Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Jane Lamont was around 13 years old. She spoke the Dakota language. She did not speak English.

She was born Jan. 11, 1827. It was 1840, now, and Jane’s mother, Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ (Hush the Night) was Dakota. Jane’s grandparents were Maḣpiya Wic̣aṡṭa and Caŋ Paduta Wiŋ of the Bde Maka Ska band who lived in the southern shore in Minneapolis. Maḣpiya Wic̣aṡṭa was also known as Cloudman, and Caŋ Paduta Wiŋ was known as Red Cherry Woman.

Jane’s father, Daniel Lamont, married Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ à la façon du pays around 1824. He married a second time to Margaret, daughter of Markpeemanee, or Walking Cloud, a Sisseton leader in 1827. Besides Jane, Daniel had two sons, Colin and Charles.

Daniel died in 1837.

In the spring of 1840, Samuel Pond was planning to abandon the Lake Harriet mission. Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ had known the Ponds while living in their father’s village called Ḣeyate Otuŋwe, or the village at the side. It was near a marshy area, later called Lake Calhoun, and now known as its original name, Bde Maka Ska.

Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ asked Samuel to take Jane and raise her with the Pond family. This fluidity of family comes from Indian tradition. “This had always been a part of active life, this ability to hand over a child to a sister, or to someone else, to raise for a while if you’re having trouble,” said author Louise Erdrich.

Jane lived with Samuel and Cordelia Eggleston Pond, as well as Gideon and Sarah Poage Pond at Oak Grove and at Shakopee for 13 years. She learned English.

In 1847, Samuel, Cordelia, and family, along with Jane Lamont, moved to Tínṫa Otuŋwe, which Samuel named Prairieville.

Moses Starr Titus met Jane while at Bde Maka Ska (Lake Calhoun).

On March 14, 1850, at the age of 21, Jane married Samuel Pond’s nephew, Moses.

In the fall of 1851, Moses came to the residence of his uncle, Rev. Samuel W. Pond, Jr., and spent the winter in Prairieville.

In the fall of 1852, Moses and Jane, along with their first child, Seymour Starr Titus, built a house. In 1860, the house was moved two blocks west and a little north. The land for the cabin was the area that Jane bought from land scrip from the government.

Moses and Jane had four children, three sons and a daughter: Seymour Starr (1851), Henry Harlan (1854), Moses Starr (1858), and Jane Marilla (1866). Moses and Jane were involved in the founding of 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 was a farmer. He also organized one of the first schools in the Minnesota River Valley.

Moses and Jane quickly prospered on their new homestead.

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

Jane Lamont Titus died March 26, 1899, at age 72. She was buried at the Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Mary Brown Griffin was born around 1825 in Virginia. She was enslaved. Like many other African Americans at that time, little is known about her past.

One thing we know is that at some point, either by skill or luck, she became a free woman in Philadelphia.

Once she was in Philadelphia, Mary met and married James Griffin in 1849. Mary and James moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where James worked as a steamboat builder.

One of the steamboats that James helped build was the Minnesota Belle. When it was ready, James and Mary and their children Richard, Martin, and Estella, were on the steamboat in the beginning of May, ready to locate at the new town near Blue Earth, Minnesota Territory.

As Mary looked around the Minnesota Belle, she saw several African Americans working on the steamboat. African Americans traveling on the western waters were quite common. Some free Black people, as well people who were enslaved, worked on the steamboats, many as firemen, stewards, and chambermaids.

African American travelers occupied a different status from that of the white people on board. Some African American enslaved people traveled with their masters and mistresses, sleeping on trundles in their owner’s private cabins, and where they could take care of errands. Most of the people on the Minnesota Belle were probably immigrants from other countries who moved to the United States. Free Black people, such as Mary Brown Griffin, were not allowed in the private cabins, however, but had to travel on the lower deck.

Captain Humberston had christened the steamboat the Minnesota Belle, and he loaded the boat with immigrants intended mostly for his new town near Blue Earth. He hoped the new town would become the chief city of the valley. Mary and James and their children were not immigrants but decided to move west in 1854.

To the captain’s great chagrin, Humbertson’s new boat failed to climb Little Rapids, near Carver, and he abandoned the river, townsite, and all, in disgust.

