Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Isaac Banks was born to Chester Levi Banks, Sr. (1914-1986) and Daisy Bernice Austin Banks (1912-1952). Isaac was the ninth of ten children, and was born in Belzoni, Mississippi on Nov. 9, 1948.

His grandparents were Isaac Ike Banks, Sr. (1882-1956) and Leola “Pet” Jenkins Banks; and Jerry Davis Austin (1885-1969) and Lily Lillie Mae Howard Austin (1893-1977).

Isaac spent his childhood with his siblings in Belzoni. At age seven, Isaac heard the story of Rev. George Lee, who was shot to death in Belzoni in 1955, after using his pulpit and his printing press to urge other Black Mississippians to vote. He became one of the first African Americans to register to vote in the mostly Black Humphreys County. And when he helped register more than ninety other Black voters, white leaders spoke with concern over growing African American power in the Mississippi Delta. Lee continued his work in the face of threats and electrified crowds of thousands with his speeches, according to Mississippi Today and Jet Magazine.

“Pray not for your mom and pop,” Rev. Lee told the crowd. “They’ve gone to heaven. Pray you can make it through this hell.”

Weeks later, shotgun blasts hit Lee in the face as he was driving home on May 7, 1955, and his Buick smashed into a house. The sheriff claimed the lead pellets found in his shattered jaw were fillings from his teeth. His killers were never found, as the governor of Mississippi, Hugh L. White, refused to investigate the case. Many consider Lee the first martyr of the modern civil rights movement.

It was a hard time for Mississippians, and so when Isaac graduated from McNair High School he headed north to Moorhead, Minnesota where he graduated with a teaching degree in math and history.

Isaac Banks then worked for 33 years of service at the United States Postal Service, starting at the U.S. Post Office in Shakopee. On his route, Isaac often stopped to talk to the people in Shakopee, including Rose Marie Weidner Schleper, who chatted with Isaac about his experience in Mississippi, where Rose’s sister, Sr. Bev Weidner, O.S.B. was working on civil rights. Rose remembered talking to Isaac about the time that her sister was put in jail for chewing gum in the courthouse when they were challenging rights there (and while the judge spit chew into a spittoon, a receptacle made for spitting into, especially by users of chewing and dipping tobacco, while forcing Sr. Bev into jail).

On Nov. 11, 1972, Isaac married Leanne Margaret Shear, daughter of Warren Ivan Shear (1917-1982) and Ethel Mae Tholund Shear (1922-2016). They lived in Shakopee from 1986 until 1997. Isaac and Ethel’s daughter, Corrine Elizabeth Banks, was born May 2, 1990.

Isaac worked at the U.S. Post Office, Anchor Glass in Shakopee, and part-time he worked as newspaper delivery. Resilient and hardworking, Isaac survived two kidney transplants and gained the adoration of many Minneapolis Star-Tribune customers whom he met on part-time newspaper delivery routes throughout the years.

In 2007, Isaac retired after 33 years of service at the United States Postal Service.

He was a lifelong Bible scholar. Isaac loved his alum associations, family and friends, music, comics, baseball cards, distance running, bowling and serving people.

Isaac dedicated his life to God as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2010. The basic design of Kingdom Halls is as places for people to assemble for Bible study and Christian association. Sometimes nearby congregations help financially to erect a Kingdom Hall building. In January 1970 the Shakopee congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses was formed, and meetings were first held in the local bank. To help this new group build a Kingdom Hall, seven congregations in the area contributed funds for the project.

The new Shakopee, Minnesota, Kingdom Hall is rustic in style, matching the homes in that rural area. Since it is built into a slope, it has a walk-in basement that serves as the main entrance. In the basement is a good-size entry area, with washrooms, cloakroom, library, literature area, as well as a small apartment where visiting ministers can stay. Access to the auditorium on the floor above is by the stairway in the entry area.

Isaac Banks passed away at the age of 74 on Friday, March 17, 2023 in Prior Lake. A funeral service happened on April 22, 2023 at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Prior Lake.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Henry Hinds was born in Hebron, New York in 1826, son of Charles Hinds and Jane Qua Hinds. The paternal and maternal sides were of good old Colonial stock, having come to this country about the year 1650. Several members of the family were soldiers in the War of the Revolution, according to “Progressive men of Minnesota” (Shutter, Marion Daniel, 1853-ed.), Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Journal (1897).

Henry Hinds and Mary Fassett Woodworth Hinds were early settler-colonists in Minnesota Territory, coming here in 1854. Minnesota Territory was reduced in size in 1854 when the portion in present-day Nebraska was included in Nebraska Territory. Minnesota was admitted to the Union May 11, 1858, as the 32nd state, with generally the same boundary as the present state. Henry and Mary settled in Sha K’ Pay, Minnesota Territory. (The post office in Scott County was established in Minnesota Territory on Nov. 25, 1853, with the name of Sha K’ Pay. Sha K’ Pay, Minnesota Territory was used in posted letters until 1855, according to C.C. Andrews (1857), Minnesota and Dacotah: In Letters Descriptive of a Tour Through the Northwest, in the Autumn of 1856. Henry and Mary Hinds resided and Henry practiced law.

The city became Shakapee City, Minnesota Territory in the summer of 1855 and the files on Dec. 27, 1855, had the inscription ‘Plat of Shakapee City.’ Posted mail called the area Shakapee, MT, according to Hinds, William (1891), A 1891 Sketch of Shakopee, Minn: Historical and Industrial. Shakopee, MN: Reprinted by the Scott County Historical Society, 1996. On April 13, 1857, the post office in the town was changed to Shakopee, Minnesota, noted Coller, Julius A. II (1960) in The Shakopee Story (Shakopee, MN: North Star Pictures, Inc. Reproduced 2009 by the Shakopee Heritage Society).

