Meeker County, Minnesota Genealogy and History

The region known as the "Big Prairie" west of the Big Woods" has been known to white settlers but 21 years, and yet the twilight of uncertainty has already thrown its shadows, and the night of forgetfulness seems about to descend and forever obscure many little incidents which, although in detail seem of little consequence yet all go to make up a readable history of any community.

The Centennial year of our great Republic seems to open up an opportunity, which the President of the United States recommended to our people to improve and place in permanent shape for preservation, the historical data of the various counties and towns of the Republic.

In a little while the venerable gentlemen who composed our first settlers will all be gathered to their fathers "their children engrossed by the empty pleasures or insignificant transactions of the "present age (or in the greedy pursuit of the almighty dollar,) will neglect to treasure up the "recollections of the past and posterity will search "in vain for memorials of the days of the Patriarchs" (Knickerbocker's History of New York.) Read more...

Dassel, Minnesota Those Were the Days

• Additional Meeker County Resources

  • County Firsts

    • Meeker County Map

  • Military in Meeker County

    • Civil War in Meeker County

      • Mustered in, August 24th, 1862

      • Elected Officers

    • Indian War in Meeker County

      • Indian Massacre

      • Pleasing Duty

      • G. C. Whitcomb Claimed to be Captain

      • Irregulars

      • Mark Warren Esq. Arrested

      • Second day of September

      • Escaping the Indians

      • Captain Strout Ordered to Forest City

      • How the Boys Got out of Acton

      • Captain Strout's Report

      • Col. B. F. Smith, Commandant of Ft. Snelling

      • Little Crow

      • 4th September 1862

  • Biographies

    • A Wild Woman's History. The Slayer Of Hundreds Of Bears And Wild-Cats

    • Dr. Frederick Noah Ripley

  • Churches History of Meeker County

    • Presbyterian Church

    • Protestant Episcopal Church

    • Methodist Episcopal Church

    • Christian Church

    • Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church

    • Roman Catholic Church

  • Elected Officials

    • County Commissioners 1856-1876

    • County Officers

  • Judiciary Matters

    • Judiciary History

    • First District Court

    • Supreme Court

    • Guerrilla Guards

  • 4th of July 1876

Source: A Random Historical Sketch of Meeker County Minnesota, 1877

Minnesota Genealogy