On This Date in Minnesota History: November 4

November 4, 1862 – Dwight Woodbury was elected to the Minnesota legislature on this date, representing Anoka, Benton, Hennepin, Isanti, Manomin (defunct), Mille Lacs, and Sherburne counties.1 Born in Massachusetts in 1800, Woodbury had first come to Anoka County in 1855 from New York. “He bought large tracts of land in what is now St. Francis and built a dam and mills at that point.”2

In 1860, Woodbury bought the beautiful white house on Ferry Street from Dr. Samuel Shaw (Anoka’s first doctor), who had built the house in 1858. The home has had several owners, including Charles Kiewell, President of Grain Belt Brewery, but is best known in the area as the Woodbury House, and was listed as such on the National Registry of Historical Places on December 26, 1979.<sup>3


1</sup>http://www.leg.state.mn.us/legdb/fulldetail.aspx?ID=11866
²Steinke, Ray; “History of St. Francis, Anoka County, Minnesota”; St. Francis Area Chamber of Commerce; 2005.
³http://thewoodburyhouseproject.com/History.html

Woodbury House
Photo taken by Pamela J. Erickson. Released into the public domain Nov. 4, 2013,
as long as acknowledgement included.