Ada is a township in Dickey County,

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

, United States. Its population during the 2020 Census was 29, down from 60 in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

. Its population in 1900 was 232.

History

Ada Township was first settled in the early 1880s. Originally part of Weston Township, which at the time covered two

survey township A survey township, sometimes called a Congressional township or just township, as used by the United States Public Land Survey System and by Canada's Dominion Land Survey is a nominally-square area of land that is nominally six survey miles (a ...

s in Townships 129 and 130N, Range 61W. Ada was organized around 1900 from the southern of the two townships and the northern one was renamed Kent Township. The village of Silverleaf, built in 1887, is located 7 miles east of Ellendale, and was once the major population center in the township. The town reported around 25 residents in the late 1910s, and never seemed to exceed more than 50. It is little more than a ghost town today. The village served a flag station for the Great Northern Railroad. Two conflicting stories exist over the origin of the name. Some say it is for the silverberry bushes found in the area, but others attribute the naming to a joke played by an early settler, Dan Keenan. Keenan reportedly removed the label from a tin of "Silverleaf" lard and nailed it to a

boxcar A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...

parked at the station.

Notable person

John E. Skogland (1879 – 1940) was a member of the North Dakota House of Representatives from 1925 to 1926.Dakota Lawmakers
, North Dakota Legislative Council

References

External links

2000 Census map of Ada Township, North Dakota
{{authority control Townships in Dickey County, North Dakota Populated places established in the 1880s Townships in North Dakota