Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

When Timothy John Duffy was born in August 1846, in Louisiana, United States, his father, Peter Francis Duffy (1809-1879), was 37 and his mother, Margaret Havican Duffy (1832-1867), was 14.

Timothy moved to Eagle Creek. When he was 19 years old, he enlisted in the army on Dec. 23, 1863. He was in the 2nd Minnesota Calvary regiment, Company L.

The 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment was a Minnesota USV cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, according to National Park Service. The 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment was mustered at Fort Snelling for three year’s service on Dec. 5, 1863, and were mustered out on Nov. 17, 1865 and May 4, 1866. It served entirely in Minnesota, Dakota Territory, and Montana Territory guarding the frontier against the Dakota Indians.

The 2nd Regiment of Cavalry formed in the fall of 1863. This regiment saw most of its service as part of Sully’s Expedition which followed the Missouri River far into Dakota Territory and the region of the Badlands. “For hundreds of years, the Lakota people have called this area mako sica, which literally translates to ‘bad lands.’

“When early French fur trappers passed through this area, they called the area les mauvaises terres a traveser (‘bad lands to travel across’). Since the French trappers spent time with the Lakota, it is likely that the French name is derived directly from the Lakota one,” according to “Mako Sica: Naming the Badlands” at ups.gov.

“The Badlands presents many challenges to easy travel. When it rains in the Badlands, the wet clay becomes slick and sticky, making it very difficult to cross. The jagged canyons and buttes that cover the landscape also make it hard to navigate. The winters are cold and windy, the summers are hot and dry, and the few water sources that exist are normally muddy and unsafe to drink. These factors make the land difficult to survive in, and evidence of early human activity in the Badlands points to seasonal hunting rather than permanent habitation.” In 1922, when Badlands National Park was first proposed as a national park, the suggested name was Wonderland National Park, according to ups.gov.

This regiment saw most of its service as part of Sully’s Expedition which followed the Missouri River far into Dakota Territory. The campaign culminated in the battle of Battle of Tah Kah A Kuty (Killdeer Mountain) on July 31, 1864, and saw the expedition push as far west as the Yellowstone River in what is today eastern Montana. The Crow Indians (who displaced the Shoshonis) named Yellowstone River as Encheda-cahchi-ichi, or Elk River, derived from the migration route of elk from their summer range on the Yellowstone highlands to wintering grounds in the lower valleys paralleled the stream, according to Yellowstone: Up Close and Personal.

The 2nd Minnesota Cavalry had four enlisted men killed in action or died of wounds received in battle and an additional three officers and 56 enlisted men died of disease. No mention is made of the Dakota who were killed.

Private Duffy was discharged on May 32, 1864. He was in the army for five months and eight days. Company L, which was the company that Private Duffy was involved in, was mustered out on May 4, 1866.

Timothy John Duffy married Mary Caroline Stemmer on June 6, 1867, in Shakopee.

Timothy and Mary had 11 children: William F. (1869-1952); Anna M. (1870-1917); Andrew G. (1872-1900); Catherine A. (1874-Deceased); Timothy Earl John (1876-1941); Mary Frone (1878-Deceased); Gertrude Violet (1880-1955); Helen Marie (1882-1919); Margaret M. (1884-1961); Walter Wilfort (1886-1959); and Florence Adeline (1889-1972).

Timothy died June 4, 1917, in Eagle Creek Township, Scott, Minnesota, United States, at age 70, and was buried at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Eagle Creek (Shakopee) Minnesota.

Mary Caroline Stemmer Duffy, who was born in 1850, died in 1919, and was buried with her husband, Timothy John Duffy, at Calvary Catholic Cemetery.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

John Beck was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany, the sixth of seven children born to Havier Xavier Beck (1801-1888) and Euphrasia Rossina Baÿerle Kesser (1794-1872).

The Kingdom of Bavaria, spelled Baiern until 1825, was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and existed until 1918. In 1825, Ludwig I ascended the throne of Bavaria. Under Ludwig, the arts flourished in Bavaria, and Ludwig personally ordered and financially assisted the creation of many neoclassical buildings and architecture across Bavaria. During the Revolution of 1848, Ludwig abdicated on March 20, 1848 in favor of his eldest son, Maximilian II. The revolutions also brought amendments to the constitution, including changes to the lower house of the Landtag with equal suffrage for every male who paid a direct tax, according to “Kingdom of Bavaria” in Wikipedia.

In 1864, Maximilian II died, and his eighteen-year-old son, Ludwig II, became King of Bavaria.

Ludwig II proposed that Prussian King Wilhelm I be proclaimed German Emperor (Kaiser) of the new German Emperor, where the territories of the German Empire were declared, which included the states of the North German Confederation and all of the south German states, with the major exception of Austria. The empire also annexed the formerly French territory of Alsace-Lorraine.

Bavaria’s entry into the German Empire changed from jubilation to dismay shortly afterward because of the direction Germany took under the new German Chancellor and Prussian Prime Minister, Otto von Bismarck.

Ludwig II became increasingly detached from Bavaria’s political affairs and spent vast amounts of money on personal projects, such as the construction of several fairytale castles and palaces. Ludwig used his personal wealth to finance these projects, and not state funds, and the construction projects landed him deeply in debt. These debts caused much concern among Bavaria’s political elite, and in 1886, the crisis came to a head. A medical commission appointed by the cabinet declared Ludwig insane and thus incapable of reigning.

Whether it was the requirement for military for men there, the unstable area of Bavaria, or the need for land in America, the Beck family headed to the United States.

