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’s 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-Tribunein 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, Minnesota in 1920. They 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.”

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Elizabeth K. Ries was born Aug. 26, 1874 in Shakopee. Her parents were Jacob Franz Ries (1830-1911) and Josephine Mamer Ries (1835-1916) who were born in Septfontaines, Canton de Capellen, Luxembourg, and arrived in Minnesota in 1857, where Jacob founded the Jacob Ries Bottling Works in 1872. The company bottled water and other beverages under the name Rock Spring Beverages. Jacob also served as Shakopee’s mayor from 1895-1899.

Elizabeth became a nurse so she could take care of her mother, who needed help. In 1918, during the Flu Pandemic, there were not enough nurses, and Elizabeth gave her services night and day.

In 1925, just five years after the passage of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote, the city of Shakopee elected its first female mayor. The election was a nail-biter. Elizabeth beat incumbent John P. Ring 319 to 290 votes, according to Jon Lyksett. She also was elected again in 1927.

Ries embraced her newfound stardom. In 1926, she appeared on WCCO radio in Minneapolis as a sort of mistress of ceremonies, bringing with her a group of musicians known as the Shakopee Serenaders and a group of male singers which she deemed The Lady Mayor’s Trio, according to Jon Lyksett.

During her time as mayor, Shakopee approved a critical connection to Chaska over the Minnesota River with the Holmes Street Bridge, which remains today as a pedestrian bridge.

Elizabeth was also the owner of the Rock Spring Café, one of the most popular establishments in town in the 1920s and 1930s. “Shakopee was really a community by itself, cut off by the Minnesota River and the river bottoms,” said Joe Jenn. “Back in the 1930s, the town was a little Las Vegas. We had 33 beer joints at one time and notorious nightclubs like Rock Springs and the Riviera. People, including gangsters, came here for booze, women, and gambling; the mayor, sheriff, and city councilmen went along with it all.”

In Shakopee, the people had Fords and Chevrolets, but the cars in front of Rock Spring were too fancy. If you looked inside, almost no one was there. A local guard was at the basement door where the machines and other equipment were kept. Only secret clientele were allowed in, usually from the Twin Cities.

The Rock Spring Café and other places had runners to inform them when raids were coming. They had safe houses, including one on Spencer Street across from St. Mary’s School. There were 30 or 40 safe houses, where the slot machines were stored there for hours or a day until it was safe to return them.

Elizabeth was elected a second time in 1927. But in 1928, she resigned to become postmaster.

Elizabeth K. Ries died May 6, 1949, at 74 years age. She was buried at the Shakopee Catholic Cemetery.

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Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Jack Abeln and Philomena Minnie Theide Abeln were living upstairs in a little house on the corner of Sixth and Scott Street, when triplets arrived May 28, 1918.

All three of the babies lived and grew up in Shakopee. The triplets were named John, Philomena, and Marie.

According to Philomena Abeln Hennen, “I guess things weren’t so complicated then. We had simple medical attention, but we all survived, although I understand we were named in hurry because they didn’t know if we would all make it.”

The triplets were born at home, with Dr. P.M. Fischer of Shakopee as the doctor. They joined their older sister, Elizabeth Abeln Schultz.

Marie was named after her grandmother, and her brother and sister were named after their father and mother.

According to Philomena Abeln Hennen, her mother was expecting twins, but not triplets. “She said she got so big when she was pregnant with us that she wouldn’t go anywhere but the back yard.” The triplets each weighed approximately five pounds at birth. The three babies were baptized promptly by Rev. Dean Mathias Savs, as they thought they might not survive. But they did!

It immediately became evident that their living quarters were too small, according to Elizabeth. And the task of caring for so many diapers, as they were not the disposable diapers of today, was an insurmountable hurdle. They had to walk up and down the stairs, with no washer or dryer.

The family moved to a house situated across the highway from Wampach’s Café. “We had just moved in—boxes around, dishes in a barrel, and a man by the name of Math Annen, who had a little shop on Second Street, just west of the Shakopee House, was fixing our pump” noted Elizabeth. She was wheeling around one of the little doll buggies.

“I went to my mother and said there was a big bug in the buggy. Well, it was a snake curled up in the bottom end! Math Annen killed it. But after that, they put their shoes on the bed at night, and almost immediately started looking for another place, which was hard to find,” said Elizabeth in an article in 1980.

