Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Anna Maria Wolf was born March 8, 1870, in St. Joseph Township, daughter of Mathias Mather Wolf (1835-1925) and Anna Deutsch Wolf (1831-1922). According to the John Wolf-Margaret Gerardy Wolf Family Tree, Mathias had emigrated to America with his parents and brothers and sisters in the year 1854 when he was twenty years old.

Because of Tettingen’s location close to the Moselle River, many immigrants followed the stream to LeHarvre, France, and left the continent from there. They would have arrived in the port of New York, going overland to Chicago, and on to Galena, Illinois, where they traveled up the Mississippi River to St. Paul. From St. Paul, it would have been on to Shakopee via the Minnesota River and from Shakopee, they walked the distance to St. Joseph Township, carrying all their possessions.

Johann Wolf (Anna Maria Wolf’s grandfather) had declared his intention to become a U.S. citizen on May 19, 1855, and therefore he became eligible to receive homestead land from the government. Under the pre-emption plan, settlers-colonists could purchase surveyed public lands for $1.25 per acre through the government land office. Wolf filed his claim at Red Wing, the land office for Minnesota Territory, on September 12, 1855, and received a deed for 120 acres of land in Sand Creek Township. The deed was signed by President Franklin Pierce on November 1, 1856, in Washington, D.C.

The land that Johann and Marguerithe Margaret Gerardy Wolf settled on was hilly with heavy clay soil and covered with trees. Before the family could farm, the members had to clear the trees, and they used the wood for erecting farm buildings. Johann and Margaret saw their children marry – John Jr. to Magdelina Ruppert; Mathias to Anna Deutsch; Peter to Frances Kerrer; Frank to Mary Meyer; Margaret to Matt Hennen: and Katherine to John Deutsch.

In 1857, three years after coming to this country, Mathias took Anna Deutsch as his bride. She had come to America from Besch, Germany, in 1855, with her parents, five brothers, and one sister. Anna’s parents, John and Mary Deutsch, had settled nearby in Helena Township. The couple was married at St. Joseph where the parish had just been established and was without a formal church structure. In fact, it was John Wolf, Peter Ruppert, and Wilhelm Budde who donated the land for the eventual church building and cemetery of St. Joseph.

The pair turned to farming like their parents and ancestors, buying a 100-acre parcel in Helena Township. The papers were filed at the land office in Henderson and signed by President Abraham Lincoln, August 1, 1861.

Together, Mathias and Anna did their full share of subduing the Scott County wilderness and converting the woods into fertile fields. After Mathias’s father died in 1873, the couple shared their home with Mathias’s mother until her death from pneumonia in 1885.

In 1880, after all nine children were born, Anna and Mathias sold their farm and moved to one near St. Benedict. The couple became active in the church and school of St. Benedict, and it was in 1887, when the present church was built, that Mathias joined his neighbors in donating the labor to raise the structure.

Eight of the couple’s children married and struck out on their own. The children and spouses included: John and Mary Haus; Margaret and Michael Beckius; Mathias Jr. and Rosalia Koelzer; Peter and Catherine Cenzius; Frank and Frances Schloesser; Anna and Andrew Busch; John Michael and Sophia Pranke and Helen and Andrew Busch and Anton Scheffler. Their daughter, Mary, second youngest child, died at the age of 27.

The couple watched with pride as their children grew to be respected citizens in their communities. In 1905 they lived with son Frank and family, according to the census, but the children of Frank stated that their grandparents never lived with them.

Perhaps they were visiting the day the census was taken. At the time of their deaths in 1922 and 1925 Mathias and Anna lived with their son Michael and his family on Michael’s farm. (Both Mathias and Anna’s death certificates have wrong information on them. It is stated that Mathias was 79 years, 11 months and 13 days and buried in New Prague. The birth and death dates are correct so subtract the two dates and you get over ninety years old. Also, Mathias is buried in St Benedict as the stone marker is there. On Anna’s death certificate, it is stated that her father’s name is John and it should have been Mathias.)

In 1883, Anna had her first communion at St. Benedict. She was 13 years old, and Father Asimirus Hueppe, O.S.F., was the pastor. In May 1893, she married Andreas Andrew H. Busch (1869-1947) who was born in Sand Creek Township August 17, 1868, son of Henry Busch (1837-1919) and Anna Maria Roentgen (1841-1886). According to the John Wolf-Margaret Gerardy Wolf Family Tree, Andrew was a well-known Marystown farmer and retired in Jordan. The witnesses for marriage were Peter Busch and Lena Wolf, and the priest was Father Pulthoff.

Anna and Andrew had several children: Florian Henry; Julian; Hildegarde; Bertha M.; Francis; Alphonse M.; Alice; Rosetta; Loretta Rosalia; Elmer John; and Emma.

Andreas Andrew Busch died March 17, 1947, in Jordan, and was buried at the cemetery in Marystown. Anna Maria Wolf Busch died August 19, 1958, at age 88 in Sand Creek Township. The service was at St. John’s Catholic Church in Jordan, and Anna was buried at St. Mary’s of Marystown Catholic Cemetery, next to her husband.

Bibliography

John Wolf-Margaret Gerardy Wolf Family Tree.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Ann Pow was born December 12, 1811, in Tranent, East Lothian, Scotland. Her parents were Robert Pow (1770-1854) and Jean Richardson Pow, born in 1780 in Scotland.

In Tranent, on December 19, 1830, Ann married David Kinghorn, who was born in Scotland in 1809. David’s parents were George H. Kinghorn, born in 1785 in Fogo, Scotland, and died on January 29, 1871, in Shakopee, and Agnes MacLaren Kinghorn, born in 1786 and died in Scotland in 1866.