The Minnesota Belle landed in Sha K’ Pay, Minnesota Territory, in May 1854, after they failed to get over the Carver rapids. “The boat was from Pittsburgh, bound for the upper part of the valley, and its being obliged to discharge its large cargo of freight and passengers here established Shakopee’s reputation as the head of navigation. This incident was used to good advantage by citizens to secure new settlers,” said William Hinds.

Mary and James and their family were part of the new settlers staying in Sha K’ Pay, Minnesota Territory, from 1854 until 1856. According to the Wright County Heritage Herald, James worked as a carpenter with Daniel Storer and then was a teamster by 1856. He had wagons and teams in Sha K’ Pay, and he helped immigrant families settle in the territory.

In an article in Minnesota Historyabout Emily O. Goodridge Grey called “The Black Community in Territorial St. Anthony: A Memoir,” Grey, an African American in Minnesota Territory, mentioned James and Mary Brown Griffin. On page 53, she said, “In 1855 there came from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, James Griffen, wife, and children, first locating at Shohope (Shakopee), afterwards taking up land near Buffalo.”

Mary and James made a claim on the shores of Lake Mary, outside of Buffalo, Minnesota. By the 1860s, James started a stagecoach line. He had a daily stage route between Buffalo and Monticello, and three times a week from Monticello to Minneapolis.

Near Buffalo, two more children were born, Guilford and Louisa.

Mary Brown Griffin died Aug. 22, 1882, of cholera sporadic. Cholera is a bacterial disease that is usually spread through contaminated water. Cholera causes severe diarrhea and dehydration. It is easily treated today with a simple and inexpensive rehydration solution. But in 1882, something like this probably was enough to cause Mary to die.

Mary was buried at St. Joseph Catholic Church, which in 1881 was at the corner of Second Street and Tenth Avenue North in Minneapolis. It was a wooden building, 35’ x 80’, and serving one hundred German families. Both Fr. Salzeder and his assistant, Fr. Bader, served there. According to the Minneapolis Evening Journalon Aug. 22, 1882, Mary E. Griffin was buried from this church.

What is remarkable is that Mary was African American, not German. And she was probably not Catholic. However, her sons, Martin and Frank (Franz) lived in the vicinity of the church. The other members of the family who lived in Minneapolis included her other children, Richard H. Griffin, Estella Griffin Wilkin, and Louisa Griffin James.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

In Edward D. Neill’s book, History of the Minnesota Valley, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, in 1882 remembers “…a hired girl of William Holmes….” In William Hinds, in his book, An 1891 Sketch of Shakopee Minn: Historical and Industrial mentions “…a servant girl, M ——— Conklin, who afterwards worked for Wm. Holmes family and the next year was married to Emerson Shumway, in St. Paul.”

Like most men who wrote books in the 1800s, men, especially white men, are celebrated. But women? They are ignored or are never remembered. But the women were here, and they should be recognized.

This servant girl, this hired girl, had a name. She was Mahala Conklin. And she should be remembered.

Mahala was born June 9, 1835, in Marion County, Ohio. Her father was William James Conklin, Jr., and her mother was Easter Esther Ackley. Mahala, one of 14 children of William and Easter and family, moved to Lytle’s Creek in Farmers Creek Township in Iowa.

For Mahala, life on the farm was grueling. It was hard spending every day trying to feed all the children, in-laws, nieces and nephews. At some point, Mahala headed to St. Paul, probably in 1851, and from there to Holmes Landing.

By 1851 Emerson Shumway joined Thomas A. Holmes and friends at the founding of Holmesville or Holmes Landing, later called Sha K’ Pay, Minnesota Territory.

Mahala worked as a servant of the Haywood family. She worked in their temporary shanty built in 1852 in an area that is now the corner of First Avenue and Holmes Street in downtown Shakopee. Mr. and Mrs. Haywood and their daughter, along with Mahala, lived there until the fall. Then the Haywoods moved up the valley, taking the boards of the shanty with them.

At that time, Mahala became a servant of William Holmes, brother of Thomas A. Holmes.