Henry graduated from the Albany Normal College in 1850, took up the study of law in the Cincinnati Law School, and graduated from that institution in 1852.

Henry Hinds married Sarah Granell Doolittle in 1850. His second marriage was to Mary Fassett Woodworth Hinds (1825-1906) in 1853. Her parents were Ira Woodworth (1793-1861) and Wealthy Ann Gilberth Woodworth (1797-1846). They had seven children: Alice Hinds Sencerbox (1854-1900); Mary Hinds Lord (1856-1923); Henry Hinds Jr (1858-1883); George Hinds (1860-1888); William Hinds (1862-1932); Dolly Hinds (1863-1863); and Charles Gilbert Hinds (1866-1920).

In Minnesota, Henry held many offices of public trust. He was one of the leading lawyers of the Eighth Judicial District up to the time of his retirement from active practice in 1884. In the early days he acted as the county attorney of Scott County and judge of probate.

In 1867, Henry bought the Shakopee Argus, which he published for fifteen years. He was a member of the lower house of the legislature from Scott County in 1878, and was made a member of the board of managers in the impeachment of Judge Page, making the closing argument for the board before the senate. In 1879 and 1881 he served in the state senate, according to the Albert Lea Enterprise, Oct. 28, 1903.

At age 77, Henry Hinds died in Shakopee on Oct. 11, 1903. He was buried at Valley Cemetery.

Henry Hinds’s wife, Mary Fassett Woodworth Hinds, born on Dec. 28, 1825, died April 15, 1906, and was buried next to her husband at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee, Minnesota.

James M Hinds

Brother of Henry Hinds

James M. Hinds (1833-1868), brother of Henry Hinds, was the first U.S. Congressman assassinated in office. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Arkansas from June 24, 1868, until his assassination by the Ku Klux Klan. Hinds, who was white, was an advocate of civil rights for African Americans who were enslaved during the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War.

Born and raised in a small town in upstate New York, James went west at the age of nineteen and graduated in 1856 from the Cincinnati Law School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hinds initially left home and went west at age 19. After obtaining a law degree in 1856 (at age 23), he moved to Minnesota Territory and settled in St. Peter, 40 miles west of his brother Henry in Shakopee. James opened a law practice and was elected district attorney for the county.

Hinds built a career and started a family in St. Peter during a turbulent time in the region because of conflict between settlers-colonists and the Dakota, culminating in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. James M. Hinds enlisted as a private in the First Minnesota Cavalry’s Mounted Rangers, Company. Hinds hoped that St. Peter would become the capital of the new State of Minnesota.

By early 1865, however, he realized that the town was destined to remain a small farming village. Seeking a fresh start and more opportunity, in mid-1865 he relocated with his wife and two young daughters to Little Rock, Arkansas, in the throes of Reconstruction. In 1867, he was elected to represent Pulaski County as a Republican at the Arkansas Constitutional Convention. The convention was tasked with rewriting the constitution to allow Arkansas’ readmission to the Union following its secession and the American Civil War. At that convention, Hinds successfully advocated for constitutional provisions establishing the right to vote for adult freedmen, and for public education for both black and white children.

Campaigning for Republican candidate Ulysses S. Grant in the 1868 presidential election, James was threatened and targeted by the Ku Klux Klan. In October 1868, while traveling to a political meeting with Joseph Brooks in Monroe County, Hinds was shot to death by a Klansman.

James M. Hinds was the first U.S. Congressman assassinated in office. He was murdered on the eve of the 1868 presidential election, which was a contest over civil rights and suffrage for freed slaves. Republicans, led by former Union Army General Ulysses S. Grant, favored those measures, while the Democratic Party opposed them. On October 22, 1868, en route to a campaign event for former Union Army General Ulysses S. Grant near the village of Indian Bay, a man shot Hinds and fellow Republican politician Joseph Brooks in the back with a shotgun. Brooks managed to stay on his horse and ride to the event to bring back assistance. Hinds was knocked off his horse by the shotgun blast to his back, and lay on the road until help arrived. Before he died, Hinds wrote a short message to his wife and identified his killer. He died about two hours after the attack. A Coroner’s Inquest identified the shooter as George Clark, a local Klansman. Clark was never arrested or prosecuted.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Hanora Power O’Connor was born in 1800 in Fairy Hill, County Cork, Ireland. The area of Cork is a maritime county in the province of Munster, and the largest in Ireland, bounded on the east by the counties of Tipperary and Waterford, on the north by that of Limerick, on the west by that of Kerry, and on the southwest, south, and southeast by St. George’s Channel.

There is not much information about her family, but she grew up in Ireland and enjoyed hiking near the mountains near Fairy Hill.

One writer talked about walking across the Shehy Mountains [“shee” means “fairy” or “hill” in Gaelic], which separates County Kerry from County Cork to the east…“Memories of the Mountain and the Fairy” by Larry McGinnity in Roaringwater Journal/Co. Cork. Just like Hanora in the 1800s, McGinnity remembers, “Turn right at the cross (the Irish term for crossroads) and hope for the best.”

“It was a lovely day for a walk. Bright and sunny, little chance of rain, although in Ireland you never know…Birds were singing. Beautiful Spring flowers like rhododendrons, blue bells, and cowslip were in bloom. I thought I even heard a cuckoo. All was right with the world. The first human form I met was an aged, diminutive man with a withered face, wearing a weathered red coat, and an even older looking cocked hat, riding in a cart pulled by a small Irish pony. He appeared to be transporting several large milk containers in the cart. After the usual greetings and conversation about the ‘grand’ morning, I continued on my way.”

