Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2025

Fifty-five-year-old America Mafalda Thayer was found dead on Wednesday afternoon, July 28, 2021. The decapitated body was discovered in the middle of an intersection near Fourth Avenue and Spencer Street in downtown Shakopee. Just as a group of people were setting up the Rhythm on the Rails concert, which happened that evening, helicopters were searching from above, the Shakopee Police Department arrived, and America, fresh with stab wounds, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Clara Hill in an article in The Independenton July 30, 2021, “Woman found beheaded on sidewalk in Minneapolis suburb.”

America Mafalda Thayer, a 55-year-old woman from Shakopee, had dated the suspect, Alexis Saborit, who was from Cuba, for about seven years. It was a rough several years, According to Anthony Gockowski on Aug. 4, 2021 in Alpha News, “ICE confirms suspect in Shakopee slaying is an illegal immigrant,” Saborit had a criminal record which included domestic assault charges in Minnesota and Louisiana, a DUI, and running from a police officer. They attempted to deport him in 2012, but Cuba would not approve his travel documents and so he remained in the country.

The 42-year-old Alexis Saborit, was apprehended by police 1.5 miles away from the scene and faced first-degree murder charges. In 2023, Saborit was acquitted by reason of mental illness according to Emily Crane in the New York Post on Aug. 5, 2021, “Minnesota beheading suspect is an illegal immigrant who was wanted by ICE.”

He was convicted of domestic violence in 2017 when he pinned Thayer to the ground after becoming suspicious that she had been speaking to another man at a bar. Before the trial, a restraining order was put in place against him, but was removed after Thayer sent the court a handwritten note asking for it to be overturned.

Saborit was scheduled to appear in Scott County court on the day of the killing, July 28, 2021, on charges of arson after he allegedly set fire to his apartment.

After two psychological evaluations of the defendant, the Scott County attorney acknowledged the case was headed toward a likely finding of not guilty by reason of mental illness.

According to articles in various papers, on July 28, 2021, Saborit and Thayer were driving through Shakopee. According to Saborit, an altercation between the two of them broke out after Thayer told him that she wanted to break up with him. Saborit pulled out a machete, which he often carried with him, and beheaded Thayer.

At around 2:30 p.m., the Shakopee Police Department responded to a report of a headless body dumped from a car near Fourth and Spencer. When they arrived on the scene, they found Thayer’s headless body, along with her head, lying near her car. She was pronounced dead on the scene. Further investigation of the scene revealed a machete and bloody clothing in the recycling bin of a nearby alleyway, according to “Man charged with beheading woman in Minneapolis suburb” in AP NEWS, July 30, 2021. Police documents show that several people witnessed the killing. One person recorded a video of Saborit dumping the body, then picking up Thayer’s head by the hair. Another reported seeing Saborit hitting something and throwing it, according to Daniel Villareal on July 29, 2021, “Video Shows Woman Being Beheaded in Broad Daylight by Male Attacker” in Newsweek.

Local police found Saborit wandering near Minnesota State Highway 101 and Shenandoah Parkway. They arrested him at The Landinghistorical village. He was roughly 1.5 miles away from the scene and three blocks from Travelodge, a hotel he had been staying in. He was charged with second-degree murder; his bail was set at $2.5 million. In an interview with the police, he admitted to killing Thayer with a machete. According to the Scott County court system, he was assigned a public defender at his request. His first court appearance was scheduled for Aug. 9. On July 17, 2023, Saborit was acquitted of the killing by reason of mental illness, according to “Boyfriend convicted of decapitating girlfriend in broad daylight now acquitted ‘by reason of mental illness’” Law & Crime, July 19, 2023.

In the Shakopee Valley News, friends remembered America Mafalda Thayer, according to Jacqueline Devine in an article on July 29, 2021.

Walker Martinez and Tori Finney recalled the two items that Thayer frequently purchased from the Speedway convenience store where they formerly worked: a can of Pepsi and a coffee.

“That’s right, it was always Pepsi in a can,” Martinez said.

Thayer, who worked across the street from the gas station at MyPillow in Chaska, often ventured over during her shift for a caffeine fix, they said – nearly every time she worked.

Martinez and Finney helped organize a vigil for Thayer Thursday evening, held at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Spencer Street, a quiet, but busy residential area. The two lived just down the street, off Fifth Avenue. The day Thayer died, they were driving through the area and came across the crime scene tape. At the time, they initially believed a car crash had occurred.

