Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Rose Vyskocil has worked at the breakfast joint that used to be Perkins, and now is Ruby’s Restaurant off County Road 101 and Marschall Road for more than 44 years!

Rose remembers that when she started working in 1979, the place was Perkins Restaurant & Bakery. Kitty-corner was the A & W Restaurant, now Burger King. The population was smaller then, and Perkins was one of a few restaurants in town, including Wampach’s.

Rose grew up in Shakopee, and she enjoyed staying close to her friends and meeting new friends. According to an article in the Shakopee Valley News, April 28, 2021, when she was younger girl, some older people remember when her mother used to dress up Rose and her sisters in identical outfits every Sunday for church!

Everyone seemed to know Rose. David Schleper’s mother used to go with her girlfriends for brunch and lots of coffee in the corner booth where Rose kept the location open for the friends for years. Later, when Rose Weidner Schleper started forgetting things as she got dementia, she still loved going to Perkins. And Rose Vyskocil would know Rose Schleper’s order, making it so easy!

When Perkins closed in 2019, Rose was devastated. After working at Perkins in Edina for a few months, it was not the same.

But luckily Marcos Gomez purchased the restaurant and opened Ruby’s Family Restaurant. Rose contacted Marcos and asked for her job back. He gave it to her, and so Rose once again is working at the same place, but by a different name.

Rose noted that the new restaurant has better food than with Perkins because the menu is smaller. “Chef Sergio Portillo makes the crêpes from scratch and cuts all the meat in-house. Nothing is frozen,” said Rose in an article, “Ruby’s Restaurant in Shakopee maintains the ‘diner’ atmosphere” by Maddie DeBlizan in the Shakopee Valley News, April 28, 2021.

Rose has been working at the same place, called Perkins and then Ruby’s Family Restaurant, for more than 44 years. She has been working full-time in Shakopee in a city longer than many of the customers had been alive. Rose believes that about eighty percent of her customers know her.

Rose has watched first dates that turn into marriages that turn into kids. “Now, those kids are going on dates, and she pours them coffee as she asks about their parents and grandparents.”

“I’ve watched people grow up here,” she said.

Bibliography

DeBilzan, Maddie. “Ruby’s Restaurant in Shakopee maintains the ‘diner’ atmosphere.” Shakopee Valley News, 28 April 2021.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Rosemma Coursolle was born on December 13, 1924, in Morton, Minnesota. Her parents were Isaac H. Coursolle (1896-1980) and Annie H. Trudell Coursolle (1899-1941). Her brothers were Raymond and Ernie Coursolle.

Rosemma attended the Pipestone Indian School in Pipestone, Minnesota.

Beginning with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the United States enacted laws and implemented policies establishing and supporting Indian boarding schools across the country. The idea was to culturally assimilate Indigenous children by forcibly relocating them from their families and communities to distant residential facilities where their cultural identities, languages, and beliefs were to be forcibly suppressed according to Pipestone County Star.

For over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their communities.

Rosemma Coursolle attended the Pipestone Indian School in Pipestone, Minnesota.

The boarding school came about as attitudes toward the “correct” treatment of Native people turned toward assimilation with the passage of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. Many Native people throughout North America resented the assimilation schools, but the Pipestone Indian School inspired particularly active resistance for two reasons. First, it was built illegally on Yankton Sioux reservation land. Second, during the school’s tenure, management of the quarries fell largely to the white superintendent of the school instead of the Yankton people, according to Carleton University’s article, “The Pipestone Indian Training School.” The Yankton’s resistance resulted in a complex battle for legal recognition of Yankton ownership of the quarry land. The conflict was not resolved until 1926, when the Supreme Court determined in Yankton Sioux Tribe of Indians v. United States that the building of the school violated the 1858 Treaty of Washington.

The students at the Pipestone Indian School were primarily Ojibwe, Dakota, and Lakota, but also Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi, Sac and Fox, Arikara, Blackfeet, and Omaha, and came from as far away as Montana and Michigan.

The Pipestone Indian School was used from 1893 until 1953. Efforts are underway to learn more about the cemetery on what is now Pipestone National Monument land that was used for students at the Pipestone Indian School. The marker, which was in a part of Pipestone National Monument that is not open to the public, was inscribed with the words “Peace For Ever,” according to the book The Blood of the People by Theodore Catton and Diane L. Krahe.

According to The Blood of the People, the cemetery was used for children who died at the school and did not have family to claim their remains. It is believed that the bodies of students who died at the school after 1904 were either sent to their homes or buried at Woodlawn Cemetery.

According to the book, as many as nine people might have been buried in the cemetery. Only three of them were identified in the book based on obituaries published in the Pipestone County Star.

