Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Jacob Jacques Franz Ries, Sr. was born on December 6, 1830, in Septfontaines, Canton de Capellen, Luxembourg, son of Jean Nicholas Ries and Katherina Kiefer.

When he was 18 years of age both his parents died. Jacob Ries was given both literary and musical education in his native country and in 1854 came to America. He lived three years in New York, mainly engaged in carpenter work; then made a visit of six months to his native land, and in the spring of 1857 settled in Shakopee, which was his place of residence except for a time spent at his farm in Spring Lake.

In 1857, Jacob married Josephine Mamer in Shakopee. She was born on June 24, 1836, daughter of Jacobus Mamer and Anne Elisabeth Brandenbourg. They went on to raise a family of 14 children.

Jacob Ries from Luxembourg and E.A. O’Leary from Ireland opened the Bottling Company on the river (north of Holmes and First Street) in 1872. O’Leary sold out one year later.

Ries moved the factory to Third and Holmes Street in 1880. It moved there to avoid the flood plain. A factory of brick was erected and had all the facilities for manufacturing carbonate and fermented beverages. It became Jacob Ries Bottling Works, or Rock Spring, which operated from 1872 to 1975.

The Rock Spring Bottling Works building was on the southwest corner of Holmes Street and Third Street. There was a small building housing the well between the bottling building and the alley. Elmer Dahl, who owned the bakery, lived in the white house across the alley. The Rock Spring office was west of the bottling building. Directly north of the bottling building across Third Street was the parking lot. To the west of the parking lot were the warehouses. Warehouse #3 is now where the Masjid Al-Amin Samaha Islamic Center has been since 2016. Before that it was Eastman’s Drug Store and then the Auction Center before being a mosque in 2016. The old Ries homestead was on the south side of the bottling plant.

Rock Spring was very popular, and the trains stopped two or three times a day for loading and unloading the pop. A garage was established on Lewis Street. In the rear door off the alley was a receiving depot for boxes of liquor.

According to Joe Jenn, “There was also a bottling works in town; they’d deliver bottles of pop to St. Paul and return with bottles of whiskey.”

Jacob Ries passed away on May 17, 1911, in Eagle Creek, Minnesota. His descendants continued to operate the bottling works.

The Jacob Ries Bottling Works operated for over 100 years. The family-owned operation was famous for its sparkling water and ginger ale. Eventually the family sold their “secret recipe” to the Pepsi Company in 1975. The building was torn down in 1977.

The building is gone but the memories of the clacking pop bottles on the bottling line, the smell of the soda flavors wafting into the street when passing by, and their wonderful soda are still talked about by the older locals. After every day, after school, every child used to stand by the windows, watching the bottles go by, full of soft drinks.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Ione Anne Krell was born July 16, 1917, on a homestead near White Lake, South Dakota to Nicolum “Nick” Frank Krell (1877-1963) and Anna Gardner Krell (1882-1956) – the seventh of eight children.

Ione came to Minneapolis to study cosmetology and arrived in Shakopee in 1938 employed at the Modern Beauty Shop.

In 1945 Ione married William A. Engel. William (Bill) was born on May 26, 1888, in Shakopee, son of Dominick Engel (1849-1919) and Elizabeth Channaux (1858-1941). Bill’s first marriage was to Agnes Demers (1891-1940) in 1910. Bill married Ione in 1945, and together they operated Engel’s Bar at what now is the site of Turtle’s on First Avenue and Lewis Street.

After Bill’s death in 1955, Ione and daughter Barbara remained in Shakopee. In 1957 Ione married John A. Theis. John Alois Theis was born on June 6, 1913, in Marystown, son of Charles Carl Theis (1866-1930) and Mary Caroline Pieper (1870-1943). John’s first marriage was to Mary Adele Simones (1916-1955).

Ione and John’s son, Theodore “Ted” John Theis was born in 1958.

Ione was a caring and generous mother and grandmother to many step-grandchildren. Ione enjoyed all forms of artistic endeavor – painting, sculpting, sewing, needlework.

In 1992, Ione placed second at the state Senior Dining Applemania Contest in Duluth, according to an article by Susan Vieth in the Shakopee Valley News, November 19, 1992, entitled “’Apple Annie’ is a winner for Theis.”

Ione took a dried apple with a whimsical face for its head, and a wired body dressed in clothes that she designed and sewed herself. She entered it at the Shakopee Senior Dining site, at that time at 200 Levee Drive in Shakopee. After it won, it placed first in the region-wide contest, and then finally second in the state.

Ione had been making the dolls for twenty years. In the article in the Shakopee Valley News: “We had a lot of apple trees in our backyard. So I used those. I found that Golden Delicious make good apple heads, but I’ve used all kinds.” The apples are allowed to dry for about a month. During the process, the skin of the apple puckers and creates what appears to be a wrinkled face. Ione sews the clothes, such as bloomers, skirts, and dust caps for women, or a suit and hat for a man.

