Kingsbury County, D.T.

KINGSBURY COUNTY. While Kingsbury has experienced no such boom as have some of the newer counties just being opened up by the railroads, we can look back over the past season with a good deal of satisfaction. The news settlers that have come to make their homes with us, and they are many, are of the substantial sort, who have made their last move, and have settled down to stay here the balance of their days. The roving speculator is in the minority; he has gone on to the “end of the road,” where there is more bustle, more opportunities for sudden wealth, and vastly more opportunities for losing what he already has. our crops, with the exception of wheat, have been excellent and have brought good prices. the weather has been favorable for harvesting and all fall work, and winter has held off long enough to enable all to fully prepare for it. The towns of our county have all steadily prospered, and one new one has been started to meet the urgent wants of settlers.

Still there is much room left for new comers, and to those who are contemplating making Dakota their future home we would say, stop and give Kingsbury county a look before going further. And to those who are trying to eke out a living on rented land, or are growing old before their time trying to raise a mortgage from their own farms, we would say, come out and take a look at us, and if after that you still cling to the mud, stone, stumps and mortgage, your case is indeed hopeless. Good land can still be obtained from two to six miles from the railroad, and from four to ten miles from town, land that for richness cannot be surpassed anywhere along the line. Observations taken during the past three years have shown that Kingsbury county, situated as it is, on the divide between the Sioux and James rivers, is less liable to severe storms than the valleys of either of these rivers. It has been demonstrated that everything will thrive here that will grow anywhere in the same latitude. For stock and dairying purposes Kingsbury county is unrivalled. The low lying lands furnish the sweetest of hay, upon which cattle will fatten in the winter without grain, if decently housed, while the uplands furnish pasture from the time the snow is off the ground in the spring until the grass is covered with snow again. Our towns and markets are established. Goods of all kinds can be bought at a trifle above Winona prices, and from 25 to 50 per cent below the prices of the newer country further west. Here you will find good society. Our settlers are in the main foreigners, who have brought with them habits of refinement. School houses are springing up all over the county, and if you have a family of children you need have no fears that they will grow up ignoramuses while you are waiting for the county to develop, as would be the case in the newer settlements. Those coming in now will experience none of the hardships that the earlier settlers have had to contend with. Again we say, stop and give us a look over. If we cannot suit you, you will at least have seen a splendid country, one that is not excelled anywhere in the Territory. -December 1881, Lake Preston Times

TEXT OF MARKER, located on Highway 81 (454th Ave.) on the west side of 220th St. – You are about to enter KINGSBURY COUNTY. A region of buffalowes and Indians until 1870s, Indian mounds are found at Spirit Lake. In 1838 the Nicollet-Fremont party skirted the NE corner. In 1857 Inkepaduta’s renegade Indians passed through with two white women captives, victims of the Spirit Lake massacre in Iowa. In a skirmish several of the renegades were killed by Agency Indians near Lake Thompson. In 1857 Noble’s Trail was built west passing south of this Lake. The Yankton Sioux ceded the region to the government in 1859. It was part of huge Buffalo County, 1864, and of larger Hanson COunty in 1870. On Jan. 8, 1873, it became Kingsbury County, named for George W. Kingsbury (1837-1925) of Yankton, legislator, editor, and historian. Surveyed in 1873-75, general settlement began in 1878. The railroad came in 1879-1880. The county was organized Feb. 18, 1880 by H.W. Palmer, H.J. Burvee, and Benjamin Loken. De Smet, the county seat, was named for Father Peter John De Smet (1801-1873), Jesuit missionary. The county in 1880 had 1,102 people, by 1890, 8,562. Its area is 36 by 24 miles, or 552,960 acres. Lakes include Thompson, Henry, Spirit, Preston, Whitewood, Albert and others. Excellent waterfowl and pheasant hunting, and fishing are found here. Pioneer days have been depicted by three former residents of the county in Rose Wilder Lane’s novels, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s children’s stories, and Harvey Dunn’s paintings. (Erected 1958 by the County Commissioners)