“Was there something strange about that little old man and his inexplicable mischievous smile, wearing a weathered red coat, and his old, battered cocked hat? But this was Ireland and you meet the strangest of people….”

“…The flora also changed. Woodlands gave way to a more grasslands countryside, with Kerry cows and sheep grazing. I also felt my North Face pack straps pull against my shoulders under the increased angle of the gravel roadway. I was definitely climbing into the mountains.”

“…Suddenly, the road had become more of a wagon trail….The two trails suddenly became a single pathway. There was now no road; there wasn’t even a wagon trail. I was on a footpath…

“Even worse, the single pathway was becoming more rugged pasture than trail. I could see the top of the ridge line several hundred yards ahead. But as the trail completely disappeared, and the hillside became mountain side I knew I definitely no piece-of-cake ramble going on here. The ramble was becoming rigorously rough, and, hopefully, not ruinous.”

“The gradient was so steep it was pulling me over backwards. The sheep grazing around me didn’t seem to have the anxiety I felt. Finally, I couldn’t walk upright. I was crawling on all fours, dragging my pack on the ground behind me. Alone, except for the curious sheep looking at the bruised and battered intruder, I struggled on until…Triumph! I was there. Feeling more like a mountaineer than a day-hiker I had made it.”

“And it was worth it. Looking to the east was the breathtaking visa of West Cork from a height of several thousand feet. Looking to my rear, back into Kerry and the unexpected climb I had just experienced, the panorama was just as magnificent.”

Also in County Cork, Ireland was John O’Brien, who was born Jan. 1, 1800. Just like Hanora, there is little information about John growing up. But it is true that John O’Brien married Hanora Power O’Connor on Nov. 21, 1838.

At least three children were born in Ireland. Mary Ellen O’Brien, born in 1825, Manis Manus O’Brien, born in 1831, and Mary Jane O’Brien in 1841.

At some point, Hanora and John, along with their children, headed to America, where they were settlers-colonists in Minnesota. Census records note that by June 1, 1865 the family was living in Credit River.

Mary Ellen O’Brien (1825-1916) married Gerhard Wilhelm Gellenbeck (1826-1889); Manis Manus O’Brien (1831-1908) married Hanora Sullivan in St. Louis, Missouri; and Mary Jane O’Brien (1841-1900) married John Kintzie (1830-1884).

Hanora Power O’Connor O’Brien died July 24, 1869, and was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Eagle Creek (Shakopee). 

John O’Brien died on June 5, 1874, and was buried at Calvary Cemetery, near his wife.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Charles Joseph Theis was born Aug. 6, 1898 in Louisville Township near Marystown. His parents were Charles S. Theis (1866-1930) and Mary Caroline Pieper Theis (1870-1943). Charley spent all his life in the community, including attending school at St. Mary’s of the Purification Catholic School in Marystown, along with his three brothers and three sisters. He enjoyed living near Marystown.

On May 19, 1925, Charles Joseph Theis married Mabel Anna Cress (1906-1996), who was born Sept. 5, 1906 in Clear Lake, Wisconsin. They married at St. Mary’s Purification Catholic Church in Marystown. The two of them had five boys: Donald Charles Sr. (1926-2006); Kenneth Anton (1927-1951); Norman Edward (1930-2000); Charles Joseph Jr. (1932-1955); and Leon Martin Theis (1935-2018).

A devoted Catholic, Charley was a member of St. Anthony’s Benevolent Society in Marystown and was a member of the Knights of Columbus in Shakopee. He was a treasurer of Louisville Township and was one of the moving spirits in the organization of the Minnesota Valley Elective Cooperative, an REA project this this section.

According to a 1941 article “Charles J. Theis Killed in Ditch Cave-In Tuesday,” Charley, who was 43 years old, was digging a trench across the road to lay a culvert with his neighbors, Henry Heibel and Joseph Grommesch. They had almost completed the ditch when the fatal accident occurred.

They were laying the culvert to drain a field on the Theis farm. Charles Joseph Theis was in the center of the nine-foot-deep trench when the sidewalls caved in and buried the Marystown man beneath tons of dirt.

Joseph, who was working near the end of the ditch, was also caught in the cave-in, and suffered a broken shoulder as a result.

The accident occurred on July 1, 1941 at about five o’clock in the afternoon. Henry frantically worked to release the men, and after a doctor arrived, he said that Charley died of a fractured skull.

The doctor also set the fractured shoulder of Joseph.

The grief-stricken wife, Mabel, and the five children, the oldest who was 13 years old, were saddened by the untimely passing of a kind, loving, and devoted father.

According to “Chas. Theis Funeral Largely Attended,” over half of the people attending were unable to get into the church, which was July 4, 1941 at St. Mary’s Purification Catholic Church in Marystown. The requiem high mass was presided over Charles Joseph Theis’s remains by Rev. Father Ziskovsky, assisted by Fr. Savs and Fr. Klein. Charles was buried at St. Mary’s Purification Catholic Cemetery.

Mabel Anna Cress Theis later married Joseph Henry Grommesch (1908-1980), son of John B. Grommesch (1865-1936) and Mary Ann Geis Grommesch (1874-1947).