The first was a 12-year-old girl named Annie Tappinnatis, who died in 1896 from tuberculosis. The second was an 11-year-old girl named Mabel Campbell, who died of tuberculosis in 1897. The third was a seven-year-old girl named Florence Resler, who died of pneumonia in 1903. The tribal affiliation of the girls was not listed and is not known. There may be more who were buried at the cemetery, including additional children or adults who were associated with the school, which was in operation from 1893 to 1953, according to “Researching the Pipestone Indian School cemetery” in Pipestone County Star.

Rosemma Coursolle married Amos Laverne Crooks, Jr., on January 25, 1947, in Renville, Minnesota. Amos, who was born in 1919, died on July 13, 1999. They had two children, Amy Ellen and Glynn Allyn Crooks.

Rosemma was a member of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. Rosemma Coursolle Crooks journeyed to the spirit world on October 14, 2003, at her home in Prior Lake, Minnesota, surrounded by family members, according to Sota Iya Ye Yapí, Vol. 34, No. 42, October 29, 2003.

A traditional all-night wake was held at the home of her son, Glynn Crooks, on October 15 and 16. Visitation continued at the Tiowakan Spiritual Center where the funeral was held at 2 p.m. on October 17, 2003. Interment was at the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Cemetery. The funeral service was conducted by Pastor Marlene Helgemo and Danny Seaboy, Sr. Traditional music was provided by the Wahpekute Singers.

Bibliography

Catton, Theodore and Krahe, Diane L. The Blood of the People. National Park Service, 2016.

Kuphal, Kyle. “Researching the Pipestone Indian School cemetery.” Pipestone County Star, 9 Dec. 2021. www.pipestonestar.com/articles/researching-the-pipestone-indian-school-cemetary/.

“The Pipestone Indian Training School.” Religions in Minnesota. religionsmn.carleton.edu/exhibits/show/pipestone/pipestonehistory/the-pipestone-indian-training-

Sota Iya Ye Yapi, vol. 34, no. 42, 29 Oct. 2003.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Rose Ann Spencer was born in Terre Haute, Indiana on April 25, 1834. Her parents were George Spencer and Julia Duncan Spencer. She was educated at St.-Mary-of-the-Woods Convent.

St.-Mary-of-the-Woods was established by Sister Théodore Guérin. She was born Anne-Therese Guérin in France in 1798. In 1823, she entered the Catholic congregation of Sister of Providence of Ruillé and received the name of Sister Théodore. In 1840 at the invitation of Bishop Simon Bruté of the Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana, the Sisters of Providence of Ruillé-sur-Loir, France, sent Sister Théodore to open a school and minister to people in the Diocese of Vincennes. After a rough journey across the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern United States, Sister Théodore and other sisters arrived in St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, on October 22, 1840. Sister Théodore established the Sisters of Providence in the United States.

The sisters began building a school for girls called The Academy in 1840. The first student at The Academy enrolled July 4, 1841. One of the early girls who arrived there was Rose Ann Spencer. The Academy is now known as St. Mary-of-the-Woods College and is the oldest Roman Catholic college for women in the United States. As early as 1846, a charter was granted by the State empowering the institution to confer academic honors and collegiate degrees.

In 1852, Rose Ann came to St. Paul with her parents. Rose Ann saw her first cousin, Spier Spencer.

Spier was born in Elizabethtown, Spencer County, Kentucky, January 22, 1827. His father, John Spencer, was a prominent owner of enslaved people. His mother was Pricilla Allen Spencer.

In 1849, accompanied by his only brother, John B. Spencer, Jr., he went west and located at St. Paul, which was a small village at that time. The two brothers worked as carpenters until 1853. Then, John B. Spencer, Jr. and Spier purchased a farm between St. Paul and St. Anthony Park, which they kept for a short time.

On November 16, 1853, Rose Ann Spencer married her cousin, Spier Spencer.

Her father George H. Spencer (wife Carolyne Stone) was the brother of Spier’s father John Spencer. The second wife of George H. Spencer was Julia E. Baker Duncan. She was not the mother of Rose Ann, but they had a mother-daughter relationship, and Rose Ann evidently considered Julia to be her mother.

They married at Traverse des Sioux, and Rose Ann was the first white woman married there.

For thousands of years, Traverse des Sioux was a crossroads and meeting place. American Indians gathered here to hunt and to use the shallow river crossing. During the 1800s, Europeans and European Americans came to trade furs with the Dakota hunters and to farm on the fertile tinta, or prairie.

In 1851, Traverse des Sioux was the site of the Treaty where the upper bands of the Dakota nation were forced to cede about half of the present-day Minnesota to the United States government. The Dakota were promised cash, goods, education, and a reservation. The two treaties with the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Dakota gave approximately 24 million acres of Dakota land to the government. It also opened the area for white settlement, who took much of the land even before the treaty was approved.

When Rose Ann and Spier got married, the town was just beginning. A boomtown happened, with more than seventy buildings, including five taverns, two hotels, and several churches. But when St. Peter was chosen as the county seat in 1856, Traverse des Sioux soon became a ghost town by the late 1860s.