According to the article, “After the dolls are dressed, Theis positions them in a variety of settings. For instance, the Apple Annie she entered in the contest is sitting in a chair holding a basket of miniature apples. Other apple dolls have been set in front of spinning wheels, in rocking chairs, or, in one case, as a couple holding hands.”

Ione served her community in leadership for the Girl Scouts and later for the Shakopee Senior Citizens Club. Ione was an active member of St. Mark’s Catholic Church for many years – music was a passion and she participated in the church choir as well as a local women’s choral group, the Harmonettes, later named New Jubilee Singers. With this group, she performed at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre and traveled abroad twice. A highlight was singing mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and the Alleluia in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Joy Robbins recalled that Ione was a “friend to me through many years in and out of Harmonettes and New Jubilee Singers, and I appreciated her honesty, exuberance, good cheer, kind heart, clear eye, steadfast support, wise advice, and STYLE! A beautiful lady and person, Ione loved a good time and has probably already established a heavenly ‘Hat, prop, and wine’ wall in case there’s a need for costumes and a bit of frivolity!”

Rose Doherty recalled the time Ione moved to All Saints in 2014. She was “always willing to join in activities; she played cards, Farkle, Wii Bowling, created greeting cards and always won first place at costume parties. Once she dressed up as a limping vagrant with whiskers, old hat and sagging trousers. No one recognized her and only after getting really close, face to face, did anyone realize it was Ione!”

Ione Anne Engel Theis died on November 28, 2016, at All Saints Senior Living Facility. A mass of Christian burial happened on Friday, December 16 at The Parish of Saints Joachim and Anne (St. Mark), and she interment was at the Shakopee Catholic Cemetery.

“What an incredible lady. She had such a bright mind, with so many wonderful talents that she lovingly shared with others. I loved her little smile, her gracious ways and her spunk!” said Dixie Schmit.

Bibliography

Vieth, Susan. “’Apple Annie’ is a winner for Theis.” Shakopee Valley News, 19 Nov. 1992.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

In 1847, in Eagle Creek (now part of Shakopee), the Eagle Creek Pond Mission School was the first school in the area. For six years, starting in 1847, “…the Indians had gathered, in varying numbers, each Sabbath, to learn the white man’s religion, and the little children had gathered each day for religious instruction.” This was the first school in the area, according to the Scott County Argus, March 17, 1905.

Rev. Samuel W. Pond and Cordelia Eggleston Pond, who moved to Tínṫa Otuŋwe, which Samuel called Prairieville, taught the Dakota children in the Dakota language at the mission school. One of the teachers was Jane Lamont Titus (1827-1899). Jane’s mother, Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ (Hush the Night) was Dakota. Jane’s grandparents were Maḣpiya Wic̣aṡṭa and Caŋ Paduta Wiŋ of the Bde Maka Ska band who lived on the southern shore in Minneapolis. Maḣpiya Wic̣aṡṭa was also known as Cloudman, and Caŋ Paduta Wiŋ was known as Red Cherry Woman. Jane’s father, Daniel Lamont, died in 1837, and her mother asked Samuel Pond to take Jane and raise her with the Pond family.

The first public school was opened in Sha K’ Pay, Minnesota Territory in the fall of 1854. Miss Mary Jane Turner was the teacher. No location was given, according to the History of the Minnesota Valley including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota by Rev. Edward D. Neill and The Shakopee Story by Julius A. Coller II.

District 1 was organized in 1854. The first school was taught in 1855 by John H. Brown. It was on the second story of the old post office building. District 2 opened in the fall of 1854, probably at the same time as the first public school by Miss Mary Jane Turner. The school was taught at Mr. Stemmer’s house by Dr. Lord’s wife.

St. Gertrude’s Convent and Academy by the Sisters of St. Benedict was incorporated on May 4, 1866, according to History of the Minnesota Valley including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota by Rev. Edward D. Neill. The sisters erected a large two and a half-story limestone building at the corner of Fourth and Atwood Street, south of St. Mark’s Church, according to The Shakopee Story by Julius A. Coller II.

The first commencement exercises of St. Gertrude’s Convent and Academy took place on June 20, 1871. On September 4, 1871, the academy had an enrollment of 46 young ladies, according to Coller. The school continued until 1880, when Father Alois Plut, pastor of St. Mark’s and intensely German, refused to re-employ the Benedictine sisters as teachers because he contended that they were unable to teach German properly, according to The Shakopee Story.

In 1872, another school, the Minnesota Valley Academy, was opened on September 5, 1872. Episcopal Rev. William R. Powell was rector, teacher of Latin, mental and moral philosophy, and rhetoric. Ella L. Smith taught mathematics, history, and natural science, and Hattie Smith taught music. The Minnesota Valley Academy closed its doors, never to reopened, in the spring of 1875.

