Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Harriet Richards Woodbury was born in New Boston, New Hampshire on July 29, 1828, the third youngest in a family of seven daughters and four sons. Her parents were Capt. Benjamin Smith Woodbury (1773-1846) and Sally Burns Jones (1796-1883) according to Ancestry.com.

Harriet watched her sister, Eliza Jane, marry Luther Morse Brown and move to Minnesota Territory, Harriet decided to join them in 1858.

On Sept. 2, 1858, Thomas A. Holmes married for the fourth time, to Harriet R. Woodbury. The marriage happened at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Shakopee. Harriet was thirty years old, and Thomas was 54 years old.

The wedding happened five months after the divorce of Thomas A. Holmes’s third wife, Helen M. Taisey Holmes.

Harriet met and married Thomas, probably because she had heard that he was a millionaire. While he was too much of a pioneer to take much of the fruits of his enterprises, he prospered enough to live comfortably, as did Harriet.

In 1862, Thomas decided to organize a group who went to Montana Territory to search for gold. It was the first of three trips. According to Julius Coller II in his book, The Shakopee Story, the first trip took the expedition three months to journey across the plains in large, covered government wagons drawn by oxen. They also had to confront Indians who were here first. But the prize of the excursion was gold, including one nugget sent back to Shakopee which was worth about $700. One prospector after another returned to Shakopee but the Holmes’ expedition left as a memento in what was to become the state of Montana, according to Coller on page 569.

For Harriet, the breaks when Thomas headed west probably helped the marriage, and they continued to live together until Thomas died.

In 1873, Thomas commenced a suit in District Court to get possession of the Court House Block. The block had been given to the town, but Holmes claimed that he should get the block back as there were irregularities in the dedication of the block to the public, according to The Shakopee Story. Some people were resentful, and within a year the case was decided against Holmes. This is probably why Thomas and Harriet decided to move out of the city in 1878. They went to Cullman, Alabama, where they engaged in agriculture.

After Thomas died in Cullman on July 2, 1888, Harriet returned to Shakopee, where she lived close to St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The house was located on the northwest corner of Fifth and Spencer Street.

Twenty-three years later, the house in Shakopee caught fire, and was burned completely. After 1912, Harriet lived with her two nieces, Mrs. Ora Peck and Mrs. Eva Dame.

Harriet Richards Woodbury Holmes died Oct. 6, 1916, of arterial sclerosis at the home of her niece, Eva Dame, in Albert Lea, Minnesota.

According to the “Obituary of Mrs. Harriet Holmes” from the Shakopee Tribune, Oct. 13, 1916, Harriet was buried at Valley Cemetery. An article in Shakopee Argus, July 11, 1913, recalled the death of Harriet Richards Woodbury Holmes.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Harriet Frederick was born May 9, 1831, in Harrimans, formerly called Turners, New York. She was the youngest child of Jacob John Frederick, Jr. and Catherine Stevens Frederick (1792-1883). Her grandparents were Jacob Frederick, Sr. (1758-1844) and Marytje Polly Tours Frederick (1759-1810); and Elisha Stevens (1759-1814) and Rachel DeMott Stevens (1772-1847).

When she was 17 years old, Harriet married Josiah Cooper (1828-1905) at the old Frederick homestead in August 1848. Josiah’s parents were Josiah Cooper (1785-1855) and Hannah Ellis Cooper (1784-1870).

Shortly after their marriage, Harriet and Josiah Cooper moved to Pennsylvania and later to Newburgh, New York, where they lived for several years. They had seven children.

Before they left New York, Harriet Frederick Cooper began a quilt. It had 44 names own it, including deter parents and siblings and their husbands’ parents and siblings, as well as extended family.

In 1855, the family moved to Shakopee, living in Eagle Creek Township. According to reports, Harriet and Josiah and their children travelled by train and ferry to the end of the line at Shakopee in October 1855. They arrived in Minnesota and stayed at Harriet’s brother’s, Francis W. Frederick, about three miles from Shakopee. Today, this would be the location of Valleyfair. Some relatives remembered them leaving New York by oxcart to the West.

Harriet and Josiah felt that the farm in Eagle Creek Township was a very poor one. Besides working the farm, Josiah made ax handles and did other work. Finally, Josiah volunteered for three years of military service in the Civil War on Aug. 15, 1862. He was 34 years old, and Harriet was 31. While Josiah was away, Harriet and the children lived with their parents, Catherine Stevens Frederick and Jacob Frederick. While Josiah was at Fort Ridgely, Harriet birthed her second to the last child, Eliza Stella, who was born Dec. 17, 1862.