“She was a really kind person who deserved better than this,” Finney said.

“She was always really sweet,” Martinez said of Thayer. “She was so kind-hearted and down to earth. She was a loving person.”

America Mafalda Thayer, who immigrated from Cuba, was kind, soft-spoken and had a good sense of humor. Her former co-workers described her as extremely hard-working, caring and, the kind of person that would never hurt a fly.

“I knew her pretty well. We didn’t hang out but when I say she liked to work, she was putting in 70 hours a week,” said Jamie Worley, MyPillow employee and Thayer’s friend. “She would basically go there all day, go home for a little bit and come back. I went there today and went to the store and got her a rose and a teddy bear to put on her desk. When I got there I didn’t even look at any other of my co-workers. I just stood at her desk with my head down. Everyone was just crying. It was a very emotional day and it still is.”

Nicky Kendrick, a friend of Thayer for five years, said Thayer would visit her at work everyday, sometimes several times a day, when she worked at the Chaska Holiday Station stores.“She was soft spoken, so funny and always had amazing stories.”

“She always went out of her way to say hi to me when she saw me,” said Kendrick. “She was just truly the kindest to everyone. I haven’t met anyone as genuinely kind as America was since my late grandma.”

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Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Herman Heinrich Heller was born March 2, 1848, in Rütenbrock, Landkreis Emslad, Niedersachsen, Germany, son of Johann Albert Heller (1810-1866) and Maria Anna Helena Husmann (1815-1895).

When Herman was 20 years old, he entered military service. He served three years and participated in the war between France and Germany in 1870-1871. After finishing his term in the Army, Herman decided to turn his focus to the land across the seas, and in 1872 he crossed the Atlantic and came directly to Shakopee. Because his mother was a Husmann, Herman knew the Husmanns who had already been in Shakopee, and so he arrived here and was employed in the Husmann Brewery. The brewery was in west Shakopee along the railroad tracks, about one-quarter mile east of the Strunk-Nyssen Brewery, according to Land of Amber Waters: The History of Brewing in Minnesota, p. 299.

According to Doug Hoverson in Land of Amber Waters: The History of Brewing in Minnesota, Adolph Albachten was in Shakopee and employed at a brewery by the 1857 territorial census. By 1860, he expanded the production to nearly 800 barrels – nearly as large as most of the breweries in St. Paul and larger than most breweries in Minnesota.

Like Herman Strunk, Albachten operated a distillery as well as a brewery. In 1867 he added J.B. Husmann as partner, and by 1870 Husmann became the sole proprietor. For the next twenty years, members of the Husmann family were in charge, producing 1,200 barrels per year in 1870, making it one of the largest breweries in the state outside Minneapolis and St. Paul. And Herman Heller was an employee at Husmann Brewery.

Minnesota has an illustrious brewing history. Today’s craft beer explosion will see the year end with over one hundred breweries operating in Minnesota. But that was nothing. Before Prohibition there were almost three hundred breweries producing ales and lagers in the state of Minnesota and St. Paul was the leader with 12 breweries operating at one time, greatly reflecting the early predominant German population, according to Yoerg Beer’s “Minnesota’s Brewing Pioneers.” Southern Minnesota also had a heavy German population and places like Rochester and New Ulm were filled with family-owned breweries. And Shakopee had two breweries, including the Husmann Brewery, one of the largest outside of Minneapolis and St. Paul, according to One Hundred Years of Brewing – A Complete History of Progress Made in Art Science & Industry of Brewing in the World by H.S. Rich and Company, 1974 and from the Rich & Co: A Supplement to the Western Brewer 1903: Historical Sketches & Views of Ancient & Modern Breweries; Lives and Portraits of Brewers of Past and Present.

In 1875, Herman married Anna Gesina Weinans (1849-1888), and the two of them moved to Marystown, where they farmed for four years. Herman and Anna had six children. In 1878, they moved back to Shakopee, and Herman resumed work in the brewery.

Herman was a hard worker, honest in his dealings and had a most kindly and jovial disposition. He enjoyed quite a large trade and won success in his business.

Anna Gesina Weinens Heller died in 1888, and Herman was left with six children. In 1894, he married Catherine Katie Koerner Dols. Together they took care of their four children of his first wife. Two others had died young. The children included John Bernard, Mary Heller Hurley, Herman, and Elizabeth Anna Heller Stans, according to Find a Grave.

