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)

 

Headlines: Malicious!

How alarming that the newspaper, on June 29, 1869, alerted the community that 'some malicious person' had shot a valuable mare of E. Rivenburgh in Brooklyn Township. And in response, Mr. Rivenburgh was offering a $100 reward 'for the detection of the person who did it.'  So now we will go on a horse chase for some background information.  

First of all, the Rivenburgh family was known to have been from Crystal Lake Township, and their German name is spelled in various ways; in fact, the newspaper spelled it Rivneinng. Records wrote it as Reiffenburgh, Riefenberg, Rivenberg. Such variations make it difficult to research, but the task was undertaken (at an earlier date) because one of Brooklyn Township's first town supervisors, William Stinchfield, married (his third marriage) a Catherine R. from New York, and after decades of living in Brooklyn Township, William was buried in New York; it was a mystery to me how he ended up in New York and hence the research.

It turned out that Catherine R was a Rivenburgh. A girl/young lady that lived with the William Stinchfield family (Ida Calkins; see note 1), married Charles Rivenberg; the assumption was that when William became a widower, he met his future wife, Catherine, through his foster daughter, Mrs. Charles Rivenburgh.  But we see, via the newspaper headlines: Malicious! that an E. Rivenburgh lived in Brooklyn Township.

Let's review. Here is the marriage certificate of William and Catherine dated November 8, 1881. Notice the witnesses...I thought they were C (Charles) Rivenburgh and Ida Calkins

I had not taken the time to realize that the marriage was one year prior to the marriage of Charles Rivenburgh and Ida M. Calkins on November 30, 1882. So instead of William meeting Catherine through Ida, it was probably the other way around,  that Ida met Charles through William.

But the real love matcher was possibly "E. Rivenburgh"; that is an E. not a C. on the witness signatures.  So, who was E. Rivenburgh? By the time those marriages were performed, he had already lived in Brooklyn township for ten years, based on when his horse was shot.

Using the spelling on the signature, familysearch.org easily found a land record for Elisha Rivenburgh for November 4, 1854: he was a territorial pioneer! ["United States Bureau of Land Management Tract Books, 1800-c. 1955", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6KVK-1R32 : 16 June 2023), Elisha Rivenburgh, 1854.] The MN census records for 1875, 1885, and 1895 recorded him in Crystal Lake Township....so not technically a Brooklynite.

Now back to his horse. The issue was not resolved. On October 26, 1869, this notice was the follow-up:

Stay tuned if more related notices for Brooklyn Township are found.

(1) MN 1875 census age 11; federal 1880 census age 16.

Brooklyn's Pioneer Female Doctress

Notice a Mrs. L. R. Sherman, physician, on the list of patrons to Andrea's 1874 Atlas  (August blogpost). She stated she migrated in 1856; the atlas was published in 1874, so that is almost twenty years in Brooklyn as a "doctress". That was how the census taker labeled her occupation on the 1870 census. I want to know more about her.

So, Andrea's also listed her birthplace of Monroe County New York.  OK: found all her census records. In 1857, her husband Daniel was a mason, they had two children, and Eli, a blacksmith,  and his wife Lovina Haviland. lived with them.  I believe that Lovina was of Quaker heritage. Their residence was in the area of Maple Grove Township (T119-R22); one has to actually look at the census because halfway down the page it is noted that the enumerator crossed over from T119-R21 (Brooklyn) to T119-R22 on September 28th, 1857.

And in 1860, the family was farming in Maple Grove; still just two children: Parley (8) and Lorissa (5). In 1865, after her husband's service in the Civil War, they were in Brooklyn Township, and added a son, Darwin. And now, in 1870, her family lived next to Frank Lawson, a physician, and she was labeled as a "doctress". The record also shows that the son Parley, and daughter Lora, were born in Michigan, so the family migrated from Michigan, not New York.

The 1875 census did not document occupations. It appears the family had several boarders in Osseo; also, her daughter was not living with them. Oh dear. That is the end of census records in Minnesota. What happened? Her husband died.

The death register image is online, and it lists Daniel Sherman's death on September 4, 1876, from diarrhea, at age 43.  He has an attractive monument at Brooklyn-Maple Grove Union Cemetery--her name, Lora A. Graham, and death in 1907 is also on the monument.  It looks like she moved back to Michigan and married Martin Hoig....well, we didn't learn much about her occupation as a physician. We know she didn't save Daniel.

