Prior to 1882 there were no settlements in Foster County except two or three families on the old Jamestown and Fort Totten Trail. Mr. Larrabee and Mr. Bowman, with their families had settled there at an earlier date.
The Jamestown Northern Railway was completed in Carrington late in the fall of 1882. Foster County being in the Northern Pacific indemnity limits left but one half of the lands, or only the even numbered sections, available for filing homestead or timber culture entry by the home seeker.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 34