Harriet’s husband, Josiah, mustered out of the army on Aug. 24, 1865, at Fort Snelling. He was nearly 37 years old. By spring of 1866, Josiah and others went to Ashley Township in Stearns County, Minnesota, and they returned to Shakopee and brought their families back to Ashley in covered wagons drawn by oxen and wagons drawn by horses, according to Arlene A. Gable, great granddaughter of Josiah and Harriet Frederick Cooper in March of 2000. Early land records show that Josiah purchased land in Sec. 7 with Kentucky Agricultural Scrip in October of 1866. Harriet and Josiah became settler-colonists in Stearns County. Although Homestead Rules and Regulations and actual practice are hard to figure out, it appears from the same early records that Josiah may have homesteaded in adjoining Section 18 at about the same time.

Josiah worked as a cabinetmaker and carpenter in Sauk Centre, apparently commuting to and from the homestead. Their last child, Rosa Rose Yazzie, was born on the homestead on March 4, 1872. The family moved into the town of Sauk Centre in 1873, so the children could receive the benefits of an education. The Sauk Centre Herald reported in the June 21, 1873, that “the tide of immigration is flowing northwest and westward in a continual stream” with trains of travelers coming through town.”

Although Harriet and Josiah and family moved into town, they must have continued to farm the Ashley land. Harriet and Josiah’s daughter, Eliza Sella died in Sauk Centre on May 9, 1874, of bronchitis.

Harriet Frederick Cooper, who lived in Eagle Creek Township for ten years, died on Wednesday, July 3, 1929, according to the Sauk Centre Herald on July 11, 1929. She was 98 years old, and when she died, she was the oldest white person in Sauk Centre, and probably the oldest white person in Stearns County.

Josiah Cooper passed away on Nov. 3, 1905, and after that Harriet moved into her daughter and son-in-law’s home.

On May 9, 1929 “Grandma” Cooper celebrated her 98th birthday, and she received callers all afternoon. Everyone was surprised by her mental alertness and wonderful memory, according to the paper. A few days later, Harriet Frederick Cooper was again confined to her room, and she seemed to recover when she suddenly became worse and passed peacefully away.

Harriet, who was a member of the First Congregational Church in Sauk Centre for nearly forty years, was actively interested in the church. Rev. C.S. Sparks, pastor, paid tribute to her many years of living and saw in them the gift of God not only to her but to her family. He recalled her sweet smile, her radiant hopefulness, her cheerful optimism, and saw behind it all a clean life, a happy nature, and a Christian spirit that geared her death to knowing that this was but the next experience and the greatest if all. The reverend noted her pioneer spirit and her love of nature, the flowers, the trees, the grass, the growing things and to the fact that she saw good in everything.

Harriet was buried next to her husband, Josiah, in the Greenwood Cemetery.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Hapstiŋna Makaakaŋiwaŋkewiŋ Black Flute Lucy Otherday was also called Lucy. Lucy’s mother was the sister of Ṡakpe II. Hapstiŋna grew up on the north side of the Rivière Saint-Pierre (St. Peter’s River). She was a Mdewakanton Dakota Indian.

A postcard shows the “Sioux Reservation” in Shakopee, but the 18 acres, located on the north side of the river, was actually purchased by Oyatekokepa Jacob Otherday in 1871. The land was directly across the Minnesota River from Tínṫa Otuŋwe, often called the Village of the Six.

The 1875 census shows 15 people, ages from 7 to 65, with surnames of Otherday, Tokudo or Tahkudo, Bonska, Simis, and Bluestone. In 1900, the colony consisted of about 15 residents, living in three dwellings. The surnames include Otherday, La Framboise, Ortley, Bluestone, Shoto (or Choteau), Campbell, Cloud, Jackson, Tahkudo, and Baska. All were probably related.

Lucy married James Otherday. They had two daughters, Minnie and Mary.

Condi G Raguet grew up on the north side of the Minnesota River in the 1860s. “When we got to the crest of the bluff, looking down on the meadow onto one of the ‘rice lakes,’ as they were called, we saw a group of men, boys, Indians, and children.”

Both the white people and the Dakota were equipped with forks, ready to grab the fish.”

The fish came up out of the water to breathe. “We followed the crowd’s example and kept at it all day until about 5 o’clock.”

“An Indian woman (maybe Hapstiŋna) asked me to eat some of the fish, but as they hung the fish upon the spears over the fire without removing the entrails, I declined. But, the fish was perfectly roasted and in the end I tried them. They were so delicious I ate a great many of them.” They had so much fish—black bass, wall-eyed pike, and pickerel, no bullheads or sunfish—that it was about one and one half ton of fish.

