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.