Welcome to Benton County Minnesota Genealogy and History part of the Genealogy Trails Family Our goal is to help you track your ancestors through time by transcribing genealogical and historical data and placing it online for the free use of all researchers. This website is available for adoption! We're looking for folks who share our dedication to keeping Genealogy free and are interested in helping this project be as successful as we can make it. If you are interested in joining our group by hosting one of the available county websites, view our Volunteer Page for further information about us. [A desire to transcribe data and knowledge of how to make a basic webpage is required.] DONATE YOUR DATA! We welcome any information you may wish to provide for the free research of others. So, dust off those old scrapbooks you have in your attic, dig out those old newspapers, or anything else you feel is of interest to this County, and send them our way. We are looking for obituaries, newspaper stories, biographies, Birth, Death and Marriage records, as well as interesting newspaper tidbits from years gone past - the items YOU used to put together your family trees. If you have information that you'd like to share with us on the history of this county and its people, please SEND IT TO US and we'll make sure it gets posted online. We regret that we are unable to perform personal research for you. All data we come across is added to this site, so please keep checking back! County Information Established in 1849, the county is one of the earliest in Minnesota. It was named for Thomas Hart Benton, a U.S. senator from Missouri from 1821 to 1851. County Seat: Foley Largest city: Sauk Rapids Cities * Foley * Gilman * Rice * Royalton (part) * Sartell (part) * Sauk Rapids * St. Cloud (part) Townships * Alberta Township * Gilmanton Township * Glendorado Township * Graham Township * Granite Ledge Township * Langola Township * Mayhew Lake Township * Maywood Township * Minden Township * Sauk Rapids Township * St. George Township * Watab Township Unincorporated Communities * Brennyville * Bushville * Duelm * Fruitville * Glendorado * Granite Ledge * Jakeville * Mayhew * North Benton * Novak's Corner * Oak Park * Parent * Popple Creek * Ronneby * Rum River * Silver Corners * Watab Ghost Towns * East St. Cloud * Esteville (part) * Minden [source: wikipedia] Online Data Biographies Births Cemeteries Census Church Histories / Records County Records Death Records Family Bibles County History Marriages Military Miscellaneous Data Newspaper Data Obituaries School Records Wills/Probate Records Website Updates: Mar. 2012: 1860-1880 Mortality Indexes; Bio: Hall Feb. 2011 - 1850 Census for Sauk Rapids; births for Larson & Madsen; WW2 Army Honor List; obits: Dzink, Lynch, Penish Dec 2011: 1883 Pensioners on the Roll; Death certificates for LANGE and SEPPELT Previous Updates: 1908 & 1909 Death Records SEARCH OUR SITES Join our Genealogy Trails Upper Midwestern States Mailing List to get email notices when our county sites are updated. For the Upper Midwest States of : North Dakota -- South Dakota -- Minnesota -- Wisconsin -- Michigan Adjacent Counties Mille Lacs County (northeast) Sherburne County (southeast) Stearns County (southwest) Morrison County (northwest) VISIT THE NATIONAL SITE OF GENEALOGY TRAILS Visit MINNESOTA STATE PAGE Copyright ©Genealogy Trails All data on this website is Copyright by Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for original submitters.