Mabel Anna Cress Theis Grommesch died Nov. 10, 1996, and was buried at St. Mary’s Purification Catholic Cemetery.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

CayCee Moyee “Boogie” Jarvis Purham was born on May 1, 1969, the first and only child of George Morgan Purham (1931-2002) and Carolyn Cole Purham, who was born in 1935.

Grandparents of CayCee include Charles D. Purham (1902-1944) and Mary Harland Purham (1902-1993) from Tennessee; and Robert Edward Cole (1907-1957) and Caroline Carrie Green Cole (1906-1974) who were born in Alabama.

CayCee’s great-grandparents were Peter Purham Tyus (1848-1921) who was born in slavery, and Ella May Bates Purham (1874-1914). They were born in Tennessee; Tom Harland, born in 1884, and Emma, who was born in 1884 and died in 1966, who both lived in Tennessee; Edmond Cole (1868-1953) and Lucy Ann Williams Cole (1880-1862) who were born in Alabama; and Dock Green who was born in 1894, and Luella Carlisle Green (1880-1968) who were born in Alabama.

CayCee spent her childhood in Chicago, Illinois.

After graduating from high school, CayCee achieved a master’s degree in Hospitality Management. Though her career, CayCee worked for various establishments.

CayCee married Keith Lamont Johnson on Sept. 11, 1999 at the Chapel of Love in Bloomington, Minnesota. A shopping mall might not seem like the most obvious choice for a wedding venue, but for thousands of couples, the Mall of America has acted as the perfect backdrop for their vows. It was located on the third floor of the Mall of America, and performed more than 8,300 weddings and vow renewals over the past 28 years. After nearly three decades of “I dos,” the chapel closed its doors in August 2022.

Recently, CayCee worked as the Food Service Manager at Aspen Academy at 14825 Zinran Avenue in Savage. Aspen Academy is a tuition-free, public charter school located in Savage, Minnesota, and open to all families in Savage, Prior Lake, Shakopee, Burnsville, and the surrounding communities. The award-winning academic program focused on the Core Knowledge curriculum for kindergarten, primary school, and middle school classes. Aspen Academy offers limited class sizes that provide a sense of community, uses a literature-rich, Core Knowledge curriculum, and Singapore Math, and an elementary Spanish program.

Once CayCee knew that her cancer was destroying her life, CayCee called Ken Pass, who was the sexton at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee. Ken is often referred to as the caretaker of the cemetery, and he takes care of the Catholic Cemetery on Tenth Avenue, along with Valley Cemetery on Fourth Avenue in Shakopee.

CayCee had an experience which others had where cemeteries do not allow African Americans to be buried there, and so she called Ken, who let her know that she could be buried at Valley Cemetery. And so CayCee and her husband, Keith, stopped by, had a wonderful and positive experience, and bought the plot for the tombstones for CayCee (and sometime later, for Keith).

On July 14, 2019, CayCee Moyee “Boogie” Jarvis Purham Johnson died at age 50, surrounded by the people she loved the most, at the family’s home in Savage.

CayCee was a loving and dedicated wife, mother, and grandma. Her circle of family and friends was most important to CayCee. She was an amazing cook and when time allowed, CayCee loved to travel. She had a wonderful personality and a smile that would take your breath away. 

CayCee was always helping others and wanted to make sure everything was all right. She had this contagious laugh and always made people smile. CayCee was a fighter and never backed down from a challenge, including her diagnosis of cancer.

A Celebration of Life Service was held July 20, 2019 at River Valley Church in Shakopee. River Valley Church is an exciting and thriving church whose mission is to lead people into an authentic, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ where people worship God, connect with one another and are launched into God-given purpose.

CayCee will be forever loved by husband, Keith Lamont Johnson; stepchildren, DuJuan Bell, Asya La’triece Johnson; children, Alexandria LaMoy Johnson, Adrienna Lynn Johnson, Aryahana Lauren Johnson, Keith Daveon Johnson; grandson, Cayden Jackson; other relatives and devoted friends.

Diane Hummel noted, “I have had the honor and privilege of working with CayCee for many years. I will always cherish our conversations, our gut-wrenching laughs, her famous one-liners, and the light that she brought to the school. She always took care of everyone else before herself and had the best attitude towards life. Amazing woman. The world seems a little dimmer without her.”

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Jerry Carl Regan was born Dec. 18, 1917, in Akeley, Minnesota, son of William Alvin Regan (1881-1947) and Augusta Louise Winkelman Collins Regan (1882-1968). His grandparents were Jeremiah H. Regan (1842-1922) and Bridget Agnes Buckley Regan (1843-1924).

Jerry graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in pharmacy in 1941, the year he married June Kahler. June Dorothy Kehler was born April 25, 1917, in Minneapolis. They married in Excelsior on Aug. 25, 1941.

Jerry started his career as a pharmacist in Bemidji at Johnson Corner Drug Store. While in Bemidji, Jerry was a member of the Jaycees and was chairman of the Water Carnival. He was also a member of the Elks Lodge in Bemidji.

Jerry and June had three children: Emily Louise in 1942, Jerry William in 1944, and David Frank Regan in 1949.

In 1949, Jerry purchased the Scott County Drug Store in Shakopee and the family moved here. According to an article in the Shakopee Valley News on Jan. 23, 1997, Jerry owned and operated that store, which had the distinction of being the longest continuously operated drugstore in the state, until 1975.

The drugstore started on the northwest corner of First and Holmes Street in 1860. It was started by Charles Bahnerd. The drugstore moved to 120 East First Avenue and sold to Charlie Lord in 1873. In 1883, the drugstore moved once more, this time to 109 South Lewis Street. It was sold to Ben Kohler.

