Livingston history

Livingston’s first town meeting was held on February 5, 1813.

In 1833, a commission was formed to organize Sumter County.

1842 - Begins working for a local seed grower.

1844 - Marries and leases land to begin farming.

1852 - Saves enough money to purchase land.

1856 - Purchases four hundred consignment boxes of the Buckeye Garden Seed Company from Robert Robertson who was moving to Iowa.

David Baldwin Chedester, a wagon master of a wagon train from Iowa, is acknowledged as the first settler of Livingston in 1862.

The only other existing building was a grain warehouse built in 1868 by William Little who owned 2,500 acres of land for grain and grazing.

Paragon, from a chance seedling, was their first introduction (1870).

In 1873, in a petition for a new post office, the final letter "E" was inadvertently deleted and the town officially became Livingston.

1875-76 - The Buckeye Garden Seed Company went bankrupt in the economic crash that affected many businesses in the nation.

In 1880 Perfection, a chance variant in Acme, was introduced.

Originally called Clark’s City, it was founded in 1882 as a division headquarters of the Northern Pacific Railway and was renamed for Crawford Livingston, a railroad executive.

In 1883 Cyrus Bliven purchased all the land ownings of William Little including the unsold portions of the projected town site.

The station opened on February 23, 1886 along with the other North Shore stations from St George west to Elm Park.

Livingston, city, seat (1887) of Park county, south-central Montana, United States It lies about 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Bozeman near the Yellowstone River.

By 1889, when Montana became the 41st state of the union, the cattle drive was an institution, and the state had begun to emerge as one of the country’s leading copper-mining centres.

1898 - The company is incorporated as the Livingston Seed Company.

In 1903 Dwarf Stone was introduced; it was a chance seedling found in Stone.

Livingston was incorporated in 1922 with Charles Ottman as its first mayor.

1937 - The United States Department of Agriculture's "Yearbook of Agriculture" for the year 1937 published the following short history:

1947 - The last wholesale catalog is produced.

In 1957, a new form of government, the Council-Manager form, was started in Livingston.

The restaurant closed in August 2011 after 25 years of operation, reopening as Blue Restaurant.

2014 - The wholesale only, packet seed company operating using the name, Livingston Seed Company was operated by Robert Johnston, along with his son and daughter, until they sold the company in 2014 to Plantation Products, LLC. Click here for the press release of the sale.