Welcome to Stearns 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 Founded February 20, 1855 Named for Charles Thomas Stearns County Seat: Saint Cloud The area that is currently defined as Stearns County was once occupied by several indigenous tribes, such as the Sioux (Dakota), Chippewa (Ojibwe) and Winnebago (Ho-chunk). The first large immigration was of German Catholics in the 1850s. Early arrivals also came from eastern states. Originally, the county was to be named Stevens County to honor Governor Isaac Ingalls Stevens who conducted an area expedition in 1853. However, due to a clerical error, the county was named after Charles Thomas Stearns who was a member of the Territorial Council. (wikipedia) Townships Cities Albany Township Ashley Township Avon Township Brockway Township Collegeville Township Crow Lake Township Crow River Township Eden Lake Township Fair Haven Township Farming Township Getty Township Grove Township Holding Township Krain Township Lake George Township Lake Henry Township Le Sauk Township Luxemburg Township Lynden Township Maine Prairie Township Melrose Township Millwood Township Munson Township North Fork Township Oak Township Paynesville Township Raymond Township Rockville Township Sauk Centre Township Spring Hill Township St. Augusta Township St. Joseph Township St. Martin Township St. Wendel Township Wakefield Township Zion Township Albany Avon Belgrade Brooten (part) Clearwater (part) Cold Spring Eden Valley (part) Elrosa Freeport Greenwald Holdingford Kimball Lake Henry Meire Grove Melrose New Munich Paynesville Pleasant Lake Richmond Rockville Roscoe Sartell (part) Sauk Centre Spring Hill St. Anthony St. Cloud (part) St. Joseph St. Martin St. Rosa St. Stephen Waite Park 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: August 2012: Obits: Parr, Rosenberger, Snider July 2012: Bios: Bronson, Brower, Bruener June 2012: Obits: Becker, Theisen May 2012: Bios: Anderson, Atwood, Barton Apr. 2012: Bios: Bruckart, Eaton, Ehlert, Gale, Gorman, Miller, Smith, Stewart Mar. 2012: Obits: Boobar, Elmquist, Ulrich, Weber; Bios: Coolidge, Courtney, Evans, Grinols, Gross, Hall, Hansen, Hardy, Haskamp; Marriage: Wood-Lampert Feb. 2012: bios: Collins, Dietrich, Donahue, Mitchell, local news item (1881) obits: Bartoe, Porter, Shattuck, Whittemore; Marriages: Keeler-Orrock, Sauftenburg-Lambert; military news re Clearwater Guards: News: Blacksmith Shop Fire Jan 2012: Obit for HEMINGWAY, ROSENBERGER, PARKER; Death certificates for BELOW, LANGE, MILLER, SEPPELT Previous Updates: Calvary Cemetery Burials; MILLER birth/death info; 1860 Mortality Schedule; Bios for COLLINS & COOPER; News Article - KUEHN Death 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 Todd County (north) Morrison County (north) Benton County (east) Sherburne County (east) Wright County (southeast) Meeker County (south) Kandiyohi County (south) Pope County (west) Douglas 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.