2/14/2009:
After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his name became popular for counties, towns, schools and streets. Perhaps too popular. Over the course of the 20th century, several towns in North Dakota have claimed the President’s name.
Morton’s county seat claimed the first Lincoln name in northern Dakota in 1878. But within months, officials changed the name to Mandan.
Two Lincoln, North Dakotas appeared around the turn-of-the-century. Settlers established one in Sheridan County; its post office secured the name on this date in 1904. When residents of the second Lincoln in Renville County discovered the other, they renamed their town Glenburn. But even Sheridan County’s Lincoln residents felt there were too many Lincolns nationwide. So, in 1912, it was renamed Lincoln Valley.
The newest Lincoln, ND formed as a rural subdivision of Bismarck in the early 1970s as Fort Lincoln Estates. By 1977, residents shortened it to Lincoln.
Written by Christina Sunwall
Sources:
Wick, Douglas A. North Dakota Place Names. Bismarck: Hedemarken Collectibles, 1988.
Williams, Mary Ann Barnes. Origins of North Dakota Place Names. Bismarck: Bismarck Tribune, 1966.