Meeker County, Minnesota Genealogical Records Information

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Meeker County History and Information

Meeker County Facts

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Meeker County was created on February 23, 1856 (Organized in 1866) from Davis County. The County Seat is Litchfield. The County was named for Bradley B. Meeker, associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, 1849-53; member of the constitutional convention, 1857; member of the territorial legislature, 1851.

Counties adjacent to Meeker County are Stearns County (north), Wright County (east), McLeod County (southeast), Renville County (southwest), Kandiyohi County (west). Cities and Towns Include Cedar Mills, Cosmos, Darwin, Dassel, Eden Valley, Grove City, Kingston, Litchfield, Watkins. Townships Include Acton, Cedar Mills, Collinwood, Cosmos, Danielson, Darwin, Dassel, Ellsworth, Forest City, Forest Prairie, Greenleaf, Harvey, Kingston, Litchfield, Manannah, Swede Grove, Union Grove Townships. See also County History and County Courthouse for more details.

The Meeker County Official Government Website
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Meeker County, Minnesota History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

There are free downloadable and printable forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms, U.K. Census Extraction Forms, Research Calendar, Ancestral Chart, Research Extract, Correspondence Record , Family Group Sheet , Source Summary Form.

Records at the Meeker County Courthouse

See Also Minnesota Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ FIRST!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

All Departments below can be contacted by clicking the link, by contacting the Phone number below for each department or contacting the County Courthouse at 325 North Sibley Avenue, Litchfield, MN 55355-2150; Phone: (320)693-5200. NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time. At some time Meeker County was attached to Carver County for county and or judicial purposes. Some early records may be found there.

Meeker County Recorder's Office has Birth Records from 1869, Marriage Records from 1859, Death Records from 1869 and Land Records from 1856.
The Recorders Office is responsible for all the real estate records for properties located in the County. Permanent records of deeds, mortgages and other various real estate records are recorded/filed in this office. As Local Registrar, the office protects and issues certified copies of Birth and Death records, Marriage Certificates & Military Discharge Records.

Meeker County Court Administrator's Office has Probate Records from 1858 and has Court Records from 1858.
The Court Administrator's Office maintains court files for Civil, Criminal, Traffic, Probate, Conciliation, Juvenile, Tax and Family Court matters.

Click Here to Search Minnesota Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Meeker County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Meeker County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Minnesota Naturalization Records Index, 1854-1957: An index to the microfilmed Minnesota Naturalization Records
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
Minnesota Land Records: This database contains information on Minnesota (U.S.A.) land records. The database comes from the Bureau of Land Management's Minnesota Pre-1908 Homestaed and Cash Entry Patent and Cadastral Survey Plat Index. Information recorded in the collection includes patentee name, land office, legal description, etc.
Meeker County, Minnesota Court Books at Amazon.com

Meeker County Tax Records

See Also Military Records in Minnesota

Click Here to Search Minnesota Military Records! - Military and civil service records provide unique facts and insights into the lives of men and women who have served their country at home and abroad.

The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design.

Below is a list of online resources for Meeker County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Meeker County Military Records by clicking the link below:

Minnesota Civil War Soldiers: List of over 26,000 soldiers mustered from Minnesota during the American Civil War
Minnesota Volunteers in the Spanish American War and the Philippine Insurrection: This database indexes names of persons from Minnesota who enlisted in the Spanish American War.
Minnesota Society of Daughters of the American Revolution
National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution, 1776 D Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20006; Phone: (202) 628-1776
Minnesota Society of Sons of the American Revolution
National Society of Sons of the American Revolution, 1000 South Fourth Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40203; (502) 589-1776
Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900 from the State of Minnesota (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Pension applications for service in the U.S. Army between 1861 and 1917, grouped according to the units in which the veterans served.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of Minnesota (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
Meeker County, Minnesota Military Books at Amazon.com

Meeker County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Minnesota Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Meeker County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Meeker County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Meeker County Historical Society, 308 N Marshall Ave, Litchfield MN 55355-2112, Phone: 320 693-9811
Dassel Area Historical Society, Box 0, Dassel, MN; Location: 901 1st St. N, Dassel, MN
Local Minnesota Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
Southwest Minnesota Historical Center, Southwest State University–BA 509, Marshall, MN 56258
Serves Cottonwood, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, McLeod, Meeker, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Renville, Rock, and Yellow Medicine counties.
Minnesota State Archives, 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55102-1906 • 651-259-3260
Minnesota Historical Society, 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55102-1906 • 651-259-3000
Minnesota Genealogical Society, 1185 Concord St. N. Suite 218, South St. Paul, MN 55075-1187; (651) 455-9057
National Archives - Great Lakes Region (Chicago), 7358 South Pulaski Road, Chicago, Illinois 60629-5898; 773-948-9001; E-mail: chicago.archives@nara.gov (Maintains retired records from Federal agencies and courts in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Minnesota.)
Minnesota Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Minnesota Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Meeker County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Minnesota Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Meeker County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Meeker County Tombstone Transcription Project.

