Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

William L. “Bill” Quinn was born near Coldwater Springs near Fort Snelling, Minnesota on November 4, 1828. His father was Peter Patrick Quinn, who was an Irish immigrant who married Ineyahwin, also known as Mary Louisa Finley, who was a mixed-blood Christeneauz (Cree) Indian. Therefore, William was half Cree by blood.

William received an extraordinarily strong education for the time, including schooling at Fort Snelling, and three years’ boarding and study at a school in Fort Garry, British North America (now Canada).

When Bill was twenty years old, he married a half-blood Dakota woman, Angelique Jeffries, of the Mdewakanton band in 1848. By 1856, the couple had three children, all of which were one-quarter Dakota.

Bill was the only one of the seven siblings to reach maturity. Bill was fluent in Anishinaabe, Dakota, English, and perhaps other languages. At various times he was a clerk, a scout for the army, and an interpreter. Bill was employed as a clerk in the Indian trade for many years.

In the spring of 1851, Thomas A. Holmes employed Bill as a guide. They ascended the Minnesota River and cooked a meal in a hollow near the Dakota village of Tínṫa Otuŋwe. They decided to continue up the river to Le Sueur. But soon Holmes and Bill returned, however, to the first landing, and deemed it the most favorite place to locate. And that is how the town of Holmes Landing, later called Sha ‘K Pay, Minnesota Territory, started (though 600 Dakota had been living here for many years).

In 1862, Willilam and his family were at the Yellow Medicine Agency, where he worked in William Forbes’s store. In 1862-1865 he was a scout, guide, and messenger. For thirty years, starting in 1870, Bill was immersed in learning, documenting, and providing testimony about the genealogy of Dakota mixed-bloods.

In an article written in 1901 in the Minnesota History magazine, Knute Steenerson discussed his experience of being a pioneer. He had a saloon in the village of Lac que Parle. “I sold whiskey by the drink, pint, quart, and gallon.”

In the winter came a man from St. Paul. He had driven up by team – there was no railroad at that time, and he was here to buy scrip from the Indians.” Scrip allowed the holder to appropriate about 480 acres of land not already occupied for people who were half Dakota.

“His name was Bill Quinn. He had seventeen hundred dollars in cash in his pocketbook.

“He came into my saloon often and treated the crowd, no matter how many there were or how few. He would throw a five-dollar bill on the counter and did not want any change. When I gave him change back, he would throw it on the dirty floor and tramp on it. So, I learned after a while to please him and never gave him change but slipped the bill into the money drawer and set up the drinks. This pleased him entirely.

“One day he started to drive to Big Stone Lake. He drove along on the ice of Lac qui Parle Lake. Some miles out he came to a lot of fishermen, who were fishing through the ice. He had a good time there for a while, drinking whiskey and talking. And there he lost his pocketbook with the seventeen hundred dollars in it. But luckily, one of the fishermen found it in the snow and gave it back to the owner,” noted Knute Steenerson.

“So, he proceeded on to Big Stone Lake and in about a week or ten days he was back again. He brought his son and his son’s sweetheart with him. They were pretty good-looking half-breed Indians.

“He said he had caught them wild on an island in Big Stone Lake and wanted to ‘buckle them up’ and marry them. So, he bought ten gallons of whiskey and ten gallons of cherry brandy.”

Knute was invited to the wedding, which was held at the house down the river a few miles. The next thing was to send for a justice of the peace to “buckle them up,” as Bill Quinn said.

Knute continued, “A New England Yankee was sent for. His name was Mr. Stowell, and he performed the ceremony.

“But Mr. Quinn was in such a hurry that he sang out between drinks, ‘buckle them up, buckle them up,’ and then again he would jig and laugh. Well, after it was done Quinn said he was so glad that they were ‘buckled up.’”

“We had a good time at the wedding. Some were drinking, some dancing, and others talking. It was a sort of cosmopolitan gathering. There were Dakota Indians talking with the lady of the house around the cook stove. There were the squaw man and old Bushma talking French. There were Fritz and Rosenbaum talking German. There were Ole Olson and John Johnson talking Norwegian. They were all enjoying a trot sling and conversation between themselves, while Bill Quinn was dancing with a glass in his hand, to the music of the violin played by the half-breed, Joe Laframboise. A more pleasant and jolly time I have never enjoyed.”

Bill moved to St. Paul in 1875 and lived there the remainder of his life. He died on March 5, 1906, in West St. Paul.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Wilfred “Fred” Stevens was born in Shakopee on March 16, 1874.

Fred attended German Lutheran School in Shakopee, and then the Union School. While attending school, he learned the intricacies of the printing business in the print shop of his father, Charles Stevens, publisher of the Shakopee Courier.

