Historic Contexts Study and Phase II Inventory (Downtown Elk River) 2022

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falling market prices for crops and livestock. In addition to its political and fraternal work, the Grange promoted experimental farming and other progressive agricultural practices. Kelley was the author of Origin and Progress of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (1875).15 The Kelley family owned the farm until 1901, although Oliver left Minnesota in the late1860s to pursue Grange activities. The Grange purchased the farm in 1935 and donated it to the Minnesota Historical Society in 1961. Sherburne County recorded 110 farms in 1860; by 1880 the number rose to 599; to 775 in 1890;1,054 in 1900; and 1,190 in 1910.16 (In 1992, the number of farms was 530.) By 1910, the average Sherburne County farm was 172 acres, considerably larger than Isanti and Anoka and Wright and Hennepin counties, but comparable to Stearnes and other counties to the west." A total of eighty-two percent were operated by owners.18 In the early twentieth century, however, there was a general downsizing of farms. The total amount of acreage devoted to farms in Sherburne County, which was at 34 percent in 1860, peaked at 55 percent in 1900. During this period, the county's population rose from 490 to 7,281. Elk River and the Potato Sherburne County farmers appear to have followed the general pattern of an initial reliance on wheat cultivation followed by more diversification after the collapse of the wheat market and soil depletion. With improvements in agricultural machinery and the railroad, more markets opened for Sherburne County farmers. By 1880, the leading grain crop was wheat, followed by oats, corn, rye, and buckwheat. Potatoes were the leading produce crop, with over 4,000 bushels produced. " The sandy soils of Elk River Township have long favored potato and rye cultivation. In the mid-1880s, a specialized potato district developed north of the Twin Cities, with markets as far as New England and the South. Starch factories were also a by-product of the potato industry. 20 Elk River potato warehouse, ca. 1900. Photo: MHS. Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 4/2002