Litchville was founded in the fall of 1900 upon the approach of the Casselton Branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Two men, Boardwell and J. M. Olson, purchased land from a Miss Mary Smith and platted the village. It was a dry year and the promoters forgot that the platted area was a slough during wet periods, thus creating problems that were to plague lot owners for many years until a drainage system was introduced in 1921.
H. J. Hanson (Jacob) the proprietor of old Litchville, located some six miles southeast of Litchville, realizing that the platted area had no post office and no name, moved his store and post office, lock, stock and barrel, as the saying goes, to the new site in October of 1900. Thus, Jacob Hanson owned the first business and was the first postmaster of Litchville, although the post office department did not know of the move. He remained the postmaster for many years.
Immediately, the town began to grow, first with a two-story hotel, the Mudgett and McCulloch lumber yard, Olson and Company General Store, a meat market, restaurant, furniture store, two blacksmith shops, a bank, feed store, drug store and others.
Olson and Company, which had moved from the inland town of Griswold, three miles south, erected a large building in the spring of 1901. Many other businesses moved from Griswold to Litchville and Griswold became a ghost town almost over night. Only a cemetery and a few indentations in the ground are left of what was a thriving village prior to 1900.
Three elevators were built in 1901, as well as a bank and the newspaper, "The Litchville Bulletin," published continuously since that time.
At one time Litchville boasted of five grocery stores, six churches and two banks.
Presently an up and coming community, it has great pride in its ability to maintain its viability as a live community.
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 286