The first crop raised in Barnes County was 150 bushels of potatoes and a small amount of wheat in the fall of 1873 by Donald D. McFadgen, the first settler in the county. McFadgen had a rather large log cabin located near the river in the vicinity of the Mercy Hospital in Valley City (then known only as "Fifth Siding"). He had arrived the previous year and had planted some garden seeds near the cabin in May of 1972. Noting the excellence of the vegetables he had raised he planted potatoes and wheat the following spring. McFadgen, a former railroad man, filed on the land and farmed it, although he was later elected sheriff and served in that office for many years. He later returned to railroading and died in Birmingham, Alabama in 1905.
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 311