The general purpose of this Society shall be the discovery, preservation, and dissemination of historical knowledge about the City of Sleepy Eye and the County of Brown, as it is related to the City of Sleepy Eye.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
The Shooting of George Sommerville
The Shooting of George Sommerville
George W. Somerville
was born June 3, 1855, in Ripley County, Indiana. His parents were William and Rachel
(Cunningham) Somerville. George
graduated from Rochester High School in 1876, graduated from the University of
Michigan Law School in 1879, then came directly to Sleepy Eye on June 25th,
1879. In 1882 he became the Brown County
Attorney and continued in that office for six years. During that time he acquired two farms.
In November 1881 George
married Mary Fuller of Rochester. They
had two sons and two daughters. Theirs
sons were named Wayne and Saxe. Saxe, was married to Pearl Mo. Daughter Carol was married to a C. S. Smith but
lived at some distance. George's
daughter Madge was married to Al Ruenitz and lived in Springfield (later she
became the second Mrs. E.L Nippolt).
George Somerville had
built a home on a terrace on the northwest corner of Summit Street and now
Second Avenue West. The Sommerville home
was a lovely home of elaborate woodwork and parquet floors. It later was the home of The Ed Berkner home
family, then a maternity hospital, then the Schwartz funeral home, followed by
the Clow funeral home, then becoming apartment housing. There are 18 rooms and 6 baths in this home.
Ingervald M. Olson was
a law partner of George Somerville but left to become a district judge and
later then a Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Albert Hauser was also George Somerville's
partner for a short time as well.
However, George had then left for a western state.
His leave may have been
because a man had tried to kill George for a suspected swindle. Or perhaps it may have been for the
allegation that George brought in a number of jurors in a locally famous murder
trial.
In the September 3rd,
1909 edition of the Herald-Dispatch there is an account of events for September
1st; when John F. Hayner went to Somerville’s office and shot George
Somerville twice, at about 10 a.m. At around
2 p.m. the man had hung himself in the jail.
Weapon in the shooting was an Iver Johnson Bulldog 38.
The first bullet
entered Somerville’s left arm near the wrist, then entered the chest near his
shoulder, injuring the lung. The other
bullet apparently entered Somerville’s back, passed through the body just
missing the lower part of the heart. It
was not agreed whether the second bullet entered the back first.
Florence Dovre,
secretary, and Atty. Albert Hauser were in the office. Hayner told the editor he had been beaten out
of every cent he had, said he had received 170 acres of worthless land in
Missouri for brick building here. Hauser
gave the alarm and John B. Hickle, Frank Palmer, and Rob Hansen were the first
to show up, with a good-sized guns.
Others showed up with weapons also.
Chief August Matter and
Judge Peter Geschwind decided to send Hayner to New Ulm in Joe Fialka’s auto,
with Fialka driving, trip being made in less than an hour. Hayner told Matter he had nothing to live
for.
Hayner had come to
Sleepy Eye about two and a half years earlier, bought the Backer? building,
traded it to Somerville for the 170 acres in Missouri and some telephone
stock. Hayner then left Sleepy Eye,
worked in Milford and Twin Cities.
Parents lived at Waverly. Hayner
was about 35, of good reputation. County
Attorney August Erickson of Springfield arrived in Sleepy Eye three hours after
the shooting.
Somerville was out of
danger some ten days after the shooting.
George Somerville died on January 12th, 1890. Not related to this crime. He rests in the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Iberia.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
How to Pitch Camp Where Indians Would
How to Pitch
Camp
Where Indians Would
*Look for high ground if there’s any around. Stay out of
gulleys and valleys. Look for a place to settle down for the night while it’s still light enough to check
around.
* Get in a clearing. Tall grass and heavy brush
too close can be a breeding place for bugs and insects in the wet season, a
fire hazard in the dry season.
* Where to do your cooking: During the daytime,
winds usually blow off a lake and move toward higher ground. At night, winds usually
move toward water.
