Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022
Joannes Josephis Antonius Anton Entrup was born on February 8, 1821, son of Antonius Entrup and Maria Catharina Rogge. He grew up in Eggerode, Westfalen, Prussia.
Anton, as he was called, decided to move to America, and he arrived in New York on November 10, 1849. He moved to St. Louis, where he met Elizabeth “Lizette” Schmitz. Lizette was born on January 13, 1823, in Mönchengladbach, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland, daughter of Wihelm Josef Schmitz and Anna Gertrud Tillges. Lizette headed to America, arriving on June 2, 1853, according to Ancestry.com.
Anton and Lizette got married in St. Louis and moved to Shakopee in April of 1855.
According to The Shakopee Story, the small but growing Catholic people in Shakopee had been visited by Father Augustin Ravoux of Mendota and Father Valentine Sommereisen of Mankato in 1854 and 1855. “It was not until the very dawn of 1856 that they had offered in their midst the holy sacrifice of the Mass, which, according to their belief, is the most important single ritual of the church. The first Holy Mass in Shakopee was offered in the home of Anton Entrup on January 1st by Reverend George Keller, pastor of Assumption Church in St. Paul. It was on this bitterly cold New Year’s day that the Catholic determined to organize and agreed to meet six days later,” according to Julius Coller II, page 42-43.
In a meeting on January 20, 1856, Anton, along with H.H. Strunk, George F. Coller, Adolph Albachten, and Joseph Bartolet were in charge of looking for a location for St. Mark’s church. They bought Lots 4 and 5 for $250, and the first church was built of native limestone for $986.50, according to The Shakopee Story. Anton oversaw the masonry, and Adam Koerner was in charge with the woodwork.
Anton was a mason and bricklayer in Shakopee, since he arrived in 1855.
He built many of the structures in and around Shakopee. Besides St. Mark’s, he also helped built the Argus block in downtown Shakopee.
Antony and Lizette had six children: Charles Augusta, Lisette, August, Julia, Antonia, and Louis.
While working at a building in Jordan, Anton fell from the building on June 19, 1876. He died when he fell from the roof of the building. He was 55 years old, according to the History of the Minnesota Valley: Including the Explorers and Pioneers by Edward Duffield Neill.
Joannes Josephis Antonius Anton Entrup was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Shakopee. His wife, Elizabeth Lizette Schmitz Entrup, died on March 13, 1895, and was buried near her husband at Calvary Cemetery in Eagle Creek, Shakopee, Minnesota, on the high hill overlooking the Minnesota River.
Bibliography
Coller, Julius A., II. The Shakopee Story, pp. 42-43.
Neill, Edward Duffield. History of the Minnesota Valley: Including the Explorers and Pioneers.