Brooklyn Township: WikiTree One-Place Study

 

Brooklyn Township now has a page on WikiTree.  WikiTree is a collaborative genealogy site that welcomes others to participate in projects. The page is a one-place study. Systematically, the history of Brooklyn Township is portrayed with citations; tasks are defined and progress noted.  One task in the study process is to develop a slate of First Settlers.  When research identifies an early family that settled in the township, their individual profiles on WikiTree are marked with the emblem shown above. The emblem symbolizes reaping the fruits of their labors.

Bookmark the image at WikiTree and watch the slate of First Settlers grow

WikiTree also categorizes pages and profiles into groups as defined by participants.  Examples of categories that correspond with the history are 'Red Lake Settlement' (Pierre Bottineau), 'Mound Cemetery' (Ezra Hanscom), and 'Horsemen' (George Durnam), and of course, 'Minnesota' (Brooklyn Township). It is fun to see how people and places interconnect; how Brooklyn Township contributed.

This is the purpose of the WikiTree One-Place Study of Brooklyn Township as stated on the study page: 

The purpose of this study of Brooklyn Township is to bring together resources that will add depth to the family stories of the people that resided in the area prior to its incorporation as cities. The area is currently the City of Brooklyn Center (1911) and the City of Brooklyn Park (1954) in Hennepin County, Minnesota. This Study will complement the project manager's blog: The Past: Brooklyn Township, Hennepin, Minnesota. An exploration of community connections in the historical area of Brooklyn Township.

Check out WikiTree, and consider collaborating at the site. Click on the image of the first survey; it links to the WikiTree One-Place Study of Brooklyn Township.

Brooklyn Township: Year of Migration

The Minnesota censuses for 1895 and 1905 ask 'What year did you come to Minnesota?' and 'What year did you come to the current precinct?'  So if your ancestors were born out-of-state, and were living in 1895 and 1905, those census records are good clues as to when they migrated.  That is a pro.  A con is that only the head of the family was asked, and a wife's family may have migrated a different year. Another negative is that unfortunately, oftentimes the answers are different between 1895 and 1905; a definite red flag.

An exciting find from the 1880s is a Hennepin County death register that has a column, filled in for some, with heading 'Date of Arrival in Minn'.  For example, Mrs. Norman Jenkins entry states 1851.

Another place to check, besides biographies of course,  is Andreas' 1874 An Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Minnesota.  It includes listings of patrons (those that contributed to the publication) by county and township.  The headings are Name, Residence (and this is a property description), Business, Nativity (where born), Came to State, and Post Office.   Here is Brooklyn Township:

If the image is not clear, go directly to the image on page 295: An Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Minnesota posted at Minnesota Digital Library.

Brooklyn Township Place: Shingle Creek

 

Let us look at the history written by the Shingle Creek and West Mississippi Watershed Management Commission...with my [comments]. Studying sources of water is important as one studies habitation.

History of the Shingle Creek and West Mississippi Watersheds

Based on artifacts found in various locations it is known that Native Americans of the Woodland period spent time in the Shingle Creek/West Mississippi (SCWM) area. A number of ritual or non-burial mounds, including several adjacent to Palmer Lake, were surveyed by T.H. Lewis (1898). [Read more at Minnesota’s Disappearing Mounds ]  According to Where the Waters Gather and the Rivers Meet: an Atlas of the Eastern Sioux, (Durand 1994), the Dakota (Sioux) called Shingle Creek “Omnina Wakan Wakpadan,” or Spirit Refuge Creek. [Learn more about Durand's Map]

White settlers began arriving in northwest Hennepin County in 1850-51. One of the most famous early pioneers was Pierre Bottineau, who served as a translator and mediator between the growing white community and the Native Americans who lived in or traveled through the area. Bottineau claimed land that became known as Bottineau’s Prairie, and later became part of Osseo. Hennepin County Road 81 has been named Bottineau Boulevard in his memory. [Federal and state census records show that he settled in Maple Grove Township; read his biography here: Pierre Bottineau]

