Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

John Shoto was born in Wabasha in March 1798.

After being in Wabasha for 25 years, he joined the Red Wing band for 15 years.

Leaving Red Wing, John came up the Minnesota River where he became a leader of the Dakota band, along with Ṡakpedaŋ in Tínṫa Otuŋwe until the US-Dakota Conflict.

After the US-Dakota Conflict, he became a scout from 1862-1870, working with Henry Hastings Sibley.

In 1872, Shoto returned to Shakopee as leader of the Little Six band.

Shoto was smart.

He used to stop at various houses of rich people in downtown Shakopee. He would ask for food.

If the housekeeper was there, she filled his plate with lots of food, and Shoto was happy.

When the woman of the house answered the door, the rich woman would look disgusted and just gave him two pieces of bread and little more.

Shoto would point to his throat, and gesture that he had a sore throat, and then he would leave.

He knew that he could find something better at other houses, where the people were friendlier!

In the beginning of January 1899, Old Shoto was about town, peering out of his almost sightless eyes, and now and again saying, “Hau! Hau!” to all who gave him a merry greeting.

Hau is Dakota for “Hello.”

John Shoto died January 24, 1899, at age 100. He died at 3 p.m. at the Indian settlement on Indian Road on the north side of the Minnesota River in what is now Eden Prairie. His wife, Anna, survived him, and died at age 90.

The funeral was at St. Mary’s Church, and he was buried at Valley Cemetery. Their daughter, Caroline Moore, died as an infant in 1830 and is buried at the potter’s field at Valley Cemetery.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Sophia de Levie was born May 17, 1919, in Shakopee, Minnesota.

Sophia’s father was Samuel Benjamin de Levie (1879-1943), and her mother was Frouwkje Frieda Simons de Levie (1883-1957).

Sophia’s grandfather was Nochum de Levie (1841-1891); her great-grandfather was Benjamin Nochums de Levie (1810-1889); Sophia’s great-great-grandfather was Nochem Benjamin de Levie (1780-1836); her great-great-great-grandfather was Benjamin Heiman de Levie (1744-1828); and Sophia’s great-great-great-great-grandfather was Heiman Meyer Heinemann de Levie (1703-1782).

Sophia’s parents lived in Oude Pekela, Pekela Municipality, Gröningen, Netherlands. Gröningen is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. It borders Friesland to the west, Drenthe to the south, the German state of Lower Saxony to the east, and the Wadden Sea to the north. It was a farming area.

After Samuel and Frieda married on March 2, 1904 in Sappemeer, Hoogezand-Sappemeer, Groningen, Netherlands, they moved to Oude Pekela, where their first two girls, Ettie, or Stella, and Helena Lena de Levie were born. Then their first son, Nathan, was born May 21, 1909, but died Dec. 30, 1909.

Two years later, Samuel and Frieda, along with Stella and Lena, moved to America.

The family moved to Marion Township, in Linn County, Iowa. The U.S. Census said that the area was agricultural, just like the area in Gröningen, with about 725 people there. During the time in Iowa, Samuel and Frieda had two more children, Mary, who was born Dec. 1, 1913, and David, who was born Oct. 27, 1915.

Not long after, the family moved to Shakopee, Minnesota. And on May 17, 1919, Sophia was born. The U.S. Census for Shakopee in 1920, which had 1,988 people, lists the family, including Benjamin, Sophia’s father, who was 40 years old and a livestock broker; Frieda, his wife, who was 37 years old; Stella, who was 13; Lena, who was 11 years old, and both born in the Netherlands; Mary, age six, who was born in Iowa; and David, age three, who also was born in Iowa. And finally, the U.S. Census noted Sophia de Levie, who was eight months old, who was born in Shakopee. The family was Jewish.

About a year later, the family moved back to the Netherlands. Maybe the family missed the relatives who lived there. Or maybe they found that the United States was not that welcoming to them. Or it could be for many other reasons. But it was clear that on May 11, 1921, a son, Simon de Levie, was born in Hoogeveen, Hoogeveen, Drenthe, Netherlands.

