John E. Colton was born in Wisconsin in 1857 and moved to Minnehaha County, Dakota Territory, in April 1878, filing a preemption homestead claim to 160 acres and remaining on the land for the 90 days required by law. After confirming the title was clear, he returned to Wisconsin, married Paulina J. Miller, and in March 1879 the couple moved onto the claim and built a one-room wooden shanty home five blocks south of here. Their son Charles, the first of nine children, was born in October 1879. In June 1897 John Colton and others opened the Taopi Creamery near this site, and its immediate success with area farmers drew other businesses and led to the rise of a small village. The Colton post office was established in 1898, and in January 1899 John E. and Paulina Colton filed a town site plat for the original village of Colton, surveying part of their farm into blocks, streets, and avenues and soon expanding it to 16 blocks with First and Second Additions. By 1901 John had started The Colton Courier and became its first editor, and he also served as an incorporator and first president of the Colton Telephone Company. John and Paulina were charter members of the Taopi and Colton Methodist Churches, and John held several township offices, served as county superintendent of schools, and helped attract the South Dakota Central Railroad to the village. Within three years Colton's population reached 100 residents and its businesses increased to 30, with nearly all commercial buildings along Main Avenue. In 1904 Paul F. Sherman joined John Colton in efforts to bring a railroad to town, but because the south end of the original town was low, wet, and subject to flooding, the business district was moved to higher ground. John and Paulina platted Third Addition and sold it to the newly formed South Dakota Central Land Company, of which John was a director; local businessmen bought lots, twenty buildings were moved from the original town site to 4th Street east of the railroad tracks, and three blocks of residential lots were sold. Money from lot sales and pledges from local farmers helped build the new South Dakota Central Railroad, and John Colton's goal was fulfilled in the summer of 1905 when the first train steamed into the village. He died in 1910.