Lucy would make the rounds in Shakopee with her daughter, Minnie.

Lucy was almost blind but used a walking stick to move around town. She would gather food from the tiŋta, or prairie, including different kinds of berries. She waded in the wetlands to harvest psiŋca a nourishing bulbous root with her feet and hands.

Lucy and Minnie dug mdo, a wild potato, and tipsiŋna, prairie turnips, from the tiŋta. They also gathered berries, crabapples, plums and nuts from the woods. Lucy and Minnie also harvested watercress which also grew in the springs.

The watercress from Faribault Springs, the wild grapes in season, the moccasins, and the bead work were sold to people in Shakopee.

Irene McDevitt Reinke Bursey recalled “…they had to drive across the old bridge at Shakopee onto the Indian Road, where they would see…Minnie (daughter of Hapstiŋna) sewing under a shade tree and the young Indian boys running and hiding behind trees, aiming and shooting their Fourth of July guns.”

Hilary Drees remembers driving his bike, with three other kids, down to the river to Indian Road, where they saw the hogs that lived on the north side of the river, and continued past Sever’s farm to look at the tipi of the Indians.

Hapstiŋna Makaakaŋiwaŋkewiŋ Black Flute Lucy Otherday died at age 88 on March 6, 1920.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Haliestone Anna Josephine Makahdegawiŋ was born in 1830 in the territorial era of Minnesota.

The territorial era of Minnesota lasted from the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to Minnesota achieving statehood in 1858, according to Wikipedia. The Minnesota Territory itself was formed only in 1849 but the area had a rich history well before this.

The area was called the Northwest Territory (1787), Indiana Territory (1801), Territory of Louisiana (1807), Michigan Territory (1818), Wisconsin Territory (1836) and Iowa Territory (1841) until it changed to Minnesota Territory in 1849.

The first half of the 19th century was characterized by sparsely populated communities, harsh living conditions, and to some degree, lawlessness.

This era was a period of economic transition. The dominant enterprise in the area since the 17th century had been the fur trade. The Dakota, and later the Ojibwe, tribes hunted and gathered pelts trading with French, British, and later American traders at Grand Portage, Mendota, and other sites. This trade gradually declined during the early 19th century as demand for furs in Europe diminished.

This era was also as a period of cultural transition. At the time the U.S. took possession of the region, Native Americans were by far the largest ethnic groups. Their role in the fur trade gave them a steady stream of income and significant political influence even as the French, British, and Americans asserted territorial claims on the area.

French and British traders had mixed with native society in the area for many decades peacefully contributing to the society and creating new ethnic groups consisting of mixed-race peoples. The Métis and other mixed-race groups were often regarded as French Canadian whites, though they were partly Ojibwa or Dakota Indians.

As the Americans established outposts in the area and the fur trade declined, the dynamics changed dramatically. The economic influence of the Native Americans diminished and American territorial ideology increasingly sought to limit their influence.

Large waves of immigration in the 1850s very suddenly changed the demographics so that within a few years the population shifted from predominantly native to people of European descent. The European Americans became settler-colonists in the land of the Dakota. The native and mixed-race populations continued to influence the territory’s culture and politics, even at the end of the territorial era, though by the time statehood was achieved that influence was in steep decline. Heavy immigration from New England and New York led to Minnesota’s being labeled the “New England of the West.”

Haliestone married Richard Washuidheya Allen in Flandreau, South Dakota. When Richard was born in 1834 in the territorial era of Minnesota, his father, Huntkaduta, was 44 and his mother, Wambdisunwiŋ, was 44. Richard and Anna had three children in 17 years, including Samuel Chahhdeskinyake Bluestone, Adam Puhameza Elk Bluestone, and Eli Bluestone.

Richard died in 1881 in Flandreau, South Dakota, at the age of 47.

Haliestone then married John Tudantoiciya Bluestone, and they had several children. Anna and John moved to Eagle Creek area (now part of Shakopee) in 1856. The Federal Census and the Minnesota Census show that they lived here in Eagle Creek, and the Scott County Plat Map of 1898 show that they were farming in Eagle Creek area.

John spent a lot of hunting, trapping, and fishing, often with a neighbor, Ed Gilkey. They both enjoyed the fun, and both enjoyed telling stories.

By 1900, John and Haliestone moved to Paxton, in Redwood County, Minnesota, where John died in 1904. He was 69 years old.

Haliestone ended up in Flandreau, South Dakota, where she enjoyed being around friends and family.

