Peter Byg was born near the tiny village of Halk, South Jutland, Denmark, and after emigrating to America he settled on a claim located 2½ miles southwest of this spot. He built a sod dugout house where he lived with his wife, Anna Raven, and also constructed a straw stable in which he tethered his cow. In the late 1870s, dangerous fires driven by high winds scourged the Dakota Territory prairie, and spring conflagrations consumed large areas of tall, tinder-dry grass that had lain dormant during the winter. On April 9, 1880, a huge fire caught Peter Byg unawares. He failed to notice the advancing fire pushed by an east wind until it was too late. Trying to outrace the inferno, he rushed to the straw stable to untie his cow but was engulfed in flames. Horribly burned and in agony, he survived until morning. Peter Byg, the first adult to be buried in the Benton Lutheran Church cemetery, was interred in an unmarked grave.