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History · Grandview Township

Grandview Township’s post office opened in 1882, and 85% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1980 on.

1882first post office
0on the National Register
85%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Grandview Township began

When was Grandview Township founded?

1882

The Grandview Township post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Douglas (1882) and Grand View (1882), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 95144 years
Founding year: the first Grandview Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Grandview Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Grandview Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Grandview Township’s homes were built before 1938.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Grandview Township, and 1 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Grandview Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Grandview Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Grandview Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Grandview Township.

Read it all →

Grand View was platted on August 21, 1882, by Kingsley G. Foster, Joe Devy and Rufus D. Prescott. The former two owned a store on the eastern side of town which served as the county courthouse. It narrowly beat Huston and Douglas City, both long since abandoned. Douglas County had a turbulent history, with its first county seat a paper town named Brownsdale, which was created by a con artist named Walter H. Brown. The scandal had been uncovered by county resident and future South Dakota Attorney General Robert Dollard. Governor Nehemiah Ordway, who had been involved in the Brownsdale scandal, supported Huston as the county seat. Dollard allegedly provided beer to county residents to support Grand View as the new county seat.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Douglas
1882–1883
Grand View
1882–1895
18801950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Grandview
Gone or out of use
BrownsdalelocaleClark SchoolschoolCole SchoolschoolGrandview SchoolschoolMessing SchoolschoolWertz Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Grandview Township
Grandview

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Timeline

Grandview Township, 1882 to 1980

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1882Post officeThe Douglas post office opens
  3. 1882Post officeThe Grand View post office opens
  4. 1883Post officeThe Douglas post office closes
  5. 1895Post officeThe Grand View post office closes
  6. 20th century
  7. 1980On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Grandview Township on the map in 1980

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Grandview Township.

Grandview Township on the 1980 USGS map1980Corsica sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Grandview Township.

Famous people

Famous people close to Grandview Township

Nobody well known was born in Grandview Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Faith Spotted EagleAmerican political activist · b. 1948
E
Emily St. JamesAmerican writer and critic · b. 1982
J
John C. FlanaganAmerican psychologist · b. 1906
Peirson Mitchell HallUnited States federal judge · b. 1894
Tony VenhuizenAmerican politician · b. 1982
J
James E. PutnamAmerican politician · b. 1940
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

CorsicaIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townIowa TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townValley TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townChester TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWalnut Grove TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Grandview Township’s history

What year was Grandview Township founded?

The Grandview Township post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.