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A great portion of the Voltaire information is resourced in MCHENRY COUNTY, Its History and Its People, 1885-1985, also North Dakota Place Names by Douglas Wick and Origins of North Dakota Place Names by Mary Ann Barnes Williams.
Voltaire is a Township [T152 R79] and a city. As a Soo Line Railroad station it was founded in 1900 overlapping two townships; Brown [T152 R80] in the northeast quarter of section 1 and Voltaire in the northwest quarter of section 6. The post office was established 21 January 1901 with Ole Ranum as Postmaster. The village was incorporated in 1929. The elevation is 1587, the Zip Code is 58792, and the peak official population of 101 was reached in 1940. In 2018 the population was 45. Most sources state that the name was chosen by Soo Line Railroad officials to honor the French writer, Jean Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire (1694-1778), although others claim that it was named for an early settler.
Digested from "MCHENRY COUNTY, Its History and Its People, 1885-1985 (Inez Bradshaw)
The Voltaire Township was organized in 1903 with the first town to be organized named Voltaire.
It had a hardware store owned by Harry Bundy and another one owned by Welse and Thompson, and two elevators, one owned by Sparks and the other by the Farmers Elevator which later burned. There was a hotel owned by Mrs. Anderson and a bank owned by Ole Engebretson.
Some of the first settlers were the Castles, the Hunters, the Henrys and the Colters.
Voltaire became an incorporated village in 1927 for the purpose of bringing in electricity. The board of trustees at that time were C. P. Byers, Lawrence Williams and Milton Schmidt with Con Solvberg as clerk and treasurer. In 1958 the board consisted of Morris Pierson, Pat McNamara, and Thomas Thompson with Darold Odegard as clerk and treasurer.
The store previously owned by Welse was bought and operated by Con Solvberg. In 1929, or thereabouts, the store burned and Con moved into the town hall and continued his business there. His nephew, Magnus Solvberg, joined Con as a partner In "The Voltaire Mercantile" until Con and his family moved to Marysville, Washington. Melvin Frantsen was the next operator of the store; later It was Wayne
Odegard. Eventually the building was unoccupied and sold to Leinhart of Velva where it became part of Erv Anderson's Star City Motor.
The Voltaire bank was later used as a restaurant, operated first by the Carl Olsons and later by Bertha and Bob Colter. It was purchased by Christ Roebuck, disassembled and taken to Velva where the Roebucks built their first home.
The early Meyers Restaurant on the east side of Main Street was remodeled, first as a rooming house by M. P. Bonine and then as the home of the Martin Knutsons. Later it was remodeled again and, with a post office added, it became the home of
Bob and Millie Latimer.
The first school house was located on the corner of Independent Avenue and Prairie Street and then in 1918-1919 a consolidated school in the western part of town was built. The first school building was-purchased and remodeled into a home for the Con Solvbergs. Later it was purchased by the Melvin Latimers who lived there for many years. Melvin was a long time mail carrier in the Voltaire area. The house is presently [1985] owned by the David Degenstein family. In 1960 the Voltaire School District No. 26 was reorganized with the Velva district. The school in Voltaire continued to operate until 1966 when It was closed due to low enrollment and all of the students are now [1985] transported to the Velva School. The building was bought by Delbert Krumwiede, demolished, and a new home built for Delbert and Irene Krumwiede.
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