Two years after the death of his first wife, Herman began brewing at the Husmann Brewery, which, when he took over in 1890, became the Union Brewery. He continued the business until 1901, when he retired from the brewery and J.M. Engelhorn took over until 1908. Herman devoted his time looking over his farming interests until the time of his illness.

Herman Heinrich Heller’s health failed him at age 55, and he died at his home on Saturday, Dec. 5, 1903, of kidney disease. His funeral was at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Shakopee, with Rev. Fr. Alois Plut officiated. Herman was buried at the Shakopee Catholic Cemetery, according to the Scott County Argus, Dec. 11, 1903.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Herman Frederick Schroeder was born in Hemsloh, Hanover, Germany on July 26, 1854. His father, Frederick, died when he was six years of age, and the death of his mother, Margaret Sandman Schroeder, left him an orphan at the age of eleven.

In 1870 he came to America and settled at Belle Plaine. He was married there in 1875 to Marie Reinke, and they came to Shakopee the same year. This had been their home ever since.

Immediately after coming to Shakopee, Herman, in company with his brother, opened a brickyard which developed into the Schroeder Brick and Lime Manufacturing Company. It was one of the leading and most prosperous business enterprises of the city and was well known in the Northwest. Herman purchased his brother’s interest in 1896 and continued the business.

The brickyard was located north of Bluff Avenue between Market and Minnesota streets. The bricks were from near the Minnesota River, by Huber Park. Many of Shakopee’s early buildings were made from these bricks.

Many settler-colonists to Shakopee were German, and they preferred building with brick. This, coupled with the fact that shipping brick by river was very costly, guaranteed a constant demand for locally made bricks.

The Schroeder Brickyard possessed all the components needed for a successful brickmaking operation: a large and easily accessible supply of high quality clay; a large supply of wood to fuel the kilns and steam engines; a willing workforce; and proximity to a growing town.

Because brickmaking was an outdoor activity, it was limited to the warmer months of the year. When the temperature dropped below freezing, the bricks couldn’t dry properly before firing. During the winter months, workers of the brick yard were forced to find alternate employment or were left unemployed during the hardest time of the year.

Brick production at the Schroeder Brickyard was labor intensive compared to today’s methods. Excavating, mixing, and forming the clay into bricks was accomplished using only people, horses, and steam engines for power.

After the bricks were slowly cooled, they were graded, sorted, and stacked for shipment. In 1880 the Schroeder brickyard manufactured one million bricks.

Herman’s house was the red brick one on Bluff Avenue. He had five children, three girls and two boys. Two daughters lived in the house until they passed away. One girl died very young. When Herman Frederick Schroeder died Feb. 28, 1922, the boys ran the brickyard.

Many buildings in downtown Shakopee were made from brick manufactured at the Schroeder Brickyard. This business stayed in the family until it ceased operation in 1941.

The Shakopee Argus (Volume 61, Number 16, Page 1) noted Herman’s death:

“The community was shocked and grieved Tuesday evening when the news spread about town that Herman Schroeder, one of our best known citizens, had passed away almost without warning at 6:45 o’clock [February 28, 1922] at his residence in this city of pulmonary embolism.

“Since January 15 Mr. Schroeder had been confined to his home but had attended to business all of the time and was much improved until Friday. He had, however, been up and about and taken an interest in affairs to the last.

“Shortly before death he had eaten supper and apparently, as usual, conversing with the family and expressing no hint of any change to his condition. A few minutes later his daughter heard him moaning in an adjoining room and found him suffering with shortness of breath. Before aid summoned by her could reach him, he was beyond restoration, death coming quietly and peacefully without pain. His sudden passing was a great shock to the family and deep sympathy goes out to them in their keen sorrow and bereavement.”

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

The Spencer family was from Spencer County, Kentucky, where the family enslaved African Americans. The Spencers migrated mid-century to the free site of Indiana, and then to Minnesota Territory, said Dr. Christopher P. Lehman in Slavery’s Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State by the Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2019, page 62-63.

In 1852, 30-year-old Henry H. Spencer arrived in Shakapee City, Minnesota Territory. One year later, his nephew, Spier Spencer, arrived. Henry moved to western Shakopee, which he named Louisville.

Before arriving in Louisville Township, 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 The History of the Minnesota Valley by Edward D. Neill, copyright 1882, page 318.

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.

The next day, Henry, 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.

Henry walked over, shaking the cane he carried, threatening the Dakota men. Henry 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.” It was clear that he did not think U-ha-zy and others were equal.

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.