The Minnesota Historical Records Survey Project of Madison published the Directory of Churches and Religious Organizations in Minnesota in 1941 and Guide to Church Vital Statistics Records in Minnesota in 1942. There are also numerous publications by the project for specific denominations. Extensive microfilm collections of church records in Minnesota are available through the FHL. The State Historical Society of Minnesota and Area Research Centers have a variety of church records including microfilm and original records.

Numerous cemeteries have been read and transcribed by local genealogical societies in Minnesota. The transcriptions are frequently deposited with an Area Research Center, a local library, or the State Historical Society of Minnesota. A considerable number have been printed in the Minnesota State Genealogical Society Newsletter. Some have been privately published.

The Minnesota State Old Cemetery Society, 6100 West Mequon Road, Mequon, WI 53092, publishes a newsletter and maintains an archive of tombstone inscriptions from around the state. Contact the society for membership information

Below is a list of online resources for Meeker County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Meeker County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Minnesota Cemetery Inscription Index, Select Counties: This database is an index to cemetery inscriptions of cemeteries in several Minnesota (U.S.A.) counties and cities. It contains the names of nearly 600,000 persons. Researchers will find birth date, death date, name of cemetery and, in some cases, the closest living relative.
Meeker County, Minnesota Cemetery Books at Amazon.com
Meeker County, Minnesota Church Books at Amazon.com

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Minnesota Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Meeker County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Meeker County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Sites on USGenweb: [ Meeker County ] [ Minnesota ] [ Main Page ]
Meeker County USGenweb Archives
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Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Minnesota Family Group Sheets
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Minnesota Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Genealogical Document Search and Retrieval Service
Meeker County, Minnesota Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

Minnesota County History Name Index: This database is a name index of eleven county histories and plat books for the area immediately south of the city of St. Paul in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Researchers will find the name of the county resident, the book in which the person's name appears, and the page number. Where information is available, town of residence is also given.
Minnesota Crew Lists, 1929-1952: For several decades in the early half of the twentieth century, Two Harbors, Minnesota was one of the busiest iron ore loading ports in the world. This database is an index to the crew lists (NOT passenger lists) of vessels that arrived at Two Harbors,

Meeker County is located sixty-four miles almost directly west of Minneapolis. It is made up of seventeen and one-half townships and lays almost square. It has Trunk Highways No. 7, 12 and 55 crossing it east and west, and No. 15, 22, 24 and 4 north and south. It has about one hundred lakes of various sizes for fishing and recreation.

The City of Litchfield is the County seat and there are the following incorporated villages: Cedar Mills, Cosmos, Grove City, Darwin, Dassel, Kingston, Watkins and Eden Valley. The unincorporated villages include Corvuso, Rosendale, Crow River, Manannah, North Kingston and Forest City.

Nothing was known of the area that now constitutes the County, either by actual knowledge or tradition until some time in the summer of 1855. Two timber cruisers looking for saw timber came up the North Branch of the Crow River from the Mississippi and, by coincidence, met a party who came from Shakopee looking for sites for a mill or townsite, at a point on the Crow River now known as Forest City.

Meeker County Is Established:

The County was created by an act of the legislature in February of 1856. That same summer government surveyors made a survey of the County. County government was set up on May 6, 1856 by the County Commissioners at Forest City. The Government Land Office was set up that same season and a post office was established at Forest City.

The erection of a saw mill at Forest City in 1856 was the first industry in the County. Flour mills at Forest City, Kingston and Mannanah were put into operation in the next three years. Immigration followed quickly and by 1862 there were communities at Forest City, Kingston, Manannah, Rice Lake, Ness and Peterson Lake.

The massacre at Acton marked the opening of the Indian Wars. This occurred on August 17, 1862 and brought death to more than four hundred men, women and children in the Minnesota valley. The following year a series of fortifications were erected in the county that, for three years, served as the only protection the whites had.

Meeker County Grows:

After the end of the Civil War, a flood of immigration came to the County from the northern European countries and from Kentucky and West Virginia. The year of 1869 saw the railroad come to the County and the County Seat moved from Forest City to Litchfield. The Land Office was moved to Greenleaf which, by that time, had a mill, store, blacksmith shop, etc. Two years later the Land Office was moved to Litchfield and shortly after that, to Benson. Meeker County was no longer the “frontier.”

The first money raised by taxation was used to provide schools at Forest City and Kingston. There were more than forty rural schools in the County by 1875 and eventually ninety-four rural schools furnished education to the rural areas. Litchfield High School was started in 1879. The first graduation was held in 1881. There are high schools at Litchfield, Dassel, Grove City, Cosmos, and Eden Valley. There are parochial schools at Litchfield, Watkins, Eden Valley and Cedar Mills.

Industries:

Industries came to Litchfield and Dassel. Originally the cash crop was fur, then hoop poles, ties and wood products, wheat and gradually flax, barley and other grains moved in along side of wheat. The organization of a creamery in Litchfield in 1885 brought dairying for cash income. Hogs and cattle for beef entered the picture and we had a well rounded farm program by 1890.

