Frank M. Byrne was born on October 23, 1858, on a farm near Volney, Iowa. He homesteaded in McCook County, South Dakota, in 1879 and moved to Faulk County in 1883, where he married Emma Beaver in 1888. The following year the first of their five sons was born. He was elected to the first South Dakota State Legislature in 1889, representing Faulk and Potter Counties. After a successful business career, he was elected to the Legislature again in 1907 and 1909, and as lieutenant governor in 1910. As governor in 1913, he refused legislative election to the United States Senate because he believed his first obligation was to the office to which the people had elected him. During his administration, laws were passed to elect United States senators by popular vote, guarantee depositors against bank failure, and prohibit leasing prison labor to private companies. With his health failing, he moved to California in 1924, where he died on December 24, 1927. He carried into public service the same generous and humane qualities that marked his private life, and was regarded as a man of integrity with great faith in democracy and a deep love for his country and his state.