Historic Homes and Businesses in Carver - Carver County Historical ...

Riverside Park. During those years in Carver, Riverside Park was furnished with barns,
sheds, stables, fences, and in the 1890s with a splendid Victorian pavilion.
The Carver County Fairs at Riverside Park were the great threads that sewed the fabric of
19 th and early 20 th Century area society together, fostering advancement in almost every
area of local civilization The fairs allowed citizens to meet and talk to political
candidates in the era before the telephone, radio, and, televisions, and computers. The
latest agricultural implements were demonstrated, the newest farming techniques were
showcased, the best breeding stocks were displayed, and new strains of produce were
shared. By 1911 the fair even featured a motorized Ferris wheel and carousel. Every
latest advancement to early area life was featured here: parlor stoves, ice boxes, sewing
machines, high wheel bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles, cooking stoves, well pumps,
sinks, plows, steam threshers, buggies, wagons, harnesses, blacksmith work, quilts,
bakery, preserves, livestock, music, phonographs, then telephones and radios. It was at
Riverside Park where townspeople, farmers, merchants, steamboaters, railroaders, and
public officials all gathered to share the latest ideas.
Carding Mill. Once located on Third Street West, it was located just west of Spring
Creek on the north side of Third. Andrew M. Swanson (Swenson) was advertised in the
1878-1879 Minnesota Gazateer as owning the carding mill and a furniture store. The mill
survived until at least 1894, but was gone by 1928.
Carver Creamery and Ice House. Built about 1900 and first owned by the Carver
Creamery Association. The icehouse was a single story building with a wooden fame
and lapped wooden siding. The creamery itself was constructed in wood with a brick
veneer. A cave in the rear was used for cold storage. Once owned as a partnership, by
1897 John J. Farrell had become the sole owner of the Carver Creamery.
John J. (J.J.) Farrell was born in 1866, the son of Pennsylvania Civil War veteran Daniel
Farrell and Mary (Guyton) Farrell. John J. Farrell came from Ohio to Minnesota in 1886
at the age of 20. In Ohio Farrell had been employed in the creamery and cheese factory
of S. Straight and Son, who were among the founders of the Midwest creamery industry.
He first located at Rochester, Minnesota, then moved to St. Paul where he was connected
to the Crescent Creamery, a pioneer Minnesota creamery business. After moving to
Carver, Farrell took up residence in the Temperance Hotel for a time.
Farrell was the first in Carver County to buy butterfat for processing by the Babcock
Test, which insured that product wasn‟t being unscrupulously watered down. Farrell‟s
Carver County butter was of excellent quality, with most of the product being shipped in
60-pound tubs to Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia.
In 1906 Farrell was elected president of the National Creamery Buttermakers Association
and served for several terms. An avid Democrat, he was president of the Carver County
Agricultural Association from 1902-1922 which put on the Carver County Fairs at
Carver‟s Riverside Park, was a candidate for the Minnesota State Senate in 1914, a
candidate for U. S. Senator, Mayor of Carver, and in 1915 he became the Minnesota State