GHOST TOWNS AND ALMOST GHOST TOWNS OF BEADLE COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA

 

BEADLE COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA

Created 1879 Current County Seat Huron 2000 population: 17,023

Beadle County, named in honor of Brig. General William Henry Harrison Beadle, was created by the South Dakota legislature in 1879 and formally organized in 1880 with the appointment of three county commissioners by Gov. Nehemiah Ordway. The first town within Beadle County was Cavour, but Huron was named the county seat when the county commissioners first met there in July 1880.

Beadle County, SD - Brief History

	This brief history of Beadle County was found in the 1954 Beadle 
	County Farm Directory, published by Dakota Directory Service, 
	Mitchell, SD

	Scanning and OCR by Joy Fisher, sdgenweb@yahoo.com

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm


				BEADLE COUNTY DATA

	Gen. William Henry Harrison Beadle, pioneer educator, soldier and 
legislator, surveyed the boundaries of this county in 1872, and the next 
year it was officially created by the Territorial legislature and named Beadle. 
The county government was organized in., 1880 with Huron as the county seat.

	Early in 1879 settlers began to arrive, and the town of Cavour was started 
as the first in the county. Marvin Hughitt, surveyor for the North Western Railway, 
laid out the town site of Huron and 880 acres were set aside for railroad terminal 
facilities-a far-sighted act that has contributed heavily to Huron's development.

	A printing press was set up on the banks of the James river by John Cain who 
published the Beadle County Settler before the town of Huron was actually started. 
In April, 1880, the town's population was 25; by June of the same year it was 500; 
and on January 4, 1888, there were 5,000 people in the bustling young city.

	Other towns sprang up with the development of the railroad lines. Wessington, 
Wolsey, Iroquois, Hitchcock, Broadland, Bonilla, Virgil and Yale came into existence 
between 1880 and 1888. At Wolsey, the first station agent was W. R. "Dick" Sears, a 
young man who resigned his job to organize the mail order house, Sears, Roebuck and 
Company. William W. Howes, who came to Wolsey in 1910 to practice law and later moved 
to Huron, became well known in political circles. Charles "Chick" Sale, author and 
actor, was born and raised in Huron.

	As a trade and processing center for a large agricultural area, Huron has grown 
steadily. Industries include a packing plant, railroad terminal and a number of large 
wholesale and retail plants. The State Fair brings thousands of visitors each fall, 
and a new artificial lake provides a fine water supply and recreational facilities.

	Although a small part of Beadle county was affected by erosion and drought, 
since 1933 conditions have been vastly improved and the area has been reclaimed through 
local efforts in co-operation with the U. S. Department of Agriculture. An article entitled
"Life and Death of 470 Acres," published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1938 and written 
by Robert Lusk, editor of the Evening Huronite, brought nationwide attention to the 
conservation work being done in Beadle county.

THE TOWNS

Altman

Fairfield Township, post office 1905-1906.

Altoona (1883-1888) : 

1888 (see also other towns listed)

later became Hitchcock

Aqua (1882-1882) 

 Later became Wessington

Aquilo (1880-1881) 

Post office, July 26,1880-May 5, 1881

Beatrice (1884/1894) 

post office in Barrett Township (May 26, 1884 - Mar 2, 1894)

Belle (1894-1907) 

post office in Belle Prairie Township, Sec. 30 (Dec. 13, 1894 - Feb. 28, 1907). Located in the home of Robert Gilgore.

Bonilla

 Bonilla Township. Platted Mar. 1884.Bonilla was laid out in 1884.[2] A post office called Bonilla was established in 1883, and remained in operation until 1973.

Bonilla, Beadle Co., SD - 1916 business Directory


	This information extracted from the "Northwestern Gazetteer and
	Business Directory", vol. XX (1916-1917), published by R. L.
	Polk & Co.

	Data transcribed by Joy Fisher, sdgenweb@yahoo.com. This file 
	may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations 
	for their private use. All other rights reserved.

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm


	BONILLA. Pop 50. Beadle county. A village on the C M & St P Ry
29 miles n w of Huron the county seat. Has a Presbyterian church, a
bank, a hotel and 2 grain elevators. Exp W F & Co. Tel W U. 
T W Dawson P M.

Last Name              First Name   Business
Bonilla Elevator Co.
Bonilla State Bank                  (capital $5,000), W J Craig, pres; F B McKichan, cashr
Craig                  W. J.        pres, Bonilla State Bank
Craig                               see Siberg Bros. & Craig
Dawson                 T. W.        Railroad, express and telegraph agt
James                  Frank W.     grocer
McKichan               F. B.        cashr, Bonilla State Bank
McKiehan               Arch         gen store
McKiehan               Hugh         meats
Merklin                Geo.         blksmith
Miller & St. John                   farm impts
Rush                   J. E.        farm impts
Siberg Bros. & Craig                grain (Spotswood)
St. John                            see Miller & St. John

Broadland (1882-1965) 

Broadland Township. Founded by Western Town Lot Company, platted June 9, 1880. Broadland was laid out in 1881.[7] It was named from the broad valley in which the town site is located.[7]he population was 27 at the 2020 census.

Broadland Rur. Sta. (1965-1968)

Corvallis (1882-1883)

Earlville (1882-1900)

Esther (1904-1905)

Goodle (1881-1894)

Lakeside (1882-1908)

Lawrence (1884-1896)

Pearl (1882-1886)

Found a Pearl, South Dakota in Beadle County on the 1893 Rand McNally and Company maps. Pearl Creek Township 1913 map here Looking at street view of the area, nothing left. Population of the area is showing 23. 

Regal (1882-1885)

Sheffield (1892/1927)

Winthrop (1883-1911)

Winthrop, Beadle Co., SD - 1909 Business Directory

This file contains a listing from the "South Dakota State Business

Directory," published by The Gazetteer Publishing Co., Denver,

Colorado in 1909.

Information transcribed by Joy Fisher. This file may be freely copied

by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use.

Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval

system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other

means requires the written approval of the file's author.

WINTHROP

Country postoffice in Beadle county, 15 miles east of Hitchcock,

the nearest railroad point. Population 5.

Last Name First Name Business

McNeill E. A. postmaster