Sen. Moody, who was born in New York in 1832, never lived in Moody County but moved to Yankton from Indiana around 1865. He became a member of the Territorial House of Representatives and later was named judge of the Dakota Territory Supreme Court, where he was thought of as a stern judge, his great-great grandson said.