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.
Cornelius Couillard was born at Frankfort, Maine, on October 30, 1813. He was the son of a farmer and at age 20 engaged in the tanning business. He then became a ship's carpenter and continued shipbuilding for twenty years until business began to wane. Discouraged, he decided to follow the crowd of home-seekers and go west. In the spring of 1854, accompanied by his wife, Nancy, and six children, he took the iron horse to Rock Island, Illinois, and a boat the rest of the way to Minneapolis. When he arrived, he rented Calvin Tuttle's farm near where the University of Minnesota now stands.
Mr. Couillard was employed to help build the first suspension bridge to cross the Mississippi River, having brought his ship building tools with him from Maine. He, and a fellow worker, were the first to cross the "Father of Waters" on the bridge. In the fall of 1854, Mr. Couillard made a 160-acre claim in Richfield, and had his oldest sons hold it until spring, when the whole family would occupy it. One of the Couillard sons, Adelbert, remembers driving to the Richfield land. They borrowed a team and drove out, arriving in Richfield at 9:00pm. He held the lantern while his dad built a shanty 12 feet square. The next day the whole family moved out and they built another shanty. In those two small buildings they lived until the large house was finished. Later, they built a granary of slabs from the sawmill of Ard Godfrey that had been at the mouth of Minnehaha Creek.
Mr. Couillard was his own blacksmith and wagon maker. His produce market was St. Paul. He was a member of the Universalist Church and took a strong stand against intemperance. In his younger days, he voted the Democratic ticket, but became an Abolitionist when the freedom of the Black people became an issue. After the rebellion, he became a Republican until he felt prohibition should be the issue. A Couillard daughter, Emma, was a schoolteacher and taught in the early days of Wood Lake School. Fred Couillard, a son, carried on farm operations and lived there until after 1898. Eventually, some of the farm was sold to Sheldon Blair, an area contractor. He was farsighted and cooperated with village planners in building the Sheldon Blair Addition. The Couillard house however, remained in the family until just recently. It is located east of Augsburg Park.