LaFoon 1882-1891

The bronze misspells the judge it names. J. H. Bottom was Joseph Henry Bottum, a lawyer at LaFoon who married the town's first teacher, Sylvia Smith, there on June 2, 1885. The couple followed the county seat to Faulkton, where he sat as circuit judge from 1911 to 1942. Their son Joseph, born in Faulkton in 1903, became lieutenant governor and in 1962 a United States senator, then a circuit judge like his father. The bronze's 1887 for the railroad is a year late; the line and the county seat both reached Faulkton in 1886.

What the plaque says

LaFoon 1882-1891 First county seat of Faulk County, when this area surveyed October 1882 by Albert Mellen, Louis Kniesel just south and F. M. McMullen, a mile west, were "squatting" on the land. First post office, Cecrops, Nora Reppy, postmistress, was established October 26 and changed to LaFoon, honoring Alexander LaFoon, an early comer and partner of Booth in a corner store in the booming town, near NW corner of Section 15-118-68. In 1886 over 20 buildings including a school, Presbyterian church and the Court house, built for a saloon but bought by the County when the voters refused a license. Sylvia Smith, first school teacher, was also first Register of Deeds and later the wife of Judge J.H. Bottom, who came just after the survey. On November 5th, 1883, Governor Ordway appointed Humes, Jarvis & Humphrey to organize the county, which they did, designating LaFoon as County seat. C.A. Ritter shot a buffalo that day nearby and buffalo steaks helped celebrate the event. LaFoon won the county seat contest of 1884 by three votes but when Faulkton became a two railroad town in 1887 lost out and moved almost entire to Faulkton. Its post office, the last vestige, was discontinued January 30, 1891. Early settlers in the LaFoon area were the Cornwell, Smith, Shaver, Lenhoff, Misfeldt, Hutchinson, Schenck and Turner families. Erected by Faulk County Citizens and State Highway Commission

Where it stands

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