John, along with his siblings and his parents, emigrated via the Castle Garden in New York on the ship Emma. They arrived at America on Feb. 7, 1853, and eventually arrived in Minnesota Territory as settler-colonists in Carver County. They also lived in Shakopee, and were farmers in the area.

F. Xavier Beck and Euphrasia Rossina Baÿerle Kesser Beck were farmers, as were their children: Marianna, Michael, Ephrosyne, Anna Maria, Theresa Matilda, John, and Andreas Beck.

At age 25, John Beck was a laborer at various farms. He decided to enlist in the Civil War and the U.S.-Dakota War on Aug. 18, 1862, at Fort Snelling. John became mustered out into the F Company F, Minnesota 8th Infantry.

While the Eighth Minnesota Volunteer Regiment was formed in the summer of 1862, the result of the U.S.-Dakota War, the soldiers spent most of their first two years of service occupying posts around the state.

For Private John Beck, he spent the first year at Fort Snelling. And on April 24, 1863, Private Beck died at Fort Snelling of disease.

Private Beck was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Eagle Creek, now part of Shakopee, according to the Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars 1861-65, Minnesota Adjutant General’s Report of 1866, and the SUVCW Database.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Private Hiram Herman Matt Cooley was born Jan. 27, 1828 in Franklin County, Vermont. His parents were Luke Cooley (1782-1829) and Olive Knight Cooley (1799-1858).

Colonist-settler Herman, as he was called, was a farmer, as his father, in Georgia, Franklin, Vermont. In fact, Herman’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, Ensign Benjamin Cooley was the first Cooley who was born in 1615 in England, and died in Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America.

Private Hiram Herman Matt Cooley’s grandparents were Solomon Cooley (1753-1833) and Lucy C. Stephenson Cooley (1760-1849); and Private John Knight Jr. (1754-1833) and Abigail Gabby Nabby Towne Knight (1755-1833). His great-grandparents were Eliakim Cooley III (1707-1793) and Mary Ashley Cooley (1718-1795); Joseph Stephenson, Sr. (1729-1777) and Margaret Peggy Webb Stephenson (1735-1769); John Knight, Sr. (1727-1772) and Eleanor Wood Knight (1729-1763); and Sgt. Edward Towne (1724-1779) and Abigail Brewer Towne (1721-1780). Sgt. Edward Towne was in the U.S. Revolutionary War.

Herman’s great-great-great-great-grandparents were Ensign Benjamin Cooley (1615-1684) and Sarah Savage Colton Cooley (1620-1664). They were born in England, but arrived at Springfield, Massachusetts Colony, British Colonial America in 1643.

Herman’s fifth grandparents, in a note on March 27, 1676: ”Presented by the Grand jury to the Courte at Northampton. …some for wearing of silk in a flaunting manner & attire, some for Long haire & other extravagancies, Contrary to honest Labor & Order & Demeanor not Becoming a Wilderness State at Least the Profession of Christianity & Religion.” Sarah Savage Colton Cooley was among those presented to the grand jury. This occurred at a time when the town was being attacked by Indians and it suggests that in their haste to save their best attire from the flames on that day, these ladies donned their silk clothing, and expensive jewelry. “Sumptuary laws restraining excess of apparel in some classes were common in England for centuries.

Massachusetts enacted such a law in 1651, ordering that persons whose estates did not exceed L200 should not wear gold or silver lace, gold or silver buttons, bone lace above 2s. per yard, or silk hoods or scarves. Any persons wearing such articles might be assessed a tax on their property as if they had estates of L200. In other words, a person could not successfully plead for abatement of taxes if their attire indicated a position of affluence.

In the autumn of 1635 William Pynchon with two scouts sailed North on the Quinecticot River (now the Connecticut). They found a district “Fitly” suited for a beaver trade; for the beaver skin furs were a most prized and profitable trade for the colonies for many years to come. The European women of the higher classes loved and admired the beaver hats and other accessories made from this little creature. On May 14, 1636 there gathered eight men to organize this place that would be called Long Meadows, and did declare there; a “Body-Politic” fifteen bylaws were adopted that day to govern the chosen land. Rich land to grow crops, graze their cattle, and raise their families in the “Agawam meadows”. Following the preamble was an affirmation of their intent “to establish a Church” and to “acquire only those families into the town, be they rich or poor that would contribute skill and talent to the community.” And of course, to trade beaver hides. William Pynchon and the eight men had negotiated with a small tribe of Indians to share this land with them and had given them four fathom of wampum (small cylindrical beads made from polished shells and fashioned into string or belts), four coats, four hatchets, four hoes, and four knives for the “Masackic” what the English call the “Long Meadow” below Springfield on the East side of the Quinecticot River.

My guess is that the Indians did not give the land, but did take the wampum.

In 1643, Sarah had given birth to their first child Bethia Cooley, and Benjamin had been chosen as the tailor for this new community they referred to as Long Meadows, there is ample evidence that Benjamin was a skilled worker in both flax and wool, supplying the weaving of cloth and tailoring needs for a growing community.

On Aug. 17, 1684, Benjamin died at the age of sixty-seven. Six days later Sarah died. During his forty years in Springfield, Benjamin acquired a competence far beyond the average, while yet retaining the goodwill of his fellows. At his arrival he acquired forty acres of mediocre land. At his death he owned 524 acres of the choicest. He had houses and barns to meet his own needs and those of his eldest sons. Of livestock, gear and equipment and the merchandise of his trade he had a sufficiency. The debts he owed, amounting to £9-16s-6d were more than offset by the £15-15s-2d due to him. The inventory of his estate totaled over 1241 pounds sterling, having a present value of perhaps $60,000.