The family lived in the Netherlands without many problems until Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), an Austrian-born German politician, rose to power as leader of the Nazi Party, where he became the Führer in 1934. During his dictatorship, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland in 1939. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust: the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims. The Netherlands entered World War II on May 10, 1940, when invading German forces quickly overran the country.

After the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, it became a transit camp for Jews who were being deported to the Nazi concentration camps in middle and eastern Europe, and later to extermination camps.

The Holocaust in the Netherlands was part of the European-wide Holocaust organized by Nazi Germany and took place in the German-occupied Netherlands. In 1939, there were some 140,000 Dutch Jews living in the Netherlands, among them some 24,000 to 25,000 German-Jewish refugees who had fled from Germany in the 1930s. Some 75 percent of the Dutch Jewish population was murdered in the Holocaust, according to Wikipedia.

Deportations of Jews from the Netherlands to German-occupied Poland and Germany began on June 15, 1942, and ended on Sept. 13, 1944. Ultimately, some 101,000 Jews were deported in 98 transports from Westerbork to Auschwitz (57,800; 65 transports), Sobibor (34,313; 19 transports), Bergen-Belsen (3,724; eight transports) and Theresienstadt (4,466; six transports), where most of them were murdered, according to Holocaust Encyclopedia.

Johann Baptist Albin Rauter (1895-1949) was a high-ranking Austrian-born SS (Schutzstaffel, or Protection Squads) functionary and war criminal during the Nazi era, according to Wikipedia. He was the highest SS and police leader in the occupied Netherlands and therefore the leading security and police officer there during the period of 1940-1945.

Rauter sent progress letters to Himmler informing him that “in all of Holland some 120,000 Jews are being readied for departure.” These “departures” that Rauter spoke of were the deportations of Dutch Jews to concentration and extermination camps.

The de Levie family, like most Jewish people in the Netherlands, were forced into concentration and extermination camps in Poland, including the Jewish girl who was born in Shakopee.

Simon, Sophia’s youngest brother, died Sept. 30, 1942, at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Sophia died Jan. 21, 1943, at age 23 years old. She died at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Oświęcim, Powiat oświęcimski, Małopolskie, Poland. On the same day, her older brother, David, died at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Sophia’s father died at the Sobibór Concentration Camp on May 28, 1943 in Sobibór, Lubelskie, Poland. Sophia’s sister, Helena Lena, died June 4, 1943, at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, and another sister, Ettie, or Stella, died there June 4, 1943. And the final sister, Mary, who was born in Iowa, died Jan. 28, 1944, also at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

And so, Samuel Benjamin de Levie, and his six children all died in the Holocaust, including the one child who was born in Shakopee, Minnesota, Sophia de Levie.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Chinese immigrants in the 19th century struggled to make a home for themselves in the United States. Despite harsh immigration restrictions and job discrimination that persisted well into the 20th century, Chinese people managed to put down roots in all parts of the country.

The first Chinese immigrants arrived in Minnesota in the mid-1870s. The first Chinese immigrant to arrive in Minnesota was Wang See Ling who arrived in 1875. He was one of the first Chinese entrepreneurs. Chinese entrepreneurs started restaurants, stores, import shops, and hotels and businesses not just in the Twin Cities, but in Stillwater, then a lumber town, the Iron Range, Duluth, and ten smaller towns, including Shakopee. By the late 1880s more than one hundred Chinese men had entered the state, with most settling in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Duluth, and the rest scattered in smaller towns. In Shakopee, the first documentation of a Chinese person in Shakopee was in 1892.

In 1890 in Shakopee, the Oriental Hotel was downtown on Second Avenue, between Lewis and Sommerville streets.

It was probably not used in a derogatory way. It was just something to use for anything Asian, whether that’s food, a business, a person, an idea. But it is not a word used today. “We use Asian, or Asian American, now,” said Kat Chow in an NPR interview. “That term’s been outdated for a long time.” Kat Chow notes that it is cringe-inducing and sinister at its base, kind of like “chink” meant to box one group away for another’s comfort. It makes one think of the caricatures of grinning Asian men with ponytails and buckteeth. In fact, the term oriental is no longer used by federal laws. It is not a word to use today.

