Girard

Girard is at the intersection of State Highway 70 and Farm Road 643, nine miles northwest of Jayton in northeastern Kent County. The town was established on the Stamford and Northwestern Railway about 1909, when S. M. Swenson gave land for a townsite. It was named for a Mr. Girard who served as bookkeeper for the Swenson Land and Cattle Company. A post office was granted to the community in 1909, with F. W. Woody as postmaster. Because of the railroad, the town grew substantially during the early 1900s. By the 1920s it had more than twenty businesses, including two cafes, the Girard Gazette (first published around 1915), a theater, a hotel, an ice plant, and an automobile dealership. The Great Depression, declining cattle prices, and the diminished importance of the railroad curtailed the town's growth. In the 1980s Girard had three active churches, the post office, a cotton gin, and a farm supply store. In 1990 its population was reported as 125. By 2000 the population had dropped to sixty-two.