It is amazing the things you find out about when you start looking. For instance, my family is from a region of Minnesota currently located in Otter Tail County. I have never known until today that the town had any name other than Parkers Prairie. (The oldest building in town, the State Bank of Parkers Prairie even had it permanently etched in stone, so how could it ever have had a different name? But no! I came across this old picture of my Great-Great-Grandfather August and when looking him up on the internet I came across some fascinating things about the town he lived in. Parkers was founded under the name "Jasper." It was renamed when the county was being surveyed.
The "Parker" for whom the town was re-christened, was one of the survey team. He was the first to spot the town as they were making their way through the newly mapped county. He later drowned while fording a river and the town was renamed in his honor.
I was telling this story to my step-mom who wondered what lessons we were teaching our children by naming things after people who were uncoordinated or stupid enough to get themselves killed doing dangerous things. (I imagine the conversation one day: "What school do you go to, Billy?" "Dumb-ass memorial senior high." But I digress...)
I also learned that my ancestor's middle name was Samuel. A fact I had never before known. Finally, I discovered that Parkers Prairie was the first town in that part of the state founded by a non-homogeneous group of people. No single ethnicity, religion, or political bent was the core of the community when founded; Parkers was founded by a group of people unified only in the desire to get rich farmland on the route of a planned state road.
Wherever you are today, I hope that you've learned something interesting today as well!
Don Bergquist - December 08, 2010 - Kensington, Minnesota, USA
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