Compiled and written by David R. Schleper

The last in a long series of conflicts between the Dakota and Anishinaabe (sometimes called Ojibwe) took place on the banks of the Minnesota River north of the village of the Dakota leader Ṡakpedaŋ (Little Six) on May 27, 1858.

Dozens of Anishinaabe and Dakota warriors engaged in fighting that claimed lives on both sides but produced no clear victor.

After the treaties of 1851, almost all the Dakota were forced to move to a reservation on the upper Minnesota in 1853, though a number of the Dakota would return to the site of their old village of Tínṫa Otuŋwe.

The Anishinaabe and Dakota shared an uneasy coexistence throughout their history in the territory that became Minnesota. Early white explorers to the region wrote of fighting between the two groups occurring as far back as the fifteenth century. Both moved seasonally to hunt deer, gather wild rice, and make maple sugar.

They sometimes competed for these resources, especially in the border region.

Periods of peace and goodwill marked by treaties, trade, and intermarriage were often broken up by bloody skirmishes, usually on a local scale. This on-again, off-again pattern of fighting continued for hundreds of years.

White immigration and reliance on the fur trade intensified the two groups’ competition for resources. The addition of guns made the fighting even more deadly.

By the late 1850s, treaties with the U.S. government had confined the Dakota to a reservation straddling the upper Minnesota River and the Ojibwe to lands further north and east. This nominal separation did not prevent Ojibwe – Dakota tensions from turning violent again in 1858.

On May 26, 1858, between 150 and 200 Ojibwe warriors approached an encampment of Dakota on the Minnesota River near Shakopee. They stopped in the woods on the river’s north side and waited to ambush the unsuspecting Dakota the next morning.

Sometime between 4:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. on May 27, shots rang out from behind the cover of nearby trees. The Dakota man had just cast his line, and the woman was preparing her hook.

The Dakota man was killed.

Kawetahsay, an Ojibwe man, was wounded during the Battle of Shakopee according to the Saint Paul Globe on October 7, 1900. Kawetahsay “was shot with an ounce ball in the lower jaw, taking a portion of it entirely away, cutting his tongue partially off, and passing out at the other side off of his face.”

The Ojibwe fighting stopped. The Ojibwe retreated toward Lake Minnetonka, reportedly leaving behind four dead.

While the Dakota did not follow them, some white men mounted horses in Shakopee and crossed the river on Murphy’s ferry and went toward Chanhassen, where caŋ-ha-saŋ haŋṗi (maple sugar) was abundant. It was far enough to conclude that they had left the area and would not soon return.

According to one newspaper, the Dakota, though inferior in numbers, fought with characteristic vigor and desperation, and they won. The Ojibwe held some of the warriors in reserve in the event the others were to perish, so the numbers were probably closer to even.

The Shakopee friends were cultivating a morbid taste, a correspondent noted. “Several bloody Chippewa heads were purchased as mementoes and shown to the curious with great gusto.” Another correspondent said, “We were treated to the delectable sign of their burning the body of a large Chippewa which they brought over, headless.

“A portion of our people protested against such an inhuman demonstration, but others advocated non-intervention with their affairs; since we had allowed them to remain amongst us, it is not fair to meddle with their customs….”

Governor Henry Sibley decided that separating them was the only way to keep this from happening.

A few days after the battle, he demanded that the Dakota still in the valley pack up their belongings and return to their reservation land.

Bibliography

Saint Paul Globe, 7 Oct. 1900.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Katherine Marie Brewer was born on December 31, 1979. Her parents were Joseph Walter Brewer (1950-2001) and Angela Mary Majerus Brewer. Her grandparents were Wilater Oliver Joe Brewer (1923-2008) and Lois Jean Pendleton Brewer (1929-1994); and Richard Mathias Majerus (1935-2018) and Mary Wermerskirchen Majerus.

Her great-grandparents were John Francis Brewer (1893-1977) and Estella Ella Bails (1895-1955); Earl Urke Pendleton, Sr. (1891-1963) and Elizabeth Jane Westman Leith (1898-1975); Frank Majerus (1897-1986) and Catherine “Katie” Ann Theis Majerus (1894-1995); and Joseph Mathias Wermerskirchen (1901-1974) and Laura Susan Schmitz Wermerskirchen (1907-2001).

Katherine’s great- great-grandparents were Hiram Peter Hy Brewer (1866-1944) and Evaline Ellen Young Brewer (1870-1903); Ellsworth Bails (1862-1944) and Augusta Mae Eskew Bails (1875-1949); Bentwood Bert Myron Pendleton (1868-1939) and Carrie R. Sampson Pendleton (1872-1907); Thomas Arthur Leith (1865-1944) and Sara Lee Winona Dow Westerman Leith (1863-1912); Dominick Majerus (1868-1959) and Susanna Siebenaler Majerus (1869-1924); Valentine Theis (1864-1916) and Mary Elizabeth Hahn Theis (1865-1942); Phillip Wermerskirchen (1860-1942) and Joseph Mamer Wermerskirchen (1870-1948); and Franz “Fran” Schmitz (1873-1947) and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Ring (1878-1956).

