Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ was born in 1793 at Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi River. Her father was James Aird, a prominent fur trader. James was a Scotchman, born in Ayrshire, and was a cousin of Robert Burns, the poet. He came to America in 1783, landing at Quebec and then heading to Wapahaṡa’s village as a trader in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company. Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ’s mother, also known as Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ, was a member of the Dakota tribe. She was born at her father’s village where the city of Winona now stands.

Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ was of noble lineage. She was the daughter of powerful Dakota leader Wapahaṡa I and sister of Wapahaṡa II. Maḣpiya-ḣota’s grandfather was Wapahaṡa (Red Cap) who was born in 1720 and died in 1806.

Because of her unique family position, Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ became a major facilitator in trading between tribal members and white traders, even at a very young age. Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ was “a beautiful and attractive half-breed girl, not without schooling, and it is not surprising that she should have found favor among the few white men employed about the trading post.”

In 1818, Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ married her second husband, Hazen P. Mooers, an American who was sent to Minnesota to work with the American Fur Company in 1816.

After years of traveling throughout the state to various trading posts, in approximately 1838, the family moved to Spirit Wood Island, whih is now called Grey Cloud Island. Grey Cloud Island, about five miles long and one to two miles wide, is situated in the south end of Washington County, Minnesota, between St. Paul and Hastings. Historical accounts surmise the move was made for Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ (Grey Cloud Woman) to be closer to relatives in Hohaanskae (Black Dog Village) directly across the river, while Hazen could establish a trade center.

Thanks to the strong influence of his wife, Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ, he was able to traffic with three bands of the Dakota Indians.

In the fall of 1846, Hazen and Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ moved to Tínṫa Otuŋwe and lived there among the tipi tanka (bark lodges) and a tioti or two until the spring of 1849.

The house was built in the fall of 1846 and located just as you arrived on Highway 101 into downtown Shakopee. It was located on the right side as you head west, close to the duck pond. The location is also located about ten rods, or 55 feet, north of Rev. Samuel W. Pond and Cordelia Eggleston Pond’s house (which would be built the following year).

The family moved here because Hazen was appointed as an Indian farmer, and this also provided land to farm.

Hazen and Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ moved out in the spring of 1849.

Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ, known as Grey Cloud Woman, also known as Margaret Aird Anderson Mooers, died on July 20, 1849, appropriately enough at Hohaanskae, or Black Dog Village, a village of her Dakota relatives. Family traditions state that she was buried near the village and the burial site of her mother in what is now Eagan, Minnesota.

There is no picture of Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ, although she was described in a historical memoir as “by no means unattractive.”

Perhaps the most interesting and most telling bit of research to describe the prominence of Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ or Grey Cloud Woman was a story told in 1858 by Thomas Anderson Robertson, a grandson of Grey Cloud Woman.

Thomas and his father had accompanied a treaty agent who tried to bully some Yankton tribal members into a deal they did not want to make. The Yankton men showed their displeasure by taking the group’s horses. Thomas had the task of trying to get them back. After giving the men each a knife and some tobacco, Thomas shared with them his lineage including the name of his grandmother, Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ.

They knew her right away and said, “she had fed many of them the winter of the great famine when so many of them starved to death getting back from their winter hunt.” With that, the horses were immediately returned to Thomas and his party.

Even with the limited amount of specific data regarding her life, it is apparent that Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ was an important part of local heritage, and a highly regarded citizen in the early history of Tínṫa Otuŋwe, on the land later called Shakopee.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Edward D. Neill’s book, History of the Minnesota Valley, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, remembers “…a hired girl of William Holmes…” William Hinds’s book, An 1891 Sketch of Shakopee Minn: Historical and Industrialmentions “…a servant girl, M ——— Conklin, who afterwards worked for Wm. Holmes family and the next year was married to Emerson Shumway, in St. Paul.”

Like most men who wrote books in the 1800s, men, especially white men, are celebrated. But women? They are ignored or are never remembered. But the women were here, and they should be recognized.

This servant girl, this hired girl, had a name. She was Mahala Conklin. And she should be remembered.

Mahala was born June 9, 1835, in Marion County, Ohio. Her father was William James Conklin, Jr., and her mother was Easter Esther Ackley. Mahala, one of 14 children of William and Easter and family, moved to Lytle’s Creek in Farmers Creek Township in Iowa.

For Mahala, life on the farm was grueling. It was hard spending every day trying to feed all the children, in-laws, nieces, and nephews. At some point, Mahala headed to St. Paul, probably in 1851, and from there went to Holmes Landing.

By 1851 Emerson Shumway joined Thomas A. Holmes and friends at the founding of Holmesville or Holmes Landing, later called Sha K’ Pay, Minnesota Territory.

Mahala worked as a servant of the Haywood family. She worked in their temporary shanty built in 1852 in an area that is now the corner of First Avenue and Holmes Street in downtown Shakopee. Mr. and Mrs. Haywood and their daughter, along with Mahala, lived there until the fall. Then the Haywoods moved up the valley, taking the boards of the shanty with them.