In July 1893, Math A. Deutsch, a registered pharmacist, and Herbert Zettel, purchased the drug store and a lucrative insurance business from Ben A. Kohler. Six years later, Mr. Deutsch bought Mr. Zettel’s interests in the business, thus becoming the sole owner. In 1898, Math was joined by his brother, Frank, in the operation of the business. The called the store Deutsch Drug Store.

Built upon the practice of the golden rule, a trait so frequently lacking in the highly competitive commerce of the modern day, the Deutsch Drug Store enjoyed a large patronage and an enviable reputation, noted the Shakopee Argus-Tribune on July 10, 1952.

“Many thousands of painstakingly compounded prescriptions, which restored health and helped to preserve life had passed through the cautious hands of the two brothers. In 1952, Math was 81 years old, and Frank was 75. Both of them welcomed the opportunity to give up their daily grind that has been theirs for so many years, though they must have missed the long business association that was soon drawing to a close.”

Paul Nevin and Bill Krawnblaud purchased the drugstore in 1946, and then kept it until December 1947. At that time, it was moved to 102 West First Avenue and called the Scott County Drug Store. It included new fixtures and a new fountain featuring Bridgeman’s ice cream, according to the Shakopee Valley News, Jan. 23, 1985.

The drug store was purchased again on March 4, 1949, this time by Jerry C. Regan from Bemidji. He moved with his family to Shakopee.

In an article in the Shakopee Heritage Society Newsletter, “Memories of the Scott County Drug Store,” Lois Marschall Wendt remembers Lalapaloozas and Lalapalooza Juniors. “It was a very large sundae with many kinds of ice cream and toppings,” Lois said. “I had to make egg salad, tuna salad, and ham salad sandwiches. The ham salad was made from the left over ham we had baked at the Shakopee Bakery…People loved the fresh baked ham sandwiches.”

“Every day we would have special jobs. I can’t remember each day, but I do remember Thursdays. We had to climb up on the window ledge above the whole length of the soda fountain and wash the windows. The neon light signs were really scary. And balancing on the window ledge in our white uniforms wasn’t very appealing to us at all. We would love to have Thursday off!”

“Sometimes Jerry would be very particular about how many ounces went into each cone, but not very often. Bridgeman’s would come out every once in a while for a soda fountain school. I remember Mabel Huth and Adeline Schneider. Mabel worked the fountain and Adeline worked the drug store,” noted Lois. “Jerome (Squint) Jaspers would always try to trip me up when making change. He would pay for his coffee and cigarettes. I would ring it up, and then he would add something else, so I would have to add the two together. He couldn’t understand why this was so hard. Of course, cash registers then were not like today!”

Another thing that Lois remembered was when the younger soda fountain workers would help in the drug store if needed. “They would ask me what they should do if someone asked for something and they didn’t know what it was. One guy came in and asked this poor innocent woman for condoms, and of course, she asked what it was used for (as per my instructions)! He quickly asked for the pharmacist as most guys did in the first place!”

In an article in the Shakopee Valley News in 1994, Carol Ann Johnson Schneider, Class of 1956, remembered, “We traded comic books and learned the words of all of the popular songs from a book we bought at Regan’s Drug Store.”

At the Women’s Reformatory (now known as the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee) the Shaw Cottage was the Shakopee Home for Children from Sept.19, 1951 to June 30, 1969. At that time, 30 girls from ages 4 to 12 lived in the cottage, with ten staff members and ten inmates who assisted, providing a program of rehabilitation with a humanitarian aspect. Jerry Regan and family from the Scott County Drug Store showed up every Sunday morning with two buckets of Bridgeman’s Ice cream for the children. In 1960, the fountain was taken out and the store was remodeled.

Jerry lived the Rotary motto of “service above self” as a civic leader in Shakopee, according to the Shakopee Valley News on Jan. 23, 1997. “Besides being a founding member of the Shakopee Rotary in 1955, and its second president, he was a founding member of the Shakopee Parks and Recreation District. He was committed to politics as a committee chairman, caucus leader and fund-raiser for the Independent-Republican Party for more than 40 years and as a Shakopee school board member from 1952-1967.”

“His love of the outdoors made him active in the Boy Scouts and his faith in God made him active in St. John’s Lutheran Church in Shakopee as chairman of the building committee from 1952-1957. Rev. Skip Reeves said Regan was ‘extremely well thought of’ adding that he ‘went out of his way for many people.’”

On June 4, 1976, the Deutsch/Scott County Drug Store closed after 114 years of business. After a long illness, Jerry Carl Regan died on Jan. 14, 1997, in Shakopee. His wife, June Kahler Regan, at age 94, died at Shakopee Friendship Manor Nursing Home on Feb. 4, 2012. She was an active volunteer with the St. Francis Hospital Auxiliary, community blood drives, a life-long Sunday school teacher and church worker, Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts at which all benefited from her twinkling eyes and radiant smile.

Jerry and June were buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Maximus Guido Wermerskirchen was born in New Prague, Minnesota on Jan. 2, 1931, son of Peter Paul Wermerskirchen and Clara Marie Beckius Wermerskirchen.

His family moved to Shakopee after a few years. After grade eight, Wermerskirchen decided he was done with school. He quit and took a job on the Grommesch farm. He was 14 years old. While working on the farm, Max fell in love with the farmer’s daughter, Beatrice, known as Bea.

In the 1950s, Max took a construction job in Alaska for several years. He saved enough money to buy a home. He proposed to Bea, and when she accepted, he moved back to Shakopee. They had three children, Sandra, Steven, and Larry.