Haliestone Anna Josephine Makahdegawiŋ Allen Bluestone died April 24, 1910, in Flandreau, South Dakota, having lived a long life of eighty years.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Guillermo Billy Martín Lopez, age 11, was an exchange student to Shakopee in 1967, and then returned the following year and stayed again with Joseph and Rose Weidner Schleper and their seven children.

The seventh-grade student was from Puebla, Mexico. Puebla is the capital and largest city of the state of Puebla, and the fourth largest city in Mexico, after Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara. A colonial era planned city, it is located in the southern part of Central Mexico on the main route between Mexico City and Mexico’s main Atlantic port, Veracruz, according to Wikipedia. The city was founded in 1531 in an area called Cuetlaxcoapan, which means “where serpents change their skin,” between two of the main indigenous settlements at the time, Tlaxcala and Cholula. The city is also famous for mole poblano, chiles en nogada and Talavera pottery. However, most of its economy is based on industry. Being both the fourth largest city in Mexico and the fourth largest metropolitan area in Mexico, it has a current population of 3,250,000 people, and the city serves as one of the main hubs for eastern Central Mexico.

Guillermo, called Big Bill by the Schleper family as they already have a Little Billy, who was six years old. Big Bill was in Shakopee for two months as part of the International Cultural Exchange Program, according to an article, “Local Families Host Foreign Exchange Boys” in the Shakopee Valley News, Oct. 19, 1967. Big Bill lived with the Schleper family, while the Doherty family hosted Hector Barcenas Barreto, age 12.

The exchange program originated in Mexico and operated under the approval of all Catholic Diocese in Mexico and participating Catholic Diocese in the United States. The program was not limited to Catholic participating, but rather the exchange students are placed in homes where their parents’ religion is practiced. The students used their school vacation period to visit a host family in another country. Guillermo and Hector lived with their host family and attended school with the families’ other children.

The main purpose of the exchange, according to the article, was to acquaint the youth in Mexico, Central America, and the United States with actual values and truths of each other’s cultures by means of living experiences in them as guest members of host family.

The boys arrived at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport on Sept. 19, 1967, along with fifty other 12- to 18-year-old students. According to the paper, the arrangements for their visit and transportation costs are taken care of by the International Cultural Exchange Program, while other expenses are covered by their family and the host families. Guillermo’s brother, who was 14, lived with another family in Kansas City, Missouri, also under the same program.

Both the Schleper and Doherty families were members of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Shakopee, and both Big Bill and Hector went to school at St. Mary’s seventh grade where Joe Schleper, Jr. and Timothy Doherty also attended. Hector wanted to come to the United States to learn English. Though he learned some English in Mexico, Hector wanted to learn English “like the ‘natives’ speak it.”

Big Bill lived with the Schleper family on Seventh and Main, across from Hiawatha Park. Beside his “brother” Joe, Jr., Big Bill also had fun with the rest of the family, including Linda, Jeanne, David, Little Bill, Gary, and Tommy. (One more child, Jen, was born in 1972.) The family enjoyed camping and traveling around the area with their blue station wagon.

At one point, during a friendly scuffle, Big Bill gave Hector a black eye! Rose Schleper, when she saw it, said, “This program has taught us that boys are boys, no matter which country they came from!” She added, “The whole family loves Billy. We will be sorry when it is time for him to go back to his home in Puebla, Mexico.”

In fact, when Big Bill left, the family asked his family in Mexico to return to Shakopee the next year, and sure enough, Big Bill again lived with the family in 1968.

Over the next several years, the Schleper family had several exchange students, both boys and girls, from Mexico and other Central American areas. But they all remember their first exchange student, Big Bill.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Grace Elizabeth Lehmann was born Nov. 29, 1894, in West St. Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of August and Catherine Ryan Lehmann.

Grace remembered “With teaching more or less a family occupation, as long as I can remember. I have always wanted to be a teacher.” Her mother, Kathryn Ryan Lehmann, and eight of her aunts and uncles were teachers!

Grace married Edward Joseph Sweeney (1875-1936), son of Michael and Mary Catherine Mahar Sweeney. Grace and Edward had four children, Robert, John, Edward Jr., and Cathleen.

After graduating from the University of Minnesota, Grace taught English, social studies, and chemistry in Rushford, Graceville, and Melrose before arriving in Shakopee in 1924.

Starting in 1927 until 1931, Grace taught biology and Latin at Shakopee’s high school. Then, after Edward died on March 4, 1936, Grace again went back to the Shakopee faculty at the high school. In 1950, she became the principal and continued until 1961. She then worked part-time as an English and Latin teacher until her retirement in 1965. She retired after 33 years working with the Shakopee schools.