Fred started learning languages when he was ten years old. He used to follow people in Shakopee who spoke German, French, and Italian, and made them talk to him. He did the same thing with the Dakota Indians in Shakopee.

In 1894, Fred went to Washington, D.C. and took a position in the government printing office. Since he was in school in Shakopee, Fred was very interested in languages, and when he moved to D.C., he continued his studies. Fred was then recruited into the War Department, where he was a librarian and translator in the office of the Adjutant General.

Around 1929, his annual accomplishments came to light. It was found he had a passion for nature, and often wandered barefoot through the countryside, indulging in his hobby as a naturalist. “People sought him out in his office on the fifth floor of the old State War and Navy Building. There at a desk littered with strangely lettered manuscripts and dictionaries in many tongues, they found Mr. Stevens, a mild, bearded, preoccupied man” said R.M. Ring.

After seven years at the War Department, Fred was transferred to the department of state, where he worked as a translator until 1924. He retired, then returned in 1930 to work one more year.

Fred was able to translate over thirty different languages. Though many people would be amazed by this, Fred minimized this. “If I can translate thirty languages, what is that? There are about 3,300 languages in all, so you see that thirty languages is not even a drop in the bucket.”

The languages at Fred’s command, including several that he spoke with fluency, included English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Rumanian, German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Sioux, Russian, Polish, Bohemian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Slovak, Bulgarian, Greek, Hungarian, Finnish, Latvian, Armenian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Esperanto, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, and Latin.

Although he was recognized as the outstanding linguist of the United States, and one of the greatest in the world, he worked as a translator for an annual salary of less than $3,000!

Fred learned more languages by going among the people, including people in Washington, D.C. “They are general and affable, answering all my questions in their own language, so that I get a clearer idea of the spoken language than any book could give me.” They were often amused by Fred’s pigeon speaking but always were polite and gave great help.

In the Washington Daily News, Rodney Dutcher noted that Fred “rides to work every day on a bicycle, lives largely on the fruit known as the pawpaw, thrives on a diet which cost 25 cents a day and became an accomplished horticulturist while carrying around at least 100,000 words in his head. This is more than Woodrow Wilson knew, for his vocabulary had been estimated at 62,000.”

Fred responded to that article, which was published in the Shakopee Argus, by saying that he was not dwelling in a tree, that he did not feed on pawpaws, and he lives on “at least $100 a month on an average for the last thirty years, or perhaps nearly $200 counting fads and follies.”

William Hinds noted, “It is open to you to introduce to Shakopee, the greatest man born there, and, to my notion, the most conspicuous linguist known to Western Hemisphere, and you may include the world.”

Wilfred “Fred” Stevens died in 1939 at age 65.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Warren Ernest Stemmer was born in Shakopee on August 3, 1922, son of Joseph Mathias Stemmer (1877-1961) and Alma Edna Greenwald Stemmer (1889-1968).

Warren married Kathleen Mary O’Keefe (1923-1981). They had three children. Kathleen died on August 7, 1981. Three years later, Warren married Teresa Topic Meyer (1920-2012).

Warren attended Shakopee High School and worked in the family business, Stemmer Farm and Garden, which was located at 134 South Scott Street in Shakopee. In 1940, he played with the Shakopee Indians, who won the state tournament and then played in the National Amateur Baseball Tournament.

Warren signed a professional baseball contract with the Eau Claire Braves. He continued to play amateur baseball from 1946-1953. The Eau Claire Bears was the primary nickname of the minor league baseball team from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Eau Claire was a member of the Class C Northern League (1933-1942, 1946-62) and were affiliates of the Boston Red Sox (1936), Chicago Cubs (1937-1939) and the Boston Braves (1947-1962). The team played its home games at Carson Park in Eau Claire.

Originally named the Eau Claire Cardinals, the team adopted its most enduring nickname when new owners bought the team in July of its first season. Beginning in 1954, the Eau Claire Bears were renamed the Eau Claire Braves after the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee.

The Bears, along with the rest of the Northern League, did not play the 1943-45 seasons due to World War II. Warren served his country in the U.S. Army during World War II. After his discharge, he attended St. Thomas College and earned his teaching degree.

Warren taught social studies at Belle Plaine High School from 1952-1953 and spent the rest of his teaching career in Burnsville.

Warren raised his family in Shakopee and played for the Shakopee Indians town team for several more years. He also coached throughout the Shakopee youth baseball program.

Warren was in the first group to be enshrined in the Shakopee High School Hall of Fame.

In 2000, the high school baseball team created the Warren Stemmer Class Act Award, which is given each season to the player who best embodies fair play, sportsmanship, and dedication to teammates and the game.

