Hand County, SD - Brief History This brief history of Hand County was found in the 1940 Hand & Hyde Counties 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 County History The Chicago and Northwestern Railway from Tracy, Minn. west to Pierre South Dakota, was laid in the fall of '80 going directly across the center of Hand County. No regular traffic was established that year, but from the division at Huron, an engine was to make the run once each week during the winter of 1880-81 to look after the road bed and carry provisions to the section men who were established at the railroad sidings, at Wessington and St. Lawrence. The Wheelock and Chas. Shepherd families were the first white settlers in Hand county. The winter of 1880-81 was severe for these settlers. There was no train service from January 25 to the next May. One of Levi Hulburt's (cattle shipper) companions died and couldn't be buried until spring, so the remains could be shipped to Wisconsin. The Shepherd family had only flour and salt. New settlers came in the spring. Henry Miller from Blairstown, Ia., obtained title to forty acres of land in what was the approximate center of Hand county and on September 8, 1881, with 26 men and a load of lumber, started the present town of Miller. On January 21, 1882, George W. Sayles made proof to the land on which the town of St. Lawrence was platted, and the next March Robert Sedam and John Kirk, two Civil war veterans, with their families, were followed by the horde of courageous pioneers who built permanent homes in St. Lawrence. On September 1, 1882, the Governor of the then Dakota Territory appointed John King, George Livingston and Frank Wilkins as Board of County Commissioners to organize the county. At the first meeting on October 6, 1892, the new board made the boundaries of their respective commissioners districts, but were unable to agree on which Of the two towns should be the temporary county seat. At the general election on November 7, 1882, the majority of votes were in favor of Miller for the county seat. In January of the year 1884, Miller and St. Lawrence were both organized as towns and officers elected. In January, 1882, Wm. Miller established the Hand County Press, the first newspaper. S. L. Sage published the State Journal in St. Lawrence. These newspapers inspired rivaly between the citizens of the two towns, which resulted in the establishing of flour mills, drilling for artesian wells, laying of water mains, building of sewers, establishing and maintaining good schools, developing roads, providing good markets, and in serving to the best of their abilities the people who through the years have called Hand county their home.