Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Augustin Ravoux was born Jan. 11, 1815, in Auvergne, France. One of seven seminarians recruited to America, he almost drowned in the Mississippi River on a trip to Dubuque and nearly died of thirst crossing the prairies to Ft. Pierre. After he was ordained in Dubuque, Iowa in January 1840, he visited outposts in the northern part of the diocese in Minnesota Territory and Dakota Territory to see if a mission for the Indians might be established. Fr. Ravoux traveled the Mississippi River at the juncture of the Rivière Saint-Pierre (St. Peter’s River) and found Catholic families in Mendota (Iowa Territory) and across the valley at Fort Snelling (Wisconsin Territory).

Fr. Ravoux spent winter 1842-1843 with the Faribault family at La Petite Prairie, near Iŋyaŋ Çeyaka (Village at the Barrier of Stone) or Little Rapids or Carver Rapids. It was called Little Rapids and was a fur post just south of present-day Carver along the Minnesota River. Jean-Baptiste arrived at the Little Rapids post in 1803. He met his wife, Pelagie Kinnie Hainse Faribault, here. In 1808 they moved to Prairie du Chien but returned in the 1830s and operated the post with the help of his sons Alexander, David, and Oliver.

During 1842-1843, Fr. Ravoux learned the Dakota language from David, Oliver, and Alexander Faribault. Ravoux said learning Dakota was much harder than learning Latin and Greek.

Fr. Ravoux wrote in 1842: “A few days later, I was induced by the Faribault families, but most especially by that old and respectable gentleman, Jean-Baptiste Faribault, to spend the winter with him and two of his sons, Oliver and David, both married, at Caska (Little Prairie). He had a trading post there for the Indians of Shakopee and also for the Sioux of another village at Carver (Little Rapids). I was most pleased to be with them, for they loved the Indians and were deeply interested in the success of my mission. They spoke equally well the French, English, and Sioux languages. They were good interpreters and very useful to me in translating my book into the Sioux language.”

Fr. Ravoux wrote a devotional work, Katolik Wocekiye Wowapi Kin, or The Path to the House of God. The book was translated from French to Dakota by Alexander, Oliver, and David Faribault.

Jean-Baptiste urged the priest to establish a permanent Roman Catholic mission at the site. He built a small log cabin near the Faribault compound at Little Prairie.

The Catholic mission “Sioux Mission of St. Francois Xavier” was constructed in June 1843 and operated until the spring of 1844. The dimensions of the chapel were 15×30 feet. Presumably, it was of log construction, like the Faribault Trading Post. It was probably built in the style of la maison en pièce sur piècela, or a cabin built of hewn logs, laid horizontally.

On Feb. 11, 1844, Oliver married Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ in a religious ceremony (after the 1837 civil/Indian ceremony) at the St. Francois Xavier Sioux Mission. Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ spoke Dakota and French, and a bit of English. Oliver and Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ moved to Tínṫa Otuŋwe (which the French and Métis people called Prairie des Français).

So, when Oliver and Waken Yaŋke Wiŋ moved here, the mission moved here also.

When Oliver and Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ moved to Prairie des Français, Fr. Ravoux also moved the chapel there. It was probably located close to the Faribault Trading Post, near the Springs later called Faribault Springs. The Dakota Indians saw the European immigration as a threat, and so the Dakota threatened to burn the chapel down within the year.

As a result, Fr. Ravoux decided to dismantle the chapel and sell it to the German Catholics in Wabashah in 1844.

Fr. Ravoux departed in the spring of 1844, never to return to the area later called Shakopee.

The chapel was placed on a raft and floated down the Rivière Saint-Pierre. It was set up where Main Street was terminated in Wabashaw in 1844 (changed to Wabasha in 1868). It was used a little for religious services, then was closed and used for newspaper publishing and schooling. Today, traces of the old church are obliterated.

Fr. Augustin Ravoux died Jan. 17, 1906, at age 91 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Francis Xavier Hirscher was born May 29, 1827, in Wurtemburg, Germany. His parents were Franz Joseph Hirscher and Klara Anastasia Hartmann. By age 17, both of his parents were dead, and Francis decided to move to America.

In 1849, Francis was working in Louisville, Kentucky and St. Louis, Missouri where he learned the fundamentals of the cabinetmaking trade.

In 1851, he moved to St. Paul. He did cabinet work in the employ of W. M. Stees for five years. Francis (Franz) sold his lot and shanty in St. Paul for $80 and came to Shakopee in 1856. He said that he was glad to get out of St. Paul as it was nothing but a slew hole and wouldn’t amount to much, anyway!

When he arrived in Shakopee, Hirscher noted that Holmes and Fuller were busier than a proverbial cranberry merchant, disposing of lots, including $400 of gold that Hirscher paid for a lot near the levee. Francis built a furniture store and engaged in the furniture and undertaking business. In company with C. Peters, he built the first cabinet shop here; they continued in partnership until 1863, from which date Francis conducted the business alone.