The Warren Stemmer Baseball Field at the Shakopee High School was dedicated on June 5, 2008. The field is located at the new Shakopee High School (southwest corner). It’s between county roads 77 and 79 on 17th Avenue at Shakopee High School campus. Stemmer Field includes two batting cages, one small bleacher, two bullpens, a scoreboard, and an announcer’s box.

Warren Stemmer died on October 14, 2005, surrounded by his loving family. He is buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ, or the Woman Who Sits at the High Place, was born in the Minnesota Valley area around 1817 among the large circle of her Dakota relatives.

According to some researchers, Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ was the daughter of Colonel Menary, a soldier at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and a “Sioux Indian girl.” Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ was a close relative of Ṡakpe II. According to Patricia Jeanine Arnold Cates, the great-great-granddaughter of Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ, her relative might be a full Dakota Indian because Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ’s father might be a Dakota, rather than a soldier. Patricia believes that she was full Dakota, but in census forms put her name as half Dakota to obtain scrip used for land purchase.

Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ grew up as a Mdewakaŋtoŋwaŋ, or Spirit Lake People, Eastern Dakota girl and young adult. She lived along the Mnisota Wakpá (or Minnesota River) Valley.

Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ wore long deerskin or elk skin dresses and moccasins on her feet. She also wore buffalo-hide robes in bad weather. Over time, Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ learned how to sew clothing using material from the fort.

Dakota women, like Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ, were in charge of the home. Besides cooking and cleaning, she helped build her family’s house and dragged the heavy posts with her whenever the tribe moved. Later, when she was married, Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ became in charge of the log cabin built in Tínṫa Otuŋwe near the springs at Prairie des Français on the Rivière Saint-Pierre. Houses belonged to the women in the Dakota tribes. Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ also took part in storytelling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine.

In 1837, she married Oliver Faribault in a civil/Indian ceremony. On February 11, 1844, Oliver married Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ (in a religious ceremony) at the St. Francois Xavier Sioux Mission, located at Little Prairie on the St. Pierre River. Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ spoke Dakota and French, and a bit of English.

Together, they had nine children: Gabriel Olivier Faribault (1838-December 1859); Olivier Emile (born about 1840); Angelique (birthdate unknown); Mary Josephine Jessie (born 1842); Jane Luce (born 1843); Pelagie Eliza (August 27, 1845-December 1, 1937); Sarah-Iréne (1847-May 23, 1924); Henriette Luce (born 1848); Lauren Philippe (born 1850).

Gabriel Olivier, who was born in 1838, probably was with Pelagie’s sibling, as is often done with young Dakota boys, in order to learn the Dakota way of living. He died in December of 1859. Oliver Emile, Angelique, Henriette Luce, and Lauren Philippe all died in infancy or early childhood.

In 1844, Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ and Oliver built and established a trading post near three springs, later called Faribault Springs, amid Tínṫa Otuŋwe, a Dakota summer planting village in what was later the east part of Shakopee.

Oliver was in his early thirties and Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ was about 27 years old when they moved to the area. Mary Josephine Jessie, their daughter, was two years old, and Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ was also pregnant with another daughter, Pelagie, who was born in 1845.

The Faribaults built their home on the west side of the springs. The original structure was a small cabin built with tamarack logs which were cut from a swamp nearby. It is likely that Oliver, as well as Joseph Godfrey, who was enslaved, both worked to build the cabin.

Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ spent her time as a mother and wife. She took care of Mary Josephine Jessie, Jane Luce, and Pelagie Eliza, along with Sarah-Iréne. Her last child, Lauren Phillippe, died in infancy in 1850. According to purchases in 1845-1846, the log cabin included a cookstove, and from 1842-1845 kitchen utensils included a pitcher, a coffee pot, a wrought iron tea kettle, four tin pans, three tin dishes, a set of blue cups and saucers, a dozen plates, six blue plates, four blue bowls, and a broom.

Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ’s husband, Oliver, died on October 12, 1850, after contracting quinsy while digging out Faribault Springs.

The girls were still very young when their father died. Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ, remained in the home and raised the four girls, Jessie, Jane, Eliza, and Sarah-Iréne. Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ preempted a quarter of the land in 1856 but gradually was forced to sell small parcels of it.

Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ died of typhoid fever on November 7, 1880. According to the Shakopee Argus, she had been unwell for weeks, but during the past ten days she was apparently improving.

Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ was buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee, Minnesota.

Eventually, the logs of the original house built by Oliver and Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ were covered with wood frame siding. The house was lived in by the Faribault family until 1949 and was moved to Murphy’s Landing during 1969. Now a historic site, the house is used to interpret the fur trading era at The Landing in Shakopee.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Vu Thi Hieu was tired but happy after arriving at the Minneapolis International Airport in the middle of September 1975 at 1:25 a.m. Friday night. And she was pregnant. Her child, John, would be born at St. Francis Hospital two months later.

