Bramble and Miner Counties were established in 1868 by the Territorial Legislature, in Yankton, the Dakota Territory Capital. The two counties were 48 miles long and 12 miles mile. The reason for it being narrow was so each county would have part of the James River. It was said that the land was only good for grazing and the legislature thought each county should have river frontages.
There was no county government that first 11 years. Sanborn County was part of Bramle County originally. In 1878 Bramble and Miner Counties consolidated and Miner was selected as the name for the new county. The county seat was at Forestburg Junction in 1881.
The appointments of officers and county seat were only temporary. They would serve until an election was held and the people would then vote to where the county seat would be located. Being a county seat town brought prestige and attracted business and population growth. Howard and Forestburg were both candidates for the location in the November 1882 election.
The eastern part of the county was largely unsettled. Many settlers came in the summer and fall of 1882, but they couldn't legally vote because of the 90-day residency law. The railroad was building by Howard at that time and hundreds of graders were in that area. When the election was over, Howard won. The railroad graders had voted for Howard. It was certain that fraudulent votes had carried the election. Forestburg residents were very dissatisfied and hired lawyers to contest the election. If Forestburg residents had had the money to put into the lawsuit, they could have won the battle and kept the county seat, because there was evidence of illegal voters, but it would have taken thousands of dollars.
By now the people on the west side of the county were stirred up so petitions were prepared and presented to the Legislature of the Territory in session at Yankton. In May 1883 it was voted by the people to have a county division. The vote was in favor of separation by a two to one margin. The petition was granted and in July 1883, Sanborn County was organized. The first name chosen for the new county was "Florence" in honor of the governor's daughter. That name was never made official. Then, for one day, the county was named Brisbine, after Judge T. W. Brisbine. An amendment to give the county the name of Sanborn for George W. Sanborn of Mason City, Iowa, the then Divisional Superintendent of the Milwaukee Railroad, was favored and that name was adopted.
The county division did not end quarrels, for Letcher seized the county seat of the new county and the residents of Forestburg were furious. It seems that Governor Ordway was out of the territory on business and he had left several signed forms with his assistant, John Crennan, to be used until his return. Crennan took one of the presigned forms and filled in the names of the first Sanborn County Commissioners: Hiram Rodee, Samuel Mitchell, and John Tannehill. He also designated that Letcher be the county seat on June 22,1883. The new commissioners met on July 18, 1883 in Letcher, accepted the offer of a courthouse site from O. T. Letcher, presidents of the Letcher Townsite Company. They made this resolution: "Resolved that the county seat of the said County of Sanborn be and is hereby located temporarily at the town of Letcher on the South East Quarter of Section Fifteen in the Township One Hundred and Five north of Range Sixty one West, in said county, said town of Letcher being the only railroad town now established in said county, the location of all expected railroad towns being as yet uncertain, and for the further reason that we believe said county seat should be located at some established railroad point, and that said location at Letcher will better subserve the interests and eminence of the people of said county than at any point not a railroad station."
N. B. Red ........ Probate Judge
George Briggs ........... Assessor
Dr. Neville......Superintendentof Schools
Isaac Hodson ............ Sheriff
Hon. George Broderick. ..................Treasurer
Dr. Reemington ..........Coroner
W. H. Burdick...... Justice
J. F. Willems......Constable
H. B. Mayhew......Clerk and Register of Deeds
When the Governor returned and saw what had happened in his absence, he saidthe appointments were in-valad and selected Forestburg as county seat. For awhile the coounty had two sets of coounty officials and two county seats. Neither coould operate effectively and Judge Edgeerton ruled that though the commissions were fraudulently issued, they bore the Governor's signature and must stand. So Letcher was to remain the county seat and those appointed officials were to serve until an election in November, 1884, at which time the people would vote on a county seat.
On Wednesday of this week the commissions were sent ooout from Yankton which constituated Samuel J. Mitchell, Hiram Rodee and John Tannehill commissioners of the new cooounty of Sanborn, recently erected out of the west half of Miner County. The commissioners met at Letcher Wednesday afternoon and by s unanimoous vote selected that town as the coounty seat. They also lected H. E. Mayhew county clerk, and N. B. Reed probate judge, and adjourned to meet again next Monday. By this action the people of Sanborn County are enabled to tranact business the same as the rest of the country, being rellieved of the embrassment under which they have labored for some months past.
Letcher, the new coounty seat, is a town a little over a year old, and has some 400 inhabitants. It is located on the James Valley branch of the C. M. & St. Paul Road, 16 miles north of Mitchell, and in the heart of one of the finest farming sections in South Dakota. The adjacent lake is taken by actual settlers and not speculators and is occupied by as thrifty a class of farmers as can be found in Dakota anywhere. The soil is adapted to every variety of crops, and the best water can be struck at a moderate depth. The nearness to the river and Firesteel Creek renders stock-raising one of the important industries of the section.
The town itself is substantially built and its business hoouses compare favorably with those of any town of its size in the territory. Nearly all branches of business are represented, there being two good lumber yards, a well-stocked hardware store, grocery, dry goods and boot and shoe establlishment, a well-kept hotel, a harness shop in the handsof practical workmen, and a number of smaller concerns. A National bank and drugstore will soon be opened, parties have their arrangements for the same nearly completed.
The is headquaters for supplies for the Milkwaukee extension, and some 400 men at work on the line are being fed and supplied generally by the town. Several trains a day run from Mitchell to Letcher and there is a daily mail line. The streets are laid out in good width and are well graded and drained. A fine supply of water is insured by the sinking of an artesian well which is in successful operation. Lots are selling rapidly for business and resident purposes, $500 worth being dispposed of within an hour or two after the lcation of the coounty seat was determined on. Letcher bids fair to be the best town in Sanborn Coounty from this time on, and its real estate investments are sure as can be made anywhere.
The county seat was located at Letcher under a promise of a gift of a block of lots, the free use of offices and money to buy the blank books to start the offices. The first two are provided for, and now we should promptly liquidate the other obligation. Letcher has been noted for its enterprise and liberality in the past and we trust our people will call a meeting and put the machinery in operation for rasing the required amount at once.
By the time that election was to be held, there were three towns bidding for county seat, Wooksocket, Forestburg and Letcher. Forestburg felt that they would get the popular support they felt they deserved, and Letcher felt that because the government was already there, it should stay. But when the votes were counted, Woonsocket had won by 30 votes. Rumor said that the railroad graders may have again won the power, and there was much ill feeling. A recount failed to change the results. In the commissioners meeting November 18,1884, it was now datelined Woonsocket, Dakota Territory, where previously it had been datelined in Letcher, Dakota Territory and "the clerk was instructed to procure and delliver to the Sheriff for posting, three notices for each voting precinct of the change of the county seat from Letcher to Woonsocket," and bills approved for "moving county records to Woonsocket." The new commissioners were also elected as follows; William Briggs, Ole Norem, and A. B. Fisher and they took over the Sanborn County Government on January 5, 1885.