Editing Richfield, Minnesota (section)

===Richfield Township is established===
[[File:LocationofRichlandMill.gif|upright=.75|right|thumb|Map showing location of the Richland Mill]]

One of the first settlers to the area was [[Riley Bartholomew]], a former general in the Ohio Militia. He later became a Richfield justice of the peace and a [[Minnesota Senate|Minnesota state senator]]. Bartholomew built a house on Wood Lake's eastern shore in 1852, and the restored [[Riley Lucas Bartholomew House]] is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]. Today, the Richfield Historical Society maintains the house and the site.

The Harmony post office, south of the Richland Mill on Lyndale Avenue, opened in 1854. Postmaster James Dunsmoor named the mail center after his hometown in Maine.<ref>Johnson, Fred, ''Richfield, Minnesota's Oldest Suburb'' 14, (Richfield: Richfield Historical Society Press). Balcom, ''Early Richfield History'' 16-17.</ref> Richfield farmers looked on the metropolis to its north as their marketing target. They helped supply its restaurants, hotels, grocers and citizens with fresh produce, with enough left over to ship by railroad to other cities.<ref>Johnson, Fred, ''Richfield, Minnesota's Oldest Suburb'' 37, (Richfield: Richfield Historical Society Press).</ref>

On May 11, 1858, Congress approved the [[Territory of Minnesota]] as the 32nd state to join the union. That day, local citizens met in a schoolhouse at present-day 53rd and Lyndale to form a municipal government. At that meeting, those who previously said they lived in Harmony or Richland Mills chose the name Richfield for their community.<ref>[http://www.cityofrichfield.org/about/history.htm History of Richfield] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051201013303/http://www.cityofrichfield.org/about/history.htm|date=December 1, 2005}}, City of Richfield Website</ref><ref>On April 10, 1858, the [[Hennepin County, Minnesota|Hennepin County]] Board of Commissioners established a number of towns including "Richland." Folwell History of Minnesota. II: 10-11. Records of the Town of Richfield, County of Hennepin, State of Minnesota, See minutes of the May 11, 1858, meeting.</ref>

Settlers from [[Maine]] made up 35% of U.S.-born adults 18 or older in 1860 Richfield. New York [[immigrants]] were 21%. Immigrants from [[Ireland]], numbering 58, represented half of the 119 adults from other nations. Just three of Richfield's citizens had been born in Minnesota.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060613035353/http://www.villageprofile.com/minnesota/richfield/03/topic.html Richfield History], Community Profile</ref>

Richfield's fields proved bountiful for the settlers. Early crops included corn, wheat and oats. Wheat immediately became the cash crop, sold in the area's first major market, [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]]. Those in southern [[Hennepin County]] found it more profitable to haul their wheat crop to St. Paul than to the St. Anthony Falls district. This was before "King Wheat" and Minneapolis's evolution into a milling center.<ref>Attwater and Stevens, ''History of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota'' 1413-1414. Richfield's George Odell wrote his town's history in the Atwater and Stevens book. ''Minnesota Farmer and Gardener'', Lyman M. Ford and John H. Stevens, ed., No. 1. Nov. 18, 1860, 13. Letter from H. H. Hopkins in the December 1860 issue. pages 60-61.</ref>

;Market gardening
Minneapolis became a favorite trading point for market gardeners in 1897 with the building of the modern, covered Second Street Market just two blocks west of [[Hennepin Avenue]] and Bridge Square. The market featured a massive platform for gardeners, including Richfield's sizable contingent, to unload and display produce. The new system freed streets from traffic snarls by allowing each person to unhitch and put up their horses, while their wagon was backed into an assigned space. Wholesale customers could then bring their teams to the platform and negotiate prices when the starting bell sounded.<ref>The new Second Street Market at 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue North is praised in the Minneapolis monthly magazine ''The Market garden: Journal for the Gardener and Trucker'', 4 (Market 1897): 3.</ref>