*If the weather’s cool, pitch your camper so
that it’s catch the last possible rays of the dying
sun. And close the flaps at this time to trap all the heat you can inside for
the night ahead.
*Also, consider where the morning sun will hit-
if you can put your camper in it, it’ll help dispel the dew,
eliminate morning dampness and dry the canvas.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Golden Gloves Boxing
Golden Gloves Boxing
This
picture was taken in 1947. We have
listed as Back Row, left to right: Harold Guldager, Allen Walden, Jim Walden,
Harvey Dallman (Trainer), Hjalmer Friton, Ed Walden, & George Gustafson. Directly in front, left to right: Shimschock
& Eckstein.
Amateur boxing enjoyed enormous popularity in the 1930s, '40s and well into the '50s. It was a simpler, more innocent time for the sport of boxing, with gentlemanly heroes like Joe Louis (nick named Brown Bomber) who was considered to be a worthy role model for children. For the most part, the seamy underside of the sport remained hidden.
Children
even received boxing gloves as Christmas or birthday gifts and were cheered on
by their parents in amateur matches the same way young football players are
encouraged today. Black eyes were badges
of pride to young fighters who sneered at wearing protective headgear. Boxing as been known as the "sweet science". Many hours were conducted on learning the
correct workings of the right technique of boxing for the boys; a complete
devotion.
For Harold Guldager, Allen Walden, Jim Walden, Harvey
Dallman (Trainer), Hjalmer Friton, Ed Walden, George Gustafson, Shimschock and
Eckstein they were of the many here in Sleepy Eye that took on the roles and
attempts to becoming the next Golden Glove winner, through the many black eyes,
sore muscles, and bruised egos. In the
eyes of themselves they were winners, perhaps not in the eyes of national
championships but in their eyes they themselves, made of heart and steal, they
were Champions to themselves and their teammates.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Businesses of Main Street in 1887
Businesses of Main Street in 1887
Businesses have
come and gone in Sleepy Eye as many of us know. But do we know who were our
frontier businessmen were? Let me enlighten you. We have the gentlemen of C.D.
Griffith and W.W. Smith were advertised representatives of the Merchants Bank,
later the First National, now the Security Bank. The Bank of Sleepy Eye lists
F. H. Dyckman as proprietor. Dyckman just started off with $500.00. His bank
later became the State Bank, now called the Americana Bank.
Professional men were; Dr. F. P.
James, dentist; T.M. Marcellus, physician and surgeon; J.W.B. Wellcome,
physician and surgeon (he was the father of Dr. J.W.B. Wellcome, Jr., who took
several citizens of Sleepy Eye through their childhoods; J.M. Thompson,
attorney; George W. Somerville, attorney who later became state senator, (later
was object of a would-be assassin who claimed he had been cheated.)
Businessmen included; H.J. Hansen,
hardware and lumber. Hansen took part in building the Loreno House. W.H. White
proprietor, SW corner of Main and First Avenue – the Exchange Hotel (had good
sample rooms) for showing salesmen’s wares to local store owners.
A.W. Case, Occidental Livery and
Sales Stable, new rigs and trusty drivers, commercial and hunters’ patronage
solicited; City Livery, J. Liesenfeld, fine rigs and trust drivers. F. Marquardt,
Merchant Tailoring; R.H. Bingham,
hardware, lumber, tinware, stoves, table cutlery, tools, fence wire, wood
pumps, doors, sash, and shingles; Schoregge & Gieseke, successors to F.
Ibberson who had come in 1872, drugs, medicines, toilet articles, specialties,
Ibberson’s Anodyne Balsam, Pectoral Cough Linctus, and condition powders.
W.M. Muffin, Commercial House and
Restaurant, was located about where the present day post office is located,
meals at all hours, oysters in every style; August Schweiger, NewMeat Market;
L.P. Jensen & Durbahn, dress goods and trimmings, five cents a yard and up;
James Reeve, boot and shoe makers; Sleepy Eye Mill, patent, family, and baker’s
flour; Rinke & Bertrand, dry goods and groceries; Deutsche Apothek & H.