It could be that the Chinese American man who lived in Shakopee in 1892 worked at the Oriental Hotel or may have been a cook there. Most Chinese Americans were either laundry men or restaurant workers. But there is no information about this person, including his name. He was just listed as “oriental.”

In 1878, someone came to Shakopee to convince people to have telephones. The “telegraphy” system was operating by February 1879, connecting Strunk’s Drug Store, the depot, Fr. Alois Plut’s residence, and the courthouse. By 1882, several local dwellings also got phones. Hines noted that they were “a nice plaything for little boys at either end.”

Having a telephone that called long distance did not happen until 1892.

C. Joseph Strunk stepped to the back of the Old Drug Store on the north side of First Avenue and rang the bell, making the first long-distance phone call in September 1892. He called the Noyes Brothers and Cutler at St. Paul, by way of Minneapolis.

The booth at the back of the store was the first and only for several years, of long-distance service.

An Asian American man, the only one in Shakopee at that time, would call to a friend in Minneapolis, according to Julius Coller II. The Chinese American used to yell loudly to make sure it went through, and many white men at the store would wonder if he would just open the door of the booth, the singsong conversation would reach its destination easier than over the wire!

Family life developed slowly in Minnesota’s early Chinese community and elsewhere in the United States, due to the restrictions of the immigration law, Chinese tradition, and the high cost of trans-Pacific travel.

Most Chinese people in the United States, and in Minnesota, were men.

Liang May Seen was the first woman of Chinese descent to live in Minnesota when she moved here with her husband in 1892. Woo Yee Sing, a Chinese businessman from Minneapolis, was looking for a wife, and he found Liang; they were married that summer, and she moved with him to Minneapolis. She overcame an impoverished childhood in China and teenage years spent in a San Francisco brothel to become a respected leader in the Chinese immigrant community in Minneapolis.

At least six Chinese American families were established in Minnesota before 1910. The Chinese American man in Shakopee, as far as what the Shakopee Heritage Society has learned so far, never did find a wife in Shakopee. But he did have family members and friends in Minneapolis. The weekly calls to Minneapolis were probably a lifeline for the man from Shakopee, and an opportunity to speak his primary language with others.

The 1930s and 1940s brought violent upheavals in China and were difficult times for Chinese Minnesotans, concerned for their relatives and for the future of their homeland. After World War II, Chinese American communities and businesses flourished in Minnesota. By 2002, Chinese immigrants and their descendants in Minnesota numbered more than 18,000 people. In Shakopee, about 10 percent of the people are Asian American. Of those, about 55 people are Chinese Americans.

And the first documented Asian American in Shakopee was the Chinese American who called his friend in Minneapolis at the Strunk Drug Store in 1892.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Paul Edward Schwaesdall was born April 24, 1949, in San Diego, California. So how does a name like Schwaesdall run a Mexican restaurant? It was easy. Paul’s father was German American Edward Schwaesdall (1929-2014). But his mother was Brigida Vicky Florez Peréz Schwaesdall (1927-2001), a Mexican American who was born in Newton, Kansas, and grew up cooking Tex-Mex food.

Paul’s grandparents were Ambrose Schwaesdall (1888-1968) and Verna Mell Johnson Schwaesdall (1901-1981); and Jesús V. Peréz (1885-1967) and Amalia M. Florez (1894-1981). Paul’s great-grandparents were John N. Schwaesdall, Jr. (1853-1931) and Malissa C. Bryant Schwaesdall (1862-1918); Barney M. Johnson (1864-1942) and Alice Cordelia Carnie Satterfield Johnson (1875-1938); and Manuel Peréz (1837-1907) and Pascuala Venegas Peréz (1850-1908); and Cristobal Florez and Natividad Marquez Florez (1864-1904).