Katherine Marie Brewer married Damon Knight. Damon Knight and Katie Brewer-Knight had nine children: Chaskae, Keith, Miakoda, Thundercloud, Brielle, Azidya, Enapay, Bellarosa, and Mahpiya.

Family meant everything to Katie. Her kids were her reason for everything! She was also business driven and was always forward-thinking. She enjoyed family celebrations, worked hard, and celebrated harder.

Katie emulated her father and grandparents and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Katie was proud, loyal, resilient, and funny in her tough Katie way. She would say, “I’m never overdressed for the occasion, everyone is underdressed.”

“Katie welcomed us into her home with open arms,” said Julie Wagner. “Very kind and beautiful person. I’m glad I got to meet her!”

Jan Kislenger remembered, “Katherine always made me feel part of her extended family. Sharing photos. Texting late at night when she would be up with a baby. Sharing her family memories including Enapay’s birth, and inviting me for holidays, welcoming me to her home. Katie was a very kind loving person.”

Katherine Marie Brewer-Knight, age 43, of Shakopee, Minnesota, member of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Prior Lake, Minnesota, journeyed to the Spirit World on Friday, August 4, 2023, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Traditional All-Night Wake and Funeral Service were held at the Tiowakan Spiritual Center, 14625 Prairiegrass Dr. NW, Prior Lake.

As Kelli Mlsna noted, “We will miss you dearly. Katie Miss Lady. The original one!!”

For more information about Tínṫa Otuŋwe and the Dakota, Hoċokata Ti [ho-cho-kah-tah-tee] the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s (SMSC) cultural center and gathering space, is worth visiting. The public exhibit, “Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake,” enhances the knowledge and understanding of the Mdewakanton Dakota people and their history. Hoċokata Ti is at 2300 Tiwahe Circle, Shakopee, MN 55379. (952) 233-9151.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Katherina Siebenaler was born on August 10, 1863, the daughter of Mathias and Maria Klassan Siebenaler, near Vermillion, Minnesota. She married Anton Marschall on October 23, 1883, in Hastings, and then Katherina gathered her belongings and traveled with her husband to his farm high on a hill in Eagle Creek Township in what is now Shakopee.

Anton Marschall was born on February 5, 1857, son of Henry Marschall II and Margaret Flemming Marschall on their farm in New Prague area. Along with his family, he moved to the Marschall Farm in Eagle Creek township, in 1862. Anton was the only boy in the family, with six sisters. He spent his childhood at his dad’s side, learning farming. Anton remembered in winter the industry in Eagle Creek in the early years was wood cutting. He helped his father cut cord wood each winter and hauled it to Shakopee. “We received $3.00 for maples; $2.25 for oak and $1.75 for softwood.”

In the spring, summer, and fall, Anton learned about the iron plow and ox team, replaced by the steel share and mould board drawn by horses.

According to Dorothy Klein Luers in A Marschall Family History 1784-1980, Anton cradled grain as a boy and later bound sheaves with a reaper. While he once cut his hay crown with a scythe and carried to the barn on poles, he later used modern haying devices like mowers, improved rakes, and loaders.

From a humble beginning, Anton watched his farm become a dairying and poultry-raising powerhouse.

The buildings stood high on the hill with a great view of the valley below and the bluffs beyond the Minnesota River to the north. Of course, much of the help was from Anton’s wife, Katherina.

During the next several years, Katherina, along with Anton, had nine children, five boys and four girls. In 1902, Katherina had five little ones under eight years old. She had help from her mother-in-law, Margaret, but in 1902 Margaret was getting tired. Luckily, Katherina hired a girl who helped.

On November 22, 1902, Minnie Buesgens, the hired girl, told Katherina that she should go to church. It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

The weather was good, and the chance to be away from the house for a few hours made Katherina smile. She decided to go to mass at St. Mark’s Catholic Church.

Anton, Katherina, and four of their children headed down to Shakopee on Spring Lake Road (later called Marschall Road).

They were driving on a two-seated platform wagon to attend the morning service.

Suddenly, the bolts that attached the tongue to the wagon dropped out.

Anton and one son jumped out. Just as they arrived at the train track, the horse turned and the wheel struck a tree.

Katherina struck a tree. She died from the concussion of the brain and cerebral hemorrhage.

She was 39 years old. Her oldest child was eighteen years old, and the youngest child was just thirteen months old.

Anton had help from his family, and on October 19, 1904, he married a second time, to Frances Wessling in Albany, Minnesota, and together they headed back to the Marschall farm in Eagle Creek Township in what was later Shakopee.

Bibliography

Klein Luers, Dorothy T. A Marschall Family History 1784-1980.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Kahoton Make Noise by Striking John Mooers was the son of Hazen P. Mooers and Wakanditaniwiŋ, a Mdewakanton Dakota known as Lightning Appears Woman. Kahoton, also known as John, was born in 1822. He was born near Red Wing’s village at the mouth of the Cannon River, and lived there with his mother and their Dakota relatives until he was about fifteen years old.

Kahoton then joined his father and learned about the fur trade. One place that Kahoton lived while learning about the fur trade was Tínṫa Otuŋwe, which was also called Prairieville by Samuel Pond, and later was part of East Shakopee.

