Hutchinson County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in the U.S. state of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,427. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Olivet. The county was created in 1862 and organized in 1871; it was named for John Hutchinson, first territorial secretary.

History

Hutchinson County was created by act of the territorial legislature on May 8, 1862. Its boundaries included portions of present-day Davison and Hanson Counties, and part of what is presently Hutchinson County was within the boundaries of Jayne County. Maxwell City was established as the county seat, and it remained there until October 1873 when it was moved to Olivet following an election. On 13 January 1871, the territorial legislature established the present county boundaries and completed its governing organization. In two actions in January 1873, the legislature divided Hutchinson County into two counties - the northern half was named Armstrong County, with Milltown as the seat. However, in 1879, Armstrong County was dissolved and its area re-annexed into Hutchinson County.The Territorial Legislature ordered the re-uniting of the two counties into one, apparently against the desires of Armstrong County officials. The legislature ordered the county officers of Armstrong County to deliver their records, money and papers to Olivet. However, the Armstrong people refused and continued to serve as county officers until a court decision in 1881 compelled them to surrender the records.

Geography

The

James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...

flows south-southeasterly through the central part of Hutchinson County. The county's terrain consists of rolling hills, with the area largely devoted to agriculture. The terrain slopes to the river valley from both sides, with the county's highest point at its southwest corner: 1,880' (573m) ASL. Hutchinson County has a total area of , of which is land and (0.2%) is water.

Major highways

* U.S. Highway 18 * U.S. Highway 81 * South Dakota Highway 25 * South Dakota Highway 37 * South Dakota Highway 44

Adjacent counties

* Hanson County - north * McCook County - northeast * Turner County - east * Yankton County - southeast * Bon Homme County - south * Charles Mix County - southwest * Douglas County - west * Davison County - northwest

Protected areas

* Mogck Slough State Public Shooting Area * Weigher Slough State Public Shooting Area

Lakes

Source: * Lake Dimock * Lake Menno * Silver Lake * Tripp Lake

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, there were 7,427 people, 2,797 households, and 1,802 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 3,212 housing units.

2010 census

As of the 2010 census, there were 7,343 people, 2,930 households, and 1,871 families in the county. The population density was . There were 3,351 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 97.4% white, 0.7% American Indian, 0.4% black or African American, 0.2% Asian, 0.5% from other races, and 0.9% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.6% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 67.7% were German, 8.7% were Russian, 7.4% were Norwegian, 6.9% were Irish, and 3.6% were American. Of the 2,930 households, 24.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.6% were married couples living together, 5.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 36.1% were non-families, and 33.4% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.22 and the average family size was 2.82. The median age was 46.8 years. The median income for a household in the county was $39,310 and the median income for a family was $52,390. Males had a median income of $35,180 versus $25,417 for females. The per capita income for the county was $21,944. About 6.4% of families and 10.4% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 11.5% of those under age 18 and 14.5% of those age 65 or over.

Mennonites and Hutterites

Hutchinson County is the most heavily

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 ...

-populated county of South Dakota. German-speaking Mennonites from Russia settled in the county beginning in 1874 until the early 1880s. South Dakota has the nation's largest population of

Hutterites Hutterites (; ), also called Hutterian Brethren (German: ), are a communal ethnoreligious group, ethnoreligious branch of Anabaptism, Anabaptists, who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the early 16 ...

, a communal

Anabaptist Anabaptism (from Neo-Latin , from the Greek language, Greek : 're-' and 'baptism'; , earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re-baptizers"), considering it biased. ...

group that emigrated also from Russia during the same period as the Mennonites, with whom they share the

faith. Hutterites live in communities each of about 150 people. Wolf Creek Colony is in Hutchinson County, where the Wolf meets the

. This colony is west of Freeman and north of Olivet and Menno. Other Hutterite communities in the county are Maxwell Colony, New Elm Spring Colony, Old Elm Spring Colony, and Tschetter Colony.

Communities

Cities

* Freeman * Parkston

Towns

* Dimock * Menno * Olivet (county seat) * Tripp

Census-designated places

* Kaylor * Maxwell Colony * Milltown * New Elm Spring Colony * Old Elm Spring Colony * Tschetter Colony * Wolf Creek Colony

Unincorporated communities

* Clayton * Lake Tripp * Wolf Creek

Townships

*Capital *Clayton *Cross Plains *Fair *Foster *German *Grandview *Kassel *Kaylor *Kulm *Liberty *Mittown *Molan *Oak Hollow *Pleasant *Sharon *Silver Lake *Starr *Susquehanna *Sweet *Valley *Wittenberg *Wolf Creek

Politics

Like most of South Dakota, Hutchinson County is overwhelmingly Republican. Only one Democratic presidential candidate –

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

in his 1932 landslide – has ever carried the county. Surprisingly, in the 1928 and 1972 Republican landslides Hutchinson County actually voted more Democratic than the nation at-large due to German Lutheran anti-Prohibition voting for

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was the 42nd governor of New York, serving from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1923 to 1928. He was the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party's presidential nominee in the 1 ...

in the first case and a strong “ favorite son” vote for

George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American politician, diplomat, and historian who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator from South Dakota, and the Democratic Party (United States), Democ ...

in the latter. Apart from these two hugely anomalous cases, only four Democrats have ever topped forty percent of the county's vote, and only four statewide Republican nominees failed to win a majority.

Notes

References

{{coord, 43.34, -97.75, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-SD_source:UScensus1990 1871 establishments in Dakota Territory States and territories established in 1871