The Scott County Argus noted that Shakopee needed a high school. They mentioned that girls could provide “higher education and refinements” at St. Gertrude’s Academy, but the boys were not so fortunate, according to The Shakopee Story.

In the 1870s, three public schools served Shakopee residents: District 1 was a stone building that burned down in 1880; District 2 was a white building that became the residence of Herman Duede; the District 41 schoolhouse was on Fourth Street, served the district until 1918, and was destroyed in 1935 after being condemned as a hazard to life and limb.

Thirty-five boys and twenty-two girls were enrolled. At the end of the spring term, a public examination was conducted by their teacher, C.W. Smith, and the superintendent, Mr. Lancaster, along with the trustees of the school. The examination, according to the Shakopee Argus, on August 11, 1870, “reflected great credit on both teachers and the pupils.” C.W. Smith must have been a statistician at heart. According to Julius A. Coller II, “At the end of the last page of the record for the term is this notation: ‘Total loss by tardiness 5,992 minutes-99.86 hours-18.15 days. Total days attendance 15,372.’”

In July 1881, Shakopee consolidated school districts One and Two, and built the Union School. It was located one block south of old District One, and west of St. Mary’s Church. It was located between Lewis and Holmes streets and Fifth and Sixth avenues in Shakopee. It was an elegant building. They used desks instead of the more typical benches of the time. Union School cost $10,000 to build.

The building was opened for classes on January 10, 1882. Professor Giles was the principal, Fannie Barnes was head of the grammar department, and Maybelle Patterson and Mary O’Brien taught the primary department.

According to the Scott County Argus, May 23, 1898, “Earnest, intelligent work on the part of those who have had the destinies of the Union School in hand in the past few years had seen the gradual advancement of those schools in efficiency, and the growth from a graded school to a State High school well-equipped and taking good rank among the schools of the state in the matter of examinations.”

On August 19, 1898, the Shakopee High School was admitted to the State High School Board and thus became a high school in fact and not in name only, according to the Scott County Argus and The Shakopee Story, p. 184. On June 7, 1898, at the Lander Opera House in downtown Shakopee, Ida Dorothea Busse and Anna Abell Pope were the first graduates of Union School. According to the Scott County Argus on June 19, 1898, “The first annual commencement of the Shakopee High School took place at Lander Opera House last Tuesday evening. In honor of the graduating of the class of two, Misses Anna Abell Pope and Ida Dorothy Busse, and the varied and interesting program rendered was listened to with wrapt attention by an audience which tested the capacity of the big hall.”

During the ceremony, Ida spoke on “Our Government and its Relation to the Public School System,” and her thoughts were masterly, her style of delivery dignified, yet winsome, and “she acquired herself in a manner that made her large circle of friends very proud of her. A round of hearty applause was repeated when the ushers carried up to her a basket of beautiful cut flowers and a bunch of roses.”

Ida Dorothea Busse, who was born on October 1, 1878, in Shakopee City, the youngest child of Christian E. Busse and Susanna Schnell Shell Busse, died on February 2, 1963 in Minneapolis.

Bibliography

Coller, Julius A. II. The Shakopee Story. Shakopee, MN: Shakopee Heritage Society, 2009.

Neill, Edward D. History of the Minnesota Valley including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota. Minneapolis: North Star Publishing, 1882.

Scott County Argus, 23 May 1898.

Scott County Argus, 19 June 1898.

Scott County Argus, 17 March 1905.

Shakopee Argus, 11 Aug. 1870.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Hsiang-Yi Angela Wang was born on October 23, 1984 to Y.T. Wang (王有⼟) and Phyllis Lee (李黛琪). Y.T. Wang and Taichi Lee, along with Angela and her younger brother, John Wang (王瑋強) lived in New Taipei City, Taiwan.

As a child, she loved being active, swimming and climbing, eating good food, and often visiting the zoo. After graduating from high school, Angela attended the National Taipei University of Business, where she received her bachelor’s degree, according to the Ballard-Sunder Funeral and Cremation website.

In 2011, she moved to the United States, working as a source analyst for Advanced Auto Parts before transferring to Koch Industries in a similar role.

Hsiang-Yi Angela Wang met Jason Richter at their place of employment, and they were united in marriage on July 6, 2011, in Bloomington, Minnesota. Angela took in Jason’s daughters, Selina and Melanie, as her own without hesitation.

Family was incredibly important to her. Together, they all enjoyed traveling, visiting almost every state in the U.S. and going to many different countries, including visits home to Taiwan. Angela was able to go to Thailand and Hong Kong with her mother and tour Europe with her brother, a trip that was always on her wish list.

In her free time, she loved cooking, doing arts and crafts, and hiking. She had a great sense of fashion as well, always staying up to date with clothing styles and makeup. She also had a passion for nature and protecting the environment and was super caring for all people and animals. Hsiang-Yi Angela Wang Richter supported children through World Visionand Feed My Starving Children.