Kahoton’s parents, Hazen and Wakanditaniwiŋ, may or not been married in the Christian or cultural way.

A few years after Kahoton was born, Hazen married Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ, also known as Grey Cloud Woman II, in 1825. Although Kahoton was Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ’s stepson, he made close ties to both of his parents and their extended families. Kahoton was raised among his mother’s family and community. He was a member of the Sacred Lodge (Waken wacipi), an organization whose members were sworn to secrecy. According to Thomas Robertson, the Wakenwacipi “had been handed down from time unknown.”

On June 30, 1845 Kahoton married Mazasnawiŋ Iron Woman Rosalie Ferniere. Starting in 1846, Kahoton lived with his parents in a house not far from the Samuel and Cordelia Eggleston Pond’s cabin. The cabin was north of the mission house, between there and the Rivière Saint Pierre. When Hazen and Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ moved out in the spring of 1849, Rosalie and Kahoton continued to live in Tínṫa Otuŋwe, and he was an Indian farmer for the government until the spring of 1853.

By 1853, Kahoton and Hazen, who was the Indian farmer at Black Dog’s Village, were on board with a large load of lumber and other supplies for the new fort and agencies. They headed for the Lower Sioux Agency to help build the two new agencies on the reservation.

At some point, Kahoton and Rosalie separated, and later Rosalie married Pierre Felix. Pierre died on November 22, 1876. They had a child, Henriette Felix.

Kahoton was a clerk for James W. Lynd in 1855.

A transcript of Kahoton (John) Mooers’s affidavit which was written that year noted:

No. 183 Affidavit of John Mooers [year was 1855].

I, John Mooers, on oath say that I reside at Red Wood in Minn. Ter. I am 34 years of age. I am a half blood of the Mdewakanton band. My father being a white man & my mother a full blood of said band. Twelve years ago I married Rosalia Freniere who is three fourths Indian & one fourth white. Her mother being a full blood Mdewakanton & her father half white & Yankton. We have four children, now living, Moses, age 7 yrs., Mary Ann & Jane Ann, twins, age 5 years; James H., age one month. These children are five eights blood of said band & live with me.

In May 1858 the probate court of Brown County took up the matter of appointing a guardian for the three children, James, Mary, and Moses Mooers. Jane had already died. A guardian was needed, according to the Brown County Journal, to clear the title to property owned by the Mooers children, “half breeds residing at the lower agency.”

In 1862, Kahoton lived in the Redwood Valley near the Redwood Crossing. He was active in the war protecting the captives and spent the winter of 1862-63 in the Dakota camp at Fort Snelling. Kahoton became a scout for the army from 1863 to 1867, then settled near Lake Benton in Lincoln County, Minnesota.

Kahoton Make Noise by Striking John Mooers married a second wife, Mary, sister of Thomas Robinson. Kahoton farmed, and his “mode of dress and manner of living were very similar to those of the white people.”

Kahoton’s mother “lived in a tepee placed just a short distance” from his son’s house. When his mother died, she was buried in a “sheltered place among the trees.”

Kahoton Make Noise by Striking John Mooers died on January 1, 1899. He was survived by his second wife, Mary, and his three children, who, according to her own obituary, moved back to Minnesota after her husband’s death to “spend the rest of her days near her childhood home” and died “at the reservation” in November 1905.

Maggie, Mary, and Kahoton

Kahoton was active in the U.S.-Dakota War, protecting the captives. When he heard what was happening on August 18, 1862, Kahoton sent a messenger to the nearby house of the Reynolds family. The family, however, did not believe the messenger’s story about the attack on the Lower Agency, so Kahoton came himself and reiterated his message, telling everyone to leave as soon as possible.

A servant, Mary Emilia Schwandt, was one of the people caught in the action. Mary was born in the district of Brandenburg, Germany, in March 1848. In 1862 they came to Minnesota in two wagons drawn by oxen, journeying up the beautiful Minnesota valley and settling above the mouth of Beaver Creek, near Middle Creek in what is now the town of Flora.

According to Mary, “We had just had our breakfast at the Reynolds’s and Mary Anderson was just putting on the wash boiler preparing to do the week’s washing. Suddenly John Mooers, a half-breed, came running in and said we should all get away as fast as we could, for the Indians had broken out and were killing all the settlers as fast as they could.”

Mary and Dakota woman, Maggie Good Thunder (later Maggie Brass), who when she was young was called Snásna (Tinkling or Ringing Sound) ended up together.

Maggie Brass was a 23-year-old Mdewakanton Dakota woman. Maggie could read and write, and she became a Christian. For Mary, this made her more acceptable, according to Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola in The War in Words: Reading the Dakota Conflict through the Captivity Literature. Maggie later separated from Wakinyanwaste Andrew Good Thunder, and she then married Charles Brass (Maza-ze-ze-dan).

During the war in 1862, Maggie heard what happened. She came and looked over Mary, who was a 14-year-old German American. Then Maggie went and returned with an Indian pony, which she gave to the captor and then took Mary by the hand and brought her to Maggie’s tioti. Mary noted “I was adopted into the tribe and had to call her mamma, and she dressed me in Indian clothing and made pretty moccasins for me.”