Grace loved her students and teaching but was known to be a disciplinarian. One time, she caught a student making and sailing paper airplanes during class. For his punishment, Grace made him make and sail out the window 100 paper airplanes and then go down to pick them up. “However, about mid-way through the project, the school superintendent, Al Wurst, came up to the classroom with most of the airplanes: He had spent the last several minutes picking them up and was wondering what was going on.”

While she was the high school principal, Grace introduced counseling in the school system, joined the National Merit Scholarship program, and the school participated in the World Affairs competition.

In 1965, the Scott County Teacher of the Year program recognized Grace for her outstanding achievement in education award.

Grace had a long-lasting support of the progress of Shakopee. She served on the City Charter Commission, was active in the Scott County Red Cross, active in the Democratic Party, involved in the Progress Valley Business and Professional Women’s Club, and active in the Shakopee Book Lovers’ Club. Grace had a keen interest in current events and closely followed politics. She saw every U.S. President in person, from Teddy Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy.

To get a fuller understanding about teaching her students, she served as a housemother at the Shakopee Reformatory for Women during the time she was instructing students in the social sciences.

Grace was a member of the National Education Association, the Minnesota Education Association, the Retired Teachers Association, and the Alpha Omicron Pi national sorority. She was also affiliated with the National Association of Social Science Teachers.

She was also very interested in poetry and literature. She read as many as five or six books a week at the age of 88!

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my work with the children of our community,” said Grace, “And I have always considered it a great honor and a privilege to have been entrusted with the direction of their education.”

In 1967, Grace and Edward were honored to have a new elementary school named after them, Edward J. and Grace Sweeney Elementary School. The dedication was Sunday, Oct. 1, 1967. Grace used to attend Grandparents’ Day at Sweeney School, where she delighted some of the grandparents who had Mrs. Sweeney for a principal or teacher during their own school days.

Grace Lehmann Sweeney died April 11, 1987. She was 92 years old. Her funeral was held on April 14 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church with Fr. James Schoenberger as the celebrant. Interment was at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Glynn Allyn Crooks was born Dec. 2, 1950, in Fort Hood, Texas to Amos Crooks and Rosemma Coursolle Crooks.

Glynn attended Shakopee High School, where he graduated in 1969.

After graduating, Crooks enlisted in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, serving as an administrative clerk aboard five U.S. Navy ships during his six years of service.

After returning from the Navy, Glynn took an active role in the leadership and growth of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, which achieved federal recognition as a sovereign tribe in 1969. Elected to four consecutive terms as vice-chairman, Glynn spent 16 years serving on the SMSC Business Council, proudly representing the tribe and its culture, history, and interests on both a local and a national level. A dedicated servant to his community and his Native heritage, Glynn was passionate about helping the SMSC and other tribes, never taking a single vacation during his 16 years of service.

As a longtime tribal leader, Glynn had the opportunity to meet with countless local, state and national leaders and often attended official ceremonies in Scott County and Washington, D.C., wearing traditional Dakota regalia.

In an article by Lynn Underwood in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Feb. 25, 2017, Crooks noted “I presented a peace pipe to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller,” pointing to a photo on the wall of that exchange in 1976 to commemorate the American Bicentennial. That was the start of a vast presidential memorabilia collection spanning the walls and displayed in rows of glass cases inside Crooks’s museum-style home at the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Prior Lake and Shakopee.

Each grouping reflects his presidential encounters at White House events, along with photos, documents and artifacts that span the past four decades.

A large Presidential Seal decorating a wall catches the eye around every corner.

Crooks has met Ford, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton. He’s attended several inaugurations, including those of Bush, Obama and, most recently, Donald Trump. He paid his respects at the funerals of Ronald Reagan and Ford.

“Glynn has friends in lofty places,” said longtime friend Bernie Mahowald. “He was a great representative of his tribe.” While at the White House to attend Obama’s first Governors’ Ball, “someone came up from behind me and patted me on the back,” said Crooks. “It was the president. He looked so fit and trim.”

Crooks, a Navy Vietnam veteran, paid patriotic tribute to all the military branches, including a life-size mannequin dressed in an Army uniform and ready for action. Crooks organized, arranged, and decorated each space himself. “I dust every one of the cases,” he said.

The reproduction Oval Office was part of a 2,000- square-foot, two-story addition on the Crooks home, according to the article in Minneapolis Star Tribune on February 25, 2017

The main floor was what Crooks refers to as the “West Wing,” with two hallways packed with presidential memorabilia guiding you to the main event – the commander-in-chief’s light-filled workspace.

