The Milwaukee Railroad, building from Marion to the Missouri in 1880, soon reached Nation, which had been platted in 1879 by Robert and J. B. Nation, with Orlan K. Bullard serving as its postmaster from 5 January 1880 and continuing when the name changed to Bridgewater on November 20th. In that same year, an election shifted the county seat from Cameron to Bridgewater by a vote of 119 to 109 after the canvassing board threw out 76 votes for Montrose on the pretext that it was nonexistent. Cameron pioneers flocked to Bridgewater and to Melas, with County Clerk H. H. Pierce taking the records to the new courthouse in Bridgewater at the corner of Poplar and 3rd Streets. Tabor and Berry, storekeepers at Cameron, also moved to Bridgewater and established their store south of the tracks where the Shannard elevator is now located, and the community endured the terrible blizzard winter of 1880-81 without a train from January to April. That spring, J. P. McKee's general store and W. J. Bollinger's hardware store were built on Poplar, and Nation's bank at 3rd and Main. Salem won the county seat in the 1882 election. The school was moved from south of the tracks, and a new 36 x 40 building was erected in 1883, along with the Catholic, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches. The Tribune began in February 1881, and E. C. Kibbe ran the Cricket as an opposition paper.