Dotson is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Brown County,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, United States.

History

Dotson was a community located in Section 12 of Stately Township, Brown County, Minnesota, established in 1899 by the Western Town Lot Company, a division of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway. Originally named

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

after a town in

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

home to one of the surveyors, the town name was changed to Dotson in 1901 after Enoch Dotson, an early settler in the nearby area of Sanborn. In the early years of its existence, Dotson was home to two general stores, a railway depot, post office, lumberyard, creamery, bank, school, dance hall, and a number of homes. In 1905, only a few years after the town was founded, the Post Office would close. The school, built in 1921, remained open through 1964. The Dotson Farmer's Elevator closed in 1954. By 1963, all but nine residents remained in Dotson, all of which were members of the nearby Balbach family. Today, only the school, a brick vault from the Dotson Bank, and a building that once housed an implement dealer remain. In 2019, the Brown County Historical Society unveiled an historic marker to remember the City of Dotson.

References

Unincorporated communities in Brown County, Minnesota Unincorporated communities in Minnesota {{BrownCountyMN-geo-stub