Louisville Township was bordered by the twists and turns of the Minnesota River. The area included prairies, forest, marsh and swampland, and an oak savanna. The Louisville Township area was originally settled by the Dakota, thousands of years before European Americans arrived. The area was home to the Eastern Wahpeton band of the Dakota.

Louisville Township was originally platted by French fur trader Louis LaCroix who established a trading post on the bank of the river. He built a log cabin here in 1850 according to The History of the Minnesota Valley by Edward D. Neill in 1882, page 318.

In 1853, Henry arrived from Louisville, Kentucky with his family. He envisioned a community in the northwest corner of the township thriving on steamboat travel and trade along the Minnesota River. Spencer soon began buying up lots. He built a home for his family, a grocery store, and a post office where he established himself as postmaster – and offered free lots to other tradespeople who were willing to set up shop in the new community. Spencer then began working to recoup his investment and make the town a financial success. Soon, he was advertising the prospects of Louisville in newspapers around the region, according to “The History of Louisville Township, Part 1” at Scott County Historical Society.

In the Minnesota Democratic Weeklyon May 23, 1855: “Louisville is on a high rolling Prairie, with a number of springs of the best water and an abundance of good limestone in the vicinity. Louisville has a first rate landing for steamboats and is the landing place for that rich expansive country bordering and on the prairie and the big woods, and when the water is low for steamboats to cross the rapids, it is the place for the travelers to and from the Upper Minnesota country to leave the steamboat and take one when bound for St Paul, being the principal traveled road from St. Paul to St. Peter, Fort Ridgely etc. Travelers to the upper country will find teams at Louisville and vicinity to convey them up to this country.

“Strangers looking for claims can get information of conveyances to a very rich country back unclaimed and well timbered and water interrupted with Persons looking for liquidations are also invited to visit this place where H. H. Spencer, one of the proprietors, will be found ready and willing to sell property at fair prices,” said Minnesota Democratic Weeklyon May 23, 1855.

As a result of this campaign, around thirty families moved to the settlement.

In 1856, Spencer built a gristmill in Louisville. In 1857, Spencer put down the funds to have a schoolhouse built in the town, with teacher Hattie Kingsly. However, a 1937 article in the Jordan Independentdescribes the grim future of the schoolhouse thus: “An interest in education did not take in Louisville and from 1859 to 1863 the schoolhouse stood idle. Summer school was conducted in the next two years, and in winter of 1865-1866 Miss Belle Spencer held classes, but they were the last for Louisville.” Louisville never established a church, which was a bedrock of early European American settlements in the area. Services were only held intermittently by circuit riders, usually in the home of Henry H. Spencer.

Railroads could make or break a fledgling town. According to “The History of Louisville Township, Part 2” at the Scott County Historical Society, trains brought goods and supplies, as well as convenient shipping lanes for local farmers and merchants. They also brought new people to settle and expand local communities.

Shipping started moving from steamboats to railroads. In fact, a map showed the railroad bypassed Louisville Township entirely. And so, farmers began to move their goods and business elsewhere. Despite his hearty publicity campaign, according to the Scott Country Historical Society, Henry H. Spencer’s interest in the town soon began to wane.

The Panic of 1857 caused the finances of the planned town to collapse. George Bush Bergwin Clitherall was appointed by President James Buchanan as Register of Public Lands in Otter Tail County, Minnesota shortly after entering the White House in 1857, and the appointee was obligated to serve through Buchanan’s four-year term…. Clitherall bought over $10,000 of land in Scott County in 1857, and over half of his purchase comprised the town of Louisville. Back in Alabama he had owned seven slaves in Greene County in 1840 and six slaves in 1850. Buchanan dismissed him from office in June 1860, and by July he returned to Alabama and kept four slaves, according to “Southern slaveholders who invested in Minnesota, 1849-1865.” An African American 16-year-old male named John Battle was included in the 1860 census for Otter Tail County. Battle was believed to have been the “property” of the Battle family in Alabama. Clitherall was related to this family.

According to Dr. Lehman, the sale of land gave Henry H. Spencer financial stability—and kept Louisville Township reliant of money from slaveholders, according to Slavery’s Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North State, page 63. “He did not help matters by holding proslavery politics in a free state; he opposed abolition and supported the gradual emancipation of slaves.” Henry H. Spencer still boasted $2,750 in real estate holdings and a personal estate of $1000 in 1860, a respectable post-pain amount of money.

Henry H. Spencer closed his original grocery store in 1859. By the end of the 1860s, the town was nearly deserted. Many of the buildings were moved to Carver, directly across the Minnesota River in Carver County.

