Editing Grafton, North Dakota (section)

==History==
[[File:Grafton State School.jpg|thumb|left|Grafton State School in the early 1900s]]
The Grafton area was homesteaded by Nils Monson. Nils Monson was a 29-year-old bachelor who walked to the area from Winnipeg in the fall of 1878 to homestead. He was the first to deed his 160-acre homestead to the town. The Grafton area was later settled by Thomas E Cooper in early 1879. He became postmaster later that year when a post office was constructed as part of expansions in service for the [[Northern Pacific Railway]] and the [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern Railway]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.walshhistory.org/walsh-county-cities-and-towns/grafton/|publisher=Walsh County Historical Society|title=Walsh County Historical Society|access-date=April 12, 2021}}</ref> Grafton was founded in 1881. It was incorporated as a village in 1881 and then became a city in 1903.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/earlyhistoryofno01loun |title=Early History of North Dakota: Essential Outlines of American History |publisher=Liberty Press |author=Lounsberry, Clement Augustus |year=1919 |page=[https://archive.org/details/earlyhistoryofno01loun/page/534 534]}}</ref> In 1881, Walsh County was established and Grafton was subsequently designated the county seat.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REtEXQNWq6MC&pg=PA836 |title=Chago is him |publisher=Routledge |date=May 13, 2013 |access-date=November 30, 2013 |author=Hellmann, Paul T. |page=836 |isbn=978-1135948597}}</ref> The city was named for [[Grafton County, New Hampshire]], the native home of a large share of its early settlers.<ref>{{cite book|author=Federal Writers' Project|author-link=Federal Writers' Project|title=North Dakota, a Guide to the Northern Prairie State|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dCGVnMUdNqMC&pg=PA188|year=1938|publisher=WPA|isbn=978-1-62376-033-5|page=188}}</ref>

The [[Grafton State School]], a home for the developmentally disabled, is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/nd/walsh/state.html |title=North Dakota – Walsh County |publisher=nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com |access-date=October 24, 2015}}</ref>