Spier and Rose Ann sold their farm between St. Paul and St. Anthony Park, and then they bought one-third of the town of Shakopee from Thomas A. Holmes and David L. Fuller. It cost $4100 in 1853 to buy one-third of the town.

The town was part of Tínṫa Otuŋwe, which was also called Prairie des Français (French Prairie) near Faribault Trading Post with Oliver Faribault and Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ, and near Pond Mission House, which was called Prairieville. Thomas A. Holmes called it Holmesville, and by 1852 it had twenty white people (along with 600 Mdewakaŋtoŋwaŋ Dakota!)

When David Faribault, who was part Dakota, and his wife, Winona Nancy McClure Faribault Huggan, started a rival town along the St. Peter’s River (later called the Minnesota River), Holmes stepped up and called the area Sha K’ Pay, Minnesota Territory in honor of Dakota leader Ṡakpe II. By 1853, David and Nancy left the area, the townsite dissolved, the Dakota Indians were forced to move to a reservation, and the village of Sha K’ Pay became a booming town.

Spier and Rose Ann opened a general store in Sha K’ Pay and traded produce and furs with the Dakota Indians who often came back to the area.

In 1855, Spier and Rose Ann built a home on the site later known as the Major Strait farm. Spier had a side business in 1861, owning and operating a steamboat, Clara Hinds, on the Minnesota River. He was active in the affairs of the rapidly growing village of Shakopee.

Rose Ann was busy birthing children and helping in the home. Spier and Rose Ann had six children: George, Julia, Charles, Carrie, Hattie, and Belle.

In the fall of 1862, a kernel of wheat struck Spier in the eye and caused inflammation, resulting in total blindness in one eye. Spier then disposed of the farm, bought a home on Second Street, and opened a private boarding house known as the Union Home. Later he mastered the trade of broom-making and supplied local stores and communities until 1895, when he retired. Spier Spencer passed away on January 26, 1907, and was buried at Valley Cemetery in East Shakopee.

Rose Ann had a kind and loving disposition, was a kind neighbor, and a loving wife and mother. She died on October 5, 1913. She was one of the pioneer residents of Shakopee, and she was “summoned to enter into the Great Beyond, and a general wave of sorrow swept over the community when her death was announced.”

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Robert M. Kennedy was born in 1799 in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). His parents were Edward Kennedy and Susannah Gordon, according to David H. Eggler in May of 2020. In 1826, the family, which also included Robert’s sister, Ursula, moved to Marion Township, Ohio, where Edward kept a tavern.

In Marion Township, the family met Judge William and Rachel Day Holmes, from Pennsylvania. Their son, Thomas A., married Ursula Kennedy in 1829.

At some point, the two families moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin Territory, where Robert married Frances B. Jones Koons on August 1, 1837. The Kennedy and Koons families decided to join Thomas and Ursula in their western expedition. The 13 people headed to St. Anthony Falls (present day Minneapolis), but the early freeze caused the Mississippi River to freeze, and so they ended up near the mouth of the Wau-me-dee Creek.

Though they tried, they were not allowed to establish themselves on the prairie in Winona. Dakota leader Wapahaṡa refused to allow it to happen. So, according to Dr. L.H. Bunnell in the History of Wabasha, they built dugout shelters, and Thomas and Robert and families opened a trading post at the Wah-ma-dee, or Eagle Bluffs, in 1839. It was soon named Holmes’ Landing and later was called Fountain City. It was called that because of the numerous fountain-like springs that supplied the inhabitants of the area. Robert, along with Thomas A. Holmes and a man in their employ, Mr. Smother, built the trading post.

Holmes headed to trade with the Indians, while Ursula stayed in Dubuque with some friends to treat periodic attacks that made her frantic with pain. Without help from a competent doctor, she used opiates, which finally enslaved her.

Thomas returned from his trip up the river with lumber and built a comfortable house at Holmes’ Landing (later Reed’s Landing), across from Wabasha. Ursula, who returned in 1841, had rooms assigned by her brother, Robert, and his wife, who kept house for Holmes as a hotel. Ursula seldom appeared but stayed in her room.

Robert had no sympathy for, or appreciation of Ursula’s condition, according to Bunnell. Robert would call Ursula’s pain “tantrums.” It was clear that Robert, who was much older than his sister, did not sympathize with her. Ursula died in 1841. In 1849, Robert and family, and Thomas Holmes and family moved to Minnesota Territory.

Robert moved to Shakopee in 1854.

According to 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, Robert M. Kennedy had a house which stood on the north side of First Avenue, across from what was recently Perfect Occasions Bridal, in 1853. The house later became Matt, and then Benny Huth’s house. It was razed to make room for the downtown mini-bypass.

