About:

Chosen as a town site by the St. Paul and Dakota Railroad Company and developed by the Catholic Church, Adrian is one of many Minnesota towns that owes its existence to that peculiar combination of railroads and religion. O.D. Brown of the Railroad Company surveyed the original 16-block town site May 23-29, 1876, but the town didn't begin to develop until the track-laying crews reached the location in August with their branch of the Sioux City and St. Paul Railroad. Shortly thereafter, on August 28, the city's plat was dedicated. It was filed another month later on October 4.

Adrian was named after Mrs. Adrian Iselin, mother of Adrian C. Iselin, one of the directors of the Sioux City and St. Paul Railroad Company. For a time, this claim offended the sensibilities of people who preferred to believe the more inspiring story that the town was named in honor of St. Adrian, the celebrated warrior and Catholic bishop whose name was adopted by the local parish. But since the naming process was well documented, and Adrian received its title in 1876, while St. Adrian Church was not founded until 1877, most of the conflict eventually disappeared. A portrait of the austere Mrs. Adrian together with an article now adorns the wall of her namesake's City Hall.

Adrian prospered early in its life, shipping 100,000 bushels of grain from the station during 1877, the year after its founding. That prosperity was due in large part to the colonizing efforts of John Ireland, third bishop of the St. Paul Diocese. Bishop Ireland used his personal wealth and the power of the Catholic press to attempt to lure Catholic settlers from the eastern cities. In 1877, he bought 20,000 acres of land in the Adrian vicinity. Seven months later he purchased another 35,000 acres for resale to the settlers.