Recent State Archives Acquisitions: November 2007
The Anoka County District Court transferred adoption case files, dated 1876-1950, that complement the existing set of civil and criminal case files already preserved in the State Archives. While adoption records must be closed for 100 years, according to state law, some of the earliest files will be immediately accessible to researchers.
Documentation of the history of the state’s regional treatment centers (formerly called state hospitals) is a collecting priority of the State Archives collection. The State Operated Services Division of the state Human Services Department transferred records (dated 1959-2003; bulk dated 1980-1990s), including subject files concerning the nine regional treatment centers, subject files of the Division, and published records and reports.
The Natural Resources Department transferred records that inter-file with an existing set of Rural Credit Department records already preserved in the State Archives. The Rural Credit Department dates back to 1923 when the state established a rural credit system to foster and encourage agriculture, dairying, and livestock raising, and to develop and improve farm lands. It received applications for farm loans, approved them, and made loans upon improved, owner-operated farms. For many of the loans it accepted mortgages on the farm property as security. During the agricultural depression of the 1920s and 1930s, the department suffered extensive losses under it farm loans and acquired hundreds of thousands of acres through mortgage foreclosures. The department was abolished in 1973, and in 1983 the Natural Resources Department was given charge of the department’s records and was also empowered to monitor the state mineral rights on the acquired lands.
1. Anoka County. District Court. Adoption case files (1876-1950). 2 boxes.
2. Human Services Department. State Operated Services. Records (1959-2003, bulk dated 1980-1990s). 13 boxes.
3. Rural Credit Department. Contract for deed files (ca. 1920s-1995), county plat maps (ca. 1920s-1930s), and an index (1936) to the contract and deed files and the county plat maps. 4 boxes.
Back to Recent Acquisitions.
January 7 , 2008