Originally cattle from the County were driven to market, mostly to the military units and to the Twin Cities. The cattle buyers entered the picture to ship the cattle by rail. This proved to be a somewhat erratic market and not the best for the producer. Again, a cooperative entered the picture to eventually influence cattle marketing over the entire nation. It also took H. L. Halvorson, one of the early and most successful managers, to the University of Kentucky and Illinois to lecture on this type of marketing.

The turn of the century marked a change in the economy of the County. The virgin land that produced bounteous crops of wheat, oats, barley, flax and rye over the years began to show the need for some fertilizer. About 1909, alfalfa was introduced into the County. Grimms variety would stand the weather conditions and the course of forage was solved. New varieties followed to increase yields but this crop had taken its place in our production. Corn was gradually becoming more widely planted and increasing herds of cattle fed with corn. Red clover and small grains furnished the fertilizer. Corn filled the silos that rapidly appeared in the country side and soon seed corn became a cash crop.

Minnesota No. 13 corn was developed by the University of Minnesota and our people started raising it almost exclusively. Northrop King contracted with farmers around Dassel to raise seed corn and around 1925 strains of hybrid corn were originated in the vicinity of Dassel. By 1950 seed corn was brining more than a million dollars to the County and our varieties were found in all the agricultural areas of the world.

The dairy industry boomed in the early days of the 20th century. The Danes who settled in Danielson Township thought about the cooperatives in their native land and in 1893 organized the first cooperative creamery in the County. By 1920 we had 17 creameries and one cheese factory. Butter was the product that was produced for market, but the market was in New York and Philadelphia. Refrigerated rail cars were not plentiful and not dependable and freight rates were high.

About 1920, local creameries joined together to organize the First District Association. This organization fostered pool shipments by creameries, set up a quality program, and started to buy supplies collectively. Soon a state-wide group, that eventually became the Land O’Lakes Creamery, came into being-the largest dairy marketing organization in the world. County local, John Brandt, helped organize the Land O’Lakes and was its president until his death.

Skim milk was a byproduct of butter manufacturing and for a long time was not recognized for its food value except for feed for calves and swine. This was equally true of buttermilk. But by 1925, the candy and baking industry was asking for both. It wasn’t economical to ship all the water in the products and so a method of drying down to solids was developed. The First District Association built a drying plant at Litchfield in 1925 to dry buttermilk. Today this firm dries and packages about two train car loads of dried milk products per day.

The automobile came to the County quite early and because the people were progressively minded, we soon embarked on a road building program that has given us many miles of good road.

The Rural Electrical Administration Act was passed by Congress in 1935. Ralph Wayne was the County Agent and he immediately saw the possibility of the use of electrical energy on the farm. With a group of cooperatively minded farmers, he organized the Meeker Cooperative Light and Power. Irving J. Clinton was selected as manager and by December 8, 1936, electric station service was made available to about 180 farms and in ten years, nearly every farm in the County and, to a limited extent, in five other counties.

Influential Citizens:

Some of our citizens entered the field of politics and served our state and nation. Among them were: Peter E. Hanson served as Secretary of State, S. W. Leavet as Insurance Commissioner and A.T. Koerner as Secretary of State. Magnus Johnson served in the US Senate and Fred Marshall served in the House of Representatives for 16 years. Charles March was a member of the Federal Trade Commission. T.G. Stitts, who came here to serve as County Agent, went on to serve in the US Department of Agriculture. Ralph Wayne also was County Agent and left to join the staff at the University of Minnesota.

In the field of sports, we have Bernie Bierman who led the Golden Gophers to fame, Shorty Almquist who played for Minnesota and Sid Hammer who played basketball for Minnesota.

In the field of science we have John O’Fallon and DeVaughn Nelson, graduates of Litchfield High School, both nationally known in the field of atomic science.

County Courthouse

Meeker County's first courthouse was built in 1860 in Forest City, the county seat at that time. After several years, the railroad bypassed Forest City and in 1869, Litchfield became the county seat. Buildings, including the original courthouse, were moved to Litchfield. The small courthouse was deemed inadequate, but voters refused in 1871, 1879, and 1883 to build a replacement.

In 1885, voter finally approved the new courthouse, which served the county for almost 90 years. The courthouse was built in the Italianate style with cream brick and stone at a cost of $20,000.

The current courthouse, was completed in 1974. It is a flat-topped, white stucco building with windows in two deep-cut horizontal bands. Glass aprons the ground level, slanting diagonally into the plane of the building. Natural light is also a feature of the other three levels, which open onto a central atrium beneath a large segmented-glass skylight.

Genesis Architects of Willmar drew the plans for the just more than $1 million building. The cost included $34,000 for a system of interior walls that can be moved and adjusted without cost to meet changing space needs. In addition, two courtrooms can be combined when necessary.

A long one-story addition stretches from one rear corner, sheltering the parking area from the street and providing additional office space and a garage for county vehicles.

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