“Grand View”

1882-1894

A great town while it lasted, Grand View became Douglas County’s third county seat when it won out over Huston, the second and Douglas City by 11 votes in 1882. Brownsdale the first, a phantom city had been a brief but expensive luxury. Grand View was platted that August 21st, by Kingsley G. Foster, Joe Devy and Rufus D. Prescott, the commissioners first met in the Foster-Devy Store which continued to be the Courthouse for 12 years.

It was on the Ft. Randall-Mitchell and Scotland-Plankinton Stage lines and until the railroad reached Armour in 1886, the undisputed metropolis of that area.

A village of intense rivalries, Upper Grand View, the original plat, the darling of the “King” Foster-Joe Devy interests, had a bank, the D.C. Chronicle (Democratic, the Republican), a church, hotels, the courthouse and the Silver Cornet Band. Lower Grand View to its south and west and slightly lower, matched it in every particular with the S.D. Tribune (Republican), the post office in lieu of the courthouse and the Martial Band. Those bands would play at the drop of a hat to show who was who in Grand View.

George W. Atwood, an original Lower Town sponsor deserted that section for Upper Town in 1885, the only dereliction.

When Armour got the railroad, the exodus started but Grand View, a trifle closer to the center of the County, survived two close elections until 1894, it had to give up the ghost. Being the county seat, it never bothered with a local government.

Douglas County, Was at Intersection of 281 & 44 N of Armour – now missing