The family moved to a big red house directly across from the front of St. Mark’s Church. “One night I gave my parents a scare,” said Elizabeth. “I got nightmares. We kids slept in the west bedroom, and my folks in the next room, which was supposed to be the living room. They heard the window opening. They thought someone was after the babies! Well, they determined that it was I who got up, opened the window, shut it, and got back into bed!”

Though many of the neighbors were worried as they never had children in the neighborhood before, their fears were short-lived. The triplets and their older sister were good kids, and they stayed in their own yard. Marie and Philomena were dressed alike for many years, though Johnny never had to wear anything to match. The two girls, along with their oldest sister, Elizabeth, were in the St. Mark’s girls’ choir, and Johnny was a Mass server, always on call.

The triplets and Elizabeth went to school at St. Mark’s School. They went home to eat at lunchtime. The time they didn’t like going home was when their mother made homemade soup. “We knew she’d have it ready to strain at noon. She’d put a ripped open gunny sack over a wooden tub on the floor. We each held a corner of the sack and turned our heads away.” In later years, stirred soup was made, which was much simpler.

“But then there were the days when we just loved to come home at noon,” noted Elizabeth. “My mother made the best homemade bread. It was made with potato water and everlasting yeast, set above the stove warmer in a fruit jar. She set it the night before and always had a loaf baked when we came home (and usually a big kettle of homemade soup). I loved crusts on homemade bread…I would cut the crust off a couple more slices, then turn it on the side, and voila! Another crust! I’d cut up the rest and get the last crust, too. My mother really didn’t appreciate that!”

The family had a team of horses, and often gave rides in the sleigh, sitting on straw covered with a pretty horsehide with green felt backing. According to Elizabeth, “We also had chickens and a cow. All this was in the barn and chicken coop, with a fence around it, behind the big red house, just across from St. Mark’s Church! Our chickens produced big, brown eggs which were my mother’s pride.

“She’d enter them in the County Fair each year for many years and always got a blue ribbon.” The Poor House was on the northeast corner of the block, just kitty-corner from the big red house. Joe Rice, one of the residents of the Poor House, would get the family cow every morning and stake it out to graze behind the building.

The family had a little butter churn, and Elizabeth remembered churning butter. She also loved the delicious buttermilk, also. So good and so cold. Elizabeth also remembered putting milk in the crockery, and then the family would eat the cold cream off the top.

She also remembered when she was a teenager, and the home remedy for acne. “My father decided cake yeast with a little molasses was the thing! Ugh! I had to take a spoonful every day. After some time, I guess he figured it didn’t do any good, so I didn’t have to take it anymore,” said Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, the oldest in the family, was often living in the shadow of the limelight of the famous triplets. “It seemed someone was always saying, ‘These are the triplets!’ Guess I was just jealous,” said Elizabeth, “even though it wasn’t their fault!”

And that is a bit about the triplets, the first triplets born in Shakopee (and their oldest sister!).

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Seymour Pope was born March 24, 1845 in Amherst, Ohio, son of Edmund Pope (1802-1858) and Jerusha Taylor Pope (1804-1851).

Seymour’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Thomas Pope, who was born in England in 1608 and died in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, was on the Mayflower, and came to Plymouth Colony as a settler-colonist, as well as several members of his relatives. Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was the first permanent English colony in New England from 1620 to 1691 and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony, according to Wikipedia.

Great-great-great-great-grandparents of Seymour were Ensign Jacob Mitchell (1645-1675) and Susannah Pope Mitchell (1649-1675). Jacob and Susannah were involved in the King Philip’s War, sometimes called the First Indian War, Pometacomet’s Rebellion, or Metacom’s Rebellion. It was an armed conflict in in 1675-1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England settler-colonists and their indigenous allies. The war is named for Metacom, the Wampanoag chief who adopted the name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father Massasoit and the Mayflower Pilgrims, according to Wikipedia.

Ensign Mitchell and Susannah were slain by Phillip’s warriors “early in the morning as they were going to the garrison, wither they had sent their children the afternoon before,” according to The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Boston at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2009).

In Manilus, Illinois, when Seymour was six years old, his mother, Jerusha Taylor Pope died Sept. 22, 1851. Seven years later, when Seymour was 13 years old, his father, Edmund Pope, died Aug. 11, 1858.

Seymour joined the Michigan Volunteers Battery E, 1st Regiment Light Artillery, which was organized on Dec. 6, 1861 as a Private Union soldier, and ended his service as a Corporal.

