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Please add profiles of people who were born, lived or died in Canton, Lincoln County, South Dakota.
History
One of the oldest communities in the Dakota Territory, the City of Canton was organized in 1861 when permanent settlers first came to Canton. The name Canton was chosen because it was believed that the town site was located directly opposite of Canton, China. Organizers thought the Chinese spelling meant “gateway,” and Canton was known as Gate City for many years. In 1868, many Norwegian immigrant families moved to Canton to settle, which more than doubled the population of Lincoln County.
Only 11 years after the establishment of Canton, in August of 1872, initial issues of one of the first newspapers in the Dakota Territory, The Sioux Valley News were published. Col. Arthur Linn owned the original printing press and transported it to Canton by wagon. The railroads in Canton have always been key to our successful agricultural business. Still in use today, they continue to be critical to agricultural in Canton. The original depot building has been restored and is home to the Canton Visitor Center and Chamber of Commerce, open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Snapshot
Canton, South Dakota
County: Lincoln
Established: 1861
Population: 3057
Location: 20 miles south of Sioux Falls; 10 miles east of I-29 on US Hwy 18
Interesting Facts
- County Seat of Lincoln County
- Historic Lincoln County Courthouse – $8.9 million expansion completed in 2009
- Surrounded by Newton Hills State Park, the Big Sioux River and the rolling hills of the Sioux Valley
Snapshot
- 1861: The City of Canton is organized. The first settler is August Linderman.
- 1866: The earliest known visitor to the area, Lewis P. Hyde visits the spot that is now Canton.
- 1868: Lincoln County is home to 35 people. The city is named Canton. A caravan on 180 Norwegian settlers crossed the Big Sioux River to make Canton their home.
- 1880: The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad crosses the Big Sioux River to reach Canton.
- 1886: The Historical Society House is built.
- 1889: Lincoln County Courthouse is built.
- 1908: Canton Lutheran Church is built.
In 1884, Augustana College moved from Beloit, Iowa, to Canton. An elementary through high school was also built as part of Augustana's relocation, and educated the internationally known physicist Merle Tuve, and brothers John Lawrence and Ernest Lawrence. … The history of Augustana Academy came to an end in 1971. The campus was closed and was sold to Keystone Treatment Center. The “Old Main” building has been converted into apartments.
National Ski Tournament Site and Sioux Valley Ski Club
A young man named Ludwig Hoiby, a student at Augustana and originally from Norway, gave a skiing exhibition to a group of Canton students in 1911. This exhibition began the quest to clear the hill at the Thorson farm located on the Iowa side of the Sioux River east of Canton. In 1923 the first meet sponsored by the Sioux Valley Ski Club was held at a new location several hundred yards east of the original hill. … Poor attendance in 1936, cost increases and uncooperative weather prompted the club to fold the following year. Wind blew down the scaffolding in the 1940s, and in the 1960s the hill was used as a motorcycle climb. Today the site can be seen south of a South Dakota historic marker on U.S. Highway 18 two miles east of Canton.
The first and only institution for insane Indians in the United States was Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians. It was placed in Canton because of the central location among the Western states with a large Indian populations and because of the influence of South Dakota's Representative O.S. Gifford and Senator R. F. Pettigrew. In 1898, Congress passed a bill creating the institution. The bill establishing the Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians passed in 1899, and the Indian Appropriation Act for 1900 set aside $3,000 for land purchase and $42,000 for building construction. One hundred acres were purchased a mile east of Canton on the hills overlooking the Sioux River. The asylum was closed in 1934. (See the related project, Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians.)
Today, a cemetery for 121 patients of the asylum is located on the original grounds of the asylum. The National Park Service added the cemetery to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. (See the related project, Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery.)
Notable people
(Please replace links to Wikipedia articles with Geni profile links)
- Mike Broderick, former member of the South Dakota State Senate
- Oscar S. Gifford, former mayor of Canton
- Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), former U.S. senator
- Ernest Lawrence, Nobel laureate who invented the Cyclotron
- John Lawrence, pioneer in the field of nuclear medicine
- Theda Marshall, All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player
- Ole Edvart Rølvaag, graduate of Augustana Academy; author of Giants in the Earth
- Merle Tuve, geophysicist[25]
- Rosemond Tuve, literary scholar
- James M. Wahl, South Dakota legislator
References
- https://cantonsd.org/our-community/history/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton,_South_Dakota cites
- Indians, Insanity, and American History Blog: Asylums And Insanity Treatments 1800 – 1935. “ Canton is in South Dakota. It was a small town with boosters who wanted to create a bustling city. It was also called the Gateway City and Trappers Shanty.” < link >