David learned the miller’s trade. Around 1830, David and Ann headed to Ontario, Canada. David was employed as a miller for four years, according to The History of the Minnesota Valley by Edward Duffield Neill in 1882. He then worked in New York for six years. Then, in 1839, the family moved to Kane County, Illinois, where David worked in milling for three years, and then bought 160 acres of land. He later sold the land and purchased one section of Cook County, Illinois, where he farmed for ten years.

Meanwhile, Ann gave birth to twelve children: David, Agnes, George Franklin, Janet, John Mitchell, William, Robert, David, Thomas, Elsie, Margaret, and Charles Kinghorn.

In 1852, the family came to Eagle Creek, now Shakopee, Minnesota Territory, where they pre-empted 160 acres of land. He later owned eighty acres. David Kinghorn was sergeant-at-arms at the first constitutional convention in the state, was a representative in the first legislature, and for years held offices of trust in the town and county.

The family moved to Redwood, Lower Sioux Agency in 1860, when Ann was 52 years old. David taught school there for two and a half years.

In the summer of 1862, the Redwood Agency was one of the first places attacked during the U.S.-Dakota War. The government had defaulted on their treaty with the Dakota Indians. The Dakota were supposed to be paid and supplied with provisions for surrendering (or taking) their lands. The summer was extremely hot and dry, and food supplies were running low. There was no forthcoming help for the people and so in their desperation for survival, the Dakota began to attack colonists-settlements and farms.

A story has been passed down that David and Ann were rescued from the attack on the Lower Sioux Agency by their Dakota friends who hid them in a wagon and covered them with hay and took them to a place of safety, according to the Kinghorn History by Elaine Kinghorn Hill, Linda Martin, and others who have cooperated with its compilation.

The Lower Sioux Agency, or Redwood Agency, was built by the federal government in 1853 near the Redwood River in south-central Minnesota Territory. The agency served as an administrative center for the Lower Sioux Reservation of Santee Dakota. It was also the site of key events related to the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, according to Matt Reicher’s “Lower Sioux Agency” in MNopedia.

Four bands of Dakota—the Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Sisseton, and Wahpeton—ceded most of their homelands in southern Minnesota with the 1851 treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota. They were forced to reservations along the Minnesota River in exchange for food, supplies, and regular payments from the U.S. government. In 1853 the U.S. created the Lower Sioux Agency near Morton to issue these goods to the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands. An agency for the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands was built north of the Lower Agency at the mouth of the Yellow Medicine River.

The Lower Agency compound was made up of about a dozen buildings clustered around a council square. Four traders’ stores stood nearby. Laborers, teachers, merchants, and missionaries lived on-site. The agency housed officials and provisions to meet the Dakota people’s needs related to the treaties. It also built manual labor schools, mills, and blacksmith shops. David Kinghorn and family were there while David taught at the school there.

Agency workers tried to persuade the Dakota to conform to Euro-American customs. They encouraged them to give up hunting and gathering and to rely on farmed crops and livestock for food. Only about 150 of the 3200 Dakota on the reservation became farmers.

A poor harvest in 1861 followed by a harsh winter ravaged the Dakota on the reservation. In 1862, many were starving. Tribal leaders looked to agency officials to meet the government’s treaty obligations: food, supplies, and money. Previous payments had been made in June. When that month passed without a delivery of gold from Washington, Indian Agent Thomas Galbraith (from Shakopee) promised to issue the goods and money together by July 20.

In early August, Mdewakanton leader Thaóyate Dúta (His Red Nation, also known as Little Crow) met with Galbraith and the traders to persuade them to open their stores. Thaóyate Dúta asked the agent to give out food right away and pay the money later. He spoke of the stores filled with food while Dakota people remained hungry. In response, agency storekeeper Andrew Myrick exclaimed, “If they are hungry, let them eat grass or their own dung.”

After Myrick’s remark, frustration that had simmered within the Dakota for years boiled over. On the morning of August 18, Mdewakanton warriors attacked the traders’ stores. Many of the traders and staff of the agency were killed, including Myrick and Galbraith’s clerk. Buildings were looted and burned down. Some of the agency’s residents fled to nearby Fort Ridgely.

The attack at the agency was the first organized incident of the U.S.-Dakota War. The six-week series of battles took the lives of more than six hundred white civilians and soldiers and an unknown number of Dakota.

In October of 1862 the trials of 392 Dakota prisoners started at Camp Release and then were moved to the agency and held in the cabin of trader Francis LaBathe. Thirty-eight of the men tried were later executed in Mankato.

Acts of U.S. Congress passed in 1863 exiled the Dakota from Minnesota. They dissolved their reservations and agencies, including Lower Sioux. According to Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) Archipedia, at the end of the war, the majority of Dakota were relocated to reservations outside Minnesota, first to the Crow Creek Reservation in what is now central South Dakota, and later to the Santee Reservation in Nebraska.

David and Ann Pow Kinghorn and family moved back to Eagle Creek according to the1870 United States Federal Census. They had ten children, four of whom are living: nineteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. David and Ann had two of their sons in the Civil War. On August 15, 1862, Corporal George Franklin Kinghorn (1838-1914) and Private William A. Kinghorn (1843-1864) served in Company I, Ninth Minnesota volunteers. While Corporal George Franklin Kinghorn returned home, and died in 1914, Private William A. Kinghorn was taken prisoner in Memphis, where he died of disease on September 6, 1864.

Ann died March 3, 1889, at age 77. She was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, South Dakota. Her husband, David, died April 24, 1890, and was buried at the Rochester State Hospital Cemetery.