In the small village that later became Shakopee, Shumway got smallpox in the fall of 1852. After he recovered, he moved to St. Paul and then married the servant girl, Mahala.

The Shakopee Storyby Julius A. Coller, and the History of the Minnesota Valleyby Rev. Edward D. Neill and an article about Shumway in the Dec. 3, 1909 Scott County Argus noted that in the fall of 1857, Emerson and Mahala Shumway joined a wagon train to California and were killed in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

The only problem is that Benjamin Emerson Shumway and Mahala Conklin Shumway were never involved. They were not killed there.

In fact, they didn’t even head west until 1859.

In 1859, Emerson and Mahala left Anoka, crossing the plains with an ox team, and spent the first winter in Honey Lake Valley, California. Emerson was engaged in prospecting and mining in California and Nevada for ten years.

Mahala and Emerson had four children: Emerson Bartlett Shumway (1852-1946), Hester Shumway (about 1854-1860), Mary Ella (1855-1895); and Susan (Susie) Shumway Allen (1867-1945).

By 1869, Emerson and Mahala located land near Horse Lake Valley, California. They ran a stock ranch for twenty years, and then they sold out the stock and ranch and moved to Oregon. Benjamin Emerson Shumway died Feb. 6, 1909, in Logan, Clackamas County, Oregon. He was buried at Logan Pleasant View Cemetery in Oregon City, Oregon.

The Oregon City Enterpriseon May 7, 1909 noted: “Mrs. Shumway, widow of the late B. E. Shumway, who died a few months since, died on April 30 and the remains were buried at the Pleasant View Cemetery on May 1. Mrs. Shumway came here from California with her husband several years ago. She was about 70 years of age.”

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

John Shoto was born in Wabasha in March 1798.

After being in Wabasha for 25 years, he joined the Red Wing band for 15 years.

Leaving Red Wing, John came up the Minnesota River where he became a leader of the Dakota band, along with Ṡakpedaŋ in Tínṫa Otuŋwe until the US-Dakota Conflict.

After the US-Dakota Conflict, he became a scout from 1862-1870, working with Henry Hastings Sibley.

In 1872, Shoto returned to Shakopee as leader of the Little Six band.

Shoto was smart.

He used to stop at various houses of rich people in downtown Shakopee. He would ask for food.

If the housekeeper was there, she filled his plate with lots of food, and Shoto was happy.

When the woman of the house answered the door, the rich woman would look disgusted and just gave him two pieces of bread and little more.

Shoto would point to his throat, and gesture that he had a sore throat, and then he would leave.

He knew that he could find something better at other houses, where the people were friendlier!

In the beginning of January 1899, Old Shoto was about town, peering out of his almost sightless eyes, and now and again saying, “Hau! Hau!” to all who gave him a merry greeting.

Hau is Dakota for “Hello.”

John Shoto died January 24, 1899, at age 100. He died at 3 p.m. at the Indian settlement on Indian Road on the north side of the Minnesota River in what is now Eden Prairie. His wife, Anna, survived him, and died at age 90.

The funeral was at St. Mary’s Church, and he was buried at Valley Cemetery. Their daughter, Caroline Moore, died as an infant in 1830 and is buried at the potter’s field at Valley Cemetery.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Sophia de Levie was born May 17, 1919, in Shakopee, Minnesota.

Sophia’s father was Samuel Benjamin de Levie (1879-1943), and her mother was Frouwkje Frieda Simons de Levie (1883-1957).

Sophia’s grandfather was Nochum de Levie (1841-1891); her great-grandfather was Benjamin Nochums de Levie (1810-1889); Sophia’s great-great-grandfather was Nochem Benjamin de Levie (1780-1836); her great-great-great-grandfather was Benjamin Heiman de Levie (1744-1828); and Sophia’s great-great-great-great-grandfather was Heiman Meyer Heinemann de Levie (1703-1782).

Sophia’s parents lived in Oude Pekela, Pekela Municipality, Gröningen, Netherlands. Gröningen is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. It borders Friesland to the west, Drenthe to the south, the German state of Lower Saxony to the east, and the Wadden Sea to the north. It was a farming area.