Mary said, “I always tried to do all she told me and to please her in all things. There was a bond of sympathy between us because she had just lost her oldest daughter.” Maggie’s seven-year-old daughter, Lydia, had died six weeks earlier. Maggie arranged to have Mary released from her captors and then protected her from harm for the remainder of the war by hiding her and dressing her in Dakota clothing.

After seven weeks of captivity Mary was released at Camp Release.

Mary remembered, “My Indian mother parted from me at Camp Release and we did not meet again for thirty-two years, but have met many times later, and I received many nice letters from her.

“She loved me very much, and I have always felt a gratitude towards her which I could not express in words, for she saved me from a terrible fate when she bought me from my captor with her only pony.”

Bibliography

Derounian-Stodola, Kathryn Zabelle. The War in Words: Reading the Dakota Conflict through the Captivity Literature. University of Nebraska Press, 2009.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Frederick Hankey, his wife, Elizabeth, and Julia immigrated to Shakopee, and on November 20, 1867, Julia married Joachim Jacob Unze, the second of thirteen children born of Joachim Unze and Dorothy Elizabeth Selle from Krampfer, Bradeburg, Prussia. Joachim was born in 1844.

They married at St John’s Lutheran Church in Shakopee. Joachim and Julia had four children, including Mary Rose (1868), Julia Sophia (1873), Jacob Henry (1874) and Albert (1879). They farmed in the Eagle Creek area of what became Shakopee.

On January 14, 1882 in Spring Hill, Joachim died. He was 37 years old. He had returned from the market in Shakopee, put his horse team in the barn, and entered the house, according to the January 19, 1882 Shakopee Argus. He unbuttoned his coat, placed the packages on the table, and suddenly fell to the floor, dead. After Coroner Hirscher checked and declared the cause heart disease.

Almost one year later, Julia suddenly died.

Julia was unwell, but not serious. The next day was much worse, and by Wednesday, she was dead, according to the January 18, 1883 Shakopee Argus. Though some people thought it might be suicide, Coroner Hirscher made an investigation and decided that Julia died of natural causes.

Her four children were left orphans but eventually were adopted by George Unze and Margaret Rielander Unze.

Julia Hankey Unze was buried in the early part of January 1883 at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

And that is when the body snatchers showed up.

Night watchman Gifford was in the cemetery. He noticed suspicious tracks near the new grave of Julia Unze. He contacted the trustees, who investigated. They opened the grave and found that it was filled with earth, according to the January 11, 1883 Shakopee Argus.

There was no body.

Gifford reported the tracks of three men. They were wearing either moccasins or stocking feet. They drove into the field adjoining the cemetery with a single horse hitched to a bobsled. They were accompanied by a large, heavy dog.

Was there an organized gang of professional grave robbers, who disposed of their ghastly plunder in distant cities and medical colleges?

All the doctors’ offices were searched. No luck. Nothing happened until May 1883.

A headless body was found floating in the river near where the creek emptied into Conter’s Lime Kiln. It was a nude body of an adult female, decapitated, and with the left leg amputated, according to the May 17, 1883 Shakopee Argus.

A jury was summoned and an inquest was held that afternoon. They decided that the deceased was an unknown person who had met her death at the hands of a person or persons unknown to them. They buried the body.

The county attorney didn’t like the verdict, and so they again disinterred the body. Same results, and the body was buried again.

The May 17, 1883 Shakopee Argus noted the person or people had “undoubtedly decapitated the body and buried it upon the banks of the river, or shoved it under the ice, naked, as they would have done with a dead hog.”

Julia Unze had a scar on her left leg, which would have aided in identifying the body. Because this was the leg that was removed, it was clear someone knew that.

“Haunted in their dreams, they must dread the appearance of the pure, bright light of day as being a constant reproach upon their dark deeds,” said the May 17, 1883 Shakopee Argus.

Bibliography

Shakopee Argus, 19 Jan. 1882.

Shakopee Argus, 11 Jan. 1883.

Shakopee Argus, 18 Jan. 1883.

Shakopee Argus, 17 May 1883.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper

On July 9, 1955 in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, Julia Perez was born to parents Braulio Perez and Cecilia Lugo-Arocho.

Mayagüez is a city and the eighth-largest municipality in Puerto Rico. It was founded as Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Mayagüez, and is also known as La Sultana del Oeste (The Sultaness of the West), Ciudad de las Aguas Puras (City of Pure Waters), or Ciudad del Mangó (Mango City).

Mayagüez is in the center of the western coast on the island of Puerto Rico. It has a population of 73,077.

Mayagüez lies today on two former Taíno Cacicazgos (chiefdoms). The Taínos constituted the majority of the island’s inhabitants at the time of contact with Europeans in 1493 and called it Borikén or Borinquen. The Taínos came from South American branches of Arawakan speakers, more specifically from modern-day Venezuela, and lived in small villages. They were farmers who domesticated crops as pineapples, cassava, and sweet potatoes supplemented by fish and seafood, according to Wikipedia.