Vu Thi Hieu, her husband, Thu Anh Tran, and their children were supposed to arrive in Minnesota after the flight from Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Chicago, and Twin Cities at 5:15 p.m., according to an article in the Shakopee Valley News on September 10, 1975.

A large delegation of well-wishers from St. Mary’s Catholic Church was there. As the people arrived, the parishioners waited. And waited. But they did not show up.

A group of people asked at the Traveler’s Aid, and they told them they might be on the next flight, from Chicago. They weren’t!

As it happened, the family somehow was taken off the Northwest Orient flight in Chicago and put on another flight … to Fort Lauderdale, where they started out. After four hours on the plane, they disembarked, thinking Minnesota was not going to be bad after all, according to the article “Vietnamese family arrives following two flights from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.” in the Shakopee Valley News. It looked a lot like Florida, with palm trees and balmy weather.

“The Thu family possessions arrived on schedule and after some hastily contrived conversations, they left Fort Lauderdale once again with specific instructions not to leave the plane until someone came on board for them,” according to the Shakopee Valley News.

And that is what happened. Once they arrived in Minnesota, George Spielman, director of pastoral care services at St. Francis Hospital, brought the family out to the Minnesota International Airport.

The family left Vietnam on April 29, 1975. They arrived in Guam, where they stayed for six weeks, and then they arrived in Florida on June 26. And now, in September, the family arrived in Minnesota.

Vu Thi Hieu was 26 years old. She already had three children, Tran Hoy Cuong, age four, Trun Trung Hau, age three, and a girl, Tran Thi Anh Tuyet, who was a year old. And of course, Vu Thi Hieu soon had another child on the way. Her mother, Nguyen Thi Giac, who was 61 years old, also arrived with the family.

Vu Thi Hieu was born on December 2, 1945, in Saigon, which later was called Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. On April 30, 1975, after twenty years of fighting, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong took over Saigon, ending the war and reunifying Vietnam under one communist regime. Like many South Vietnamese people, the family experienced risky journeys to be free of communism. This first group of refugees were well-educated English speakers familiar with American culture.

Vu Thi Hieu’s husband, Tru Anh Tran, could speak pretty good English. He had been a chicken farmer in Vietnam. He had served in the Vietnamese Army for eight years, including being a sergeant and an interpreter for the Unites States Army.

When they arrived in Shakopee, the family lived at the guest house of the Catholic sisters at 414 West Fourth Avenue. Maternity clothes, baby food, and eventually house were provided by parishioners at St. Mary’s Church. The Anderson family from the church were an important connection to the family.

Vu Thi Hieu had another son, Thomas, who was born at St. Francis Hospital in Shakopee in 1977, and later another child, Taylor, was born. Eventually, the family moved to St. Louis Park, where Tru Anh Tran worked at the Spectrum Plastics Group.

Vu Thi Hieu died on July 18, 2011, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her husband, Tru Anh Tran, died at age 67 on December 27, 2011. They are buried at Gethsemane Cemetery in New Hope, Minnesota.

By the late 1980s, there were over 231,000 Vietnamese immigrants living in the U.S., with approximately 18,000 settling in Minnesota.

The influx of refugees resulted in cultural exchanges as immigrants accepted Western ways of life, while trying to hold onto their Vietnamese heritage.

At the same time, Minnesotans began to slowly embrace aspects of Vietnamese culture. These cultural exchanges between Minnesotans and Vietnamese immigrants helped pave the way for the immigrant groups of today.

Bibliography

“Vietnamese family arrives following two flights from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.” Shakopee Valley News, 10 Sept. 1975.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Valentin Bartholomäus Reis was born on January 11, 1795, in Biblis, Bergstraße, Hesse, Germany, son of George Bartholomäus Reis (1763-1838) and Anna Maria Freihaut (1771-1834).

Valentin’s grandparents were Johann Peter Reis (1742-1791) and Maria Elisabeth Seib Reis (1734-1785); Johann Jodokus Freihaut (1747-1796) and Sophia Elizabeth Mertz Freihaut (1748-1809). Valentin Bartholomäus Reis’ great-grandparents were Johann Reis (ca. 1700-1775) and Katherine Bergman Reis (ca. 1701-1782); Johann Heinrich Seit (1706-1774) and Maria Eva Fischer Seib (1716-1786); Johann Adam Freihaut (1702-1777) and Margaretha Eva Marsch Freihaut (1723-1785); and Johann Peter Mertz (1717-1772) and Maria Catherina Gansmann Mertz (1720-1781).