Michigan Volunteers Battery E, 1st Regiment Light Artillery focused on the following: Advance on Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 10-March 3, 1862. March to Savannah, Tenn., March 17-April 7. Advance on and siege of Corinth, Miss., April 29-May 30. Occupation of Corinth and pursuit to Booneville May 30-June 12. Buell’s Campaign in Northern Alabama and Middle Tennessee June to August. Garrison duty at Nashville, Tenn., until June 1863. Siege of Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 12-Nov. 7, 1862. Moved to Murfreesboro, Tenn., June 1, 1863, and duty there until October. Return to Nashville, Tenn., and garrison duty there until December 1864. Rousseau’s Raid into Alabama and Georgia July 10-22, 1864 (1 Section). Ten Islands, Coosa River, July 14. Stone’s Ferry, Tallapoosa River, July 15. Nontasulga July 18. Chewa Station July 18. Opelika July 18. McCook’s Raid on Atlanta & West Point Railroad and Macon & Western Railroad July 27-31 (1 Section), Lovejoy’s Station July 29. Newnan’s July 30. Battle of Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 15-16, 1864. Pursuit of Hood to the Tennessee River Dec. 17-28. Duty at Nashville till February 1865. Ordered to Decatur, Ala., and garrison duty there till July. Mustered out July 30, 1865.

When Seymour was 22, he married Mary Florence Williams on July 4, 1867 in LaSalle, Illinois. They had six children: Clara Mabel (1869-1872); Marietta Etta (1871-1873); Marianna (1873-1877); Annabelle (1878-1957); Edmund Josiah (1886-1968); and Milo Abram (1888-1961).

Seymour and Mary’s child, Anna Annabelle Pope ended up, along with Ida Dorothea Busse, becoming the first graduates of Union School in Shakopee, in 1898. Students before then had graduated in Shakopee, but this was the first time that a state sign of approval based on the good rank among schools of the state in the matter of examinations, according to the Scott County Argus, May 23, 1898.

The 1890 Veterans Schedules in the U.S. Federal Census showed Corporal Seymour Pope, 45, living in Shakopee.

Corporal Pope died March 21, 1907, in Shakopee, and was buried at Valley Cemetery. His wife, Mary Florence William Pope, died on August 21, 1931 in Newhall, California, according to The Signal, Thursday, Aug. 27, 1931. She was buried at the Grand View Cemetery in Burbank, California.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Nathaniel Kline was born Feb. 27, 1838, in Tunkhannock, Wyoming, Pennsylvania.

His parents were Johannes John Peter Klein (1805-1875) who was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, and died Feb. 9, 1875 in Eagle Creek, Minnesota, and Anna Elisabeth Wenderoth Klein (1785-1830) who was born in Elfershausen, Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Hesse, Germany, and died in Germany before Johannes John Peter Klein headed to America.

Nathaniel Kline’s grandparents were Andreas Klein (1740-1799) and Maria Elisabeth Herwig Klein (1745-1812); and Johann Konrad Wenderoth (1748-1799) and Anna Maria König (1762-1794. They all lived and died in Germany.

His father had moved to Pennsylvania from Germany with his wife, Margaret Annen Klein (1806-1886) and were settler-colonists in Pennsylvania.

It was there that Nathaniel Kline was born.

Nathaniel Kline (sometimes called Klein) moved from Pennsylvania to Minnesota, along with his parents and siblings, and lived in Chaska at first. Then Nat moved to Eagle Creek.

Nat volunteered in the 9th Regiment Minnesota Infantry at Fort Snelling on Aug. 15, 1862.

The 9th Minnesota Infantry Regiment was a Minnesota USV infantry regiment that served in the Union Army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. The 9th Minnesota Infantry Regiment was organized into service at Camp Release, Hutchinson, Glencoe, Fort Ridgely, Fort Snelling and St. Peter, Minnesota, between Aug. 15 and Oct. 31, 1862. The companies were individually mustered into Federal service at Camp Release in October.

I Company of the 9th Minnesota Infantry was there until 1863. They then mustered into federal service on Oct. 12, 1863. Nathaniel was mustered out on disability on May 27, 1864.

Nat, as he was called, married Katie Maria Catherina Timmers, who was born June 29, 1853, in Einighausen, Sittard-Geleen Municipality, Limburg, Netherlands, in Chaska. Then they all settled in Eagle Creek, where they were farmers.

