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