Valentin married Katharina Freihaut (1802–1867) on November 25, 1823 in Biblis, Bergstraße, Hesse, Germany. Valentin and Katherina had twelve children, including Bartholomäus Gottlieb, Valentine F., Elizabeth, Johann, Anna Maria, Michael, Elisabeth, Katharina, a stillborn child, Heinrich, Barbara, and George Reis.

Valentin, Katherina, and their family headed to America, from Le Havre, France to New Orleans, Louisiana on July 20, 1846. The Reis family then moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Valentin was a shoemaker for several years.

The traditional shoemaker would measure the feet and cut out upper leathers according to the required size. These parts were fitted and stitched together. The sole was next assembled, consisting of a pair of inner soles of soft leather, a pair of outer soles of firmer texture, a pair of welts or bands about one inch broad, of flexible leather, and lifts and top pieces for the heels. The insole was then attached to a last made of wood, which was used to form the shoe. Some lasts were straight, while curved lasts came in pairs: one for left shoes, the other for right shoes. The “lasting” procedure then secured the leather upper to the sole with tacks. The soles were then hammered into shape; the heel lifts were then attached with wooden pegs, and the worn out-sole was nailed down to the lifts.

The finishing operation included paring, rasping, scraping, smoothing, blacking, and burnishing the edges of soles and heels, scraping, sandpapering, and burnishing the soles, withdrawing the lasts, and cleaning out any pegs which may have pierced through the inner sole, according to “Shoemaking” in Encyclopædia Britannica.

Valentin had a knack for finding jobs that were essential to the communities in which he lived – and working as a shoemaker was no different. Making and repairing shoes, whether for work or dress, required skill and a whole array of specific tools. And in the 1870s, before the mass production of footwear, a town’s shoemaker could count on a steady stream of customers. And that is what Valentin did.

While Valentin was a shoemaker, Katherina took care of the children. It was a big job, but Katherina loved being closer to the children.

By 1860, the family moved to Shakopee, Minnesota. Within a few years, Katherina Freihaut Reis died on December 10, 1867. She was 64 years old. Katherina (also called Catherine) was buried at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Eagle Creek.

Valentin Bartholomäus Reis died on June 4, 1874. He was buried next to his wife at Calvary Cemetery, up the hill in Eagle Creek Township.

Bibliography

Patton, James. “Shoemaking.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 1902.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Ursula Kennedy was born on February 3, 1811, in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). Her parents were Edward Kennedy (1776-1855) and Susanna Gordon (1782-1829). Ursula, her siblings, including Robert Kennedy, and her parents moved to Marion, Ohio in 1826, and opened a tavern. Ursula worked at the tavern.

Among others in Marion was William Holmes, a judge, and Rachel Day Holmes and their son, Thomas Andrew Holmes. Thomas married Ursula on November 12, 1829, according to “Henry David Jones Koons: Philadelphia to Shakopee, Minnesota With Notes on Shakopee Pioneers Thomas A. Holmes and Robert Kennedy Holmes” by David H. Eggler. Then Tom went to Milwaukee and then to Rock County, Wisconsin, where he founded the first of the several towns that he brought into existence.

Ursula was sufficiently hardy to make Holmes’s first trip up the Mississippi with Robert Kennedy and his wife Frances B. Jones Koons Kennedy and their children. On that trip they became ice-bound on the river before they could reach their destination of what is now St Paul.

Some of the books contain inaccuracies and, according to David H Eggler, appear to put Ursula in an overly dramatic light.

But for some reason, very few people ever talked about her. L. Kessinger, who wrote The History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin, said in 1888, “All the parties whom I had a chance to consult with regard to the particulars of the life of Thomas Holmes, himself included, were persistently silent on this one point (concerning Holmes’ first wife)…”

According to Lafayette Houghton Bunnell, in the book, Winona (We-No-Nah) and Its Environs on the Mississippi in Ancient and Modern Days in 1897, “There was a demon of unrest in (Thomas A.) Holmes, partly inherited, and partly the result of a misalliance with a woman entirely unfitted for frontier life.”

Ursula was the petted daughter of a hotel keeper of Baltimore, Maryland, and came west with her brother, Robert, and his wife and two children. Ursula was much younger than her husband, and no doubt married with an expectation of wealth and a return to her beloved Baltimore. She soon saw that that would never be fulfilled.

Besides her dislike of frontier life, Ursula was subject to periodic attacks that made her frantic with pain. Without the option of a competent doctor, she used opiates, which finally enslaved her. Ursula probably kept a supply of opium paraphernalia such as the specialized pipes and lamps that were necessary to smoke the drug. She would recline to hold the long opium pipes over oil lamps that would heat the drug until it vaporized, allowing her to inhale the vapors.

In 1840, Thomas A. Holmes built a strong trading boat of hardwood lumber, partly covered with a deck. After floating down the Rock River over the rapids, he loaded up his goods above the rapids on the Mississippi River, and was towed to Dubuque, Iowa.