Francis went to Iowa and married Philomena Roth, daughter of Joannes Gottfried Roth and Elizabeth Haag on Sept. 22, 1856, in Guttenberg, Iowa. They returned to Shakopee, where they had several children, including Alois, Clara, Joseph, John, Valentine, Francis X., Jr., George, and Mary.

The cabinet shop became recognized as a source of beautiful hand-carved church furniture, especially altars and pulpits. For thirty years Franz labored at the lathe and bench. In 1882, he built a new shop on First Avenue, just west of Fuller Street. His three sons, Alois, Joseph, and John also joined the business.

By 1887, Franz’s eyesight began to dim. He had cataracts, but he continued to work. In 1888 he started one of the most elaborate projects—a main altar and two side altars and a pulpit for his own beloved church of St. Mark’s in Shakopee. Most carving was done by touch rather than sight. By 1890, when the altars were installed, Franz couldn’t perceive the beauty except in the eyes of his mind.

The towers and spires were so carefully carved of butternut by the blind devout builder. According to Julius Coller II, “… he formed the delicate leaves and ritualistic symbols that combine to a masterpiece of art and a transcendence of faith that were to serve through the years as a backdrop for the most solemn ceremonies of his church….”

Although he was blind, Franz continued to work until 1903, when he retired. Three years later, Franz and Philomena celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Franz died six years later, in February 1909. He was buried in a casket that he had made 15 years before he died.

“Although totally blinded by cataracts seventeen years before his demise, Mr. Hirscher had continued his delicate and artistic carving, guided only by his sense of touch, until 1903 when he finally retired.”

The Shakopee Story, p. 224

Francis Xavier Hirscher’s funeral mass was at the beautiful high altar at St. Mark’s, the one he so carefully carved.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Frances Wessling was born Dec. 2, 1867, in Hanover, Germany. Two years later, her brother, Bernard was born, but her mother died, and her father married someone else. They had four more children, and then the second mother died in childbirth. Her father married a third time, and this mother was mean. Frances decided to leave home at 18 years old.

Luckily for Frances, letters from her uncles, both priests, encouraged her to move to America. Her grandfather and her aunt, Anna Wessling, also lived in Pierz.

Fr. Ignatius told Frances to arrive in America and go to Richmond, Minnesota. When she arrived at the rectory, a priest opened the door and said, “Come in, come in! So, this is Frances. It is good to see you are such a strong, healthy girl!” He took her bags and showed her to the back room. According to A Marschall Family History 1784-1980 by Dorothy T. Klein Luers, the priest said, “This will be your room, but come with me to the kitchen. It is near suppertime and the potatoes need to be looked at!” As he led her to her work.

And so, for 12 years, Frances lived with her uncle and her grandpa, who was kind and sensed to know when she most needed cheering up. She worked hard keeping house and serving good meals. Also a housekeeper, she took care of the garden and the chickens.

Her uncle, Fr. Ignatius, was busy and ever demanding. Frances wanted to ask him to help her learn English, but he answered, “Women are to be seen, but not heard.”

Frances was upset, but the Sisters learned about it, and helped her by immediately becoming Frances’s pupil.

Not too long after, Fr. Ignatius was ailing, and his superior sent him to a warmer climate. In 1897, Fr. Conrad Glatzmeier welcomed Frances as the housekeeper in Albany, Minnesota. She enjoyed the change, and fell right in place. She was meeting parishioners and people of Albany, and they invited her to many family and civic affairs.

At thirty years old, Frances was happy. But at a dinner party at Lena Marschall Schaefer took Frances by the arm and directed her across the room to introduce her to her brother, Anton, from Eagle Creek. Lena had coaxed her up on some pretext, so that she could introduce Frances to him. By the second visit, Frances realized that he was widowed. By the third date, plans were made for a fall wedding!

Frances’s uncle, Fr. Ignatius said, “Frances, what’s this I hear about you thinking of marrying a widower with seven children?”

Frances replied, “Oh Uncle, that’s not true. He does not have seven children, he has nine. And I will marry him.”

Anton told her that they could head to Shakopee, about 70 miles south, but Frances trusted Anton, and said, “It is all as you have told me and I will meet them when you take me there, after the wedding.” And so, Frances married Anton in Albany on Oct. 19, 1904.

On the ride from Albany to Shakopee, the two talked about the family and the farm, so time passed quickly. When they arrived at the farm at dusk, Frances met the children, and over time she remembered their names, roughhoused with the boys, and taught the girls the art of homemaking. She loved the children and they loved her. Before long, Frances and Anton ended up having a new baby, a boy, who was born in 1905, weighing less than three pounds. He was protected by a softly padded shoe box set in the oven. He pulled through, and in November 1906, Teresa arrived, making the family a group of 11!

The Marschall family was overworked. They did not have a choice of clothing, wearing hand-downs, milking cows twice a day from the time one could drag a pail, doing dishes after milking, walking to school, and the long hours in the fields were some of the hardships that they endured.

