Dakota County Historical Society

DCHS works with donors & partners to  preserve, interpret and promote the history of Dakota County.

Your Dakota County Historical Society continues to evolve and expand its mission to preserve, interpret and promote the history of Dakota County.

We rely on contributions from our members and supporters to create engaging events and presentations at the site, bringing its history to life.

Give to the Max Day contributes to our 2023 Lawshe Fund Campaign. Our fundraising goal this year increased to more than $16,000. To help achieve our goal, we have $5,760 in matches available to make your contribution go further! 

1. The DCHS Board of Trustees joined efforts to offer a Board Match of $4,500 this year. To show their support of DCHS, they once again encourage others to give and match their contributions.
2. A long time researcher has anonymously offered a match of $710 this year. They have used their research to write books, scholarly articles and shared their knowledge through presentations.
3. Former DCHS board president Bob Damon, and his wife Michelle, have provided a match of up to $500 this year. Bob joined the board in 2015 and served as board president from 2016 – 2020, when his term ended. Their support has continued through generous contributions and event participation at our sites.

Our goal seems lofty, but with your continued support, we believe we can beat that number. In 2022, we raised more than $17,000 and think that we can once again surpass the $16,000 mark. We are beyond grateful to report that for seven consecutive years, we have exceeded the organization’s fundraising goal and for the third consecutive year, we have set a Lawshe Fund record.

To put our success into perspective, back in 2016 our goal was to raise $2,500 and you helped us raise $3,300. This unwavering support has allowed us to set our goals higher and still successfully obtain them.

In the past year, we reopened the Lawshe Museum after being closed since November 2021 with brand new exhibits throughout the entire building. With another successful tour season under our belts at the LeDuc Estate and Sibley Site, we look forward to focusing on special events during the off-season. While we enjoy bringing guests to our sites, we have expanded our off-site programming with area schools. Our outreach program has successfully reached nearly 700 students through in-class presentations by our staff, showcasing history trunks on pivotal topics such as the fur trade, women’s suffrage, and the Civil War.  

We hope you will consider a donation to our organization to allow us to continue these amazing efforts in the future.

UNRESTRICTED GIFTS  --An “unrestricted gift” to the DCHS’s 2023 Lawshe Annual Fund will be used to generally advance the Society’s mission of, “collecting, preserving, promoting and presenting the history of Dakota County, MN.” 

About DCHS
The DCHS operates the Lawshe Memorial Museum and Research Library in South St. Paul, the LeDuc Historic Estate in Hastings, the Sibley Historic Site in Mendota, and presents programming at other sites county-wide, including local government centers and libraries.

DCHS boasts an artifact collection of over 35,000 items including photos, print items and 3D objects. Three times a year, it publishes a widely respected history magazine, Over the Years. It maintains online research databases containing more than 500,000 searchable records, and staffs a research library that assists thousands of individuals annually.

The LeDuc Historic Estate continues to offer a wide range of events from tastings and teas to our more traditional, Civil War Weekend.  

The Sibley Historic Site presented the popular Mendota After Hours events, along with Fur Trade Weekend and the general tours.

Donors and members make all of this possible. We could not do these things without your solid support! Thank you for past support. Thank you for considering the Dakota Historical Society in your future charitable giving plans.