How Aberdeen, South Dakota Got Its Name

Aberdeen, South Dakota, is named for Aberdeen, Scotland, the home region of Alexander Mitchell, the Milwaukee banker who ran the railroad that built the town. A Dakota prairie town ended up with a Scottish name because of who ran the railroad.

Where the name comes from

Alexander Mitchell was born in 1817 in Ellon, a town in Aberdeenshire, in northeast Scotland, according to the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee. He came to America as a young man, settled in Milwaukee, and became one of the city’s leading bankers. The Wisconsin Historical Society says he was president of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, better known as the Milwaukee Road, from 1864 until his death in 1887.

In 1881 the Milwaukee Road’s tracks reached this spot in Dakota Territory, and the new town beside them got the name of the place Mitchell came from. A 1908 railroad guide to place names says Aberdeen “was named from the city of Aberdeen, Scotland, by Alexander Mitchell of Milwaukee.” The U.S. Geological Survey’s place-name record says the same, calling it Mitchell’s birthplace.

That’s close, but not exact. Mitchell’s hometown of Ellon is in the county around the city of Aberdeen, not the city itself. Either way, the name points back to the same corner of Scotland.

Who named it, and when

Here the sources give two answers, and both could be partly right.

The 1908 guide and the USGS record say Mitchell named it himself. The Dacotah Prairie Museum in Aberdeen tells it a little differently. It says the town was laid out by Charles Prior, who worked for the Milwaukee Road out of Minneapolis and named the towns he founded after places or people he knew, and that Prior called this one Aberdeen because his boss, Alexander Mitchell, came from Aberdeen, Scotland.

So either the railroad president picked his own home region, or one of his managers picked it to honor him. There’s no dispute about what the name means, only about whose idea it was. The museum also gives the town a birthday: July 6, 1881, the day the first train rolled in on the new tracks.

Another town with the same man behind it

Aberdeen isn’t the only South Dakota town that leads back to Mitchell. The 1908 guide says the city of Mitchell, about 120 miles to the south, was named by J. D. Lawler of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, “for Alexander Mitchell, then president of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway.” One railroad boss, two towns: one carries his last name, the other carries his homeland.

Sources & further reading

• W. H. Stennett, A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways (1908). A public-domain railroad guide. Its Aberdeen and Brown County entries credit Alexander Mitchell with the name; its Mitchell entry explains the other town named for him.
• GNIS feature 1253581 (U.S. Geological Survey). The federal record for Aberdeen. Says it was founded in 1881 by Mitchell, who named it for his “birthplace,” and incorporated as a city in 1883.
• Dacotah Prairie Museum, “How Aberdeen Was Founded.” The local museum’s account. Credits Charles Prior with picking the name in honor of his boss, and gives July 6, 1881, as the day the first train arrived.
• Encyclopedia of Milwaukee, “Alexander Mitchell.” Mitchell’s birth in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, in 1817 and his career in Milwaukee.
• Wisconsin Historical Society, National Register record for the Alexander Mitchell House. Says Mitchell was president of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway from 1864 until his death in 1887.