In San Diego, Paul married Ann Marie Menden on Oct. 21,1972. Ann was born July 25, 1947, in Marystown. Ann married Flavian Ronald Geis on December 30, 1967, but was divorced in December 1967. Ann’s parents were Ralph Mathew Menden (1924-1992) and Delores J. Geis Menden (1926-2006). Her grandparents were Jakob Menden (1901-1988) and Theresa Cecelia Klehr Menden (1902-1987); and Herbert Ambrose Geis (1891-1956) and Mary Mamie Kerber Geis (1897-1955).

Paul and Ann had three children: Edward, Therese, and Ron. Paul worked as a firefighter.

Paul, Anna, and children often visited Minnesota and spent their time in Marystown and Shakopee. Paul noted that there was no Mexican restaurant in Shakopee in the 1980s. So, when they returned to San Diego, Paul retired from firefighting and worked with other Mexican cooks to learn about the restaurant business. According to the Shakopee Valley Newson Oct. 1, 1986, in an article by Beth Forkner Moe called “Pablo’s has real Mexican food,” Paul noted that “I feel Shakopee’s ready for a Mexican restaurant. The town’s grown so fast…I’m surprised that so many people like Mexican food in this area.”

Ann missed her family in Marystown, so in 1986, the family moved back to Shakopee and the family opened Pablo’s Mexican Restaurantat 230 Lewis Street South. Located in the Huber building, across from the Shakopee Library. It was the last location for the Strunk Pharmacy, or the Old Drug Store, which was located there after moving from the north side of First Avenue, and was closed in June 1977 after 120 years of service. The place became The Sweet Treat Ice Cream Parlour and Restaurant, which opened Jan. 3, 1978. Manager and owner Cindy Strand, at age 18, was the youngest business owner in Shakopee. In 1986, the place became Pablo’s Mexican Restaurant, and it has been in business for more than 39 years and counting!

Two authentic Mexican chefs, Tony Ortiz and Ernesto Gutierrez, were Paul’s right-hand persons in the kitchen when Pablo’s Mexican Restaurant opened. Everything in the restaurant has authentic Mexican ambiance. “The pots were made in Mexico, the paintings on the walls were painted especially for Pablo’s by a man in Mexico,” said Beth Forkner Moe. “The draperies in the window are also real. They are made from sarapes which were brought here from Mexico.”

Pablo’s Mexican Restaurant serves over 700 patrons on any given night.

Ann Marie Menden Schwaesdall died April 19, 2011 in Shakopee, and was buried at the St. Mary of the Purification Cemetery in Marystown. Paul “Pablo” Schwaesdall decided to retire in 2015, and his two sons, Ed and Ron, took over the business, according to the Shakopee Valley Newson Oct. 2, 2015 by Cristeta Boarini.

Ed Schwaesdall, who was 12 when he started working in the restaurant, noted that “All the great recipes that our customers come for, those will stay the same.” His father’s Hispanic roots are where all the family recipes have come from.

“Family is a key component to the Schwaesdalls and their business,” said Cristeta Boarini. “Not only do Ed and Ron work in the restaurant, but their wives and children participate as well. Ed and Ron’s sister, Theresa Schwaesdall Ahlberecht, also works part time at Pablo’s.

“It’s nice to see. The kids, they serve the food, our wives take an active role. We really are family orientated,” Ed said. Ron, who has worked at Pablo’s since he was 18, added “It’s how we grew up!”

Today in Shakopee, many Mexican and Tex-Mex places have added to the restaurant scene, including El Toro, Don Ramon Street Tacos, El Huarache, Bravis Modern Street Food, as well as fast-food places like Taco Bell, Taco John’s, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and Qdoba Mexican Eats. But Pablo’s Mexican Restaurant was the first Mexican restaurant in Shakopee and continues to be a popular place since 1986.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Ida Gertrude May Gjerdrum was born Jan. 16, 1883, in Kennebec, Frontenac, Ontario, Canada. Her father was Eiling Odd Gjerdrum, and her mother was Mary Keefer.