In the fall of 1919, Anton and Frances moved to Shakopee, purchasing a two-story brick home across from St. Mary’s Church. While they enjoyed the early morning bells so near that they could feel the vibrations, Anton and Frances walked four blocks to St. Mark’s because it was the place for those born in Luxembourg and Germans!

On Christmas afternoons, in their house, the big gathering of children and grandchildren arrived for the peanut tradition. With a large dishpan of peanuts cradled in her arms, Grandma Frances passed through the rooms tossing handfuls of peanuts in all directions. What fun to gather them up and gobble them down. And the real fun was to hear Frances tell them to drop the shells on the floor. She called it her annual rugs cleaner. To remove them all the next day, she really had to sweep hard and that way all the dirt would come out too!

On March 11, 1939, Frances Wessling Marschall died.

She was 71 years old and was buried at the Catholic Cemetery.

On July 5, 1945, at age 88, Anton Marschall died and was buried next to his two wives.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Florence’s parents, Levis Courtney and Mary Anne Ashbaugh Courtney and their six children left Ohio and travelled to Shakapee City, Minnesota Territory, where they lived for six years, starting in 1854.

Florence Courtney Melton told the story of her trip from Ohio to Washington on Feb. 24, 1929. The book was called History of a Pioneer Family. It was later donated to the Garfield County, Washington Historical Museum in Pomeroy, Washington.

The family took land nine miles from Shakapee City. “It was dense timber. Indians were as numerous as the squirrels. There was a lake about a mile from our claim.”

“It was September when they got started to work on their houses. They camped on the ground and the nights were quite cool. A neighbor who lived almost a quarter of a mile away had his cabin built. He offered to let the little girls sleep in his house. Mother used to take one boy with her and the girls. After they were tucked in bed, she would go back to the wagon where the other brother was watching Father. She did this for three weeks. She gave directions about the cabin.”

“The roof was covered with clapboards with logs to weight them down. There was a big fireplace at one end of the room; a small window by the door. The floor was made of small ash trees hewn on both sides and laid side by side; it was called a puncheon floor. Father took the adz and smoothed it; then went over it with a plane until it was almost as planed boards. Mother always said it was the whitest floor she ever owned!”

“That first winter was very long and lonesome. My father soon found he could not stand the cold weather. He and his brother Jake froze their feet every time they tried to work, but Baxter and Mary played out of doors with ‘Old Sorrel’ and a jumper sleigh. The runners made shafts and cross pieces held it together. A seat was fastened on. They played for hours, many a day, with the thermometer 20° below zero.”

The Indians taught the boys how to fish by cutting a hole in the ice and jigging fish.

“They could get necessary supplies at Shakopee, as it was a trading post established by the fur company…. There was a company of soldiers who came up on the boat our folks came on; they were stationed at Fort Snelling as protection to the settlers.

“The long winter came to an end. All was bustle and stir, clearing land, getting ready to plant a garden. Mother worked with the boys. Either that spring or the next, Baxter thought he could cut down trees equal to any man. He cut off one toe of one foot, and soon after cut three toes from the other foot. One toe hung by a thread of skin, the others were clear gone. Mother raised the scissors to clip it off, but he began to beg for it and cried.

“He said, ‘Don’t take them all away.’ She said, ‘All right, I’ll see if I can mend it.’ She fixed some splints and set it; it grew together as good as ever-never a thought of a doctor.”

Ṡakpe II, his wife and a two-year-old boy came to see Mary Anne. “He was very sick. She knew at a glance he had the mumps, so she helped them care for him. They spread their blankets in a corner by the fireplace.”

Ṡakpe II tried to get the baby to eat. He would smack his lips, and say, ‘chąhą́pi’ (sugar), but “the baby’s throat was too badly swollen. Mother fixed some soft food for him. They seemed very grateful, and many a mess of fish and venison were brought to us in return.

“When they had been there a short time, in Minnesota, Baxter and Mary grew very enthusiastic about teaching an Indian to speak English. He would say over after them in English after telling them in Sioux (Dakota). He had played with them for an hour or longer when they ran and put their arms on Old Sorrel and said, ‘Horse.’”

“He said in perfect English, ‘It isn’t a horse at all; it’s a mare.’ And then he laughed at them. They never gave any more lessons. The Indians would not speak English unless compelled to.”

In the spring, Florence helped her mother sheer sheep, wash the raw wool, and prepare for spinning, “Then Mother’s work began in earnest. She had it all to spin and cooker (dye) to send to the weaver.” Florence’s family owned sheep and made warm clothing out of sheep’s wool.

“The severe winters proved too much for Father’s health….To illustrate what the winters were like, the thermometer froze up the six winters we lived there, with the exception of one.

“The family became more dissatisfied with the cold and snow. They had an opportunity to sell the farm, and September 1860 saw us bound for Iowa,” said Florence.

Once they moved to Iowa, many of the male family members were enlisted to fight in the American Civil War. By May 1, 1868, they started their journey west again, first Oregon, and then to Washington, where they settled on Pahaha Flats near Pomeroy, Washington.