At that time, Mahala became a servant of William Holmes, brother of Thomas A. Holmes.

In the small village that later became Shakopee, Shumway got smallpox in the fall of 1852. After he recovered, he moved to St. Paul and then married the servant girl, Mahala.

The Shakopee Storyby Julius A. Coller, the History of the Minnesota Valleyby Rev. Edward D. Neill, and an article about Shumway in the December 3, 1909 Scott County Argus noted that in the fall of 1857, Emerson and Mahala Shumway joined a wagon train to California and were killed in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

The only problem is that Benjamin Emerson Shumway and Mahala Conklin Shumway were never involved. They were not killed there.

In fact, they didn’t even head west until 1859.

In 1859, Emerson and Mahala left Anoka, crossing the plains with an ox team, and spent the first winter in Honey Lake Valley, California. Emerson was engaged in prospecting and mining in California and Nevada for ten years.

Mahala and Emerson had four children: Emerson Bartlett (1852-1946), Hester (about 1854-1860), Mary Ella (1855-1895); and Susan (Susie) Shumway (1867-1945).

By 1869, Emerson and Mahala located near Horse Lake Valley, California. They ran a stock ranch for twenty years, and then they sold out the stock and ranch and moved to Oregon. Benjamin Emerson Shumway died February 6, 1909, in Logan, Clackamas County, Oregon. He was buried at Logan Pleasant View Cemetery in Oregon City, Oregon.

The May 7, 1909 Oregon City Enterprise noted: “Mrs. Shumway, widow of the late B. E. Shumway, who died a few months since, died on April 30 and the remains were buried at the Pleasant View Cemetery on May 1. Mrs. Shumway came here from California with her husband several years ago. She was about 70 years of age.”

Bibliography

Coller, Julius A. II. The Shakopee Story. Shakopee Heritage Society, 2009.

Hinds, William. A 1891 Sketch of Shakopee, Minn: Historical and Industrial, 1891.

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.

Oregon City Enterprise, 7 May 1909.

Scott County Argus, 3 Dec. 1909.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Luis Alberto Canchari Nuñez was born on August 20, 1956, in Lima, Peru. His parents were Esteban Canchari-Yauri and Felícita Nuñez Gamboa de Canchari.

“He was kind of like a jack of all trades,” Alex said of his father, Luis. “He’s been everything from an agent to a trainer, and he was a jockey. He could do everything with horses; that’s what I always admired about him.”

Luis grew up in Lima, attending races at the Monterrico Oval and, when he was old enough, grooming and galloping horses there. In fact, Luis was the groom/exercise rider for the legendary Peruvian horse Santorín, the first ever winner of the country’s Quadruple Crown. Santorín was a Peruvian thoroughbred racehorse who was the first to win the Peruvian Quadruple Crown and is known as “Salvador de la Hípica Peruana.” Santorín is regarded as the most important racehorse in Peruvian history and has a monument and race named after him at the Hipódromo de Monterrico, a Thoroughbred horse racing facility opened in Lima.

“I still have that picture of my dad walking the horse into the winner’s circle,” Alex said, pride evident in his voice. “The grooms would gallop horses without saddles there. He was amazing.”

Luis moved to the United States in the mid-1980s, working and riding races in Florida for a few years. However, it was a trip to Minnesota’s Canterbury Park that altered the man’s life forever. That is when Luis Alberto Canchari Nuñez met Ann Nordgren.

“My mom was on the rail watching the horses, but when he passed her, she had her head down, and he thought she was crying,” Alex said. “He asked her if she was okay, and that’s how they met.”

Luis married Ann Marie Nordgren in St. Paul, Minnesota on August 17, 1990. Ann was born on September 18, 1969 in Chicago, and died on July 9, 2003, in Shakopee. Her parents were Ronald Joseph Nordgren (1932-2002) and Patricia Bernadette Hantsch Nordgren (1935-1997).

Luis and Ann settled down and raised four children in Minnesota: Ashley Ann (1990), Patrick Alexander (1991), Alexander Luis (1994), and Steven Canchari (2000).

And every summer, the family worked with the horses at Canterbury Park in Shakopee. Luis remembered that the racetrack and his family was a major part of his life. Alex spent endless hours at the track with his father and his brothers, learning horses from the ground up. His father wasn’t the kind of man who taught by way of instruction; no, Luis’s children learned by doing.

Luis had loved, owned and trained horses at Canterbury Park in Shakopee for 32 years. His two sons, Patrick and Alex, practically grew up there and became successful jockeys.

Luis lived only two blocks away from Canterbury. His reputation took a hit in 2014 when his horse, Smart Masterpiece, finished second and Canchari was approached by the steward. “He said ‘your horse got a bad test,’ I said ‘bad test,’ he said, ‘methamphetamine,’ ‘I don’t even know what it is, methamphetamine,’” he recalled. It was the same methamphetamine that’s a common street drug, also known as speed. Smart Masterpiece was disqualified. Canchari was fined $2,000 and suspended for ninety days.

