Main Street

My mother hated the book Main Street by Sinclair Lewis; I totally felt it represented by mother's world that she looked up to, in particular, the community status of having a lake cabins. She drew a map of the cabins at Velvet Lake and who lived where. 

Velvet Lake is east of Cross Lake, Minnesota. Today the Velvet Lake Association  has history posted online; a chronology states: 1920 -1958 Only eight private dwellings and a small resort with a lodge and three cabins built in the 1920's existed on the lake.(1) My mother's diagram is her memory of when she went there as a child and teenager, 1930-1940

Cabins:

1. E. E. Howe is Everett Howe (wikitree profile) a resident of Brookly Center. Everett was the grandfather of Ralph Howe, my father.

2. Bill Lawrence was William Lawrence, the son of George Lawrence and Rose Getchell. His home residence was Brooklyn Township.

3. John Hamilton was the brother of Mrs. Bill Lawrence. John and Blanche were children of Addison and Mary Hamilton. They were the neice and nephew of Everett's partner Link Hamilton; Link was the grandfather of Leone Howe, my mother.

4. Dr. Cope was Rev and Dr. Donald G. Colp (May 1869 – 14 April 1948). He married my grandparents and delivered my grandma Myrtle (McCausland) Howe' babies (familysearch.org profile)

Dr. Colp of Robbinsdale Dies at 78. 

Dr. Colp Private services for Dr. Donald Gray Colp, 78, 3805 W. Broadway, prominent Robbinsdale physician who died Wednesday, will be conducted Friday.

The body will lie in state at the home from 2 p.m. today to 1 p.m. Friday. Dr. Colp became ill last September while visiting Brazil. He was flown to the Mayo clinic at Rochester, Minn. 

Born at St. Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia, he studied at Carleton college, Northfield, Minn., and was graduated from Yale divinity school in 1897. Before retiring from the ministry to study medicine he held Congregational pastorates at New Haven, Conn.; Fargo, N.D., and Robbinsdale. He practiced in the latter community as a physician and surgeon more than 40 years. 

Dr. Colp was a member of the Committee of One Hundred and the Surf club at Miami, Fla., where he spent recent winters. He also was a member of Zuhrah temple of the Shrine, Scottish Rite bodies and the Masonic lodge.

He married Mabel Adams of Minneapolis in 1900. She died in 1929. Surviving are his second wife, the former Countess Utta Larisch of Bad Tolz, Bavaria, Germany. (The Minneapolis Star. Thu, Apr 15, 1948 ·Page 3

5. Libby is assumed to be Dan Libby, part of the 400 Club....no, it was his father, Fred Libby who died at Brainerd, Crow Wing, MN, presumedly living or visiting the cabin:

Fred Libby, Hennepin County Pioneer, Dies 

Fred Libby, y. 81 years old, oldest settler of Brooklyn Center township, Hennepin county, died at Brainerd, Minn. Funeral services will be conducted Monday at 2:30 p.m. in the Brooklyn Center Methodist church, Burial will be in Mound cemetery at Brooklyn Center. Sixty-five years ago he settied in that territory, coming to this section of the northwest from Maine. He was treasurer of the Market Gardeners' Association for 30 years, and was a member of the Masonic lodge of Osseo, Minn., and Scottish Rite and Zuhrah temple of Minneapolis. (The Minneapolis Journal Sun, Sep 03, 1933 ·Page 27)

6. Avery Russ is Evrie Nathan Russ, a market gardener from Crystal Lake Township. (familysearch.org profile)

I am guessing that the Howe cabin, furtherest to the west, was actually not built until about 1936-1940. It was built by Everett's wife Emma (then a resident of Robbinsdale), after Everett's death in 1931. It passed down to her daughter Lottie, and  son Frank; and from Frank to his son Russell; and from Russell to his son James. I have a copy of the deed. 

(1) Velvet Lake Homeowners Association. Subject: Velvet Lake History. March 30, 1989. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10243950214198501&set=g.136392649719152 (accessed 10.19.26)

MOUNDS at Mound Cemetery

Mound Cemetery was founded in 1862 presumedly on a mound. The records do not include any debate about the name. The story is that it was the site of ancient Indian mounds, but there are many stories about the cemetery that are not based on evidence.  When one enters the cemetery, there is an incline but it is hard to imagine that it once looked like the mounds pictured here of Indian Mounds Park in St. Paul.