Florence Courtney Melton died Jan. 3, 1926, and was buried at Pomeroy City Cemetery, Garfield County, Washington.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Ernest Raymond Coursolle, Jr., was born Feb. 8, 1961, in Marschall, Minnesota. His father was Ernest Raymond Coursolle, Sr., (1926-1991) and his mother was Hazel Ueland Coursolle (1929-2005).

Ernest, Jr., who was called Raymond, loved his family. His grandparents were Isaac H. Coursolle (1898-1980) and Annie H. Trudell Coursolle (1899-1941) and Bertel Bert Ueland (1888-1967) and Helga Isabella Larson Ueland (1898-1956.)

Raymond’s great grandparents included Joseph O. Coursolle (1852-1937) and Rose L. Prescott Coursolle (1890-1912) and Frank M. Trudell (1869-1939) and Emma W. Deman Trudell (1872-1920) along with Ole Johan Ueland (1844-1929) and Karen Serine Johannesdatter Vold Ueland (1846-1929) and Ludwick Louis Lewis Larson (1871-1933) and Henriette Nettie Pedersen Haugerud Larson (1878-1953).

Raymond married Georgina Rios on Dec. 15, 2010, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. They had four children.

Raymond enjoyed doing auto mechanic work and spending time in the shop. He loved riding Harley motorcycles and taking trips to South Dakota, especially out west to Sturgis. Spending time with family was very important to him and he loved playing with his youngest son.

Ernest Raymond Coursolle, Jr., age 58, a member of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Prior Lake, journeyed to the spirit world on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019, at his home.

Raymond is survived by his wife, Georgina; children, Isaac, Natasha, Wahkan and Randy Skip in the Day; grandson, Isaac II; step-children, Kevin, Kapri, Torreano and Tierra; siblings, Doug (Betty) and Denny; nephew, Brad; many other nieces, nephews and friends. He is preceded in death by his parents, Ernest and Hazel; brother, Russ; grandparents, Isaac and Anne Coursolle; aunt, Rosemma Coursolle Crooks; cousin, Glynn Crooks.

For more information about Ṡakpe I, Tínṫa Otuŋwe, and the Dakota, Hoċokata Ti [ho-cho-kah-tah-tee] the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s (SMSC) cultural center and gathering space, is worth visiting. The public exhibit, “Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake,” enhances the knowledge and understanding of the Mdewakanton Dakota people and their history. Hoċokata Ti is at 2300 Tiwahe Circle, Shakopee, MN 55379. (952) 233-9151.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

On New Year’s Day 1850, Eli Pettijohn, born Jan. 28, 1819, and in Minnesota Territory since 1841, married Lucy Prescott, of Shakopee, at Fort Snelling. It was the highlight of the Fort Snelling social season.

Lucy was half Mdewakanton Dakota, the daughter of Na-he-no-Wenah (Spirit of the Moon) and Philander Prescott. Lucy’s parents were Catherine Totedutawin, a Wahpeton Dakota, and sister of Wapahaṡa, and Keeiyah (Flying Man), brother of Maȟpíya Wičhášta (Cloudman).

Rev. Edward D. Neill performed the ceremony, and the guests included the officers in full uniform, their wives, the United States Agent for the Dakotas, and family, the bois brules of the neighborhood, and Indian relatives of the mother.

The ceremony presented a “symbolic tableau of the cultural transition that was taking place from one generation to the next in Lucy Prescott’s family. Her Dakota relatives viewed the wedding from the hallway, not as full guests or participants, but as interested observers—and also as a people whose culture Lucy was leaving farther behind as she married an Anglo-American,” said Jane Lamm Carroll in Cultural Identity Across Three Generations of an Anglo Dakota Family in Minnesota History, Summer 2012.

Despite Naginowenah’s forty-year marriage to Philander, she only spoke the Dakota language, although she perfectly understood both French and English. She raised her children as Anglo-Americans. One of her children was Sophia Oyate Kagewin Prescott.

Sophia was born Jan. 24, 1844, at the Old Military Reserve at Fort Snelling, Minnesota Territory. She married Emsley Jackson Hamilton on June 7, 1867, in Richfield. Emsley was born Jan. 7, 1842, in Quincy, Illinois, son of William Hamilton and Elizabeth Zeiger. He arrived at Minnesota by 1860.

Emsley was a private at the First Regiment of the Minnesota Infantry during the U.S. Civil War. He became a prisoner of war at Andersonville Prison in Georgia from 1864-1865.

Andersonville Prison (also known as Camp Sumter) was a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the final fourteen months of the Civil War. The site was commanded by Capt. Henry Wirz, who was tried and executed after the war for war crimes. It was overcrowded to four times its capacity, with an inadequate water supply, inadequate food, and unsanitary conditions. Of the approximately 45 thousand Union prisoners held at Camp Sumter during the war, nearly 13 thousand died. The chief causes of death were scurvy, diarrhea, and dysentery.

