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In 1853 the territorial
legislature of Minnesota
passed an act
establishing a number of
counties along the
Minnesota River, Le
Sueur County was among
them.
The earliest settlements
in Le Sueur County took
place along the river
which, as a navigable
stream, provided
European man with a
highway into this part
of the Minnesota
Territory.
The first towns
established in le Sueur
County or what was to
become Le Sueur County,
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were established, platted and
built along the Minnesota River.
They were Le Sueur, Ottawa and
Kasota - Kasota being the
earliest. |
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During the
1850s, the Minnesota Territory began to
receive large numbers of immigrants from
the east, both native-born and
foreigners coming to this country for
the land. Shortly after the
beginning of settlement along the
Minnesota River in southern Minnesota,
these people began to take up lands away
from the river. By the end of the
180s, most of the towns that we have in
Le Sueur County today had been
established. The first three: Le
Sueur, Ottawa and Kasota, along the
river, but also Cleveland, a few miles
inland, Waterville and Elysian, were
established in 1857. Cordova,
Kilkenny, Lexington, Montgomery and New
Prague has seen their beginnings as
well. |
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The center
of the county, however, was without
settlement of any size. People
living in the center of the county were
isolated from markets, from mail
service, from schools and from the
facilities that made commercial life
possible. |
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The roads
that connected the various towns in the
county to each other and to the river
communities were hardly more than muddy
tracks through the woods. All of
Le Sueur County was covered with what
was known as the "big woods" - a very
large tract of deciduous hardwood timber
that stood between that prairies of the
southwest and the pine forests of the
northeast in Minnesota. The soil
was black, heavy and, when wet, very
sticky. The soil (the land) was
what brought the settlers to the county
and was their inducement for sending
their lives working in the woods far
from any population center. |
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Le Sueur
was the first town of any large size and
it was designated by the legislature as
the county seat. It stands in the
northwest corner of the county and the
result was that most of the people
living inland, had a hard time getting
to the county seat for necessary
business, to pay taxes, to serve on
juries, to attend court, to register
land sales and to trade with the various
purveyors of services. |
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before long
a climate of opinion arose to the effect
that the county seat should be
relocated. At first there was an
attempt by the Cleveland community to
acquire it, which after a failed
attempt, in 1875 they were given the
county seat. A number of businessmen,
led by L.Z. Rogers of Waterville
undertook to make possible the location
of the county seat near the center of
the county by acquiring a tract of 160
acres at what is now Le Center and
platted it. They offered the use
of a newly constructed two story brick
building to the county board for use as
a courthouse if a referendum of the
people of the county agreed to allow the
moving of the county seat to this new
location, which they chose to call Le
Sueur Center, and elected as the new
county seat in 1876. |
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©2005-.
All Rights Reserved. |
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City
of Le Center, Minnesota
10
W.Tyrone Street ; Le Center, Minnesota 56057
City Hall (Hours: 8:00-4:30 ; Monday-Friday)
info@cityoflecenter.com
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