Bibliography

Coffman, Rebekah Marzahn. “Birch Coulee School.” Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) Archipedia. https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MN-01-127-0082

Neill, Edward Duffield. The History of the Minnesota Valley, 1882.

Reicher, Matt. “Lower Sioux Agency.” MNopedia, 11 Aug. 2014. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/place/lower-sioux-agency. Accessed 29 Aug. 2024.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

About 9:30 p.m., a thin, loose-jointed, poorly clad African American teenager was seen rounding the corner of First and Holmes Street in Shakopee, according to the Shakopee Argus-Tribune on May 8, 1930. He disappeared in the darkness of the alley at the south end of the Holmes Street Bridge, according to the article, “Dejected dusky youth finds end of rainbow in humble hospitality.”

Officer Kelly waited. After several minutes, Kelly commandeered Greg Hartmann’s car and drove through the alley, but he could not find the youth. A second trip over the course, Officer Kelly, along with the aid of a flashlight, spotted the youngster sitting motionless, stiffened with fear on a swing at the rear of a First Avenue residence.

According to the article, the search “revealed no weapons—in fact, nothing but a thin body lightly clad. He was taken to the city hall, where, after long and tedious effort, the boy was convinced he was not arrested but was being helped.” With eyes straight forward, never turning to high of left, he began his story.

The teenager was 16 years old and had left Minneapolis on a bicycle about 8 a.m. that morning. He was in ninth grade but had to leave school to help earn a living.

He was headed to Chaska. He had met a friend, a Mexican American, who worked at the sugar beet fields around Chaska and Shakopee.

As he was biking to Chaska, he was struck by a passing truck. The front wheel of his bicycle broke shortly after leaving Lyndale Avenue. So, the teen walked to Chaska and looked for his friend. He only had his first name and was unable to locate him.

As he walked home to Minneapolis, he got turned around at the intersection of Highway 5 and Highway 52, and so he arrived in Shakopee. And so, he was sitting at city hall when Ray Hill walked in. Ray had seen the teenager in the afternoon on the highway.

The Mexican American family, including the friend of the African American, had left Minneapolis on Friday, driving a brown and black truck. According to the Shakopee Argus-Tribune, Ray Hill had seen the truck and its occupants—father, mother, and six children. They were building a shack on the Indian Road, where they would work in a sugar beet field.

The Indian Road is a road on the north side of the Minnesota River. The road follows the river, then ends at Flying Cloud Drive. Along the road were the Dakota who lived in tipi tonka, tipi, and cabins along the Minnesota River. The Indian settlement on the north side of the Minnesota River in what is now Eden Prairie, though a common postcard called the area Shakopee’s Reservation, the land was purchased by Oyatekokepa Jacob Otherday. The 18 acres were purchased in 1871.

Once a car was procured, the group of people, including the African American teenager, headed across the Holmes Street Bridge, then right to Indian Road where the shack was located.

“Through an open window the glow of a lighted match fell upon the Mexican family asleep on the floor of the crowded shack.” The Mexican American father was awakened and summoned to the window. The Mexican American might have been Pedro Delgado, who was one of the migrant laborers who worked tending and harvesting beets for the massive sugar industry from 1924 to 1932, or one of the many Latino migrant laborers who worked there, according to the Chaska Herald article on October 23, 2009 called “Fields of memory: Former beet farmer revisits his childhood home of Chaska.”

The Mexican American saw, in the rays of a flashlight, the smiling face of the African American teenager. “There was no doubt as to their acquaintance.” In a moment the door was ajar; the youth accepted the humble hospitality.

The African American teenager and the Mexican American family spent the night, and in the morning all of them headed to work in the beet fields in Scott and Carver County.

Bibliography

“Dejected dusky youth finds end of rainbow in humble hospitality.” Shakopee Argus-Tribune, 8 May 1930.

Olson, Mark W. “Fields of memory: Former beet farmer revisits his childhood home of Chaska.” Chaska Herald, 23 Oct. 2009.

By David R. Schleper

Corporal George B. Clark, of Shakopee, Minnesota served with the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company A, and was present at all of the regiment’s battles. The First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment was the first in the nation to answer President Abraham Lincoln’s call for troops in 1861, and they courageously served with great distinction.

The First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment mustered for a three-year term (1861-1864) in the Union Army at the outset of the American Civil War when the prevailing enlistment period was three months. During offensive movements, it sustained high degrees of casualties at the Battles of First Bull Run and Antietam and a catastrophic degree of casualties at the Battle of Gettysburg. It is most noted for its service on the second day at Gettysburg.

At a pivotal moment and position during the 1863 conflict at Gettysburg, Union general Winfield Scott Hancock desperately ordered the 262 men of the First Minnesota to charge the 1,600 advancing Alabama Rebels.

Carpenter recalled, “We advanced down the slope…Comrade after comrade dropped from the ranks; but the line went. No one took a second look at his fallen companion. We had no time to weep.” Only 47 men returned alive, but they preserved a key Union defensive position.

On July 4, Lieutenant William Lochren wrote a letter to his hometown Winona Republican newspaper. “We are in the midst of a terrible battle,” he wrote. “Two thirds of the regiment are killed or wounded. We got the better of the enemy in the fight, and our regiment captured one stand of colors.”

When given the opportunity to speak about the Regiment after the war, both General Hancock and US President Calvin Coolidge were unrestrained with praise. Hancock placed its heroism highest in the known annals of war and ascribed unsurpassed gallantry to the famed attack. Emphasizing the criticality of the circumstances on July 2 at Gettysburg, President Coolidge considered, “Colonel Colvill and those eight companies of the First Minnesota are entitled to rank as the saviors of their country.”