Robert operated a hotel/boarding house called the Florence Hotel, across from the Argus block on First and Lewis Street, in 1854 according to The Diary of Daniel M. Storer. His ads ran the statement “Hay, Oats and Corn constantly on hand, with good accommodations for team.” Storer worked with Kennedy during those first years in Shakopee. According to Thomas McLean Newson, he ran the hotel there for thirteen years.

Robert returned to St. Paul in 1857 and kept a boarding house for a time, then ran Moffett’s Castle for three years. He was also landlord of the old Snelling House on West Seventh Street for two years, then kept a boarding house, and then ran the Burnand House on Fourth Street for several years. Altogether, he spent thirty years as a landlord and boarding housekeeper, in Shakopee and St. Paul.

Many rough characters contacted Robert in the early days in Minnesota. In one instance, he was informed that a bad man was about the streets armed with a knife, seeking Robert’s life. Kennedy confronted him, took the knife out of his belt, and forced him to go and deliver it up where he got it.

At another time, an ugly fellow threatened to shoot him. Kennedy boldly met him and got the man to give up the gun.

In 1853, Robert Kennedy was appointed collector of customs for the port of St. Paul, which he held until 1856. During his term of office, he received $46.42 as custom house fees. He was also inspector of steamboats, and did a lively business when the boats arrived, though in the early days the steamboats didn’t arrive that often.

In 1864, Robert Kennedy joined Thomas A. Holmes as they started over the plains for the gold mines of Montana. He remained there for a year. He made a gold claim near where Helena is now a prosperous city. Robert took enough gold to pay off all his debts. When Robert headed back to Minnesota, his son sold out his gold claim in Montana for $370. Today it would be worth thousands more.

By 1886, Kennedy was incapacitated from an injury to his knees. Frances, Robert’s wife, was a kind, genial, worthy lady, who was worn out with hard work, according to Thomas McLean Newson in Pen Pictures of St. Paul, Minnesota and Biographical Sketches of Old Settlers.

In The Diary of Daniel M. Storer on June 23, 1887, “Robert Kennedy was buried today. He was 88 years old and was a prominent man in St. Paul and Shakopee.”

Frances B. Jones Koons Kennedy died two years later in St. Paul. The Shakopee Courier, December 3, 1891, wrote: “Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kennedy were of the old settlers of Shakopee, Mr. Kennedy having built the National hotel, afterwards burned down.”

Bibliography

Bunnell, Dr. L.H. History of Wabasha. Chicago, H. H. Hill, Publishers, 1884.

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.

McLean Newson, Thomas. Pen Pictures of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Biographical Sketches of Old St. Paul in 1886.

Shakopee Courier, December 3, 1891.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Robert George “Pat” Thielen was born on October 26, 1918, one of nine children of John and Augusta Thielen in Shakopee. Pat, as he was called, married Eleanor Osowski in 1945.

Pat was a Shakopee law enforcement officer for 31 years, including thirty years as the chief of police. Pat visited every beer parlor and night club in 1947 and slowly stopped the illegal gambling and liquor operations in town. He was involved in various shootings. He trapped mud turtles. But the one area that many young children, now much older, remember best was the rodeo.

The first rodeo happened in August 1955. The three-day event was held at Riverside Park. The rodeo was produced by the George Stichka Rodeo Company of Nebraska. Each of the four performances drew 5,000 people. Sunday before the rodeo’s performance, a parade was held through the town’s streets and down to the rodeo grounds. The event was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, and the proceeds funded youth recreation programs.

The next rodeo was sponsored by the Shakopee Boosters. Tickets were $2 for reserved seats, and fifty cents for children. The weather didn’t cooperate, and attendance was down. The chamber decided that it was too much work and expense to continue.

The police chief, R. G. Pat Thielen, really loved the rodeo and wanted it to continue. He found some land by the Minnesota River, just east of the original spot, and at the east end of Huber Park. He set out to build a rodeo arena. Pat filled the site with large amounts of dirt and got the fencing and seating from the arena donated.

“Every time Pat would go down to Hal Warren at Northern Culvert, Hal would run and try to hide on him and say, ‘Oh Christ, here comes Pat, he is gonna want fence post, he’s gonna want culverts for the rodeo area.’ Well, that whole rodeo area was all done with fencing, post, and culverts from Hal,” said Officer Kaley.

One long-term Shakopee resident remembered Pat Thielen and the rodeo. “Even though he chased me and others from one end of town to the other, he always made sure he rounded us up right before Pow-Wow-Days. Then he’d make us lug cement blocks and planks down to the rodeo arena for the event seating. At the end of the week, the kids got free tickets and buffalo burgers that Pat cooked in a pit next to the river. Pat would give us a big smile and tell us all ‘Stay out of trouble now or will see ya boys next year.’”

