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Richfield, Minnesota, was named for its dark, fertile soil that helped it develop into a thriving agricultural community. The town reached a size of sixty-three square miles in 1858. Settlers in the 1850s grew wheat, corn, and oats.

Over the next hundred years, however, the town got smaller and smaller. Communities separated from Richfield to become St. Louis Park and Edina in 1886 and 1889, respectively. Next, the state legislature annexed land and added it to Minneapolis. The airport took some land to expand Richfield’s Twin Cities Speedway into the Twin Cities International Airport. The Fort Snelling compound also grabbed some land.

Big Richfield was now little Richfield, only seven square miles, yet it still thrived. Post-World War II developers began buying land to build houses. The military needed housing all over the U.S. for veterans after the war, and Richfield proved to be an affordable and desirable place to live. Young families snapped up houses as fast as they were built, and Richfield’s population grew to over 31,000 by 1954, up from just 3,800 in 1940. In the twenty-five years after the war, all developable land in the community was taken, and few farms were left.

One of the First Farms
In the 1870s, Richfield’s innovative farmers introduced a market gardening industry that lasted throughout the next century. By 1895, Minneapolis’ population had surged to 192,833, quadrupling in just five years. Seeing opportunity, Richfield’s farmers began supplying Minneapolis’ businesses with produce.

One of the earliest farms in Richfield was owned by Hattie and Henry Bachman, Sr. They bought four acres in 1885 and planted potatoes, lettuce, onions, and squash. Henry bought ten more acres each time Hattie delivered a new baby. By 1900 they had eight children, many acres, and a fifteen-room house to live in. No doubt Hattie sought out a Richfield tutor to help her school her children.

Henry used all the technology he could muster to drive his farm’s growth, including laying track from his greenhouse to the main rail line. His gardens were heated by a watered manure base and covered for moisture retention. He built his greenhouses uphill of coal heaters. The heat from the steam would naturally rise to warm the plants. The steam would condense and, due to gravity, return to its source.

To keep his sons interested in farming, Henry gave each one of them a greenhouse and allowed them to plant whatever they wanted to. Four grew vegetables, and one, influenced by his mother’s love of flowers, grew carnations. When demand for vegetables began to decline in the 1920s, Henry shifted to flower growing, and the business blossomed. Bachman’s is now one of the largest traditional floral and nursery businesses in the world, partly because of good timing, but also because of hard work and knowledge—things a Richfield tutor can help students with.