Riley L. Bartholomew, eldest of 12 children in a frontier farm family from Harpersfield in Ashtabula County, Ohio, was the son of a veteran of the War of 1812 and grandson of Revolutionary War veterans. He joined the Ohio Militia, rose to the rank of General, and later was elected County Sheriff. In 1850 he traveled west with his parents, siblings, and their families to Wisconsin and then to Minnesota. In the winter of 1852 he pitched a tent on this site to hold his land claim, built a log cabin, and later built the frame house here. With his wife, Fannie, and their children, America, Virginia, Winfield, and Rollin, he cleared and farmed the land as a founding settler of Richfield. In 1854 he helped build Richfield's first schoolhouse, the Wood Lake School, which served as the town hall until 1874. That same year he was elected Justice of the Peace and for 12 years performed marriages and heard disputes on the Minnesota frontier. He also served as a Minnesota territorial leader, as State Representative from Richfield, State Senator from Hennepin County, and Richfield representative to the State Constitutional Convention of 1857. During the years of the Civil and Indian Wars, members of his family served in the military: his brother Benjamin died at Fort Ridgely in 1863 during the Indian unrest, his son Rollin served with the 1st Minnesota Regiment, and at age 55 Riley joined Anson Northrup's Volunteer Militia to ride to the aid of New Ulm settlers during the 1862 Sioux Uprising. After Riley's death in 1894, his son Winfield took over the farm, and direct descendants continued farming the site until 1962.