John A. Metcalf noted that “Pat loves the young people and they respect him. His philosophy is to talk to them, to advise and counsel them, before a situation became serious … Young boys like him and work for him. When Pat called for help the kids eight to eighteen, without adult help, built a rodeo park complete with stalls, fences, and a seating capacity of 1,000.

“Pat said, ‘When the kids have something constructive to do, they are not getting into trouble.’”

In 1964 the high school rodeo was held at Pat Thielen’s new rodeo grounds in Huber Park. There was just one performance. Admission was free with a Pow-Wow Days button.

Mary Gerold Randklev said, “I loved the rodeo. At age nine or ten, I got my first pair of NEW jeans that I wore to the rodeo!”

Ken Grunst remembered, “I would spend hours down there between shows. Got excited to see three red trucks bringing the horses, cattle, and the bulls. Of course, for working, we got in free; that was a big deal back then!”

By 1970, the rodeo grounds were officially dedicated to Pat Thielen. A sign reading “Pat Thielen Rodeo Arena” was placed at the gate.

Laura Lee Mertz remembered the rodeo.

“Loved that rodeo! What action and excitement to watch it happening in front of you. We used to sneak in under the fence!”

“We’d ride our bikes down there for days ahead of time to see if they were there yet with the horses!” said Mary Pfleghaar.

There was no rodeo in 1971-1973. In 1974, the RCA held a rodeo again in Shakopee. There was no rodeo from 1976-1980. The RN Bar Pro Rodeo came to town in 1981 and 1982.

Since 1982, there have been no more rodeos. In the spring of 1999, the Pat Thielen Rodeo Arena was dismantled. The area next was a sledding hill, and in 2007, when the park was redeveloped, the area was officially named the Pat Thielen Recreation Area.

Robert George “Pat” Thielen died on June 19, 1991. But as Mary Ann Mertz noted, Pat Thielen and the rodeo are still remembered by many. “That was so much fun! Community spirit was high for all of these fun events!”

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Alois Plut was born in Krupp, near Semich, diocese of Ljubljana, Province of Carniola, Austria on June 21, 1841, son of Joseph and Catherina Starz Plut.

Alois, along with 16 other ecclesiastical students, decided to move to the United States. Alois, age 23, completed his theological studies and was ordained in the Cathedral in St. Paul on February 12, 1865. He became a priest in Stillwater, New Prague, Winona, Cedar Lake, Sleepy Eye, New Ulm, and Glencoe.

As Father Plut traveled to various missions, he mostly traveled on trails. There were no roads at that time. Bitter cold and howling blizzards, pelting rain, mosquitoes, and the heat of summer made it hard, but Father Plut was young and energetic, though it taxed the body, according to The Shakopee Story by Julius A. Coller II.

In June 1876, Fr. Plut became pastor of the Church of St. Mark’s in Shakopee, where he stayed for ten years.

Meanwhile, in Shakopee, starting in 1862, sisters from the Benedictine Convent of St. Joseph at St. Mary, Pennsylvania arrived. The sisters, with ecclesiastical approval, founded the Convent and Academy, according to Julius A. Coller II in The Shakopee Story.

In a letter to King Ludwig of Bavaria on December 2, 1862, Abbott Boniface Wimmer noted that he founded a little mission for the sisters “to the great joy of the English and German Catholics. The new convent has its own story. First, it was a cow shed, then a horse barn, and now it is an embryo of a woman’s convent, but it only serves, in any event, only the most necessary purposes.”

The sisters erected a large two-and-a-half-story limestone building at the corner of Fourth and Atwood Street, south of St. Mark’s Church. St. Gertrude’s Convent and Academy by the Sisters of St. Benedict was incorporated on May 4, 1866, said Edward D. Neill in the History of the Minnesota Valley including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota.

The first commencement exercises of St. Gertrude’s Convent and Academy took place on June 20, 1871. On September 4, 1871, the academy had an enrollment of 46 young ladies. The board and tuition for the season were $40.00. Bedding and laundry were $5.00, piano lessons were $8.00, and guitar lessons were $3.00. Lessons in cloth, wax works, and the making of paper flowers were extra.

Mother Gertrude Flynn was the prioress. She was admired, and she put the convent and academy in firm financial foundation. By mid-1878, the debt of St. Gertrude Convent and Academy was practically paid off.

When Father Plut arrived in Shakopee in 1876, he and the sisters did not get along.

Father Plut, pastor of St. Mark’s and intensely German, decided in 1878 to refuse to re-employ the Benedictine Sisters as teachers at St. Mark’s School because he contended that they were unable to teach German properly. Father Plut and the sisters had a mutual antagonism that developed.

At one point, Father Plut refused, for a time, to give the nuns pews in the church.

At this time there were thirty sisters staffing the academy, convent, and three schools in Minneapolis, Carver, and Belle Plaine, and the orphanage in St. Paul. Father Plut replaced the Benedictine Sisters with the School Sisters of Notre Dame from Milwaukee in May 1878.

