Its Register listings are the Adolph C. Ochs House, the Bendixon-Schmid House and the Kreitinger Garage. Its Register listings are the Adolph C. Ochs House, the Bendixon-Schmid House and the Kreitinger Garage. Below: maps from 1894 on and the census since 1880.
Founding year: the first Springfield post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Springfield’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Springfield is more historic than 77% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Springfield’s overall grade.
Minnesota towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Minnesota town has 2.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Springfield’s 18.8 sits above most of its state (83% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 4 historic buildings outnumber those of 68% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.4 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Springfield’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
Jackson, Minnesota was originally platted with the name Springfield in 1856.
Springfield was originally platted in 1877 with the name of "Burns" when the Chicago and North Western Railway extended a line to the settlement. It was renamed in 1881 after either Springfield, Massachusetts. or a nearby spring.
In 1890 Adolph Casimir Ochs established the Ochs Brick and Tile Company in Springfield and Heron Lake. Ochs outlived all other brick plant in Minnesota, but it too closed in 2016. The Sanborn Company remains in Springfield.
Springfield has three Lutheran Churches as well as a Catholic and United Methodist. The town still retains active rail service from the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific.
Passages that mention Springfield, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of brown county Minnesota1916 · page 482Read the page →
Read the text
Springfield, situated in sections 18 and 19 of township 109, range 34 west, was platted as ‘‘Burns’’ in 1877, on the line of the Winona & St. Peter railroad. <A postoffice had been established there in 1873. It took the name of Springfield in 1881, when it was incorporated as a village.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of brown county Minnesota1916 · page 387Read the page →
Read the text
In Burnstown township the Catholic people built a fine church in the village of Springfield, in 1879, at a cost of twenty-three dollars. Father Bergquist held first services in 1874. This congregation in 1882 was also under Father Sandmeyer at Sleepy Eye and had then eighty-five families.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Springfield, 1873 to 1973
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Springfield post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Springfield rank for history?
Springfield is more historic than 77% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Springfield?
Three places: the Adolph C. Ochs House (listed 1979), the Bendixon-Schmid House (1979) and the Kreitinger Garage (1979).
How old are the homes in Springfield?
32% of Springfield’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.4 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1950.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
