Gather up the family, pack your favorite picnic food and join in the fun of a picnic of the historic Samuel B. Strait House on Saturday, July 12 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Minnesota Valley State Park, just outside of Jordan.

By Chris McHugh and Peggy Kearney Ramirez, Guest Columnist 

By Peggy Kearney Ramirez, Tom Kearney and Mary Kearney Phillips, Guest Columnists

By Chris McHugh and Tom Kearney, Guest Columnists

By Chris McHugh and Tom Kearney, Guest Columnists

There were many land disputes in territorial Minnesota 150 years ago. Two such disputes were to prove fateful for the Kearney family. The most serious dispute was the sad story of the opening of Minnesota with the taking of land from the local Dakota people.

By Chris McHugh and Tom Kearney, Guest Columnists 

So how did the city of Savage begin? To date no one has written a thorough history of Savage or even of Scott County. According to Edward Duffield Neill, who wrote a massive history of the Minnesota River Valley in 1881, early settlers were Martin Byrnes, John Dorman, J.W. Woodruff, David Nixon and Patrick Byrne and others. He states about 20 families arrived in 1854. The Kearneys may have been among that group.

By Chris McHugh and Tom Kearney, Guest Columnists

A burial occurred in 1860, two years after Minnesota became a state, setting in motion events that would have an affect on the town Savage was to become in the future. Rose Ann Kearney, age 49, of Hamilton on the Minnesota River, a place now known as Savage, was being buried as her husband John Kearney, her young children and young adult step children looked on. 

By Nancy Huddleston, Editor

Although members of the Kearney family have scattered to different parts of the state and country since John and Rose settled here over 150 years ago, when their descendants come together to visit, the stories come flooding back.

By Ruth Anne Maddox, Correspondent 

The exact weather conditions on May 11, 1858 — when Minnesota became the 32nd state — are not readily available, but the organizers of a 150th birthday celebration at The Landing are hoping that it was a warm and beautiful sunshiny day — and that history will repeat itself.