Anoka County history by Ryan Dawson

Editor’s note: This is the second of two parts.

In the spring of 1876, Moses Manuel made camp at the mouth of Bob Tail Gulch.

“In the latter part of March or April, four of us found some rich float quartz,” he wrote.

“We looked for the lode but the snow was deep and we could not find it.”

Moses came back after the snow had melted, kept looking for nearly a week, and found some rich quartz. 

On April 9, 1876 they staked the claim for the Homestake Mine and immediately began to dig a discovery shaft.

Moses wrote, “The first chunk of quartz weighed about 200 pounds and was the richest ever taken out.”  

The crew wasted no time in open cutting a trench, buying an ox team, and building a road to haul the ore to Whitewood. 

It yielded $5,000 worth of gold and the following year, the Manuels quickly sold their claim for $70,000 to George Hearst and partners, including Lloyd Trevis, president of Wells Fargo (1872-1892).

In 1878, one can only assume that $70,000 was a whole lot of money.

That year, Moses and Fred came back to “our old home” in Henderson and in February of that year Moses married Josephine Beliveau. 

He was only 30 years old and had already sold several other large claims worth $30,000 to $50,000, but he did not settle down for long, and eventually wound up back in Montana doing what he loved.

Still, the couple managed to have five children and according to an appendage to the manuscript by his daughter, Edna Manuel Adamson, Moses died in an explosion at the Minnesota Mine near Helena, Mont., in the summer of 1905. He was 63 years old.

Despite the bold, flavorful language he uses in the journal, Edna admits, “From what my father used to relate to me, he is very modest in this narrative”.

While it seemed like fate might connect the history of the two Manuel families, after doing much research into the genealogy of them both, Hilde Manuel determined that there was no ancestral connection between them. 

“I have traced our family back to the revolutionary war - Manuel is a Portuguese name, but Moses wasn’t born a Manuel.” 

Apparently, their father anglicized his Canadian name, Peter Hebert Dit Manuel (or, “of Manuel”).  

In her own research, Hilde has retraced the footsteps of the Manuel brothers to Henderson, the Black Hills and Helena, piecing together the history of Moses Manuel. 

“All of the information I have pulled together from many different sources,” she said.

Despite the lack of an ancestral link, Hilde still feels a connection to the Manuel manuscript.

“It’s very ironic that we would live at the same address with the same name; Moses is telling us to share his story,” she said.

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Editor’s note: Ryan Dawson is a an Anoka County Historical Society volunteer.