Editing Paynesville, Minnesota (section)

==History==
Paynesville was [[plat]]ted in 1857 by Edwin E. Payne, and named for him.<ref>{{cite book|last=Upham|first=Warren|title=Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance|url=https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog|year=1920|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|page=[https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog/page/n543 526]}}</ref> The town was completely evacuated to the relative safety of [[Richmond, Minnesota|Richmond]] and [[St. Cloud, Minnesota|St. Cloud]] during the [[Dakota War of 1862|1862 Dakota War]]; the Dakota burned the townsite to the ground. The town was subsequently rebuilt, this time with the addition of a wooden stockade built by the U.S. Army.<ref>Penrod, Michael, "Guarding the Northwest Frontier: The U.S. Military Post at Sauk Centre Minnesota 1862-1865" (2020). Culminating Projects in Cultural Resource Management. 36. https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/crm_etds/36 T</ref>

The arrival of the [[Soo Line Railroad|Soo Line]] and [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern Railway]] in 1886 spurred increased settlement near the railroad lines, leading to the formation of the new settlements of Jim Town along the Soo Line and North Paynesville near the Great Northern. Jim town, on the site of today's downtown Paynesville, became the largest of the three Paynesvilles, eventually merging with the others as New Paynesville, later shortened back to Paynesville.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Discover the Story |url=https://paynesvillehistori.wixsite.com/paynesvillehistory/discover-the-story}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Paynesville Historical Society |title=Paynesville Year 125, 1851-1983 |year=1983}}</ref>

A post office has been in operation at Paynesville since 1857.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=MN&county=Stearns | title=Stearns County | publisher=Jim Forte Postal History | access-date=August 8, 2015}}</ref>

In the late 1980's, a series of sexual assaults on pre-teen and teenage boys occurred in Paynesville. In 1989, 11-year-old [[Murder of Jacob Wetterling|Jacob Wetterling]] disappeared in nearby [[St. Joseph, Minnesota|St. Joseph]]. That case inspired a [[Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act|federal law]] to create the first [[Sex offender registry|sex offender registries]], and it was still not discovered until 2014 that the cases in both cities were perpetrated by the same person.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-11-02 |title=Investigators Believe Paynesville Attacks, Wetterling Abduction Connected - CBS Minnesota |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/investigators-believe-paynesville-attacks-wetterling-abduction-connected/ |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=www.cbsnews.com |language=en-US}}</ref> Wetterling's body had been dumped in Paynesville.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-09-09 |title=Details on the Paynesville, Minn. dig that found Jacob Wetterling |url=https://www.fox9.com/news/details-on-the-paynesville-minn-dig-that-found-jacob-wetterling |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul |language=en-US}}</ref>