Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020
Grace Faribault Manaige was the granddaughter of Oliver Faribault and Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ (or Woman Who Sits at the High Place). Grace was born at her parents’ log cabin in East Shakopee, the same log cabin which is now in The Landing in Shakopee. Her parents were Charles A. Manaige and Pelagie Eliza Faribault.
Grace’s parents had four children, two sons and two daughters. Isabelle was born in 1871, and married Harvey Randolph Leach in Des Moines, Iowa, and they had 9 children. Melvin was born in 1872 and died April 12, 1931. He married and lived in Brooklyn, New York. Eugene Curtis was born 1874 and died of tuberculosis in 1903. The last child was Grace, who was born in 1876.
Grace grew up with her siblings, Isabelle, Melvin, and Eugene Curtis. They attended public schools in Shakopee.
The family was poor, but they took care of each other and enjoyed living together.
When Grace got older, she was planning to marry. But she took a train to South Dakota to be with her sister during the birth of Isabelle’s child.
It was a difficult delivery; the baby came breech and couldn’t be turned. To save Isabelle, the doctor cut off an extremity of the baby, and the baby died.
When Grace returned home, she broke off the engagement with the man she was to marry.
She said, “I would never go through that for a man!”
And so, Grace stayed at the Faribault cabin, helping cook and clean for the others who lived there.
Down the hill were three springs which fed into the small stream. The springs kept the water at a constant temperature. Faribault Springs had watercress, which the Faribault family used and sold to the people in Shakopee.
When Grace was about eighty years old, she didn’t like when people went to her Springs to steal the watercress. Grace took care of the watercress, and gathered it and sold it in Shakopee, including in the Red Owl store.
So, when Grace saw people at the Springs gathering HER watercress, she was not happy. She would start swearing at the people. And Grace took out her pistol, held it out, and said, “Get off my land or you will be dead!”
And they left!
A few years later, Grace wasn’t feeling so well. She ended up at Friendship Manor, which opened its doors to the public on May 1, 1965, as a 76-bed intermediate-care facility, accommodating people who needed minimal assistance. Grace was one of the first residents at the facility which is at 1340 3rd Avenue West in Shakopee.
Grace Faribault Manaige died at Friendship Manor in November of 1966.
She was buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.