History of St Lawrence Township Part 4: The Township Continues

Rip Van Winkle

In 1987, the Prior Lake American described St Lawrence Township as “Rip Van Winkle”. While the Village of St Lawrence had floundered due to transportation concerns, the construction of Highway 169 during the 1950s brought new people and businesses to the quiet farm-focused area. Soon several restaurants sprang up along the highway, as well as some attractions. One of the early attractions, Jim’s Apple Farm, now dominates the highway as Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store. Along with these new businesses and attractions, the population of the township began to increase. 

Another prominent feature in the area is the Minnesota Valley State Recreation Area. The scenic and recreational potential of the area was recognized early on, and the first park was suggested in 1939. In 1967, a bill proposing an 18,000-acre state park along the river in St Lawrence went before the Minnesota Legislature, but it failed to pass. However a bill creating the Minnesota Valley State Trail did pass in 1969. The trail was to run from Fort Snelling State Park to the town of Le Sueur and include six waysides totaling over 5,000 acres. In this roundabout way, portions of the valley were added to the state park system. The Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge was authorized in 1976 and additional lands originally desired for the state park received federal protection.

Minnesota Valley State Recreation Area

Today the Minnesota Valley State Trail runs through the recreation area with both paved and natural sections. Trails are also in place for hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, horseback riding, mountain biking, and snowmobiling. The landscape of the park includes wetlands, floodplain forest and blufftop oak savanna. The park also provides a home for raccoons, mink, muskrat, wood duck, beaver, white-tail deer, rabbits, squirrels, or red and grey fox. 

The Fair and the Threshers

Sunday afternoon at the 1973 Scott County Fair. Photo from the Belle Plaine Herald, August 2 1973

Scott County has hosted a fair since the early days of European American residents. The first fair was held in 1857 with the goal of showcasing the agricultural possibilities of the county and encouraging immigrants to move to the area. Until 1885 the fair was held piecemeal, in the buildings and streets of downtown Shakopee. Then land was purchased just outside of Shakopee, allowing the fair to expand and have a permanent home. In 1915, the fair was held in Jordan for the first time. 

In the early 1970s, the Scott County Fair Board purchased 80 acres in St Lawrence Township to be the new home of the Scott County Fair. Ground was broken, and the fair was held in its new home for the first time in 1973. 

A new cattle barn, horse barn, 4-H building, sanitation facility, and concessions stand were built on site. Four other fair buildings were moved from the old fairgrounds in Jordan. The Fair Board also chartered busses that ran from the fairgrounds to neighboring communities for a cost of forty cents per passenger. 

The big events that year were the horse show, horse pulling contest, 4H auction, demolition derby, tractor pull and chuck wagon races. 

St Lawrence Township is also home to the Scott Carver Threshers and the grounds of their annual Harvest Festival. The first threshing festival held by the group was in 1964, after Ernie Morrell suggested to his nephew Ken Scott that they fire up their grandfather’s engine, hook it to the separator, and see if they could thresh some grain. 

Today, the mission of the group is “to preserve the agricultural and industrial history from the past for the enjoyment and education of the future generations.”  Their annual festival includes displays and demonstrations of steam tractors, engines, threshing, milling, printing, blacksmithing and rug making. 

Gravestones and Ghost Stories 

St Lawrence has a few unusual gravesites. A single headstone is located in Lawrence Wayside, part the Minnesota Valley State Recreation Area. Before becoming park land, the property was part of the Henry Barlage Farm. The grave is for Frances N Strait who died at age 19 on Dec 21 1860. She was the first wife of George Strait, of milling fame, and the two married when she was only 16. It is unknown why she was buried at a remote, isolated location. 

There are also two gravesites on the property of railroad magnate turned farmer Frank Erikson. They are from children who died during the diphtheria epidemic that tore through the county in the 1870s. Clara Frank recalls spending time on the property with her friends in the early 1900s: “I remember when we were children we used to run and play there, but we were always careful not to step on the graves. You never knew what would happen if you stepped on the graves.”

In 2007 a ghost hunter named Kathy visited the Strait house along with a reporter from the Jordan Independent. Kathy asked some questions to any spirits that might be present, including “Are you angry that your house is now a museum”. She thought that she heard a negative response, but the reporter with her didn’t hear anything. She did leave some tape recorders running at the site, and claimed later to have picked up some “evp” or electronic voice phenomena. To ghost hunters, EVP are otherwise inaudible communications from spirits that can be picked up with a tape recorder. The messages were “Repent!”, and the names “Elizabeth” and “Andy Taylor”.

