Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Shakopee was one of the oldest settlements in Minnesota, but was really only a frontier outpost, part Indian and part white, when Moses Starr Titus moved here.

Moses was born on October 27, 1819, in Washington, Litchfield, Connecticut. The Titus family was related to the Ponds, an old Connecticut family. Moses’s parents were Starr Titus and Rebecca Pond. Rebecca was the sister of Samuel and Gideon Pond. Samuel and Gideon came west about 1832 as missionaries among the Indians. They established a mission among them on the east side of Bde Maka Ska in the city limits of Minneapolis.

Moses Starr Titus came west about 1844 to join the Ponds and assist them as a teacher. He also was an Indian farmer and a trader at Hohaanskae (Black Dog Village). He came to Shakopee by canoe, and then by ox teams, following the old Indian trail. He spent the winter of 1851 in the area later named Shakopee.

One of the earliest white pioneers to the Shakopee area, Moses Starr Titus, described the first lonely winter of the few settlers who arrived almost before the ink on the treaties was dry:

“The winter was long, and cold, no news, no festivities, no pleasures, parties, no dancing (unless to warm freezing toes), and no papers from St. Paul or Ft. Snelling… Our town proprietor (Thomas A. Holmes) did not starve, his Indian friends brought him plenty of venison; potatoes were to be had at the old [S. W. Pond] Mission site and towards spring our heroes in their rambles captured a large bear. This was rare sport, and furnished them with food, and fun, for a full month.”

Not that weather was less worrisome when spring arrived, as Titus went on to point out: “The winter [ended] in due time. Years come and go, Shakopee or no Shakopee, and with the spring, the floods came, the winds blew, and from the foot of the bluff, on the south side of the Minnesota River, to the bluff on the north, was one continuous sheet of water. The Indian canoe glided to and fro from above the window.”

Moses met Jane Lamont while at Bde Maka Ska.

Jane was born in 1827, the daughter of Daniel Lamont, a trader from Scotland, and Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ (Hush the Night), Mdewakanton Dakota. Daniel’s father and Jane’s grandparents were Colin Lamont, Sr., and Jane Smith of Scotland. Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ’s father was the Dakota Bde Maka Ska leader. Jane’s grandparents were Maḣpiya Wic̣aṡṭa and Canpadutawin. Maḣpiya Wic̣aṡṭa was also known as Cloud Man, and Canpadutawin was known as Red Cherry Woman.

On March 14, 1850, Moses Starr Titus married Jane Lamont. Moses had been living with the family for some years.

Moses organized one of the first schools in the Minnesota River valley at Shakopee. In 1852, Moses and Jane built a house in Shakopee. A few years later, they built the large residence not too far from the Ponds’ residence, which they lived in until they both died.

Moses and Jane had four children, three sons and a daughter: Seymour Starr (1851), Henry Harlan (1854), Moses Starr (1858), and Jane Marilla Titus (1866).

Moses and Jane were involved in founding the Presbyterian Church, and they took an active role.

Jane was remembered as a woman of kindness and mercy. As a wife and mother, she was true and tender, and as a mother she exerted all a mother’s love and watchful care.

Moses Starr Titus, for 26 years a resident of Shakopee, and 34 years an inhabitant of Minnesota, died on September 22, 1878. He was 58 years old.

Jane Lamont Titus died on March 26, 1899. Both are buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.