During the early 1880s there was a great influx of immigrants from the various countries of western and northern Europe into the prairie states of the middle western United States.

Many of these immigrants were of German descent, but came to the Dakotas from Russia where they lived in colonies and retained their German language and customs. Settlers made their homesteads on the shores of a beautiful lake and named their community Hoskins. Wagon boxes were turned upside down and used for shelter until oxen hauled lumber from far away towns for the roofs of sod houses and barns.

In 1898, the Soo Line Railroad was extended from Kulm, west through Lehr, and finally to Bismarck. With the coming of railroads, new towns sprang up, and markets closer to the farms were opened.

With the coming of the railroad, however, the citizens of Hoskins chose to pick up their town and move it three miles to the East, where they founded Ashley, named after Milwaukee Railroad executive Ashley Morrow, in 1888.