He had been employed at Rahr Malting Plant in Shakopee in a maintenance job for the last three years of his life. Maxvolunteered for the fire department in December 1958.

Why did he volunteer? It just seemed to be the right thing to do. It was a way to help others. 

Max was always helping others. When his parents called, he would be over in a flash. They lived nearby, and he helped install storm screens, mow the lawn, or take care of anything that was needed.

Max’s younger sister, Clareen Ries, remembered that “He knew everybody in town, knew everyone’s names. He would do anything for anybody.” The whole town liked him.

Max left his home and his family very early in the morning of Sept. 30, 1959, to fight a fire at Schesso-Hughes Auto Dealership in downtown Shakopee. He never returned.

It was a difficult fire to put out. Explosions from gasoline tanks, grease, and oil made it more difficult. Firefighters from Shakopee, Carver, Chaska, and Jordan fought the blaze for over five hours.

Max, who had joined the fire department nine months before, offered to take the place of an older firefighter and climbed to the roof of the building. He had to help ventilate the garage and douse the flames from above. “But, just before 2 a.m., the roof collapsed, sending Wermerskirchen below into the smoke. He hit the roof of a large, concrete vault within the building—likely used as an office or for records storage—but nobody knew about it, and Wermerskirchen’s fellow firefighters couldn’t find him in time to save him.”

According to the Shakopee Valley News, Max died quickly without the breathing equipment which now is required. In 1959, there were only three or four packs for the whole department.

In the Jordan Independent, “Eighteen cars inside the structure including five new models, along with tools and equipment, were destroyed. Cause of the blaze which started about 1:30 a.m. is not known. Firemen said it apparently started near the center of the garage.”

Heroic rescue attempts were made by Fire Chief Art Dubois and other firefighters, who entered the burning building again in vain search for the victim. The body was brought out about 4:30 a.m.

The garage, which covered a half-block on Lewis Street, was a complete loss. The damage was estimated at $200,000. In today’s time, this would be nearly $1.7 million!

Maximus Guido “Max” Wermerskirchen was only 28 years old, and left behind his wife, Bea, and three preschool children. This was the only firefighter to die in the line of duty in Shakopee.

Every year since, the fire department in Shakopee, Wermerskirchen family, and past members of the fire department meet at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee, where they have a graveside service. Then they head to Fire Station 1 where they grill steaks and have a buffet-style dinner. It is the time to connect the younger guys to the history and pass on the values and traditions that have shaped the department.

Max Wermerskirchen was added to the Minnesota Fire Service Memorial at the Capitol in 2012. It commemorates the firefighters who have died in the line of duty.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Bernardino Dean Taranto Toronto was born Jan. 27, 1901, in Seattle, Washington, son of Giuseppe Joseph Taranto, Sr. (1873-1962) and Lillian Margaret Lilly Lehnertz Taranto (1874-1943). Dean’s grandparents were Bernardino Taranto and Santina Santa D’Arrico Taranto, who were born in Italy, and Gerard Lehnertz (1831-1913) and Joanna Jane Rossbach Lehnerz (1846-1878).

Two years after he was born, Bernardino’s father died in Seattle, and in 1905 the widowed mother and the four-year-old son moved to Shakopee. Dean, as he was called, attended school and grew to maturity, according to an article from the Shakopee Argus-Tribune on July 7, 1941 called “Dean Toronto, 40, Buried Saturday.”

Bernardino Dean Taranto Toronto married Mary Ellen O’Brien (1906-1956), daughter of John O’Brien (1872-1960) and Catherine Kate Gallagher O’Brien (1872-1943) in St. Paul.

Dean and Mary Ellen lived in Shakopee, where they had six children: Howard Joseph (1924-2007); Patricia Mary (1926-2018); Eugene Francis (1928-2004); Margaret Ellen (1930-1939); James Edwin (1931-2016); and Marc Edward Toronto (1938-2009).

According to the article in the Shakopee Argus-Tribune, Dean was “a good hearted, upright and honest man…above all else a devoted husband and father. He was known for his genial disposition and warmly regarded throughout this area where he had spent the major portion of his life.”

In the beginning of July 1941, Dean was working on an electric power line in Carver, north of the city of Shakopee. While he was working on the line, Dean was killed. The Minnesota Star on July 10, 1941, and the Minneapolis Tribuneon July 10, 1941, had an amateur photographer who watched all the drama.

Dean, on July 9, 1941, came in contact with a wire line he had just repaired. He slipped from the pole he was climbing and was electrocuted. Rescuers made a daring attempt to haul down lineman Dean Toronto, who was a victim of high-power wire near Shakopee. While they tried to rescue him as he hung from top of a pole by his safety belt, it was not enough, and Bernardino Dean Taranto Toronto was killed, leaving his widowed wife and five children.

“His death came as a stunning blow not only to his immediate relatives but to every one who knew him,” said the article in the Shakopee Argus-Tribune. Funeral services were conducted by Rev. Father McRaith at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Shakopee, and Father Kauer officiated at the grave. The pallbearers were R.S. Condon, Roy Dellwo, Harvey Dressen, Morse Johnson, and George A. Ring.

Mary Ellen sued the city of Shakopee, the Travelers Indemnity Company, insurance company, and the Minnesota Electric Service Company on Oct. 30, 1942.

The record held to sustain finding of industrial commission that the lineman was an employee of electric service company and not of the city at time of his death, according to Julius J. Olson, justice. The review, an order of the industrial commission, awarded compensation to the widow of Dean Toronto. The issue is whether at the time of his fatal injury the employee was working for the city of Shakopee or for relator, the Minnesota Electric Service Company. They found relator to be such employer, and on appeal the industrial commission unanimously affirmed.

