When Foster County was established by the Territorial Legislature in January of 1873, it consisted of a rectangular block of 42 townships. By the time the county government was organized a decade later, several townships had been re-assigned to other surrounding counties.

Then following a protest election in 1885, on this day, April 27, the remaining 36 townships of Foster County were again divided. The southern half would remain Foster County. The northern half became Eddy County, named in honor of Ezra B. Eddy. A Civil War veteran of the Third Minnesota Volunteer Infantry and founder of Fargo’s First National Bank, Eddy passed away only a few weeks before the new county government was organized.

Written by Christina Sunwall

Sources:
Eddy County North Dakota Genealogy- http://www.rootsweb.com/~ndeddy/
North Dakota State Government: County History- http://www.nd.gov/content.htm?parentCatID=83&id=County%20History
Kane, Joseph Nathan and Charles Curry Aiken. The American Counties: Origins of County Names, Dates of Creation, and Population Data 1950-2000, 5th Edition (Scarecrow Press; 2004)

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