MN MN - Goodhue, Unidentified Body of elderly white man found in unmarked grave in 1984.

[Richard]

Goodhue was/is a very small village. It was a place where everyone knew everyone else - at least those who resided there. So the fact that nobody was reported missing to authorities or in the local newspaper would tend to support a theory that this unidentified man was a transient or newly arrived person with no family connections in the area.

There was an informal labor exchange service to match transient workers with local farmers, started by Henry Swenson at his restaurant across the road from the railroad station. If this unidentified man had gone there looking for work, he might have been sent out to one of the farms near what turned out to be his final destination.

Swenson's Restaurant was located on Broadway in Goodhue in right hand side of the near brick building seen in this earlier (1908) photo:

 

[Richard]

An internet search for information about this case only leads back to this websleuths thread.

Here are some links with bibliographies about the history of Goodhue County, Minnesota:

Immigration to Goodhue County | MNopedia

By 1880, Goodhue County held within its borders four significant Euro-American immigrant enclaves: Minnesota's largest group of Swedes; the second largest assembly of Norwegians; one of the most densely populated German tracts; and an Irish colony at the county's center. The colonizing of...

www.mnopedia.org

Goodhue County, Minnesota - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

History of Goodhue, MN | City of Goodhue

City of Goodhue

City of Goodhue, Goodhue, Minnesota. 834 likes · 12 talking about this · 1 was here. City Government

www.facebook.com

 

[Atha]

Richard - Thank you for sharing this case. It is interesting. Since you have seen the Sheriff's Office file, do you know what happened to the remains? Were they reinterred or perhaps sent to MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA)?

The BCA had a grant 10 years ago to do DNA testing on unidentified remains. Knowing more about the individual and verifying the information determined in the 1980s would be helpful.

I did check NAMUS and didn't see any matching unidentified persons; although, there was at least one person that had no information about a recovery location.

BCA Working To Match Missing With 100s Of Bones

 

[Richard]

Richard - Thank you for sharing this case. It is interesting. Since you have seen the Sheriff's Office file, do you know what happened to the remains? Were they reinterred or perhaps sent to MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA)?

The BCA had a grant 10 years ago to do DNA testing on unidentified remains. Knowing more about the individual and verifying the information determined in the 1980s would be helpful.

I did check NAMUS and didn't see any matching unidentified persons; although, there was at least one person that had no information about a recovery location.

BCA Working To Match Missing With 100s Of Bones

The skeletal remains were initially sent to Hamline University School of Anthropology, where the autopsy work was done. Goodhue County Sheriff Kelly was not certain what the final disposition of the remains were. Here is what he wrote to me:

When you first notified us, we reached out to Hamline University School of Anthropology and they told us they were interested and were going to contact us and have their historian look into it. Well, they never called us back. The bones may still even be at the school, we don’t know. [unquote]

I do have a point of contact at Hamline and may just contact him about this.

 

[Richard]

The Goodhue Police Department was in the National News recently when the entire force resigned.

LINK:

Entire police department in small Southern Minnesota town quits over salary issues

Only the chief of the Goodhue Police Department and one other officer still remain on the force until their resignations also take effect on 23 August

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Richard]

The hasty burial of this unidentified old man a sitting position and in the back yard of a residence would indicate that he was not related to anyone in the vicinity. Nobody would bury a relative in this manner.

It is also an indication that his death would have been very inconvenient to those who buried him - either he was murdered or died in a manner which would have brought legal authorities into the picture.

Speculation that his death may have been due to illegal liquor activities is a possibility. Certainly a person who might have died of alcohol poisoning would be "bad for business", but even someone who died of unknown causes like freezing to death, or old age would bring unwanted focus on the residence and area.

The ground in Minnesota becomes frozen in the winter months and burials in established cemeteries are often delayed until it thaws out. That could be a reason for the small hole and the man being placed in a sitting/fetal position.

 

[Richard]

This year marks 40 years since this unidentified man was found, buried in a sitting position in rural Goodhue, Minnesota.

He probably died some time around 1930 - give or take a few years.

 

[Richard]

At the link below is an 1894 Plat Map of Goodhue. In the upper right hand corner of section 19 is a farm labeled as "Box-Elder Farm" owned by J. A. Peterson. It is in that corner that the grave of this unidentified man was found in 1984.

LINK:

https://historicmapworks.com/Map/US/1603570/Goodhue+Township++Clay+Bank/Goodhue+County+1894/Minnesota/

 

[summergirl1]

I wonder who owned the land around the time the man was buried? Of course, the remains maybe connected to whoever was renting the land at the time, if it was rented then..

 

[Richard]

I wonder who owned the land around the time the man was buried? Of course, the remains maybe connected to whoever was renting the land at the time, if it was rented then..

Good thoughts. Unfortunately, we do not know exactly when this man died and was buried, which makes it difficult to narrow down who was living in that house at the time.

