“Bristol”

Indians from the Lake Region now Northeastern South Dakota visited this area frequently in the early 1800s and white traders also traveled this way while buying furs. The government survey party of Horace J. Austin arrived June 21, 1879, and began work. On October 15, 1880, the Hasting & Dakota Division of the Milwaukee Railroad reached Siding No. 70 near this site. The Railway Townsite Company laid out a townsite and C.P. Prior, townsite agent, named it for Bristol, England. The first building was a hotel built by R.P. Brokaw to serve railroad workers. When the railroad crews moved on westward, Brokaw remained and was joined in 1882 by a small band of people who established homes and formed the nucleus of the new town. F.W. Lowell was first postmaster 4 October 1881. The first general store was erected by Matt Evans in 1882 and the first school with Kate Northrup as teacher for a salary of $25 per month and board, was built in 1883. Bristol was incorporated as a village in 1889 and as a city in 1921.

Located near the western edge of the Coteau Hills, it was an altitude of 1,775 feet. It is surrounded by a fertile farming country and is the third largest city of Day County.”

Day County, Hwy 12 north of Bristol (1988)