St Lawrence Township Today

Today St Lawrence Township covers 14.9 square miles and has a population approximately 550 people. The township’s board meetings are typically held on the second Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. at the St. Lawrence Town Hall, 7500 Old Highway 169 Boulevard. While the area is still home to farmland, it also has become a place for homeowners who want to live in a rural area and don’t mind having a commute to neighboring towns or the Twin Cities. 

History of St Lawrence Township Part 3: The Downfall of St Lawrence

The Downfall of the Village of St Lawrence 

St Lawrence’s glory days were short. In 1866 plans for the railroad were laid out. The route did not include St Lawrence, instead passing just over a mile south of the community and stopping in Jordan and Belle Plaine instead. Rail quickly surpassed steamships as the primary method of travel and shipping in Scott County, and St Lawrence was rendered obsolete. As the Belle Plaine Herald put it in June of 1925, “The village was foredoomed to failure. Bands of steel were pushing westward and within a few years the railroad came down the valley, seriously crippling river and stage traffic.” According to a 1996 Belle Plaine Herald article, the village of St Lawrence was all but abandoned by 1869. 

Former blacksmith shop of St Lawrence turned schoolhouse. Date unknown. Published in the Prior Lake American, October 5. 1987

By the 1920s, few of the original buildings from the town of St Lawrence remained. In 1925, the St Lawrence Hotel was part of the farm of E. J Liebbrand. Liebbrand used the building as a granary and storehouse for his tools. The former blacksmith shop was being used as the township’s schoolhouse. 

In 1958 a fire destroyed the hotel, and the former blacksmith shop, now relieved of its school duties, was torn down for safety reasons. Today the only building that remains from the original building is the original limestone home of Horace Strait. 

St Lawrence Township Continues 

An end of the village did not mean that the township was abandoned. St Lawrence boasted excellent farmland, and continued to to be home to many farms and families. 

Faye Libbrand was born in St Lawrence in 1926. She remembers that the “St Lawrence Farmers Club” that was established in the original village continued well into the 1900s. She also recalls a sense of community in the township: “Once a year we had a big picnic. It was one of the social highlights of the township. And there was lots of visiting in those days. People worked together with their neighbors. At harvesting, men would work in the fields, and women worked together in the houses. Kids had it pretty good on those days.” She remembered a township meeting being held once a month. Guest speakers and politicians would be invited, schoolchildren would give recitations, and local musicians would show off their talents. She also said “...afterwards we had buttermilk and donuts. You know, I hate buttermilk.”

Clara Frank was born in the township in 1896. She attended school in St Lawrence, got her teaching certificate in Shakopee, then returned to teach at the St Lawrence school. She recalls “You didn’t have much time [due to the busy farming schedule], but the kids learned a lot in those days.”

The History of St Lawrence Township Part 2: Residents of Early St Lawrence

Early St Lawrence

The first hub of St Lawrence township was the Village of St Lawrence. This community did not spring up organically. The town was founded in 1858 by four prominent businessmen: Samuel Burton Strait, W.H. Stodder, C.L.Pierson, and Warren DeCamp. Within a few years, they paid to have a sawmill, blacksmith shop, general store, six homes, and a massive hotel built along the river. The site was carefully planned, and the four investors hoped that the central location of their community would make it the premier stop for river traffic in the area. 

The hotel in particular was built to impress. The building was four stories tall, and featured limestone walls three feet thick. Special double doors were built to allow immigrants to unload their large trunks. Inside, the building had polished walnut flooring, a large dining room, and an elaborate maple banister. A 1925 article in the Belle Plaine Herald about the township described this banister in humorously flowery terms  “...touching it, one seems to sense a magic contact with the pulsing life of that earlier day. He sees dainty ladies in crinolines mounting the stairs, assisted by young gentlemen in high stocks and stovepipe hats. It was an age of courtesy and reserve; but who knows but what that haughty maiden tingled a stolen kiss, coming down those stairs after a ball. Who knows what marriage pacts were sealed on those stairs. Ah what tales that banister could tell.”

The first school in the township was established in 1858. It was taught in a log cabin by Mary Evermann. The post office was also founded in 1858, and W. H. Stodder served as postmaster. He was succeeded by John Hewitt who held the post office until it was closed in 1880. Neither Pierson or Stodder remained long in Sand Creek. After a few years, both sold their land and moved east. Similarly, DeCamp sold his property and left Sand Creek. Of the original founders, only Strait remained in the area.

Others seemed to agree that the founders’ vision of a river hub was a good one. By 1860, the town of St Lawrence had a population of 216. 

