Leavenworth, Minnesota

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Leavenworth is an unincorporated community in Leavenworth Township, Brown County, Minnesota. The population was 50 at the 1990 Census, but an estimate from 2000 is 30. It is located east of Springfield, MN, and southwest of Sleepy Eye, MN. Brown County Road 8 and Brown County Road 24 serve as the main routes of the community. LEAVENWORTH Township was organized April 16, 1859. It was probably named in honor of Henry Leavenworth, commander of the troops who came in 1819 to found the fort at first calledFort St. Anthony, renamed as Fort Snelling in 1825. Speculators platted a community in 1857 in sections 22 and 27, and a log dwelling was built on the site for John B. Calkins, left to protect the land. A post office opened in 1858 with Calkins as postmaster. Almost abandoned during the Dakota War, the site regained settlers, growing with stores, blacksmiths, a mill, and a school. Growth stopped when the railroad bypassed the village, and by the mid-1880s only a saloon and a mill existed, the latter burning down shortly thereafter; the post office operated at various times between 1858 and 1902. The population of Leavenworth Township, MN was 336 at the 2000 Census.