Holmes stayed in Dubuque for some time while Ursula was under treatment for what was termed heart disease by the attending physician.

Later, Holmes headed to trade with the Indians, while Ursula stayed in Dubuque with some previous friends for treatment. Thomas returned from his trip up the river with lumber and had built a comfortable house.

Ursula, who returned in 1841, had rooms assigned by her brother, Robert, and his wife, who kept the house for Holmes as a hotel. Ursula seldom appeared but stayed in her room.

Thomas and Ursula had a partially adopted child (or foster child) with “a very little Indian blood in her veins,” named Matilda.

When Ursula had attacks of pain and aversion, she called upon Matilda for help. She did not call on her husband or brother. According to Bunnell, the two men had no sympathy for nor appreciation of her condition. In fact, Robert, Ursula’s brother, called Ursula’s pain “tantrums.”

At one time, Lafayette Houghton Bunnell was heading down the river to attend his brother’s wife’s pregnancy. Ursula wanted to attend, and she wanted to have Matilda along.

Robert called Bunnell aside and said that if the boat tips, please save the child first. “Coming from his brother, the warning angered me, and I replied that both persons and their lives would be held sacred by me,” noted Bunnell.

The remark showed that Ursula had a distrust of her brother and her husband. Luckily, Ursula and Matilda arrived safely.

Bunnell noted that he often thought of Ursula, and the bravery and devotion to Matilda. (It is also noted that after this time, no information about Matilda popped up in historical articles.)

Ursula Kennedy Holmes, the first wife of Thomas A. Holmes, died of heart failure, probably related to opiates, in Dubuque, Iowa in 1841. She was thirty years old. No cemetery or tombstone has been found.

There was no hope for any reconciliation or adaption to the frontier life for Ursula from her husband. Thomas’s character showed the difference between Thomas and his fastidious wife.

Once Thomas A. Holmes noted, “While I can only just about write my name now, I can skin a muskrat quicker than an Indian.”

Thomas loved the smell of the Indian camp, and of skinning muskrats, rather than the civilized life that his wife wanted.

Bunnell noted that he admired Ursula Kennedy Holmes’s good qualities and felt that death had cured her of her diseases.

Bibliography

Bunnell, Lafayette Houghton. Winona (We-No-Nah) and Its Environs on the Mississippi in Ancient and Modern Days in 1897, 2013.

Eggler, David H. “Henry David Jones Koons: Philadelphia to Shakopee, Minnesota With Notes on Shakopee Pioneers Thomas A. Holmes and Robert Kennedy Holmes.” Bellefonte Historical and Cultural Association, May 2020. www.bellefontearts.org/Eggler_genealogy/Koons.pdf.

Kessinger, L. The History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin, 1888.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Bridget Keener recently arrived in the United States. Some people said she was born in Germany. Others say she was born in Ireland. But what is known is that Bridget and her husband were living in St. Paul. In the fall of 1852, H.H. Spencer made a claim in Belle Plaine, near the Big Woods. He wanted to find someone to work with him. He ended up employing Mr. Keener and his wife, Bridget, to work and keep house while Henry H. Spencer cleared up his claim, according to the book History of the Minnesota Valley: including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota by Edward Duffield Neill.

Spencer was originally from Spencer County, Kentucky, where the Spencer family enslaved people. He and his relatives moved to the state of Indiana in mid-century, and then to Minnesota Territory, according to Dr. Christopher P. Lehman in his book, Slavery’s Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State. In 1852, thirty-year-old Henry H. Spencer arrived in Shakapee City, Minnesota Territory. One year later, his nephew, Spier Spencer, arrived. Henry moved to Louisville Township in western Shakopee.

Henry, along with John Schroeder, Mr. Keener and his wife, Bridget Keener, and a baby headed from St. Paul to Scott County in the fall of 1852. Their outfit consisted of the necessities for housekeeping. They crossed the river by the Bloomington Ferry and encamped there at night. They followed the steamboat landing trail, that wound down the river bluffs to the steamboat landing on the riverbank, according to Neill.

During the night a drenching rain soaked everything through. They therefore spent part of the next day drying their clothes and spent the second night at the house of Samuel and Melinda Perry Apgar, in the embryo village of Holmesvile or Holmes Landing, later called Shakapee City. Samuel and Melinda kept a small house for travelers on the banks of the St. Peter’s River. The small house was the log cabin that Holmes built before he built the bigger building next door.