Angela’s faith was also extremely important to her. She was a member at Friendship Church for many years where she taught in the children’s ministry and participated in small groups.

Angela was called to serve with her husband to spread God’s word in her home country of Taiwan, but was unable to due to her declining health; however, Angela maintained her hope and passion for Christ and obtained a master’s degree in theology with her husband at the University of Northwestern, St. Paul in 2018.

Lynette Hindal had the honor of helping Angela when she came to the Mayo Clinic for her care. She felt that Angela touched her heart. Lynette remembers Angela’s fighting spirit.

Hsiang-Yi Angela Wang Richter passed away on Monday, December 20, 2021, in her home at 37 years old.

Angela was charismatic, optimistic, creative, and energetic. Always caring and deeply cared for, she will be greatly missed by her husband, Jason; daughters, Selina and Melanie; grandfather, Lee Shan Shou (李善守); parents Y.T. Wang (王有⼟) and Phyllis Lee (李黛琪); brother, John Wang (王瑋 強); and many other loving family and friends.

After a celebration of life at the Friendship Church in Shakopee, Hsiang-Yi Angela Wang Richter was buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

Bibliography

“Hsiang-Yi Richter/Angela Richter.” Ballard-Sunder Funeral & Cremation. https://www.ballardsunderfuneral.com/obituaries/hsiang-yi-angela-richter.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Hiram Adam Flecken was born in Limberg, Zittert, Holland on November 11, 1840. His parents were Hubert Flecken and Mary Johnson. Hiram was usually called Adam.

In 1863 Adam and his parents moved to the United States, and Adam settled in Carver County, according to Little Sketches of Big Folks in Minnesota, 1907.

When the Civil War started, Adam volunteered. At age 23, he was assigned to Company H, Second Regiment of Minnesota Calvary of the Grand Army of the Republic. Adam was in the army from February 22, 1864 until April 28, 1866.

The Second Minnesota Cavalry Regiment was mustered at Fort Snelling for three years’ service on December 5, 1863, and was mustered out on November 17, 1865 and May 4, 1866. It served entirely in Minnesota, Dakota Territory, and Montana Territory.

Adam remembered the trip west “through South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming into Idaho in the summer of 1864 and the brush strokes of his reminiscences paint a scene of the primitive west – monotonous stretches of prairie, strips of desert sand, streams fringed with gaunt cottonwoods, willows, and scrubby oaks, and then, far ahead on the horizon the beckoning mountains, shrouded in their purple mantle of haze, first the Black Hills, then the Big Horn range and the foot hills of the Rockies,” said in the article, “Pioneer Day Recollection: Adam Flecken Tells Interesting Story About the Primitive West” in the June 18, 1925 Shakopee Tribune, and now published in the book Recollections of Early Pioneers 1925, edited by Betty Dols in 2000.

Adam knew that the company from Fort Snelling was there to escort a train of gold-seekers bound for the mountains of Idaho. Of course, there were other people already living here, even though they mentioned there was “no sign of habitation save for the blackened tents of the Indians.” Indigenous people lived here for years at Paha Sapa (Black Hills), Ȟeyúškiška (Bighorn Mountain), and, as one member of the Navajo Native Nation Len Necefer called the Rocky Mountains’ Longs Peak the Arapaho name: Neníisótoyóú’u, according to an article “This Account is Reclaiming the Indigenous Names for Mountains One Geotag at a Time,” in Smithsonian Magazine.

The people have stewarded it throughout the generations. Important resources including plants, migratory big game, rock shelters, tipi poles, stone for tools, the bison, fish, deer, elk, roots, and berries are critical for the people.

Adam was part of an escort of 300 or 400 men and a few women and children heading west, and some people were nervous about the Indians. In Missouri, Adam noted, “Two of our pickets were killed by Indians one night. It was my turn to go on guard duty a night a few days later, and I remember that night as well as if it were yesterday. The night was cloudy and there was a faint light from the moon. A light moved the branches of brush and blinds of grass gently, and I was ready to fire at everything that moved. Nothing happened though and we didn’t lose another man on the trip.”

During the trip to Idaho, Adam said, “The members of the escort didn’t have much time to study the country, anyway. We were kept busy most of the time. We had our horses to look after and many other military duties, which were increased greatly by conditions in the western country. We slept in little tents, three feet high and just large enough for two men. We ate only two meals a day, chiefly hardtack, pork, and coffee.”

When he was discharged in 1866, Adam worked as a farmhand for several years, cutting grain with a hand sickle, building it by hand and experiencing the usual conditions of farm life in Minnesota.

Adam married Maria Josepha Dieken at St. Mark’s Church on April 27, 1869. Maria Josepha was born on March 5, 1850 in Gangelt, Rheinland, Prussia, daughter of Peter Leonard Dieken and Maria Catherina Busch. They had 12 children.