On August 31, 1880, Bishop Ireland advised the sisters that St. Gertrude’s was suppressed, and the thirty sisters needed to join St. Benedict’s Convent in St. Joseph, Minnesota or be dispensed from their vows. Sister Gertrude Flynn, OSB, and the other sisters who had come originally from St. Mary’s Pennsylvania moved reluctantly to St. Joseph.

According to a letter to Bishop Ireland, Abbott Alexius Edlebrock of St. John’s Monastery noted: “They believe they were wrong, and in my own impression is that they were wronged.”

In Shakopee, Father Plut was called to St. Paul in 1886. He filed various pastorates until 1903. Then he returned to St. Mark’s in Shakopee. While there, Father Plut was made a Domestic Prelate by Pope Pius X in May 1906, and by July 24 he became Most Reverend Archbishop.

Monsignor Alois Plut’s vigor and health waned, according to Julius A. Coller II.

Monsignor Alois Plut, the oldest priest in the diocese of St. Paul, died at the age of 76 on February 20, 1917. He was buried at St. Mark’s Catholic Cemetery, now called the Shakopee Catholic Cemetery, on February 23.

Bibliography

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

Neill, Edward D. History of the Minnesota Valley including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota. Minneapolis: North Star Publishing, 1882.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Richard John Schneider was born in Credit River on July 12, 1941. He was the third of six children of Julius James Nick Schneider (1909-2001) and Margaret Mary Farrell Schneider (1910-1995).

Richard went to school in Shakopee and graduated in 1959 at the high school which was in what was then the center of Shakopee.

In July 1881, Shakopee consolidated school districts 1 and 2, and built the Union School between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and Lewis and Holmes streets. It was located one block south of old District 1, and west of St. Mary’s Church. It opened on January 10, 1882. It was an elegant building.

They used desks instead of the more typical benches of the time. Union School cost $10,000.

Additions added to the school in 1907 (a full basement for manual training, inside sanitary facilities, two large classrooms and a hall on the first floor, and a large assembly room for the high school on the second floor); in 1929, an addition included razing the oldest part of Union School (added an auditorium, library, science lab, four classrooms, lavatory facilities, shower room, and office space); in 1947, the oldest part of the building before 1929 was torn down, and the 1941 and 1946 additions were incorporated into the new building. In 1959, elementary classrooms to the south end of the present school were added. At that time, Richard was ready to graduate.

(The Shakopee High School on Tenth Avenue was opened in January 1966. Students helped carry some of the books and furnishings the four blocks from Central School (Union School) to the new high school. The high school is now West Middle School after the new high school was built on 17th Avenue in 2007 and expanded in 2016.)

On June 22,1963, Richard married Joan Kollasch at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Shakopee. Claire Joan Kollash Schneider Slater, who was born in 1944, was the daughter of Harold John Kollasch (1913-1997) and Mary Elizabeth Kennedy Kollasch (1915-1993). Her grandparents were Joseph M. Kollasch (1878-1964) and Elizabeth F. Thill (1887-1954); and Lewis A. Kennedy (1886-1959) and Mary Magdaline Menke Kennedy (1892-1987).

In December 1964, Richard and Joan had a son, Douglas Alan Schneider.

Three years later, Richard was a warehouse worker at Broker’s Warehouse in Minneapolis. On Sunday, August 27, 1967, Richard and another worker, Stephen Doran, were on a scaffold. He was moving it when it touched a 3,800-volt power line, according to the Shakopee Valley News, August 31, 1967.

Richard was electrocuted.

People called an ambulance, but a train blocked a crossing, preventing the Minneapolis Fire Department rescue squad from reaching the accident scene. Once they finally arrived, Richard was put in an ambulance and headed to General Hospital in Minneapolis. But on the way, he died.

Richard John Schneider was 26 years old.

The other worker, Stephen Doran of Burnsville, was treated at General Hospital for burns and was released.

Rites happened at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Shakopee on Wednesday, August 30, 1967. Father James Schoenberger officiated the funeral. Pallbearers were Ramon Eng and Gary Pollard of Minneapolis, Ronald Delbow, Robert Delbow, Robert Schmit, and David Kadrlik of Shakopee.

Interment was in the Credit River Cemetery. Credit River Catholic Cemetery, also known as St. Peter’s Cemetery, is located on high ground and overlooks a small lake and Cleary Lake Regional Park, which itself encompasses the land once owned by the Fleming, Cleary, Haugh, O’Brien, and Savage families.

Survivors included his wife, Joan; his son, Donald Alan; his parents, Julius and Margaret Mary Farrell Schneider, who lived at 522 Sixth Street East; two sisters, and three brothers.

Bibliography

Shakopee Valley News, 31 Aug. 1967.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Samuel Pond and his brother, Gideon, arrived in 1834 in the area later called Minnesota. Samuel was a missionary, language translator, agricultural instructor, carpenter, farmer, and ongoing advocate for fair treatment of American Indians.