Then, three years later, in 2017 another Canchari horse, Carson’s Storm, tested positive for methamphetamine. This time, the Minnesota Racing Commission dropped the hammer: a $25,000 fine and a three-year suspension. The penalty, which was upheld by an administrative judge, was later reduced to $10,000 and one year.

Investigators believe their horses were contaminated by methamphetamine users working behind the scenes at Canterbury.

Canchari said after the second positive result, all his employees took drug tests and passed. Canchari even took a voluntary polygraph. He believes his horses could have been contaminated by the starting gate crew. It’s the one part of the race a trainer has no control over.

A month after Canchari’s first horse tested positive, Shakopee police arrested two members of the starting gate crew, both of whom were in possession of methamphetamine. In a dorm room behind the track, police found a gram of methamphetamine, a pipe used to smoke it, a scale, and a bottle containing urine to falsify a drug test. At least five other horse handlers at Canterbury were busted for drugs during this period, according to Fox 9 Investigator Tom Lyden in a November 25, 2019 report, “Speed: Canterbury Park race horses exposed to methamphetamine.”

At 62, Luis was broke and had to sell his nine horses. But he couldn’t imagine returning to Canterbury Park until he got his reputation back. “I refuse to go. When I go, I want to run with my horses. I’ll be happy man, and my life will come back again.”

In late fall of 2020, an unknown respiratory illness sent the family patriarch, Luis Alberto Canchari Nuñez, to the hospital. It wasn’t COVID, but doctors were unable to diagnose him and Luis succumbed on Wednesday, December 9, 2020, at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park. He was 64 years old.

Luis spent his life chasing his dream and doing what he loved most: horse racing. “Louie the Glove” made countless friends along the way. His devotion to his native country Peru was ever-present. He adored his wife Ann and was the proudest father and grandpa. Luis led an honest, admirable life – always defending the “little guy.” We will forever miss his comical personality and unrelenting spirit.

Bibliography

Lyden, Tom. “Speed: Canterbury Park race horses exposed to methamphetamine .” Fox 9, 25 Nov. 2019.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

John Boswell Allen (1806-1893) and his wife, Jane Dillard (1809-1885), moved to Shakapee City, Minnesota Territory in 1853. They had nine children, who were born either in Kentucky or Indiana, according to John Boswell Allen and Jane Dillard Allen: Kentucky to Indiana to Shakopee, Minnesota by David H. Eggler. Their second daughter was Lucy Jane, who moved with her parents to Shakapee City.

John married Jane on November 18, 1829, in Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of James Dillard and Jane English. Jane Dillard was born March 8, 1809, in Virginia.

The Tract Book for Boone County, Indiana at Boone County Historical Society says that Jno. B Allen on December 4, 1833 bought 146 acres in section 4, township 18, R2E and that he “came from Spencer County, KY.” Also listed as coming from Spencer County and buying land in 1836 were Jno. Allen and John Allen.

There were several Allen families in Spencer County, Kentucky in 1830, and John Allen is the one that said he was between 20 and 30 (himself), one male between 60 and 70 (his father?), and three females between 20 and 30. Spencer County was formed in 1824, so it’s likely that he did not in fact move from Shelby to Spencer County; rather, the county boundaries changed.

The obituary of his nephew, Spier Spencer, says that Spier’s father held people who were enslaved. He sold them before moving to Indiana. It’s quite possible that the Allen family also enslaved people in Kentucky.

John Boswell Allen was named executor of his father’s will, along with Samuel Dooley (his neighbor in 1850), who came from Shelby County, Kentucky, and who also moved to Scott County, Minnesota Territory. The Allens came to Shakapee City, Minnesota Territory in 1853.

Lucy Jane Allen was born in 1834. When they moved to Shakapee City, the family kept a hotel, and Lucy worked at the hotel.

The Diary of Daniel M. Storer from 1849 to 1905: A Pioneer Builder and Merchant in Shakopee, Minnesota was a diary discussing early Shakopee. “D.M. Storer, who arrived August 11th, 1853, from Stillwater, contributed to the town the sterling qualities of citizenship, and the diary, kept from the time of his arrival in the state, we are indebted for information not easily procurable from other sources.”

The diary begins with his arrival and shows that John Allen kept a boarding-house in what was called the Pennsylvania House. L.M. Brown describes this house as “having two rooms, more above the one below. The lower room had a long fireplace, while the upper one had only the rafters above and one window with five lights of glass. Nevertheless, this hotel could accommodate as it appears fifteen or more persons, regardless of sex.

“The first death was that of Lucy Jane Allen, daughter of John A. Allen, who died September 10th, 1853, while Mr. Allen kept the hotel.” This was the first death to occur in the new town of Shakopee, according to the History of the Minnesota Valley 1882 and History of the Sioux Massacre by Charles Bryant Neill.