After Samuel and Frieda married on March 2, 1904 in Sappemeer, Hoogezand-Sappemeer, Groningen, Netherlands, they moved to Oude Pekela, where their first two girls, Ettie, or Stella, and Helena Lena de Levie were born. Then their first son, Nathan, was born May 21, 1909, but died Dec. 30, 1909.

Two years later, Samuel and Frieda, along with Stella and Lena, moved to America.

The family moved to Marion Township, in Linn County, Iowa. The U.S. Census said that the area was agricultural, just like the area in Gröningen, with about 725 people there. During the time in Iowa, Samuel and Frieda had two more children, Mary, who was born Dec. 1, 1913, and David, who was born Oct. 27, 1915.

Not long after, the family moved to Shakopee, Minnesota. And on May 17, 1919, Sophia was born. The U.S. Census for Shakopee in 1920, which had 1,988 people, lists the family, including Benjamin, Sophia’s father, who was 40 years old and a livestock broker; Frieda, his wife, who was 37 years old; Stella, who was 13; Lena, who was 11 years old, and both born in the Netherlands; Mary, age six, who was born in Iowa; and David, age three, who also was born in Iowa. And finally, the U.S. Census noted Sophia de Levie, who was eight months old, who was born in Shakopee. The family was Jewish.

About a year later, the family moved back to the Netherlands. Maybe the family missed the relatives who lived there. Or maybe they found that the United States was not that welcoming to them. Or it could be for many other reasons. But it was clear that on May 11, 1921, a son, Simon de Levie, was born in Hoogeveen, Hoogeveen, Drenthe, Netherlands.

The family lived in the Netherlands without many problems until Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), an Austrian-born German politician, rose to power as leader of the Nazi Party, where he became the Führer in 1934. During his dictatorship, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland in 1939. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust: the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims. The Netherlands entered World War II on May 10, 1940, when invading German forces quickly overran the country.

After the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, it became a transit camp for Jews who were being deported to the Nazi concentration camps in middle and eastern Europe, and later to extermination camps.

The Holocaust in the Netherlands was part of the European-wide Holocaust organized by Nazi Germany and took place in the German-occupied Netherlands. In 1939, there were some 140,000 Dutch Jews living in the Netherlands, among them some 24,000 to 25,000 German-Jewish refugees who had fled from Germany in the 1930s. Some 75 percent of the Dutch Jewish population was murdered in the Holocaust, according to Wikipedia.

Deportations of Jews from the Netherlands to German-occupied Poland and Germany began on June 15, 1942, and ended on Sept. 13, 1944. Ultimately, some 101,000 Jews were deported in 98 transports from Westerbork to Auschwitz (57,800; 65 transports), Sobibor (34,313; 19 transports), Bergen-Belsen (3,724; eight transports) and Theresienstadt (4,466; six transports), where most of them were murdered, according to Holocaust Encyclopedia.

Johann Baptist Albin Rauter (1895-1949) was a high-ranking Austrian-born SS (Schutzstaffel, or Protection Squads) functionary and war criminal during the Nazi era, according to Wikipedia. He was the highest SS and police leader in the occupied Netherlands and therefore the leading security and police officer there during the period of 1940-1945.

Rauter sent progress letters to Himmler informing him that “in all of Holland some 120,000 Jews are being readied for departure.” These “departures” that Rauter spoke of were the deportations of Dutch Jews to concentration and extermination camps.

The de Levie family, like most Jewish people in the Netherlands, were forced into concentration and extermination camps in Poland, including the Jewish girl who was born in Shakopee.

Simon, Sophia’s youngest brother, died Sept. 30, 1942, at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Sophia died Jan. 21, 1943, at age 23 years old. She died at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Oświęcim, Powiat oświęcimski, Małopolskie, Poland. On the same day, her older brother, David, died at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Sophia’s father died at the Sobibór Concentration Camp on May 28, 1943 in Sobibór, Lubelskie, Poland. Sophia’s sister, Helena Lena, died June 4, 1943, at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, and another sister, Ettie, or Stella, died there June 4, 1943. And the final sister, Mary, who was born in Iowa, died Jan. 28, 1944, also at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

And so, Samuel Benjamin de Levie, and his six children all died in the Holocaust, including the one child who was born in Shakopee, Minnesota, Sophia de Levie.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Chinese immigrants in the 19th century struggled to make a home for themselves in the United States. Despite harsh immigration restrictions and job discrimination that persisted well into the 20th century, Chinese people managed to put down roots in all parts of the country.