As Samuel got off the steamboat, he asked someone how to say, “What is this?” in Dakota. As he wrote this down, he walked over to a Dakota and said, “Ka taku he,” pointing to a horse that was near the steamboat landing. (This would sound like “gay-dah-koo-hey.”)

“Hé šúŋkawakȟaŋ héčha,” the man responded.

And Samuel quickly wrote down the word for horse, šúŋkawakȟaŋ. Samuel continued doing this for years, eventually creating the Pond-Dakota alphabet, which is still used today.

Shortly after, Samuel and his brother began teaching Euro-American farming to Dakota people near Bde Maka Ska in present-day Minneapolis. And the brothers continued to work on the Dakota dictionary. Samuel noted, “The language was a game I went to hunt, and I was as eager in the pursuit of that as the Indians were in pursuit of the deer.” The alphabet was used for the publication of hymnals, many books of the Bible, and the first dictionary of the Dakota to which later missionaries also contributed.

In 1847, Samuel and family accepted an invitation from Ṡakpe II to locate in Tínṫa Otuŋwe, which Samuel W. Pond called Prairieville. Samuel W. Pond, Cordelia Eggleston Pond, and their three children moved into their new home, along with Jane Lamont Titus. Samuel was called Ceta Wambli, meaning Red Eagle, by the Dakota. Jennette was five years old, Rebecca was three, and baby Elnathan was scarcely a month old when they moved in. (Samuel, Jr. was born a few years later.)

Elnathan remembered in 1925, “There were no white children excepting my brother, my two sisters, and myself … I recall that white men were a rare sight, and our childish eyes grew round with wonder when we saw one!”

The mission house was built in the middle of Ṡakpe II’s village of Tínṫa Otuŋwe, where approximately 600 Dakota lived in tipi tanka (bark lodges). It was a busy place, and Pond decided to surround the Mission House and front garden with a fence of tall stakes to prevent the Dakota from claiming a portion of the crops that Pond’s family planted.

Samuel W. Pond described the site: “The mission house at Shakopee was pleasantly located on gently rising ground, about half a mile south of the Minnesota River. At a distance of twenty rods or so to the West was the house of Oliver Faribault. Between these two dwellings was a ravine through which ran a never failing spring of clear cold water…” The mission house was “…sufficiently commodious, carefully and comfortably built, although inexpensive in all its appointments. The walls were carefully filled with moistened clay, making them probably bullet-proof and rendering the house very warm.”

According to Samuel, “…the young mother (Cordelia), never very strong, gradually failed in health from that time.”

In the fall of 1851, Samuel Pond obtained from the Board a year’s leave of absence and prepared to visit New England. The journey was a fatiguing one, as much of it was by stage. Samuel knew that Cordelia was failing.

The dying mother, Cordelia, expressed a desire to see all her children once more, knowing that it would be the last time in this world. “To the older ones she gave words of counsel which were carefully heeded and diligently followed. Jennette Clarissa never forgot her mother’s parting words. Mr. Edward Pond went over the icy hill and brought Elnathan to receive his mother’s last kiss and listen to her dying words. She told him to be a good boy and love God. To Judson from his aunt Jennette’s, to the youngest, she said, ‘Poor boy! He will not remember his mother!’ and kissed him farewell.”

Cordelia Eggleston Pond passed away at the age of 36 years, fourteen of them spent in continuous service of the Dakotas.

Samuel, widowed at age 43, was left with four young children.

He remarried an old school friend, Rebecca Susan Smith, about two months after Cordelia’s death. Samuel and Susan did not have any children. They returned to the mission at Shakopee.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright and his brother, Wilbur, made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk with their first powered aircraft. The Wright brothers had invented the first successful airplane.

Raymond and Herbert Strunk were school kids that year, but the idea of flying was in their blood.

They were sons of Arnold Strunk (1857-1938) and Lisette Entrup Strunk (1859-1927).

Ray and Herb read about the flights in the newspapers, and by 1906, the two started building a glider in their large, two-story red barn in the back of the family’s home.

Raymond Carrollous Charles Strunk was born on June 25, 1887. His brother, Herbert Julian, was born on April 8, 1891.

The first glider had a bamboo frame (fish poles) and was covered with light muslin stitched or tacked to the frame. The framework of subsequent models was made of hand-sawed light pine.

The first glider had skis, and when it took off from the bluffs north of the Minnesota River, it skidded down the bluffs.

The glider sometimes skied down the bluffs, and sometimes, during the summer, it was towed by a rope connected to Dr. H.O. Smith’s red Rambler touring car.

Young children from Shakopee and the surrounding area were thrilled as they watched the glider and they felt that Ray and Herb were heroes to the young fans.