Periodic Plat maps indicate who owned that plot of land at specific times (as would land records). This property was rented out to a lot of different persons over the years - according to information I have learned. However, there are US Census records which indicate the names of persons living there in years ending in zero (1920, 1930, 1940, etc.) and there are Minnesota state census records which were made during years ending in a five (1925, 1935, etc.) - so it is possible to come up with a partial list of tenants of the house, and even hired persons residing on the property.

I doubt that this unknown man was a family member or tenant of the house on that property. The manner of burial was not at all proper or normal. There are a number of established church and municipal cemeteries in the area where he could have been buried, but he was obviously buried in a very hasty and secret manner. Because of this, it is doubtful that there is any kind of published obituary or death notice for him.

I wonder if he was the only one buried in that yard.

 

[summergirl1]

Whoever was involved with this is long dead, but I wonder if some family somewhere has some vague old family stories about what might have gone on at the farm during Prohibition?

 

[Richard]

Whoever was involved with this is long dead, but I wonder if some family somewhere has some vague old family stories about what might have gone on at the farm during Prohibition?

This is true. I have read a letter from a woman (written in 1984) referring to the discovery of this man in the back yard grave. In that letter she states that the house was always rented out to a changing number of tenants and that rumors had it connected to "bootlegging" during the Prohibition era.

That lady is now 98 years old and was only a small girl around the probable time of this man's death. I wonder if there might be letters written by others at the time of the discovery, perhaps published in the local Goodhue paper?

 

[summergirl1]

It would be great if his remains could be found and DNA obtained.

 

[Richard]

The farm where this unidentified man was found in 1984 and the farm house near by has its own history, although this is only an "outline" with known dates and owners/tenants. Here is what I have found in census and land records:

In 1894, that farm was owned by John A. Peterson (1837 - 1901) and his wife Anna H. (Swanson) Peterson (1835 - 1921) They had a son: Victor H. Peterson (1879 - 1960)

In 1926, the farm was owned by Nels C. Swanson (1860 - 1939). He also owned other farms in the area, and probably did not live there. He and his family are buried in the Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery due north of that farm house.

Gustavus Newman (1826 - 1878) and his wife Emelia Swanson Newman (1831 - 1918) owned the land just south of this one from the 1870's through at least 1894. The Newman family did not live in the house in question, but but may have managed/rented it out. Possible son and his wife were: Ericus Thaddeus Newman (1865 - 1929) and Emelia I. Louise Newman (1867 - 1928) All are buried in the Swedish Methodist Cemetery just north of the farm, along with other Newman family members.

A family who rented the house in question and lived there probably some time previous to 1929:
Henry William Banidt (1882 - 1966) and wife Anne Christine (Raasch) Banidt (1887 - 1961) Their Sons:
Raymond William Banidt (1911 - 1965) and Lester Frederick Banidt (1912 - 1994)

From 1929 to 1944, that farm house was home of:
Clarence T. Opsahl (1907 - 1988) and his wife Lucille Lydia (Bremer) Opsahl (1909 - 1996) and their young children.

A family named Decker rented the house and lived there at some point (probably after the Opsahls) along with a succession of 10 other families.

 

[Warwick1991]

Another possibility is that the unidentified man was a traveling peddler or salesman. At that time, people in very small towns bought things from traveling peddlers/salesmen - except for the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs, shopping opportunities were limited. The man might have just been passing through.

 

[Richard]

Another possibility is that the unidentified man was a traveling peddler or salesman. At that time, people in very small towns bought things from traveling peddlers/salesmen - except for the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs, shopping opportunities were limited. The man might have just been passing through.

This is a possibility. However, a traveling salesman probably would have had a car or truck, or some means of transportation which would have raised questions had it turned up suddenly and been recognized.

Migrants often passed through Goodhue, especially during certain harvesting periods which required manpower.

Some managed to find jobs in the country on farms which gave them room and board through a longer period of time.
This can sometimes been seen in census records, with the hired help notated as "servant", sometimes with a mention of their occupational specialty (farm worker, household help, mechanic, etc.) .

Most family members listed in the census records can be found in various types of on-line records. Many are buried together in nearby church or municipal cemeteries.

Tracking down hired farm employees mentioned in census records seems a bit more difficult. They are mentioned in one census, and then missing from the next.

 

[cenazoic]

Richard, thanks for surfacing this case and all the amazing research you’ve done.

Migrants often passed through Goodhue, especially during certain harvesting periods which required manpower.

The hangup I have about the migrant/itinerant laborer theory is this man’s age and apparent disability. Still, I don’t have a better one…

…indicate that he was not related to anyone in the vicinity. Nobody would bury a relative in this manner.

Unless they murdered him!

The nature of his burial - in a sitting position - in a shallow grave, could be due to a need to quickly dispose of the body, or due to the ground being frozen. Possibly both reasons.

Do you mean ‘sitting’ as in his posterior was on the ground, legs folded, or in more a fetal position, on his side? Sitting upright would seem to require a deeper hole than a prone flat body would.