The first Chinese immigrants arrived in Minnesota in the mid-1870s. The first Chinese immigrant to arrive in Minnesota was Wang See Ling who arrived in 1875. He was one of the first Chinese entrepreneurs. Chinese entrepreneurs started restaurants, stores, import shops, and hotels and businesses not just in the Twin Cities, but in Stillwater, then a lumber town, the Iron Range, Duluth, and ten smaller towns, including Shakopee. By the late 1880s more than one hundred Chinese men had entered the state, with most settling in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Duluth, and the rest scattered in smaller towns. In Shakopee, the first documentation of a Chinese person in Shakopee was in 1892.

In 1890 in Shakopee, the Oriental Hotel was in downtown Shakopee on Second Avenue, between Lewis and Sommerville streets.

It was probably not used in a derogatory way. It was just something to use for anything Asian, whether that’s food, a business, a person, an idea. But it is not a word used today. “We use Asian, or Asian American, now,” said Kat Chow in an NPR interview. “That term’s been outdated for a long time.” Kat Chow notes that it is cringe-inducing and sinister at its base, kind of like “chink” meant to box one group away for another’s comfort. It makes one think of the caricatures of grinning Asian men with ponytails and buckteeth. In fact, the term oriental is no longer used from federal laws. It is not a word to use today.

It could be that the Chinese American man who lived in Shakopee in 1892 worked at the Oriental Hotel or may have been a cook there. Most Chinese Americans were either laundry men or restaurant workers. But there is no information about this person, including his name. He was just listed as “oriental.”

In 1878, someone came to Shakopee to convince people to have telephones. The “telegraphy” system was operating by February 1879, connecting Strunk’s Drug Store, the depot, Fr. Alois Plut’s residence, and the courthouse. By 1882, several local dwellings also got phones. Hines noted that they were “a nice plaything for little boys at either end.”

Actually having a telephone that called long distance did not happen until 1892.

C. Joseph Strunk stepped to the back of the Old Drug Store on the north side of First Avenue and rang the bell, making the first long-distance phone call in September 1892. He called the Noyes Brothers and Cutler at St. Paul, by way of Minneapolis.

The booth at the back of the store was the first and only for several years, of long-distance service.

An Asian American man, the only one in Shakopee at that time, would call to a friend in Minneapolis, according to Julius Coller II. The Chinese American used to yell loudly to make sure it went through, and many white men at the store would wonder if he would just open the door of the booth, the singsong conversation would reach its destination easier than over the wire!

Family life developed slowly in Minnesota’s early Chinese community and elsewhere in the United States, due to the restrictions of the immigration law, Chinese tradition, and the high cost of trans-Pacific travel.

Most Chinese people in the United States, and in Minnesota, were men.

Liang May Seen was the first woman of Chinese descent to live in Minnesota when she moved here with her husband in 1892. Woo Yee Sing, a Chinese businessman from Minneapolis, was looking for a wife, and he found Liang; they were married that summer, and she moved with him to Minneapolis. She overcame an impoverished childhood in China and teenage years spent in a San Francisco brothel to become a respected leader in the Chinese immigrant community in Minneapolis.

At least six Chinese American families were established in Minnesota before 1910. The Chinese American man in Shakopee, as far as what the Shakopee Heritage Society has learned so far, never did find a wife in Shakopee. But he did have family members and friends in Minneapolis. The weekly calls to Minneapolis were probably a lifeline for the man from Shakopee, and an opportunity to speak his primary language with others.

The 1930s and 1940s brought violent upheavals in China and were difficult times for Chinese Minnesotans, concerned for their relatives and for the future of their homeland. After World War II, Chinese American communities and businesses flourished in Minnesota. By 2002, Chinese immigrants and their descendants in Minnesota numbered more than 18,000 people. In Shakopee, about 10 percent of the people are Asian American. Of those, about 55 people are Chinese Americans.