The city has had several natural disasters. It faced a major economic downturn due to the closure of its textile factories and tuna industry, which were the principal industries of the city for the greater part of the 20th century. Over 11,000 permanent jobs in these two industries were lost in the city during the 1990s, and because of this, Mayagüez became the jurisdiction of the United States with the second most industrial job losses during the time, second only to Flint, Michigan. Once the third city in population and importance in Puerto Rico, population numbers for it have been relatively stagnant, and it has lost population.

Julia Perez left Puerto Rico to the United States in the 1970s. On May 27, 1978, at Ascension Church in Minneapolis, she married Michael F. Montiforte, Jr. They were blessed with five children, Michael, Natalia, Bianca, Lydia and Diego and later two grandchildren, Charles and Olivia. Julia Perez-Montiforte lived in Shakopee, where her friends admired her dimples. At the young age of 60, Julia Perez-Montiforte passed away peacefully Wednesday evening, October 14, 2015, with her beloved family surrounding her at the University of Minnesota hospital bedside.

Julia will always be remembered in the hearts of her family as beloved wife, mother, grandmother and sister. Left to honor her life and mourn the death are her children Michael F. Montiforte III, Natalia C. Montiforte, Bianca T. Montiforte, Lydia F. Montiforte, Diego E. Montiforte; grandchildren, Charles P. Stearns, Jr, Olivia S. Demuth. Preceding her in death are her husband Michael F. Montiforte, Jr. and parents Braulio Perez and Cecilia Lugo-Arocho.

According to Nancy Kowal, “Her kids were her world. She always had a smile and we shared a lot of laughs.” Deb Hoffman remembered Julia “for all your lovely bright colors and smiles. I will always remember your brilliant smile it could melt the snow on the worst snowy days. You could always make me feel better when I was down and out with just one of your bear hugs and I was good to go.”

Brian Blair noted “Jules was a wonderful woman who always kept on upbeat attitude despite the many painful struggles she had. I had the privilege of being her friend and boss for the last several years and can say she was one hell of a person and worker who always gave her best.”

“The first thing I think of Jules is her attire,” said Mary Mansur. “No matter how cold it was outside Jules was always in her tank tops with straps fanning herself while the rest of us were in our sweaters and sweatshirts. She always had her work ready for me to pick up when I would roll the cart down the aisle. Sitting behind Cheri knowing the two of them were always up to no good, Cheri mostly, or as Jules would call her ‘Cheryl.’ She will ALWAYS hold a special place in my heart. She talked so loving of her children and grandchildren. She left you all a legacy to carry on.”

Bibliography

“Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayagüez,_Puerto_Rico.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Julianna Boppre was born in Bambert, Ontario, Canada on June 27, 1847. She was one of eight children born to Franz Adam Boppre (1813-1886) and Mary Margaretha VonHein (1811-1852).

Julianna spent her early life in Canada, in Waterloo County.

Julianna and her family attended the first Catholic Church in the area. The log church built in St. Clements around 1840. In 1853, the log church was deemed too small and in 1858, a large brick church was completed. A brass band from Buffalo, New York gave a concert before the church dedication. At the time of its opening, it was said to be the largest and finest church west of Toronto, according to The Catholic Church in Waterloo County, Book I by Rev. Theobald Spetz.

Records from 1846 about the entire township indicate that much of the land had been “Queen’s Rush, crown land, where fifty acre lots were given away to actual settlers,” according to William H. Smith, 1847 and published by H. & W. Rowsell, page 213.

The area now called the village of Wellesley on the Nith River was first settled in 1847, by John Smith and was originally called Schmidtsville. The post office opened in 1851 and the village was renamed Wellesley after Richard Wellesley, First Marquess Wellesley, the eldest brother of Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington.

The community quickly grew to be the largest economic center in rural Waterloo County, with a wood mill, feed mill, a grain mill (which still stands after being constructed in 1856), leather tanner, cheese factory, restaurants, and housing, and many other businesses that also brought much trade to the town from the nearby farms and farming villages. By 1864, the village also had two stores, a flour mill, three wagon makers, boot and shoe shops, a hotel, two churches, and a school with 78 students, according to the County of Waterloo Gazetteer and General Business Directory, For 1864.

On February 22, 1867, Julianna Boppre married Paul Joseph Fischer (1842-1938). Paul’s parents were Mathias Burkard Fischer (1801-1861) and Margaretha Schmidt (1800-1860). Three years later, Paul and Julianna came to Minnesota, settling on a farm in Eagle Creek near Shakopee.

Fifteen children were born to Julianna and Paul. One child, Nicholas, at age six, was run over by the local freight train, according to an article on August 14, 1891. Nicholas was hanging on the side of the passing cars. He lost his right foot. The amputation was made by doctors Dunn and Smith.

The following ten years were spent in farming, and then the family then moved to Shakopee where they remained.

The death of Julianna Boppre Fischer occurred at her home in Shakopee on Monday morning, May 9, 1910, after an illness covering a period of about two years with diabetes.

During the last two weeks she had failed rapidly and the Friday prior became very ill, gradually sinking in a comatose state in which she remained for thirty-six hours preceding death.

She left five brothers and three sisters residing in Canada.

The funeral took place Wednesday morning at nine o’clock from St. Mary’s Catholic Church of which she had been a devout member. The funeral was attended by a large concourse of relatives and friends. Rev. Father Lee conducted the funeral services and the remains were laid to rest at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee.