Reverend Edward D. Neill, who in 1881 compiled a History of Hennepin County and Minneapolis, described Brooklyn Township (later Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center) in its early settlement days:

"The surface is very level and consequently nearly destitute of lakes. The few that exist are shallow with low, marshy shores. Palmer Lake in Sec. 26, through which Shingle Creek flows, is the largest. A variation from the uniform level occurs in the southwest, where a small corner reaches on the rolling clay beyond the sandy belt. The extensive marshes yield abundance of good wild hay, most of which can be cut by machines. The timber is small, though a little of the larger growth is found in the northeast near the river, and in the southwest on the clay. The bluffs along the river are low and sandy. The Mississippi River is navigable here and small steamers ply up and down. Shingle Creek flows across the township from west to east." (Brooklyn Historical Society 2001) [online; p. 285]

Early settlers found the area to be excellent farming. Much of the southern part of the two watersheds developed as truck farms for growing vegetables and flowers. The northern, sandier soils were perfect for growing potatoes and the northern Brooklyn Township area became one of the leading potato growing areas in the nation. Osseo Road, now called Brooklyn Boulevard, was built on former Indian trails and served as main transportation corridors between the important transportation and trade centers of the villages of Robbinsdale and Osseo and the markets of Minneapolis and beyond.

As early as the 1860’s the banks of the Mississippi River were lined with sawmills from Shingle Creek south to central Minneapolis, busily supplying wood products for the fast-growing area. Shingle Creek’s earliest European name was Bohannon Creek after John C. Bohannon, one of the earliest settlers in the area, through whose land the creek flowed. In 1862 Rufus Farnham built the first sawmill on its banks to produce shingles and the creek began to be called “Shingler’s Creek.” The history of this area is commemorated with a statue in Minneapolis’ Webber Park of a lumberman; a number of historical exhibits at the North Mississippi Regional Park Interpretive Center provide more background. [See the Center's history "State Senators Carl Kroening of north Minneapolis and Bill Luther of Brooklyn Center obtained funding from the state legislature in 1985 for the development of a regional park on the banks of the Mississippi River from North Mississippi Park into Brooklyn Center on the west bank and Anoka County on the east bank." ]

By the turn of the 20th century, Minneapolis was growing and looking to annex land. To avoid annexation many of the settled areas in the Brooklyn and Crystal Lake Townships began incorporating as villages or cities: Robbinsdale, Crystal, New Hope, Brooklyn Center, Osseo. As growth spread north and west Brooklyn Park, Maple Grove, Plymouth, and Champlin incorporated as well. Most of the old sawmills on the Mississippi and Shingle Creek gave way to industry or housing with only a few lumberyards remaining.

Posted http://www.shinglecreek.org/history.html

Brooklyn Township Family: Locke

MATCH MAKER: The Worthy Secretary of the Brooklyn Centre Good Templars was Alfred Locke [L447-LLZ].  Alfred would have been 21 years old when elected to that position, and his future wife, Rosa Fletcher [L447-LGK], was also an officer at that time (August 12, 1879), and was just age 15.  They married on 14 March, 1881, farmed forty acres in section 29, and had nine children.  Between 1905 and 1910, the family moved to the state of Washington; the couple died there. 

Alfred's brother, Samuel Eugene, remained in Brooklyn Township. In 1901 he sold his share of the Locke property --originally purchased by their parents, Jonah and Sarah (Brooks) Locke in 1875--and originally in today's Brooklyn Park, and moved on lots in Brooklyn Center; appears they lived about 63rd and Brooklyn Boulevard.  Samuel "Gene" [KZBF-SLT] had married Sarah Katheryn Green [K876-Y38] and they had four children who pretty much stayed in the area; especially their first: Olive (Locke) Ness.

Star Tribune 20 Aug 1967, Sun · Page 113

Samuel and Sarah's son Fred[K46L-L59] , had tentative employment, with the WPA, as a janitor, and ...as a bootlegger:

The Minneapolis Star 28 Apr 1930, Mon · Page 4

IS THIS THE CORRECT FRED LOCKE?

I believe it is as "he returned to Brooklyn Center in 1931."  