And the first documented Asian American in Shakopee was the Chinese American who called his friend in Minneapolis at the Strunk Drug Store in 1892.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

Paul Edward Schwaesdall was born April 24, 1949, in San Diego, California. So how does a name like Schwaesdall run a Mexican restaurant? It was easy. Paul’s father was German American Edward Schwaesdall (1929-2014). But his mother was Brigida Vicky Florez Peréz Schwaesdall (1927-2001), a Mexican American who was born in Newton, Kansas, and grew up cooking Tex-Mex food.

Paul’s grandparents were Ambrose Schwaesdall (1888-1968) and Verna Mell Johnson Schwaesdall (1901-1981); and Jesús V. Peréz (1885-1967) and Amalia M. Florez (1894-1981). Paul’s great-grandparents were John N. Schwaesdall, Jr. (1853-1931) and Malissa C. Bryant Schwaesdall (1862-1918); Barney M. Johnson (1864-1942) and Alice Cordelia Carnie Satterfield Johnson (1875-1938); and Manuel Peréz (1837-1907) and Pascuala Venegas Peréz (1850-1908); and Cristobal Florez and Natividad Marquez Florez (1864-1904).

In San Diego, Paul married Ann Marie Menden on Oct. 21,1972. Ann was born July 25, 1947, in Marystown. Ann married Flavian Ronald Geis on December 30, 1967, but was divorced in December 1967. Ann’s parents were Ralph Mathew Menden (1924-1992) and Delores J. Geis Menden (1926-2006). Her grandparents were Jakob Menden (1901-1988) and Theresa Cecelia Klehr Menden (1902-1987); and Herbert Ambrose Geis (1891-1956) and Mary Mamie Kerber Geis (1897-1955).

Paul and Ann had three children: Edward, Therese, and Ron. Paul worked as a firefighter.

Paul, Anna, and children often visited Minnesota and spent their time in Marystown and Shakopee. Paul noted that there was no Mexican restaurant in Shakopee in the 1980s. So, when they returned to San Diego, Paul retired from firefighting and worked with other Mexican cooks to learn about the restaurant business. According to the Shakopee Valley Newson Oct. 1, 1986, in an article by Beth Forkner Moe called “Pablo’s has real Mexican food,” Paul noted that “I feel Shakopee’s ready for a Mexican restaurant. The town’s grown so fast…I’m surprised that so many people like Mexican food in this area.”

Ann missed her family in Marystown, so in 1986, the family moved back to Shakopee and the family opened Pablo’s Mexican Restaurantat 230 Lewis Street South. Located in the Huber building, across from the Shakopee Library. It was the last location for the Strunk Pharmacy, or the Old Drug Store, which was located there after moving from the north side of First Avenue, and was closed in June 1977 after 120 years of service. The place became The Sweet Treat Ice Cream Parlour and Restaurant, which opened Jan. 3, 1978. Manager and owner Cindy Strand, at age 18, was the youngest business owner in Shakopee. In 1986, the place became Pablo’s Mexican Restaurant, and it has been in business for more than 39 years and counting!

Two authentic Mexican chefs, Tony Ortiz and Ernesto Gutierrez, were Paul’s right-hand persons in the kitchen when Pablo’s Mexican Restaurant opened. Everything in the restaurant has authentic Mexican ambiance. “The pots were made in Mexico, the paintings on the walls were painted especially for Pablo’s by a man in Mexico,” said Beth Forkner Moe. “The draperies in the window are also real. They are made from sarapes which were brought here from Mexico.”

Pablo’s Mexican Restaurant serves over 700 patrons on any given night.

Ann Marie Menden Schwaesdall died April 19, 2011 in Shakopee, and was buried at the St. Mary of the Purification Cemetery in Marystown. Paul “Pablo” Schwaesdall decided to retire in 2015, and his two sons, Ed and Ron, took over the business, according to the Shakopee Valley Newson Oct. 2, 2015 by Cristeta Boarini.

Ed Schwaesdall, who was 12 when he started working in the restaurant, noted that “All the great recipes that our customers come for, those will stay the same.” His father’s Hispanic roots are where all the family recipes have come from.

