Joseph Whitford founded the Fergus Falls town site in 1857. Born to Scotch-Irish parents near Montreal, Canada, he came to Minnesota with his brother John. In 1856, Little Falls businessman James Fergus outfitted Joe and sent him to locate a suitable town site along the Red River. After his original claim near Abercrombie, North Dakota was jumped, Joe followed the advice of Native American acquaintances to seek the "big swift waters" east of there. Seeing the potential of the rapids, he claimed the site and named it Fergus Falls in honor of his employer. James Fergus visited in 1859 but never lived there. Whitford built a log cabin, the first structure in town, on what is now called Whitford Street near the original site of the 1873 Henry Page House. In 1860, he began building flatboats to transport goods from St. Paul and St. Cloud to Fort Gary, now Winnipeg, Canada. He was killed during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 near Fort Abercrombie in North Dakota while returning from one of his trips down the Red River. Years later, a Dakota Indian returned Joe's remains, a skull and three ribs, to his brother. John Whitford requested that Joe's remains be buried with him, and after John died in 1896 and was buried in the North Star Cemetery in St. Cloud, his son William Whitford wrote that John's wishes had been carried out.