Residents of the Village of St Lawrence

One of St Lawrence’s early residents was Fredrick Erikson. Erikson had immigrated to the United States from Sweden in the 1840s. He came to the United States with more wealth than the average immigrant at the time, and invested in the burgeoning railroad industry. By 1860 he had set his sights on “retiring” as a farmer, and bought 1100 acres in St Lawrence Township. 

He built a four story house on a hill, a two story “manouse” capable of housing 30 farmworkers, and a barn that could hold 150 horses. 

St Lawrence resident Clara Frank who was a little girl at the time recalled visiting the upper floor of the house and being awed at seeing the landscape around her from the vantage point of a four story view. She also said that every night she would hear the farm workers be called in to dinner with the clang of a giant bell that she compared to a church bell. 

Erikson farmed in St Lawrence for about 20 years before deciding that the railroad business was more lucrative. He sold his land and moved west to California to rejoin the rail industry. The large Erkison farm, called Oak Farm at the time, was broken up and sold to neighboring property owners. 

Strait House, 1998. Photo from the SCHS collections.

Samuel Strait, one of the founders of St Lawrence, also built a home for himself in the community. Like the St Lawrence hotel, the house featured thick limestone walls. It was large, with big windows and a shaded front porch. 

For those people steeped in county history, the name of Strait will seem familiar. Samuel Strait held property in Sand Creek, but eventually moved to Shakopee. He originally claimed 130 acres of land in Sand Creek. He then paid others to claim land in his name and gained 900 more. The first election in Sand Creek was held on May 11, 1858. Strait was chosen to moderate the election, and was also elected Chairman of the community. 

Strait Flour Mill, 1885. From the SCHS collections.

One of Samuel’s sons, George Strait became a prominent local miller. He opened mills in Jordan and Chaska, eventually settling in Shakopee where he started the Strait Flour Mill. By 1885, this mill ground more than 300,000 bushels of grain annually. 

Major Horace Strait, around 1865. Photo from the SCHS collections.

Horace Strait, another son raised in St Lawrence, enlisted as a private in company 1 of the 9th Minnesota after the Civil War broke out in 1862. Horace rose through the ranks, eventually becoming Inspector General on the staff of General Andrew Macarthur. Andrew Macarthur was, in turn, the father of famed General Douglas Macarthur

After leaving the service, Horace Strait pursued a career in politics. He was elected as a Republican to the 43rd, 44th, and 45th congresses, but failed in his reelection bid in 1878 to the 46th congress. However, two years later he was elected to the 47th and reelected to 48th

and 49th congresses. His political downfall finally came when he supported a tariff on lumber coming into Minnesota from Canada in the 1880s, a time when much of the Southern portion of the state was in need of inexpensive lumber to support a boom in building. 

The History of St Lawrence Township Part 1: The Minnesota River

St Lawrence township was originally platted in 1858. The area was nestled up against the Minnesota River, situated between Belle Plaine and Jordan on the Eastern side of Scott County. 

“Gathering Wild Rice”. Painted by Seth Eastman around 1850

The Minnesota River had long been an essential part of transportation for communities in what is now Scott County. Dakota towns along the river had used it for transportation, trade and food. Trade networks branched throughout the continent, facilitated by the Minnesota river and other waterways. Fish were speared in the river, and wild rice was cultivated and harvested in its waters. 

The state is named after the Minnesota river. The Dakota name for the river was “Mnisota”, meaning (roughly) sky-tinted water. When European Americans originally entered the area, they called the river St Peters. In 1852, the US Congress, acting on are request of the MN territorial government, decreed that the river should be “renamed” with it’s Dakota name. 

When European Americans began to resettle the region after the treaties in the early 1850s, they also wanted to live near the river. Rivers were the superhighways of the time, providing conveyance for keelboats, flatboats and, most importantly, steamboats. The first steamboat attempt on the Minnesota River was in June of 1842. The boat made from Fort Snelling to the Dakota town that would later be called Shakopee. This was the first of several expeditions between 1842 and 1850, each reaching farther down the river. Many of these expeditions had the air of a big party. Prominent elected officials and business leaders would be aboard. Copious amounts of drink would be served, and bands played to lighten the mood. 

Steamboat at the Lewis Street Bridge in Shakopee, 1880. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

River travel was essential to early European Americans in Scott County. Settlers, goods, and news came along the Minnesota River via steamboat. Many people came to the area to farm, but the region grew too fast to ever be entirely self- sufficient. Steamboats carried in needed goods and supplies, and later brought goods grown in Scott County to other parts of the nation to be sold. 

St Lawrence was platted and community structures were built with this in mind. The goal was to turn St Lawrence into the premier river port of the area, and capitalize on the Minnesota River and the stagecoach lines that ran alongside it.