As she grew up, Ida’s boyfriend was Frederick Buck. Ida was a registered nurse who took her training in a New York City hospital.

In 1912, Ida learned from her boyfriend, Frederick, that he wanted to get married. Dr. Buck returned to Canada, married Ida, and returned to Shakopee with his blushing bride.

In Shakopee, there was no public library, and the school library was inadequate. In October 1903 Ona Peck got together with a few other women in Shakopee and decided to organize the Shakopee Book Lover’s Club. Each woman contributed $1.00 to buy books. Ida loved to read.

The Book Lover’s Club met promptly at 3 p.m. Many of the mothers brought their babies along. It was inexcusable to arrive later. According to Ellen Boppel in a booklet called As I Remember Scott County, published in 1980, it was considered unacceptable to arrive even five minutes late!

According to Ellen, Mr. Dean had a bob sled and big bay horses, “Whenever the weather was inclement, he would hitch the big horses to the bob sled that always had a little hay in it, covered over with blankets, and he’d go to every home to pluck up the members. Later, he would call for them to take them home.” Once in a while, the Shakopee Book Lover’s Club attended a play, opera, or special musicals in St. Paul. With the help of Mr. Dean, everyone would join in the bob sled to go to the depot, as there was only one train a day.

“It left in the morning and returned in the evening, He’d be at the station again in the evening, to call for the ladies and deliver them to their respective homes, wind howling and snow knee deep,” said Ellen.

When Ida and Frederick moved to Shakopee in 1912, Ida joined the Book Lover’s Club. On Dec. 5, 1914, Ida and Frederick had a child, Marion Bell Betty Buck (1914-2007) in Shakopee. When Ida went to the book club, her baby went along.

A few years after Marion was born, Ida became blind.

Ida went to Faribault School for the Blind to learn Braille. She got a reading machine to read the books for the Shakopee Book Lover’s Club. And Ida received a seeing-eye dog to roam around downtown Shakopee.

Over the years, Ida had three different seeing-eye dogs. The dogs would lead her all around town. Ellen noted that “When she went to the doctor’s office, she would count the steps when she stepped up on the curb, at the corner to the door that led to his office. She would then stop, and the dog would turn to the door, and she would go up the stairs.”

According to Ellen, Ida never spoke of herself in a tone of self-pity.

“My life has been rich blessed from the deep friendship that existed between us,” said Ellen. “Never did I have a sense of pity for her. She was so humorous and witty.”

Ida Gertrude May Gjerdrum Buck died Oct. 9, 1957. She is buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

At age 95, Dr. Frederick Buck, Ida’s husband, died. He had served the people in and around Shakopee for many, many years. He was buried in Valley Cemetery next to his wife.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Ruth Gardner (1933)

Ruth Gardner. Or Laura Jensen. Or Ruth Redtke, or Ruth Warner.

She escaped from the State Reformatory for Women in Shakopee on Feb. 20, 1933.

Ruth was 22 years old, 5’6 5/8” and 109 pounds. She has light brown hair, hazel eyes, and a sallow complexion.

Ruth was a clever forger. She operated in Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota.

She always presented her victims with a fraudulent letter from an insurance company. The forged check was usually for about $70.

If you find Ruth, apprehend and deliver her to an officer of the Minnesota State Reformatory for Women in Shakopee. You will get a $25 reward!

Thumbing a Ride (1948)

On Aug. 21, 1948, at 8 p.m., a woman escaped from the reformatory in Shakopee.

She was working in the fields, made her way to the Holmes Street Bridge, and crossed to the north end.

She started to thumb a ride.

John P. Wermerkirschen pulled up, and the woman got into the car. As he drove, Wermerskirchen asked her name.

“None of your business!” she responded. “What is YOUR name?”

The driver answered, short and sweet, “You’ll be surprised. I am the sheriff.”

Her ride ended shortly after…back to the reformatory!

Lucille Keppen Released from Prison at Age 93 (2007)

“Does it hurt?” Lucille said. “I really want it to hurt because you hurt me so deeply, and I was so good to you.”