In the 1870s Adam lived in Shakopee, employed in the Omaha machine shops for three years, and then established a brickyard a mile southeast of the city, where he operated for five years. In 1888 he sold the brickyard and Maria Josepha and Adam ran the Occidental Hotel, on First and Sommerville Street from 1889 until 1914. It then stopped serving meals and became a boarding house for salesmen until 1931. The building was torn down in April of 1956.

Maria Josepha Dieken Flecken, age 74, died on October 27, 1924.

Hiram Adam Flecken died on June 30, 1931 at 90 years old. He was the second last survivor of the Civil War in Shakopee. They both were buried at the Shakopee Catholic Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dols, Betty. Recollections of Early Pioneers 1925, Shakopee Heritage Society, 2000.

Fessenden, Maris. “This Account is Reclaiming the Indigenous Names for Mountains One Geotag at a Time.” Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Feb. 2018. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/social-media-can-let-people-know-about-mountains-indigenous-names-180968186/.

Little Sketches of Big Folks in Minnesota, 1907.

“Pioneer Day Recollection: Adam Flecken Tells Interesting Story About the Primitive West.” Shakopee Tribune, 18 June 1925.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Maria Josepha Dieken was born on March 5, 1850, in Gangelt, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, daughter of Peter Leonard Dieken and Maria Catherina Busch.

When she was 13 years old, Maria Josepha and her parents immigrated to America. Maria ended up in Shakopee, where, on April 27, 1869, she married Hiram Adam Flecken at St. Mark’s Catholic Church. Maria was 19 years old.

Over the next twenty years, Maria and Adam had twelve children, though several died as infants. While Maria took care of the children, Adam was employed in the Omaha machine shops for three years and then established a brickyard a mile southeast of the city, which he operated for five years. In 1888 he sold the brickyard and Maria and Adam ran the Occidental Hotel, on First and Sommerville Street.

The Occidental Hotel was built in 1874 on the northwest corner of First and Sommerville Street. It was built by G.W. Gellenbeck and was opened for business at the beginning of the first week of the new year, 1874.

It was a “two-story frame building with a large dining hall and commodious parlor on the first floor, besides the kitchen and two sleeping rooms. The second story was divided into sleeping rooms” according to the January 8, 1874 Shakopee Argus. It had accommodations for about fifty guests, according to the Shakopee Story.

Maria Josepha and Hiram Adam Flecken ran the hotel from 1889 until 1914.

For several years, the Occidental Hotel at the northwest corner of First and Sommerville Street was the scene of colorful banquets, according to the Shakopee Story. It was also the place for the annual meeting of the Old Settler’s Association. It stopped serving meals in August of 1913, according to the Shakopee Argus, August 8, 1913. It continued for several more years as a rooming house. The boarding house was closed in 1931. A portion of the hotel was torn down to make a smaller house for Henry and Mary, two of their children who were unmarried.

What was left of the Occidental Hotel was torn down in April of 1956, as noted in the Shakopee Story. Later, a modern filling station was erected on the corner, after it had served for a time as a used car lot, according to theShakopee Argus-Tribune, April 19, 1956.

Maria Josepha Dieken Flecken died on October 27, 1924. She was 74 years old.

She was buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee.

Hiram Adam Flecken died on June 30, 1931, at 90 years old. He was buried next to his wife in the Flecken area of the cemetery, Section 33, Lots A and B at the west end.

Bibliography

Shakopee Argus, 8 Jan. 1874.

Coller, Julius A. II. The Shakopee Story. Shakopee Heritage Society, 2009.

Shakopee Argus, 8 Aug. 1913.

Shakopee Argus-Tribune, 19 April 1956.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Alois Plut was born in Krupp, near Semich, diocese of Ljubljana, Province of Carniola, Austria on June 21, 1841, son of Joseph and Catherina Starz Plut.

Alois, along with 16 other ecclesiastical students, decided to move to the United States. Alois, age 23, completed his theological studies and was ordained in the Cathedral in St. Paul on February 12, 1865. He became a priest in Stillwater, New Prague, Winona, Cedar Lake, Sleepy Eye, New Ulm, and Glencoe.

As Father Plut traveled to various missions, he mostly traveled on trails. There were no roads at that time. Bitter cold and howling blizzards, pelting rain, mosquitoes, and the heat of summer made it hard, but Father Plut was young and energetic, though it taxed the body, according to The Shakopee Story by Julius A. Coller II.

In June 1876, Fr. Plut became pastor of the Church of St. Mark’s in Shakopee, where he stayed for ten years.

Meanwhile, in Shakopee, starting in 1862, sisters from the Benedictine Convent of St. Joseph at St. Mary, Pennsylvania arrived. The sisters, with ecclesiastical approval, founded the Convent and Academy, according to Julius A. Coller II in The Shakopee Story.

In a letter to King Ludwig of Bavaria on December 2, 1862, Abbott Boniface Wimmer noted that he founded a little mission for the sisters “to the great joy of the English and German Catholics. The new convent has its own story. First, it was a cow shed, then a horse barn, and now it is an embryo of a woman’s convent, but it only serves, in any event, only the most necessary purposes.”

