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Brown County, South Dakota

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles

—digitized titles

46historic places

—earliest paper

1879formed

38,301pop. 2020

26cemeteries

—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 46 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1973. Most listings are in or near Aberdeen, Frederick, Groton.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for South Dakota is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Brown titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

29 of 46 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

46 listed properties

Property	City	Type	Listed
Aberdeen Commercial Historic District	Aberdeen	District	1988
Aberdeen Highlands Historic District	Aberdeen	District	1975
Aberdeen Historic District	Aberdeen	District	1975
Augustana Swedish Lutheran Church	Claremont	Building	1988
Aurland United Norwegian Lutheran Church	Frederick	Building	1982
Bickelhaupt, William G., House	Aberdeen	Building	1989
Blanchard, William C., House	Aberdeen	Building	2022
Brown County Courthouse	Aberdeen	Building	1976
Brown Hall	Barnard	Building	1990
Brown's Post	Sisseton	Site	1988
Campbell, Colin, Post	Frederick	Site	1988
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Depot	Aberdeen	Building	1977
Dakota Farmer Building	Aberdeen	Building	1984
Easton's Castle	Aberdeen	Building	1973
Finnish Apostolic Lutheran Church	Frederick	Building	1984
Firey, John H., House	Aberdeen	Building	1995
First Presbyterian Church of Groton	Groton	Building	2019
First United Methodist Church	Aberdeen	Building	1976
Foght-Murdy House	Aberdeen	Building	1995
Geranen, Paul and Fredriika, Farm	Frederick	Building	1985
Great Northern Railway Passenger and Freight Depot	Aberdeen	Building	1983
Herron, Anna, Farm	Groton	Building	1995
Karl, Art, Farm	Aberdeen	Building	1995
Lamont, Margaret and Maurice, House	Aberdeen	Building	1995
Martilla-Pettingel and Gorder General Merchandise Store	Frederick	Building	1985
Masonic Temple	Aberdeen	Building	1980
McGregor House	Aberdeen	Building	2005
McKenzie-Cassels House	Groton	Building	1986
Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad Depot	Aberdeen	Building	1976
Modern Woodmen of America Hall	Mansfield	Building	1995
Pfutzenreuter, George, House	Hecla	Building	1990
Plana School	Plana	Building	1995
Ryman, Melchior, Farm	Mansfield	Building	1995
Savo Hall-Finnish National Society Hall	Savo Township	Building	1985
Simmons House	Aberdeen	Building	1984
South Dakota Dept. of Transportation Bridge No. 07-009-060	Frederick	Structure	2000
South Dakota Dept. of Transportation Bridge No. 07-220-454	Stratford	Structure	2000
South Dakota Dept. of Transportation Bridge No. 07-268-030	Hecal	Structure	2000
South Dakota Dept. of Transportation Bridge No. 07-304-414	Ferney	Structure	2000
Trinity Episcopal Church	Groton	Building	1983
US Post Office and Courthouse-Aberdeen	Aberdeen	Building	2006
Ward, Alonzo, Hotel	Aberdeen	Building	1982
Welsh Presbyterian Church	Plana	Building	1995
Werth, Gustav and Mary, House	Aberdeen	Building	1991
Western Union Building	Aberdeen	Building	1976
Wylie Park Pavilion	Aberdeen	Building	1978

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Brown was formed in 1879 (1879-10-01) from BEADLE (Dakota Territory, original, extinct), MILLS (Dakota Territory, extinct).

BROWN created by Dakota Territory in present South Dakota from BEADLE (Dakota Territory, original, extinct) and MILLS (Dakota Territory, extinct).

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Brown County population from 1880 to 2020 (Census historical series).

1880	1900	1920	1940	1950	1960	1980	2000	2020
353	15,286	29,509	29,676	32,617	34,106	36,962	35,460	38,301

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

26 cemeteries and 0 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 26 of 26 listed

Name	Lat	Lon
Augustana Cemetery	45.588	-97.99065
Columbia Catholic Cemetery	45.61583	-98.30509
Columbia City Cemetery	45.6149	-98.30363
Detroit Cemetery	45.7924	-98.03128
East Rondell Cemetery	45.30527	-98.26793
Frederick Cemetery	45.84274	-98.4987
German Cemetery	45.40079	-98.29509
Groton Cemetery	45.46328	-98.10231
Hecla City Cemetery	45.87821	-98.1623
Houghton Cemetery	45.74773	-98.20815
Huffton Cemetery	45.6202	-98.0935
James Cemetery	45.4572	-98.18391
Oakwood Cemetery	45.25996	-98.35203
Peace Lutheran Cemetery	45.89277	-98.29986
Riverside Cemetery	45.44525	-98.51203
Sacred Heart Cemetery	45.46747	-98.46314
Saint Marys Cemetery	45.4858	-98.47647
Saint Pauls Cemetery	45.3269	-98.09314
Savo Cemetery	45.87163	-98.4387
Scandinavia Lutheran Cemetery	45.35678	-98.33061
Sunset Memorial Gardens	45.45996	-98.39342
Verdon Cemetery	45.25597	-98.10333
Warner Cemetery	45.32719	-98.50564
West Hanson Cemetery	45.35696	-98.18445
Westport Cemetery	45.64636	-98.50203
Willow Creek Cemetery	45.737	-98.71339

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Brown County, South Dakota

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.