H. Meyer had a business also in 1887. M. Kiefer, Boot and Shoe Store; A new
store, Talbot and Rinke was started in 1872.
Some of these names many may
recognize as familiar names others may not seem so familiar. There were of course other businesses that
came and went that is not mentioned in our history because they simply didn’t
stick around long enough to be considered a long time business (basically less
than a year probably). We find this
often times with family genealogy as well.
Families come into the museum in hopes of finding long lost families but
if their family didn’t stick around Sleepy Eye very long chances are we don’t
have much record of their stay here in Sleepy Eye or in Brown County.
A
mental note - If you have any old photos out there and your parents or
grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc are still around and they know who is
on those pictures – ask them who is in the pictures. Make sure you get their
names written down, before you know it, your opportunity of getting the chance
to find out who the people are, and their names will be gone. Even take a
moment today to write the name behind of your present day photos, because 20,
30 years from now – our children will be sitting where we are today and saying
“I wish I knew who was in this photo.”
Friday, May 16, 2014
The Railroad
The Railroad
Early travel in Minnesota was mainly done by
waterways or across country on foot, occasionally on horseback. The with stout
footwear and a canoe could go anywhere in the vast countryside.
The first
signs of the railroad went to St. Paul. Passengers and freight along with mail
waited out the winter until ice went out of the river and spring navigation
could begin. Winona needed a railroad to bring people and supplies into the
southern part of Minnesota. The result, was the Winona and St. Peter's Railroad
which pushed back the frontier until in 1872, it reached the high land near
Sleepy Eye Lake.
The
Minnesota River had been called the St. Peter by early explorers, The Winona
and St. Peter Railroad was later called the Chicago Northwestern.
Railroad
construction was done typically in small sections, sometimes by a number of
contractors. This was known as a time of non-automation era. Things were done
by hard labor, man power. By the blood and sweat of man.
Leroy
Davis once wrote, "The tools which made the railway cuts and grades were
the pick, shovel, and spade, the walking plow, the two-wheeled scraper drawn by
one horse, the wagon with dump planks, and the wheel barrow. Most of the
grading was let to a contractor who then contracted with others to do short
sections. The only startling thing in machinery was the pile driver used to
drive big timbers down to solid ground for bridges over sloughs."
By May
1872, the railroad tracks are almost complete heading towards Sleepy Eye Lake.
The grading is nearly ready for iron now, the only drawback is the bottom
through town. The Railroad employed 500 workers by this point on the road. A
crew of 500 was alot of people to take care of.
The
little settlement was growing up in the vicinity of the Lake of Sleepy Eye. It
would have been difficult for the settlement to take care of the crew of 500.
However, the railroad had its own system for housing and feeding their
employees.
The railroad had a two-story frame building on
a flatcar to accommodate the construction crews. The upper portion provided
sleeping quarters and the lower floor was a dining area. Their
"hotel" traveled right along with them.
In the
month of July the railroad had a picnic out by the shores of the Sleepy Eye Lake
to celebrate the completion of the rails. Some of the workmen on the railroad
enjoyed Sleepy Eye Lake well enough to bring their families here and establish
their homes permanently here.
By
October 1872 the Depot building was finished. In 1882, a roundhouse and machine
shops were added to the Depot train community, thus making Sleep Eye a busy
rail town. In January, 1887 the Sleepy Eye Depot was burned down by a fire. By
June of 1887 a new Depot (where todays Depot Antiques is located) was under
roof, and painted by mid-July. It was not until 1902 that the present brick
Depot was built (Depot Museum/Sleepy Eye Historical Society).
