The second was between Dawson and Madison which culminated in the county courthouse being stolen and a case being brought to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

[1] The county board met in the hotel and post office building of Lac qui Parle Village from 1871 to 1875, then in a rented space in the local general store until 1883 when a new wooden frame courthouse was built.

[3][4] In 1884, the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway was built through the county, but bypassed Lac qui Parle Village.

During the year and a half before the election, the Dawson Eagle and the Madison Press, newspapers representing their respective towns, entered an editorial battle on issues like the county seat and their subsequent rivalry, spurred on by local business leaders, which continued until the 1900s.

[12][13] It was at this time the burglars began the process of physically moving the courthouse to Madison,[1][dead link‍] 15 miles (24 km) away.

"[20] A legal battle ensued, culminating in the case being heard by the Minnesota Supreme Court in September 1887.

County records were then moved back to Lac qui Parle Village under a court order.

"[24][1] Johannes B. Wist used the episode of the theft of the courthouse in The Rise of Jonas Olsen,[25] a serialized fictional column in Decorah-Posten, which has since been published as a book in English, translated from the original Norwegian.