Farmhouses of Richfield is a series of geocaches intended to highlight several old farmhouses still standing in Richfield. These farmhouses were all built between 1852 and 1918 by settlers who migrated to MN because land was affordable and fertile. Please take time to look at these impressive houses that have stood for over a century.
Although John McCabe was born in Ireland, as an adult he settled in New York following the trade of coopering. He married Harriet Toles in August of 1841 and in 1853, came west and homesteaded in Richfield. The land grant given to him was said to be only the third issued in Minnesota Territory. He located on 280 acres in Section 32 where he resided until the time of his death in 1878.
Mr. and Mrs. McCabe had six children, five daughters and one son, Merriman. One of the daughters, Mary, married Winfield Bartholomew, son of Richfield pioneer General Riley Bartholomew.
Marriman McCabe, the only son of John, served with Northrup's Volunteers for the relief of Fort Ridgely in 1862. By 1879, he had taken over his father's farm. In 1881, he married a Richfield girl, Malinda Jane Roberts. They had four children, one dying in infancy. By 1890, the family property was divided into smaller lots and sold.
The Marriman McCabe family relocated to a farm near 62nd and Lyndale Avenue. Mr. McCabe was active in town meetings, served on the Town Board in 1892, and was a school board member for six years. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and at one time brought suit against the proprietor of the Minnehaha Fall Hotel for selling "beer".
Mrs. McCabe is credited with helping save the church from extinction by driving around in her horse and buggy to collect funds for the church.