Corporal Clark was captured at Antietam but released through a prisoner exchange and then was wounded at Bristow Station. He re-enlisted with the 1st Battalion of Minnesota Infantry, was captured at Petersburg and incarcerated for eight months.

While imprisoned he endured virtual starvation and lost his teeth due to scurvy. George B. Clark was forty-five years old when he died on March 16, 1887 due to his continuing illness.

By David R. Schleper

John Shoto (also called Shodo) was born at Wabasha in March 1798, and remained with the band of Chief Wabasha until he was 25 years old. At that point, he joined the Red Wing band of Dakotas, serving with Chief Redwing near Barns Bluff for 15 years, according to Dr. David Laframboise.

Shoto came up the Minnesota River and was a brave in the Ŝakpedan or Little Six band in Tiŋta-otoŋwe, later called Shakopee. After the Dakota Uprising in 1862, Shoto became a scout under Governor Sibley. He served from 1862 to 1870. In 1872, Shoto returned to Shakopee as chief of the Little Six band.

In the beginning of January 1899, Old Shoto was about town, peering out of his almost sightless eyes and now and again saying “Hau! Hau!” to all who gave him a merry greeting. Hau is Dakota for “hello.”

Nearly everyone in Shakopee and Scott County knew Old Shoto, and many pioneer settlers in other parts of the state remembered the old Dakota scout. It is also interesting to hear how smart Shoto was. He used to stop at various houses of rich people in downtown Shakopee. He would ask for food. If the housekeeper was there, she would fill his plate with lots of food, and Shoto was happy. When the woman of the house would answer the door, Shoto asked for food, and one rich woman would look disgustingly at him, and would give him two pieces of bread and little more. Shoto would point to his throat, gesture that he had a sore throat, and then would leave. He knew he could find something better at other houses, where the people were friendlier.

Fr. J.J. Girrimondi of St. Mary’s Catholic Church baptized Shoto, who was one of Ŝakpe’s braves, in 1895.

The 1880 census noted that Shoto was born in 1813, and was 67 years old and living in Shakopee. The 1895 census noted that he was 91 years old, born around 1804, and living in Eden Prairie. In an issue of the Scott County Argus, editor C.G. Bowdish noted that his age is a matter for some conjecture, and is variously placed at from 102 to 109 years old. “There is a large painted portrait of him in a Minneapolis house on Nicollet Avenue that is labeled ‘109 Years Old,’ but from his own reports and the traditions of the Sioux, he was probably about 105 at the time of his death,” noted Bowdish.

According to Eden Prairie: A Brief History, Chief Shoto died in January 1899 at the age of 99 at his home in the American Indian settlement in Eden Prairie (across from Shakopee, on the north side of the river.) He died within the walls of his beloved tipi at the reservation east of town at 3 p.m.

His wife, Anna, survived him, and died at the age of 90. Their daughter, Caroline Moore, died as an infant in 1830, and was buried in the Valley Cemetery in the pauper field (next to Dan Eddings, the African American who lived, worked, and died in Shakopee).

He also left two (or four) grandchildren. Fr. Flemming of St. Mary’s Church in Shakopee buried old Shoto, who had been converted by his predecessor.

And now you have a little bit of information about John Shoto, who was a good friend with Ŝakpedan!

(Some information from Eden Prairie: A Brief History, by Marie Wittenberg, 2010, The History Press; The Shakopee Story by Julius A. Coller, II; Shakopee Tribune, Jan. 27, 1899; Scott County Argus, Jan. 26, 1899; Jordan Independent, Feb. 2, 1899.)

By David R. Schleper

After the United States entered World War I in 1917, Minnesota women, like Americans across the nation, were called to contribute to the war effort. Though some went to Europe and served as nurses, drivers, and aid workers on the battlefields, many more participated on the home front. They took on new jobs, conserved vital resources, and joined volunteer organizations.

Women joined, led, and donated their time and money to groups that provided soldiers with food, shelter, and supplies. They joined YWCA sewing and knitting circles to craft items for soldiers and civilians. They rolled bandages and collected funds for the American Red Cross. In 1918, these Shakopee women, called Bandage Girls, stood on the east side of Lewis Street in Shakopee, between First and Second avenues.

Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 finally granted them, and women across the nation, suffrage (the right to vote).

By David R. Schleper

On April 12, 1861, the American Civil War began as Confederate forces bombarded Fort Sumter which was held by a dedicated group of Union soldiers.

With the news of the attack, Minnesota was the first state to answer President Abraham Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers to serve in the Union army. Scott County citizens gathered for a meeting on April 20 at the Scott County Courthouse. Immediate support was given to defend the union of the nation.

Alexander H. Lyons, his wife, Eliza A. Lyons, and their family moved to Shakopee in 1855. Stephen, who was born in New York in 1839, was the oldest of four brothers, all of whom served during the Civil War.

Stephen went to St. Paul to enlist for the war on April 25, 1861. His brother, Harrison, also joined the war, and both Stephen and Harrison were wounded at Gettysburg.

George F. Lyons, born in 1841, served in the 9^th Minnesota Infantry, and John L Lyons, born in 1847, served in the 11^th Minnesota. They both arrived back to Minnesota without any physical problems.

And so, now you know about the four brothers. Stephen, Harrison, George, and John; the Lyons brothers, from Shakopee, and part of the large number of Shakopee people who fought for our nation during the Civil War.

(Some information from The Diary of Daniel M. Storer from 1849 to 1905: A Pioneer Builder and Merchant; Historical Scene: “Scott County’s Civil War Veterans Remembered” by Scot Stone, Aug./Sept. 2011, p. 15; Vangsness, Dave. “Stephen Lyons (1838-1907).” Find A Grave. findagrave.com/memorial/36766844.)