How fun.  The Minneapolis Star carried a great story in 1960 when Fred relayed his family history. As a forerunner, the origins of the Locke-Brooks family was Pennsylvania.  They migrated to Ohio, were briefly in Michigan, and then settle in Wright County, Minnesota....or however the area was delineated in 1854.  Mrs. Locke's father, Joseph Brooks, died at Silver Creek, (Wright County), and shortly after his death or maybe the Dakota Uprising, Jonah and Sarah Locke, and Sarah's mother and siblings, moved to Minneapolis. Jonah was a carpenter and tried his hand at having a grocery store.  It appears that after a couple years of the grocery business, he moved to section 29 of Brooklyn Township; and then he died within the year. 

The Minneapolis Star 20 Oct 1960, Thu · Page 7

Fred Locke was quite the storyteller as his grandfather died before he was born, his years in Montana are questionable, and the city directories document a lifestyle in Minneapolis before returning to his roots in Brooklyn Center. I wonder if he'd say he was a direct descendant of John Locke and let others think he was referring to 'The' John Locke.(1) 

(1)   John Locke 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism". 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke

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.

Brooklyn Storekeepers Valued College Education

 

At the center of Brooklyn Township, in an area referred to as Brooklyn Centre, was the Howe Store conveniently situated at 6900 Osseo Road. In addition to being a general store, it included a post office, and an  upstairs auditorium for social gatherings and room for the township meetings. In the back was a shop for repairing wagons and providing miscellaneous blacksmith tasks. 

This center was owned by Charles Reuel Howe who had migrated in 1852 from Maine to the Territory of Minnesota when he was less than four years old.  The world he grew up in was very rustic; his perspective would have been rustic.  And yet, he ensured that all his children went to college.  Charles [LK11-R7L] and his wife Clara [ GZ7H-LHN ] had two daughters, and an adopted son. Maybe it should be said that it was a team effort between the husband and wife because it seems improbable that a self-sufficient frontier man would value college education.

So who was Mrs. Charles R. Howe? Her genealogy lists her maiden name as Butt, but, Clara was not included in her father's probate proceedings [George MRJB-7HY ].  And her listed mother [Mary Thorpe LZF3-XWR ],  who survived George, appears--according to newspaper articles--to be a selfish, manipulative, lonely woman that Clara had nothing to do with.

Star Tribune

Minneapolis, Minnesota 06 May 1913, Tue  •  Page 11

Star Tribune

Minneapolis, Minnesota 15 May 1913, Thu  •  Page 11

What kind of a woman makes a martyr of a young lady by making her promise to postpone marriage and be her caretaker in exchange for inheriting the house and assets? This scheme was applied a couple of times with "nieces/granddaughter" (she did not have any children of her own; no relationship verified), and NOT with Clara or her daughters.

So with red flags waving around Clara's family background, the disconnection was discovered in Clara's death certificate and obituary--both informed by her daughters.  So although Clara 'Butt' was recorded in her marriage record, her birth surname was a spelling variation of Leimbach; German ancestry. And she, and her sister who's name was stated in the obituary, (and maybe other siblings) were adopted.  Clara was 11 in the 1860 federal census in Indiana, and her sister Anna, age 7, in Illinois. They evidently kept connected.

At age 20, Clara was working as a domestic servant for a young family in Minneapolis; the John McLeod's.(1) The breadwinner was a lumberman who had been born in Scotland, and his wife....Mary Norris, from Brooklyn Township (2).  Mrs. McLeod's connection to the Norris neighbors of the Howe family in Brooklyn Township is yet to be researched, but it seems highly probable that a connection existed and that is how Charles Howe and Clara Butt met.

It is also highly probable that Clara and Mary Norris McLeod maintained contact and that the McLeod family influenced Clara greatly. Mr. McLeod established a music business and his daughter Fanny became a music teacher.(3)  It was the Northwestern Conservatory of Music where Clara's first daughter, Retta, graduated from with an emphasis on pianoforte, harmony and theory.(4)

(1) 1870 Federal census: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDH3-T8J 

(2) Marriage record image online: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJGY-YF3L

(3) Minneapolis city directories accessible via Hennepin County Public Libraries

(4)  Star Tribune 17 Jun 1893, Sat · Page 5

Note: The artist of the Howe Store pen & ink drawing was Leone Howe.