The story
Read it all →How Bethel came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Bethel.
Bethel was incorporated as a village in 1902, and was officially incorporated as the city of Bethel on January 1, 1974.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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History · Bethel
Bethel’s post office opened in 1865, and 23% of its homes were built before 1940
Below: maps from 1916 on and the census since 1910.
1865first post office
0on the National Register
23%homes built before 1940
Quick answers
How Bethel began
When was Bethel founded?
1865
The Bethel post office opened in 1865, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1902.
First census: 221 in 19102020 census: 476161 years
Founding year: the first Bethel post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1902.The full story ↓
What stands out about Bethel’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Bethel’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bethel’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.People over time
Bethel, census by census
Lost a third of its people between 1920 and 1930, then more than doubled.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bethel’s Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Bethel in 1905
Passages that mention Bethel, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Anoka County and the towns of Champlin and Dayton in Hennepin County, Minnesota1905 · page 160Read the page →
Read the text
The town of Bethel was organized in 1858 and included nearly all of the present town of Linwood. The town was reduced to its present limits when Linwood was organized in 1871. The first town officers were: supervisors. Owen Evans, chairman. W. Dickens, and Kice Price; clerk. J. Alayhew; treasurer, John Wyatt;
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Anoka County and the towns of Champlin and Dayton in Hennepin County, Minnesota1905 · page 202Read the page →
Read the text
built a saw mill to manufacture the lumber for the houses of the colonists. There he lived some fifteen years. In October, 1856, he came to Minnesota, and took a pre-emption claim in sections 29 and 32 in what is now the town of Bethel. The next spring he brought his family to their new home, which they reached June 24, 1857. About 1863 he was appointed postmaster at Bethel, which office he held some fifteen years. About 1876 Hugh Spence started a store near Mr. Cooper's nouse and
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Bethel, 1865 to 2020
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1865Post officeThe Bethel post office opens
- 20th century
- 1916
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey - 21st century
- 2020CensusPopulation peaks at 476
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your albumOn the map
Bethel on the map, 1916 to 1974
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bethel. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1916St Francis sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bethel.
Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Bethel
Nobody well known was born in Bethel itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
G
Garrison KeillorAmerican author, storyteller, humorist, voice a… · b. 1942
B
Brandon PaulsonOlympic wrestler · b. 1973Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Bethel’s history
What year was Bethel founded?
The Bethel post office opened in 1865, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1902.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.