Between 1906 through 1908, Ray and Herb built several gliders, some with wheels. One brother would ride on each flight, while the other one would tag along, along with many youths from Shakopee. “These crafts would rise to a height of 40 or 50 feet and then soar and float for about 600 feet before gliding to a jolting landing on a frozen lake or prairie.”

According to Julius Coller II in the book The Shakopee Story in 1960, the glider “bounced off the bluff and frozen lakes to soar in the air for several minutes, like a bird, in contraptions that resembled an over-sized box kite rather than a plane.”

After each flight, Herb and Ray would carry the glider back up the bluff, and then they would try once again. Usually, each glider lasted about five flights. Then the two brothers would salvage what was left from the glider and carted the rest of the demolished glider home for kindling wood.

According to Ray, the work took a lot of enthusiasm and no brains whatsoever! But this did take vision and daring, and Herb and Ray Strunk had it!

Raymond married Mary Scherkenbach on June 28, 1911. Raymond’s brother, Herbert, was the best man.

Raymond Carrollous Charles Strunk died in Minneapolis on September 26, 1957. His brother, Herbert Julius Strunk, died 11 years earlier, on August 18, 1946, in New York.

For young people of Shakopee, the two young men from Shakopee taught the children that the Strunk brothers worked together to finally fly!

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Now, with Raymond and Herbert, it was a glider, and the two brothers took to the sky in 1906.

Bibliography

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

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

During the 1920s, Ralph Gibson Schroeder was an only child, born and raised in Shakopee by his parents and aunts. Ralph was born on August 25, 1915, in Shakopee.

His grandparents were Herman Frederick Schroeder and Mary Reinke and were part of the Schroeder Brick and Lime Manufacturing Company in Shakopee, according to Minnesota Bricks.

Ralph’s parents were Henry C. Schroeder and Nellie Mae Gibson. His parents were well-known, proper, and dignified citizens of Shakopee.

His father was a leader in civic and business affairs and was mayor of Shakopee from 1928-1935. He helped develop Riverside Park’s athletic field and was instrumental in the erection of the grandstand there.

His mother was a former teacher and a member of many local organizations.

So, Ralph was intent to be just the opposite.

Ralph lived at 519 East First Avenue then, just across the street from the old Methodist Church at First and Fillmore, according to Don Wagner of the Shakopee Heritage Society.

Before it was the Methodist Church, it was the First Presbyterian Church from 1900 to 1967. The First Presbyterian Church (the second in the valley) was built in the fall of 1856. It was a frame building with hewed logs, built mostly by Rev. Samuel Pond, on Second Street and Market Street. It was used by 180 people, and they later added a fence and horse sheds between Main and Market Street.

“I find recollections of the first service in the old church, then a miracle of newness and beauty in my eyes,” said Rev. Samuel W. Pond in the Scott County Argus, March 25, 1905. “It is true that the seats were rough boards on carpenter’s horses, and the pulpit and gallery had not yet been supplied; but it was the NEW church and had a tower and bell.”

In 1899, they built a new church on First Street and Fillmore Street for $2560. The lot was donated by Henry Hinds. It was dedicated on February 25, 1900. The bell was from the 1856 church. Two stained glass windows were dedicated. One was of Samuel Pond, the other of Cordelia Eggleston Pond.

The First Presbyterian Church congregation stayed in this building from 1900 to 1967. The First Presbyterian Church then moved to 909 Marschall Road in Shakopee.

For thirty years, the church building on First Avenue was used as the old Methodist Church at First and Fillmore, a bus terminal and an office building.

In 1997, the church became Igelsia del Dios Vivo, Columna y Adoyo de la Verdad, La Luz Del Mundo, or The Light of the World Church, at 502 First Ave East in Shakopee.

Before The Light if the World Church, before the office building, before the bus terminal, this place was used for a short time as the Methodist Church.

From his bedroom window on the second story, Ralph had a good view of the bell tower and the bell on the church steeple of the church. He set up his 22-caliber rifle in that upstairs bedroom window. He knew that the 22 rifle was silent enough that his parents wouldn’t hear it.

Ralph waited until midnight. Then he would aim and fire a single well-aimed round at the bell.

The bell rang a single tone that could be heard for blocks. The minister and members of the church would go to the church at midnight to find out who was ringing the bell. They could not see anybody in the church or the bell tower, but they did hear the bell ringing.

Ralph continued to do this, every night, at midnight.

And at midnight, the minister and church members continued to try to figure out who was ringing the bell. Soon the people about the town of Shakopee believed that a ghost was ringing the bell at church.

After a few months, Ralph got bored, and he told a few friends what he was up to. That kept the local gossipers going for months afterwards. Good old Ralph!

Ralph Gibson Schroeder died on September 18, 1972, in Eugene, Oregon. He was buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

Bibliography

Minnesota Bricks. https://www.mnbricks.com/Schroeder-brick/.

Scott County Argus, March 25, 1905