Sibley County, Minnesota

The county was created on 5 March 1853.[4] It was named for Henry Hastings Sibley,[5]

The county seat was first established at Henderson. A courthouse was built there and placed into service in 1879. It was used in that capacity until 1915, when the county seat was moved to Gaylord (after a petition generated by Gaylord residents was presented to County supervisors). Now designated 'Henderson Community Building', the original courthouse presently houses Henderson City offices.[6]

The Minnesota River flows northeastward along the east border of Sibley County. It is fed by the Rush River, whose three branches drain the lower part of the county before merging and then meeting the Minnesota below Henderson. The Bevens Creek drains the upper part of the county, flowing northeastward into Carver County. The county terrain consists of rolling hills etched with drainages and dotted with lakes and ponds, with the area devoted to agriculture.[7] The terrain slopes to the east and north, with its highest point near its NW corner at 1,083' (330m) ASL.[8] The county has an area of 601 square miles (1,560 km²), of which 589 square miles (1,530 km²) is land and 12 square miles (31 km²) (2.0%) is water.[9] Most of the Rush River's watershed is in Sibley County.

Soils of Sibley County[10]

As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 15,356 people, 5,772 households, and 4,086 families in the county. The population density was 26.1/sqmi (10.1/km²). There were 6,024 housing units at an average density of 10.2/sqmi (3.95/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 95.57% White, 0.12% Black or African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.33% Asian, 3.09% from other races, and 0.62% from two or more races. 5.43% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 65.7% were of German and 6.3% Norwegian ancestry.

There were 5,772 households, out of which 33.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.10% were married couples living together, 5.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.20% were non-families. 25.40% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.14.

The county population contained 27.70% under the age of 18, 7.50% from 18 to 24, 27.10% from 25 to 44, 21.30% from 45 to 64, and 16.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 102.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.90 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $41,458, and the median income for a family was $48,923. Males had a median income of $31,002 versus $22,527 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,004. About 5.10% of families and 8.10% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.80% of those under age 18 and 7.80% of those age 65 or over.

During the Third Party System, Sibley was a strongly Democratic county due to the opposition of its German Catholic populace to the pietism of the Republican Party. It voted Democratic at every presidential election until William Jennings Bryan’s Populist-backed free silver campaign drove its voters to William McKinley. Except when voting for Robert La Follette in 1924 and Franklin D. Roosevelt during his two 1930s landslides, Sibley County has been strongly Republican since 1896. It was one of only four Minnesota counties to vote for Barry Goldwater over Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and in no presidential election since 1936 has the Democratic candidate won a majority. In 1992, Sibley was Ross Perot’s strongest county in Minnesota, and he lost by only fourteen votes to Bill Clinton, whose pluralities in this and the 1996 election are the only Democratic victories in Sibley County since 1940.

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Sibley County, Minnesota

• Sibley County government website