The Dark History of Richfield

Don't ask me why, but I decided to do some "research" into the history of my hometown this morning, and I found some disturbing things. Richfield, Minnesota is not the pretty little town that you might have thought it was if you've ever heard of it before maybe.

When Richfield was first being settled in the mid-1800s, most of the settlers were immigrants*. However, some of those immigrants were ghosts! That's right. I don't mean that Richfield is haunted. From what I understand, these ghosts mostly kept to their own business and just farmed like everyone else. Also, they were Polish.

Richfield used to be much bigger than it is now, but a series of divisions and annexations brought it to its present size. In 1888, pirates who were kept in the county jail in west Richfield (as far west as present-day Highway 169*) broke out and staged a rebellion against the Richfield city government. They pirates waged war with the city for two years. When they reached peace, the pirates were allowed to break away and establish their own city. Richfield's western border was set at present-day Xerxes Ave, and the pirates named their city Edina*.

Richield's northern border used to extend far north enough to include both Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun*. This border was later shortened when the Chinese annexed these parts of the city as part of their conquest of Tibet. They later sold those parts of the city to Minneapolis for a few million dollars and some nice T-shirts for Mao. Minneapolis renamed the street separating the two lakes "Richfield Road" in mockery of the once great city.

The Bartholomew House near Wood Lake, a registered National and Minnesota historic place*, was actually built in the late 1920s when then-mayor Bartholomew Joseph Anderson was kicked out of his house for cheating on his wife. He built the house mostly by himself, but he contracted polio before he could finish it. He enlisted some beavers to complete the construction. He died in 1931 of a combination of polio and beaver poisoning.

New Ford Town, a small part of Richfield annexed by the Chinese airport in the early 1990s*, was originally named after the first car in Richfield. The richest resident of early Richfield, and the only resident of New Ford Town, bought a new Ford truck for the long drives into the city. When the new truck arrived, he changed the name of his farm from Old Horse Town to New Ford Town.



NOTE: Starred sentences are true or contain some measure of truth.