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Benson County North Dakota Genealogy

Riggin Township North Dakota
Township 153 Range 67

Atlas of Benson County, ND, 1910

• Part of Riggn Township
• Part of Riggin including West Bay
• East part of Riggin

Towns

Minnewaukan founded in 1884 is located in Riggin Township. Minnewaukan is the County Seat of Benson County.

1884-1900

1900 to present

According to information on the Benson County website, the present courthouse was built in 1900 of brick and stone at a cost of $40,000. Much of the original maple wood inside is still in use, although the building has been updated through the years. The county installed a chair lift at the cost of $30,000 in 1993. A ramp to the front door is another ADA update. The courthouse has several unique features. The commission room has an ornate fireplace, with glazed brick and a carved mantle. Tin ceiling tile is still in place in much of the courthouse. The original seats in the court room have hat racks under the seats. Paintings and other artwork, including the original blueprints, add warmth to the halls and office walls. It was, until 2002, the only courthouse in the state with a sheriff's residence still in use. The Benson County Courthouse is a very impressive building being built of reddish brown brick and white stone. It is architecturally significant for it's incorporation of the design principles of the Richardsonian Romanesque Style. The building is 60 feet wide, 90 feet long, and 96 feet to the top of the flagstaff. In 1979, the Benson County Courthouse was named to the National Register of Historic Places, the nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. The Benson County Courthouse is one of the last major public buildings in North Dakota designed to express the picturesque aesthetic of the 19th Century prior to the onset of Academic Revivalism. Despite the modifications over the years, the Courthouse retains it's original character to a remarkable degree.

The first county commissioners elected in 1884 were: Thomas J. Larison, Mortimer D. Hint, Edward Yeager, James W. Farrier and David Hanshwan.

Commissioners elected in following years were:

Churches

Trinity Free Lutheran

Presbyterian Church

Grace Episcopal Church is an historic Episcopal church building located at 210 C Avenue, South, in Minnewaukan, Benson County, North Dakota. Designed in the Gothic Revival style of architecture by Fargo architects The Hancock Brothers, it was built by local artisan Otis Kolstad in 1903 of local fieldstone with concrete mortar and wooden gables and roof. It features a stone bell tower over the side entrance. In 1935 the building was sold to Union Gospel Tabernacle, an Assemblies of God congregation which shared it with St. Peter Lutheran Church (Cemetery located in West Bay Township). In 1965 it was sold to Evergreen Masonic Lodge No. 46, A.F. and A.M., which did extensive renovations, including superimposing the Masonic square and compass emblem over the circular stained glass window. In 1983 the North Dakota Masonic Foundation deeded the property to Minnewaukan Historical Society, Inc., which has restored it and removed some of the changes made by the Masonic Lodge. On September 9, 1994, it was added to the National Register of Historical Places. Today it is called the Stone Church Museum and is still owned by the Historical Society.

If you wish to submit or correct data for this county, please contact Colleen Goltz Benson County Coordinator
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