To get it right, Crooks did extensive research, using historical books with photos and other resources.

He’d hung reproductions of historic Oval Office paintings, such as the Abraham Lincoln portrait by George Henry Story. Then Crooks mingled his own pieces, including American bald eagle sculptures, which “stand for strength and wisdom,” he said.

Crooks was proud of his participation at many White House official events, his memorabilia collection, and his authentic facsimile of the Oval Office.

He often hosted open houses, fundraisers, holiday parties, and even invited local school groups to tour his “West Wing.”

“This is the closest some kids will get to the White House,” said Crooks, who was single and has an adult son.

Glynn also served as chairman of the SMSC Wacipi Committee for more than 25 years, helping the annual gathering grow into one of the largest Pow Wows in the Midwest. For the profound impact that he had upon the SMSC and for his devoted leadership throughout the years, he will truly be missed by those who had the privilege of knowing him.

Glynn Allyn Crooks, at age 67, passed away on Oct. 10, 2018, at home, surrounded by his loving family and friends. After the traditional All-Night Wake, Glynn was buried at the Tiowakan Spiritual Center at the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community on Monday, Oct. 15, 2018.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Gina Morales was born in Mexico City, Mexico. Her mother was Paula Morales, born in Coyoacán, Mexico on June 29, 1940. Paula’s parents, and Gina’s grandparents, were Luis and Emilia (Munguia) Morales. Paula married Duane Alan Johnson, son Lawrence and Myrtle (Hansen) Johnson, on Feb. 12, 1969, in Mexico City.

Paula had three children, Gina, Norberto, and Carlos. Duane, who proudly served in the United States Army and was a Vietnam War veteran, adored Paula and was a proud father-in-law to the three children.

Gina, along with her two brothers, Burt and Carlos, along with their mother and stepfather, moved from Mexico City to Shakopee in the early fall of 1971. The three Mexican Americans were one of the first group of people from south of the boarder to move and stay in Shakopee.

More than half of Minnesota’s 125 thousand immigrants from Latin America are Mexican. Over ninety percent of Mexican immigrants are employed, frequently with two jobs, and a strong emphasis is placed on family, church, and community. Employment opportunities and family connections are increasingly drawing newcomers to Minnesota.

Since the early 1900s, Latinos have been a productive and essential part of Minnesota. Most of the earliest were migrant farm workers from Mexico who faced obstacles to first-class citizenship that are still being addressed. Latinos faced, and still face, discrimination—both racial and the kinds common to all immigrants and migrants.

The sugar beet industry drove the initial Latino migration to Minnesota. During the early twentieth century, beet growers recruited Mexicans to migrate north. Once in the United States, they helped with cultivation and harvest. With little paid work in the winter and facing considerable discrimination, most of them returned south every year. It was hard work in the beet fields. It required working on one’s hands and knees when thinning the plants; bending over with a short-handled hoe when weeding; and stooping to harvest beets by hand. All of this labor took place in the unpredictable Minnesota weather and in the company of mosquitoes.

Older people in Shakopee and Scott County occasionally hired families for harvest. The whole family would be out of school, working, and staying in sheds until the harvest was over, and then they moved south during the winter. The Mexican Americans also worked picking pickles and working plants such as the Gedney Pickle Factory in Chaska, which started in 1881.

Soon, colonies of Mexican migrants established themselves in St. Paul and Minneapolis. There, they found substandard housing, limited work, and unfriendly locals. Some men found work at meat-packing plants in South St. Paul or on the railroad lines in Inver Grove Heights and Minneapolis. Most women could only find jobs as domestic help. In the 2010s, Minnesota featured large clusters of Latino families near meat- and poultry-packing facilities. More recent migrants are entrepreneurial and have started businesses all over the state, including in Shakopee.

In the fall of 1971, when Gina, Burt, and Carlos Morales were having a challenging time learning English, an after-school program connected three Spanish high school students with the three Morales children to help them learn English.

Today, with more people from other countries moving to the area, the Shakopee Public Schools has a curriculum designed for students who are not native speakers of English. Language is learned in a content-based instructional program. Services are also intended to familiarize students with American culture and the expectations for students in an American public school. Ultimately, the goal of the program is to transition students successfully into English-only instruction.

Besides speaking English, the students at home in Shakopee speak Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, Chinese (Mandarin), Taiwanese, Cantonese, Lao, Cambodian, Thai, Bengali, Khmer, Tamil, Telugu, Bangla, Gujar, Malayalam, Arabic, Swahili, Somali, Tigrinya, Afrikaans, and Cameroonian Pidgin English!