Lucille Keppen, age 88, shot Stephen Flesche in 2002.

The inmates nicknamed her “Grandma.”

When she got out at age 93, the first thing she wanted to do was go to Perkins!

Lucille was the oldest prisoner of the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee.

Teen Murderer Flees Jail to See the Smashing Pumpkins (1998)

Seventeen-year-old Pamela D. Keary really wanted to see the Smashing Pumpkins.

She was serving a 12-year sentence for second-degree murder.

She joined 100,000 fans to see the show at the Hennepin Avenue Block Party.

She was arrested at midnight and removed to the segregated unit.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Isabel Davis was born in Warren, Vermont April 24, 1849. She became a teacher at age 14. Isabel moved to Minneapolis in 1870 and taught there. She married Chester Gross Higbee in January 1876.

Isabel spoke out for the needs of women and children, the poor, and the downtrodden. “There was a time when individual effort was sufficient to meet social needs, but life was grown so complex that organization is absolutely necessary.”

In 1908, with the help of Isabel, the State of Minnesota constructed a separate school for delinquent girls (the Minnesota Home School for Girls) in Sauk Centre.

But for twenty years, Isabel and others tried to provide humane treatment for women convicted of crimes, but lawmakers did not support it.

On March 4, 1915, Isabel and fifty other women went to the capitol, and Isabel decided to testify at the meeting.

That same day, a bill to allow women to vote was turned down. Again. It would be another five years before women got the right to vote (and only if you were white).

Isabel was not happy. But Isabel had a plan.

She stood and faced the men (who were the only ones allowed to vote) and told them they should have a women’s reformatory. There was no place in Minnesota for women in trouble. She faced the men in the committee room, across the gulf that custom, law, and privilege had created.

And she spoke.

She said women should not be housed in Stillwater Prison. Women needed to have a place, a place to provide a humane and healthy environment that would help them return to society as contributing members.

Isabel pled for establishment of a reformatory for women. She argued in favor of a new institution where female offenders would neither be incarcerated with male inmates nor with teenage girls. At the time, most women lawbreakers were found guilty of prostitution and were usually fined and sent home or committed to the workhouse for a short term. Others were sent to the state prison, the state reformatory, or the girls’ school. The superintendent at the reformatory took female inmates into his home or placed them in the local jail.

“We must give the women fresh air, God’s glorious sunshine, and as much freedom as is consistent with discipline…I shall trust your judgement to accord us a women’s reformatory,” said Isabel Davis Higbee.

When she sat down at the capitol, Isabel coughed.

Then Isabel fell over…dead!

People were shocked, and they started thinking about what she had to say. One woman said, “…no man can refuse us the reformatory when it is realized that women are willing to give up their lives for it.”

The legislature finally responded.

Because of her work, the bill to create a women’s prison in Shakopee finally happened. They purchased 167 acres of land what was then at the edge of Shakopee.

The women’s reformatory began in Shakopee, Minnesota in 1920.

Isabel Davis Higbee had died March 4, 1915. She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Maplewood, Minnesota.

Even though she never lived in Shakopee, her memory is here, in the hall and plaque that notes the grateful appreciation for Isabel for the good of the women in Shakopee and the state of Minnesota!

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Elizabeth Koeper was born in a little log cabin in St. Paul, Minnesota Territory on Sept. 14, 1854. Her father, Johan John Theodor Koeper (1818-1901), owned a claim of 160 acres in the present business area of St. Paul. In fact, the cabin is now a department store on Wabasha Street between Sixth and Seventh streets, according to the Aug. 9, 1925 St. Paul Pioneer Press. Her mother was Maria Elizabeth Hermes (1832-1895).

According to Elizabeth, “Father didn’t think much of St. Paul then. There were only a few buildings in the settlement, and I guess the prospect didn’t look very good to him.” So, in the summer of 1855, Johan, Maria, and Elizabeth packed up and took the Antelope, one of the few steamers on the Minnesota River, to Shakopee.