Bibliography

County of Waterloo Gazetteer and General Business Directory, For 1864. Mitchell & Co., 1864. p. 201.

Spetz, Theobald. The Catholic Church in Waterloo County. Book I. Catholic Register and Extension, 1916.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Josiah Cooper was born August 31, 1828 in New Paltz, New York, child of Josiah (1785-1855) and Hannah Ellis Cooper (1784-1870). Little is known about his family; he is believed to be the youngest of their five children, according to Arlene Gable, in a family history sketch sent to Don Wagner at the Shakopee Heritage Society in 2002. Arlene is the great-granddaughter of Josiah Cooper, and her research was used in this brochure.

Josiah’s early years were spent on a farm in New York. In 1846, Josiah, at age 18, went to New York City to serve as an apprentice cabinetmaker.

In August 1848 at the old Frederick homestead near Harrimans (Turners), New York, Josiah Cooper married Harriet Frederick. He was then 20 years old; she was 17. Harriet was born on May 9, 1831 in Harrimans, New York, the youngest child of Jacob and Catherine Stevens Frederick.

Josiah and Harriet’s first child, Jane Ann, was born in 1849 on the Frederick homestead. In 1851, the family moved to Pennsylvania, probably because Josiah had a job as a cabinetmaker there. Their second child, Catherine Emma, called Kate, was born there. They moved back to New York, and in September of 1855, Josiah and Harriet had a son, James. It was clear that they waited for the birth of the child before moving west.

The treaties forced upon the Indians opened up southern Minnesota for the colonist-settlers, who moved from the east to the area, which family lore called “the wilds of Minnesota.” Harriet’s father, Jacob Frederick also had some Bounty Land for service in the War of 1812. So around 1855, Josiah and Harriet headed to Minnesota. Harriet’s brothers, Francis W, Frederick, Albert Frederick, Jacob Frederick, and sister Polly Ann Frederick Ferrill and their families, as well as Harriet’s parents, Jacob and Catherine Stevens Frederick, all made their way to Minnesota.

Family lore noted that in October of 1855, after the birth of James, they travelled by “train and ferry to the end of the line” in Shakopee, to Harriet’s brother, Francis W. Frederick, who had land about three miles from Shakopee, which has become Valleyfair. One eastern relative who stayed behind said that they left by oxcart to the west.

In 1855, it seems likely they travelled by train to Albany, New York, or perhaps up the Hudson River by riverboat that far, thence through the Erie Canal to the Great Lakes, through the lakes to Milwaukee or Chicago, overland from Milwaukee to Minnesota, or if from Chicago by canal or overland to the Mississippi and then north on the Minnesota River to Shakopee, said Arlene Gable.

Josiah and Harriet arrived as settler-colonists in Shakopee in October of 1855, which was not the best time for people to arrive. Perhaps they did not know about the rigors of a Minnesota winter, or maybe they had to because they wanted to wait until James was born, but luckily, they had a place waiting for them with Harriet’s brother. They set up their own home nearby, and by November 7, 1856, James Cooper died there. Charles Henry Cooper was born in 1857, and in 1860 Jacob Fred Cooper was born on land near that later became Valleyfair.

It was in 1860 that records show that Josiah and Harriet received patents for bounty land that was reassigned to him in Eagle Creek Township. The land is just south of the Minnesota River and a short distance southeast of what was later Valleyfair. Jacob Frederick Jr, Harriet’s father, and Nathaniel Ferrell owned land that was now part of Valleyfair. The land was very poor, and Josiah could not find work as a cabinet maker in Shakopee, so he made ax handles, and did other work in Shakopee, in addition to farming.

On August 15, 1862, Josiah volunteered for three years in military service in the Civil War. Josiah was 34 years old. The military allowed the volunteers to gather their crops before they were mustered out, but once the U.S.- Dakota War broke out, they abandoned the crops and headed to Fort Snelling. Josiah Cooper joined Company I, Ninth Infantry of Minnesota Volunteers.

He remained at Fort Ridgely until the summer of 1863, when he proceeded to St. Paul and acted as provost guard until ordered south in October 1863.

While Josiah was away, Harriet and the children lived with Harriet’s parents in Shakopee. Eliza Stella Cooper was born in December 1862 while Josiah was in Fort Ridgely.

Josiah Cooper was appointed corporal on September 30, 1862, and served as a carpenter in the quartermaster department. He was promoted to sergeant on December 1, 1863, and he drilled the troops. Josiah was 5’6” tall with fair complexion, light hair, and hazel eyes. He headed to Rolla, Missouri for seven months, then headed to St. Louis and ultimately to the Battle of Guntown, Mississippi on June 10, 1864, where they were defeated.

During this battle, Josiah was double tapping to the front when he suffered sunstroke and fell out. The intense heat in Mississippi made him fall off his horse. Josiah was sitting beside the road with his head in his hands by two buddies, William Dean and Fred Merrill, as they were retreated. “Leave me alone!” said Josiah, but they did not. One carried the gun and the other dragged him along.

Josiah mustered out of the infantry on August 24, 1865 at Fort Snelling. He was nearly 37 years old.

