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Minnesota County
Le Sueur County, Minnesota
Le Sueur - birthplace of the Mayo Clinic and the Jolly Green Giant - from Dr. W.W. Mayo's Le Sueur practice (William Worrall Mayo practiced medicine in Le Sueur before moving to Rochester, where he and his sons Charles and William James Mayo founded the Mayo Clinic - the world's first integrated group practice and one of the most celebrated medical institutions in history - making Le Sueur the unlikely birthplace community of American medicine's greatest institution) to the Green Giant Company (the Minnesota Valley Canning Company founded in Le Sueur in 1903 became the Green Giant Company, whose canned and frozen vegetables and the Jolly Green Giant advertising character became global icons of American food culture).
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Office: Le Sueur County Emergency Management – 435 East Derrynane, Suite 100, Le Center, MN 56057, (507) 357-8395
Services: Coordinates disaster planning, response, and recovery; has previously worked with FEMA and Minnesota HSEM on federal disaster declarations following county flooding events.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US Highway 169 and Minnesota Highways 19 and 112 serve Le Center, the county seat, in south-central Minnesota
Transit: Le Sueur County Dispatch coordinates emergency response for the cities of Cleveland, Elysian, Kasota, Kilkenny, Le Center, Le Sueur, and Montgomery.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Le Center Building Official – Le Center, MN 56057
Services: The City of Le Sueur issues its own building permits within city limits via its ePermits online system, (507) 593-8317.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Le Sueur County Veterans Services – Le Center, MN 56057
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: Le Center Public Library (Waseca-Le Sueur Regional Library) – Le Center, MN 56057, located in the City Municipal Building; Le Sueur Public Library – 118 E Ferry Street, Le Sueur, MN 56058, (507) 665-2662
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Le Sueur County, named for French explorer Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, is genuinely the site of one of Minnesota’s most remarkable historical coincidences. The W.W. Mayo House, a small Gothic-style home hand-built by Dr. William Worrall Mayo in 1859 in the city of Le Sueur, was Dr. Mayo’s first Minnesota medical practice – he and his sons later founded the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester. During the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War, Mayo’s wife Louise sheltered 11 refugee families in the home and its barn while her husband treated the wounded in besieged New Ulm. A decade after the Mayo family relocated to Rochester in 1864, the very same house became home to three generations of the Cosgrove family beginning in 1874 – the family that in 1903 helped found the Minnesota Valley Canning Company in Le Sueur, which became the Green Giant Company in 1950 and introduced the now-iconic Jolly Green Giant mascot in the 1920s. Two Green Giant Company presidents were born in that same house. The city of Le Sueur is proudly nicknamed “Valley of the Jolly Green Giant.” The 1896 Le Sueur County Courthouse and 1914 jail in Le Center, built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, are listed together on the National Register of Historic Places
Notes: Le Sueur County’s W.W. Mayo House is a genuinely extraordinary site – the same small home housed the founding family of the Mayo Clinic and, a decade later, the founding family of the Green Giant Company.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Le Sueur County GIS – accessible via lesueurcounty.gov
Parcel Search: Le Sueur County Assessor – Le Center, MN 56057
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Le Sueur County Sheriff’s Office/Dispatch
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Facility: Le Sueur County contracts animal control services to Minnesota Critter Getters (Dave and Sandra Steinmetz); Le Sueur County residents may also be served by the Blue Earth Nicollet County Humane Society, 1250 N River Dr, Mankato, MN 56001, which lists Le Sueur County within its service area.
Services: Animal control and regional shelter/adoption services as described above.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Environmental Complaints: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency – pca.state.mn.us
Notes: Contact your specific municipality directly for current refuse collection and recycling program details.
NOTES
Le Sueur County’s W.W. Mayo House is a genuinely extraordinary site – the same small home housed the founding family of the Mayo Clinic and, a decade later, the founding family of the Green Giant Company. All contact information above was sourced from official county, city, library, and shelter pages as of this writing; phone numbers and hours should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit.
