Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Daniel Milton Storer was born in Carthage, Maine July 11, 1828, son of John Storer (1791-1829) and Elizabeth Ingraham Bradbury (1791-1889). He lived with his three brothers, Harrison, Nathan, and Gilman, and his sister, Diantha.

At the age of 19, Daniel decided to move west. First, he lived in Illinois for two years, and then, in 1849 he moved to Stillwater, and by 1853 he came to Sha K’ Pay, Minnesota Territory. (Sha K’ Pay was the name of the town from 1853-1855. It then became Shakapee City, Minnesota Territory from 1855-1857, and then Shakopee, Minnesota.)

Daniel was a carpenter, and during the first ten years, he helped build many of the old buildings in Shakopee.

On July 13, 1855, he married Omittee Fletcher in Shakapee City. Omittee (1835-1909), daughter of Daniel Fletcher (1799-1883) and Mary Stetson (1798-1851) arrived in the city from Maine. They were married by Rev. Samuel W. Pond.

Five children were born by Daniel and Omittee, but four of them died in infancy, including Clara, Maggie, George, and Eliza. One child, Charles Carroll (1860-1938) lived and ended up engaged with his father in the grocery business.

Daniel moved to St. Paul in 1884, but two years later he returned to Shakopee and continued in the grocery business until his death.

Daniel was a great lover of music, and in pioneer times he was often the one violinist in the region, playing for dancing, parties, and socials in Shakopee and the area. “As age crept on, his hearing became greatly impaired, and he became physically unable to call from its strings the sounds he loved so well, which was indeed pathetic. Adults and children loved recall(ing) the familiar sight of. Uncle Dan sitting with the violin upon his knees and drawing out. Merry tunes upon his reversed violin. He was obliged to play. It, as a cello is played, on a count of an injured forefinger. He was a skillful Fighter and in years gone. But no Decoration Day was complete without its drum corps led by Daniel Storer and his merry fife.”

During his life, Daniel kept a diary from 1849 until 1905, including his time in Shakopee from August 1853 until January 1905. His recollections became a book that is now available through the Shakopee Heritage Society.

Here are a few entries when he first arrived in Shakopee:

August 11, 1853

This is a most beautiful little place. There are but few houses here finished off but a good many are in course of construction, in all, over twenty. A year ago there was not a frame house here, so I am told. There is a quite large Indian village just below here.

August 13, 1853

Went out into the timber three miles from town to look at a claim today. The country is good and is settling very fast.

August 14, 1853

Went to church in Holmes Hall. They are a good-looking people here.

In the diary, Daniel talks about many of the men of the time who were around at the founding of the town of Shakopee (though, of course, the area was already Tínṫa Otuŋwe, a Dakota village). People like Samuel W. Pond, Henry Hinds, Julius Anthony Coller, and Theodore Weiland, as well as many other prominent people, were often talked about in the diary. Daniel’s diary also mentions other people, including those who were less prominent, but still important in the founding of the town.

Daniel and Omittee were upper middle class. For ten years, Daniel built houses. He hired people to help. After ten years, he started in the merchandise business.

For 52 years, the Storers lived and worked in Shakopee. They also interacted with other people in Shakopee who were mostly upper middle class or rich.

During those last 52 years, the family had domestic servants. Six of them are mentioned in his diary: Christina, Louise, Lizzie, Tillie, Maggie, and Ms. Jaspers. They were the girls, the live-in help, or the maids who lived and worked in Shakopee at Daniel and Omittee’s home.

On Friday afternoon, Jan. 13, 1905, at twenty minutes past five o’clock, Daniel Milton Storer closed his eyes for the last time. For the last two years, he had been confined to his home with an attack of cancer of the stomach and liver and suffered great pain. The last entry in his journal was on Jan. 1, 1905, where he wrote, “Sunday. I do not get….” But the last sentence was not readable, though it might say “I do not get much better or stronger.” Daniel died 12 days later, according to the diary.

The funeral happened under Masonic honors at the St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. Then they walked to Valley Cemetery where his body was consigned to a grave on a beautiful spot overlooking the valley which he had loved so well during the half century of life.

Daniel’s wife, Omittee Fletcher Storer, died four years later, after a four-month illness. On the Sabbath preceding death, she suffered a stroke of paralysis, and she failed rapidly. Her interment was at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee, according to the Shakopee Argus, Jan. 29, 1909.