The sisters erected a large two-and-a-half-story limestone building at the corner of Fourth and Atwood Street, south of St. Mark’s Church. St. Gertrude’s Convent and Academy by the Sisters of St. Benedict was incorporated on May 4, 1866, said Edward D. Neill in the History of the Minnesota Valley including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota.

The first commencement exercises of St. Gertrude’s Convent and Academy took place on June 20, 1871. On September 4, 1871, the academy had an enrollment of 46 young ladies. The board and tuition for the season were $40.00. Bedding and laundry were $5.00, piano lessons were $8.00, and guitar lessons were $3.00. Lessons in cloth, wax works, and the making of paper flowers were extra.

Mother Gertrude Flynn was the prioress. She was admired, and she put the convent and academy in firm financial foundation. By mid-1878, the debt of St. Gertrude Convent and Academy was practically paid off.

When Father Plut arrived in Shakopee in 1876, he and the sisters did not get along.

Father Plut, pastor of St. Mark’s and intensely German, decided in 1878 to refuse to re-employ the Benedictine Sisters as teachers at St. Mark’s School because he contended that they were unable to teach German properly. Father Plut and the sisters had a mutual antagonism that developed.

At one point, Father Plut refused, for a time, to give the nuns pews in the church.

At this time there were thirty sisters staffing the academy, convent, and three schools in Minneapolis, Carver, and Belle Plaine, and the orphanage in St. Paul. Father Plut replaced the Benedictine Sisters with the School Sisters of Notre Dame from Milwaukee in May 1878.

On August 31, 1880, Bishop Ireland advised the sisters that St. Gertrude’s was suppressed, and the thirty sisters needed to join St. Benedict’s Convent in St. Joseph, Minnesota or be dispensed from their vows. Sister Gertrude Flynn, OSB, and the other sisters who had come originally from St. Mary’s Pennsylvania moved reluctantly to St. Joseph.

According to a letter to Bishop Ireland, Abbott Alexius Edlebrock of St. John’s Monastery noted: “They believe they were wrong, and in my own impression is that they were wronged.”

In Shakopee, Father Plut was called to St. Paul in 1886. He filed various pastorates until 1903. Then he returned to St. Mark’s in Shakopee. While there, Father Plut was made a Domestic Prelate by Pope Pius X in May 1906, and by July 24 he became Most Reverend Archbishop.

Monsignor Alois Plut’s vigor and health waned, according to Julius A. Coller II.

Monsignor Alois Plut, the oldest priest in the diocese of St. Paul, died at the age of 76 on February 20, 1917. He was buried at St. Mark’s Catholic Cemetery, now called the Shakopee Catholic Cemetery, on February 23.

Bibliography

Coller, Julius A. II. The Shakopee Story.

Neill, Edward D. History of the Minnesota Valley including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Johanna O’Brien was born in Ireland ca. 1830, and arrived in Boston on May 24, 1848 on the ship Brig Lively. Her future husband, John Spearman, was born in Ireland ca. 1820, and moved from Canada in the 1840s and then to Minnesota Territory.

John and Johanna married in America.

In 1854, the Spearmans settled in Chanhassen on 92 acres beside Lake Riley. Johanna and John were Catholic and attended St. Mark’s and St. Mary’s Catholic Churches in Shakopee. In fact, Johanna was baptized in 1872 by Father Gregory Koering.

The Spearmans had 11 children: Anne, John, Ellen, Bridget, Mary, Katherine, Jenny, William, Margaret, and Peter and John who died in childhood.

John and Johanna were successful at farming. In July 1860, an Agricultural Census found that they had: 8 acres of improved land/84 acres of unimproved land, Cash value of farm = $500/Value of farm implements = $30, 3 milch cows, 2 working oxen, 4 other cattle, 6 swine, Indian corn in bushels = 160, Irish potatoes in bushels = 139, Butter in pounds = 200, Hay in tons = 6, Value of animals slaughtered = $40.

On October 1, 1877, John and Johanna purchased Block No. 106, Lots 1 through 10, in Shakopee. They paid $1,200.

They built a farmhouse, 1 ½ stories high, at the edge of town. The location is between 8th Avenue and Shakopee Avenue, and between Spencer and Sommerville Street. The house had a kitchen, parlor, two bedrooms, and a back porch. The house was situated in the center of the block. On the homestead included a barn and a chicken coop.

In 1890, the Spearmans had one cow, some hens, and a cat. John walked his cow to the Minnesota River daily to be watered. The retired couple were quiet people who kept to themselves. They wore homespun, unstylish clothing. Johanna was seen in public on Sundays, where she attended mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The couple was described as industrious, economical to the point of penuriousness, and miserly. John paid for all his purchases in cash.

