Excerpt from The Heritage of Blue Earth County by Julie Schrader, Topic 37, available in the Research & Genealogy Center.

“Being in the Winnebago Indian Reservation, this town was not settled until after the removal of the Indians. Up to 1866, it was known as ‘Winneshiek,’ and was attached to Mapleton for official purposes. March 13, 1866, the county commissioners gave it the name Beauford after a town in the East, from which a number of the settlers had come, and the meeting for organization was ordered to be held at the home of John Frey in Section 11 of Beauford Township.

“The first actual settler was James Morrow Sr., who claimed the northwest quarter of section 25, Beauford Township, upon which he went to live with his family about September 1, 1864. They were an excellent Scotch family. Other settlers of 1864 were Albert Arza, Seth C. Gates, and Joshua Rogers, who located in the northern part of the town,

“The year 1865 through 1867 were rather active ones for this small settlement. These years saw in influx of settlers, 28 to be exact, and the establishment of Beauford’s first municipal functions. In may 1865, a sawmill, built by Dr. W.F. Lewis, Basil Moreland, and others, and run by Abel Keene, began operations. It was located on the Big Cobb River and didn’t do too bad for one or two years. In February 1867, a mail route was established, running from Wilton in Waseca County to Garden City, which crossed the Cobb near Franklin Childs. Later in the spring, a post office was established here with Mrs. Frances Childs as Postmistress.