In the Spring of 1866, Josiah Cooper and Jacob S. Frederick went to Ashley Township in Stearns County, Minnesota and picked out homesteads.

They returned to Shakopee and brought their families back to Ashley in covered wagons drawn by oxen and wagons drawn by horses. Josiah worked as a cabinet maker in Sauk Centre. Their last child, Rosa Zaddie Cooper, was born in 1872.

The family moved to town in 1873 so that the children could receive the benefits of an education. The Sauk Centre Herald, on June 21, 1873, noted “the tide of immigration is flowing northwest and westward in a continual stream,” with trains of travelers moving through town. Eliza Stella Cooper died in Sauk Centre in 1874 of bronchitis.

Josiah died on November 3, 1905, at age 77. Josiah always smoked a pipe and eventually had a rose-like growth on his cheek. It was cancer, which had begun on his lip. He was buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Josiah’s wife, Harriet, died on July 3, 1929, of old age, and was buried next to her husband in Sauk Centre.

Bibliography

Sauk Centre Herald, 21 June 1873.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Joe was enslaved in the South. He did not know his last name. At some point, Joe moved north and arrived in Eden Prairie. People called him Old Joe.

It is possible that Joe moved north with William Weiser who was a private in the army when he joined the Ninth Pennsylvania on August 15, 1862. William was in the army until August 24, 1865, when he retired as a sergeant. After he retired, and before he headed back near Shakopee, William bought and liberated twelve people who were enslaved. He then moved back to Eden Prairie in 1864, and William brought the freed enslaved people with him to Minnesota, where the twelve African Americans were to work on the farm. According to the Shakopee Tribune in 1919, “All ran away except Dan and another boy.” That “boy” might have been Joe, who lived in Shakopee and Eden Prairie, while Dan Eddings moved across the river and lived and died in Shakopee in 1919.

Joe Graham lived with François Rivière and his family. François was a Franco-Américain, a citizen of the United States who had French Canadian heritage. François was born in 1833. He owned a cooper shop in Shakopee, and Old Joe, who was probably a younger Joe at that time, probably worked in the cooper shop in Shakopee until 1874.

Initially, farm and food products were shipped to Shakopee in barrels. In fact, starting in the early 1800s, goods such as food staples, grain, seed, and animal feed were packed in tins, boxes, and wooden barrels for transportation. Cotton sacks gradually replaced barrels as food containers with the stitching machines made it possible to sew double locking seams strong enough to hold the contents of a bag.

Once the flour bags were invented and spread to Minnesota, François quickly sold his business and bought a 600-acre farmstead. The Red Rock Lake Farm was in Eden Prairie, and the acreage went down to Red Rock Lake, across the river from Shakopee.

The Red Rock Lake Farm was pre-empted in the 1850s by Judge Charles Collins. A cabin structure was built, and watermelons, potatoes, wheat, and corn were planted.

The property was sold many times between 1855 until 1874. Then in 1874, if was sold to François La Rivier, or Frank Rivers, and his family. Joe also moved with the family to the north side of the Minnesota River.

After living and working with Frank Rivers for several years, Joe moved to the Horace Goodrich home.

Joe later went to live with John Goodrich on Staring Lake in Eden Prairie. When Goodrich opened his summer hotel Joe worked around the buildings, caring for the boats, working on the lawn, and helping with the luggage of guests. Joe also worked around the kitchen. Joe drove a surrey with a fringe on top, picking up guests at the Eden Prairie Train Station.

Joseph Graham also drove a carriage for Dr. H.P. Fischer in Shakopee. Dr. Henry P. Fischer was a medical practitioner in Shakopee, and in 1909 he founded the Mudcura Sanitarium.

Joe drove Dr. Fischer around during his house calls from about 1894 until 1900.

Affectionately known as Old Joe, Curt Brown noted that he died of cancer in 1900 according to an old leather ledger that shows early Eden Prairie settlers and their births and deaths.

Helen Holden-Anderson, in a book called Eden Prairie: The First 100 Years, discussed Helen Goodrich Mastin, who was a descendant of John Goodrich.

She heard that the Goodrich family, who owned the hotel, had a small wooden cross over Graham’s grave. They planned to add a fine marker to replace the small cross. But over time, it never happened, and the grass grew up and there was no sign of Joseph Graham’s grave.

Eighty years later, Katherine Case, a longtime president of the Eden Prairie Historical Society, remembered the story, and she remembered from oral history that Jonas Staring, an early settler, had gone to Memphis to buy a horse.

The anecdotal stories said that Joseph Graham was asked to ride north on the train with the horse in a livestock car, and that Jonas Staring would find work in Minnesota.

And so, in 2003, a new gravestone was added on the north side of Eden Prairie Cemetery, 103 years after Joseph Graham, who worked in Shakopee and Eden Prairie, died.

Bibliography

Holden-Anderson, Helen. Eden Prairie: The First 100 Years, 1979.

Shakopee Tribune, 1919.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

In the 1800s St. Paul served as the head of navigation on the Mississippi River. The lower landing provided entry for most people and goods coming north. Like many early groups to the region, African Americans settled near the riverbanks to ensure steady work and food. The river was also a route along the Underground Railroad, providing passage to slaves escaping to Canada, according to CultureBrokers Foundation, Inc.’s Points of Entry: The African American Heritage Guide to Saint Paul and “Lower (Lambert’s) Landing” from St. Paul Historical.