According to the Shakopee Argus on Jan. 16, 1873, Henry H. Spencer died on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 1873, of typhoid fever in Louisville Township.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Henrietta B. Allen was born in 1838 in Boone County, Indiana. Her parents were John Boswell Allen (1806-1893) and Jane Dillard Allen (1809-1885). Henrietta’s grandparents were John Allen, Sr. (1769-1837) and Elizabeth Boswell Allen (1768-1820), and James Dillard (1777-1852) and Jane Elizabeth English Dillard (1781-1814).

Henrietta B. Allen married Helmrich (Henry) David Jones Koons, who was born April 15, 1831, in Philadelphia, now Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

H.D.J. Koons’s parents were Philip T.B. Koons (1804-1836) and Frances B. Jones (1811-1891). (When Philip died in 1836, Frances married Robert Kennedy on Aug. 1, 1837, in Milwaukee). H.D.J. Koons’s grandparents were Harry Koons (1778-1859) and Mary Magdalene Trumbauer (1782-1868), and David Jones Esq. (1786-1822) and Mary Brower Jones (1791-1817).

The wedding of Henrietta B. Allen and Henry D.J. Koons was done by Rev. Samuel W. Pond. It happened on April 16, 1854, in Shakopee. In fact, it was the first marriage ceremony in the new town of Shakopee, according to Charles S. Bryant in the book The History of the Minnesota Valley in 1882.

Dave H. Eggler noted, “In 1856 Henry D. J. Koons acquired 80 acres of public land which happened to lie in ever-expanding Shakopee. He divided that into lots and in the next few years, often with Robert Kennedy, bought and sold an astonishing amount of land. But he also knew the Dakota language and became the interpreter and secretary for the U.S. Government Agent at the Upper Sioux Agency on the Minnesota frontier. He was sent on a trip in 1861 to Sioux City to investigate ‘several complaints of Indian depredations on the frontier.’”

David Hewitt Eggler is very involved in family, and a lot of information is from his family tree. His first cousin twice removed was Ada Hewitt (1884-1983). Ada was born in 1884 in Canby, Minnesota and her life spanned 99 years and a period of Minnesota history from the settler-colonist to modern times. While she never married, Ada was a Latin teacher and a caregiver to others. In 1962, Ada lived in Granite Falls where she wrote a letter in her final years in a nursing home, alert to the last.

Ada noted in a letter in 1966 that Henry D. J. Koons died at the Upper Sioux Agency in Yellow Medicine County “of pneumonia in a cold winter with very deep snow. Helmrich (Henry) David Jones Koons contracted pneumonia, never recovered, and died in February 1862.” Hewitt family stories say that the Native Americans, out of respect, brought his body down the Minnesota River to Shakopee, an unusual trip in winter.

According to Ada, Henry’s wife and two little daughters were living there too. “He was Indian interpreter and secretary for the U.S. Government agent. The long hard journey back to Shakopee for the funeral and burial was too much for his wife. She did not live long after that.”

While this family story about Henrietta B. Allen Koons may be true in spirit, but it is not accurate, according to David H. Eggler. “Henrietta bought and sold properties in 1863, sold one in 1864, and sold one to her father John B. Allen on May 4, 1865, three years after her husband’s death and just before her own death.”

On Dec. 1, 1863, she is listed in the sales records as a resident of Marion, Ohio, but by June 11, 1864, was again listed as a resident of Shakopee. Aunt Ada’s story is also inaccurate in that there was a son Henry as well as the two daughters, and there may be reason to doubt that Henrietta and the children were in Yellow Medicine rather than in Shakopee.”

“In the 1870 census Frances J Koons 14 and Martha M Koons 11 are shown living with John B. Allen and family in Shakopee. Shakopee was searched in the 1865 census for Henrietta, Frances, & Martha Mae, but they were not found.”

“On March 25, 1863, Henrietta B. Allen Koons petitioned the Probate Court of Scott County to grant her $300 from her husband’s estate for her support and $150 for support of the children Henry, Isabell, and Mattie May. These amounts were granted by the Court on April 6, 1863, to be paid by the Administrator of the Estate, John B. Allen.”