During the next several years, Nat and Katie had 14 children, though at least five of them died in infancy or early childhood.

The children included Agnes (1871-1871), Louis (1872-1951), Charles Leonard (1873-1966), William Bernard (1875-1916), George Lambert (1877-1944), Mary Augusta (1880-1881), Annie V. (1882-1884), Joseph Alex (1884-1906), Julia Margaret (1887-1973), Louisa Mildred (1888-1982), Laura Catherine (1890-1950), Alice Irene (1892-1907), Edward P. (1895-1965), and Myrtise Marie Babe Kline (1897-1975).

Agnes, Mary Augusta, Annie V., Joseph Alex, and Alice Irene Kline, were all buried at the Calvary Cemetery in Eagle Creek, now part of Shakopee.

Private Kline died Feb. 21, 1926, in Eagle Creek, Minnesota. He was buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee. Ten years later, Katie died on Dec. 2, 1936, in Shakopee, and she was buried near her husband at the Catholic Cemetery.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Margaret Murphy was born on July 20, 1849, in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Jeremiah S. Murphy (1835-1880) and Johanna Honora Harrington Murphy (1830-1892).

Margaret headed further west, where in Rockland, Michigan, she met Francis Frank John Geis. Frank was born on July 20, 1839 in Krumbach, Bavaria, Germany. When Frank was born, his father, Lorenz Lawrence Guise (1816-1907), was 22 and his mother, Elizabeth Franziska Hessler Guise (1820-1886), was 19. Frank and family immigrated from Antwerp to New York on Aug. 26, 1848. The family became settler-colonists as they headed further west.

Margaret married Frank on June 16, 1866, in Rockland. By 1867, the two parents had their first child, Johanna, in Rockland.

Within a year, Frank, Margaret, and Johanna Geis headed to Scott County, Minnesota, where they bought land near Sand Creek.

Margaret and Frank ended up having ten children: Johanna Geis Kreuser (1867-1951); Elizabeth Geis (1869-1904); Frank Conrad Geis (1872-1944); Mary Ann Geis Grommesch (1874-1944); Catherine Clara Geis Hamers (1876-1941); Margaretha Geis Lehnen (1878-1940); Dorothy Geis (1881-1970); Theresa Marie Geis Kreuser (1883-1963); Josephine Geis (1886-1964); and Agnes Geis (1889-1963).

According to the Scott County Historical Society Jan. 26, 2021 newsletter, the Geis family was involved in the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Sand Creek.

The St. Joseph Catholic Church was said to have been the focal point of the community of St. Joe. “Jeanette Robling, a lifelong resident of Sand Creek Township, said in 1887, ‘It was really the church that made the community. There never was a business district. All community centered around the church.’”

According to early settlers in the township, they wrote to the bishop in St Paul to request permission to build a local church. They heard that their request might be refused because of their proximity to Jordan which was also building a Catholic church at the time. “Supposedly, a farmer came out with his wagon to meet the bishop when he came to inspect the area. Instead of taking a direct route back to the community of St. Joe, the farmer drove the bishop along a circuitous and bumpy back route. St. Joe seemed farther from Jordan then it actually was, and the bishop gave permission for the church to be built,” said the Scott County Historical Society.

St Joe’s Church was established in 1858. It was built entirely by community volunteers and, due to farming and family obligations, was not finished until the following October. The original building was a 24’x35’ log cabin. In 1860 a bell, cast in St. Louis, was purchased for the church by the local Young Men’s Society. A sandstone church replaced the cabin in 1873.

According to the article, a school opened in 1874, run by an order of nuns, with 60 students attending. “The school consisted of only two rooms, with two teachers on staff. Attendance for each student averaged only 50-60 days per year due to farm work, illness and weather. By 1883, 106 children were enrolled. Unfortunately, this proved to be a difficult year for the school. Several students died in an epidemic, and the school closed for a large portion of the year as a protective measure. In 1884, the nuns retired and the building became the District 22 public school. The building was still shared with the church for religious instruction until 1947. It remained in operation until 1960.”

For over 100 years, St Joe’s Church stood in Sand Creek. The final mass was officiated in 1971, and the township used funds to preserve the church cemetery. Finally, the church itself was removed in 1988.