The family lived in a log cabin beside the meadow where the cattle grazed. It was north of the Milwaukee Railroad right-of-way, joining the city limits on the west part of Shakopee.

Elizabeth’s mother had eight children.

Because they knew that people in the area could be sold to the growing settlement, Elizabeth’s father went to Detroit and brought back a drowse of cattle, mostly rich cows. In Shakopee there were several hotels, crowded with land seekers, immigrants, freighters, and others, and the dairy prospered from the start, according to an article in the St. Paul Dispatch.

Elizabeth knew that many Dakota Indians lived nearby. “We were afraid of them, but although they gave us many ‘frights,’ none of them harmed us. I remember mother sending me to the well one day—I was six years old—to get a dipper of water. I wore two long braids, and an Indian, passing by, seized one of the braids….” Elizabeth ran into the house and cried. “The Indians also wore braids, and I thought they wanted to take me because we had that style of coiffure in common!”

During the U.S.-Dakota War, Elizabeth’s father was transporting supplies near New Ulm. He escaped, but his Dakota got his supplies. For a while that summer, some people in Shakopee felt scared, and many fled to St. Paul. But Elizabeth’s mother remained in the little cabin with her brood. Her mother adopted the ruse of placing a pair of her husband’s boots and his axe before the cabin door to convey the impression that her protector was at home.

At age 17, Elizabeth and her family moved to a farm that consisted of 265 acres just west of the city limits of Shakopee and it became the Koeper Dairy Farm. Forty acres later were sold to the state for the Minnesota Reformatory for Women.

Elizabeth remembered her first school, which was on the block west of St. Mary’s church. The frame building was later the later covered in brick. Her first teacher was Matthew Mayer. In 1864 she attended St. Gertrude’s Convent and Academy. Elizabeth also attended a German school conducted by John Kerker, according to an article in the St. Paul Dispatch.

In the 1870s, Elizabeth took an active part in the gayeties of the growing village. “A building in which Mrs. Husman danced as a girl was known as Ben Andres’ hall and is now the Pelham hotel.” Elizabeth “attended dances and balls and had many partners for the schottische, fireman’s dance, a Virginia real and other dances of the periods.” Mrs. Elizabeth Koeper Husman in Recollections of Early Pioneers, 1925, noted among her partners was John Bernard Husman, Jr.

Elizabeth married John B. Husman, Jr. July 27, 1875, at St. Mark’s Catholic Church. They settled on the Koeper farm. John died in 1886, but Elizabeth continued to live at the farm. At first the milk was supplied to Shakopee patrons, but later was shipped to the Twin Cities. They had three children.

A week before she died, Elizabeth had a comparatively fair state of health, according to the Argus-Tribune in December 1943. She was overtaken with the flu and was immediately taken to St. Francis Hospital where a double pneumonia developed. Elizabeth became weak, and on Saturday night at midnight on Dec. 11, 1943, she passed away, as she had lived quietly, peacefully and happily.

Elizabeth Koeper Husman was buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Beulah Brunelle was a 21-year-old Ojibwe woman. She was serving time at the Women’s Reformatory in Shakopee in April 1946 for grand larceny (in her case, stealing clothes, shoes, and a ring).

Beulah was one of several American Indians who were at the Minnesota State Reformatory for Women in Shakopee. Today, 22 percent of the inmates are American Indian or Alaskan Native people.

Beulah grew up at the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota. A population of 5,815 reside on the main reservation and another 2,516 reside on off-reservation trust land (as of the 2000 census). The Ojibwe people spoke Mikinaakwajiw-ininiwag. The people there were a tribe of Ojibwa and Métis peoples.

On April 29, 1946, Beulah met Edna Larrabee in prison. She had been there serving time for committing grand larceny in the second degree (writing bad checks). Edna was 25 years old. It was not her first time in prison. She had a separate larceny charge between 1940 and 1942. Edna had attracted scrutiny for her “boyish mannerisms” and sexual relationships with other prisoners.