Benjamin and his wife were interred in the ancient burying place by the riverside in Springfield, west of the church that he had helped to build. There Benjamin and Sarah rested until the railroad arrived. In 1849, to make room for the tracks, the remains of 2404 bodies and 517 markers were removed to the Springfield Cemetery on the hill that had been opened in 1841. The Cooley Monument was erected after the ancient burial grounds were relocated to Springfield Cemetery, according to Find a Grave.

So, after two hundred years in America, Hiram Herman Cooley, who was probably pretty rich, headed west, and arrived in Minnesota. He married Betsey L. Boyd (1831-1882), and in 1860 they were living in Eagle Creek, where he was a carpenter, joiner, and a farmer. Betsey met Herman in Vermont, where Betsey’s parents, James Boyd (1794-1871) and Martha Rice Boyd (1784-1854) lived.

Private Cooley joined the 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery Regiment on Oct. 3, 1864 in St. Paul according to Gale Family Library’s “Civil War Military Units from Minnesota: 1st Minnesota Regiment of Heavy Artillery.” The 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery Regiment mustered in at St. Paul, and Rochester, Minnesota, between November 1864 and February 1865. Many of the officers were recruited from discharged veterans: sergeants from the 1st Minnesota while corporals came from the 3rd, 4th, 5th Minnesota Vol. Regiments. The 1st Minnesota Heavy was composed of twelve companies/batteries, of 140 men plus officers in each. It was the largest unit Minnesota sent to war numbering 1700 men. The regiment was assigned to garrison duty at Chattanooga, Tennessee. There it oversaw the heavy guns at forts defending the city. The regiment saw no combat, remained there until the close of the war. The 1st Minnesota “Heavies” were mustered out of service on Sept. 27, 1865.

Betsey and Herman had three children in Eagle Creek: Alson Elision (1864-1911), Oscar Sherman (1866-1938), and Jennie Cooley (1870-1933).

Betsey died Sept. 7, 1882 in Eagle Creek, and was buried at Valley Cemetery.

On Oct. 15, 1887, Hiram married for the second time to Carrie J. Byers. According to the Saint Paul Globe, Sunday, Oct. 16, 1887, a marriage license was issued to Herman M. Cooley and Carry J. Byers. Herman was 56, and Carrie was 50 years old.

But the marriage did not last. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Saturday March 31, 1888, a court briefs included a divorce suit: “A divorce suit was commenced yesterday by Carrie J. Cooley against Herman M. Cooley. They were married last fall and are 50 and 56 years of age respectively. Mrs. Cooley alleges a course of cruel and inhumane treatment extending from a few weeks after their marriage. Her husband frequently threatened and abused her, calling her vile names and trying to force her to work out to assist in supporting the household. He is worth $20,000, but according to Mrs. Cooley exceedingly penurious and stingy.”

Hiram died Dec. 12, 1928, and was buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

Adam Geiß Geis was born Nov. 15, 1841 in Bavaria. His parents were Martin Lorenz Lawrence Geiß Geib (1816-1907) and Elisabeth Franziska Kessler Geiß Geis (1819-1886).

When he was seven years old, Adam and his parents moved to America, where the family lived in Milwaukee for five years, and then moved to Chicago and Racine, Wisconsin. They came to St. Paul in July 1853, and in the spring of 1854 the elder Geis took a claim in Sand Creek Township, eight miles south of Shakopee. There were six children in the family at that time, and they lived in a log shanty, almost in the heart of the dense woods, according to the Recollections of a Pioneer Citizen from the Midland Feature Service on Sept. 10, 1925.

At that time, there were many Dakota Indians in the area, as well as one settler-colonist, John C. Smith, before Thomas A. Holmes, along with William Quinn, headed to the area of what was later Shakopee, Marystown, and Jordan, which were not open for settlement for white people in 1851. They had to wait until February 1853 after the ratification of treaties. But Thomas Andrew Holmes wanted to establish townsites with an eye to the profit they represented. He asked for carte blanche trading rights, but was denied. He was then allowed a license for two sites, which became Shakopee and Jordan.

By getting a license to trade in 1851, Thomas Holmes was a squatter on Indian land. It gave him a toehold on townsite before claims could be legally settled. He “improved” the land with dwellings, warehouses, and stores, and thus was less liable to be taken over by settler-colonists and promoters who came along later. “In other words, fur trading was not an end in itself with these men as it had been with some of the earlier traders in the valley. Rather, it was a means of obtaining a legal or quasi-legal claim on the land they staked out before they could actually file their preemptions with the government.”

Thomas and William Holmes laid out the town of Jordan. In the area that later became Marystown, Adam Geiß Geis remembered who was in the township, including Peter Thul, Serwatzus Mergens, Michael and Peter Hartman, J.B. Grommesch, Christ Hentges, John Hentges, and W. and G. Budde.

Adam, in an article in 1929, noted that he helped clear the land, and found time to hunt and trap. “He hunted deer, wolves, wild cats, foxes and other animals, and trapped otter, mink, and muskrats. Once he shot three deer in one day, and on another occasion he speared 73 muskrats in a few hours.”

Adam worked on the claim until he was 23 years old, when he enlisted in Company I Fourth Minnesota, to serve in the Civil War. He served throughout the war and was obedient to Sherman’s Yankee boys in the memorable march from Atlanta to the sea. The campaign was marked by its objective, to cripple the Confederacy’s ability to wage war. They destroyed anything and everything important to the war effort, leaving ruins where Georgia’s great cities once stood.

