“Moritz S.D.”

In 1872, the railroad bed at the present site of Moritz was graded. The Chicago & North Western Railway Company in June 1887 put a side track 3/4ths of a mile west of Moritz calling it ‘Siding No. 6.'

On May 22, 1896, the railroad company surveyed warehouse lots on the ‘Siding’ and the construction of a grain house was begun by the Winona-Dakota Grain Company. Only the foundation was laid when the railroad company halted work. The ‘Siding’ was later moved back to the east to the present Moritz site.

On August 28, 1896, an old flat house was moved from Gary for grain storage and in November of that year W.H. Ballard began buying wheat. The new settlement was named in honor of Andrew Moritz, an early grain dealer.

W.H. Ballard was appointed postmaster on November 3, 1899 and a post office was opened at his residence. There were 190 residents in the township in 1900. J.R. Hunt built the first store in 1900, a lumber yard, coal shed and a house was built by a Mr. Gagelin, and Roy Nash built a blacksmith shop and home. A store built in 1933 by Herman Matson was last operated by Ernest Ulman in 1966.

The first depot was an old box car and there was a stockyard and coal shed east of the elevator. Only the elevator, the lumberyard buildings and two resident houses remain.

Erected 1985 by Glenwood Township, the Department of Transportation, and the S.D. State Historical Society.

Deuel County, Co Road 309 at southwest corner of Section 23