“Family is a key component to the Schwaesdalls and their business,” said Cristeta Boarini. “Not only do Ed and Ron work in the restaurant, but their wives and children participate as well. Ed and Ron’s sister, Theresa Schwaesdall Ahlberecht, also works part time at Pablo’s.

“It’s nice to see. The kids, they serve the food, our wives take an active role. We really are family orientated,” Ed said. Ron, who has worked at Pablo’s since he was 18, added “It’s how we grew up!”

Today in Shakopee, many Mexican and Tex-Mex places have added to the restaurant scene, including El Toro, Don Ramon Street Tacos, El Huarache, Bravis Modern Street Food, as well as fast-food places like Taco Bell, Taco John’s, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and Qdoba Mexican Eats. But Pablo’s Mexican Restaurant was the first Mexican restaurant in Shakopee and continues to be a popular place since 1986.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Ida Gertrude May Gjerdrum was born Jan. 16, 1883, in Kennebec, Frontenac, Ontario, Canada. Her father was Eiling Odd Gjerdrum, and her mother was Mary Keefer.

As she grew up, Ida’s boyfriend was Frederick Buck. Ida was a registered nurse who took her training in a New York City hospital.

In 1912, Ida learned from her boyfriend, Frederick, that he wanted to get married. Dr. Buck returned to Canada, married Ida, and returned to Shakopee with his blushing bride.

In Shakopee, there was no public library, and the school library was inadequate. In October 1903 Ona Peck got together with a few other women in Shakopee and decided to organize the Shakopee Book Lover’s Club. Each woman contributed $1.00 to buy books. Ida loved to read.

The Book Lover’s Club met promptly at 3 p.m. Many of the mothers brought their babies along. It was inexcusable to arrive later. According to Ellen Boppel in a booklet called As I Remember Scott County, published in 1980, it was considered unacceptable to arrive even five minutes late!

According to Ellen, Mr. Dean had a bob sled and big bay horses, “Whenever the weather was inclement, he would hitch the big horses to the bob sled that always had a little hay in it, covered over with blankets, and he’d go to every home to pluck up the members. Later, he would call for them to take them home.” Once in a while, the Shakopee Book Lover’s Club attended a play, opera, or special musicals in St. Paul. With the help of Mr. Dean, everyone would join in the bob sled to go to the depot, as there was only one train a day.

“It left in the morning and returned in the evening, He’d be at the station again in the evening, to call for the ladies and deliver them to their respective homes, wind howling and snow knee deep,” said Ellen.

When Ida and Frederick moved to Shakopee in 1912, Ida joined the Book Lover’s Club. On Dec. 5, 1914, Ida and Frederick had a child, Marion Bell Betty Buck (1914-2007) in Shakopee. When Ida went to the book club, her baby went along.

A few years after Marion was born, Ida became blind.

Ida went to Faribault School for the Blind to learn Braille. She got a reading machine to read the books for the Shakopee Book Lover’s Club. And Ida received a seeing-eye dog to roam around downtown Shakopee.

Over the years, Ida had three different seeing-eye dogs. The dogs would lead her all around town. Ellen noted that “When she went to the doctor’s office, she would count the steps when she stepped up on the curb, at the corner to the door that led to his office. She would then stop, and the dog would turn to the door, and she would go up the stairs.”

According to Ellen, Ida never spoke of herself in a tone of self-pity.

“My life has been rich blessed from the deep friendship that existed between us,” said Ellen. “Never did I have a sense of pity for her. She was so humorous and witty.”

Ida Gertrude May Gjerdrum Buck died Oct. 9, 1957. She is buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.

At age 95, Dr. Frederick Buck, Ida’s husband, died. He had served the people in and around Shakopee for many, many years. He was buried in Valley Cemetery next to his wife.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Ruth Gardner (1933)

Ruth Gardner. Or Laura Jensen. Or Ruth Redtke, or Ruth Warner.

She escaped from the State Reformatory for Women in Shakopee on Feb. 20, 1933.

Ruth was 22 years old, 5’6 5/8” and 109 pounds. She has light brown hair, hazel eyes, and a sallow complexion.

Ruth was a clever forger. She operated in Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota.

