Brooklyn Good Templars

 

Right before Christmas in 1874, a group was inspired by the impassioned General J. A. Kellogg on the subject of temperance. [ KZ4W-HGF ]  Their "enthusiasm was awakened" and they organized a "Lodge of Good Templars.(1)  At first, they met at the "Bohannon Grange Hall #445" , but five years later, they moved to the upper level of the Howe Store. (2)

Star Tribune 12 Aug 1879, Tue · Page 4

The abbreviations are a bit challenging. I.O.G.T. is Independent Order of Good Templars. The W.s signify a Worthy position. Future blogs will continue to explore the individual officers starting from the top down.

The Worthy Chief Templar was Fred M. Libby and his wife, Nancy Buckley, was The Worthy Vice Templar. They had married in 1872 and migrated to Brooklyn Township from Maine in 1875. Fred continued being a leader in the community. According to his obituary he had been the treasurer of the Market Garden Association for 30 years, was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Osseo, and Scottish Rite and Zuhrah Temple of Minneapolis. (3)

Note that Mrs Libby's female leadership role was the norm in I.O.G.T. As described at a Scottish Rite blog:

"Founded in 1852, with a Grand Lodge of North America organized in 1855, the Independent Order of Good Templars (IOGT) was a total abstinence temperance organization. From its inception, the group accepted men and women equally as members. Women frequently held elected office within the organization. The temperance movement in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - with much of its leadership and organization comprised of women - was also aligned with the women's suffrage movement." (4)

The Libbys were both active in Brooklyn Methodist Church and are buried at Mound Cemetery. 

(1)   Star Tribune 22 Dec 1874, Tue · Page 4

(2)   History of Hennepin County p. 287 https://archive.org/details/historyofhennepi00warn/page/286/

(3) The Minneapolis Journal 03 Sep 1933, Sun · Page 27

(4)   https://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/independent-order-of-good-templars/

Brooklyn Township Family: Norris

 Schooners Off the New England Coast; unsigned; ca 1855 The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA

The Joseph Norris genealogy, on file at the Brooklyn Historical Society, captures one's imagination.  The family had been on a six year ocean voyage and then migrated to the flat plains of Brooklyn Township in 1861.  Descendants of this Norris family lived in Brooklyn Township for generations. [GDQV-7NM]

Their arrival in 1861 was after Mary E. Norris, of Brooklyn Township, married John MacLeod in 1856. [see previous blog] How was she connected? The family story goes that a son was always left at home when the family went on a voyage with their Master Mariner father, but Mary was female; she would not have carried on the family name if the ship had capsized and no one survived. 

The situation was that the Joseph Norris family came to Brooklyn Township because Brother James had settled there.  Back in Maine, prior to May of 1854 when James migrated to Minnesota, the brothers had adjoining properties in Windsor, Kennebec County. That tidbit is in the Norris genealogy aforementioned, but no connection was made that they were brothers.  And James was the father of Mrs.Mary E. (Norris) MacLeod.

When James Norris died in 1870 [M6D3-Q68], his wife, Susan Wright, sold the farm and moved into Minneapolis. Most of the couple's eight children settled in Hennepin County, but not specifically in Brooklyn Township.  On the other hand, when Joseph Norris transferred from sea captain to farmer, he died within the year.  His wife, Mary Foster, and four of their five children, remained in Brooklyn Township for generations.

Captain Joseph Norris' sons Joseph and Robert married sisters from the Brooklyn Township Longfellow family; his only daughter Mary died at age 25 after marriage to the Brooklyn Township Doten family (and having 2 children), [GDQV-YXW] and son Edward, the oldest offspring and executor of his parent's estate, remained as long as possible albeit his rheumatism, a disability from the civil war, hampered his productivity.[GDQV-BJ6

Minneapolis Daily Times 05 Mar 1890, Wed · Page 4

Edward had served as Lieutenant in William Grant's Company B of the 6th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry and had been promoted from Corporal to Sergeant prior to discharge on 17 September 1864. Joseph junior enlisted the month prior to his brother's discharge and served as a Private in Company F of the 11th Minnesota Infantry. [GDQN-YQ7]

Star Tribune 12 Mar 1905, Sun · Page 31

The son of Joseph and Mary Norris, who was left behind when the family left on their six year voyage, was the son who did NOT remain in Brooklyn Township.  William graduated from West Point, was a Lieutenant in the wild frontier, married and became a judge in Nebraska, and finished his career serving as an attorney for the US Department of Justice in Washington D.C.  He retired to California, and died there.