Lorene Bender, Board President of the Marshall County Prayer Rock Museum, shares about the town’s origin.
“In 1882, the broad expanse of land which is now the town of Britton was just that – many acres of wilderness and prairie land, without a home in sight. The buffalo were gone but their bleached bones could be seen everywhere.
During the spring of 1883 a few claim shacks were built on what now comprises the town site of Britton. J.B. Squier and F.B. Squier from Fargo came here in the spring of 1883 and squatted on ¼ section claims in Sections 23 & 24. Harry Plaistad and D.C. Bell squatted on ¼ section claims in Sections 25 & 26.
Colonel Isaac Britton was born in Concord, MA in 1826. He railroaded from 1842 to 1865 in MA. For fourteen months, Britton served as Colonel in the 28th Massachusetts Regiment. In 1867 he moved to Cincinnati and engaged in railroad supply and contract business. In 1878 Colonel Britton moved to Tennessee where he built the Sequatchie Valley Railroad.
During the summer of 1883, Colonel Britton came to visit the Squiers in then Dakota Territory. Colonel Britton suggested the area would be a splendid location for a town site. That fall, August 14, 1883, while Britton was staying with the Squiers, he chartered the Dakota and Great Southern Railway to extend from Tower City to Sioux City. The road was surveyed through this country by November 15, 1883. Colonel Britton would manage the D. & G. S. R. R. until December 1885 when the line was sold to J.W. Bishop & Wm. R. Marshall for Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad.
In 1883, Colonel Isaac Britton purchased lots at the west end of 7th Street and built a two-story residence with a parlor on both sides and bay windows extending up both stories. The Colonel Isaac Britton home was the most pretentious home in the yet unnamed town of Britton.
On November 23, 1883, H.R. Turner script claims in Section 24. (A script is a certificate that gives the holder the right to claim a certain amount of public land) Turner also purchased D.C. Bell’s relinquishment in Section 26 and made additional claims of his own in Section 26. In December 1883, Turner engaged Thomas Allison to plat the script 160 acres on sections 24 & 26. He completed and filed the plat of the original town on January 19, 1884, with the Register of Deeds of Day County.
J.B. Squire made final proof of his script in January 1884 and, in February, engaged Sam Denton to survey and plat the land. Squire’s plat was filed April 9, 1884. This was named, and still is, Fairview Addition on the Britton plot map.
Thus, in 1884, the town of Britton was born, and the man who thought this would be a “splendid location for a town site”, Colonel Isaac Britton, was its namesake.
Harry F. Plaistad having made final proof, engaged Sam Denton to plat his farm as well, and filed his platted addition March 16, 1885. This was known, and still is, as Plaistad’s addition on the Britton plot map.
Colonel Britton sold his property in 1886 to Mrs. C. Rozema, who at one time taught school in the house. Colonel Isaac Britton withdrew from the community after living there only 3 years.
Although there were only a few claim shacks in 1883, the settlers who settled here had to be strong, industrious people because, in 1885, the town of Britton had 25 business places.
These businesses consisted of 2 dry goods stores, 2 grocery stores, 2 meat markets, 2 lumber yards, 2 flour and seed stores, 2 saloons, a laundry, a newspaper office, one blacksmith shop, a public hall, the finest of school buildings and four real estate dealers and loan agents. They had daily mail and a stage line to Webster. All this in less than 3 years. Most assuredly, there was nothing lazy about the early Brittonittes.”
Dakota Life Greetings from Britton premieres on Thursday, December 12th at 8 PM Central (7 PM MT) on SDPB1, Facebook and YouTube. Stream the next day on the PBS App.