She always presented her victims with a fraudulent letter from an insurance company. The forged check was usually for about $70.

If you find Ruth, apprehend and deliver her to an officer of the Minnesota State Reformatory for Women in Shakopee. You will get a $25 reward!

Thumbing a Ride (1948)

On Aug. 21, 1948, at 8 p.m., a woman escaped from the reformatory in Shakopee.

She was working in the fields, made her way to the Holmes Street Bridge, and crossed to the north end.

She started to thumb a ride.

John P. Wermerkirschen pulled up, and the woman got into the car. As he drove, Wermerskirchen asked her name.

“None of your business!” she responded. “What is YOUR name?”

The driver answered, short and sweet, “You’ll be surprised. I am the sheriff.”

Her ride ended shortly after…back to the reformatory!

Lucille Keppen Released from Prison at Age 93 (2007)

“Does it hurt?” Lucille said. “I really want it to hurt because you hurt me so deeply, and I was so good to you.”

Lucille Keppen, age 88, shot Stephen Flesche in 2002.

The inmates nicknamed her “Grandma.”

When she got out at age 93, the first thing she wanted to do was go to Perkins!

Lucille was the oldest prisoner of the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee.

Teen Murderer Flees Jail to See the Smashing Pumpkins (1998)

Seventeen-year-old Pamela D. Keary really wanted to see the Smashing Pumpkins.

She was serving a 12-year sentence for second-degree murder.

She joined 100,000 fans to see the show at the Hennepin Avenue Block Party.

She was arrested at midnight and removed to the segregated unit.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Isabel Davis was born in Warren, Vermont April 24, 1849. She became a teacher at age 14. Isabel moved to Minneapolis in 1870 and taught there. She married Chester Gross Higbee in January 1876.

Isabel spoke out for the needs of women and children, the poor, and the downtrodden. “There was a time when individual effort was sufficient to meet social needs, but life was grown so complex that organization is absolutely necessary.”

In 1908, with the help of Isabel, the State of Minnesota constructed a separate school for delinquent girls (the Minnesota Home School for Girls) in Sauk Centre.

But for twenty years, Isabel and others tried to provide humane treatment for women convicted of crimes, but lawmakers did not support it.

On March 4, 1915, Isabel and fifty other women went to the capitol, and Isabel decided to testify at the meeting.

That same day, a bill to allow women to vote was turned down. Again. It would be another five years before women got the right to vote (and only if you were white).

Isabel was not happy. But Isabel had a plan.

She stood and faced the men (who were the only ones allowed to vote) and told them they should have a women’s reformatory. There was no place in Minnesota for women in trouble. She faced the men in the committee room, across the gulf that custom, law, and privilege had created.

And she spoke.

She said women should not be housed in Stillwater Prison. Women needed to have a place, a place to provide a humane and healthy environment that would help them return to society as contributing members.

Isabel pled for establishment of a reformatory for women. She argued in favor of a new institution where female offenders would neither be incarcerated with male inmates nor with teenage girls. At the time, most women lawbreakers were found guilty of prostitution and were usually fined and sent home or committed to the workhouse for a short term. Others were sent to the state prison, the state reformatory, or the girls’ school. The superintendent at the reformatory took female inmates into his home or placed them in the local jail.

“We must give the women fresh air, God’s glorious sunshine, and as much freedom as is consistent with discipline…I shall trust your judgement to accord us a women’s reformatory,” said Isabel Davis Higbee.

When she sat down at the capitol, Isabel coughed.

Then Isabel fell over…dead!

People were shocked, and they started thinking about what she had to say. One woman said, “…no man can refuse us the reformatory when it is realized that women are willing to give up their lives for it.”

The legislature finally responded.

Because of her work, the bill to create a women’s prison in Shakopee finally happened. They purchased 167 acres of land what was then at the edge of Shakopee.

The women’s reformatory began in Shakopee, Minnesota in 1920.

Isabel Davis Higbee had died March 4, 1915. She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Maplewood, Minnesota.

Even though she never lived in Shakopee, her memory is here, in the hall and plaque that notes the grateful appreciation for Isabel for the good of the women in Shakopee and the state of Minnesota!