Pierpont South Dakota is a small prairie town in the northwest reaches of Day County. As of 2009, Pierpont’s population is 105 people. Since 2000, its population has declined by 11.48 percent. But this is what makes this little town so appealing! Here one can enjoy the peace and tranquility of the wide open plains where one can listen to the wind tell its tales as it did eons ago.
In early 1880 the Chicago, Milwaukee and St Paul Railroad Company had reached Bristol and Andover. In 1886 the railroad wanted to buy the town site of Pierpont from Mr. W.H. Lemmon for the amount of $500.00 but Mr. Lemmon refused to sell so the company decided not to put the line in Pierpont, but to make Langford their station. This meant the farmers had no near market for their grain. The farmers petitioned the railroad officials for a side track. At the hearing the farmers paid the railroad $500.00 to build a side track into town.
The land for the town of Pierpont was then donated by Mr. W. H. Lemmon with the first house built in 1887 for the grain buyer Johnny Mack and of course a one story grain building built by the Empire Elevator Company. The Post Office opened in 1888 and families began moving in. By 1902 the town was booming with businesses and the population was growing. In 1926 the town had a record 475 residents but like many small towns on the Prairie our population has now dwindled.
There are many things that could be said about living in a small town and the one thing is for sure; if you don’t show-up for morning coffee or late for church you will have someone knocking at your door because surely there is something wrong. No need for a telephone in this town, all you have to do is go uptown to get your mail and to find out who is dating who and what has happened in the last 24 hour. But when disaster hits you know that you can count on your neighbors and everyone in the community is pulling together to get things done.