When Lucy died, a funeral was held with Rev. Samuel W. Pond at the celebrant. Rev. Pond was an early missionary to the Dakota, and author of a Dakota language dictionary. The sermon preached at the funeral of Lucy was the first given by Rev. Pond, according to the Old Settlers Associationin Shakopee. This took place before the first Presbyterian church was built in 1856.

Lucy Jane Allen was buried in Lot 39, the Allen plot, in Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

On February 13, 1854, John B. Allen, Lucy’s father, paid $1500 for eighty acres of government land on the Shakopee-LeSueur Road three miles from Shakopee, plus a timbered tract adjacent to Samuel and Andrew Dooley, according to Scott County deeds. He bought additional land in 1855. On the 1880 plat map his farm was the entire 165 acres of W ½ E ½ section 15, T115 NR23W in the town of Jackson. Today it lies north and south of old US 169 0.7 miles northeast of the intersection with the Chaska road.

In 1857 John B. Allen 53, farmer, was living in the precinct of Shakopee with Jane. In 1870 the family was living in Jackson Township, along with Frances J. Koons and Martha Koons. In 1885 John B. Allen, 77, Jane, 67, were counted in Valley City, Barnes, Dakota Territory, but probably were only visiting, because the same year they were counted in the Minnesota census in Shakopee City.

From the November 20, 1879 Shakopee Argus: “Tuesday was the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage of Mr. John B. Allen and his excellent wife. Of these long fifty years, twenty-six of them they have lived on their farm two miles west of Shakopee. The occasion of their golden wedding was celebrated by their children and grandchildren from far and near making them an unexpected visit. This gathering of the young swarms back into the parent hive, was the most enjoyable and pleasant of a long and pleasant lifetime. We heartily congratulate Deacon Allen and his lady, and trust they may remain with us until they celebrate their diamond wedding.”

Jane Dillard Allen died on pneumonia on September 9, 1885, according to the September 16, 1885 Shakopee Courier. “In Shakopee, Minn., on September 9, 1885, Jane Allen, in the 77th year of her age, wife of John B. Allen of Shakopee … was one of our old settlers and the association, as elsewhere noticed, passed appropriate resolutions.” She was buried at Valley Cemetery. Tombstone at Valley Cemetery noted “Jane Dillard wife of J.B. Allen born March 8, 1809 Died September 9, 1885, aged 76 yr. 8 mos.” The funeral services were at the Presbyterian Church in Shakopee, according to the September 10, 1885 Scott County Argus.

The funeral of John Boswell Allen took place on Tuesday, December 26, 1893, from the residence of Spier Spencer, according to the December 28, 1893 Scott County Argus. The tombstone inscription says, “Dearest Father we must lay thee In the peaceful grave’s embrace But thy memory will be cherished Till we see thy heavenly face.”

Bibliography

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. Shakopee Heritage Society, 2003.

Eggler, David H. “John Boswell Allen and Jane Dillard Allen: Kentucky to Indiana to Shakopee, Minnesota.” Bellefonte Historical and Cultural Association, 2019. https://archive.bellefontearts.org/Eggler_genealogy/Ch2_Allen.pdf.

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.

Scott County Argus, 28 Dec. 1893.

Shakopee Argus, 20 Nov. 1879.

Shakopee Courier, 16 Sept. 1885.

The Tract Book for Boone County, Indiana, 1989.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Louisa Cleaver was born on October 31, 1835, in Oley, Berks County, Pennsylvania.

Oley was named by a tribe of Delaware, Lenni-Lenape. In Lenape olink means “kettle,” which is roughly the shape of the valley. It was an important meeting place for Native Americans. In fact, the Sacred Oak, located a mile from Main Street, was over 500 years old, and was the place where the Lenape made treaties and settled differences.

The first European settler-colonists arrived in the Oley Valley in the early 1700s. When they arrived, they found prosperous Lenape villages and fields of corn. The settler-colonists were primarily German, along with French Huguenots and Swiss seeking religious freedom, according to Wikipedia.

Louisa’s parents were Jonathan R. Cleaver (1802-1877) and Sarah Gabey (1812-1890). In the Oley village area were Samuel Weiser (1783-1854) and Mary Polly Schroeder (1793-1879) and their family, including Joel Schroeder Weiser, who was born on August 13, 1934.

It was clear that at some point, Louisa met Joel. When Joel headed to Shakapee City, Minnesota Territory with his older brother, William, he worked as a mason and plasterer, but never forgot about Louisa Cleaver. In fact, in early May of 1854, Joel returned to Oley and married Louisa. After the wedding, Joel and Louisa honeymooned in Niagara Falls.

Joel and Louisa decided that Joel’s parents would move to Shakapee City. Joel’s father, Samuel, had health problems and he and Louisa knew that it would be better to move with them. Joel and Louisa, along with Samuel and Mary Polly, traveled by riverboat up the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. On May 17, 1854, aboard the riverboat, Samuel died. Mary Polly convinced the riverboat captain to take her husband to St. Paul, where he was buried before continuing to Shakapee City.

