Foster County was established by an act of the Tenth Dakota Territorial Legislature in Yankton on January 4, 1873. This act partitioned the eastern two thirds of the territory into rectangular blocks containing 42 to 56 townships. Foster County and its 42 townships lay just north of the 11th Standard Parallel and between the 8th and 9th Guide Meridians and comprised Ranges 60 to 66 of Townships 145 to 150 inclusive. The county name was derived from that of a resident of the territory since 1864, James F. Foster, the Commissioner of Immigration for the territory. The land was not yet open for homesteading since the township boundaries and section lines had not yet been surveyed or marked.
At this early date there were very few settlements in the northern part of the territory except in the Red River Valley and along the Northern Pacific Railroad which had just been built across the state. In 1881 Griggs County was organized and to give Cooperstown a more central location the two eastern ranges of townships in Foster County, 60 and 61, were split off. The southern 8 townships became a part of Griggs and the northernmost 4 were added to Nelson County. In compensation for the loss of these townships two Ranges, 67 and 68, 12 townships, were taken from Gingras, now Wells County, and consolidated with then unorganized Foster County.
By 1882 the Jamestown and Northern Railroad branch line north from Jamestown had penetrated into Foster County as far as Carrington where the first settlements were made in 1882. The area around it had just been surveyed and opened for homesteading on March 1, 1883. The residents and homesteaders of the then booming area petitioned Nehemiah Ordway the Governor indicating their desire to organize the county and requested him to appoint three residents to serve as commissioners. The governor signed the enabling act on September 17, 1883 and appointed E.W. Brenner, Horace M. Clark and Lyman M. Casey to act as commissioners. The first two were residents of the northern part of the county, Casey of the Carrington and Casey Land Company, a resident of Carrington. They met for the first time on October 11, 1883 in the real estate office of Appleby and Urquhart, real estate agents in Carrington with Will J. Urquhart as secretary pro tem.
Foster County was now a functioning governmental unit and commissioners proceeded to designate Carrington as the provisional county seat until the succeeding general election. The legally mandated offices were filled by appointment: Register of Deeds; William D. Nickeus who was also County Clerk, O.G. Meecham, treasurer, J. Morley Wyard, Public Printer, Official Newspaper; The Carrington News, Assessor; C.W. Culver, Superintendent of Schools; the Rev. Hiram Cornish, Judge of Probate; H.A. Soliday, Coroner; Willis H.B. Eisenhuth, County Attorney; E.W. Camp. All of these were from Carrington or nearby except Culver who was from New Rockford and Cornish from Tiffany. In these early days there was no auditor. The salaries of the various officers were not stated except in the case of the Attorney who was allowed $400 a year and the County Superintendent $50.
Rooms of the second floor of Robert Hunter's building and in the McLain Building on Main Street were rented as temporary offices. Furniture was purchased for the offices together with a ton of coal for heat. A seal and a safe to store the records were ordered. When received the bill for the seal was $15 and for the safe $467.60.
Constables and Justices of Peace for the various localities were named after they had procured satisfactory bonds. The Register of Deeds was empowered to copy the records of the legal transactions of the Foster County area which had already been recorded in the Stutsman County Courthouse. The county was divided into three commissioner's Districts:
No. 1, 14 townships, the southern two tiers including Carrington,
No. 2, the northwest 12 townships including New Rockford and
No. 3, the remaining 16 townships in the northeast where Tiffany was located
On October 23, 1883 the commissioners divided the county into school townships corresponding to the most part to the Congressional townships. The numbering of the townships commenced with No. 1, Township 145, Range 62 (now Eastman) in the southern corner of the county and continued back and forth across the county. Melville was No. 5, Carrington No. 10, and Birtsell No.‑20. Townships 7 and 8, Hawksnest and Bilodeau in Range 68, were soon to become a part of the still to be organized Wells County. These numbers have continued in use to the present day to designate the school districts.
As soon as the organization of the county was complete one of the first orders of business was the regulation of the liquor traffic. On January 7, 1884 the commissioners set the fee for a license for the sale of liquor at $500 per year and required also that a bond be accompanied with at least two sureties in the penal sum of $500 certifying to the county that a strict obedience of the laws now in existence or enacted during the term of the license and the payment of all fines imposed by the courts for violation. Licenses were to be issued for not less than six months. The first license with the required bond was issued to Eugene Foley and James Clair; the second went to Myron Miller of Melville. Nine more liquor licenses were issued during the year.