Our Chief Sleepy Eye
Chief Sleepy Eye
Our Chief Sleepy Eye
There is little written about Chief Sleepy Eye yet we
know that, Ish-tak-ha-bah was a powerful man and stood six feet in his moccasins, with what we know as a lazy eye. He was straight as an arrow and a
born leader. He had a reputation for fairness and square dealing that made him
the friend of all with whom he came in contact with. He had lived in the area
for years, had hunted and fished in the waters of the Cottonwood, in the
skycolored waters of the Minnesota, and the pellucid floods of the famed Sleepy
Eye Lake (Minnewashte Chanhatonka). His truest instinct was on the hunt, his
the truest aim was when the great buffalo went down, his greatest success was
at trapping, and his largest and most comfortable moments were in and near his
tepee (at home). He became a fast friend of the Coutouriers - "French
Cap" the fur trader, and many times was a welcome guest at their humble
cabin on the lake shore. Once in a while he would talk of his (Chief Sleepy
Eye's) people, and sometimes of the interesting history of the country. History
with him is legend among his friends and family.
In 1824 Indian Agent Lawrence Taliaferro took a
group of four Sioux and four Ojibway to visit President James Monroe in
Washington, D.C. Taliaferro had been a lieutenant in the army, stationed at
Fort Snelling. Among the Sioux who went to the capital in Washington, D.C., was
Sleepy Eye, and a Little Crow who was grandfather to the Little Crow who was
the leader of the Indians in the Uprisings of 1862. Chief Sleepy Eye was named
"chief", by President Monroe and the Bureau of Indians Affairs. Chief
Sleepy Eye was chief of all the Sisseton Sioux from Carver to Lac Qui Parle. He
succeeded Wakanto (Blue Spirit). It is also stated that Sleepy Eyes is to be
the son of a chief - though the name of his father is unknown.
Sleepy Eye is a leader among his people. In
1851, he was the most important chief at the signing of the Treaty of the
Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. On July 19, 1851 Chief Sleepy Eye stated to the
government, "your coming and asking me for my country makes me sad, and
your saying I am not able to do anything with my country makes me still more
sad."
Over the years treaties have been signed
offering and giving up more and more hunting grounds, fishing lands; without
realizing how much was giving up or lost. In 1851 there were two treaties
written that ceded all remaining lands except a ten-mile strip on each side of
the upper part of the Minnesota River. These treaties were made at Traverse des
Sioux on July 23, 1851 and August 5,1851.
In 1852, Chief Sleepy Eye selected the site
that became Mankato. Sleepy Eye advised the traders not to build in a low lying
land near the Minnesota River. This land often flooded. Sleepy Eye had
suggested moving the location to higher grounds, located today where it is
known as "Front Street". This location became the location for
Mankato's trading post.
At this point in history we know that Chief
Sleepy Eye was granted the right to remain off of the reservation and remain by
Swan Lake - near Nicollet. He remains there peacefully with his band till 1857
when the renegade Ink-Pa-Du-Ta and his band attacked settlers at Spirit Lake,
Iowa, and Jackson, Minnesota. At this point Chief Sleepy Eye had moments to
move his band onto the reservation. Our present day town (City of Sleepy Eye)
just happened to be within the 20 mile reservation mile marker line (10 miles
south of the Minnesota River). After Sleepy Eye moved here to the lake of
" Pretty Water by the Big Tree" (Minnewashte Chanhatonka).
Chief Sleepy Eye died in 1860, but not before
rendering his assistance at his own risk of his own life many times during his
early years, on the sun-kissed prairies attempting to undo the years of hearts
bleeding and happy homes from becoming desolated wastes. The spring after Chief
Sleepy Eye's death two hundred of the Chiefs band gave a Remembrance Dance to
honor the memory of Chief Sleepy Eye, this was the last time this dance with
the band was performed. Those who have survived the years are scattered all
around the state on various reservations, although most were sent to the
Dakotas and traveled to Canada.
A friendly Indian was the Chief and there were
many instances in history where he had not only shown kindness and
consideration to the white people in times of trouble but actually saved life
and nursed back to health men, women, and children who were wounded in battle
by warfaring Indians.
Other Treaties Signed By
Sleepy Eye;
Prairies Du Chien - 1825
Prairies Du Chien - 1830
St Peters (Mendota) - 1836
Traverse Des Sioux - July
1851
Traverse Des Sioux Sioux -
August 1851
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