Neither the relator nor the city produces electric energy, and neither has facilities for its production. The city purchases power from the Northern States Power Company not only for its own distributing system, which is wholly within the city limits, but also to service the relator’s customers, some 100 in number, in an area adjacent to but outside the corporate limits of the city. The city resells the electric energy required by the relator at a profit to itself.

Toronto was a resident of Shakopee at the time of his death and had been for several years. His work was in the electrical field. He rendered service to the city from time to time, and, as an individual enterprise, also did a lot of work wiring houses and making other electrical repairs and installations for private individuals and concerns.

Dean handled wires charged with electricity. These are referred to as “hot wires,” and Toronto was called “the “hot wire man.” On the day in question, as he was making a last connection of these wires to complete his job, he was electrocuted.

A few of the facts may be thus summarized:

Toronto had been paid at the rate of 75 cents per hour while he worked for relator, for whom he had rendered many services in the past and at various times. His regular pay when employed by the city was 60 cents per hour. When he worked for the city, it was his custom to punch a clock registering the time when he started his work each day and likewise when he finished. The last day he worked was July 1. There the time clock stopped as far as Toronto was concerned. His death occurred on the ninth.

May he rest in peace.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Anna Thelka Bögemann Bogenmann was born on a farm on Sept. 20, 1880 in Marystown, Minnesota, the second oldest child of John Bögemann (1850-1905) and Helena Pieper Bögemann (1848-1889). Eventually John and Helena had two boys and two girls.

Anna remembered her grandfather, Anton Pieper, who was living in St. Louis, Missouri when the cholera epidemic broke out. Her grandmother, Sophie, and three of the four children died. Anton, along with his only living child, Helena, gave the local orphanage nuns $200 to took care of Helena, who was Anna’s mother, and Anton headed to the Gold Rush in Sacramento, California. Three years later, Anton returned to Minnesota, picked up his daughter, and eventually settled in Marystown. He hired John Bögemann as a hired hand, and later he married Helena Pieper. With the $3000 dowry, John and Helena bought a farm near Marystown, where Ann Thelka Bögemann Bogenmann was born.

According to the News Page on Sept. 25, 1982, Anna showed a keen interest in learning. At five years old, she insisted on joining her older brother when he started school in Marystown.

When Anna was nine years old, her mother died on Sept. 29, 1889. Two years later, her father, married a second time, to Maria Franzen Bögemann (1863-1939). Three boys and two girls were born in the second marriage.

Anna, at age 15, entered the order of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Milwaukee, becoming an aspirant in 1895 and taking her final vows in 1903. She became Sr. Alberta Boegemann, SSND.

In the History of St. Mary’s Purification in Marystown, Scott County, Minnesota, which was written on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of the parish on June 12, 1930 by Reverend James Klein, he noted that Anna was one of 17 sisters who entered Marystown in the course of 75 years. “Sister M. Norberta (Anna Boegemann, daughter of John Boegemann and Helen Pieper), born September 20, 1880, and who is at present stationed at the College of Notre Dame, MD.”

When Sr. Alberta Boegemann was living in the Milwaukee Motherhouse, and under the kindly guidance of Sr. Cunigunda, she began her years of training. In August 1899 she received the habit, and in December 1899 she was sent to Formosa, Ontario, where she taught grades seven, eight, and nine for nine years. In July 1903 she took her First Vows in Milwaukee.

In 1908, Sr. Alberta was transferred to St. Anne’s, Kitchener, where many future Notre Dames were privileged to be in her English, Latin, and history classes. In 1920 she taught for a year in Longwood, Illinois, and in 1925 began six years of teaching at Notre Dame of Maryland. The remaining years of teaching were spent in Ontario, in Wakerton, Kitchener, and Waterdown. She spent a short time in St. Agatha in the 1940s recuperating from ill health. By 1944 Sr. Alberta was back in the Academy classrooms, where she taught until 1957.

Sr. Alberta was an inspiring teacher. She was a cultured woman. When the Ontario government in the early years of the 1900s required that teachers had to have Ontario qualification, Sr. Alberta was one of the first American sisters to receive a First Class Certificate in 1911. She also held a B.A. degree from Queen’s University and Fordham University, New York.

In her early years of retirement, she continued worthwhile reading and current events to satisfy her alert mind. Sr. Alberta could sometimes be seen reading a dictionary. When asked why, she explained, “When I get to heaven I want to be able to talk to God in high-flown English.” When her eyesight declined, she focused on favorite phrases in her large-print bible.

She was a delightful conversationalist and would relate with much enjoyment anecdotes of her teaching years. She was always very gracious and so grateful for favors done. As she became older, deafness cut off from participation, but with an appreciative smile and sly wink she would show her gratitude. 

Sr. Alberta celebrated her 100th birthday on Sept. 20, 1980. She received greetings from the Queen, Prime Minister Trudeau, and Premier Davis. Sr Alberta enjoyed the day with many friends, and repeatedly gladdened their hearts with her many quick, appreciative winks.

On Sept. 25, 1982, at age 102, Sr. Alberta Bögemann Boegeman died at the Canadian Mother House, Villa, where she lived. She was intern at the Villa Cemetery.

“She was a very unique woman and a marvelous teacher,” recalled Sr. Miriam, a teacher at the convent. “Whenever I meet one of her students they go into ecstasies about her teaching. I’m a bit envious I didn’t have her as a teacher.”