I was thrilled to find this newspaper article about an exploration of the mounds "near Palmer Lake" in Brooklyn Township...not that I approve of the invasive exploratory actions, but it does confirm the presence of ancient Indian mounds.

Star Tribune October 22, 1874, p. 3

Yaw & Garbage

1890: The Minnesota Health Department supported Yaw's proposal. 

What was it? 

To arrange  four dump sites along the railroad tracks in Brooklyn township to collect the waste-- over 180,000 loads of refuse were dumped into the Mississippi the previous year--and then market it for fertilizer to the local market gardeners. He would:

• Take care of every pound of garbage sent to him from Minneapolis.
• Provide trestles for convenience in dumping.
• Operate pumps by wind power, so as to keep the heaps of matter from heating and spoiling.
• He would sell the fertilizer to the farmers for a reasonable price.
• He would rid the city of the garbage nuisance, and satisfy a need of Brooklyn township's market gardeners.

Who was that guy?

Page Yaw. The first child of Ambrose Spencer Yaw, a cowbell maker, born in Boston.....New York (Erie County). His father died when he was 13; he migrated to Minnesota when he was 25; he married Flora Wales in 1883 (wed by the Brooklyn minister William Wilder, and witnessed by Flora's mother and sister); he worked as a driver for the H.F. Lillibridge Cracker Factory in Minneapolis. By 1885, the couple moved to Brooklyn Township next to his wife's family. His occupation was salesman.

Did he succeed?

Star Tribune

Wed, Apr 29, 1891 ·Page 5

Aug 15, 1892, Page Yaw's bid was read aloud with other bids for disposal of garbage. His bid had an attached petition from the Market Gardeners of Brooklyn asking that Yaw be awarded the contract for taking from the city all such material as may be used as a fertilizer, claiming Mr. Yaw is a practical  gardener, and that it would be a mutual benefit to the City and them to have the contract awarded to him. In November, the contract was awarded to a different person after a lot of political drama by the Mayor and the Republican party.

According to the Minneapolis City Directory, Page and his family moved from Brooklyn Center to the corner of 43rd and Colfax, Minneapolis in 1893.

On February 1, 1898, "Wales & Yaw" submitted a bid to the city for disposition of garbage...the garbage included dead animals, refuse from the Commission House and Butcher Shop. This indicates that Yaw continued in some way a garbage disposal business.

After thoughts: Originally, the assumption was that Yaw would only be collecting vegetable matter from the farmers market, but that was not the situation. It included manure from street sweeping and liveries, and "night soil". Night soil was the crap removed from privies nightly; see The 19th Century Night Soil Men Who Carted Away America's Waste   Another interesting read is A Filthy History: When New Yorkers Lived Knee-Deep in Trash.

Also, waste collection and Yaw's time, was the cutting edge of what cities around the country were dealing with. An interesting read is The Politics of Trash - How Governments Used Corruption to Clean Cities, 1890 -1929.

Black Hills Gold Fever: Abner Howe, Tom Phipps, and George Durnam

 

Just a farmer? No way. Newspaper announcement by Hewes & Clark attracted local men from the Brooklyn Township area and off they went in 1877 on an expedition to the Black Hills to find gold. Their adventures were published fifty years later by Edward Peet, a journalist at that time who had joined the Hewes & Clark Expedition. Peet took on the historical task of identifying all the men who had gone on the trek, but most were deceased by 1927. His stories included Abner Howe, Thomas Phipps, and George Durnam.

Newspaper Articles:

Minneapolis Star Tribune April 18, 1877 p. 4.

GOLD SEEKERS. Another Party of Minneapolitans Turn Their Steps Towards the Black Hills To-day. Another party of men have turned their backs upon Minneapolis and are by this time on their way towards the gold bearing fields of the Black Hills. The "Black Hills" seems to be a magic word among certain people and a stream of human beings are pouring into the region said to contain untold amounts of the '"root of all evil." The party of men leaving Minneapolis this afternoon are in charge of Mr. Julius Hewes, of Minneapolis, and S.W. Clark, of Anoka.....

