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.

Brooklyn Township Place: Bragdon Church

 I was the youngest and last to leave home; then my parents moved.  When I visited my mother, I'd sit on the bench at her table.  The bench had a high back, about a two inch lip on the sides to hold in the cushion, had been painted dutch blue and antiqued; it seated two small people.  My mother said the bench was a pew from the Bragdon Church.

I had no idea what the Bragdon Church was until I read in The Brooklyns (p. 97) about the Brooklyn Park Assembly of God Church located in the "Bragdon Memorial" building. The information describing the "Bragdon Memorial" cited WPA 1934, author Mrs. Edward Neill of Osseo, Minnesota.  I searched keywords "neill" "Osseo, MN" "1930-1940" and up popped Edward Neill [M1BN-Y5C] married to Eva Goodrich, [M1BN-Y52] and her parents - according to the 1870 census - had lived in the same neighborhood as Alonzo Bragdon; Eva had probably attended the Bragdon Church; maybe even married in that church.

 The First Freewill Baptist Church of Brooklyn which was incorporated March 5th 1885. The first religious services started in 1879 when they met at the Dunning Schoolhouse. Elected trustees were Alonzo Bragdon, J.B. Dunning, W.H. Gaslin, Silas Merrill and George W. Pomeroy. The church building was called Bragdon Memorial named for Eben Bragdon, a Christian soldier who died in the army during the Civil War. He had left a small sum of money which he wished to be used for gospel purposes and it was in the hands of his brother, Alonzo Bragdon. Emmett Rathburn was chosen solicitor for additional funds. Contract for the building was let in June 1885 and completed in September 1885. The cost of the church was $1,250

Found Eva's marriage certificate: she was married in the Free Will Baptist Church of Champlin.

"Minnesota, County Marriages, 1860-1949", database with images, <i>FamilySearch</i> (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJGY-1Y46 : 9 March 2021), Edward J. Neill and Evalyn L. Goodrich, 1893.

A historical timeline of Baptists in the Brooklyn Area:

1854 . . . The Free Baptist Church of Champlin was established. (1)

1865 . . . Eben Bragdon [L8SR-KW9] died of disease during the Civil War and willed his estate to the gospel.

1868 . . . The Baptist Church of Brooklyn Centre was built. (2)

1879 . . . The Free Will Baptist Church of Brooklyn met as a congregation at Dunning Schoolhouse.

1885 . . . The Free Will Baptist Church of Brooklyn was built.

1887 . . . Eben's brother, Alonzo Bragdon [G3RT-LKT], died.

According to the 1887 map, the church was of the Free Will Baptist denomination. Using google maps, I plugged in the addresses of the aforementioned Baptist churches.  The Bragdon Memorial is five miles from the other two churches; one north and the other south.  In addition, the "Free-Will" denomination (3) differs from the regular Baptists that attended in Brooklyn Centre; that church actually merged with the Methodists.

Today, the Bragdon Memorial building (located at 10255 Noble Ave, Brooklyn Park) is  "The Ark of Covenant Ministry, a full gospel non-denominational church that exists to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, Help the Needy, Build and Comfort the body of Christ." 

________________________

(1) Stephens Ruth and Champlin Bicentennial Historical Projects inc. 1979. Champlin on the Mississippi. Champlin Minn: Champlin Bicentennial Historical Projects. pages 71-76.

(2) Warner, George E; Foote, C.M.; Neill, Edward D.; Williams, John Fletcher; History of Hennepin County and the city of Minneapolis: including the explorers and pioneers ... (Minneapolis: North Star Publishing Company, 1881) page 287. 

(3) Free-Will Baptist Historical Commission

Brooklyn Township Place: Historic Eidem Farm

"Historic Eidem Farm is a 19-acre living history farm telling the story of market farming in Brooklyn Park during the 1905-1920 era." It is located at 4345 101st Avenue North, Brooklyn Park. My parents, Leone and Ralph Howe, volunteered as old-time characters during the site's Christmas events, and my mother was a regular, demonstrating her art of Norwegian rosemaling. 