Robert H. Kellogg, sergeant major in the 16th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, described his entry as a prisoner into the prison camp, May 2, 1864:

“As we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes that almost froze our blood with horror, and made our hearts fail within us. Before us were forms that had once been active and erect; stalwart men, now nothing but mere walking skeletons, covered with filth and vermin. Many of our men, in the heat and intensity of their feeling, exclaimed with earnestness. ‘Can this be hell?’ ‘God protect us!’ and all thought that he alone could bring them out alive from so terrible a place. In the center of the whole was a swamp, occupying about three or four acres of the narrowed limits, and a part of this marshy place had been used by the prisoners as a sink, and excrement covered the ground, the scent arising from which was suffocating. The ground allotted to our ninety was near the edge of this plague-spot, and how we were to live through the warm summer weather in the midst of such fearful surroundings, was more than we cared to think of just then,” said Robert H. Kellogg in the book Life and Death in Rebel Prisons in 1865.

When Emsley survived, on June 7, 1867, he married Sophia Oyate Kagewin Prescott. They lived in the area, including Shakopee, for many years. On Feb. 10, 1902, Sophia Oyate Kagewin Prescott Hamilton died, and was buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

Emsley Jackson Hamilton died in Minneapolis on Oct. 24, 1922. He was buried at Valley Cemetery, where a tombstone mentions that he was a private in the Civil War, and was a prisoner of war in Andersonville Prison, and was one of the few who survived the awful experience.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Emelia Berreau was born April 5, 1835, in Paderborn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Her father was Frederick Berreau, and her mother was Antonette Hacke.

On June 2, 1863, in Shakopee, Emelia married Peter Rudolph Geyermann. They had six children.

Emelia and Peter operated the Geyermann’s General Store between First and Second Avenue and Lewis Street in downtown Shakopee. It included groceries, dry goods, boots and shoes, hats and caps, dress goods, clothing, and crockery. The store opened in 1857.

Peter (sometimes with help from Emelia) sent letters home to family in Germany. The letters were translated to English by Ernst Wirt. These letters show the immigrants experiences as they move to America, and their process as they built a house just outside Shakopee in 1855.

On May 3, 1854, he wrote about those heading to America. “…I will give them the best advice: I think you should take with you 10-12 toasted breads, dryed fruits, 20-40 pounds of white flour, and some sacks of potatoes, some hams, some beans, vinegar and onions….” Shakopee ca 1858. Edwin Whitefield. Minnesota Historical Society

“You should not buy clothes except one or two pairs of good trousers. Shirts are cheaper than in Germany. One shirt costs 50 cents. Do not bring boots and shoes with you. My sisters being here have to change the manner of wearing their hair. Also take a pot for cooking and a cake mold with you. The other cooking utensils you should buy better in the seaport. Eiderdowns you have bring with you – not the other house-utensils.

“The charge for carriage is too high. Many peoples have left in the lurch all they had because the charge was too high by railway.

“You have to be careful in all seatowns! Don’t go into a hotel for every meal. It will be too dear for you. Every time you must ask the price at first. Never pay more than you have arranged. After having arrived New York you have to prove your tickets. Perhaps you could take the best train to Chicago for five dollars, or at first to Buffalo for four dollars, (or) to Chicago four dollars….”

By Nov. 30, 1855, Peter moved to Minnesota Territory. “I bought a claim there. The land belonged to the government and was not yet sold. The law says whoever comes first and homesteads it has a claim to it, but you have to be over 21 years of age. I had to take 160 acres of land and you were supposed to build a house on this land, and supposed to take care of the land….

“The house that exists is in very poor condition in the country and we are in the process of building a new one. Last Wednesday we started.

“You are probably surprised to hear that people build houses here in the winter, but here in the country people take tree stems and they make very nice houses (log houses). So if you plan to build a house you have to see that you get all the logs nearby, bring it to the place, and cut them into the measurements as big as the house is supposed to be. Then you go and call on 8 to 10 neighbors and then everything will be put together in one day but the roof. The rest a person has to do himself and that goes better than anybody can imagine. Once you are between 3 and 4 years in America, you become a pretty good builder, and you acquire all the tools that craftsmen need to make a building.”

Later, Peter and Emelia wrote, “I have approximately 40 acres of wood on my land, approximately 6 acres of meadow and the rest are hedges…. Here we take 2 or 3 young oxen and put them into a yoke, and then the land will be worked. One yoke of oxen I own and that cost me $150. Animals are very expensive here. I must say that animals are much more expensive now than when I came to America, because when I came to America, a yoke of oxen I could buy in those days for $60. Here the animals are not quite so expensive as in the old states like in Illinois where I came from.

“We had already for 14 days, snow, but this week is exceptionally nice weather and the snow was almost melting away. I hope there is not new snow coming, but we will take it. It would be alright if we got snow so tomorrow morning and Sunday we want to go hunting for deer, while we are waiting to finish the house, because when the house is ready, we won’t have much time. That’s why we want to go and hunt now. And when the Indians don’t come back and take the animals away, there is plenty of deer over here.”

