Founding and History of Ash Creek, MN

Ash Creek, a village in Clinton township, was never incorporated.  Ash Creek was started as a post office, the second in the county.  Clinton and Martin townships were the first places to be settled in Rock County.  Ash Creek is named after the stream in the area which was named by members of the pioneer Estey family.  They named it Ash Creek because there were many ash trees growing at the mouth of the stream.  Though Ash Creek never grew large enough to be an independent municipality, for many years Ash Creek was a trading point and grain market for the rich farming community.

In 1871 the post office was established on the George W. Kniss farm and Mrs. L.B. Kniss was the first postmaster.  The branch road of the Luverne to Doon railroad came to Ash Creek in 1879.  In 1882 Col. Alfred Grey bought the Kniss & Brown farm and proposed to build a town to be headquarters for his various interests, patterned after the English baronial system.  Col. Grey later sold his property.  A Congregational church was built in 1889 and a school building in 1903.  Ash Creek also had a bank, the Ash Creek State Bank.

Ash Creek, MN Today

A few houses remain in Ash Creek today.  The school consolidated into the Luverne school district in the late 1950s. The Ash Creek State Bank closed in 1931.