Roads and bridges were also a concern of the commissioners. Petitions were received and approved for the construction of bridges across the James River at New Rockford and at Larrabee and across the Pipestem and for a road from Carrington to Tiffany. Work on all these was at least started in the summer of 1884.
During the summer of 1883 or 1884 the railroad tracks were laid as far as Sykeston 12 miles to the west. Settlement of the land in that area had begun through the promotions of the Richard Sykes Land Company. Already there were enough settlers and homesteaders on hand to petition for the organization of another county. Dispute over the location of the county line arose from the rivalry of the Carrington and Casey Land Company and the Sykes interests farther west. The new Wells County wanted the two ranges of townships, 67 and 68, which had been taken from Gingras County and added to Foster County when Griggs County was formed. Without these townships the new county seat, Sykeston, would have been situated at the extreme eastern edge of the county. Both sides were probably abetted by the Northern Pacific Immigration Agents who were anxious to bring more and more settlers into the area. Two counties looked better than one. The final solution was a compromise: Range 68 was restored to Wells while Range 67, comprising Longview, Wyard and Birtsell Townships was to remain forever an integral part of Foster County.
Taxes for the year 1885 were levied by the commissioners at the September 1, 1884 meeting: County Fund, 6 mills; Schools, 2 mills; Sinking Fund to pay for outstanding warrants, 2 mills and a $1.50 poll tax was assessed on every male between the ages of 21 and 50.
On the same day the commissioners divided the county in 10 precincts for the coming general election: Larrabee, Melville, Bilodeau, Carrington, Barlow, New Rockford, Tiffany, Donaghue, Tomlinson and Gates. Shortly thereafter the county attorney called the board's attention to the fact that the commissioners were required to reside in the district they represented and that several of the precincts out across the boundaries of the commissioners' districts. On October 2 the commissioners redefined the precincts and created a new one, Hellwig, Townships 149 and 150 in Range 65 out of Tiffany precinct and adjusted the boundaries of several others. This revision would be of no particular importance except for the prominent part this precinct was to play in the coming election.
The 1884 presidential election was a mud-slinging contest between Republican James G. Blaine and Democrat Grover Cleveland. The latter was attacked as the candidate of the party of "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion". Cleveland won by a narrow margin of the popular vote and by 219 to 182 electoral votes. Dakota in 1884 was only an organized territory and not a state. Consequently the citizens could not participate in the election of the president.
The precincts in each Commissioner's District, the polling places and the judges and inspectors of the election were as follows
First District
Larrabee at the W.H. Larrabee house, W.H. Larrabee, Herbert B. Smith, J.G. Backen
Melville at the schoolhouse in Melville, E.F. Porter, Cary Mayfield, Peter Zink
Carrington at the schoolhouse in Carrington, A.D. Parker, I.H. Flagg, Joseph G. Duff
Bilodeau at the Charles Bilodeau house, Charles Bilodeau, E.A. Van Meter, Spencer Cole
Second District
New Rockford at the schoolhouse in New Rockford, Frank Dunham, A.S. Hadley, Dr. E.S. Miller
Barlow at the F.G. Barlow house, George Estabrook, John G. Schmid, C.B. Branson
Tomlinson at the Tomlinson Post Office, J.M. Patch, M.O. Rollins, O.S. Buell
Gates at the Gates Post Office, Philip Brand, Ole Hendrickson, Samuel Erickson
Third District
Hellwig at the house of Julius Hellwig, Julius Hellwig, August Kehlow, Robert Pomranke
Tiffany at the schoolhouse in Tiffany, N.H. Cornish, J.A. Hickey, William Brown
Donaghue at the house of John F. Donaghue, George E. Woodward, John Doty, Sr., John E. Morris
Nearly 700 votes were cast in the election. Preliminary figures for the county seat vote were carried in both the Carrington and New Rockford newspapers, these have not been preserved but the Jamestown Alert for Sunday, November 9, 1884 carried stories about the election
"The New Rockford Transcript is jubilant over the result of the election in Foster County especially on the subject of the county seat. It says that if the Carrington papers need any more proof that the northern part of the county contains the most votes it is furnished in the fact that every candidate who declared themselves opposed to the removal of the county seat were defeated and those in favor of New Rockford elected. J.W. Hayes, editor of the Transcript was elected superintendent of schools and is well qualified for the office in every essential procedure.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 134