Sources for learning about Historic Eidem Farm are the site's website, a 2018 Master Plan prepared for the city by Miller Dunwiddie Architecture, Inc., and newspaper articles since the city's purchase of the property in 1976.  A description of the historic site, "Our Story", a defunct webpage from the site's website found at https://eidemhomestead.wordpress.com/our-story1/ without a date or author, is reprinted here so as not to lose it forever.

"In 1972 the city and residents of Brooklyn Park became determined to preserve a piece of their farming history.  The reason being the flourishing suburban growth causing many of the older homes across the city to be demolished.

Four years later, in 1976, the city bought the Eidem home and its 10 acres using a federal grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for $40,000.  The house, which had been owned by the Eidem family since 1894 was, despite needing some work, in amazingly good condition and structurally sound.  The next three years were spent restoring the house and outbuildings which at the time included a barn, windmill, well house, chicken coup and outhouse.

On September 23, 1979 the Brooklyn Park Historical Farm (Eidem Homestead) opened to the public with more than 1,500 people in attendance.

The East Farm

The East farm was owned by Archie Eidem, son of John & Electa Eidem, from 1918 until his death in 1977.  The property was then bought by the Seed Family, a developing company, for future development.

In 1986 the Seed Family sells 5 acres of the property along with the house, barn and outbuildings which included a sheep shed, chicken coop, and brick garage to the City of Brooklyn Park for $5.  This property then joined the previously existing west farm to create the existing Eidem Homestead, Brooklyn Park Historical Farm.

The East farm is currently closed to the public and serves as a caretaker’s residence and collective storage space for the Eidem Homestead."

The website previously posted family history of John Eidem (9V7K-6ML) and his wife Electa (nicknamed Lectie) Cotton (9DH3-FQM). Now it simply states that they purchased the house in 1894 and completed enlarging it in 1906. It does include this historic photo:

A resource study conducted for the city in 2001 by Carole Zellie Landscaper Research, confirmed the date of the house's beginnings as 1894. (1) The Study adds that "the land was previously owned by Silas Merrill and later by Willard and Rosa Bragdon. I assume the study reviewed deeds and tax list--both are posted online--but what section was the farm in? Silas Merrill (LJGQ-GK7) had several property plats, but other sources mix his with S.W. Merrill's property, Silas' brother Samuel. (LZFS-GPP) Both were brothers of Electa Eidem's mother; they were Electa's uncles.

Going to the Hennepin County wiki for a link to a modern map that shows land sections, I went to Hennepin County historic and current section map. There it was so easy to enter the address of the Eidem farm and up popped the property in section 10; it even includes outlines of buildings on the land. Now, looking at my favorite reference map from 1873, I see that the Silas Merrill property is just west of where Electa (Cotton) Eidem grew up, and adjoins the land of Alonzo Bragdon (G3RT-LKT). 

Two years after Willard Bragdon's father, Alonzo, died, he was 31 years old and married a divorcee named Rose on March 24, 1889.  His property was sold and the couple was divorced by 1895 when the MN census documented that Willard (9VPC-P6N) was living with his mother and maternal grandparents in Minneapolis. In 1900, Willard was committed to "Hospital for the Insane" in St. Peter, MN. 

The 1887 map marks that there was a house on the property that Silas sold (39 acres), and his neighbor was G. W. Pomeroy, the witness to Willard Bragdon's wedding.

Here is the 1913 map:

I have not found the evidence that Willard and Rosa Bragdon had owned or lived on the site of the Historic Eidem Farm.  That exploration will be another blog.

(1) Zellie Carole Brooklyn Park Economic Development Authority (Minn) and Landscape Research (Firm). 2001. Brooklyn Park Historic Resources Study. Brooklyn Park Minn: Brooklyn Park Economic Development Authority. pgs.99-100.  I own this publication and I am willing to do look-ups: jealeone@yahoo.com.