When Anne Spearman Russell Lynch, the eldest daughter, was widowed in 1880, she left California and returned to Shakopee with her three children and stayed with her parents.

Georgie, who was two years old, was loved by the grandparents, and when Anne moved to Minneapolis to marry again, Georgie stayed in Shakopee. George Russell helped with the horses around the farm and helped with correspondences since the grandparents were illiterate.

George was an altar boy at St. Mary’s. But one Sunday in December of 1890, the family was not at mass. The church members went to their house. John Spearman was sitting in front of the kitchen stove, with a bullet hole in the back of his head. The people of Shakopee continued into the house, and saw Johanna O’Brien Spearman, who was lying in a pool of blood on the parlor floor. And in the other bedroom lay George, age 12, dead beneath the bed where he hid.

Nothing was touched. Two certificates of deposit were on the table. It was not a robbery.

The murder had taken place several days ago. The famished cat had eaten several of Johanna and John’s fingers.

The chickens had starved to death. The cow was so weak that it had to be killed.

The City Council of Shakopee offered a $1,000 reward for the capture of the guilty parties.

An inquest occurred, and several people testified about the murder of John and Johanna O’Brien Spearman and their grandson, George Russell, who were murdered in their Shakopee farmhouse on or about the evening of Saturday, December 13, 1890.

Who did it? Some possibilities:

William Spearman? William was working as a hack driver for a livery stable. He had a reputation for being a heavy drinker and was known about town as “Whiskey Bill.”

Joseph? A clairvoyant and Johanna’s niece predicted that a man named Joseph did the deed.

Mr. Farr? Myrtle, a granddaughter, remembered a man who helped around the house. His last name was Farr.

O.S. “Red” Brown? Red Brown got some wood for a fence from John Spearman, and he never paid John back. They had some words, and Brown called John Spearman a son of a bitch.

Two men with an overcoat and a buffalo robe? Two men drove past his house fast toward Shakopee. One had a buffalo overcoat on, and the other one had an overcoat. The men were intoxicated.

A man dressed as a woman? A servant met a person between the church and the priest’s residence, dressed in women’s clothing, but looking like a man. He walked fast to her left, going in the opposite direction.

The triple funeral of John Spearman, Johanna O’Brien Spearman, and George Russell was held at St. Mary’s Church on December 19, 1890.

They were buried at the Catholic Cemetery. No death certificates have been found. It might be that the certificates were overlooked in the sensationalism of the time.

The murders of Johanna, John, and George were never solved.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Bill Laddusaw, his wife, and four children, including Marilyn, moved to Shakopee on October 4, 1942.

Bill and his friend Maynard Bullock worked at the National Youth Association camp, in what is now The Landing.

There were almost no houses available that they could afford.

Bill saw the vacant house at the Mill Pond. He asked Otto Siems, who had a bar downtown called The Hole in the Wall. The Laddusaw finally moved to the house near the Mill Pond.

Marilyn was six years old. She was born on August 13, 1935, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the daughter of William and Rose (Lanners) Laddusaw. At the age of six her family moved to Shakopee, which she called home ever since.

In “Our White Gambling House” by Tom Melchior in the December 2012/January 2013 Scott County SCENE, Marilyn talked about living in the gambling house on First Avenue in Shakopee.

Marilyn noted that “I don’t think there was a slot machine in the ice cream parlor, but I think everything else had a slot machine, including at the gas station.

“The bar was still connected. You could still pull the spigot and the beer flowed! The whiskey cabinets behind the bar were still filled with whiskey … It was not a house designed for a family.

“There was also a place where there were holes drilled through the house where you could put a rifle or gun.

“When we came in, besides the smoke hanging so low, it was just terrible.

“My mother would take a pail of water and soap and a brush. She would wash an area about two feet square, and then she’d have to change the water. It was just smoke.

“And she cried.”

After high school, Marilyn met Vern Lang while making daily deposits at his teller window at the First National Bank of Shakopee. The two were married on June 12, 1954, at the Church of St. Mary in Shakopee.

In March of 1955, Michael, their first child, was born. He was a perfect full-term baby, but he was only with them for three days, leaving a permanent mark on their lives.

The next year, while Marilyn was expecting her second baby, she contracted polio and spent about a year at Sister Kenny Institute in Minneapolis receiving treatment.

Her baby, John, was born prematurely at seven months on February 29, 1956. He was not expected to live and the two were separated at different hospitals. John beat the odds and survived and was later followed by Kathy in 1959 and Sandy in 1963.

Polio left Marilyn with very limited use of one leg, and no use of the other, but other than the walking sticks and wheelchair she used, you would never know.

Marilyn lovingly raised her children without ever letting them see the difficulties of her disability. She never asked for help, and she never complained. If there was a physical challenge before her, she just figured out a way to manage it.