The two became a couple. They escaped together three times over the next two years.

After the failure of the third escape on Nov. 22, 1948, Edna attempted suicide but survived.

The next morning, she tried again. She then turned her frustration on the institution that was confining her, flooding her cell with water from the toilet and using a mattress spring to break a window.

Staff responded swiftly by transferring Edna to St. Peter State Hospital. She had electroconvulsive therapy (ECT, also known as shock therapy).

Edna’s time at St. Peter led her and Beulah to escape again.

The two of them worked on the farm at the reformatory. They decided to disguise themselves with overalls and farm jackets. They snuck into the basement of Sanford Cottage on Feb. 2, 1949, broke open a nailed-shut window, and fled. They hitchhiked west looking for jobs, introducing themselves as a married couple named Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Farrell.

Shakopee superintendent Clara Thune wrote to four California sheriffs and police chiefs, asking them to look out for the fugitives.

She stated that Edna was “acquainted with the colony of homo sexuals [sic] in Los Angeles” and likely to show up in that city, according to an article by Lizzie Ehrenhalt called “Escape from Shakopee State Reformatory for Women, 1949” from the MNopediain the Minnesota Historical Society.

Instead, the two went to Sacramento, where Edna’s sister Vida took them in.

After three months they hitchhiked to Seattle, Washington, and visited Edna’s parents; William Larrabee gave his daughter a black 1936 Plymouth coupe.

The women then made moves to settle down, renting an apartment and opening a bank account together.

To pay their rent, Larrabee ran a gas station and Brunelle sewed for a dress shop.

By the late summer they were traveling again to a friend in Minneapolis.

Afterward, Beulah brought Edna to meet her mother on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation.

The Minneapolis friend, meanwhile, tipped off police, telling them to look for a black Plymouth coupe with a missing hubcap.

Police recognized the car in Sioux City, Iowa. On Oct. 3, 1949, they seized the two women and returned them to Shakopee. Their eight months of freedom were over.

Edna and Beulah escaped together one final time late in 1949 but were found and returned to prison within days.

They made no further attempts.

By 1952 they were both paroled and starting new lives apart—Larrabee in Washington, Brunelle in Minnesota as the wife of a man named George Venne.

Shakopee case files contain one final record of their relationship: A note stated that in 1953, Beulah left her husband in St. Paul and drove for more than 1,600 miles to Seattle, where she and Edna reunited!

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call 1-800-273-8255. You can also contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HELLO to 741741. Trans Lifeline (1-877-565-8860) and the Trevor Project (1-866-488-7386) offer hotlines specifically for queer and trans people.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

The Women’s Reformatory began in Shakopee in 1920. The State purchased 167 acres of land at the edge of Shakopee.

More than twenty firms bid to build a barn at the State Reformatory for Women. P.J. Gallagher would build the barn for $414, according to the Shakopee Tribune, Oct. 6, 1921.

Nobody wants to be forgotten.

Four tombstones are at the Catholic Cemetery.

Prison staff helped to identify who was buried there — two inmates and two infant children of offenders from the old State Reformatory for Women in Shakopee.

Three of the deceased died in the 1920s and the fourth died in 1954.

The old gravestones were only marked by prison inmate numbers.

In 2014, inmates committed to raising funds to purchase four proper headstones for the cemetery.

Through freewill offerings, the inmates raised enough money to the markers, and offenders in the Challenge Incarceration Program, an intense boot-camp program to rehabilitate non-violent offenders, placed each headstone at an event on Nov. 18, 2014.

Bert Schumacher was born by an inmate on Aug. 12, 1922. A little over one month later, he died. Now, Bert has a tombstone at the Catholic Cemetery.

“Today we acknowledge four almost-forgotten souls. Their lives clearly were not lived to their greatest potential, their dreams and aspirations probably unfulfilled,” said Department of Correction Commissioner Tom Roy.

The prison is now called the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Shakopee.

And as they added the tombstones, Tom Roy noted, “But they did walk the face of this earth, breathe this air as we do now, so many years later.”