Minnesota was created as a free territory in 1849, a year before Joseph Farr arrived in St. Paul from Galena, Illinois. Although slavery was not allowed in Minnesota Territory, many vacationing southerners traveled north up the Mississippi River with enslaved people during the summers, staying at hotels including the Fuller Hotel (later called the International Hotel), which was located on the northeast corner of Jackson and Seventh Street in St. Paul, and built by David L. Fuller. Later his brother, Alpheus G. Fuller, ran the hotel. The land was given to the brothers, and $12,000 was raised as a bonus. It was opened on September 25, 1856.

The Fullers accumulated wealth by giving slaveholders lodging (about $6,000 a month). So even though the Fullers were not from the south, but from Connecticut, they still supported slavery by benefiting from the money collected by southern slave owners, according to Dr. Christopher P. Lehman in Slavery in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1787-1865: A History of Human Bondage in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The national Fugitive Slave Law, passed in 1850, required that escaped slaves be returned to their owners. This gave a measure of federal protection to owners who either visited the territory with the slaves or that human property that managed to come within its boundaries by other means, according to the CultureBrokers Foundation.

During the 1850s, St. Paul was a way station on the Underground Railroad. Many African American men and women found the way to freedom on the Canadian side through the people who came to their rescue at St. Paul. William Taylor, a barber, James Hywadin, David Edwards, and William Taylor’s nephew, Joseph Farr, who helped at the barber shop, participated in rescuing many of the enslaved people.

Joseph Farr told his story in 1895, according to editor Deborah Swanson in an article, “Joseph Farr remembers the underground railroad in St. Paul,” in the fall 2000 edition of Minnesota History.

Joseph was involved in the Underground Railroad in St. Paul when he arrived here in 1850. “There was no society or anything of that kind, but we were doing whatever we could,” said Joseph. Eugene Berry used to take care of the escaped slaves out of Galena. Another agent in Galena used to get up all kinds of schemes to get the slaves away from their masters. “He would disguise them was well as he could and get them aboard the Dr. Franklin, and then Berry would take care of them and stow them away among the freight.” Then Joseph remembered “When the boat came into St. Paul my uncle, or one of the others…would be at the wharf and the fugitives would be brought to my uncle’s house, where I lived,” according to St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1895.

In one instance, an enslaved man left the Fuller/International Hotel to Mr. Taylor’s place. “We got him right out into the county, and the next day there was a great ado made about it. He was a valuable man and his master offered a big reward for his capture. We sent him to Point Prescott, Wisconsin, and thought he was safe enough there.” An African American, who was supposed to help, heard of the reward and came into town and “gave the poor wretch up.”

A young mulatto girl who escaped from her master in Galena, was secreted on the boat coming this way with the help of Eugene Berry. “The girl was a handsome, robust creature, and her features were almost masculine. She adopted the familiar disguise of a man, and arrived in St. Paul clad in a suit of finest broadcloth. She was light enough to pass for a white person, and had no difficulty on the boat,” said Joseph in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1895. “She was young and fine looking and would probably be worth a couple of thousand dollars in the South, so it was a sure thing that there would be a great effort made to find her.” The southerner came to Taylor’s barber shop and offered $30 to find her. While he talked, the woman escaped with the help of Hywadin, who disguised her and sent to Chicago, and then to Canada. A few months later, Joseph’s uncle got a letter from her, saying that she was safe.

At David and Alpheus Fuller’s hotel, many southern people including a planter who stopped there with his family and an enslaved woman, arrived in St. Paul. After talking to her, she said she wanted to escape. “We fixed everything to get her out of town but it took a couple of days to do it, and before we got all the arrangements made the girl got homesick for her master’s family and insisted on going back.” Joseph thought if she did not want to escape, it wouldn’t happen, and after promising to say nothing about the people who tried to rescue her.

According to Joseph, the Dr. Franklin, the steamboat, collided with another boat at McCartney, Wisconsin in May of 1854, and Joseph remembered his clandestine activities ended about 1855. Newspapers and the Winslow House register indicated that many parties of southerners and their “servants” (enslaved people) visited the area and stayed at hotels including the Winslow House as late as 1860, according to Swanson.

Joseph Farr and his wife, Sarah, had four children in St. Paul. He died in St. Paul on December 29, 1910 at the age of 78, according to the December 31, 1910 St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Bibliography

CultureBrokers Foundation, Inc. “Lower (Lambert’s) Landing.” Saint Paul Historical, accessed 23 Aug. 2026. https://saintpaulhistorical.com/index.php/items/show/253.

CultureBrokers Foundation, Inc. Points of Entry: The African American Heritage Guide to Saint Paul, 2008.

Lehman, Christopher P. Slavery in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1787-1865: A History of Human Bondage in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, 2011.

St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1895.

St. Paul Pioneer Press, 31 Dec. 1910.

Swanson, Deborah. “Joseph Farr remembers the underground railroad in St. Paul.” Minnesota History, Fall 2000.