Like most family, and like those who spoke German or other languages at first, by the second generation, the children speak both languages, and by the third generation, they almost all speak English.

Learning English is influenced by many factors, but studies show that it takes a minimum of five to seven years of high-quality instruction for students to become proficient in reading, writing, speaking, and understanding English. I am sure that Gina and her brothers were up to the challenge. According to the Shakopee Valley Newson Oct. 20, 1977, the three Mexican Americans showed remarkable improvement in comprehension. “They are all very bright and catch on quickly once they are able to understand what is being said,” said Ron Kolb. Gina’s mother, Paula Morales Johnson, died Nov. 28, 2016, in Shakopee. Gina’s father-in-law, Duane Alan Johnson, died April 22, 2020. But Gina, along with her family, including grandchildren, continue to be proud Mexican Americans who learned English in Shakopee.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Geraldine Theresa Mingo, who was born in Shakopee on July 24, 1931, was the daughter of Andrew and Katherine Mingo. Her father died in 1944, and in 1948, Geraldine was looking for an adventure. While looking for an interesting summer job, she heard about a job as au pair in St. Paul.

The word “au pair” is a French term, which means “on par” or “equal to,” denoting living on an equal, caring relationship between the host family and the children. An au pair typically will be a young woman who chooses to help look after the children of a host family and provide light housekeeping. The au pair is given room and board and is typically paid a weekly “pocket-money” salary.

Geraldine secured a position as an au pair with the Alfred S. Butwinick family in the Highland Park area of St Paul. She took care of the children during the days and stayed at their place each night. On weekends, Geraldine went home to Shakopee to visit her mother

On Monday, Aug. 9, 1948, Geraldine, age 17, left the Butwinick residence early Monday evening to attend a show. Later, she met with her fiancé, Lawrence Ludeen, age 22, and spent the evening in company of another friend. Lawrence brought Geraldine to the Randolph Hazel Park streetcar at 12:30 a.m. According to a report, motorman Glenn Anderson reported that Geraldine and one other passenger were on the streetcar when it reached the Highland Park neighborhood. She alighted the streetcar alone.

And that was all that was seen of Geraldine Mingo.

At 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 10, Saul L. Selle, age 45, let his dog, Tippy, out to do its business. After returning to the bedroom, Saul looked out a rear window and saw what appeared to be a bare leg. Saul asked his wife, and they both looked from the window, and then called the police.

The police arrived and looked at the young adult, who had been slashed and stabbed on both sides of her neck, the back of her head, and both wrists. From a slip of paper in a billfold in her sweater pocket, the police identified the victim of a most sadistic slaying.

Sheriff J.P. Wermerskirchen was also called, and he took George Mingo to St. Paul to confirm the identity. It was believed that Geraldine was attacked and slain at some other spot and deposited near the Selle’s backyard. It was about twenty blocks from the Butwinick home.

The St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press posted a reward of $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer, but no critical information was received.

Services for Geraldine were held on Saturday, Aug. 14, 1948, at the home and St. Mary’s Church. Rev. Michael McRaith led the requiem mass, and the burial was at St. Mark’s Cemetery (now the Shakopee Catholic Cemetery).

Pallbearers were James Anderson, Eugene Brown, Louis Engel, Steven DeMers, Thomas Huth, and George Rutherford. Honorary pallbearers include Lelia Dellwo, Valerie Dellwo, Carol Dellwo, Jean Dellwo, Delores DeMers, Della DeMers, Bonnie Meuwissen, and Lucille Koll.

Preceding her in death were her father in 1944, brother Henry and sister Catherine. She was survived by her mother, three brothers, George, John, and Bernard, and sisters Mary Thorbus and Betty Christensen.

The outpouring of sympathy for the bereaved family was boundless. Flowers, mass cards, and other tokens of condolences gave mute testimony to the sorrow felt by the entire community.

More than one thousand people attended the funeral of Geraldine Mingo.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Gertrude Siebenaler was born in Vermillion, Minnesota on Aug. 8, 1919, one of sixteen children of Leo and Magdalena Girgen Siebenaler.

Gertrude married John A. Roepke on March 13, 1947, in Shakopee.

Gertrude was a secretary for four superintendents of the Shakopee Public Schools and was also a historian. She documented the WPA mural which was at Fifth and Holmes Street in Shakopee.

The Federal Art Project was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. It was created not as a cultural activity but as a relief measure to employ artists and artisans. One of the WPA murals was painted in Shakopee nearly ninety years ago.

The project created more than two hundred thousand separate works, some of them remaining among the most significant pieces of public art in the country.

