Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020
Long before white settlers hacked away part of the hill for its limestone, the Mdewakanton Dakota revered it as a holy place, a lookout, campground, and burial ground. In the Dakota language, He Mni Caŋ (pronounced, heh-meh-NEE-cha) means hill, water, wood, and in English was called Barn Bluff. The bluff attracted ancestral visionaries who acted as guides for the Indian community.
Led by Tatanka Mani (Walking Buffalo) (ca. 1755-1829), who, along with his village, was known as Red Wing, and when he died in March 1829, Wacouta I (Shooter) became leader of the Red Wing band. Red Wing went to pray and connect with Inyan, the original spirit who lives in the hills and high places. The Dakota women collected medicine plants, including hutkan (ginseng), sinkpa tawatne (bitterroot), and pejuta ska (lady slipper).
During the great immigration period of the 1850s to 1880s, thousands disembarked from steamboats at the base of Barn Bluff to begin a new life on the frontier, including Johann “John” Paul, who arrived in 1861.
John Paul was born in September of 1819 in Mecklenburg, Nordwestmecklenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.
He left Germany on August 4, 1856. John had been a potter in Germany, and he was familiar with the process of producing durable stoneware. He knew how to build a kiln, how to cool the stoneware carefully, and how to glaze the product to seal porous clay.
John made the stoneware for himself in Red Wing. He used the natural red clay along the Mississippi River. John discovered the large, glacially deposited clay pits located north of Goodhue. He also established a small pottery business in an old schoolhouse. This was the beginning of the Red Wing pottery that continued for the next 116 years.
“A German craftsman and Minnesota transplant, John Paul was among the first to find natural clay deposits near Red Wing in 1861. He and his fellow settlers spent the next two decades crafting a wealth of wares to meet the demands of farm life. Close proximity to railroads, river barges and the burgeoning grain industry made the city a potter’s paradise,” noted Eve Daniels.
John Paul married Margaretha Leibe (1842-1917), who was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. They married on September 7, 1868.
John was a private in the Wisconsin Infantry, Company B, during the Civil War. He was 43 years old and was in for one-and-a-half years, from April 1863 to 1865.
John and Margaretha and their first four children (Charles, Peter, Dudziah, and Emma) moved to Shakopee, Minnesota in 1871. They had four more children while in Shakopee. The children born in Shakopee include August, Belle, Dora, and Lizzie. They lived on First Avenue where River Rock Dental is located.
For a few years, John worked as a potter in Shakopee, using mud from the Minnesota River. He crafted jugs, milk crocks, plates, picture cups, jars and bowls, as well as toy cats, dogs, monkeys, and chickens.
The 1880 Census noted that John Paul, age 42, and his wife, Margaretha, age 36, along with Charles, 11, Peter, 10, Emma, 8, Frank (August), 4, and Belle, age 1, lived on First Avenue. John worked as a brick mason. He only worked eight months of the year, which was typical for those who worked as a brick mason.
John and Margaretha were married for 32 years. Many of the Paul family members were confirmed in 1895 at the Gustavus Adolphus English Lutheran Church in Shakopee.
John Paul died on June 26, 1900, in Shakopee. John, Margaretha, and their son, Peter, were buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.
No stone marker marks John and Margaretha’s graves, though their son’s gravestone is nearby.