In 1857, Peter and Emelia opened a general store in Shakopee, on the fertile banks of the Minnesota River. According to Peter and Emellia, men and wagons carried goods to the settlers on the prairie. By the clanking of the pots and tinware as their wagons jolted down the hard packed and rutted roads, they came to be known as drummers.

Peter was mayor of Shakopee from 1873-1876, and again in 1878. While he was mayor in 1878, Peter was involved in controversy. The town needed a bridge over the Minnesota River. Peter wanted to have the bridge on Lewis Street, near their store. He won, but some of the people in Shakopee were not happy.

Many residents, especially those in the west part of town, were upset because the Lewis Street Swing Bridge was built on Lewis Street, instead of Fuller Street. They boycotted Geyermann’s General Store. It became so effective that Emelia and Peter were forced out of business. After 24 years in the business in downtown Shakopee, Emelia and Peter moved out of Shakopee in 1881.

They moved to Brewster, Minnesota, where they set up a new store.

Emilia Berreau Geyermann died Jan. 25, 1907, in Brewster, Minnesota.

Peter Rudolph Geyermann died at his home in Brewster from pneumonia on Nov. 25, 1911.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Elnathan Judson Pond was born in Prairieville (later Shakopee), Minnesota Territory on Oct. 17, 1847, the third of four children of Rev. Samuel Pond, Sr., and Cordelia Eggleston Pond, who moved to Tínṫa Otuŋwe, which they called Prairieville as missionaries in the fall of 1847. “Between the mission house and the Minnesota River lay a beautiful and fertile tract of ‘bottom land,’ as it was ordinarily termed, subject to annual or biennial overflow…”

“On one side of this fertile tract ran a clear sparkling stream of water, flowing from the spring before described; itself bounded in turn by a rocky bluff rising precipitously from the brink of the stream. This land was bounded on the other side by the Minnesota, sweeping in a beautiful curve around its border. This piece of land was cultivated by the (Dakota) Indians, and when not covered by water, tadpoles and fishes, in the months of June and July was rich with waving corn,” said Samuel William Pond, Jr. in the book Two Volunteer Missionaries Among the Dakotas or the Story of the Labor of Samuel W. And Gideon Pond in 1893.

Rev. Pond, Sr., and Cordelia took care of their children, including Jennette Clarissa (born May 6, 1842 in Minneapolis, and died April 2, 1862 in Shakopee), Rebecca Cordelia Pond Dean (born Oct. 10, 1844 in Bloomington), Elnathan (born Oct. 17, 1847 in Prairieville), and Samuel William, Jr. (born April 20, 1850 in Holmes Landing).

Elnathan married Wilhelmine Minnie Catharina Elisabeth Markus in Shakopee on June 24, 1879. Minnie was born Oct. 21, 1862, daughter of William (1823-1895) and Wilhelmina (1832-1908) Markus. Elnathan and Minnie had six children. Elnathan’s younger brother, Samuel William, Jr. married Irene Goodrich Boyden. The two couples started housekeeping at the mission farm. Later, Elnathan and Minnie moved across the road to a 170-acre farm. This farm is now part of The Landing in Shakopee, according to “Pond Grist Mill Is Start of Something Big” by Ginger Timmons, Scott County Historical Society, Shakopee Valley News, Aug. 30, 1972.

Elnathan and Samuel, Jr., built the Pond Grist Mill in 1875. The mill was built for supplementary income. Elnathan and Wilhelmene’s seven-room, two-story frame house, complete with summer kitchen and woodshed, stood about a block east of the mill. The families moved the big barn from the mission farm to Elnathan and Wilhelmene’s farm.

The mill first opened for business around September 1875. A notice in the Shakopee Weekly Argus read: “S.W. Pond’s mill is now running. Custom work in flour and feed done promptly.” Although the term “gristmill” can refer to any mill that grinds grain, the term was used historically for a local mill where farmers brought their own grain and received back ground meal or flour, minus a percentage called the “miller’s toll.” Early mills were almost always built and supported by farming communities and the miller received the “miller’s toll” in lieu of wages. Most towns and villages had their own mill so that local farmers could easily transport their grain there to be milled.

These communities were dependent on their local mill as bread was a staple part of the diet.

To operate the mill, the miller placed the grain to be ground in the funnel-like hopper above the pair of millstones, after first taking out the miller’s toll. Then the miller opened the sluice gate that let water into the water wheel. As the weight of falling water turned the water wheel, large gears turning smaller gears made the shaft turn faster, much as the large gear on the pedals of a bicycle will turn the smaller gear on the wheel more rapidly.

This power was transmitted to a vertical spindle, upon which rested a large, flat disc of stone, often weighing a ton or more. This stone spun just above, but not quite touching, an identical stone set stationary in the floor of the mill. Both stones had a pattern of grooves cut into their faces. As one stone turned above the other, their grooves crossed much like scissor blades. Grain falling through the hole, or “eye”, in the runner stone was cut apart as it passed between the two stones, according to an article in The Northwestern Miller, Vol. 77, No. 7 on Feb. 17, 1909.