“On May 4, 1863, she petitioned the court for personal property of the deceased to the amount of $200 plus household goods. The Court ordered that she be delivered ‘all the household goods, wearing apparel and ornaments of the deceased… amounting to the sum of $191.70 and the following property…to the amount in value of $200: to wit 3 milk cows at $25; 1 two year old steer, $6; 1 two year old heifer $6; two calves $6; 46 20/60 bush wheat $34.75; 16 ½ bush corn $7.42; cash in the hands of the amount of $114.88,’” according to David H. Eggler.

Henrietta B. Allen Koons died on July 5, 1865. She was just 27 years old. She was buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee near her husband. The tombstone noted she was “wife of H.D.J. Koons, died July 5, 1865, aged 27 yrs.”

Henrietta and Henry ’s children were reared by Jane Dillard Allen, along with other grandchildren. They lived near Shakopee in Jackson Township. The Riggs also lived near Shakopee in Eagle Creek. Eva’s mother was also a relative of the brothers Samuel and Gideon Pond. [Her mother, Ann Eliza, was an Allen, but Eva’s father’s mother was Ruth Pond, a sister of the Pond brothers.]

Abner Riggs used to say that if young Henry Helmrich David Jones Koons had lived the U.S.-Dakota War would not have occurred. Of course, this suggestion overlooks the experiences of the Dakota who lived and died in Minnesota. One thing that is known is that Henry was involved with the Dakota, and learned their language. He liked the Indians, and they were friendly toward him. Thaóyate Dúta (1810-1863) or Little Crow, had been a friend of the Koons family.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Helen M. Taisey was born in Michigan in 1839. Her parents were Mathias Taisey, who was born May 29, 1812, in Vermont, and Sophronia Heath Taisey, who was born on March 8, 1829, also in Vermont.

Mathias and Sophronia had four children, including Albert, Helen, Elizabeth, and Milton. In 1849, they moved to Stillwater, Minnesota Territory.

Taisey’s father, Mathas Taisey, used to keep the Lake House, a boarding house, in Stillwater, but moved to Shakapee City and had a claim about three miles from downtown Shakapee City, Minnesota Territory, according to the diary by Daniel M. Storer. By mid-February, Taisey’s parents, Mathias and Sophronia Heath Taisey, were having problems, and eventually divorced.

Her father traded his claim to John Boswell Allen and his wife, Jane Dillard Allen’s house in town, according to Storer’s diary. Later, Mathias sold the house to Spier Spencer for $1300. Mathias ended up in Greenwood, at the fork of the Crow River, about twenty miles north of Shakopee in a forest of timber in 1856. He had a public house there and later was trading in groceries. A year later, he married again, and according to Daniel Storer’s diary, appeared to be doing well. “He has a small appearing woman” said Daniel M. Storer, pp. 71, 83.

Private Mathias Taisey ended up in the Civil War, where he joined the Second Battery Light Artillery on Jan. 4, 1862. He was discharged for disability on Oct. 29, 1863.

Helen met Thomas A. Holmes while in Shakopee and was probably excited about marrying a millionaire.

Thomas married Helen on Aug. 24, 1854, at the Episcopal Church in Shakopee, according to Daniel M. Storer in The Diary of Daniel M. Storer from 1849 to 1905: A Pioneer Builder and Merchant-His Personal History of Shakopee, Minnesota from August 1853 to January 1905. This was the third marriage of Thomas Andrew Holmes.

Helen was 35 years younger than Thomas. He was 50 years old, and she was 15 years old.

After three years, Thomas, age 53, asked for the marriage contract between him and Helen to be dissolved.

According to lawyer papers, Helen refused to cohabitate with Thomas, which she was duty bound to do, according to the State Archives-Scott County District Court, Civil and Criminal Case Files, 1854-1932. Box 1, Minnesota Historical Society. Territory of Minnesota District Court, Scott County: Thomas A. Holmes against Helen M. Holmes.

Helen was given to extravagant habits and practices, including large and unnecessary debts at various stores and mercantile houses in Shakopee. The incompatibility between the two people, which continually created dissensions, disputes, bickering and strife, caused the devolvement of the marriage, according to the case.

Helen had “a furious and ungovernable temper wholly unsuitable to domestic peace or enjoyment, that she frequently used abusive and vituperative language and would frequently with profane oaths and other improper language for a lady.”

Then again, having a 35-year difference in age probably did not help!

The marriage was dissolved on March 24, 1858.

Helen Taisey Holmes left the Shakopee area. Her father, Mathias died on April 24, 1881, in Missouri. Sophronia died on Nov. 23, 1891.

Helen died in 1889 in Minnesota.