By David R. Schleper

General Thomas W. Wilson and his wife, along with his son, C.M., came to St. Paul in 1851. C.M. attended Miss Harriet E. Bishop’s school for a year, and also attended a mission school that was run by Rev. Breck.

At that time, many kids were in two gangs in St. Paul. The upper town boys would have contests against the lower town boys. Sometime the two groups would have pitched battles.

In 1851 in St. Paul, C.M. and his friends heard screams in the direction of the upper levee of the Minnesota River. C.M. and his friends ran to the area of the river, and saw people pointing to a man who was sinking into the water for the third time. Although there were a number of grown people witnessing the struggle, no one moved to save him. C.M. pulled off his boots, jumped into the river, and swam to the man, who was sinking below the surface. C.M. seized the man by the hair and pulled him to the shore. Everyone was impressed with C.M., who was only 10 years old, but was braver than any others in St. Paul that year!

Another time, Major Wilson was at an old house, called the Daniels House, a wooden building of four stories on the upper levee in 1852. Suddenly, it was in flames. A lady boarder frantically and piteously looked up into the faces of a number of men as she said, “Can’t you save that valuable package?” She pointed to Daniels House, which was in flames, and looked around. No one responded.

“I’ll go!” said Major Wilson, and he did! He brought out the valuables, and just as he go out of the building, the whole framework fell in with a terrible crash! The brave traits of Major Wilson caused him to be in prominence. The adult population praised him, and he was lionized as a hero by the boys in St. Paul.

Major Wilson and his brother were engaged in trading with the Dakota Indians at Shakopee in 1853. He was one of the only white boys in the place, and the Indians called him “the little black head.” Major Wilson gained knowledge of the Dakota language and habits, and even 30 years later, the Dakota Indians would see him and remember “the little black head,” as they used to call him.

In 1855 until 1857, Major Wilson attended school in Granville, Ohio. He then returned to Minnesota and farmed until 1861, where he joined the Union army. He was promoted step by step, each time for meritorious conduct.

In 1864, C.M. was captured and taken to Andersonville prison. He was also prisoner in Monticello, Florida, and Florence, South Carolina. In Florence prison, he escaped with 15 others, but was recaptured by the use of bloodhounds. Three of the 15 prisoners were killed by the bloodhounds, while seven more died before reaching the Florence prison again. Major Wilson was held in high esteem by his fellow prisoners.

After the war, Major Wilson helped build railroads, and became inspector of customs. He married Miss Miller of Ohio in 1871. They had two children, a son and a daughter. His wife died in 1884.

Major Wilson, who was born in 1842 in Ohio, was a rather slender, wiry man, who was full of energy. He used his indomitable will-power in his aims and in his purpose. He had a very active brain, backed by nerve, and entered earnestly into his enterprises. He was liberal in his disposition, social in nature, a natural schemer, persistent in his efforts, and devoted to his friends.

(Some information from Pen Pictures of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Biographical Sketches of Old St. Paul by Thomas McLean Newson, 1886.)

Samuel Hibler, a young man from Pennsylvania, opened a first-class bookstore in the fall of 1855. “Hurrah for Shakopee!” said the Shakopee Independent on Nov. 17, 1855, “Such an establishment is needed in Shakopee, and no man that we know of is better qualified to transact that same business than is Mr. Hibler. May success attend him for his enterprise.”

Samuel Hibler set up a book seller and stationer in just a few days, according to the article.

Though the idea of a bookstore in Shakopee was wonderful then (and wish the same now!), there is more about Samuel Hibler than just the bookstore!

On a cold stormy night in the last days of January 1856, James B. Wakefield, Henry P. Constans, Spier Spencer and Samuel V. Hibler, with several others, whose names are not important to this history, were assembled in a small store by a warm stove in Shakopee. All were poor in purse, but in youth, health and courage, were rich and hopeful.

This was a year ever memorable in Minnesota of inflated prices of land and of wild speculations. Immigrants had been coming into the territory in great numbers. For several years past great improvements had been made and fortunes acquired in a day, by speculators in lands, town-sites and corner lots. The prospects for the year just beginning were very flattering.

The conversation of this small company turned upon these interesting subjects and the project was proposed of striking out somewhere and founding a city. Others were doing this very thing and were rapidly acquiring wealth and why should they not do the same? They agreed to go forth into the wilderness and find a suitable place for a town-site, survey and plat it and settle down as permanent citizens and build a town.

Speculation was not the sole motive of this project. A desire to secure permanent locations, the establishment of business and to contribute their mite, toward the building up and development of the country, as well as the bettering of their financial condition, induced this determination.

The first intention was to go into Freeborn County, but on examining the map of southern Minnesota, the valley of the Blue Earth River fixed the attention of the company. The buffalo and elk hunter, the trapper, the Indian and the explorer, had already told their stories, of the beauty and fertility of the Blue Earth valley. Thomas Holmes had talked in glowing language of the forks of the Blue Earth River as an eligible location for a town.

In fact, a small, rough log cabin, on the north bank of the stream was built by Thomas A. Holmes in 1854 at the two branches of the Blue Earth River in Faribault County. It was very crudely built, quite low and not more than ten by twelve feet in size, and had evidently been built as a mere temporary shelter. He erected this cabin, with the intention of making a claim of the land adjoining, with a view of eventually laying out a town in the vicinity.

This he never did, however, but went so far as to employ two men, whose names are now forgotten, to go upon the land and to occupy this cabin a short time.

This cabin was the first advance made in the building of a human habitation, on the capacity and architectural style of a Dakota tioti. It was the first house erected in the county. But in 1854, Thomas A. Holmes decided to focus more on Shakopee.

