1915 History - Minot Becomes the County Seat

1915 Tales From Old Timers #11 – How Minot Became the County Seat – The fight between Minot and Burlington for the county seat is an interesting time in the history of Minot. About this time there were hundreds of railroad employees in the town. A committee of citizens traveled to Burlington and literally stole the records from the county seat. The Burlington men immediately proceeded to take out an injunction to prevent the Minot men from leaving town. While the necessary papers were being prepared the Minot men had started on their return trip home, taking the trail on the South side of the Mouse River. As soon as the papers were ready the Burlington men, who by this time had grown to an angry mob, gave chase. They made a fatal mistake and that mistake would cost them the county seat. They took the trail North of the Mouse River and in consequence failed to overtake the men from Minot. The case was taken up in the courts and voted upon. Pressure was brought to bear on the railroad employees and Minot polled a vote of 900 in a village of les then 500 souls. This proves that “Padding the Ballot Box” was not unknown in the early days. Thus Minot became the county seat and was incorporated the same year. …. A side note (as depicted in the drawing), the votes of the men at a rather large railroad camp at Lone tree were included in the Minot count).