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Cavalier County was created from the western part of Pembina County in 1873 and named by the Territorial Legislature for Charles Cavileer, a well known fur trader, customs agent and postmaster. The spelling has always been Cavalier.
After petitioning the Territorial Governor for permission to organize the county, Patrick McHugh, W. Hudson Matthews, and L.C. Noracong met for the purpose on July 8, 1884.
The site of the new county seat was chosen at this meeting and named Langdon for Robert Bruce Langdon of Minnesota, a federal railroad official who never visited the town.
Fifteen townships from Pembina County were added to Cavalier County by vote of their residents in May 1885. A census taken at that time revealed 5,029 residence living in nine large townships. The nine townships names used in 1885 are still used. The current boundaries and township names were standardized in 1906.
The first court house was built in the fall of 1884. It was used briefly and then abandoned for warmer and more centrally located quarters in a downtown bank. A large brick court house was built in 1895 on the present site. This building served county officials until the current court house was constructed in 1957-58.
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