And so, in 1856, the group of men from Shakopee decided to go to the head-waters of the Blue Earth River. The winter had been long and cold. It was now the beginning of February and the snow lay twenty inches deep on the level and great drifts were piled in every direction, but what are such difficulties to western energy, bent on great projects?

The company hired one Huffman, with his team and sled, and gathered together a few provisions. They gathered flour, pork, beans, some culinary utensils and a ten gallon keg of a peculiar fluid extract of rye, which latter article had been recommended by solicitous friends, as a valuable medicine in cases of frost-bites, snake-bites, chills, or general prostration. Well-armed with guns, pistols and plenty of ammunition, Samuel and others started for the forks of the Blue Earth, across a trackless region.

The cold was intense, and the roads, where there were any, were blockaded. South of Mankato no roads existed. After a tedious journey, on Feb. 6, 1956, Samuel and his group crossed the lands where Blue Earth City now stands, and proceeded about a mile further south, to the cabin of Moses Sailor, the first settler. The group stayed overnight with Moses Sailor.

Having traveled all day over trackless prairies, plunging through deep snow drifts, sometimes breaking the way for the team, Samuel and the other pioneers were well nigh exhausted and they enjoyed the hearty welcome, the warm fire, the corn bread and bacon of the first settler.

Having fully explained their designs to Moses Sailor, the next morning the pioneers, with Moses in the lead, entered upon the lands where the future city was to be built. Moses, knowing the ground well, pointed out to them in glowing language the beauty and adaptability of the location for a town-site. But few words are necessary with men of business and it was forthwith decided to found the town. They were shown the small log cabin of Thomas A. Holmes, in which they stored their goods and took up their abode for the present.

On the following day Wakefield and Spencer started out with the team, on their return to Shakopee, leaving Constans and Hibler to hold possession of the country.

Henry and Samuel were left alone and went to work to render themselves as comfortable as possible in their cabin. Their usual amusements were chopping wood and carrying it up the steep bank of the river, to their cabin, keeping fire and cooking their victuals. Frequently informal visits would be made to Moses’s, where they would get a warm meal, which visits would be kindly returned by Moses in a day or two, and these courtesies were usually, according to the strict etiquette of the times, rendered mellow and agreeable.

Thus the time passed until about March 7, 1856, when James returned with a pocketful of official commissions and accompanied by another new settler, George B. Kingsley. Spier did not return, but stayed in Shakopee.

During this time of organization of the county, there were not probably more than fifteen white male voters in the county. The pioneers, now four of them, Wakefield, Constans, Hibler, and Kingsley, all living in the small cabin, decided that their quarters were too small and uncomfortable and determined at once to build a larger house.

This they proceeded to do and, after a week or two of hard work and the assistance of the Sailor boys, the result was the Elkhorn, erected on the proposed town-site of Blue Earth City. It was the first house on the town-site. The building was constructed of rough logs and was very roomy, being sixteen by twenty-two feet, one story high, large chimney, puncheon floor, and one civilized window. As soon as completed they removed into this commodious tenement and it became the general rendezvous, and head-quarters of the county for some time.

Spring set in about the middle of March and the snow soon entirely disappeared, but it was still cold. Provisions had run very low and Moses had also exhausted his store. The weather continued cold—the ice in the streams was breaking up—the waters getting high and traveling was impossible. Day after day even weeks passed, but no one came bringing provisions. No one could go after supplies, and starvation was imminent. They were at last reduced to buckwheat slapjacks, the flour being stirred up with water, and as a rarity occasionally seasoned with ground cinnamon bark. This was the only article of food for some weeks, except that on several occasions some wild game—a squirrel or a rabbit—would be shot.

And to add greatly to their miseries, their stock of tobacco became entirely exhausted—not a crumb left. “Oh for one chew! Just one smoke!” was the repeated exclamation. Barks and roots were tried but gave no relief—pockets were worn out with the involuntary search for the weed and in the silent hours of the night weird dreams came to them of jolly plugs of pure Cavendish, great smoking Meerschaums, and Royal Havanas, dancing in the air.

During this trying time, however, an event occurred which threw the company into great excitement—a fine fat raccoon was discovered in a tree top, at a short distance! Here now was something of real importance. It had of course to be taken by some means as they were out of meat. It was one of those great emergencies, where presence of mind, steady nerves, and skill alone triumph. So the mighty hunter Constans, by far the best marks-man in the party and a dead shot, was deputed to bring down the raccoon.

Henry approached the game with that silence, stealth and cunning, known only to the skilled hunter. He took deadly aim with a rest, he fired—the raccoon did not stir. Quickly loading again with great care and circumspection, he shot again but strange to say there were no signs of trouble in that tree top. And now, alas, it was found that the shots were all exhausted. What was to be done?

Henry wore a vest, on which were some round buttons. He pulled out his knife and off came the buttons. This was serious, so the gun was reloaded with the heavy buttons. Henry, concentrating his powers, took another deadly aim—fired and down came the raccoon, and down also came the hunter! The gun killed, or nearly so, at both ends. It had kicked him fair on the nose, knocking him over. His nose was smashed. But they got the raccoon, and they had a great old time eating once again!

Life in Faribault County during this time was not especially attractive and began to hang heavily upon our pioneers. No amusements—but few neighbors, no mails, nothing to do, except the cooking of their meals and carrying in their wood and water. Their stories had all been told a dozen times, invention even was exhausted, no reading matter but that which had been read and re-read until it had become disgustingly stale. A vocal band was organized and much time spent in singing. Quiet games of cards were played, with no other purpose than to kill time, or as was often the fact to determine definitely who should bring in the next bucket of water, or back in the next load of wood. The last days of the month arrived and with it the occurrence of a great and long hoped for event.