Joel and Louisa and Mary Polly then lived in Shakopee, along with William and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Allen Weiser, and Dr. Josiah and Eliza “Ella” Victoria Hunt Weiser. During the first few years in Shakopee, the three Weiser brothers and their families were doing very well and made many friendships with some other settler-colonists and some Dakota Indians.

At the start of the Civil War in 1862, William enlisted with the Union Army. On October 17, 1862, Joel’s brother, Dr. Josiah Weiser, was inducted into a local Minnesota army, commanded by General Henry Hastings Sibley, to pursue the Dakota Indians. Finally, on September 31, 1864, Joel enlisted with the Ninth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry and was at once ordered to Memphis to engage in fighting the Confederate forces.

Louisa had four children in Shakopee, although Mary Rebecca Weiser (1856-1864) and James Lawrence Weiser (1857-1864) both died in June of 1864. Mary died on June 8, and four days later, James died of diphtheria. The diphtheria epidemic spiked in Shakopee, hitting mostly children, and the scourge devastated entire families.

When Joel was mustered in 1864, Louisa had three little girls at home. It must have been hard, but it helped that others in the area had similar experiences. When Joel was mustered out of the army on August 24, 1865, and discharged in October, Joel and Louisa had three more children in Shakopee, according to Find a Grave.

Joel returned to his work as a mason in Shakopee until 1870, when he was offered a contract to do construction work in St. Paul.

With the completion of his contract in 1874, he relocated 12 miles east of St. Paul to work on a farm.

Louisa had 12 children, though only six lived until adulthood.

After working as a mason and farmer in eastern Minnesota for over twenty years, Joel and Louisa decided the family would pack up their belongings and travel by train to Worthington, a railroad stop located sixty miles west of Fargo, in northern Dakota Territory. Joel and Louisa filed a homestead and tree claim of 320 acres, four miles northeast of the railroad stop, and built a log cabin in Worthington, which was the second house built there. Joel later changed the name of Worthington to Valley City, according to a column written by Curt Eriksmoen.

Shortly after the family arrived, immigration to Worthington began to pick up, and by 1878, there were about thirty people living there. Weiser built a house and a general store in Worthington, and it has been written that although the store was small, it “carried the largest and most complete stock to be found in [Dakota] Territory at that time.” Along with Weiser’s store and house, the town consisted of 11 other houses and a saloon, according to a column of “Did You Know That” by Curt Eriksmoe on June 13, 2020.

After 33 years in Valley City, North Dakota, Louisa Cleaver Weiser died, and she was buried in Valley City on August 8, 1909. Joel, whose eyesight was poor, lived with his various children, and died in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota on January 17, 1925.

Bibliography

BluMoKitty. “Joel Schroeder Weiser.” Find a Grave, 3 Jun 2013. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/111756244/joel-schroeder-weiser.

Eriksmoen, Curt. “Founder of Valley City waged sustained battle to keep his community relevant.” Did You Know That, 13 June 2020.

“Oley Valley.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oley_Valley

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Liu Kwong Kee ran the laundromat in downtown Shakopee in 1917.

According to Ora Kopisca, in an interview in the 1960s, Ora and his family moved to Shakopee in 1917. His father opened a garage in part of the building on 128 Holmes Street South in downtown Shakopee. The place used to be called Riverside Printing and is now Digital Impact Solutions.

According to Ora, “Also in part of the same building was a laundry at that time” and was operated by a man who became Ora’s first acquaintance in Shakopee. His name was Liu Kwong Kee, and he was from China.

“I lived with the rest of my family in quarters directly above the building which housed the laundry and my dad’s garage, where he was a dealer for the Elcar. At the age of five or six, it was very easy for me to get along well with the elderly Chinaman,” said Ora.

Ora’s favorite memory was of Liu eating his favorite meals of boiled carp and rice. “His technique for eating the fish from a bowl with some of the cooking liquid was a combination of chopstick, dexterity, plus a sort of vacuum cleaner action,” said Ora.

Liu Kwong Kee had immigrated to the United States, probably in the late 1880s, and probably moved to San Francisco. He arrived to face severe anti-Chinese violence. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which restricted Chinese immigration to the United States, had also bolstered the segregation and social exclusion of Chinese immigrants already in the United States.

Most of the Chinese men who came to the Midwest during the 1880s and 1890s moved from the West Coast to escape this kind of violence. Liu Kwong Kee probably moved for the same reason. Minnesota was not free from violence or discrimination, however. Liu Kwong Kee probably was taunted and called racist names. Like many Chinese men at this time, Liu became a laundry operator. He may have taken over the laundromat of Charlie Sam, who had a laundry place in downtown Shakopee at least since 1901.

The first Chinese immigrants arrived in Minnesota in the mid-1870s, almost all of them single working men escaping anti-Asian violence in the western United States. Most settled in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Duluth, with the rest sparsely scattered in outlying towns, including, probably, Shakopee. Nationally, the Chinese population declined in the U.S. following the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 which stopped almost all immigration to the U.S. from China. However, the number of Chinese in Minnesota increased at this time due to migration from western states. By 1910 there were almost 400 Chinese men in Minnesota, though only a handful of Chinese families.

