Canton first appeared on maps as Commerce City in 1866. The first settler here was L.P. Hyde in 1861, and the first postmaster was Benjamin Hill, appointed 14 May 1868. Cuppett, Hewit, and Rea built a blockhouse in spring 1868 where the courthouse now stands. The county was organized on 30 December 1867, and the original plat was made under an Act of Congress in spring 1868. Twenty five Norwegian families settled near Canton in 1868. The Sioux Valley News, the first newspaper, was established in 1872 by R.H. Miller, and the railroad reached Canton in 1879. The first county seat, directed to be on Section 14 Township 98 Range 59, was named Canton by vote of the settlers, believed to be exactly opposite Canton, China. O.E. Rolvaag, author of "Giants in the Earth," was a student at Augustana Academy from 1898 to 1901. Ernest Orlando Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron and an eminent scientist, was born here in 1902, as was Merle Tuve, developer of the famous radio proximity fuze of World War II.