The man who founded Wilton was a U.S. senator, part owner of the world's largest flour miller, a founder of the Minneapolis Tribune, president of the third largest railroad in North Dakota, and owned the mine near Wilton.

William Washburn entered the record books in 1879 when he became the fourth brother to be elected to the U.S. Congress. What made this fete even more remarkable was that all four brothers represented different states: Israel Jr. was elected in Maine; Elihu was elected in Illinois; Cadwaller was elected in Minnesota; and William Washburn was elected in Minnesota.

William Drew Washburn, the youngest of 11 children, was born Jan. 14, 1831, to Israel and Martha Benjamin Washburn in Livermore, Maine.

William Washburn attended schools in the area and, in the fall of 1850, enrolled at Bowdoin College in Maine. He received his bachelor's degree in 1854 and then studied law with his brother Israel Jr.

After being admitted to the bar, Washburn went to St. Anthony Falls in Minnesota Territory on May 1, 1857, where his brother Cadwaller had purchased waterpower rights at the falls one year earlier.

Washburn began his practice of law, but soon grew tired of handling only land claims. Cadwaller Washburn had helped organize the Minneapolis Mills Co., a lumber mill, and Washburn was hired as the secretary and agent to run the company. Washburn also purchased mills at Lincoln and Anoka and began converting the mills to make flour. In 1858, he was elected to the Minnesota territorial legislature.

Washburn helped found the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper in 1867 and was elected to the state Legislature in 1870. In 1877, he merged Minnesota Mills with a company owned by his brother-in-law, John Crosby, to form the Washburn-Crosby Co., a large flour milling corporation. The next year, he established the W.D. Washburn Co. for milling flour and was elected to the U.S. Congress, defeating the incumbent, Ignatius Donnelly.

With large flour mills relying on supplies of wheat from Dakota Territory and a reliable outlet to the Great Lakes for shipping his flour, Washburn banded with 12 other millers to form a railroad.

On Sept. 29, 1883, these men met in Madison, Wis., and formed the Minneapolis and Pacific Railroad, and Washburn was chosen as president. Construction began in April 1886, and, eight months later, the railroad reached Lidgerwood in what is now southeastern North Dakota.

Here, they ran out of money. On June 11, 1888, they consolidated to form the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad. It reached Valley City in 1891 and entered Harvey in 1892. By August 1902, it entered Bismarck.

However, politics remained a passion for Washburn, and, after serving three sessions in the U.S. House, he successfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1888. With Washburn in Washington, D.C., he was ousted from management, but the name of the company remained Washburn-Crosby.

In 1889, in retaliation, Washburn merged his W.D. Washburn Co. with that of Charles Pillsbury and, with the financing of British investors, built it into the largest mill in the world, capable of turning out 17,500 barrels of flour a day.

In February 1898, Washburn purchased more than 100,000 acres of land in northern Burleigh and southwestern McLean counties. One of the features that most attracted him to this land was the rich deposits of lignite that lay just beneath the surface of the ground.

To manage his Washburn Land Co., he brought in Walter P. Macomber, who had worked for Washburn at his Anoka mill since 1873.

To help attract settlers to the region, Washburn and Macomber platted a town site that straddled Burleigh and McLean counties that they called Wilton. Washburn then organized the Bismarck, Washburn and Fort Buford Railroad Company, which would run through Wilton.

The name of the company was later changed to the Bismarck, Washburn and Great Falls Railroad.

In 1900, he organized the Washburn Lignite Coal Co. The mines were producing 200 tons of lignite a day by the end of 1900. Most of the coal went to Bismarck and Fargo, but orders began coming in from Minneapolis and South Dakota. By 1903, the mines were producing 1,000 tons a day, and it soon became the largest lignite mine in the world. In 1904, he sold his railroad to the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad.

Washburn returned to Minnesota feeling secure that he had made a name for himself in business and politics. He died July 29, 1912.

In 1928, the Washburn Lignite Coal Co. was purchased by the Otter Tail Power Co., and the Washburn-Crosby flour milling company changed its name to General Mills. In 1935, the Pillsbury-Washburn Company became just Pillsbury. Everything came full circle in 2000 when General Mills purchased Pillsbury.

(Written by Curt Eriksmoen and edited by Jan Eriksmoen. Reach the Eriksmoens by e-mail at cjeriksmoen@cableone.net.)