History 21 The Podcast - 4.12 Cemetery Research Confessional

Historical research doesn’t always go smoothly. Sara reveals the three biggest research fails she experienced while creating a new tour for St. Genevieve’s cemetery in Centerville.

Host Rebecca Desens, ACHS Director, and Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator.

St. Genevieve Cemetery

Centerville, MN

The Centerville and Anoka County area is land once shared by the Dakota and Ojibwe tribes and ceded to the United States Government by the Wahpeton and Sisseton bands in 1851 as part of cession 289. Around this time, French Canadian traders, and European Settlers had already started to enter the area. And by 1860, Centerville’s population of white settlers had grown to 350 (white people—the people who were counted on the census). It was one of three larger settlements in the County (the others being St. Francis and Anoka). A large contingent of those people immigrated from Quebec, spoke French, and created a home for themselves that included the new Church of St. Genevieve. Father Goiffon wrote in his memoir “The last Sunday of Sept 1861…I took charge of the parishes of Little Canada and of Centerville, which had no home for the priests, and had for a church, a little unfinished chapel 16x24 feet.”  Which is just 384 sq ft. Less than 10 years later, the church upgraded to one built of brick and a larger 34x80 feet (nearly 7 times bigger footprint than their first church). The father gave mass on the 3rd Sunday of the month in Centerville, and every other winter stayed to teach catechism daily for the children’s first communion.

Originally the cemetery was located along the east side of the church. But in 1902 it was relocated to its present location when a “new” church was constructed. This is the gorgeous old church overlooking Main Street and greeting people as they come into town. The current St. Genevieve’s church was built in 1964.

Portions of the current church’s cemetery needed to move once again with construction of Main St.  All adding to the stories of the people lovingly laid to rest here.

Library Minute

Summer Adventures at the library has begun!

The library has lots of events coming up – a little something for everyone!

Here are a couple highlights:

In keeping with this year’s theme of Blast Off!, there is an exciting space-related program coming up called…

Orbit the Earth – Fridley Community Center on Wednesday, 6/26

Journey into space to create and experience the cycles, systems and relationships between the earth, moon and sun using our huge, inflatable Earth model and scale-sized moon. There are multiple sessions going that day, either for preK-1st grade, or 2nd grade-6th grade. Register online for the time and age group you want.

Then for the adults, there’s…

Letter Writing Workshop with featured author Lynn Kolze– Northtown Library on Saturday, 7/13

Join Anoka County featured author Lynne Kolze for a letter writing workshop. Lynne's book, Please Write: Finding Joy and Meaning in the Soulful Art of Handwritten Letters, discusses the continued relevance of and need for handwritten letters in our digital age. We will learn about Lynne's book, read examples of heartfelt letters, and do some letter writing together. Supplies will be provided! Register online.