Glencoe’s founders were instrumental in shaping Minnesota
executive director of the McLeod County Historical Museum, felt like she was “preaching to the choir” as she gave a talk to the Glencoe Historic Preservation Society on Glencoe’s early history.
Pickell-Stangel was the guest speaker at the society’s annual meeting Sept. 17, peppering her talk with little-known facts about Glencoe’s early founders.
The people most instrumental in forming Glencoe — Martin McLeod and Col. John Stevens — also were instrumental in forming the state of Minnesota, said Pickell-Stangel.
And like many people, the early settlers in McLeod County were just as much the victims of fate as the shapers of it.
Consider Martin McLeod: a native of Canada who found his way south after being spurned by a lover.
“The boy was depressed,” said Pickell-Stangel, who has read McLeod’s diary. McLeod thought he was betrothed to a young lady who turned out to be smitten with someone else.
“I threw my heart away for someone else’s bauble,” wrote McLeod in his diary.
McLeod came to the area in 1837 as part of a little-known group called the Indian Liberating Army. He stayed as a fur trader, throwing his lot in with a man named Sibley.
For more, see the Sept. 24 print edition of The Chronicle.