The next day, Henry H. Spencer, the Keeners, and John Schroeder continued. They were walking behind the wagon when two Dakota Indians arrived. The two Indians were from the Sand Creek band, including U-ha-zy, also called Yu-ha-zee, who looked at the outfit, including the guns which they saw to be useless from the soaking rain. U-ha-zy, who was drinking, made fun of the white people, especially Bridget’s husband, who was holding their child. At that time, Dakota women took care of the babies, not the men.

Henry walked over, shaking the cane he carried, threatening the Dakota men. H.H. Spencer enslaved African Americans in Kentucky, so he thought he was in charge (even though he wasn’t), and as they came back, he, as Neill noted, “threatened them, perhaps showing a little of a southerner’s temper.”

U-ha-zy loaded his gun to shoot Henry, but the other Indian attempted to dissuade him, holding up his blanket before him. He also diverted the aim by pushing the gun aside, and the bullet struck Bridget in the back of the neck, passing clear through and killing her instantly.

The frightened party placed the dead body therein and returned as rapidly as possible to Shakapee City, where Melinda Apgar tenderly cared for the body and prepared it for removal to St. Paul, where it was taken the same day in a skiff.

Thirty soldiers from Fort Snelling set out to apprehend the suspect. The Minnesota Democrat provided this account: “On Friday last, the murderer was surrendered by his own band to the dragoons sent to pursuit him.” The Dakota at his camp when U-ha-zy was delivered “sang his death song, supposing that he would be immediately executed.”

The records are sketchy, but according to the book Legacy of Violence: Lynch Mobs and Executions in Minnesota by John D. Bessler, the “district court minutes show that only three prosecution witnesses testified at U-ha-zy’s trail, with the state’s governor, Alexander Ramsey, listed as one of three defense witnesses.” The jury found U-ha-zy guilty after the trial, and the court’s minutes recount the reading of his death sentence: “The sentence of the court is, that you … be taken hence to the legal and proper place for confinement and you kept until under law, the Governor of this Territory shall be his warrant order your execution. My God Almighty have mercy on your spirit.’’

The territory law required to be delayed at least one year after the trial. While there was a pardon campaign including Anna Ramsey, the wife of Minnesota’s first territorial governor, after two years, U-hazy was put to death.

The night before, the public spectacle began, while guns and pistols were fired around the jail and the mob cried out “Crucify him!” The Duluth News-Tribune on Saturday, August 29, 1885, noted that U-ha-zy was executed on December 31, 1854.

The first judicial execution in Minnesota took place in St. Paul on December 31, 1854. “He was hung at a spot where the corner of Dayton and Farrington avenues is now, publicly, in the midst of a drunken and noisy rabble.” U-ha-zy was hanged on gallows on St. Anthony Hill (now Cathedral Hill) in St. Paul.

In one newspaper report, according to John B. Bessler (p. 4), “Liquor was openly passed through the crowd, and the last moment of the poor Indian was disturbed by bacchanalian yells and cries. A half-drunk father could be seen holding in his arms a child, eager to see all; giddy, senseless girls and women chatted gaily with their attendants, and old women were seen competing with drunken ruffians for a place near the gallows.” The crowd reportedly left the scene “satisfied and in high glee.”

Bibliography

Bessler, John D. Legacy of Violence: Lynch Mobs and Executions in Minnesota. University of Minnesota Press, 2003.

Duluth News-Tribune, 29 Aug. 1885.

Lehman, Christopher P. Slavery’s Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2019.

Minnesota Democrat.

Neill, Edward D. and Charles S. Bryant. History of the Minnesota Valley, including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota and History of the Sioux Massacre, 1882.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Thomas A. Holmes led the Holmes Wagon Train to the Montana gold fields of 1862, the first of three times that he headed West. About seventy-odd people were members of the Holmes train, mostly people from Minnesota. According to Helen McCann White, the group included two lawyers, a doctor, a dentist, several carpenters, at least two lumbermen, and farmers throughout the state. Also on this trip was Tom, who was African American, and was a cook on the way West.

Holmes was the de facto leader because of his experience and reputation as a frontiersman. In fact, Holmes himself said that “While I can only just about write my name now, I can skin a musk-rat quicker than an Indian.”

“Trains led by Thomas Holmes were characterized by spontaneity and informality. The emigrants organized into companies, each with an elected captain. Holmes, the captains, and such other officers as wagon master, chaplain, and Indian interpreter formed the train’s governing body.”

Holmes was highly respected among early Minnesotans for his intimate knowledge of Indians and frontier ways.

“Although he seems to have been an ineffective organizer and at times a poor guide, emigrants gathered eagerly to travel with him, and placed great confidence in his ability to take them safely across the plains.”