THE ROUTE TAKEN. This party will take the St. Paul & Sioux City railroad and go by way of Yankton and Fort Pierre to Deadwood City, in the Hills. At the latter named place they disband and will spread out through the Hills. Each man will go where his fancy leads, and what will become of them remains to be told hereafter.

The route they propose taking seems to afford, according to their ideas, the greatest advantages. From Yankton to Fort Pierre the Black Hillers are conveyed in steamboats and from thence by the stage route traveling overland one hundred and fifty miles. The road follows the valley of the Big Cheyenne river, which it crosses only once. By taking this route it is thought less danger is liable to be encountered, and the party do not anticipate having any trouble. They go well provided for any emergency, and expect to make a speedy trip to the Hills.

The Minneapolis Journal. Mon, Apr 18, 1927 ·Page 15. When Minneapolis Adventurers Took 37 Days to Get to the Black Hills. Excerpt:

Peet got better acquainted with some of the party--Abner Howe, George A. Dunham (afterward a Minneapolis alderman); Thomas Phipps, Thomas Nevers and others.

They boarded the John M. Chamberlain April 22, crossed the river and tied up on the Nebraska shore, then went on, reaching Fort Pierre eight days later, having travelled 30 miles a day, getting stuck of sandbars, sounding all the way. They were told to save time by walking across the Big Bend, and did so, and were left all night without food, lost in a strange country. When they got to Fort Pierre, Mr. Peet recognized several men who had walked. They had made better time than the steamboat.

From Fort Pierre, they walked, through wild country, fearing Indian raiders, meeting gunmen and gamblers, living off wild game. He met a slim young fellow, and learned next day the "young fellow" really was Calamity Jane. He held up a gambler who was about to rob his friend. He nearly starved on the prairie. Finally, on May 21, they reached Rapid City, which was a log shanty town with a log blockhouse, and swung north, reaching Crook City three days later and renting a loghouse for $40 a month.

Probably no one who makes the trip today can even realize what it must have been when it took 37 days of railroads, steamboats and walking to make the same trip. And Mr. Peet agreed today that the modern modes of travel are much better and more comfortable.

The Minneapolis Journal. Sun, Aug 07, 1927; page 64. When Minneapolis Adventurers Outwalked Train and Steamboat in a Race for Gold. To view enlarged image go to the McCracken Research Library, Buffalo Bill Center of the West: http://library.centerofthewest.org/digital/collection/MS413/id/5/rec/4

Information on Historical Times via National Archives: in 1876, Custer, leading an Army detachment, encountered an encampment of Sioux and Cheyenne at the Little Bighorn River. Custer's detachment was annihilated, but the United States would continue its battle against the Sioux Tribe in the Black Hills until the government confiscated the land in 1877. To this day, ownership of the Black Hills remains the subject of a legal dispute between the U.S. Government and the Sioux Nation. Information on Gold Seekers From Brooklyn Township.Abner Howe (familysearch ID LHQR-C7M) was the son of Brooklyn pioneer Samuel Howe, born in 1851. His first cousin, Thomas Phipps (familysearch ID LHQR-HB1), son of Eliza (Howe) Phipps, lived in neighboring Crystal Lake Township, and was 12 years his senior. They had married sisters, Julie and Cozomy Sprague, and hence were also brother-in-laws. George Durnam (familysearch ID L4W6-NX2) was the youngest at age 23. He was married to Abner's sister, Eva. So the trio consisted of three brother-in-laws. The portraits of Thomas Phipps and George Durnam were published in the above article. WAIT - the dream didn't stop: Star Tribune. Mon, May 21, 1900; page 5

Ubiquitous Smiths: The Smiths in Brooklyn

Bring it on! Smith is the most prevalent surname in the country. Let's meet the challenge to track the ancestry of The Smiths in Brooklyn.

Before Minnesota became a state, 172 people with the surname Smith lived in Hennepin County. Two Smith families had settled in the area of Brooklyn Township as documented in the Minnesota Territorial census of 1857. In 1860, about 50 people, including women with the maiden name Smith, lived in Brooklyn Township.

It is probable that sorting the earliest land records in Twp 119-R 24 will show family groups, such as, on October 30, 1857, both Horace H Smith and Stephen Smith received their land warrants…were they brothers? And on July 1, 1859, both David H. Smith and Harris N. Smith received their land warrants ... were they brothers? And then on September 5, 1861, Hiram Smith’s land warrant was registered…was he related to the others?

