Fucker & Sons

City’s Growth Catches Up to South Minneapolis Farmer

Barney Kesler owned and operated a 40-acre farm at 5900 Nicollet Ave. On October 16, 1946 he hoed his garden with his 3-year-old granddaughter Carol for one last time. Kesler was forced to sell his farm (30 acres of it) to make way for the expanding residential real estate market in Minneapolis.

Born in Victoria, Minn., Kesler came to Minneapolis in the 1870s at the age of 8. He started his farm at 59th and Nicollet in 1893 after driving his cart over two planks to cross Minnehaha Creek. At the time, the land was outside the city limits, in the Village of Richfield. The territory was annexed to the City of Minneapolis in 1927. 

Barney Kesler died on July 17, 1947, at the age of 80, less than a year after selling his farmland. His former farmland is now filled with houses.