Settlers now began to come into various parts of the county rapidly and locate. A number of claims were taken and cabins erected, and as the pleasant month of June arrived, the ground became settled and the great work of surveying the town-site was begun.

Thomas Hood, of Shakopee, a first-class surveyor, was employed and a surveying corps was organized. The surveying and staking out of the city required about a month’s labor, and was completed in the first days of July.

Samuel, the register of deeds of the county and one of the original town proprietors, was holding a section adjoining the town-site of Blue Earth City as a claim. He had erected a small cabin and made some other improvements in the land. The land was very valuable, and since Hibler wasn’t on the claim, Theophius Bowen jumped the claim. He wanted to contest Hibler’s right to own the land on the local land office.

The jumping of claims was in those days very unpopular. Many people lost their lives in this territory because of claim jumping. Law and order was not well established and trespassing often resulted in the strong and bloody hand.

On Oct. 15, 1856, Samuel and several friends proceeded to the house on his claim and ordered Bowen off the premises. A young man, Alfonso Brooks, was in the house at the time with Theophius Bowen. High words followed between Samuel and Theophius, and when they got into a scuttle, Alfonso tried to interfere. Hibler, who had a stout cane in his hand, struck Brooks over the head. Alphonso stooped down to pick up a piece of brick from the small pile in the corner, and as he arose, Samuel struck him again on the head several times.

Alfonso fell and died in about an hour. His skull was broken.

Alfonso was buried in the graveyard at Blue Earth City. He was a young man of good habits, intelligent, of inoffensive character, and not one of the principal parties to the quarrel. He was stricken down in the prime of his life.

Theophius immediately went to Mankato to make a complaint against Samuel and some others, whom he considered implicated. The complaint was made before the justice of the peace, who issued a warrant for the arrest of Hibler and others. Samuel Hibler got an attorney from Shakopee, Thomas J. Galbraith, and James Dow, an attorney from Red Wing. Lewis Branson of Mankato was the prosecuting attorney.

Attorney Thomas J. Galbraith (who would be involved in the U.S.-Dakota Conflict in 1862) moved to discharge the prisoners because they had no jurisdiction over the territory where the offense had been committed.

They were discharged.

Samuel never returned to the county. He went to Shakopee, where he remained for a short time. And then he returned to Pennsylvania, his native state.

Theophius subsequently pre-empted the land in dispute, and later it was laid out as an addition to Blue Earth City.

The current opinion of the time was that the killing of Alfonso was mainly an accident, and that Samuel was not seriously to be blamed under the circumstances.

And so, Shakopee lost a bookstore, Samuel V. Hibler moved back to Pennsylvania, and Alfonso Brooks lost his life.

See what happens when you read?!!!!

(Some information from The History of Faribault County, Minnesota: From Its First Settlement to the Close of the Year 1879 (1896) by Jacob Armel Kiester. Minneapolis: Harrison & Smith; The Bench and Bar of Faribault County by J.A. Kiester at geneaologytrails.com/minn/Faribault/.countyhistory.html; and New Book Store, Shakopee Independent, Nov. 17, 1855.)

Aug. 27, 1845 – Dec. 1, 1937
by David R. Schleper

Pelagie Eliza Faribault, daughter of Oliver Faribault and Wakan Yanke (or Woman Who Sits at the High Place), was born at her parents’ log cabin in East Shakopee, the same log cabin which is now at The Landing in Shakopee. Wakan Yanke was pregnant when they built and established the trading post in 1844, and Eliza, as she was called, was born on Aug. 27, 1845, the sixth of nine children.^[1]

Eliza grew up with her three sisters, Mary Josephine (Jessie), Jane Luce, and Sarah-Iréne, in the cabin and adjacent warehouse which was built on the west side of what was later called Faribault Springs, using tamarack logs which were obtained from a swamp nearby.^[2] Because Oliver was part Dakota, and Wakan Yanke was Dakota, Eliza was also part Dakota. The French and Métis people called this area Prairie des Français (French Prairie), along the Rivière Saint-Pierre.

Eliza remembered about her early life, including the bark huts, called tipi tanka, and ti´pi. She also remembered Chief Ŝakpe II and Ŝakpedan, or Little Six. Her father conducted a trading post in Tiŋta-otoŋwe, in the area now called Shakopee.^[3]

She remembered her father conducting a trading post for a few years, and building a warehouse in which he stored furs purchased from the Dakota Indians. She only faintly remembered her father, as he died in the fall of 1850, when Eliza was 4 ½ years old.^[4] Eliza remembered the gaudy trinkets that were available to the Dakota Indians.

An Indian trail passed south of the Faribault Trading Post and cabin in Tiŋta-otoŋwe, and Eliza remembered watching the processions of ponies with packs strapped to their backs and long dog trains, each load drawn by four to eight or more dogs. Furs and skins formed the bulk of the freight. Later the ponies and dogs were replaced by six oxen and long trains of two-wheeled Red River carts. Eliza could still remember the ear-piercing squeaks of the poorly lubricated wooden axles that heralded the approach of the trains.