In the 19th century they worked as laborers, particularly on transcontinental railroads such as the Central Pacific Railroad. They also worked as laborers in mining and suffered racial discrimination at every level of society. Industrial employers were eager for this new and cheap labor, whites were stirred to anger by the “yellow peril.”

Newspapers condemned employers, and even church leaders denounced the arrival of these “aliens” into what was regarded as a land for whites only. So hostile was the opposition that in 1882 the United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibiting immigration from China. The Chinese Exclusion Act is seen by some as the only U.S. law ever to prevent immigration and naturalization based on race.

This changed when the Magnuson Act, also known as the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943, was signed into law on December 17, 1943. It allowed Chinese immigration for the first time since the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and permitted some Chinese immigrants already residing in the country to become naturalized citizens. However, the Magnuson Act provided for the continuation of the ban against the ownership of property and businesses by ethnic Chinese until the Magnuson Act itself was fully repealed in 1965.

As of the 2010 United States Census, there are more than 3.3 million Chinese in the United States, about one percent of the total population. It is estimated that as many as 10,000 Chinese immigrants and persons of Chinese descent live in Minnesota. Chinese Minnesotans live throughout the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota. The Twin Cities area has the second largest concentration of mainland Chinese college and university students in the United States. In Shakopee, there are about 55 Chinese Americans who live here.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper

Lillie Felix was born on September 6, 1881.

Her parents were Peter Felix, Jr. and Margaret Bellecourt. Her grandparents were Peter Felix and Mazasnawin Iron Woman Rosalie Frenier.

Lillie attended Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania from 1897 to 1904.

Lillie Felix married Albert Leclaire on July 12, 1904, in Hastings.

Lillie and Albert had their first three children, Oliver Albert, Selisha Lillian, and Raymond Sylvester LeClaire in Mendota.

Lillie and Albert and their three children moved just outside Shakopee to a 17-acre farm in 1919. Eventually, they had forty acres.

They had two more children. Margaret Celina and Russell Francis Leclaire were born in Shakopee.

Albert’s farm was part of Shakopee until 1972, when the city of Prior Lake annexed the reservation, according to Mary Losure in Our Way or the Highway: Inside the Minnehaha Free State.

The Prior Lake Indian Settlement became the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota Community and is the site of the Little Six bingo parlor.

According to granddaughter Rose Brown Anderson, Lillie had a pickle keg at the farm outside the door, and the children would always dive into the pickles!

At a school in Shakopee, Albert and Lillie’s older children were called “half-breed” and “dirty Indians.”

The two youngest would come home with cuts and bruises. Lillie complained to the teacher, who was told that her children just needed to toughen up.

Lillie decided to move back to Mendota with the older children, while Albert and Russell stayed and farmed.

Lillie was a wonderful person, according to her granddaughter, Lillian Rose Brown Anderson.

Lillian Leclaire was at the birth of many Mendota babies, including her granddaughter.

Lillian Rose Brown Anderson was born breech. She didn’t breathe for a few minutes, according to her relatives.

“My grandmother hit my behind and then my back, and something flew out of me and I started to cry.”

Her parents, grandparents, and great-aunt Jennis LaCroix all applauded, cried, laughed, hugged, and said prayers, rejoicing.

Lillie “used to feed anyone who knocked at the door, mostly transients.

“The railroad tracks were just across the highway in Mendota.

“They would knock on the door and ask for food.

“She’d give them a meal and they’d do work around the yard. I think all the hobos on that railroad line knew about Lillian LeClaire, the Angel of Mendota.

“You were pretty sure of a meal at her door,” said Lillian Rose Brown Anderson.

Lillian Felix LeClaire died on August 30, 1940, at the age of 58.

This information from the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community at mendotadakota.com/mn.

Bibliography

Losure, Mary. Our Way or the Highway: Inside the Minnehaha Free State. University of Minnesota Press, 2002. p. 85-87.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Lenora Elizabeth Walter was born April 24, 1847, in Delphi, Indiana. With her parents, Lenora moved to Minnesota in 1856.

Lenora’s future husband, Eli Southworth, had been born in Mattapoisett, Plymouth County, Massachusetts on September 15, 1844, and moved to Minnesota Territory in 1856. Eli, at age 17, served in Company A, Fourth Minnesota Infantry Volunteers until 1862, when he was discharged on October 22, 1862. He then became a lawyer.

Lenora married Eli on April 24, 1865, and lived in St. Anthony, St. Lawrence, Belle Plaine, Jordan, and in 1874 they moved to Shakopee, where they lived for most of their lives. Lenora and Eli had two children, Walter and Virginia.

Lenora was a strong supporter of women’s suffrage in Shakopee.