Minnesota still (in 2024!) can delay burials until spring due to the difficulty in digging in frozen earth, so I suspect he wasn’t buried in winter. (Interesting read on history of winter burials in Minnesota).

Another interesting document I came across, although not directly related: “An Investigation of Minnesota’s Unrecorded Historical Cemeteries”. Sadly the survey doesn’t include Goodhue County, but still a fascinating read.

(Tried uploading it, but couldn’t. Link: https://mn.gov/admin/assets/2011-An...ical-Cemeteries-in-Minnesota_tcm36-187376.pdf)

 

[summergirl1]

In 1984, a human skeleton was found buried in an unmarked grave on a farm 2 miles northwest of the village of Goodhue, Minnesota.

It was determined to be that of a man 60 t0 70 years old, who was about 5 ft, 3 inches tall. He died and was buried some 20 to 80 years previous to the discovery.

This case is unresolved. The story of the discovery was reported in the Goodhue County Post Bulletin newspaper article below. I could find no further reference to it, and inquiries to the Goodhue Police and to the Goodhue County Sheriff went unanswered.

--------------------------------------------
Quote:
Skeleton probably was buried at least 60 years
By Steve Webb
Post-Bulletin Staff Writer
1984

Forensic reports on the human skeleton found last Wednesday on a Goodhue-area farm show the man was a white male probably 70 years old at the time of death said Goodhue County Sheriff Dale Grote.

Grote and Detective Bert Robertson, who is handling the case, said there was no evidence at this time of foul play.

Grote said Dr. Robert Akerson, Hennepin County forensic pathologist and medical examiner, had reconstructed the skeleton and would be submitting a written report to the sheriff soon.

The early indications from the examination show the man was about 60 - 70 years old, probably closer to 70, and was 5-feet 3-inches tall. The remains had been in the ground at least 20 years, Grote said, but more likely were there for 60-80 years.

Akerson told the sheriff that the man had a broken nose at the time of death, he walked with a limp of his left leg and was arthritic. The teeth were consistent with those of a typical farmer or farmhand of that period, according to Akerson.

Grote said his office would attempt to identify the individual by contacting people who had lived in that area. There are no reports of anyone missing.

Detective Robertson said he would be going to look at the reconstruction Thursday and would be talking with Akerson at that time.

There is some speculation the man may have been a transient farm worker who died and was buried there.

The skeletal remains were discovered last Thursday on a farm about two miles northwest of Goodhue by Robin Schrimpf, who was digging a hole to bury an old trash can.
Unquote.

That's interesting about the broken nose. Maybe he was killed in a drunken fight or something? He could have been murdered, but his death could also have been accidental in a way that would put in a bad light whoever buried him/was associated with his death. If he was related to anyone who rented the house or owned the land, he probably would have been a visiting or recently arrived relative so that his absence didn't have to be explained to people who knew him.

 

[Richard]

That's interesting about the broken nose. Maybe he was killed in a drunken fight or something? He could have been murdered, but his death could also have been accidental in a way that would put in a bad light whoever buried him/was associated with his death. If he was related to anyone who rented the house or owned the land, he probably would have been a visiting or recently arrived relative so that his absence didn't have to be explained to people who knew him.

If this man was related to anyone in town or the surrounding area, his absence would have been noted by someone and most likely news of his death or disappearance would have appeared in the Goodhue County Tribune Newspaper. But migrants would come and go all the time with little or no mention.

If his remains could be found and tested for DNA, perhaps at least his ethnicity or nationality might be learned. That, in turn might lead to eventually to his identification.

 

[Richard]

Richard, thanks for surfacing this case and all the amazing research you’ve done.


The hangup I have about the migrant/itinerant laborer theory is this man’s age and apparent disability. Still, I don’t have a better one…



Unless they murdered him!




Do you mean ‘sitting’ as in his posterior was on the ground, legs folded, or in more a fetal position, on his side? Sitting upright would seem to require a deeper hole than a prone flat body would.

Minnesota still (in 2024!) can delay burials until spring due to the difficulty in digging in frozen earth, so I suspect he wasn’t buried in winter. (Interesting read on history of winter burials in Minnesota).

Another interesting document I came across, although not directly related: “An Investigation of Minnesota’s Unrecorded Historical Cemeteries”. Sadly the survey doesn’t include Goodhue County, but still a fascinating read.

(Tried uploading it, but couldn’t. Link: Radware Bot Manager Captcha)

Thanks for the link to the report on Unrecorded Historical Cemeteries in Minnesota. It does mention Goodhue County in a few areas, but no feature articles on the cemeteries.

The "Find a Grave" website has some good coverage of many of the Goodhue County cemeteries. It can be seen at:

Cemeteries in Goodhue County, Minnesota - Find a Grave

The World’s largest gravesite collection. Contribute, create and discover gravesites from all over the world. Cemeteries in Goodhue County, Minnesota, a Find a Grave.

www.findagrave.com