Marilyn made beautiful things with her needlework and crocheted many afghans for family and friends. Her greatest joy was her family. She was an amazing cook and loved cooking and baking for family gatherings and anyone else who she felt needed some treats. She was an excellent story and joke teller.

Marilyn is missed by so many people. She touched everyone she met with her positive attitude and genuine care and concern for them.

Marilyn Rose Laddusaw Lang was buried at the Catholic Cemetery. Her husband, Vernon Manford Lang, age 86, died on March 18, 2016, at Friendship Manor, and was buried beside her at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee.

Bibliography

Melchior, Tom. “Our White Gambling House.” Scott County SCENE, December 2012/January 2013.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Crete “Sandy” Esmeralda Ngatoro Buesgens, age 82, of Shakopee passed away on Sunday, August 13, 2023.

Sandy was born January 26, 1941, in Te’ Ararora, New Zealand. She was a Māori. Her mother was Te ‘Hinganoa Pera Ngatoro.

New Zealand, which Māori called Aotearoa, is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses – the North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) and the South Island (Te Waipounamu) – and more than seven hundred smaller islands.

As she grew up, Sandy attended Te’ Wana o Rerekohu area schools.

In the East Cape of New Zealand, Sandy could visit Gisborne, the first city in the world to see the sunrise. Or she could slide down the Rere Rockslide or walk along New Zealand’s longest pier. Or she could visit the small town of Te Araroa, in the place where she was born.

After graduating from high school, Sandy relocated to Wellington, New Zealand to pursue her career in nursing. In Wellington, Sandy met James Buesgens, who grew up in Belle Plaine. They married at St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church in Wellington on October 27, 1961.

James Elroy Buesgens, who was born January 26, 1943, was the son of William Buesgens (1892-1968) and Crescence Marie Schug Buesgens (1900-1989).

In 1962, Sandy and Jim moved to Shakopee. They continued to grow their family. They had four children: Shona (married Bob Pulk), Monica Jimece (married James Siegle), Alana Loni (married Albert Trende), and Shane (married Bonnie Luce).

Jim died in a car accident. Sandy and her children lived on Fifth Avenue and Spencer Street in Shakopee.

Sandy worked at St. Francis Hospital for over forty years.

St. Francis Regional Medical Center has a rich tradition of providing quality healthcare for the people living in Minnesota’s Scott, Carver, and western Dakota counties. Emerging in the middle of the Great Depression, when the nearest hospital was thirty miles away in Minneapolis, Shakopee was once an isolated rural city with a population of 2,400, according to St. Francis’s website.

To serve the community, a group of Franciscan sisters sought to open a hospital in Shakopee and, with community support, they purchased the Scott County poorhouse and soon founded St. Francis Hospital and Home in 1938. St. Francis served 128 patients from the surrounding area in its first year.

By the late 1940s, the original hospital could no longer support the expanding healthcare needs of the post-World War II baby boom. In May 1953, a new fifty-bed hospital replaced the former poorhouse to accommodate the area’s population growth. That first St. Francis provided care for more than 1,300 patients from surrounding communities.

In 1982, St. Francis Hospital was renamed St. Francis Regional Medical Center and, in 1987, the Franciscans transferred sponsorship and ownership of the hospital to the Benedictine Sisters at St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth and the Benedictine Health System. By October 1993, a new alliance was formed between St. Francis, the Benedictine Health System and HealthSpan (a predecessor organization of Allina Health).

Growing healthcare needs and exceptional community support enabled the new St. Francis to build and open its current facility in July 1996.

St. Francis is currently jointly owned by Allina Health, HealthPartners Park Nicollet, and Essentia Health. Its Catholic identity is sponsored by the Benedictine Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth. This unique structure combines the caring and compassion of a community hospital with the modern medical technology, specialties and services found in large metropolitan areas. St. Francis provides a full range of inpatient, outpatient and emergency care services on a medical campus with more than thirty other clinics and more than four hundred providers noted, according to the St. Francis website.

After working at St. Francis for over forty years, Sandy retired in 2012.

Her greatest joys in life were spending time with her nine grand and ten great-grandchildren. Her love for them showed through her smile as she lit up every time she saw them.

Sandy spent many mornings enjoying toast and coffee at Wampach’s in downtown Shakopee, she loved playing bingo and hearing the chimes and bells of a winning slot machine she was playing.

She was an amazing cook where friends and family often benefited from recipes she got from one of the beloved cooking shows she watched, especially her homemade egg rolls and strawberry cheesecake. She also spent time with her interests in knitting, ceramics, occasional part-time jobs, and daily walks down Tenth Avenue.

Crete “Sandy” Esmeralda Ngatoro Buesgens, age 82, of Shakopee, passed away on Sunday, August 13, 2023.

Celebration of Life for Sandy was held at McNearney-Schmidt Funeral and Cremation. Sandy was interred at Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in Belle Plaine.

Bibliography

“History.” St. Francis Regional Medical Center. https://www.stfrancis-shakopee.com/about-us/history/.