The county seat of Day County, originally known as "E" County, was first established as
Ioland around 1890. But people complained that Ioland had “bad tasting water,” with there being no better available sources near the locale. Perhaps for this reason, when Day County's
county courthouse in Ioland burned down on November 12, 1893, the county commissioners voted to switch the county seat to Grand the day after. The move was of questionable legality, but was sufficient as a practical matter to shift functions to Grand. But another source says that while there are a number of legends as to how Grand got its name, the most likely originated with an outing shortly after the switch with a number of county officers and citizens standing next to Grands's big spring on a beautiful day and one remarking, “Well, this is Grand.” The paper, without mentioning Ioland in its edition of December 21, 1893, referred to Grand as a place in her infancy, highlighted its growth in the prior two weeks, and touted the quality of the locale's water. The paper possibly lasted until 1918. The contenders were
Gage,
Shattuck and
Arnett, with the centrally-located Arnett winning in a subsequent runoff. The Grand post office, opened November 4, 1892, survived until September 30, 1943. The site was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 1972 as the Grand Town Site. ==Notable person==