Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Maria Josepha Dieken was born on March 5, 1850 in Gangelt, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, daughter of Peter Leonard Dieken and Maria Catherina Busch.

When she was 13 years old, Maria Josepha and her parents immigrated to America. Maria ended up in Shakopee, where, on April 27, 1869, she married Hiram Adam Flecken at St. Mark’s Catholic Church. Maria was 19 years old.

Over the next twenty years, Maria Josepha and Adam had twelve children, though several died as infants. While Maria Josepha took care of the children, Adam was employed in the Omaha machine shops for three years, and then established a brickyard a mile southeast of the city, which he operated for five years. In 1888 he sold the brickyard and Josepha and Adam ran the Occidental Hotel, on First and Sommerville Street.

The Occidental Hotel was built in 1874 on the northwest corner of First and Sommerville Street. It was built by G.W. Gellenbeck, and was opened for business at the beginning of the first week of the new year, 1874.

It was a “two-story frame building with a large dining hall and commodious parlor on the first floor, besides the kitchen and two sleeping rooms. The second story was divided into sleeping rooms” according to the Shakopee Argus, 8 Jan. 1874. It had accommodations for about fifty guests, according to The Shakopee Story, p. 110.

Maria Josepha and Hiram Adam Flecken ran the hotel from 1889 until 1914.

For several years, the Occidental Hotel at the northwest corner of First and Sommervile Street was the scene of colorful banquets, according to The Shakopee Story, p. 238. It was also the place for the annual meeting of the Old Settler’s Associations. It stopped serving meals in August of 1913, according to the Shakopee Argus, August 8, 1913. It continued for several more years as a rooming house. The boarding house was closed in 1931. A portion of the hotel was torn down to make a smaller house for Henry and Mary, two of their children who were unmarried.

What was left of the Occidental Hotel was torn down in April of 1956, as noted in The Shakopee Story, p. 496. Later, a modern filling station was erected on the corner, after it had served for a time as a used car lot, according to the Shakopee Argus-Tribune, April 19, 1956.

Maria Josepha Dieken Flecken died on October 27, 1924. She was 74 years old.

She was buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee.

Hiram Adam Flecken died on June 30, 1931 at 90 years old. He was buried next to his wife in the Flecken area of the cemetery, Section 33, Lots A and B at the west end.

Bibliography

Shakopee Argus, 8 Jan. 1874.

Coller, Julius A. II. The Shakopee Story.

Shakopee Argus, 8 Aug. 1913.

Shakopee Argus-Tribune, 19 April 1956.