Oliver H. Kelley Farm, 15788 Kelley Farm Road, Elk River, Minnesota

From Placeography

Edit with form
Oliver H. Kelley Farm
Address:	15788 Kelley Farm Road
City/locality- State/province	Elk River, Minnesota
County- State/province:	Sherburne County, Minnesota
State/province:	Minnesota
Country:	United States
Year Established:	1850
Founded by:	Oliver H. Kelley
Historic Function:	Farmstead
Current Function:	Historic site

National Register of Historic Places Information
Reference URL:	[Reference]
Level of significance:	National
Primary Style:	Italianate

The site includes an Italianate farmhouse and various farm outbuildings as well as fields where crops are grown and harvested as they were in the mid-Nineteenth Century.

Contents 1 Site History 2 Memories and stories

Site History

Oliver H. Kelley staked a claim at the new town of Itasca on the Mississippi River near present-day Elk River. Kelley moved away from farming and Minnesota in the late 1860s, and in his later years he was known for founding the National Grange, a fraternal organization of farm families. Two of his daughters returned to the farm in 1876 and managed it during the summers until 1885. The Kelleys owned the farm until 1901.

Grange purchased the farm in 1935 and donated it to the Minnesota Historical Society in 1961. At this National Historic Landmark, visitors become involved in living history demonstrations of the work and play of daily life for Oliver H. Kelley's family and other farmers in mid-19th-century Minnesota.

Memories and stories

Oliver H. Kelley Farm Historic Site operated by the Minnesota Historical Society