In 1865 Adam bought forty acres of raw acres in Eagle Creek Township, 2 and ½ miles east of Marystown. On Jan. 23, 1866, Adam married Barbara Brück Brueck Geiß Geis, daughter of a settler-colonist. They resided at the farm home 38 years, and during that time, they increased their holdings until they possessed 326 acres of land. Fourteen children were born to the couple, and many of them married and settled in homes of their own near the old rooftree.

In 1904, Adam and Barbara moved to a small farm adjoining Marystown, and in 1924 they moved to a cozy home fronting the highway in Marystown.

At age 92, Adam was ill for several months. The heart ailment became grave and was the immediate cause of his death on Aug. 9, 1933 at his daughter, Theresa Margaret Geiß Geis Hergott’s home.

Adam, who lived 80 years in Scott County, and 67 years in Marystown, was accompanied by two former comrades, Private Charles Manaige and Joseph Pisbach to his final resting place at St. Mary of the Purification Catholic Cemetery in Marystown.

An early biographer referred to Adam Geiß Geis by writing, “When we think of a patriarch, we think of gray hairs, a rugged frame, despite the storms of life, and seamed features, lighted by an expression which denotes contentment and good will; we think of broad acres, happy children, all held together in a common bond of reverence for the sturdy oak, who in the evening of life finds comfort and peace in the contemplation of a lifetime full with the activity and incidents of a pioneer’s career, who finds ‘All’s well with the world and whose smile is a benediction.” That was truly Adam Geiß Geis.

Among the descendants were 72 grandchildren and 83 great-grandchildren.

Barbara Brück Brueck Geiß Geis died in 1934 and was buried next to her husband, Private Adam Geiß Geis, in the cemetery next to St. Mary of the Purification Church in Marystown.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Petrus Peter Sames was born March 5, 1865, in Brück, Bernkastel-Wittlich, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He was baptized March 17, 1865, at Katholisch, Brück, Bernkastel-Wittlich, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Peter was the fourth of six children born to Jacobus Jacobi Sames (1828-1915) and Apollonia Plein Sames (1837-1918).

Peter’s grandparents were Johann Jacob Sames (1788-1850) and Maria Margaretha Meÿer Sames (17886-1843); and Nikolaus Plein (1796-1855) and Elizabeth Neises Plein (1798-1860).

Peter Sames’s great-grandparents were Phillip Sames (1748-1813) and Anna Maria Zens Sames (1749-1814); Johann Mathias Meÿer (1750-1806) and Helen Heck Meÿer (1752-1786); and Joannes Plein (1762-1798) and Anna Klara Swilling Plein (1759-1813); and Jacobi Neises (1760-1840) and Mariae Catherinae Keyl Neises (1762-1842).

Peter emigrated to Minnesota in 1888.

Petrus Peter Sames married Agnes O’Toole in Marystown on May 20, 1890. They had three children. Their first child was Mary Theresa Sames, who married Henry Marschall after his first wife, Margaret Beckrich Marschall (1889-1920) died.

Henry Marschall’s first wife, Margaret, developed delivery complications after the birth of Leander, their sixth baby, and on Dec. 8, 1919, Margaret Beckrich Marschall was taken to the hospital in Shakopee by horse and sleigh. Their five children, then about ten to four years of age, still remember seeing their mother being carefully carried from the house and placed in the blanketed sleigh. On New Year’s Day, she was taken to the home of her father-in-law, Anton Marschall. At the age of 31 years, 5 months and 16 days Margaret Beckrich Sames died.

After being widowed for sixteen months, Henry married in April 1921 to Mary Theresa Sames (1892-1972). They had three sons.

The second child of Peter and Agnes was Peter John Sames (1895-1971). He married Clara Elizabeth Klehr (1896-1946) in Marystown on Nov. 14, 1917. They had six children.

And finally, Peter and Agnes had another son, Mathew Nicholas Sames (1897-1959).

Mathew married Caroline Marie Carrie Erkens (1903-1980) in 1925, and they had three children.

Agnes O’Toole Sames died in Marystown on Feb. 7, 1925.

On Aug. 11, 1936. Peter Sames married Marie Theresa Kersting Klehr (1882-1968).

Marie Theresa Kersting’s first marriage was to Jacob C. Klehr (1872-1931).

Jacob C. Klehr had first married Mary Elizabeth Hartmann (1871-1902). Mary Elizabeth Hartmann Klehr and Jacob C. Klehr had two children. Then Mary Eiizabeth Hartmann Klehr died in 1902.

Then Jacob married Marie Theresa Kersting. They married on May 5, 1903, in Jordan. They had ten children.

Confusing, huh? Peter and Theresa married on Aug. 11, 1936. They had no children together.

Petrus Peter Sames died on Dec. 16, 1951, in Marystown, and was buried at the St. Mary’s Purification Cemetery. His second wife, Marie Theresa Kersting Klehr Sames died Nov. 26, 1968, and was buried next to St. Mary’s Purification Church in Marystown, Minnesota.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Antonio Delgado was 87 years old in 2009. And as he laughed and smiled, with gestures and jokes, he remembered growing up in Chaska, called Sugar City at that time.

Born Oct. 29, 1921, Antonio lived in Chaska from 1924 to 1932. His family was among the many Latino/a who, with many other Latino migrant laborers in Chaska and Shakopee, tended and harvested beets for the American Crystal Sugar Company (which was the American Beet Sugar Company until 1934).

With the introduction of Latino/a and Chicano/a migrant workers from Texas in 1934, entire families came up for the sugar beet planting season (April/May to June) and harvest (September, October, and November), with American Crystal providing housing, according to MNopedia’s article on “American Crystal Sugar Company.” For the laborers, however, the work was hard and the housing was often dilapidated. During the winter months they either retired south or settled in the Twin Cities area.

Chaska and Shakopee were surrounded by sugar beet fields, planted to feed the sugar plants. The factory, like the brickyard before it, established Chaska and Shakopee as something more than forgotten farm towns, according to Mark W. Olson in an article in Chaska Herald on Oct. 23, 2009, called “Fields of memory: Former beet farmer revisits his childhood home of Chaska.” It was built on the backs of migrant farm workers like Antonio and his parents, Pedro Delgado and Margarita Rodriguez. Many of those temporary workers, mostly from Texas and Mexico, vanished from records. “They moved from state to state, depending on the planting or harvest season.” But Antonio and his family put roots down in 1924 to 1932. Along with a few other Latino/a families, they lived in the sugar company housing across from the sugar factory, and were the area’s earliest residents of Mexican heritage. The small houses were torn down and are now the site of a townhouse development.

Antonio described the work of migrant farmer as “work in one field and finish that work and get work in another field, another field, another field.” While much of the beet harvesting work is now mechanized, in the 1920s and 1930s it was labor-intensive and back-breaking work. And it required an influx of migrant labor, according to the article.

Pedro, Antonio’s father, had served in the U.S. Army in WWI as a Mexican citizen for a few years, and in April 1924 the family moved to Chaska from California. Antonio was only 2 ½ years old when the family moved to Minnesota. It is possible that a recruiter from the American Beet Sugar Company actively got thousands of Latino laborers from the southern United States, primarily in Texas.

Antonio began working with his parents in the fields at age six, thinning the beets—a process involving pulling out young beets so the remaining beets would mature. “They showed me how, and I keep on going,” he said in the Chaska Herald article.

“For $8 an acre, his family would work ‘from sunrise until sunset,’ Delgado said. Did they get tired? ‘You get tired when you work all day,’ Delgado replied, matter-of-factly.”

Many of the beets were harvested and began piling up at the sugar factory. Then many of the manual workers would return to Mexico. Some would travel to Lubbock or Amarillo, Texas, where they would pick cotton. But the Delgados remained because of school. There were about four or five Latino families with children in school.

Staying in Chaska or Shakopee wasn’t always easy for migrant workers. According to Guadalupe Cruz, who arrived in Chaska to work on the beet fields in 1929, she remembered, according to the book Barrios Norteños: St. Paul and Midwestern Mexican Communities in the Twentieth Century (2000) by Dionicio Nodín Valdés, “We could have gone back to Mexico, but if we stayed they offered to help us. They would give us a home to live in and we got a raise of $5 per family member. (More workers!) We lived in Chaska for three years…There were some people that did not have anything to eat,” she noted.

Everyone worked in the fields. But Antonio also played baseball in the area between the company homes and the sugar factory, as there were few cars then. He attended kindergarten in Chaska and continued through a portion of his seventh grade. In the article, “During recess the kids would play in City Square Park across form the school—now the site of Wells Fargo at Chestnut and Fourth streets. He recalled the Civil War cannon that sat on the park (later melted down for a WWII metal drive). He recalls that it was ‘Mr. Smith’ who planted some of the ‘great big trees’ on the park.”

In the 1930s, with the Great Depression, Antonio’s father decided to leave Chaska. “We had to go to Mexico, because the government of Mexico said there were going to be opportunity to make farms and work over there.” Pedro acquired farmland through the government programs, and with the money he had saved in Chaska, Antonio and family now tend to the farmland, located not too far over the Mexican border.

Antonio has dual citizenship, and with his wife, Maria Delores Saldaño, and their 12 children continued to work on the farms.

When he left Chaska during seventh grade, it was the end of his schooling, but he never forgot the importance of education. He has put many of his children through college. He also passed on many ethics to his family, including the importance of work. It is something that worked its way down to his many dependents. Antonio never smoked a cigar, never took a drink of alcohol. His family, church, and work—that is all he’s known.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Mercy Scofield was born Sept. 2, 1853. Her parents were Isaac Scofield (1830-1881) and Elizabeth Casterline Scofield (1833-1918). Her grandparents were Alvah Scofield (1796-1850) and Cyrene Pennoyer Scofield (1802-1886); and Barnabus Casterline (1799-1882) and Maria Moriah Dubois Casterline (1806-1885).

Mercy was the first of twelve children, and the only one born in Dowagiac, Michigan.

The prevalence of typhoid fever in 1852, only four years after the founding of the village of Dowagiac, led many people to think the locality dangerously unwholesome. But it wasn’t the location, as a woman and man who returned from a visit caused the typhoid fever.

“Some people moved away, and others who were stricken down were obliged to send abroad for friends to take care of them. At one time there were scarcely enough well persons in the place to attend the sick,” according to Alfred Mathews in the book, History of Cass County, Michigan; With Illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers in 1882. Of thirteen persons who got sick soon after the disease made its first appearance, eleven died, said Genealogy Trails’ “Cass County, Michigan, History of Dowagiac.”

It may be the threat of disease or just wanting to go west, Marcy, her parents, Isaac and Elizabeth, and Maria, her grandmother, and Elizabeth’s sister, Sarah Casterline (who later married Henry Calkins of Spring Lake Township) headed to Minnesota Territory as settler-colonists in 1854. Mercy became one year old during the trip.

In an article in the Shakopee Argus-Tribune on May 31, 1934, called “Sends Sketch of Pioneer History,” Rev. William E. Thompson, a former Presbyterian pastor in Shakopee, wrote to the newspaper after he obtained the information from Mercy Scofield in 1930, four years before she died. According to Mercy, they were the first settler-colonists near Spring Lake Township, near what later became Shakopee. The family moved from Michigan to Minnesota Territory using an ox-team vehicle to haul their household goods and had an old horse and wagon to carry the women and child, Mercy.

In the article, Isaac, Mercy’s father, took a claim that was mostly woods, which he cut down and rolled into piles and burned. “In ten years he had cleared ten acres, which enabled him to sell the farm when leaving there for $3000. The family lived in a one room log house using it for all purposes. A piece of board saved from the cover of a box, three feet long and fourteen inches wide served as a table for three years.”

A sawmill was erected near them, and soon they had an abundance of butternut boards. Her father built a table in 1857, and in 1934, it was still in the family. Her father, “constructed a maple wood loom from trees he cut and sawed at the mill in 1862, preparatory to making cloth from the wool of six sheep possessed at the time. When the loom was finished, dogs killed all the sheep, and they only salvaged about two pounds of wool. Next spring they purchased six more sheep and from their wool clothing from the family was woven.” Mercy’s grandmother, Maria, gave a description of the loom from memory, and she also directed the making of a spinning wheel for making yarn.

“The time of day was ticked off by a clock brought from Michigan.”

On June 10, 1857, the Shakopee Valley Herald printed a small article under the headline “Another Town.” The article noted that “Thomas Holmes, A Holmes and Company have purchased property on Spring Lake and will immediately have the same surveyed off into lots.” It continued “We predict that, in a very short time, this will be a flourishing town, being 7 miles from Shakopee over a good road, will, we have no doubt, induce many of our citizens who want to spend the day fishing, gunning or having a sail on the lakes, to visit this pretty place” according to an article from the Scott County Historical Society, “Spring Lake Village.”

Ten years later, the area had become well known for its natural beauty. In 1867 the Shakopee Spectator ran an article outlining the attractions of the area. “It is not generally known that Scott County can boast some of the most desirable summer resorts, in point of scenery, surroundings, healthfulness and grandeur, that adorns any locality in the country.” It mentioned the village of Spring Lake, then described the excellent fishing in the lakes themselves in detail, declaring that Spring Lake is “nearly round but with an occasional bay jutting out from the main body of water with a beautiful gravel beach the whole way around it”, and Long Lake is “quite appropriately named, being some four or five miles long, with several beautifully wooded islands rising from its bosom. Its shores are uneven, rendered indescribably romantic by numerous bays and coves.”

As more European American settlers came to the area, the farmland became more important. On Sept. 17, 1877, the Shakopee Courier described farming conditions in Spring Lake: “This section is composed of heavily timbered land, so as a result farms are not as large as is the case in open or brushland towns. The farmers, however, raise good crops, particularly as far as wheat is concerned…the corn is not as good, there being so little rainfall.”

According to Mercy, the Dakota Indians were plentiful, and “sometimes the woods seemed full of them.” The Dakota knew enough English to communicate with the settler-colonists, and “when they came to the house and on being asked to sit up and eat did as nicely as anybody.”

Elizabeth, Mercy’s mother, asked one Dakota woman with a two year old child to drink some milk. “She refused, saying, ‘No, no, stomach bad.’ None of the Indians, old or young, would drink milk at all.” And Mercy remembered no one “had to lock up anything as the Indians wouldn’t pilfer anything.”

In 1865, the family moved from Scott County to Dakota County, near Randolph on the Big Cannon River. Because Isaac was a blacksmith by trade, he assisted in building a mill dam at that point. Leaving the area near Shakopee, Isaac and Elizabeth had nine children: Mercy, Dorothy Jane, Rachael, Maria, Elvira, Orland Amos, Perry, Mary, and Sarah, though three died young.

In Randolph, Minnesota, Isaac and Elizabeth had three more children: Benjamin, Joseph, and Rubin.

Mercy never married, and she died May 4, 1934. The funeral service were held May 6, 1934 at the Methodist Church in Randolph, Minnesota, with Rev. W.E. Thompson, and she was buried at the local cemetery, according to Find a Grave.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Maureen Ndidiamaka Onyelobi was born Aug. 4, 1985, on the south side of Chicago to Nigerian parents and two sisters. Maureen always dreamt of becoming a lawyer. That seemed like a tall task for a first-generation Nigerian immigrant who had to relearn how to walk after she was caught in a house fire at age 10, according to Maddie DeBilzan in an article in the Shakopee Valley News on May 21, 2021, called “Inmates at the Shakopee Correctional Facility may soon be able to get their law degrees.”

According to Maureen, since she was a child, she tried to do everything right to make her parents proud. “I graduated at the top of my class in elementary school. In high school, my behavior started to change, but nevertheless, I graduated. I later earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, and a few years later earned a second Bachelor’s Degree in English literature.”

But all of that changed when she was charged in 2014 with aiding and abetting first-degree premeditated murder in the drug-related shooting of Anthony Fairbanks in Minneapolis. Fairbanks and Maurice Wilson, who at that time was Maureen’s boyfriend, had been indicted in a federal drug case.

“I only lived in Minnesota for eight months before being arrested. I came to this state from Illinois with my ex-boyfriend who sold illegal substances,” said Maureen. “I was leading a sort of double life and it was only a matter of time before my bad decisions caught up with me.” Life with Maurice was hard. He controlled her life. It was an extremely abusive and violent relationship, according to a petition to the governor and others on July 16, 2020.

Maureen was incarcerated on Nov. 14, 2014, and has been at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee ever since. David Johnson, another heroin dealer, was the one who shot Anthony Fairbanks four times in the head. Maureen was in the vehicle and said she never knew that Anthony would be killed. David Johnson is allowed to be released in 2040, while Maureen was sentenced to life without parole.

Maureen experienced two ineffective counsels, a biased jury, and illegally obtained evidence. Maureen had no knowledge that the murder was going to happen, and her conviction was based off circumstantial and ill-gotten evidence. Maureen has spent her time in prison working, mentoring, gardening, doing restorative justice work, becoming a paralegal, and preparing to begin law school.

Onyelobi’s appeals to have her conviction overturned have been repeatedly denied.

She already took the entrance exam twice before, but it was not a high enough score to get into law school. In prison, Maureen had a tutor who volunteered to help her pass. She got a new job in facilities maintenance at the prison, with nighttime hours so she could study during the day. Finally, she passed the exam.

Since 2014, Maureen has been educating herself on law, and helping others understand their own sentences. “I’ve helped several women with their appeals. It’s rewarding to help other people. I care about others and I feel more worth now than I did before,” said Maureen in the article in the Shakopee Valley News. Nearly 40 percent of individuals admitted to correctional facilities do not have a GED or high school diploma.

She stands taller than six feet, wears bright-white Under Armour tennis shoes, and has a booming laugh you could hear down the hall, said Maddie DeBilzan, “This place is what you make it.”

“God has a reason why he does everything. If I have to stay here forever, I’ll stay here forever,” said Maureen. “But now, I have a sense of pride that I didn’t have when I got here.”

In the Minneapolis Star Tribune article by Rochelle Olson called “State Board of Pardons decides Mitchell Hamline law student can seek parole after 18 more years” on June 29, 2023, noted to a panel, “I just want you to know I’m grateful and I will spend every day trying to make amends for my crime.”

The board unanimously agreed to reduce Onyelobi’s sentence from life without parole to life with the possibility of parole, making her eligible to be considered for release by the state Department of Corrections after 27 years in prison, provided she stays out of trouble. Onyelobi has served nine years in prison, making her potentially eligible for consideration in another 18 years.

And then on June 14, 2022, Maureen learned that she would joined the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Her studies will mark the nation’s first example of an accredited law school educating an incarcerated student. Her acceptance into the American Bar Association-accredited juris doctor program has been nearly three years in the making. Onyelobi’s historic acceptance follows a path forged by The Prison to Law Pipeline, nonprofit organizations called All Square and Until We Are All Free have partnered with Mitchell-Hamline Law School and the Minnesota Department of Corrections to launch the pipeline program, with the goal of establishing the first American Bar Association-accredited law and paralegal degree opportunities for inmates.

“Mitchell Hamline has a long history of looking for ways to expand the idea of who gets to go to law school,” Anthony Niedwiecki stated in the announcement. “It’s important for people who are incarcerated to better understand the criminal justice system, and this is one important way to do that. Our students will also benefit from having Maureen in class with them.”

Aquarius Ester noted “Maureen Ndidiamaka Onyelobi is the most optimistic, hardworking, ambitious person I know, and despite all the ways she has been disregarded, she remains excited about the future. She is a problem solver, and always speaks up for herself. She just does not quit.”

And while Onyelobi may never get out of prison, the dean is confident her education will benefit herself and others. She is the first law student accepted into an accredited American law school while incarcerated. She won’t be the last.

Whether she’s ever able to put her degree to use outside the prison walls, there is value and dignity in learning, in dreaming, in trying to give something back to the world. There is value, too, in having her there in class, with the next generation of prosecutors and judges who will put legal theory into practice.

“I think our students benefit from studying the law with people who are most affected by the law,” Niedwiecki said. “The law is about people. If we don’t have experiences with a wide range of people, then we don’t have a true understanding of the law…We teach law students how to read the law and study the law.” Mitchell Hamline also wants its students to learn “how to challenge the law, and make the law better and more just.”

Maureen Ndidiamaka Onyelobi “is a remarkably compassionate, kind, talented, dynamic, vibrant woman,” said University of Minnesota Law professor Perry Moriearty.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

On May 28, 1918, in Shakopee, John Henry Herman Ablen (1887-1939) and Philomena Catherine Minnie Thiede Ablen (1883-1955) were the proud parents of Marie Agnes. She was the first of the Abeln triplets born, and then Marie’s sister Philamine and finally John arrived. This marked a milestone for the city of Shakopee as the first set of triplets born.

Marie Agnes Abeln’s grandparents were Henry Abeln (1862-1924) and Maria Mary Braun Abeln (1868-1916); and Herman Julius Thiede (1845-1922) and Elizabeth Refinish Thiede (1839-1932).

The Abeln family grew up in the big red house that was across from St. Mark’s Catholic Church. Marie has many fond memories living there with her siblings. She attended school through the eighth grade at St. Mark’s Catholic School.

For most of her working years Marie cleaned homes and maintained yards for several families in Shakopee. She also helped her mother with the family home as well. Marie was excellent with children, especially her nieces and nephews and loved being around them.

In her earlier years, Marie loved to find treasures at area garage sales, play bingo at St. Mark’s Church and at Levee Drive apartments, and watch games shows, especially Wheel of Fortune, The Price is Right, and America’s Funniest Home Videos. In her later years, she enjoyed listening to the polka music show at noon, working in the word search books, and playing cards.

At the age of 92, Marie was entertained watching Monday Night Raw Wrestling!

