Item 4 Friedrich Park Sign101
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39
COUNTY
42
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NASHUA AVE
ODEAN AVE
85TH STREET
85TH STREET
MACIVER AVENUE
78TH STREET
PAGE AVE
75TH STREET
The story of Friedrich Park is like the story of many family farms that
were the foundation of Otsego’s development and history.
Wilfred and Rose Friedrich were farming in Otsego near the southwest corner of
Page Avenue and 90th Street (CSAH 39). Wilfred was born to farming in St. Michael
and spent some of his childhood in Frankfort Township. In 1953, Wilfred and Rose
bought 140 acres of land from Joseph and Ann Heuring located west of Odean
Avenue (which was County Road 37 at the time) at the present-day intersection
with 75th Street.
Vernon, a son of Wilfred, remembers being 11 years old and helping drive their dairy
herd from that farm to the new farm about 3 miles away. They went west along
90th Street (CSAH 39) to Odean Avenue to their new farm. The farmstead was
just southwest of the current 75th Street intersection, which is now the location of
Otsego’s first fire station. Vernon remembers a team of horses pulling a wagon as
part of this move over roads that were just gravel then.
The farm was primarily a dairy farm with 34 head of cattle, which were Guernseys
at first, then later Holsteins. They also raised assorted other animals including
pigs, chickens, and ducks, and there were dogs and cats too. In 1977, Wilfred and
Vernon quit dairy farming and auctioned off their dairy cattle and equipment. They
continued to raise crops and keep pigs. Because the development was not imminent,
Vernon continued to farm the land, raising corn and pigs, until 2006. Then the final
farm auction was held.
Vernon and his wife Leona met while working in Minneapolis, were married in 1965,
and moved to the farm in 1968. They brought their three children with them to the
farm and later had one more child, born after the move.
In 1984, Wilfred passed away. Rose passed away in 1993.
Vernon and Leona moved off the farm in 2001.
Wilfred and Rose sold two twenty-acre parcels of the 140 acre farm to Mark and
Eugene Kolles. In 1998, Vernon and Leona sold the remaining 100 acres to Scherer
Brothers Lumber Company. Scherer Brothers sold 80 acres of the property to D.R.
Horton and Benzinger Homes for development of the Ashwood neighborhood,
which includes Friedrich Park. In 2019, the City of Otsego purchased the 20 acre
parcel south of 75th Street for the purpose of developing the fire station.
Source: Vernon and Leona Friedrich
FRIEDRICH PARK
7675 O’Brian Ave NE, Otsego, MN
TOWNSHIP OF OTSEGO
WEB
Aerial view of the farm (1963)
Credit: Vernon and Leona Friedrich
Vernon
Friedrich
(circa 1948)
Credit: Vernon and
Leona Friedrich
Vernon
Friedrich by
the pumphouse
(1956)
Credit: Vernon and
Leona Friedrich
Wilfred and Rose Friedrich
on their wedding day (1938)
Credit: Vernon and Leona Friedrich
www.ci.otsego.mn.us
est.1858
Kids in a huge corn pile (2000)
Credit: Vernon and Leona Friedrich
Wilfred Friedrich with
a holstein (1974)
Credit: Vernon and Leona Friedrich
Vernon and Leona Friedrich (2024)
Credit: Vernon and Leona Friedrich
Auction ending
farm (2001)
Credit: Vernon and
Leona Friedrich
Auction ending dairy (1977)
Credit: Vernon and Leona Friedrich