Sr. Claire, 83-year-old nun who had Sr. Alberta, remembered her as a teacher who made everyone in the classroom feel important. Sr. Antoinette recalled “She could make the works of Shakespeare come alive.”

“Quite a dramatic teacher, but very regal, too,” said Sr. Antoinette.

According to Sr. Claire, “She didn’t walk across the room—she floated!”

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Anna Maria Wolf was born March 8, 1870 in St. Joseph Township, daughter of Mathias Mather Wolf (1835-1925) and Anna Deutsch Wolf (1831-1922.). According to the John Wolf-Margaret Gerardy Wolf Family Tree, Mathias had emigrated to America with his parents and brothers and sisters in the year 1854 when he was 20 years old.

Because of Tettingen’s location close to the Moselle River, many immigrants followed the stream to LeHarvre, France, and left the continent from there. They would have arrived in the port of New York, going overland to Chicago, and on to Galena, Illinois, where they traveled up the Mississippi River to St. Paul. From St. Paul, it would have been on to Shakopee via the Minnesota River and from Shakopee, they walked the distance to St. Joseph Township, carrying all their possessions.

Johann Wolf (Anna Maria Wolf’s grandfather) had declared his intention to become a U.S. citizen on May 19, 1855, and therefore he became eligible to receive homestead land from the government. Under the pre-emption plan, settlers-colonists could purchase surveyed public lands for $1.25 per acre through the government land office. Wolf filed his claim at Red Wing, the land office for Minnesota Territory, on Sept. 12, 1855, and received a deed for 120 acres of land in Sand Creek Township. The deed was signed by President Franklin Pierce on Nov. 1, 1856, in Washington, D.C.

The land that Johann and Marguerithe Margaret Gerardy Wolf settled on was hilly with heavy clay soil and covered with trees. Before the family could farm, the members had to clear the trees, and they used the wood for erecting farm buildings. Johann and Margaret saw their children marry – John Jr. to Magdelina Ruppert; Mathias to Anna Deutsch; Peter to Frances Kerrer; Frank to Mary Meyer; Margaret to Matt Hennen: and Katherine to John Deutsch.

It was in 1857, three years after coming to this country, that Mathias took Anna Deutsch as his bride. She had come to America from Besch, Germany, in 1855, with her parents, five brothers, and one sister. Anna’s parents, John and Mary Deutsch, had settled nearby in Helena Township. The couple was married at St. Joseph where the parish had just been established and was without a formal church structure. In fact, it was John Wolf, Peter Ruppert, and Wilhelm Budde who donated the land for the eventual church building and cemetery of St. Joseph.

The pair turned to farming like their parents and ancestors, buying a 100-acre parcel in Helena Township. The papers were filed at the land office in Henderson and signed by President Abraham Lincoln, Aug. 1, 1861.

Together, Mathias and Anna Deutsch Wolf did their full share of subduing the Scott County wilderness and converting the woods into fertile fields. After Mathias’s father died in 1873, the couple shared their home with Mathias’s mother until her death from pneumonia in 1885.

In the 1880, after all their nine children were born, Anna and Mathias sold their farm and moved to one near St. Benedict. The couple became active in the church and school of St. Benedict, and it was in 1887, when the present church was built, that Mathias joined his neighbors in donating the labor to raise the structure.

Eight of the couple’s children married and struck out on their own. The children and spouses included: John and Mary Haus; Margaret and Michael Beckius; Mathias Jr. and Rosalia Koelzer; Peter and Catherine Cenzius; Frank and Frances Schloesser; Anna and Andrew Busch; John Michael and Sophia Pranke and Helen and Andrew Busch and Anton Scheffler. Their daughter Mary, second youngest child, died at the age of 27.

The couple watched with pride as their children grew to be respected citizens in their communities. In 1905 they lived with son Frank and family, according to the census but the children of Frank’s stated that their grandparents never lived with them.

Perhaps they were visiting the day the census was taken. At the time of their deaths in 1922 and 1925 Mathias and Anna were living with their son Michael and his family on Michael’s farm. (Both Mathias and Anna’s death certificates have wrong information on them. It is stated that Mathias was 79 years, 11 months and 13 days and buried in New Prague. The birth and death dates are correct so subtract the 2 dates and you get over 90 years old. Also, Mathias is buried in St Benedict as the stone marker is there. On Anna’s death certificate, it is stated that her father’s name is John and it should have been Mathias.)

In 1883, Anna Maria Wolf had her first communion at St. Benedict. She was 13 years old, and Fr. Asimirus Hueppe, O.S.F., was the pastor. In May 1893, she married Andreas Andrew H. Busch (1869-1947) who was born in Sand Creek Township Aug. 17, 1868, son of Henry Busch (1837-1919) and Anna Maria Roentgen (1841-1886). According to the John Wolf- Margaret Gerardy Wolf Family Tree, Andrew was a well-known Marystown farmer and retired in Jordan. The witnesses for marriage were Peter Busch and Lena Wolf, and the priest was Fr. Pulthoff.

Anna and Andrew had several children: Florian Henry; Julian; Hildegarde; Bertha M.; Francis; Alphonse M.; Alice; Rosetta; Loretta Rosalia; Elmer John; and Emma.

Andreas Andrew Busch died March 17, 1947 in Jordan, and was buried at the cemetery in Marystown. Anna Maria Wolf Busch died Aug. 19, 1958 at age 88 in Sand Creek Township. The service was at St. John’s Catholic Church in Jordan, and Anna was buried at St. Mary’s Purification Catholic Cemetery in Marystown, next to her husband.