BEARDSLEY, the railway village of Browns Valley Township, sections 8 and 17, was named for W. W. Beardsley, who platted it in November 1880. He was born in Schuyler County, N.Y., in 1852, removed to Pennsylvania at the age of 21 years and to Wisconsin in 1875, came to Minnesota in 1878, homesteading the farm that included the site of this village. It had a station of the Great Northern Railway in section 8; the first building erected was the coal and lumber business of Henry Stonebraker; the post office was established in 1881. The village was incorporated in 1891.