Mr. Spier Spencer, one of the most prominent of Shakopee’s early settlers, passed away on January 26, 1907.

Spier Spencer was born in Elizabethtown, Spencer County, Kentucky, January 22, 1827. In 1841 he moved with his parents to Boone county, Indiana. At the age of 22 he and his brother, John B. Spencer moved west to St. Paul, MN. working as carpenters and farming. In 1853 he sold his farm and came to Shakopee. That same year he purchased from Thomas Holmes and David L. Fuller one third of the townsite for $4100.00. This property was nearly all in the first ward and he at once began the building of a store on the river bank where he sold dry goods and groceries, and afterwards put up several good houses.

Mr. Spencer was the owner of the steam boat, Clara Hinds, plying between Shakopee and Dunleith. He served as the county as its third treasurer and was conspicuous and active factor in the affairs of the rapidly growing village. In February of 1856 with Samuel Hibler, H.P. Constans and J.B. Wakefield, Mr. Spencer organized the county of Faribault and located its present county seat, Blue Earth City, returning to Shakopee very soon after.

In 1855 Mr. Spencer took a claim just south of town which was afterwards owned by Major Strait and is now the home of James Shea.

In 1862 at the age of thirty five he lost the sight of left eye. He sold his farm soon after to Major Strait and bought a house from Nathan and Daniel Storer and opened a boarding house. He then learned the broom making trade at which he worked until 1895 when failing health compelled him to relinquish this occupation.

Services were held at his home with Rev. G.W. E. Hill officiating, and the funeral was under the auspices of the Masonic Lodge of which Mr. Spencer was a member.

From the Scott County Argus, February 1907

John Goenen died suddenly at the home of his daughter, Mrs. J. A. Smith, of St. Paul where he was visiting.

Mr. Goenen was the oldest white settler of Shakopee. He was a native of Prussia where he was born August 22, 1831, and came to Shakopee as a young man of twenty-one. For many years he drove the stage between St. Paul and Shakopee, and also operated the old ferry across the Minnesota River when this country was practically unsettled by white men.

He was buried from St. Mark’s Catholic Church. Interment at the upper Catholic Cemetery.

From the Scott County Argus, Jan. 20, 1911.

Fuller Street, the street west of Holmes, is indebted to David L. Fuller for its name.

The Fuller boys, three of them came to St. Paul from Connecticut. David was at Shakopee for a short time in the summer of 1851, and the next spring came back and secured from Mr. Holmes a half interest in the town site which they platted as the town of “Shakapee City.”

They donated block 56 as the site for county buildings, and which is now known as Court House block.

In 1856 we find reference where David is the owner in St. Paul of the Fuller House, (later the International Hotel) inaugurated and kept by his brother Alpheus G. Fuller. The hotel stood on the northeast corner of Jackson and Seventh streets. The land was given to the brothers and $12,000 was raised as a bonus. The hotel was a five story brick building and cost $110,000. It was destroyed by a fire February 3, 1869.

David Fuller was a large and lymphatic man. All three brothers were enterprising men and their sister was an able poetess. David returned to Connecticut, where he died in December of 1856.

From the Scott County Argus, Oct. 22, 1909