[citation needed] Settlement in the area that now comprises the village of Ellsworth began with the arrival of several families in 1857.

Abraham Lincoln, Ellsworth died while removing a highly visible Confederate flag from the roof of a hotel overlooking the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia.

The compromise reached was to draw lines on a map connecting the corners of the county, northwest to southeast and northeast to southwest.

The intersection of these lines at a densely forested site at the top of a ridge determined the placement of the new town.

A log building was hastily erected to serve as a courthouse, then replaced by a wood-frame structure about two years later.

[8] The current Pierce County Courthouse, built 1905, was designed by the noted St. Paul firm of Buechner & Orth.

The structure exhibits characteristics of both the neoclassical and Beaux-Arts styles, topped by a large dome above a five-story hexagonal rotunda.

[9] According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 3.75 square miles (9.71 km2), all of it land.

The steep grades approaching Ellsworth's hilltop location proved an insurmountable challenge to railroad construction.