The miller could adjust the distance between the stones to regulate how finely the grain was ground. The milled grains moved around the cover that was over the stones, until it fell through a hole into the meal chest. From there it could be scooped into a sack to be taken home for baking. In Shakopee at that time, about ten thousand bushels a week were delivered and paid for in cash, at a higher rate than at any other point within twenty miles. Products milled included flour, bolted corn, ground grains, and livestock feed. According to Rebecca Pond in 1972, the huge one hundred-pound sacks of flour sold for five cents a bag.

Rebecca Pond remembered that there was a wheelhouse by the mill, and that her father used to shut down the business once or twice a year. “Then [she] would put on goggles to protect [her] eyes and sit down with a long time with a pick and hammer, sharpening the grinding stones.”

The Pond Grist Mill was operated by a water-powered turbine. In later years, a gasoline engine was purchased but never used much. The mill closed soon after, in 1908.

Elnathan Judson Pond died Jan. 2, 1943. He was 95 years old. He was buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee, according to Find a Grave. One year and six days later, Wilhelmine Minnie Catharina Elisabeth Markus Pond died at age 81 years old in Shakopee, and was buried next to her husband at Valley Cemetery, according to Find a Grave.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Ellen Marie Oleson, an immigrant from Vadsø in Finnmark County in northern Norway, arrived in America in 1865. In Shakopee on June 6, 1868, Axel Jorgenson took out a marriage license and married Ellen.

Axel Jorgenson was born Aksel Jørgensen on Dec. 1, 1818, in Gjerstad in Aust-Agder County in southeast Norway and was baptized in the Gjerstad parish church five days later. Axel was the eldest of four sons and a daughter born to Jørgen Akselsen (1783-1864) and Karen Margrete Nilsdatter (1794-1866).

According to Mark W. Olson, the Gjerstad area of Axel’s youth was known for iron works and for cutting logs and floating them to destinations via streams and lakes, occupations he picked up. In 1846 Axel, by then a blacksmith by trade, moved to nearby Tistedalen (today called Halden) in nearby Østfold County, on Norway’s southernmost border crossing with Sweden. In Oslo, Norway on April 28, 1850, Axel married his first wife, Ingeborg Marie, age about 31, and five days later on May 3, 1850, the newlyweds boarded the brig Incognito in Christiania (Oslo), Norway bound for New York. No information exists about Ingeborg Marie. Her fate unknown, most likely she died in the first year or two after arriving in America.

Jorgenson probably traveled America’s water routes, eventually making his way to the frontier territory of Minnesota sometime in 1850-1851. By December 1863 Axel Jorgenson moved to Shakopee to take up business doing clock and watchmaker repair.

In the Minnesota Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1865 Axel was advertised as a watchmaker and jeweler on Holmes Street in Shakopee.

In Shakopee on June 6, 1868, Axel took out a marriage license and married his second wife, Ellen Marie Oleson.

The 1870 United States Census for Shakopee mentions that Axel Jorgenson was a watchmaker and legal citizen of the United States with $2730 in real estate worth and $600 in personal property value, a tidy sum for the period.

Axel is listed in 1870 as being married to Ellen M. Jorgenson, age 30, who is described as a housekeeper and not yet a legal citizen. Both are listed as born in Norway and having no children or others listed as living in household.

In 1874, Alex and Ellen were involved in a domestic dispute. In the Weekly Valley Herald newspaper on Nov. 4, 1874, Axel put in an item reading, “Notice is hereby given that my wife Ellen M. Jorgenson has left my bed and board without cause or provocation and that I will pay no debts of her contracting after this date. Dated August 26, 1874, Axel Jorgenson.”

By 1875 Minnesota Census shows Axel living in Waconia, without Ellen. But eventually, the two of them got back together.

By 1877, the couple moved to Stockholm Township in Wright County, where they lived for the rest of their lives, according to the Carver Historic District, Civil War Onset Sesquicentennial Update 1861-2011.

Axel and Ellen adopted a son in late 1879. The child was Oscar Lind. Axel and Ellen called their adopted son Axel Peter Jorgenson. Axel Peter’s birth mother, who was only 29, died 24 days after his birth. The widowed husband had two other children to care for, so he gave Axel Peter up for adoption.

Aksel Alex Jørgensen died in Stockholm Township on June 8, 1898, and was buried at the Stockholm Town Cemetery.

Ellen lived with Axel Peter, his wife, Anna Kristine Betson Jørgensen, and child in Stockholm Township.

She was also a postmaster, and owned a farm, which was quite an accomplishment in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Ellen died Feb. 10, 1910, and was buried in the family plot in the Stockholm Town Cemetery.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Eliza Ella Victoria Hunt was born Nov. 12, 1840, in Nicolet, Centre-du-Quebec Region, Quebec, Canada. Her parents were Joseph Vidler Hunt and Anne Marie Roche.

One of Ella’s older brothers, Thomas Benjamin, emigrated to the United States before 1850 when he declared his intention to become a U.S. citizen; which he did in 1855. Eliza decided, at age 15, to emigrate to Shakopee, Minnesota Territory to be near her brother.

