Editing Litchfield, Minnesota (section)

===Town name===
The settlers living in the area named their new community "Ness" on April 5, 1858, after the home of many of the first settlers: the [[parish]] of [[Nesbyen_(municipality)|''Næs'']] in the traditional region of [[Hallingdal]], Norway.<ref name="indrev">{{cite web |last1=Shaw |first1=Terry |title=Looking Back at Litchfield: A dry tale ... when Litchfield voted for prohibition |url=https://www.crowrivermedia.com/independentreview/news/entertainment/looking-back-at-litchfield-a-dry-tale-when-litchfield-voted-for-prohibition/article_217142aa-b5b4-11ec-9333-4fbc09a2f4c7.html |website=Litchfield Independent Review |access-date=17 October 2024 |language=en |date=13 April 2022}}</ref>

Litchfield got its name from a man named Electus Bachus Darwin Litchfield. He was a contractor, an investor, and a stockholder in the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, which originally went from [[St. Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]] to [[St. Cloud, Minnesota|St. Cloud]] and was built from 1862 to 1864.<ref name=WPA/> Later, his investments provided the means for building a more southern line through Meeker County to [[Breckenridge, Minnesota|Breckenridge]].

The village of Litchfield was originally called several different names, including "Round Lake", "Ripley", and finally "Ness". Litchfield was originally a portion of a congressional township named Round Lake, but most people called it Ripley after Ripley Lake one mile from its center.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

The people of Ness were permitted to vote on the actual chartered village name of their township. Electus Litchfield donated grants of $2,000 each to various religious sects in town to build churches, the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches being two of them. The Presbyterian Church, Litchfield's first church, was built in 1870.

The majority of the 350 people voted for the name Litchfield over Ness, and the township of Litchfield was chartered as a village on February 29, 1872. The first village council meeting was held on April 5, 1872, in the railroad's land office. Jesse Vawter Branham, Jr. was elected the President of the Council.<ref name="indrev" />