As for Thomas Andrew Holmes? Within five months, Thomas married again, again at the Episcopal Church. The fourth wife was Harriet Richards Woodbury, who was just 24 years younger than Thomas Holmes!

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Helen Elizabeth Lizzie Everling was born Sept. 5, 1881, in Eagle Creek, Minnesota. Helen was one of the daughters of William Wayne Everling (1850-1890) and Mary Ann Kaup (1856-1946). Helen told stories about growing up in Shakopee, and her daughter, Dorothy King McIntosh, told the stories in a book called The Family of Maria Muno and Johann Peter Kaup.

Helen noted that she was born on Sept. 5, 1881, in Eagle Creek, which she noted is “on the outskirts of a little town called Shakopee, in the state of Minnesota. We later moved into the town of Shakopee.

“The Minnesota River flows nearby, and some Indians lived across the bridge and towards the right. One Sunday afternoon, after Sunday school (we had Mass at church in the morning and in the afternoon, we had Sunday School) my sister and two of our girlfriends decided to walk over to where the Indians lived. When the young Indian boys saw us coming, they had a fire going and danced and sang songs in a circle around the fire. The little Indian girls were playing together and we watched them.”

The Dakota girls took Lizzie and her friends to their log cabin where the woman was busy fixing some whole green beans for supper. “The woman was so happy to see us and she gave us some little woven baskets she had made, and they were embroidered with fancy thread and were made to be hung up. When we left, she invited us to come again.” Then Lizzie noted “My mother was so worried when we came home and told her where we were, as people were afraid of Indians in those days.”

Lizzie also remembered “Indian Lucy” (Hapstiŋna Black Flute Lucy Otherday), who “would gather watercress in the creek in the Spring and Summer and twice a week would walk into town and sell it to the townspeople. She was quiet but friendly.

“Old Shoto” was the Dakota Indian John Shoto, who came to town occasionally, according to Lizzie. “Old Shoto walked with a cane. He would walk into our town and shout ‘Whoo whoo Hah Hah’ over and over. Old Shoto was so friendly and nice and all the children loved him. They would gather around him whenever he walked into town and beg him to count…which he did.” And so, John Shoto would count: waŋží [1], núŋpa [2], yámni [3], tópa [4], záptaŋ [5], and šákpe [6]!

Lizzie also remembered her mother, Mary Anna Kaup Everling. She recalled that she “would walk two miles into the country to buy a pail of home-made molasses for fifty cents. The lady made the molasses by growing sugar cane, then stripping off the leaves and putting the canes in a great big press.” Later, Lizzie’s uncle, Nick, made molasses, and so they got molasses from him.

After Lizzie returned from school, her mother would spread a piece of bread with butter and molasses and give it to Lizzie along with “lemon soda.” “She put some sugar, vinegar, and baking soda in the bottom of a glass and filled it with water, and it would fizz and we thought it was wonderful.

“On Sunday afternoons in the summer she would churn sone ice cream and bake a big cake which we would have. And then for supper we were allowed to invite our friends in and my mother always had a big plate of sandwiches and more cake and ice cream. In the winter on Sunday afternoons, she would pop a big kettle of large kernel popcorn which we had with sugar cookies.

“The fairgrounds was right across the street from our house, and after supper all the children would gather there to play tag, ring-around-the-rosie, pump-pump pull away, run-sheep-run, and drop-the-handkerchief. In the winter after supper, we would go sliding on a big long bobsled my brother made, on the hills nearby.

“As I grew older the evening pastime was to go walking. Everyone went walking after supper. When I went to the dances, my sister and girl friends and I would walk about five or six blocks down to the railroad tracks where the handcars were used in the day time by the men to repair the railroad tracks, but at night we would pump them four miles to the next time of Chaska, where the dances were held. We would dance until 5 o’clock in the morning. One time, when we were going to get back on the handcar, it rolled down the bank and we had to go back to the dance to get some boys to pull it up again, and then they pumped the handcar back to Shakopee for us.

“In the summer we would walk out to the country and pick wild plums, gooseberries, and green crab apples, which my mother made jam out of. We had stove heat in the dining room and kitchen, and registers in the ceiling to the bedroom upstairs, for heat. The parlor was also closed except for special occasions when company came. All the rooms had wall-to-wall carpeting, except for the kitchen and boys room which had large braided rugs.”

“When I was 18 my mother let me buy a bicycle,” noted Lizzie. “They sold new for $39.00, but I saw this black one with chrome handles in the window of a jewelry shop and the owner sold it to me for $25.00 because he had used it a few times to ride back and forth to his house for lunch.”