Tom was a lawyer in Shakopee, according to anncestry.com. He was a member of the first territorial legislature of Minnesota from Jan. 2 through March 1, 1856, when it adjourned.

In September 1861, Tom joined the fourth regiment of Minnesota Volunteers and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on Oct. 15, 1861. During his military career Tom served mostly as Quartermaster. He was complimented often on his ability and organization. In recognition of his long and faithful service, he was made Brevet Lt. Col. Volunteers, on Oct. 30, 1866. His litigious nature, however, caused problems. Tom was court-martialed three times; acquitted twice, judged guilty the third time. Tom was also frequently in debt, which led to more court problems. Toward the end of his life Tom was increasingly troubled by what the family called rheumatism; it was locomotor ataxia, a form of late latent syphilis. According to military records, this was the cause of his death on Sept. 7, 1890, at the Sherwood Hotel, Fort Monroe, Virginia.

As for Eliza? When she arrived in Shakopee, she met Dr. Josiah Schroeder Weiser (1832-1863). They were married in Shakopee on June 2, 1859, in St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal Church.

Eliza and Dr. Weiser had a daughter, Ada Alicia (1860–1894) on March 18 ,1860, and two years later, on Sept. 16, 1862, they welcomed another daughter, Florence (1862-1863) in Shakopee.

Josiah enlisted in the First Minnesota Cavalry (Mounted Rangers) as a surgeon on Oct. 21, 1862, under Col. Samuel McPhail of the Mounted Rangers who headed to Dakota Territory by Gen. Henry H. Sibley’s Minnesota volunteers. “Doctor Josiah S. Weiser, regimental surgeon for the 1st Minnesota Mounted Rangers, was from Shakopee, Minnesota, and had lived among the Dakotas, learning their language and serving as their doctor,” said Paul N. Beck in his 2013 book, Columns of Vengeance: Soldiers, Sioux, and the Punitive Expeditions 1863-1864.

While Dr. Weiser was in the Dakotas, Ella was stuck in Shakopee with Ada (Florence had died in infancy).

Most of the four thousand Upper Sioux from the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands had been reluctant participants in the U.S.-Dakota War. A few of these refugees from the war fled to Canada, but more than four thousand congregated in the summer of 1863 in a large encampment in present-day Kidder County, North Dakota. Tȟatȟáŋka Nážin (Standing Buffalo), Ožúpi (Sweet Corn), and other Sisseton and Wahpeton leaders who favored peace had led their people to the Big Mound area. Other groups of Dakotas, led by Iŋkpáduta (Scarlet Point) and other leaders who favored continued resistance, were also camped nearby to hunt. Some Hunkpapa Lakotas also crossed the Missouri River to join the hunt. They included Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (Sitting Bull), Phizí (Gall), and Nážin Maȟtó (Standing Bear).

Dr. Weiser, chief surgeon, spoke Dakota and was assisting in the discussions. “Believing he saw men that he knew, Weiser and his African American orderly rode out of camp to a nearby hill, where scouts were meeting with some young warriors,” said Beck, when he was unexpectedly shot. A member of Iŋkpáduta’s band suddenly pulled out a gun and shot Dr. Weiser in the back, probably thinking he was Sibley.

So, Ella was left a widow, with a child, when Dr Josiah Schroeder Weiser was killed on July 24, 1864.

Ella applied for a widow’s pension of $25 a month starting in 1864. On Feb. 14, 1865, at the petitioned probate court she was awarded $200 for one year’s maintenance. After probate on Dr. Weiser’s estate was completed on May 27, 1865, Eliza joined her brother, Thomas, who was living in Iowa. Ella applied for allowance for her minor child, Ada. She was awarded $25 per month, commencing in April 1867, in that same month, on April 25, 1867

Eliza Ella Victoria Hunt Weiser married Alfred Houghton Stubbs. Eliza Ella Victoria Hunt Weiser Stubbs and Rev. Alfred Houghton Stubbs had a daughter, Emilie Eugenie Houghton Stubbs, and a son, Thomas Houghton Doane Stubbs. Ella and Alfred moved to Milford, New York in 1870. Over the next ten years, they had another daughter, a son, two other sons who died as infants, and another daughter.

In early 1880, Eliza separated from Rev. Stubbs. Ella moved to Queens County, New York with her five living children: Alda, Genie, Boys, Rollo, and Daisy.

Ella supported herself by working for St. Nicholas Magazine, a popular monthly American children’s magazine, in New York. She then moved to Brooklyn, New York, and ran Willowmere as a summer hotel on Gravesend Bay. Eliza Ella Victoria Hunt Weiser Stubbs died Jan. 25, 1897, in Manhattan, New York. She died of chronic intestinal nephritis. Eliza was interred on Jan. 29, 1897, according to the Christ Church Episcopal Churchyard burial records, according to Find-A-Grave #138244911.

Eliza Ella Victoria Hunt Weiser Stubbs was buried in New Brunswick, New Jersey.