Most accounts of the African American men and women, free and slave, who came by overland routes were members of companies organized by whites, such as the Holmes Wagon Train. The African Americans generally remained nameless or known only by their first names. The common relationship of the African Americans were servant, laborer, or enslaved person. However, at least three men of African ancestry were guides for overland parties, including James Beckwourth, a black scout, fur trapper, Indian chief, and guide, and an unnamed black interpreter who spoke several Indian languages, and well as French.

Tom was not alone. There were other African Americans who were in Montana Territory, including William Rhodes. He was an African American miner who had been successful as a gold miner in California. He came to Idaho in 1860 and by 1862 and accumulated $80,000 in diggings. His skills brought him the attention of many financial backers, and he died in the winter of 1886 while developing a mine for silver ore deposits in the Bitterroot Mountains.

Tom, the cook, may be free or he may be enslaved. There is no more information about him, including his last name, which could be because he was forced into the role.

Cooks were employed for their combined skills in food storage and preparation, a knowledge of sources of comestibles on the trail, and a general ability to control rambunctious gold seekers. Some cooks were accomplished players of fiddles, harmonicas, and guitars. The musical sounds of a human voice calmed nervous cattle.

Much of the food was cooked over an open-hearth fireplace with a few utensils, perhaps made of wood or gourds, an iron skillet, a pot for boiling, an iron griddle, and a tea kettle. The early pioneers survived by eating meat, wild berries, and food they found in the forest.

Like flour, settler-colonists brought along tons of cornmeal for the trail. Cornmeal was easy to make and transport, so travelers got creative with how they used it in their meals. A favorite food was cornmeal pancakes, which could easily be fried up over the campfire.

The typical settler-colonist diet consisted of corn-meal mush, white or navy beans, salt-rising bread, dried fruit (if they had it), and any meat they may get along the trail. Things that packed well like flour or beans were the staples.

There were usually fresh baked bread or biscuits. To bake the bread, the dough was placed in a Dutch oven. The oven was then set on the fire embers and the lid stacked with hot coals for more even cooking. Baked or simmered beans, begun the night before, could be on the menu as well.

Weather had a big impact on the settler-colonists’ eating habits. For example, if it was raining hard enough that a fire couldn’t be built, hardtack was the meal. Hardtack was one of the least liked foods on the trail. Made with flour and water, cut into biscuit form and baked, it would last for years, but was stiff and had little flavor. Dunking the tough biscuit into coffee would add a little flavor and create a softer texture.

Tom worked as a cook throughout the four months of the wagon train from Shakopee to the West.

Tom arrived at the valley of what was later Montana Territory. But that is all we know about him.

Accounts of the first settlers to the Prickly Pear Valley included an unidentified African American male, one of three who first discovered gold deposits in the Helena area in August 1862.

This might be Tom.

But that is all that is known of Tom, a cook during the 1862 Holmes Wagon Train to the West.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

When Family Chow Mein opened in 1986 in Shakopee, people had more than 105 dishes to try.

On September 22, 1986, the new owners, Tieu Ky, Sam Ky, Van Vuong, and Hong Khong opened the restaurant on the north side of First Avenue. For the first two weeks, the four men closed the restaurant to do some remodeling. According to Sam, one change was to expand the menu to pick from a much wider variety of dishes, according to the October 15, 1986 Shakopee Valley News.

The food gave the customers a chance to choose food that ranges from mild to very spicy. “Some of the dishes are served on a hot plate in front of the customers, which added a touch of elegance to the meat. Dishes served in front of the customers include chicken in orange flavor, seafood, combinations with sizzling sauce, and mandarin chicken,” said the article.

The customers at Family Chow Mein still allowed buffet style at lunch, and it all cost only $4.75 in 1986.

When remodeling the restaurant, the owners added a sparkling new high-power jet range which came from New York. Sam noted that it would give customers faster service. “The heat power is the key … the hotter, the better. The flavors can increase.”

Tieu, Sam, Van, and Hong believed that customers should feel at home when they are dining at Family Chow Mein. “Most customers like to feel at home, like ‘that’s my kitchen,’” said Sam. “We do our best to create a service to satisfy the customers.”

The owners wanted to get to know the people, and to greet them when they come in, just like neighbors. Sam noted that he wanted the place to be both a business, as well as a place where friends can come.

He would help customers with any questions they had. Sam will explain the ingredients in the dishes as well as telling people how each dish is cooked. And, of course, the owners were also willing to tell how each dish would taste.

The owners also think communicating with the customers is very important. They want customers to know that the staff at Family Chow Mein think of each other as friends and neighbors.

Takeout continued, with delivery in Shakopee and Chaska every evening.

Family Chow Mein was torn down when the city of Shakopee tore down two blocks of the north side of First Avenue. Businesses were added to the first level, while apartments were added to the top two stories of the apartments that replaced the buildings.

Bibliography

Shakopee Valley News, 15 Oct. 1986.