Sheriffs:

• 1856 William F. Pettit, Appointed by the Governor.
• 1856 David Lindesmith, First elected Sheriff.
• 1858-1860 W.H. Willsey
• 1860-1860 S.C. Williamson, Did not complete term.
• 1862-1865 Seth H. Patterson, Resigned in May of 1865.
• 1865 William Scriby, Appointed by County Commissioners in May.
• 1865 Willard Wheaton, Completed term.
• 1866-1868 Michael Toher
• 1868-1868 Frank Borchert,
• 1869-1874 Michael J. Toher
• 1874-1882 Clark(e) Chambers
• 1882-1888 Hugh Murray
• 1888-1900 Jacob Zeb Barncard
• 1900-1904 Charles Misgen
• 1904-1906 F.C. Chambers
• 1906-1922 William Leehy
• 1922-1934 Joseph Fisher
• 1934-1946 E. Ted Helgeson
• 1946-1956 Donald M. Christenson
• 1956-1958 Mary Christenson - Appointed to fill her husband’s term. Minnesota’s first female Sheriff.
• 1958-1978 Bernard J. Coufal
• 1978-1982 Wesley E. Wilker
• 1982-2002 William A. Hildebrandt
• 2002-2010 Gary A. Ringhofer
• 2010-2010 Don Gudmundson - Hired interim to fill out the 2010 term when Sheriff Ringhofer retired in April of 2010.
• 2011- Present Lon Thiele

Milestones:

• 1865 Our first jail was at 137 West Main.
• 1907 The second jail was at 135 West Main.
• 1972 The third jail was built at 137 West Main Street. This building incorporated the offices for both the Owatonna Police Dept and the Steele County Sheriff’s Dept.
• 1996 Steele and Rice Counties joined forces to create our joint dispatch center.
• 1997 Police and Sheriff’s Administrative Offices moved to 204 East Pearl Street.
• 2002 The Sheriff’s Department officially became known as the Sheriff’s Office – which indicates the Department head is an elected official.
• 2003 Began to provide D.A.R.E. classes.
• 2003 A new Detention Center was opened at 2500 Alexander Street S.W.
• 2004 Implemented duty logs.
• 2004 Contract hours for Ellendale & Medford are now being handled by everyone, not just one deputy.
• 2004 Assigned one employee to the South Central Drug Investigative Unit
• 2004 Hired a part-time employee for the civil process department
• 2005 Appointed our first two Sergeants
• 2005 Added “Chaos” as our K-9 Unit
• 2006 A new Steele County Sheriff’s Office patch was issued
• 2006 Established a “tip line” – 1-866-878-7964.
• 2006 Added a third Sergeant.
• 2010 Hired an Interim Sheriff from May 1, 2010 to January 3, 2011
• 2010 Published our first newsletter, "The Steele Curtain" in May
• 2010 Established a "Most Wanted" list on our Website in June
• 2011 Changed the name of the newsletter to "Behind The Steele Star" in March
• 2011 In July we updated the graphics on our squads