According to Florence Leach, granddaughter of Pelagie Eliza Faribault Manaige, three Dakota Indians who were killed in the Battle of Shakopee in 1858 are buried near the house and close to the orchards near Faribault Trading Post. “The graves are flat, and you cannot see them. Grandfather Faribault buried them and concealed the graves so the Chippewa (Ojibwe) would not find the bodies and scalp them. We were traders and friendly to all Indians.”^[5]

An Indian girl was also buried there.^[6] According to Florence, “Grandmother said this girl was a very fine horsewoman, and one day she was on horseback and racing across the fields with a group of young men. The girl was in the lead, but she turned in her saddle to see how far ahead she was, and to wave to the men, when her horse stumbled and she was thrown and broke her neck. She died, and they buried her here.”^[7]

Florence also recalled that Pelagie, her grandmother, remembered that the girl had bracelets on her wrists. “I know these Indians are buried here because when I was a little girl, my brother and I started to dig into the graves to see if we could find the bracelets. We did not think it was wrong, for we were just little children.”^[8]

“Grandmother caught us digging, and she was so worried that she called the priest. He told her not to worry, we had done no harm; but just a few years later we tried it again, and uncovered bones. It scared us because we hadn’t believed anyone was really buried there. Of course, Grandmother found us, covered the hole, and she was frightfully upset; again she called the priest, and he comforted Grandmother. We all went out to the graves, and he said a little prayer.”

“Then the priest told Grandmother he didn’t think those Indians minded our digging for them one bit, as long as we were only trying to find out if they were really there. Now, the priest felt sure our curiosity was satisfied, and we would let them rest in peace.”^[9]

Eliza attended school in a little log schoolhouse near their home.^[10] When she was 14 years old, she was taken to Québec City, where she attended a school conducted by the Ursuline nuns at Monastère des Ursulines de Québec. It is the oldest institution of learning for women in North America. Eliza remembered, “We traveled from Faribault to Hastings by stage, and took a steamboat to La Crosse. From La Crosse we traveled by train and it was the first time I ever rode on a railroad train. I don’t remember the cities we went through, but I clearly recall our arrival at Québec. It all seemed unreal to me as I had never before been away from the frontier….”^[11] Eliza attended school at Monastère des Ursulines de Québec for two terms, and then she returned home.

As a young woman, Eliza was often visited by Charles A. Manaige, whose father, Pierre Manaige, was a native of France, and his mother was part-Winnebago, or Ho-Chunk Indian. On July 30, 1870, Charles married Pelagie in Mankato.^[12] They returned to Shakopee, where they spent their lives.

Pelagie and Charles had four children, two sons and two daughters. Isabelle was born in 1871, and married Harvey Randolph Leach in Des Moines, Iowa, and they had nine children. Melvin was born in 1872, and died April 12, 1931. He married and lived in Brooklyn, New York. Eugene Curtis was born 1874, and died of tuberculosis in 1903. Grace was born in 1876, and died at Friendship Manor in November of 1966.^[13]

Pelagie died on Dec. 1, 1937. She is buried at the Valley Cemetery in Shakopee, Minnesota.^[14]

^[1] Find a Grave Memorial of Pelagie Eliza Faribault Manaige # 6783076, created by Cindy K. Coffin, April 03, 2011.

^[2] Williams, Richard (2000). Oliver Faribault and Early Settlement at Faribault Springs. La Compagnie des Hivernants de la Rivière Saint-Pierre (HSP) Journal, 5 (3), 11-16.

^[3] Winter, Marian B. (2003). A Visit with a Great-Granddaughter of Oliver Faribault. La Compagnie des Hivernants de la Rivière Saint-Pierre (HSP) Journal. From a working scrapbook 3061B in 1930s, and in the Sibley House Museum and the Minnesota Historical Society collections.

^[4] Winter, Marian B. (2003). A Visit with a Great-Granddaughter of Oliver Faribault. La Compagnie des Hivernants de la Rivière Saint-Pierre (HSP) Journal. From a working scrapbook 3061B in 1930s, and in the Sibley House Museum and the Minnesota Historical Society collections.

^[5] Interview of Patricia Jeanine Manaige Cates by David R. Schleper (2016) in Prior Lake, MN.

^[6] Letter to Pat Cates from Ron Wilber related to the Burials on Shakopee Property (1998). Black River Falls, WI: HoChunk Historical Presentation, October 21, 1998.

^[7] Winter, Marian B. (2003). A Visit with a Great-Granddaughter of Oliver Faribault. La Compagnie des Hivernants de la Rivière Saint-Pierre (HSP) Journal. From a working scrapbook 3061B in 1930s, and in the Sibley House Museum and the Minnesota Historical Society collections.

^[8] Interview of Patricia Jeanine Manaige Cates by David R. Schleper (2016) in Prior Lake, MN.

^[9] Winter, Marian B. (2003). A Visit with a Great-Granddaughter of Oliver Faribault. La Compagnie des Hivernants de la Rivière Saint-Pierre (HSP) Journal. From a working scrapbook 3061B in 1930s, and in the Sibley House Museum and the Minnesota Historical Society collections.

^[10] Winter, Marian B. (2003). A Visit with a Great-Granddaughter of Oliver Faribault. La Compagnie des Hivernants de la Rivière Saint-Pierre (HSP) Journal. From a working scrapbook 3061B in 1930s, and in the Sibley House Museum and the Minnesota Historical Society collections.

^[11] Winter, Marian B. (2003). A Visit with a Great-Granddaughter of Oliver Faribault. La Compagnie des Hivernants de la Rivière Saint-Pierre (HSP) Journal. From a working scrapbook 3061B in 1930s, and in the Sibley House Museum and the Minnesota Historical Society collections.

^[12] Interview of Patricia Jeanine Manaige Cates by David R. Schleper (2016) in Prior Lake, MN.

^[13] Interview of Patricia Jeanine Manaige Cates by David R. Schleper (2016) in Prior Lake, MN.

^[14] Find a Grave Memorial of Pelagie Eliza Faribault Manaige # 6783076, created by Cindy K. Coffin, April 03, 2011.

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• Pelagie Eliza Faribault Manaige (Aug. 27, 1841-Dec. 1, 1937)