Kandiyohi Town Site Corporation was organized in 1856 with John Swainson as president, and by October that year the town site had been surveyed. David Charlton's plat showed a large central area reserved for the State Capitol and a much smaller area marked "Courthouse Square." The first State Legislature authorized Governor Henry H. Sibley to appoint a commission to help select lands for the State Capitol site, and J.D. Skinner, W.C. Johnson, and Robert Boyle left St. Paul on September 1, 1858, returning 17 days later after selecting 6,399 acres in Kandiyohi County. Sibley approved their report, but the legislature did not affirm it. Governor Alexander Ramsey then appointed Major Abraham Vorker to recommend Capitol sites, and he also chose the Kandiyohi County lands. In 1861 the House of Representatives approved the report, but the Senate did not. The Civil War and U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 delayed further action until 1869, when both houses approved the old Capitol Sites Committee reports, but Governor William R. Marshall vetoed the bill. Two years later the Legislature indefinitely postponed the matter, prompting Kandiyohi County citizens led by John S. Fleckten to pursue legal efforts to force removal of the State Capitol to the county. The controversy ended in 1901 when the Legislature ordered the sale of the capitol lands in Kandiyohi County on August 15, 1901.