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 2024 Lawshe Fund Campaign. Our fundraising goal this year is set at $20,000. To help achieve our goal, we have $5,220 in matches available to make your contribution go further!

1. DCHS Board President Steve Cook, and his wife Michele Fallon, have provided a $2,000 match. Steve joined the board in 2016 and served three terms (six years), before departing the board per DCHS bylaws. He rejoined the board in 2023 and has served as President since. You have likely seen Steve and Michele at events they attend and/or volunteer for at DCHS sites.
2. Additional members of the DCHS Board of Trustees joined efforts to offer a Board Match of $1,500 this year. To show their support of DCHS, they once again encourage others to give and match their contributions.
3. Former DCHS board president Bob Damon, and his wife Michelle, have provided a match of up to $1,000 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.
4. A long time researcher has anonymously offered a match of $720 this year. They have used our archives to write books, scholarly articles and given numerous presentations on their research.

Our goal seems lofty, but with your continued support, we believe we can beat that number. In 2023, 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 three consecutive years, we set Lawshe Fund records.

To put our success into perspective, 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 achieve them.

In the past year, DCHS has been hard at work, taking on new projects. We have completed another round of renovations on the Lawshe Museum with the assistance of state appropriations; brought 1,600 artifacts back home to LeDuc with the help of MNHS; continued work on our Children's Exhibit at Lawshe with aide from Dakota County Commissioner Joe Atkins and State Representatives Rick Hansen and Mary Frances Clardy, as well as design by Kidzibits; and continued development on our George Daniels Exhibit at LeDuc, and Black History Trail in Hastings with our friends at Building Remembrance for Reconciliation; and more!

As always, we have our sites open for general tours and special events. New this year was our in-class History Trunk presentations. Through these, we expect to reach more than 1,000 students – in addition to the approximately 500 students who have come to our sites.

Without your contributions and support, our organization could not dream of these projects, let alone complete them successfully. So, if you ever wonder what your support allows us to do as an organization – just know, it’s a lot!

UNRESTRICTED GIFTS  --An “unrestricted gift” to the DCHS’s 2024 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.