About Le Sueur County
Le Sueur County is where the Mayo Clinic began and the Green Giant was born – Dr. W.W. Mayo’s Le Sueur medical practice preceded the world-famous Rochester clinic, and the Minnesota Valley Canning Company that became Green Giant made Le Sueur’s valley peas and the Jolly Green Giant global icons.
Le Center (the county seat, population ~2,600) and Le Sueur (population ~4,100) serve the county’s Minnesota River valley agricultural and processing communities.
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Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Le Sueur County Assessor at 88 S. Park Avenue, Le Center, MN 56057, phone 507-357-8518. MN homestead exclusion reduces taxable market value.
Courts & Legal
Le Sueur County District Court at 88 S. Park Avenue, Le Center, MN 56057, phone 507-357-2251, handles probate.
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Le Sueur County District Court (probate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
Le Sueur County Genealogy Center (Le Sueur County Historical Society), confirmed.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Le Sueur County District Court 435 E. Derrynane Street, Le Center, MN 56057 (507) 357-8260 Le Sueur County is in south-central Minnesota, seated in Le Center.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Minnesota follows the Uniform Probate Code, which keeps most estates on a streamlined informal track. Minnesota’s small-estate shortcuts are unusual among states in that they can include real property, not just personal property.
Affidavit for Collection of Personal Property (Minn. Stat. § 524.3-1201) – for personal property only. The entire probate estate – including the contents of any safe deposit box, less liens and encumbrances – must be under $75,000. Joint tenancy property and assets that pass by beneficiary designation (life insurance, transfer-on-death accounts) don’t count toward the threshold. A 30-day waiting period applies after death, and no court filing is required – the affidavit is presented directly to the institution holding the property.
Summary Assignment – can include real property, and is court-based. Covers estates up to $75,000, including real property. A certified copy of the court’s Decree of Distribution is filed in the county real estate records to transfer title.
Summary Administration (Minn. Stat. § 524.3-1203) – the higher-threshold real-property option, covering estates up to $150,000, exclusive of the exempt homestead. The homestead itself is excluded from the value calculation entirely for both Summary Assignment and Summary Administration – Minnesota’s homestead exemption protects the family home from most creditor claims and it descends to the surviving spouse free of most claims against the estate. If closing and distribution follow the terms of a will, a formal probate hearing for the will is still required before a summary decree can issue.
STEP 2: FORMAL/INFORMAL PROBATE (for estates above the thresholds)
File with the District Court in the county where the decedent was domiciled; informal probate is available for most estates, with the personal representative appointed by the Registrar and minimal ongoing court interaction.
The personal representative publishes a creditor notice and directly notifies known creditors, opening a 4-month creditor claim period.
Once the creditor period closes and debts are paid, assets can typically be distributed and the estate closed without returning to court, unless there’s a dispute or a beneficiary requests a formal accounting.
Formal probate – requiring a hearing before a judge – is used in more complicated situations, such as will contests or disputes over the personal representative.
THE 3-YEAR DEADLINE – MORE RESTRICTIVE THAN MOST STATES Informal probate is no longer available after 3 years from the date of death, though formal probate may still be possible in limited circumstances.
What it costs
Small estate procedures can move relatively quickly once the 30-day wait passes. Standard informal probate is largely governed by the 4-month creditor period, so most straightforward estates take at least that long to close.
Minnesota has its own state estate tax, but the exemption threshold is relatively high – $3 million – so most Minnesota families aren’t affected. Rates on the amount above the exemption range from 13% to 16%, applied on a graduated scale; the exemption is not portable between spouses. Minnesota has no state inheritance tax.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
88 S. Park Ave., Le Center, MN 56057
(507) 357-2468
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
ELECTIONS
88 S. Park Ave., Le Center, MN 56057
(507) 357-2251
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
MN DHS — South Central Region
(507) 357-8288
Mayo Clinic Health System — Waseca
mayoclinichealthsystem.org (Waseca — accessible)
Allina Health Owatonna Hospital
allinahealth.org (Owatonna — accessible)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Le Sueur County Public Health – Le Center, MN 56057
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County Facts
County Seat: Le Center
Population: 29,000
Area: 449 sq mi
Established: 1853
Tier: 3
Public Records
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