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The subdivision approval given to ShadeTree to develop its first phase of housing at Green Acres comes after much review and comment on this new plat. During this window of input on the plat the Chisago County Historical Society weighed in with concerns about the county poor farm burial grounds adjacent to and potentially within the subdivision.

The developer has designated an “outlot” where the remains are most likely buried.

Historical Society director Sherry Stirling also asked for considerations of possible gravesites beyond where the graves are obvious. The organization is also collecting as much information as it can on the people who may be in the plots.

A hundred yards or so into the woods beyond the nursing home parking lot there is a clustering of primitive, stone gravemarkers. A “road” consisting of side-by-side tire paths is nearby.

The historical society’s general concern is the Lucht’s Crossing EAW perhaps gives too little attention to the probability that wooden gravemarkers have disintegrated and the cemetery could extend beyond the obvious.

North Branch city planner Al Cottingham has been asked to keep an eye on the pauper cemetery within the site and amend the Environmental Assessment Worksheet to make more accurate references to the cemetery.

Cottingham was notified by Stirling, who wrote, “The burial ground for the former residents of the County Poor Farm is likely much larger than indicated by the markers.” She asked that the EAW make note of the “significant possibility” that more burial plots will be discovered upon earthmoving at the subdivision.

The outlot is not to be disturbed. The EAW states that should any remains be encountered the state laws will be followed and responsible agencies notified.

Stirling reviewed death certificates at the Minnesota Historical Society and learned there were burials at poor farm from 1904 to the late 1940s.

Stirling wrote to planner Cottingham, “Determining the names of the deceased has been a challenging task in that the property has been owned by the county...and there appears to be no register kept of interments as required by state statute.”

The historical society has a relatively solid record of 20 persons buried at the poor farm but many more residents passed away while at the poor farm. No markers are apparent and these residents are not listed officially as interred anywhere that Stirling could determine. Also at least one person recorded as being buried on the poor farm grounds, but for whom no marker has been located, is an American Indian, Benson Barrington who died March 9, 1938.

If any readers have knowledge about poor farm residents whose final resting places aren’t found in official records the Historical Society could use that information. (257-5310)

The names of those who died while at the poor farm, but who have no identifiable markers are, alphabetically:

Augusta Fredrika Carolina Anderson 1920; Carl Gustaf Anderson 1931; Charles Anderson mid-1930s; Christine Anderson possibly died in 1920; John B. Anderson 1913; Irene Gray Armstrong 1943; Frida Christina Benson 1941; Christine Berglund 1910; Ida Bloomquist 1935; John Carland 1947; Loren W. Carnes 1932; Olaf or Ole Danielson 1929; Thomas Duck 1912; John Eckstrom 1927; John Eckdahl 1915; Samuel Ellsworth 1939; August Erickson 1939; George Everet 1944; Charlie Fuller 1924; Edward Griffin 1946; Frank Goodman 1927; Albert Gray 1915; Charles Johnson 1923; Peter Johnson 1919; John Keacher 1924; Fredricka Josephine Kranz 1910; Charles Lunberg 1931; Herman Mattson 1934; Gust Nelson 1924; Gauen Nicklin 1937; Gustaf Peterson 1906; Benjamin Plummer 1930; Andrew Samuelson 1920; Otto Sandahl 1932; Andrew Sandberg 1916; Mike Sanftner 1924; Sam Swenson 1932; Fred Youngblum 1941 and John Youngren (aka Larson or Ljungren) 1917. * There is a marker for Lars Youngren and a marker has been located for Christina Youngren.

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