Helen married William Splaine King (1884-1944) in Shakopee on September 11, 1906. Lizzie died on May 30, 1979, in St. Paul.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

In the book Great North American Indians by Frederick J. Dockstader in 1977, out of three hundred notable individuals, only twenty-two of them are women. Only 22! In fact, not even one female representative from Eastern Dakota or Santee tribes is listed.

And so, the Shakopee Heritage Society is working on other Dakota men and women, and one that is often remembered is Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ.Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ (ha-zah eehn-yahn-ka wihn), who was born in 1803 in Kapoza, now South St. Paul. She was also known as Runs Bringing Huckleberries, and in old age she was called Old Betsey by the soldiers who built Fort Snelling.

Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ, according to a bookmark from Hoċokata Ti [ho-cho-kah-tah-tee], the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s (SMSC) cultural center and gathering space, “Her story was well known when little was written about Native woman, and her friendly and outgoing personality toward everyone helped her be written about in local papers.”

Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ was considered a mother to the Dakota, as well as a friend to the settler-colonists. “She was known for being honest, reliable, kindhearted, and respected by all in her village,” said the bookmark.

Mark Diedrich, in 1995, wrote a book, Old Betsey: The Life and Times of a Famous Dakota Woman and Her Family by Coyote Press, “She was highly extroverted in her contacts with whites. Not at all the shy and retiring type, she was the epitome of a performer with a street act, with a feistiness to match. She was also noted for a high degree of industriousness. She once attempted to start a ferry service one the Mississippi, and on one occasion saved two white men from drowning.”

Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ had charisma, but for many white people at that time, Betsey was “a beggar.” She was a solicitor, both for herself and the people who depended on her. This disparaging views about begging, when it was considered by Dakota as a respected way to assure the distribution of goods to those in need. They ask for what they were short of, and this was a socially sanctioned way to distributing goods, according to Mark Diedrich.

Some people felt Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ was the last representative of the Indians, a living relic of her past. Of course, she was not the last of the Dakotas, though for some, this is what people wanted. The nineteenth century whites regarded Indians, and Indian women in particular in stereotypical terms, such as “dusky”, “squaw,” “redskins,” and “savages,” and these words were used by people, even today, without any consciousness of it (or maybe even with knowing about it).

Ohíye S’a (Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman) in 1902, noted “As a motherless child, I always regarded my good grandmother as the best of guides and the best of protectors…Aside from her native talent and ingenuity, she was endowed with a truly wonderful memory. No other midwife in her day and tribe could compete with her in skill and judgment.” Women were an integrated part of Dakota society, and one of them was Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ, who grew up in Thaóyate Dúta (Little Crow) village of Kapożia, in what is now South St. Paul.

Like most Dakota woman, Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ cultivated vegetables, made maple sugar, and gathered edible berries, fruits, and turnips. She helped during the summer villages, taking care of the young and the essential education of the young. The summer village had cornfields and vegetable gardens adjacent to it. Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ, using a hoe, along with other women planted corn, digging with a prayerful consideration to Wakan Tanka that all may have a good crop. Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ owned her lodge. During corn planting time, she would soak the seed corn, then planted by digging with a prayerful consideration to Wakan Tanka that all may have a good crop. Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ owned her lodge. During corn planting time, she soaked the seed corn, then planted by hand. According to Mark Diedrich, “Some of it was eaten green, and some preserved. Preservation was accomplished by boiling the cobs, scraping the shells off, and drying them. Some cobs were husked and hung to dry and shelled with clubs. Corn was stored in barrels made of bark and buried in caches.”

Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ, during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, was remembered by her kindness. She helped to protect captives with her son, Taopi. This kindness allowed her and Taopi to stay in Minnesota while most Dakota were exiled from the state, according to the bookmark from Hoċokata Ti.

Augustin Ravoux visited Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ, when she was sick, and suggested she was baptized at Church of St. Peter. Her baptismal records referred her as Betsey Mary St. Clair. Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ who was born in 1803, was seventy years old at one point, though some people thought she was 120! In 1870, one person believed she was 140 years old. Over time, obituaries about “Old Bets” were published in the St. Paul Weekly Pioneer paper, saying died on Oct. 14, 1871. But she was still alive. According to Mark Diedrich and the Dakota people from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ died in 1886 at age 83. She was born as an invalid in obscurity in St. Paul, or at his son’s house in Mendota.

There is no record of her burial.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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