She was the wife of the Shakopee city attorney. She was financially comfortable, educated, and deeply involved in the Shakopee community and the rights of women. And Lenora’s husband was also supportive of women’s vote.

In 1883, Lenora was vice president of the women’s suffrage committee in Shakopee. When the committee started again in 1918, Lenora Elizabeth Walter Southworth was again in the group.

Besides her work on suffrage, Lenora was president of the local Women’s Relief Corps. The Women’s Relief Corps was the women’s auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization of Northern Civil War Veterans. Lenora was also active in the Eastern Star Chapter, which was a public works group connected to the Freemasons.

Eli practiced law in Shakopee after he was admitted to the bar on June 18, 1874. He also gave freely of his time in Shakopee. He was city attorney for many years.

Lenora had a long life in Shakopee. She had sympathy and kindness for people who were suffering, a gentle humanity, and “a bright and cheerful optimism in all things, generous hospitality, charity, and above all else her unfailing devotion to her family and her home,” said the Weekly Valley Herald on March 26, 1925.

Lenora had been in failing health for the last two years, and she was taken to Sioux City, Iowa, to the home of her daughter, Virginia.

She passed away on Tuesday evening, March 10, 1925, at St. Joseph’s hospital in Sioux City. According to the Shakopee Tribune on March 12, 1925, “Her long life in this community was characterized by sympathetic kindness for suffering, gentle humanity, a bright cheerful optimism in all things, generous hospitality and charity.”

Lenora’s funeral was at her house in Shakopee by the St. Peter’s Episcopal church, with burial at Valley Cemetery.

“All of her life she evinced strong interest in church work, and in that, and in her social and club affiliations, and especially in the home bereft of her love and care her loss is irreparable. The memory of her since, womanly life will live as a good influence in the hearts of all who knew her, and as a rare blessing, and deep and abiding comfort to the husband and children left to mourn,” said the Weekly Valley Herald.

Eli Southworth died on May 29, 1925, just three months after his wife. He had been secretary of the State Board of Examiners for 17 years, commander of General Shield’s Post of G.A.R. for 30 years, and grand master workman of Minnesota for two years. He was buried in Valley Cemetery next to his wife on Memorial Day.

Bibliography

Weekly Valley Herald, 26 March 1925.

Shakopee Tribune, 12 March 1925.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Laura Reiko was born in Tokyo, Japan in the year of the Dragon, on September 17, 1928. Her father was Keichi Ito Nakamura and her mother was Jeannine Facio Ito. Laura lived in Japan for several years before moving to America.

Laura survived World War II in Japan, and moved to Minnesota in 1952 with her husband, Duane Rolf Shellum, who was born in Madelia, Minnesota on January 6, 1930. His parents were Elmer Gerhard Shellum and Grace Parsons Shellum.

Laura lived her life through her passions, and became an accomplished dancer, linguist, traveler and teacher, according to the August 24, 2015 Minneapolis Star Tribune.

She was a longtime volunteer at the Festival of Nations and founded the Minnihon Arts Center in 1973 to share her Japanese heritage with the people of Minnesota. She served as a Japanese cultural advisor to many schools, colleges, and museums, including Pearson Elementary School in Shakopee.

Origami, eating with chopsticks, and Japanese calligraphy were some of the topics that Laura covered while with the fourth graders at Person Elementary School on February 7, 1972. According to an article in the Shakopee Valley News called “Japanese Woman Helped Youngsters Discover the Orient’s Culture” in February 1972, Laura had taught traditional Japanese dance, creative movement, ballet, and Sumi-e painting for her entire adult life. Teacher Jane Keyes invited Laura to the school.

The fourth graders had been learning about the 1972 Winter Olympics, held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside Europe and North America. The students wanted to learn about Japan, so they were excited when Laura showed up.

The students watched as Laura wrote the numbers from one to ten, using Japanese brushes and ink. She told them that she mixes her own ink, and that each person must individually mix their own ink to match their calligraphy. They ate some dried seaweed, which was a delicacy in Japan.

Laura Reiko Shellum Koeck was an adored matriarch for her family. When Duane Rolf Shellum died in 1984, it was hard, but it helped that her five sons, Eric, Richard, Kirk, Alec, and George were around to help. In 2004, Laura married for a second time to Eugene Leonard Koeck.

Laura died at age 86 on August 20, 2015. She was buried at the Fort Snelling Cemetery with her first husband, Duane Shellum.

Bibliography

Minneapolis Star Tribune, 24 Aug. 2015.

“Japanese Woman Helped Youngsters Discover the Orient’s Culture.” Shakopee Valley News.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Kenneth Anton Theis was born on November 16, 1927, and grew up in Marystown. His parents were Charles “Charley” Joseph Theis (1898-1941), son of Charles Carl Theis (1866-1930) and Mary Caroline Pieper (1870-1943), and Mabel Anna Cress (1906-1996), daughter of Frank Thomas Cress (1872-1955) and Anna Maria Strauss (1878-1934). Charley and Mabel married on May 19, 1925, at the Church of St. Mary of the Purification in Marystown, and they had five boys: Donald, Norman, Charles, Leon, and Kenneth.

