Compiled and written by David R. Schleper

According to the December 5, 1940 Shakopee Argus-Tribune, the inventor of movable type had direct descendants living in Shakopee starting in 1857.

The Minneapolis Tribune published an article about the descendants of Johann Guternberg. In 1439, Johann Gutenberg invented movable type, which changed history.

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (ca. 1400 – February 3, 1468) was a German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher who introduced printing to Europe with the printing press. His introduction of mechanical movable type printing to Europe started the Printing Revolution. It spread learning to the masses.

Gutenberg in 1439 was the first European to use movable type. Among his many contributions to printing are the invention of a process for mass-producing movable type; the use of oil-based ink for printing books; adjustable molds; mechanical movable type; and the use of a wooden printing press.

The use of movable type was a marked improvement to the handwritten manuscript, which was the existing method of book production in Europe, and Gutenberg’s printing technology spread rapidly, throughout Europe and then later the whole world.

The line of Johann Gutenberg, who made today’s newspapers possible through his invention of movable type in 1439, extended to Minnesota.

John Gutenberg was born April 7, 1828, in Prussia. On February 20, 1851, John married Dora Vichman. In 1853, the family emigrated to America. They lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a short time.

In 1855, John and Dora and their children moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, and in the spring of 1857, they moved to Shakopee. He was a musician.

John Gutenberg, in company with H. Fanakuch, built a hotel. He also did masonry and dealt in livestock. John then worked in the butcher business, and in 1869 he established what became the City Meat Market on Holmes Street.

Dora Vichman Gutenberg died in Shakopee on January 6, 1875, and is buried at Valley Cemetery.

The Great Fire of 1879 happened on Thursday, October 2, 1879. According to The Shakopee Story, it was a clear, warm, lazy fall day. The trees had lost most of their leaves, and Shakopee people were on downtown streets, busy after lunch. At the Argus building, Editor William Hinds was finishing the paper that was ready to go to press.

He could smell burning leaves wafting through the open windows. Suddenly, someone below yelled out, “Fire!” When he looked out the window, Hinds saw the National Hotel on the corner of Holmes and First Street was on fire. And next to the National Hotel was the City Meat Market of John Gutenburg.

It was a two-story building. The first floor was the City Meat Market, while an apartment was on the second floor. The National Hotel was located where Valley Sports at 102 First Ave West is now, on the corner of First Avenue and Holmes Street.

Hinds, always a newspaper man, scribbled a few lines on the fire for the paper, and then, after looking out and seeing the black clouds of smoke coming toward his building, hurried outside.

A bucket brigade and willing hands of the citizens of Shakopee helped, but the wind fanned the flames, and it continued to spread. The mayor, recorder, and city attorney rushed to the train depot and telegraphed St. Paul for help. The St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad offered a special train, and St. Paul responded with a hose and fire company with all equipment. A clear track was allowed to let the train hurry to the stricken city.

Meanwhile, the increasing wind continued to blow out of the north. The fire moved beyond the National Hotel to Mrs. Schutz’s residence and storehouse. Next, it continued to the two-story frame building of John Gutenberg. Gutenberg’s stock of meat and the contents of the apartment upstairs were in flames. The building, including the City Meat Market, burned to the ground.

By 3 p.m., the National Hotel was a smoldering ruin, with the north and east walls collapsed into the fire. One of the dignified citizens of Shakopee, looking at the mess, said to his companion, “Looks like she’s all going up in smoke. Let’s have a drink!”

Finally, just before 4 p.m., the strike of the locomotive whistle announced the arrival of aid from St. Paul.

As the firemen from St. Paul had a steam pumper pumping water from the river, people in Shakopee were worried that the flames would leap across to the east side of Holmes Street. The swirling smoke made it hard to see, but some people thought all of Shakopee would be lost. Luckily, the fire was confined to the west side of Holmes Street.

That evening, Shakopee citizens entertained the St. Paul firemen at the United States Hotel. By 11 p.m., the special train, filled with the fire engines and many of the firemen, headed back to St. Paul. A few firemen stayed overnight and waited until the next day to head back. They needed the extra day to recover from their exertion and the celebration.

The next morning, Shakopee citizens looked discouraged as they saw the whole block of blackened walls and twisted, smoking wreckage. A day before, it was a block of prosperous business establishments and happy homes. But they took a breath, smiled at each other and knew that they were still alive, and began to build new buildings that rose from the smoke of the fire.

John Gutenberg rebuilt the City Meat Market and carried on a successful trade until his death on June 23, 1880. He was buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

After John died, his sons, Henry and John Jr., conducted the business. The family consists of these two young men and their sisters, Lizzie and Christina.

In the November 17, 1892 Scott County Argus, a note mentioned that John Gutenberg, Jr. was in St. Paul on Monday and brought home with him some choice venison for his meat market.

John Gutenburg, Jr. died in 1910. His wife then moved to Seattle.

According to the Minneapolis Tribune, in 1940, the widow of John Gutenberg, Jr., born in Shakopee, walked into a display of printing craftsmanship at Seattle, where she had lived for some years, and disclosed her relationship to the man whose memory was being honored.

Bibliography

Coller, Julius A., II. The Shakopee Story. North Star Pictures, Inc. 1960, reprinted 2009, Shakopee Heritage Society.

Minneapolis Tribune.

Scott County Argus, 17 Nov. 1892.

Shakopee Argus-Tribune, 5 Dec. 1940.