Delft is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

(Class Code U6) located in Carson Township, Cottonwood County,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, United States.

Geography

Delft is located in the northwestern quarter of the southwestern quarter of section 18, township 106, range 35, west. Its geographic coordinates are 43.9863461 latitude and -95.0888797 longitude. The elevation is 1,457 feet. Delft appears on the Bingham Lake U.S. Geological Survey Map.

History

The village of Delft was established as a railroad station in 1892. Ten years later, on June 18, 1902, the village was officially

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted by the Inter-State Land Company. The community was named after the city of

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

, in the Netherlands, previous to which it was called Wilhelmine. Delft was a station on the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad, which ran through the southwestern part of the township, en route from

Jeffers Jeffers is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alex Jeffers, American author * Alexis Jeffers (born 1968), St. Kitts and Nevis politician * Anne Burton Jeffers (1851 - 1946), American librarian * Audrey Jeffers (1898–1968) ...

to Bingham Lake. Shortly after the original elevator was built, the village had its first fire, which burned the Farmers Elevator Company, its coal sheds, and the railroad company's stockyards - all of which were rebuilt immediately after. At one time, there was also a general store, hardware store, a general farm implement sales business, as well as a creamery. Established in a predominantly

Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

area, by the 1950s approximately 400 members of

Mennonite Brethren The Mennonite Brethren Church is an evangelical Mennonite Anabaptist movement with Wiktionary:congregation, congregations. History The conference was established among Plautdietsch language, Plautdietsch-speaking Russian Mennonites in 1860. Durin ...

and General Conference Mennonite churches resided within a five-mile radius of the little community's two Mennonite churches. The Carson Mennonite Brethren Church, founded in 1875 and closed in 2005, and the now independent (as of ca. 2002) Immanuel Mennonite Church, originally established in 1940. A post office began operation in Delft in 1903. It was closed in 1993.

Politics

Delft is located within

Minnesota's 1st congressional district Minnesota's 1st congressional district spans southern Minnesota from the border with South Dakota to the border with Wisconsin. It is a primarily rural district built on a strong history of agriculture, though this is changing rapidly due to pop ...

, represented by

Jim Hagedorn James Lee Hagedorn ( ; August 4, 1962 – February 17, 2022) was an American politician from Minnesota. A Republican, he was the U.S. representative for from 2019 until his death. The district stretches across southern Minnesota along the borde ...

, a Republican. At the state level, Delft is located in

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

District 22, represented by Republican

Bill Weber William Weber (May 8, 1957 – December 13, 2024) was an American television sports commentator best known for his work on TNT and NBC NASCAR broadcasts. Weber was also the lead announcer for Champ Car World Series events and other auto ra ...

, and in

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

District 22B, represented by Republican

Rod Hamilton Rodney W. "Rod" Hamilton (born March 25, 1968) is a Minnesota politician and former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota, he represented District 22B, which includes all or portions of ...

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Cottonwood County, Minnesota Unincorporated communities in Minnesota