In June of 1989, a memorial to the church was dedicated on-site featuring the old church bell. The inscription reads “St Joseph’s Catholic Church. On this spot stood St Joseph’s Catholic Church. This monument is dedicated in memory of those who worshiped here and supported the church for 113 years. The bell is original. The stone and brick are from the church.”

The end of the church also marked the end of St Joe. Never a large community, it began to disperse after the church closed. Today it is considered a ghost town.

Margaret Murphy Geis lived in Sand Creek Township until she died Feb. 5, 1893, at the age of 43. Her husband, Francis Frank John Geis, died July 5, 1922, at age of 82.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper in 2024

The year was 1933. The United States was in the middle of the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt became the 32nd president. Prohibition was the law, and Hitler was gaining power in Germany.

And in Shakopee, according to a Shakopee Heritage Society article by Eileen Schmitz, Edward and Florence Buesgens McGovern welcomed their first child, a daughter, Geraldine Ann McGovern. Gerrie was born at the home of her parents at 330 Fourth Avenue East. Her parents rented their house, and when the owner passed away in 1945, they bought the house and lived there the rest of their lives. Four years later, Gerrie’s sister, Aggie, was born.

Her father, Edward McGovern, was a carpenter, and one of six sons of John and Catherine Rohe McGovern. They were raised on the family farm in Jackson Township, west of Highway 169 (now called Highway 69), west of the railroad tracks.

Gerrie’s great-grandparent, John McGovern, was the original owner of the farm.

John McGovern, Sr. was born in 1816 in County Leitrim, Ireland. He came to America in 1843, settling as a settler-colonist in the state of Rhode Island. He married there and was employed in the roller mills. In 1857, John, his wife, Margaret Heslan McGovern and four children moved to Minnesota. They lived in Shakopee until 1868, and then they purchased a farm three miles southwest of Shakopee in Jackson Township. At the time of his death, John McGovern, Sr. had the distinction of being the oldest member if the Shakopee community, dying one month before his 97th birthday.

His son, John McGovern, Jr., Gerrie’s grandfather, married in 1890 to Catherine Rohe and settled on the farm until 1926. They retired from farming and moved to Shakopee. Catherine Rohe was the daughter of Lambert Rohe, and early immigrant settler-colonist in Shakopee.

Gerrie’s mother, Florence Buesgens, was from a family of six children. Florence’s parents were Henry and Anna Meyer Buesgens, and they worked on a farm in Chaska, later moving back to Shakopee.

Growing up, Gerrie remembered that there were not many children in the neighborhood. Several of the lots were empty, though over time, more houses were built. On the north side of Fourth Avenue, the Leo Hirscher family lived. Gerrie remembered that Bob Hirscher was a great playmate. Other people in the area include the Butz Pass family, the Petsch family, and Mrs. Hennen, who was a widow with her daughter. Further east lived the Wermerskirchens, Judge Connolly, Stockers, Duffys, and the Bill Marschall family.

The McGovern family attended St. Mary’s Catholic Church, and Gerrie attended school at St. Mary’s School. The school just had four classrooms, two classes in each room. One teacher she remembered was Sr. Nicolette, one of the Notre Dame order of nuns who taught 7th and 8th grade.

In 1947, she attended Shakopee High School located on Fifth Avenue (and torn down in 2023).

After graduating in 1951, Gerrie worked at the telephone company is Shakopee. After two years of working at night, she found employment at Continental Tool in Savage. Later she worked in Minneapolis at the Sears store on Lake Street. A few years later, she came back to Shakopee and worked for Page & Hill.

Gerrie and Andy Heiland were married at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Sept. 14, 1957. Andy was born and raised in Shakopee. Andy was in the construction trade and later worked at the Shakopee Senior High School in the maintenance department. He retired in 1996 and died two years later, in August 1998.

Gerrie and Andy had seven children: Dale, Lisa, Keith (who died in infancy), Cheryl, Renee, Craig, and Kurt.

Gerrie kept busy with her family and friends. She volunteered and was active with the church, Loaves and Fishes, Mobile Meals. She also belonged to the Quilt Club, served on St. Mark’s funeral committee for 22 years, and was a volunteer at the Shakopee Heritage Society and the Scott County Historical Society. She also enjoyed trips with the senior citizen’s group, and was an avid Minnesota Twins fan.

Geradine Gerrie Ann McGovern Heiland died April 8, 2023 in Chanhassen, Minnesota, and was buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee.