Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Shakopee was one of the oldest settlements in Minnesota, but was really only a frontier outpost, part Indian and part white, when Moses Starr Titus moved here.

Moses was born on October 27, 1819, in Washington, Litchfield, Connecticut. The Titus family was related to the Ponds, an old Connecticut family. Moses’s parents were Starr Titus and Rebecca Pond. Rebecca was the sister of Samuel and Gideon Pond. Samuel and Gideon came west about 1832 as missionaries among the Indians. They established a mission among them on the east side of Bde Maka Ska in the city limits of Minneapolis.

Moses Starr Titus came west about 1844 to join the Ponds and assist them as a teacher. He also was an Indian farmer and a trader at Hohaanskae (Black Dog Village). He came to Shakopee by canoe, and then by ox teams, following the old Indian trail. He spent the winter of 1851 in the area later named Shakopee.

One of the earliest white pioneers to the Shakopee area, Moses Starr Titus, described the first lonely winter of the few settlers who arrived almost before the ink on the treaties was dry:

“The winter was long, and cold, no news, no festivities, no pleasures, parties, no dancing (unless to warm freezing toes), and no papers from St. Paul or Ft. Snelling… Our town proprietor (Thomas A. Holmes) did not starve, his Indian friends brought him plenty of venison; potatoes were to be had at the old [S. W. Pond] Mission site and towards spring our heroes in their rambles captured a large bear. This was rare sport, and furnished them with food, and fun, for a full month.”

Not that weather was less worrisome when spring arrived, as Titus went on to point out: “The winter [ended] in due time. Years come and go, Shakopee or no Shakopee, and with the spring, the floods came, the winds blew, and from the foot of the bluff, on the south side of the Minnesota River, to the bluff on the north, was one continuous sheet of water. The Indian canoe glided to and fro from above the window.”

Moses met Jane Lamont while at Bde Maka Ska.

Jane was born in 1827, the daughter of Daniel Lamont, a trader from Scotland, and Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ (Hush the Night), Mdewakanton Dakota. Daniel’s father and Jane’s grandparents were Colin Lamont, Sr., and Jane Smith of Scotland. Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ’s father was the Dakota Bde Maka Ska leader. Jane’s grandparents were Maḣpiya Wic̣aṡṭa and Canpadutawin. Maḣpiya Wic̣aṡṭa was also known as Cloud Man, and Canpadutawin was known as Red Cherry Woman.

On March 14, 1850, Moses Starr Titus married Jane Lamont. Moses had been living with the family for some years.

Moses organized one of the first schools in the Minnesota River valley at Shakopee. In 1852, Moses and Jane built a house in Shakopee. A few years later, they built the large residence not too far from the Ponds’ residence, which they lived in until they both died.

Moses and Jane had four children, three sons and a daughter: Seymour Starr (1851), Henry Harlan (1854), Moses Starr (1858), and Jane Marilla Titus (1866).

Moses and Jane were involved in founding the Presbyterian Church, and they took an active role.

Jane was remembered as a woman of kindness and mercy. As a wife and mother, she was true and tender, and as a mother she exerted all a mother’s love and watchful care.

Moses Starr Titus, for 26 years a resident of Shakopee, and 34 years an inhabitant of Minnesota, died on September 22, 1878. He was 58 years old.

Jane Lamont Titus died on March 26, 1899. Both are buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Milo B. Apgar was the ninth of eleven children of Captain Samuel and Melinda Perry Apgar. He was born in upstate New York in 1844. Seven years later, in 1851. Milo, his parents, and five siblings, along with their neighbors, the Dimons, moved to Minnesota Territory in October of 1852. Milo was about eight years old.

Melinda and Samuel kept a small house for travelers in 1852 in Holmes Landing (later Shakopee). It was the cabin that Thomas A. Holmes and friends built before he built the bigger building next door. The children, including Milo, worked with the family.

The trek west was a bonding experience, and marriage prospects were otherwise so limited, that eventually three of the Apgar boys marriage Dimon daughters! In the spring of 1862, Milo, age 18, married 22-year-old Diane Jeanette Dimon, according to Apgar Family Association Newsletter, July 2000.

Four years later, during the U.S.-Dakota War, Milo enlisted in Company I of the Ninth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. According to the Apgar Family Association Newsletter, Milo was chronically ill during much of his military service in the Civil War, though he did participate in a battle against Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tupelo, Mississippi in mid-July 1864. He was discharged for disability before the war ended.

Milo realized that he loved traveling, and when he was almost 48 years old, he decided to move west. Milo left Shakopee with his friend, Charlie Howe, and they headed out in 1892. Michael Dimon Apgar, Milo’s great-grandson, said that Milo had pushed his old cart all the way from Maine. Of course, he exaggerated in pursuit of a good story, especially since he had been living in Shakopee for forty years!

Within the Glacier area of Montana, physical evidence of human use dates back more than 10,000 years when Native American tribes utilized the area for hunting, fishing, ceremonies, and gathered plants and berries. When the first white explorers began arriving in the region, the Blackfeet controlled the prairies on the east side of Glacier, while the Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Ktunaxa (or Kootenai) lived in the more forested west side.

The Indians also traveled east of the mountains to hunt buffalo. The Kootenai Indians call Lake McDonald “The Place Where They Dance.” Since time immemorial, the Kootenai had returned to the foot of the lake to dance and sing songs. Here, they received help and guidance from different spirits, according to Legends of America.

The Blackfeet name for this region is Mistakiks (Backbone of the World). The Ktunaxa name for the Glacier region is Ya-qawiswittxc’ki (Where There Are Glaciers), according to National Park Service History.

The first permanent white families reached Lake McDonald, established their homesites on Indian land, and built their first cabins as settler-colonists. The name Lake McDonald, which white people named the place, was probably named after Duncan McDonald, the son of Hudson’s Bay Company trader Angus MacDonald who founded Fort Conah (now on the Flathead Indian Reservation) and Catherine Baptiste (Eagle in the Wind) whose heritage was Nez Perce, Mohawk, and French.

In 1892, Milo, along with Charlie Howe, built homes at the lower end of the lake with the intention of farming the area. Diane, along with their two boys, Elsi Mortimer and Harvey Dimon Apgar, arrived soon after. (Their daughter, Phoebe, married and moved to Texas.) They homesteaded on land that was impossible to farm, and they had to be enterprising to remain there. Hunting and trapping in the area was no problem, so most of these men kept trap lines on a regular basis. Because farming proved impractical, the settler-colonists quickly became involved in servicing tourists visiting the Glacier National Park, which President Teddy Roosevelt established in 1910. Settlement in the surrounding area predates the park’s establishment. Land was quickly patented and much of it is still privately owned today. The National Park Service purchases this land as it becomes available and sellers are willing.

The existing wagon road up the North Fork became the western boundary of the park when Glacier was established in 1910. Forty-four homesteads to the east of the new boundary then became inholdings within Glacier. A rich history of characters, from the first rangers to innovative bootleggers, helped to define the early years of Glacier.

Milo and Charlie began catering to the visitors who occasionally got off the train at Belton and wanted to see Lake McDonald. By 1892, Milo and Charlie were offering rental cabins, meals, pack horses, guided tours, and boat trips for visitors who arrived in Belton on the Great Northern Railway.

Diane began to furnish meals. All these homesteaders saw the possibility of catering to tourists and the local miners for a potential livelihood, since several parties of visitors arrived in 1894 and the mines were “showing up fine” in 1895, according to Man in Glacier, by C. W. Buchholtz.

The family had barely scratched out a clearing and a crude home for shelter when Milo died of heart failure in 1896. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Columbia Falls, Montana. Soon after, Elsi and Harvey finished an impressive log building which would be home for the Montana Apgars, who were from Shakopee, for nearly half a century.

As these services increased, the village that grew up around them gained the name Apgar. Apgar Village is one of the main villages in Glacier National Park. Apgar is located on the west side of the park about one mile from the west entrance. Apgar has one of the most popular campgrounds in Glacier National Park and is always quite filled. Apgar Village is also home to a visitors’ center, a general store, and a large gift shop.

Bibliography

Apgar Family Association Newsletter, July 2000.

Buchholtz, C. W. Man in Glacier. Glacier Natural History Association, 1976.

“Glacier National Park Junior Park Ranger.” National Park Service History. http://npshistory.com/publications/interpretation/junior-ranger/glac-answers.pdf.

“Glacier National Park, Montana.” Legends of America. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/mt-glacierpark/.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

In 1852 a small settlement called Holmes Landing, later called Shakopee, was located here. And in the same area were 600 Dakota Indians who lived here on the south side of the Minnesota River near Memorial Park.

And on the north side of the Minnesota river, a woman was waking up.

She was not a squaw. She was a woman.

She was not a redskin. She was a proud Eastern Dakota woman.

She did not just arrive. She was here first. The Dakota lived here since late 1600s.

She was not shy. Dakota women held mutual respect. In fact, compared to many European American women at that time, this woman was highly regarded.

She was working. She was out one early morning, finding twigs and branches to build a fire.

But people in Shakopee did not know her name. Like so many women at this time, her name was not recorded. Her name was not passed down in stories.

But people still remember.

Henry Marcoe arrived on a steamboat in 1852 and soon claimed the land in which the woman was collecting wood. Marcoe shot the woman. The gun was loaded, and the whole charge shot into the calf of the Dakota woman’s leg. The woman dropped her bundle of wood, drew a knife, and turned on him. But before she could stab him, Marcoe struck at the shoulder of the Dakota woman, breaking her collar bone.

The Dakota woman was in pain. She screamed loudly. The Dakota men and women ran to assist her.

As for Henry Marcoe? He ran to his cabin and locked his door.

The Dakota husband could have taken vengeance on Henry. Instead, the Dakota husband came across the river and conferred with Thomas A. Holmes. He sent word to the commander at Fort Snelling, and a squad of soldiers were sent to Prairieville and arrested Marcoe. He was taken to Fort Snelling where he was imprisoned for six months.

Then Marcoe was let go. He needed to move out of Minnesota Territory. He came back to Holmes Landing (Shakopee), straightened up his affairs, and left the area.

The Dakota woman was strong, but she was in pain. And when that happened, Melinda Perry Apgar decided to do something about it.

In October of 1852, Melinda, along with her husband, Captain Samuel Apgar, and six other children arrived in Holmes Landing from New York. Melinda Perry and Samuel Apgar married on September 26, 1824, and they had 10 children. Four of the children died and were buried in Peruville Cemetery, Groton Village, in Tompkins County, New York.

Melinda and family arrived about a year after Melinda’s son, Daniel, arrived in the fall of 1851.

Melinda and Samuel kept a small house for travelers in 1852 in Holmes. It was the cabin that Thomas A. Holmes and friends built before he built the bigger building next door. In 1852, Melinda was one of four white women in the settlement (the other three were her daughter and two daughters-in-law).

When the Dakota woman was shot, Melinda heard what happened. She knew what she should do. While none of the white men in the village did anything, the elder Melinda took responsibility to properly care for the wounded Dakota woman.

Dakota women, of course, collected medicine plants, including hutkan (ginseng), sinkpa tawatne (bitterroot), and pejuta ska (lady’s slipper). They could and did help the Dakota woman. But it was nice, also, to have the help of the 44-year-old Melinda.

Melinda visited the Dakota woman often and administered remedies and delicate food.

She slowly helped the Dakota woman get better.

The Dakota woman, once well, frequently brought Melinda and family a generous share of the day’s hunt for her kindness.

Melinda Perry Apgar, who was born on January 24, 1808, died on June 24, 1874, at age 68. She is buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

Captain Samuel Apgar, who was born on October 26, 1801, died on October 3, 1884. He was buried next to his wife at Valley Cemetery.

In Shakopee there is a street named Apgar, probably for Melinda’s son. But it was Melinda Perry Apgar who really should be noted. She was concerned about others, and not just about herself!

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Mazasnawiŋ Iron Woman Rosalie Freniere was born around 1817.

Mazasnawiŋ (also called Rosalie)’s father was Francòis Fernier, and her mother was Wyantoiciyewiŋ, called Mary Helen, a Sisseton woman. Francòis and Wyantoiciyewiŋ’s children were Pejiskaya (Xavier), born around 1809; Louis, born in 1812 and died in 1839; Norris, who was born in 1816; and Rosalie (Mazasnawiŋ or Iron Woman), who was born after 1817. Francòis was a long-time trader. He had lived and had a store near Lac Traverse and was visited by Father Ravoux in the fall of 1842.

Mazasnawiŋ’s grandfather was Cekpa, also known as Narcisse Freniere. Cekpa married Winona Crawford, who was born in 1808. He then married an Elm River Yanktonai woman. And finally, Cekpa married another Yantonai woman. Cekpa’s children include Susan Freniere (who married Joseph R. Brown at Lac Traverse in 1835); Sataka, also known as Daniel Antoine; Antoine, a daughter who married Francòis Chardon; Thomas; Narcisse (who was born around 1841 in Minnesota Territory); and Francòis, who was Mazasnawin’s father.

In 1816, Cekpa was at Prairie du Chien, and was employed by James Aird. In 1819 he was employed by Graham and Renville as an interpreter at Lac Traverse. From 1824 to 1827, Cekpa worked for the American Fur Company, but by 1836 Cekpa and his brothers, Francòis and Louis, were independent traders in a part of the American Fur Company Western outfit. They were trading at the mouth of the Cheyenne River. Cekpa, also known as Narcisse, died while on a journey to the Missouri River.

Mazasnawiŋ’s great-grandfather was Charles-Jacques Fernier (Lafreniere) and a Sisseton woman whose father was Tokokotipexni, or He Who Fears Nothing. Charles-Jacques was a trader on the Rivière Saint-Pierre in the 1780s. So Mazasnawiŋ’s kin were an important part of her life.

Mazasnawiŋ met and married Kahoton “Makes Noise by Striking” John Mooers on June 30, 1845. Rosalie and Kahoton lived with his parents in a house not far from the Samuel and Cordelia Eggleston Pond cabin in Tínṫa Otuŋwe (later Shakopee) starting in 1846. The cabin was north of the mission house, between there and the Rivière Saint-Pierre. When Hazen Mooers and Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ moved out in the spring of 1849, Rosalie and Kahoton continued to live in Tínṫa Otuŋwe, and was an Indian farmer for the government until the spring of 1853.

Rosalie and Kahoton had four children: Moses, twins Mary Ann and Jane Ann, and James.

Not too long after the last child, James, was born, Rosalie separated from Kahoton. A transcript of Kahoton’s affidavit (No. 183) which was written in 1855:

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

By May of 1858 in Brown County, a guardian was appointed for Moses, Mary Ann, and James Mooers. Jane Ann had died recently. A guardian was needed, according to the Brown County Journal, to clear the title to property owned by the Mooers’ children, “half breeds residing at the lower agency.”

Rosalie married Pierre Felix sometime after 1855. They had one child, Harriet, who later married Louis Mable Robinette.

Mazasnawiŋ Iron Woman Rosalie Freniere Mooers Felix died sometime after 1876.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Mathias Antonio Soto-Elgueta was born on October 1, 1996, in Santiago, Chile, the son of Marco Soto and Jessica Elgueta. When he was eight years old, he moved to the United States.

When he was a sixth grader, Mathias started volunteering by helping with an after-school activity to build stronger academic and society skills among the diverse junior high students in Shakopee. The Latino Club continued, and Mathias, in eighth grade, invited one of his white friends to join. Eventually, students of all colors and ethnicities joined the club, which changed the name to Skittles, because everyone should be welcome.

When he graduated from Shakopee High School, Mathias served in the United States Air Force, where he was deployed to Kuwait in 2018. He liked serving, and he liked airplanes and traveling. After the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Mathias, who was spending a few days in Duluth for training, stopped in Minneapolis to help serve the community, still wearing his military backpack as he collected food near the site of Floyd’s death.

According to Amanda McKnight, Mathias had a heart for serving others and always pushed others to be the best version of themselves. “After becoming involved with Esperanza, a CAP Agency program that means hope in Spanish, Soto-Elgueta joined SDA (Shakopee Diversity Alliance) as treasurer early this year (2020) and volunteered at every local food distribution event that he could fit into his schedule.” Marco Soto, his father, noted, “For him it was a passion to help people out, and this year he wanted to help people get through this pandemic. He told me there’s people out there suffering that had nothing. That was our battle every single day: He didn’t think about himself. He thought what he was doing wasn’t good enough. All that he did, and he thought he needed to do more.”

Mary Hernandez knew Soto-Elgueta since he was a third-grade kid with a lunch box. Mathias would load food boxes into people’s cars, praying over the deli meat and cereal boxes before shutting the trunks. He also would bring paper bags full of breakfast burritos for the other volunteers who would forget to eat on food drive days. And Mathias also paid the rent for a woman he heard could use his help.

Volunteering wasn’t a once-a-week resume booster for Mathias, according to Maggie DeBlizan. He searched for volunteer opportunities like an earnest college graduate who searched for jobs. Volunteering kept Mathias alive. Once Soto-Elgueta stopped Mary Hernandez and said to stop thanking me, because “you have no idea how much this had helped me.”

Mathias’s family and friends knew about his struggle with depression. They tried to comfort him and be there when he needed support (treatment). According to friend Jacob Arellano, “You can be there as much as you want, but he’ll always have a moment when he’s there by himself, when he’s fighting his own demons. It’s impossible to fight depression because you’re on your own, and it’s in your head.”

Mathias Antonio Soto-Elgueta died of suicide on December 4, 2020. “We’ve got to do more for veterans and Latinos,” said his father, Marco. “My son felt the last couple of months – he felt alone. We tried to talk to him, but he shut himself down, But I don’t want to shut it down.” Besides serving in the Air National Guard, Latino men grow up under a culture that often discourages them from sharing their feelings or becoming emotional. And being a first-generation Latino immigrant created the worst kind of storm for Mathias.

Marco urged anyone struggling to open up about their mental health to let their guard down and seek help. “If there was someone like my son, don’t be afraid to talk to somebody. There’s people that will always love you all the time, no matter how you are. And for parents, be there for your. kids., Don’t brush them off. Try to understand what he’s going thorough, at least try. And friends, to keep an eye on each other. My son was the happiest with his friends. When somebody is like that and happy, you got to be careful, because he could be hiding something underneath.”

In the United States, we lose 22 veterans and one serving member every day. Please consider donating to Operation: 23 to 0 in memory of Mathias and for all our service men and women.

operation2320@outlook.com; Operation: 23 to Zero, P.O. Box 89, Stillwater, MN 55082; facebook: facebook.com/op2320

For help, contact Scott County Mobile Crisis Services at 952-818-3702.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Mary “Polly” Schroeder was born in 1793 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Her neighbor in Oley was Samuel DeTurk Weiser.

Lenni-Lenape, of the Delaware tribe, called this area Olink, means kettle, which is roughly the shape of the valley. Oley was an important meeting place for Native Americans. The Sacred Oak, which is located about one mile from Main Street, is a more-than-500-year-old oak tree at which the Lenape made treaties and settled differences according to Wikipedia.

The first European settler-colonists arrived in the Oley Valley in the early 1700s. When they arrived, they found prosperous Lenape villages and fields of corn. The settlers were primarily German along with French Huguenots and Swiss seeking religious freedom. Pennsylvania Dutch was still the primary language of the settler-colonists until World War I.

Samuel DeTurk Weiser was born on November 5, 1783, in Oley, Pennsylvania, son of David Weiser, Jr. and Maria DeTurk. Samuel’s grandfather was David Jayner Weiser, Sr., who was born in Worms, Stadtkreis Worms, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany and came to America on Loyal Judith from Rotterdam, arriving on September 3, 1739. He came to America because his brother, Peter, had arrived earlier. Peter was a laborer, and in 1738 he wrote a will that said he was “very sick and weack in Body, but of perfect Mind and Memory. Thanks her given into God therefore, calling into Mind ye Mortality of my Body, and knowing that it is appointed me each amen once to Dye, do macke and ordain the my Last Will and Testament.” Peter died at 24 years old.

So, David Weiser, Sr. headed to America, married Maria Catherina Weidner in 1740, and acquired land as a settler-colonist, which was passed on to his son, David, Jr., and then his grandson, Samuel DeTurk Weiser, according to Ancestry.com.

Mary Polly married Samuel DeTurk Weiser on January 22, 1815, in Reading. Polly and Samuel had seven children: Esther, 1816; Christian, 1824; Theresa, 1828; William Frank, 1830; Dr. Josiah Schroeder, 1832; Joel Schroeder, 1834; and Annette Marie, 1839.

Samuel, a miller, was in failing health. When talking to their son and daughter-in-law Joel and Louisa after their marriage in May of 1854, Mary Polly and Samuel decided to give up their comfortable place in the east and cast their lot with Joel, Louisa, and the other two boys who now lived in Shakapee City, Minnesota Territory, according to Curt Eriksmoen’s column “Assassination in central ND likely was the spark that ignited the Dakota War” in Did You Know That.

The group immediately started for the west, via Niagara Falls, the Ohio and upper Mississippi rivers. However, before they reached St. Paul, Samuel died on May 17, 1854, on the boat, leaving Mary a widow before she reached her new home.

Mary Polly prevailed upon the kindly captain to allow her to bring the body to her destination where she buried him in St. Paul’s oldest cemetery, at the age of 68.

Mary Polly lived with her son, Joel, and his wife, Louisa Cleaver Weiser in Shakopee, where she enjoyed the grandchildren who were living in Shakopee.

Soon after the start of the Civil War in 1862, Polly’s son, William (wives were Mary E. Allen and Catherine McCallum) enlisted in Company I Ninth Regiment, Minnesota Infantry. Her next son, Joel (wife was Louisa Cleaver) also enlisted in the Company I Ninth Regiment, Minnesota Infantry and was at once ordered to Memphis to engage in fighting the Confederate forces. And Mary Polly’s other son, Dr. Josiah S. Weiser (wife was Eliza Victoria Hunt), joined the Company S First Minnesota Calvary Mounted Rangers commanded by General Henry Hastings Sibley, to pursue the Dakota Indians in the Dakota Territory.

Dr. Josiah S. Weiser was killed on July 24, 1864. Polly’s other two sons, Joel and William, returned to Shakopee in the fall of 1865.

Joel returned to his work as a mason in Shakopee until 1870, when he was offered a contract to do construction work in St. Paul. With the completion of his contract in 1874, he relocated 12 miles east of St. Paul to work on a farm. Polly and Louisa and children moved with Joel.

After working as a mason and farmer in eastern Minnesota for over twenty years, Joel and his family packed up their belongings and traveled by train to Worthington, a railroad stop located sixty miles west of Fargo, in northern Dakota Territory, not too far from where Dr. Josiah Weiser had been killed 14 years earlier. Joel filed a homestead and tree claim of 320 acres, four miles northeast of the railroad stop, and built a log cabin in Worthington, which was the second house built there. Polly moved there with the family. Joel would later change the name of Worthington to Valley City, according to a column written by Curt Eriksmoe.

Mary Polly made her home with her son Joel and family until the end of her life.

She passed away at the age of 84, in Valley City, Dakota Territory on December 11, 1879. She had the distinction of being the first white woman to be buried there, according to Find a Grave.

Bibliography

Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/178055336/recent.

BluMoKitty. “Mary ‘Polly’ Schroeder Weiser.” Find a Grave, 3 June 2013. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/111756168/mary-weiser.

Eriksmoen, Curt. “Assassination in central ND likely was the spark that ignited the Dakota War.” Did You Know That, 29 May 2020. https://www.inforum.com/lifestyle/eriksmoen-assassination-in-central-nd-likely-was-the-spark-that-ignited-the-dakota-war.

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

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Mary Joyce Pomijie was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 3, 1924, the daughter of William and Mary (Costigan) Pomije. She grew up in Shakopee and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

When she was a junior in high school, Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941. “I remember it very well,” Mary said in an article in the Shakopee Valley News by Nicole S. Colson. “A lot of boys left right after they graduated – my friends, kids in my class.”

She had to go to boot camp in New York, where Mary learned to march and to make a tight bed. Mary served stateside from 1944 to 1946, one of the U.S. Navy’s WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.

According to Tom Melchior in the book Never Forgotten: Stories by Scott County, Minnesota, WWII Veterans, Mary remembered the boot camp. “I remember we did a lot of marching. We had craft identity classes, battleship identity classes, insignia identity classes, and foreign uniform identity.” Then, once she was in San Francisco, she spent six weeks learning all the mail codes, and how to bundle up the mail and send it to the various ships. It was a secret operation. They had to make sure the enemy didn’t know where the ships were!

Mary remembered that she was just 19 when she was assigned to the Fleet Post Office in San Francisco. Service people sent their mail for free, and the military mail service ensured that important packages reached families back home.

She stayed in a converted YMCA in San Francisco. “Service people were treated with respect and kindness everywhere we went. People would meet us in church and invite us home for dinners on Sunday.” Mary remembered some of “the Shakopee fellas” as they were about to board ships and head into combat, according to Nicole S. Colson in an article called “Women Served Stateside Too” in the Shakopee Valley News on November 11, 2004.

The notion of women serving in the Navy was not widely supported in Congress or by the Navy, although some of the lawmakers and naval personnel did support the need for uniformed women during World War II. The law that allowed women to serve in the Navy, was due in large measure to the efforts of the Navy’s Women’s Advisory Council, Margaret Chung, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady of the United States.

To be eligible for officer candidate school, women had to be age 20 to 49 and possess a college degree or have two years of college and two years of equivalent professional or business experience. Volunteers at the enlisted level had to be age 20 to 35 and possess a high school or a business diploma or have equivalent experience.

When she returned from service, Mary met Lee Stocker, who was a Navy veteran and had been stationed in the South Pacific. Mary Joyce Pomije married Leroy (Lee) Michael Stocker on February 14, 1950, in Shakopee. He was born on October 15, 1923, in Jordan, son of Mathias Mathew Stocker and Clara M. Geis. They were the parents of Bill, and Ann Stocker Gaudette. Lee died January 30, 1993, in Shakopee.

Mary enjoyed spending time volunteering, golfing, playing card games, especially bridge and completing crossword puzzles. She helped start and was a member of a book club.

In fact, Mary Joyce noted “I am probably one of the few people who have witnessed all of Scott County Library history, and I want to tell you how thrilled I am with the progress.” She remembered when the Shakopee library was housed in the old bank by the railroad track. In 1970 the library moved to the Schesso Building, which had been a laundromat, and was remodeled for the library. In 1979, the library was tripled in size thanks to support from Rahr Malting Foundation funds. The new Shakopee branch of the Scott County Library System is located at 235 S. Lewis Street and opened in 2003. The two-story, 26,000-square-foot facility includes meeting rooms, designated areas for children and teens, and computer stations for accessing the Internet and card catalog. Mary remembered the librarians, including Darlene Kelzer, Penny McDonald, Anna Mae Walsh, and Barbara Hegfors.

Mary appreciated time spent visiting with friends and liked sipping on white wine. She liked to travel, especially to the North Shore, Grand Marais area and her many trips to Italy with her family. She was honored to be a member of the “Greatest Generation.”

Mary Joyce Pomijie Stocker died on June 28, 2016, at age 91. Her service was on Friday, July 1, 2016, at Church of St. Mary. Mary Joyce was buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee, next to her husband.

Bibliography

Colson, Nicole S. “Women Served Stateside Too.” Shakopee Valley News, 11 Nov. 2004.

Melchior, Ton. Never Forgotten: Stories by Scott County, Minnesota, WWII Veterans. Scott County Historical Society, 2010.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper

Mary Hernandez was born in Mexico City, Mexico on July 16, 1975, daughter of Alberto and Angelica Hernandez. Mary’s older brother is Jose Hernandez, and her younger brother is Marco Hernandez.

Mary’s parents wanted to work, and to have the American dream. Alberto and Angelica wanted their three children to have a better life and future. And so, in 1980, the family moved to Minnesota.

In St. Paul, Mary, along with her two brothers, learned English in the St. Paul Public Schools. In 1993, Mary moved to Shakopee.

In May of 2003, Mary married Jorge Gomez. They have four children. During the last twenty years, Mary has earned a reputation as a strong advocate for the residents of the community of Shakopee. According to Mary, “I will always do my best in serving whoever is needed to build a strong, loving, inclusive community.”

Mary started working as a cultural liaison for the Shakopee School District. She also was the co-founder of the nonprofit organization Esperanza.

She was also co-founder of the Shakopee Diversity Alliance. Formed in 2012, the Shakopee Diversity Alliance is a community-based group made up entirely of volunteers and is aimed at celebrating the city of Shakopee’s culturally diverse community as well as addressing its needs. The SDA’s vision is that through collaboration and awareness, Shakopee is united as a vibrant, diverse, inclusive community.

Mary also was a member of the St. Francis Regional Center Board of Directors and was an at-large member of the Shakopee Community Education Advisory Council. She also volunteered with the FISH network and Isaiahmn.org as she fights for racial and economic equality for all Minnesota, according to the list of “20 Hispanic and Latina Women to Know” from YWCA Minneapolis.

Mary is the community project coordinator at the Scott, Carver, Dakota Community Action Partnership (CAP) Agency. The Scott Carver Dakota CAP Agency’s vision is to create a strong community with healthy individuals and families, quality education, safe and affordable housing, and work that dignifies. More than 50,000 individuals help achieve social and economic well-being.

Mary worked to help feed neighbors who are missing a meal. The face of hunger is not what some people might expect.

Many seeking food assistance in Minnesota have jobs, raise families, work toward education, and struggle with health problems. Unfortunately, difficult trade-offs must be made to provide enough food for their families. Hungry is everywhere – in rural, urban, and suburban areas, of every age and background.

And some people in Shakopee do not have enough food to survive. And when that happens, Mary Hernandez and her supportive friends and helpful businesses help make food insecurity, the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food, less of a problem in the community of Shakopee.

Bibliography

“20 Hispanic and Latina Women to Know.” YWCA Minneapolis, 8 Sept. 2025. https://www.ywcampls.org/blog-content/all-our-voices-blog/20-hispanic-latina-women-to-know.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Mary Hapstiŋna Otherday was born on July 8, 1880, near the Minnesota River bottoms east of downtown Shakopee. Her parents were James Mom Anpetutokica Otherday (ca. 1849-1930) and Hapstiŋna Black Flute Lucy Otherday (ca. 1832-1920).

Mary grew up on the north side of the Minnesota River. She was a Mdewakanton Dakota Indian.

A postcard shows the “Sioux Reservation” in Shakopee, but the 18 acres, located on the north side of the river, was actually purchased by Oyatekokepa Jacob Otherday in 1871. The land was directly across the Minnesota River from Tínṫa Otuŋwe, often called the Village of Six’s.

The 1875 census shows 15 people, ages from seven to 65, with surnames of Otherday, Tokudo or Tahkudo, Bonska, Simis, and Bluestone. In 1900, the colony consisted of about 15 residents, living in three dwellings. The surnames include Otherday, La Framboise, Ortley, Bluestone, Shoto (or Choteau), Campbell, Cloud, Jackson, Tahkudo, and Baska. All were probably related.

Mary grew up near Shakopee. Her sister, Minnie Josephine, along with her brother Charles, spoke Dakota and English.

When she was 28, Mary married Ocankutopana George Chantu Mato Crazy Bear Cantu on October 8, 1908, in Shakopee. The two of them moved to the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation, the homeland of the federally recognized Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, a branch of the Santee Dakota group of Native Americans. Mary and Charles had eight children.

Mary spent her years in South Dakota until she was one hundred years old. It was 1980, and Mary decided she wanted to return to Shakopee. She had lived in South Dakota since her marriage, but she decided to return for her 100-year birthday celebration, according to an article in the Shakopee Valley News, July 9, 1980, by Claire Robling.

Mary remembered that her life probably lacked all the luxuries of others, but she enjoyed her simple life. Mary had few belongings now and was staying at a nursing home in Sisseton. Many of her things, including some clothes, photographs, and moments from her early life, had not been located, according to her niece, Elizabeth Vig, who brought Mary back to Shakopee, in the article, “Indian woman born, raised in area returns to celebrate 100th birthday.”

Mary sat quiet at her niece’s home. She could still walk around but her pace was slow and unsteady. She could still use her hands and read, but her eyes were growing weaker, according to Robling’s article. Mary was not senile, but “her world is filled with yesterday’s descending, enveloping silence.”

Her world was filled with yesterday’s captured moments, frozen in time. She remembered faces and events, according to Elizabeth, but was having a harder time hearing. Elizabeth had to speak loudly and directly in Mary’s ear. She responded best when she was spoken to in the Dakota language. This was the language of her youth in Shakopee in the 1880s.

On July 12, 1980, a celebration of Mary’s 100-year anniversary, with relatives and friends from far and wide arrived for the birthday celebration for the century-old woman. “I wanted to have something special for her. There are very few people who reach 100 and could enjoy a party, but I think Mary will,” said Elizabeth. “I think she will remember the people who are coming, even if she doesn’t say much.” Though she did not have much to say, her mind was full of a century of history to tell.

Ocankutopana George Chantu Mato Crazy Bear Cantu, who had been born in 1877, died on March 3, 1926.

Mary Hapstiŋna Otherday Cantu, at age 102, died in September of 1982 in Sisseton, South Dakota. Her relatives from South Dakota and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Prior Lake still remember the life she lived.

Bibliography

Robling, Claire. “Indian woman born, raised in area returns to celebrate 100th birthday.” Shakopee Valley News, 9 July 1980.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Louis Scharf and Elizabeth Rosckes got married at St. Mark’s Catholic Church on November 25, 1884.

They had five children: Mary Catherine, Anna Catherine, John Henry, William John, and Mary Elizabeth Scharf.

On September 29, 1894, the family, along with a sister-in-law, went to the Chaska Fair.

In Shakopee, to cross the river to Chaska, three ferries were available. One was Major Richard C. Murphy’s ferry, on the south side of the Minnesota River a mile and a half east of Shakopee in what was called Eagle Creek. The second ferry was Luther M. Brown’s ferry which was located half a mile below Holmes Street. Some research shows that it was located on the west side of the original town plat of Shakopee. The third ferry was Thomas A. Holmes’s ferry, located at the foot of Cass Street in the western portion of platted Shakopee. The ferry was located west of downtown to accommodate settlers on the north side of the river.

Louis, Elizabeth, her sister, and the five children lived at Nic Majors farm just outside of Shakopee, and it is assumed that they used the Thomas A. Holmes ferry on Cass Street.

They headed home to rural Shakopee at 7 p.m. They had to take the ferry over the Minnesota River to Shakopee.

Louis might have been drunk. He had been driving very fast.

A block from the river, J. Kunz of the Kunz Oil Company of Minneapolis told him to slow down.

But Louis continued to drive fast, whipping his horses furiously.

The horses kept prancing and jumping. The horses started to run down the bank toward the ferry. Louis tried to control them, but they rushed down, broke the in-gate, and the horses, wagon, and all the occupants headed into the cold and angry river.

The ferry man, Chris, rushed to the scene but could only see Louis, clinging to the wagon box, and crying for help.

A boat was rowed out to get Louis. One paper noted that he was too under the influence of liquor to realize what happened.

The search was begun for the bodies.

The horses and wagon were found at the bottom of the river at the end of the ferry in 15 feet of water.

The body of his wife, Elizabeth, her sister, and the five children were all found in 15 feet of water.

Sad was the spectacle in the undertaker’s room.

Louis was arrested and a coroner’s inquest commenced.

The verdict was that “Mrs. Elizabeth Scharf came to her death by accidental drowning in the Minnesota River, near the city of Chaska, on the evening of the 29th Day of September A.D. 1894.”

The sheriff discharged the prisoner, Louis.

He moved into his wife’s parents house until he married Augusta Haase on September 15, 1896, in Chaska.

Louis and Augusta had four children.

While Louis enjoyed his four children, I am sure he often thought back to his first wife and the five children, including Mary Elizabeth Scharf, who died in the cold Minnesota River.