Burlington
First known as COLTON, the first
post office in Ward County was established here February 26, 1884 as
BURLINGTON with James Johnson (1850-1932), the son-in-law of town site
founder Joseph L. Colton, as Post Master. It is located in E1/2 Section
2-155-84, Burlington Township, and was named for Burlington, Iowa,
hometown of Frank Hatton, the Assistant Postmaster General at the time.
The Iowa city was named for Burlington, Vermont, which was named for
either Richard Boyle (1695-1753) or John Boyle (1707-1763), the 3rd and
4th Earls of Burlington, by their relative, Governor Benning Wentworth of
New Hampshire.
As the only town in Ward County,
BURLINGTON was named county seat in 1885, but lost that honor to Minot in
1888.The elevation is 1590, the Zip Code is 58722, and the village, which
did not incorporate until 1957, maintained a population of about 200 for
decades, but recent outgrowth from Minot has swelled the count to a peak
of 761 in 1980