Artists were paid $23.60 a week; tax-supported institutions such as schools, hospitals and public buildings paid only for materials. In 1938, John Metcalf, Superintendent of the Shakopee Public Schools, asked the Federal Art Project of the WPA to create a mural. The mural was to be at the school library, and to show the history of Shakopee from 1842 until 1940.

Muralist Harmon Arndt, a graduate of the Minneapolis School of Art, was employed to do the work.

Harmon met with several of the town’s leading citizens, the school board, high school students and John Metcalf. After many meetings, the work began. Three other artists assisted Arndt who supervised the work. Classes of 1938, 1939 and 1940 donated funds to pay for the mural project.

The first panel depicts Rev. Samuel W. Pond teaching a group of Dakota Indians the Christian word for God and the arts of white culture and civilization. He and his brother, Gideon, came to Minnesota as missionaries from Connecticut in 1834, and in the fall of 1847, Samuel, his wife, Cordelia Eggleston Pond, and their first three children came to the village of Tínṫa Otuŋwe, or prairie village. Samuel called it Prairieville and it later was called Shakopee. On left is John Metcalf, who was superintendent of Shakopee Public Schools who asked for the mural. On right is also part of the first mural, showing the first steamboat to churn the muddy waters of the Minnesota River in 1842 bearing a party of pleasure seekers to Prairieville.

The second panel represents the laying out of the town site (even though a village of Tínṫa Otuŋwe and 600 Dakota Indians were already there for more than 150 years!). In the background is the tamarack log cabin/trading post of Oliver Faribault, who was one-quarter Dakota Indian. One important missing piece is that Oliver’s wife, Wakan Yaŋke WiŋWaken, was also there (though not in the mural). She was Dakota and was born in the Minnesota Valley among her Dakota relatives, including Ṡakpe II. Another missing person was Joseph Godfrey, who was enslaved. Joseph helped build the cabin, and around 1847 he escaped, walking forty miles along the St. Peter’s river to freedom. Two other early settler-colonizers included Thomas A. Holmes holding a scroll which is a plan of the future town; and David L. Fuller who looks through his surveyor’s transit. One person not in the picture was William Louis Bill Quinn, who met with Thomas A. Holmes at Fort Snelling in fall of 1851. Thomas discussed looking for a possible place for townsites. Holmes engaged Quinn as a guide and companion on an investigating tour. Bill, who was part Cree, knew several languages, including Dakota, English, French, and Ojibwe.

The third panel shows the coming of the settler-colonizers in their covered wagons. In the background are the tipi of the Dakota, the original settlers of this territory (though since it was a summer planting village, they lived in tipi tanka, or big lodges, along with a few tipi). The Dakota were forced off the land by land speculators and traders who made treaties, in which they often took advantage of the Dakota. The white population in 1852 consisted of about twenty families; the Indians numbered about six hundred. There were many Métis people here, and people spoke Dakota, French, and English.

The fourth panel pictures the buildings of early Shakopee. The grey building to the left is the Methodist Episcopal Church, erected in 1867. In the background the red building is the City Hall and Fire Department, erected in 1883. The brown building is the Union School located between Holmes and Lewis Streets on the south side of Fifth Avenue, which opened on Jan. 4, 1882. Farther along the panel is a 1908 dock scene of the wharf on the Minnesota River. The boats would dock at the shore or the levee and throw out a gang plank. A swing bridge was built and the bridge swung around on its center pier.

The fifth panel shows a Shakopee soldier leaving for the Civil War. This panel also shows the first railroad train puffing into Shakopee on Nov. 11, 1865. Shortly after, a combination engine and passenger car named The Shakopee made regular trips between Shakopee and Mendota.

The firefighters in this panel are shown fighting Shakopee’s first great fire which occurred in 1872, destroying the frame railroad shops of the St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad along with all the equipment and five locomotives.

H. H. Strunk and Sons Drug Store and John Berens’s grocery store are represented in the sixth panel.

The seventh panel represents the 1909 Street Fair at which James J. Hill delivered an address to one of the largest gatherings Shakopee had ever entertained.

The eighth panel represents modern Shakopee in 1938-39. In the background are the water tower, Rock Spring Bottling Works, St. Mark’s Church, the foundry, and Rahr Malting Plant. The new baseball stadium is also shown.

Gertrude Siebenaler Roepke, age 96, died on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016, and is buried at the Catholic Cemetery. Thanks to her, the information about the mural was written down for all of us. Photographs of the mural were by Jackie Colby, and more information was from Marion Heinen Caron.