As little girls and well into their twenties, Marie and her sister, Phil, always dressed alike. This classy style was her foundation throughout her life. Marie loved clothes and jewelry. Dressing in finest clothes and accessorizing with jewelry, Marie always matched from head to toe. Marie had lived with her niece, Monica, where her weekly chore was folding towels for Monica’s Beauty Shop. She took great pride in folding them precisely.

A life-long resident of Shakopee and age 93, Marie, the last of the triplets to pass, entered God’s arms the mid-morning of Sunday, October 2, 2011, at her niece’s home in Shakopee.

Marie will always be loved and missed deeply by her nieces and nephews, Donald Schultz, Mary Hallich, Kathleen Siler, Anita (Tom) Roeser, Monica (Delton) Giese, Elise (Les) Guthrie, Peter Schultz, Joe Schultz, Donna (Kenny) Theis, Charlie (Lil) Abeln and many, many great- and great-great nieces and nephews. She is also survived by two very special and dear caregivers, Mary Danner and Chris Thon; and hospice caregivers, Ann, Tamra, Deanna and Chaplain Tanya. Marie is preceded in death by her parents, John and Minnie; sister, Elizabeth (Don) Schultz; triplet brother, John (Marge) Abeln; triplet sister, Philamine “Phil” (Kerney) Hennen; infant brother, Peter Abeln; niece, Phyllis Schultz, grand-nephew, John Abeln, Larry Theis, and Scott Hallich.

Pallbearers were Peter Schultz, Charles Abeln, Kenny Theis, Thomas Roeser, Delton Giese and Darren Giese. Honorary pallbearers were her caregivers, Mary Danner and Chris Thon.

The funeral was at St. Mark’s Catholic Church on Oct. 6. Marie Agnes Abeln was laid to rest next to her parents at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper _______.

On Jan. 5, 1939, teenage sisters, Lorraine and Catherine arrived home from school and found baby Margaret Ann, a secret their parents, John Sarazin and Genevieve Scharf Sarazin had been keeping from them for months.

Born and raised in Shakopee, the Sarazin family grew up on a farm currently where the car wash and the Ballard-Sunder Funeral Home are located.

Marge’s parents were John Jack Christ Sarazin (1897-1984) and Genevieve Gertrude Scharf Sarazin (1906-1994). Her grandparents were Pierre Peter Louis Sarazin (1847-1912) and Katherina Schmitt Sarazin (1863-1924); and Louis Nicholas Scharf (1861-1951) and Augusta Haase Scharf (1861-1948).

Margaret attended school through the eighth grade before returning home to help her parents on the farm. In later years, the Sarazin family was honored to have a street in Shakopee named after them.

Through the years, Margaret ventured down many career paths. She waitressed at several restaurants, was a factory line inspector, and worked at Mystic Lake Casino.

But she took her caring and loving personality and assisted the elderly at Friendship Manor Nursing Home, drove school bus for people with disabilities, and provided daycare for children in the community and grandchildren. Margaret was most proud of dedicating her life to be a wife, mother, grandma, and great-grandma.

Margaret married Glen Trebesch in the late 1950s. From this union, she was blessed with five precious children, Deb, Ronnie, Scott, LeNita and Janelle. Unfortunately, Margaret and Glen parted ways. Her life was once again enriched with love meeting Dennis Elftmann. On Aug. 24, 1985 in the flower gardens of Eagan, Margaret and Dennis were married. She opened up her arms to Dennis’s four wonderful children, Jan, Sandra, Daniel and David. Through the years, Margaret’s life was greatly blessed with 14 grandchildren and soon to be 11 great-grandchildren. The family will always be her greatest pride and passion.

In Margaret’s spare time, she enjoyed cranking up polka music, watching the polka program at noon, and most of all polka dancing. An avid Minnesota Twins fan, Margaret also enjoyed playing cards, sending greeting cards for every occasion, enjoying the activities at the cabin in Palisade and traveling in the PT Cruiser.

She was known for her delicious pumpkin bread, the countless hours on genealogy research, and the love for her animals. Margaret is best remembered as a major icon in the racing profession. For decades, she supported and participated in the racing business at Raceway Park in Shakopee. Margaret was a permanent fixture at the track and everyone loved her. In more recent years, Margaret finished the second volume of the race track’s history.

A faithful woman, Margaret had a great memory and knew everyone by name. She was a woman of forgiveness and always looked past your faults or disappointments. Margaret had a spirited personality of sassiness, awesomeness and a strong temperament.

“One thing I loved about Marge was when she would call you, you knew the conversation was going to be more than a half hour, so you had to make sure you had your drink ready cause getting away from her was not easy,” said Cathi Nelson. “This wonderful lady had many stories and she was always willing to share.”

Don Pizzella noted, “Marge will be missed by many of the Wednesday Senior Old Time Dance group. Marge loved to dance, listen to Polka music, and share in the fun at dances all around the area. She had danced to most all of the popular bands in this area throughout her life. KCHK was her favorite radio station, and her collection of Polka CDs must be as large as her collection of Raceway tidbits. Enjoyed dancing with her over the last few years, she was a fun, honest, generous person.”

Noted John and Mary Ostdiiek, “Marge was a very special lady. Her devotion to Raceway Park was much appreciated especially for all her hard work documenting the history through her books. We will miss her smile and outgoing personality.”

A devoted resident of Shakopee and a strong supporter of the Shakopee Heritage Society, Margaret Ann Marge Sarazin Trebesch Elftmann passed away peacefully in the presence of her family, at her home the morning of Monday, May 2, 2016. She was laid to rest with her husband at the Shakopee Catholic Cemetery.

Margaret’s legacy will live on in her beloved family that will truly miss her deeply.