The Bonde Farmhouse is a historic farmhouse located in Wheeling Township in

Rice County, Minnesota Rice County is a county located in the south central portion of the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,097. Its county seat is Faribault. Rice County comprises the ''Faribault-Northfield, MN Micropolitan ...

, United States, approximately from Nerstrand. The private home was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

(NRHP) on April 6, 1982. The farmhouse is significant both for its association with a prominent

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

immigrant family as well as its local

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

construction and outstanding integrity.

Structure

The Bonde Farmhouse is located off County Road 27 and

Minnesota State Highway 246 Minnesota State Highway 246 (MN 246) is a highway in southeast Minnesota, which runs from its intersection with State Highway 3 in the city of Northfield and continues south and east to its eastern terminus at its intersection with State ...

, just outside the town of Nerstrand. The building's siting on a hilltop location, alongside its stone masonry construction, make it a focal point for the

farmstead A homestead is an isolated dwelling, especially a farmhouse, and adjacent outbuildings, typically on a large agricultural holding such as a ranch or station. In North America the word "homestead" historically referred to land claimed by a set ...

and landmark in the area. The -story house is constructed of Nerstrand and Faribault limestone and its two sections form an L-shape. All windows and door opening on the west (front) side of the north ell are located below the central cabled roof while wider spaces are located between other openings. The two-over-two windows have stone sills and lintels. Small, slightly arched windows are centered in the gable ends. The front

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

features turned posts, turned

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or ' ...

and spindles along the porch

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

and is topped by a metal railing; it extends across the west side of the north ell.Britta Bloomberg, Minnesota Historic Properties Inventory Form, February 1981; copy accessed from Bonde, Totsen, Farmhouse file, State Historic Preservation Office in the Minnesota History Center. In 1960 a basement garage and 1-story addition were added to the rear of the building. Four of the farm buildings located near the house comprise the core of structures built by Tosten Bonde during the 1870s and 1880s; Bonde's journal recorded the construction dates. These structures include a

gambrel A gambrel or gambrel roof is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. (The usual architectural term in eighteenth-century England and North America was "Dutch roof".) The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, ...

-roofed

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Alle ...

, built in 1870 and remodeled at the turn of the 20th century; an 1883 machine shed that was later turned to a garage; an 1886 granary; and an 1887 milk house. These buildings were included in the original nomination to the NRHP.

History and significance

The site was originally

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept t ...

ed by Einer Bonde, who emigrated from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

with his family in 1854 to farm in the Midwest. After a year in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

, in 1855 the family settled among the loosely organized Norwegian settlers in Wheeling Township. Einer's son Tosten acquired the farm in 1865 and built the large farmhouse in 1875, the same year his father, Einer died. Tosten Bonde kept thorough records of farm statistics, building improvements and family and local notes in a journal he kept in the 1880s. Tosten Bonde was a successful farmer and figured prominently in the history of the Norwegian community centered on Nerstrand. He founded the Wheeling Mutual Insurance Company in 1876 and served in the

Minnesota State Legislature The Minnesota Legislature is the bicameral legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota consisting of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Senators are elected from 67 single-member districts. In order to account for decen ...

for two terms as a

Representative Representative may refer to: Politics * Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people * House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities * Legislator, som ...

and two terms as a State Senator.Johnson, Tosten "T., Tostin"
Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, Accessed December 9, 2010.Fundamental Inventory Guide Part 2: Rice County Historical Setting & Resources
, Rice County, Minnesota, Accessed December 13, 2010. The Bonde Farmhouse reflects the success of early Norwegian farmers who cleared and farmed the land of the area. The area surrounding Nerstrand and Wheeling Township became a close-knit Norwegian American community.Thorstein Veblen Farmstead, House, Section 12, Wheeling Township, Nerstrand vicinity, Rice, MN
Library of Congress, Accessed December 13, 2010. At the time of its listing on the NRHP, Bonde family descendants still headed the Wheeling Mutual Insurance Company, farmed the original homestead and resided in the stone house.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Houses completed in 1875 Houses in Rice County, Minnesota Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Norwegian-American culture in Minnesota Norwegian-American history National Register of Historic Places in Rice County, Minnesota

Structure

History and significance

See also

References