Charley Theis, at age 43, was killed while digging a trench to lay culvert to drain a field on the Theis farm on July 1, 1941. He was in the center of the nine-foot-deep trench when the sidewalls caved in and buried him beneath tons of dirt. Mabel Cress Theis eventually married Joseph Grommesch, son of John Grommesch and Mary Ann Geis on March 8, 1943.

On November 30, 1950, Kenneth was drafted in the Korean War. He had basic training at Fort Riley, Kansas, and on April 9, 1951, Kenneth left for Fort Lawton, Washington for overseas duty in Korea.

Kenneth wrote letters to his ma and family, along with others. As he wrote his mom on May 2, 1951, he talked about almost being across the ocean. “All I’ve seen for twelve days was water and more water. I never (k)new there would be much of the darn stuff.”

He also talked about the food. “Boy the chow really is horse shit on this ship. No wonder the navy don’t pray before they eat. They don’t even sit down while they eat. And if this is the life of the navy I don’t like it. I thought the army was chicken shit. Well, the navy really is. Every-time we get to a navy base or a navy ship we can’t get no beer. All they show a guy is water!”

Upon arriving in Korea, Kenneth was assigned as a rifleman in the 32nd Infantry of the famed U.S. Seventh Division.

Kenneth also mentioned what he would like. “Well Ma if you want to send me something to eat you can, but not too much and not something that will melt. One thing you will have to send me is some envelope and writing paper and don’t forget and what ever you send, send it airmail.”

Of course, the mail was sometimes slow and sometimes fast. In June 14, Kenneth noted, “Well I finally got some mail once, after waiting a month and a half. I didn’t get no mail from the 4th of May until yesterday when I got about thirty letters.”

He also talked about the sea rations. “There is … three cans of soup, as they say three great units. The three bread units contain … about four crackers, some jam and coffee, milk, and sugar. That’s all packet in one little can. The one for breakfast has got a cocoa bar in it to make cocoa and one for dinner has got candy besides all the rest. So there is eight cans to eat on all day. Besides that there is a little go packet containing cigarettes, gum, water tablets & last of all toilet paper. That all come in the size of a small shoes box. So it is easy to carry.”

On June 21, 1951, he was wounded in the chest and arm. In a letter home, Ken noted, “Well, Mom, you asked me in the last letter how the beds are. It was fine last night for the first time in two months. What a fellow doesn’t have to go through to get a cot to sleep on, and it was a stretcher at that!

“This was the first time our squad got hit so bad, that many of us had to go to the hospital; but this time four of us got purple hearts,” said Ken. “Doc told me I was the first man that slept while he froze and cut a piece of metal from an arm. I had been on guard with another fellow, and was awake for 24 hours without laying down.”

Kenneth received a Purple Heart. He participated with distinction in three full-scale campaigns in the Korean battle, and he was awarded the Combat Infantryman’s Badge for excellent performance of duty in combat, according to a booklet called Correspondence of the Korean War by LaVonne Grommesch Schmitt in 2001.

He returned to duty on June 23, 1951.

Ken also was thinking of home, and the farm. “Boy it sure don’t seem like it is almost time to cut grain already. Here we are here there isn’t nothing planted. What was fields are all bare this year. All I can see is mountains and I sure am getting sick of them. Boy, what I wouldn’t give to plant corn one day again instead of a shitty job like this. But maybe I shouldn’t complain. I am through the worst of it now and I got a good feeling this thing will be over pretty soon.”

On September 9 in North Korea, Ken wrote, “Well I wouldn’t just say everything is so fine, but it will do … Well five months this morning I left home and got six months to go yet before my time is up. So when I will be home is hard to tell.” Then Ken added “Well, you know how it is. The less I write, the less lies I tell. Is that good enough of an excuse for not writing more(?)”

The next letter to Mom was on November 22, 1951. This was the last letter written. “We were back for dinner though boy what a meal, but I suppose that turkey will have to last until xmas. Tonight we were back to eating C rations again. Good old beans. Ha ha. No wonder it gets windy over here.” Then Ken mentioned “Well Ma I can’t complain about my job … Assistant platoon sergeant and the first platoon. At least I am where it is nice and warm at night. We build our self’s a fire place in our bunker and bunks out of wire and poles. So we really got it pretty nice with a fire all night.”

Kenneth Anton Theis was killed in action on December 2, 1951 near Soksa-ri, Korea, though at the Korean Veteran’s War Memorial in Washington, DC it states that Ken was killed in North Korea. The military records were destroyed in a fire in St. Louis in 1973.

Kenneth’s funeral was on February 20, 1952 at the Church of St. Mary of the Purification in Marystown. Ken received a second Purple Heart. He was buried next to the church in Marystown.

Bibliography

Grommesch Schmitt, LaVonne. Correspondence of the Korean War, 2001.