So, searching with keywords “Smith” “Brooklyn township, Hennepin, Minnesota” and "1860" at the familysearch.org database, the results DID NOT include a David Smith, or a Hiram Smith. David and his wife Urtilla sold their property for $4000 on March 18, 1857 (a huge amount!) and a record of their residency was not found. He was NOT the brother of Harris N. Smith. Hiram’s residency during his early days was in Champlin, not Brooklyn; it does not appear that he was related to the aforementioned Smiths.

Horace H. Smith, his wife Caroline Shepard, and DeWitt Clinton Smith, his wife Melissa Shepard, were double brothers and sisters, who were born in New York, migrated to Michigan, and came to Minnesota with the “Adrian Colony”. They settled in Brooklyn Township and were the patriarchs of many descendants that remained in the township. They WERE NOT brothers to Stephen Smith.

Stephen and Patience Smith were from New Hampshire and may have come with several other Brooklyn pioneer families of Strafford County, i,e, the Plummer, Chase, Merrill families. The couple did not have sons to populate the Smith surname. It is also probable that Stephen and Patience (also a Smith) were related to a John Smith that settled in Brooklyn Township. [Tracking that John Smith is a future blogpost].

And that John Smith is not to be confused with John M. Smith from New Brunswick. He came to Brooklyn Township with two daughters, one who married Thomas Warwick and another who married William Stevens…but again, no sons to populate the Smith surname. And that John Smith, is not to be confused with the John and Rhoda Smith family: The Ohioans that came in 1880.

There was a Smith couple that migrated from Germany and settled in Brooklyn Township; Robert and Christina. But neither the Ohioan Smiths or German Smiths should have resulted in my search filter of the year 1860.

The most interest generated is Nathaniel Smith, a veteran of 1812, and his son, Harris, who stayed in Brooklyn Township. They are both on the Federal 1850 census in Minnesota Territory. See WikiTree Profile.

The grandson of Nathaniel Smith (son Harris, grandson Harry), and the granddaughter of Horace Smith (son George Haskell, granddaughter, Nettie), married. Harry and Nettie had both been born in Brooklyn township, and they raised their family and died in Brooklyn Township. Result: Brooklyn Super Smiths!

Neighbors Back Home: Strafford County, New Hampshire

 

As we explore relationships of the pioneers of Brooklyn Township, we discover not only blood connections, but community connections. A person can feel closer to someone that lived next door, than that of a cousin who lived in the next town. As profiles are added to the one-place study of Brooklyn Township at WikiTree, Strafford County, New Hampshire was a location that connected many of the migrants to the Minnesota Territory. 

The map of Strafford County is from 1856 and applicable to the time prior to migration to Minnesota. Go to this link at the Library of Congress to enlarge the image. It includes names of residents.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3743s.la000435/

Here are links to WikiTree profiles of Brooklyn Township residents from that area:

Brothers John and Robert Plummer; Samuel, Margaret, Silas, Sarah Cotton, Lydia Reidhead, and Samuel Jr Merrill. Families yet to explore are the Daniel Chase family [9VPC-PF2] including Mrs. Alonzo Bragdon, and John Berry [G3V2-YCN]. More will be added via editing as they are discovered. This particular blog is providing a landing place for families from Strafford County, New Hampshire.

To learn more about where those families came from is this text: Scales, John. 1914. History of Strafford County, New Hampshire and Representative Citizens. Chicago: Richmond-Arnold.

Notable: A Paid-For Obituary

STAR TRIBUNE October 4th, 1868, page 1.

First responses: probably related to the naming of Palmer Lake; is he in the historical society's books on civil war veterans? The family came 15 years prior...1853. Why isn't the Palmer name prominent in the literature?

So, he is in the Patriots of Brooklyn: Suppressors of the Great Slaveholders Rebellion, and on the first page of Part III. The authors evidently had not found this obituary as they did not know of William's demise. 

The family was from Hillsdale, Columbia, New York, same as the Rivenburghs that I explored in my last blog! It is probable that Elisha Rivenburgh and the Palmer family migrated together.

UPDATE: See family profile on familysearch.org Lewis Resseguie Palmer (1810–1887)