Historic Homes and Businesses in Carver - Carver County Historical ...

On June 3, 1901 Carver‟s first murder occurred in the Basler House Hotel on Broadway
when 35 year-old Andrew Tapper stabbed 18 year-old Rosa Mixa to death in a fit of rage
and jealousy. Both Reverend Henry Raedeke Sr. and Reverend Henry John Raedeke Jr.
ministered to Andrew Tapper in the Carver County Jail in Chaska, while he awaited
execution by hanging for the crime. The younger Reverend Raedeke first came to visit
Tapper shortly after his arrest, but before his trial. The reverend offered Tapper a a New
Testament, which Tapper defiantly threw to the floor, saying he cared to hear nothing
about Jesus Christ. The reverend picked up the New Testament and left, unable to then
do more for Tapper. Later, after Tapper‟s trial and death sentence was pronounced,
Tapper sought repentance and asked that the junior Raedeke visit him again. Over the
next six months Raedeke ministered to the repentant Tapper, who accepted Christ as his
savior.
The night before the February 18, 1902 execution the junior Reverend Raedeke met with
Tapper in his cell and gave him Holy Communion and heard his confession. Tapper said,
“I know that before another sun sets I will be with my Savior in Heaven, thanks largely to
you. I know that my hour is come and am well prepared to meet my God. You,
however, don‟t know when your hour is coming, nor how well you will be prepared”.
The next morning both Reverend Henry Raedeke Sr. and Reverend Henry John Raedeke
Jr. met with Andrew Tapper in his cell for prayer and then accompanied him to the
gallows, singing an old familiar German hymn, Wo Findet Die Seele, die Heimat Die
Ruh. At the top of the gallows a black hood was placed over Tapper‟s head and the
noose set on his neck. A large crowd had gathered in silence around the gallows to
witness the execution, the first and only legal hanging in Carver County history. The
still of the morning was broken by Tapper and the two Raedekes, father and son, as they
prayed the Lord‟s Prayer until the gallow‟s trap was sprung by Carver County Sheriff
August Johnson. The New Testament once thrown to the floor by Andrew Tapper
remains in the Raedeke family.
During Henry Raedeke Srs.‟ first forty years of church service he baptized 1,385 persons,
confirmed 736, married 300 couples, and officiated at 438 funerals. Testifying to how
much future impact a single couple can have, Henry and Emilie Raedekes‟ offspring
include two sons who were pastors, another son and a daughter who were parochial
school teachers, five grandsons who were pastors, two grandsons and three
granddaughters who were parochial school teachers, seven great-grandsons who were
pastors, one great-grandson who was a parochial school teacher, two greatgranddaughters
who were full time church workers, and many descendants who served as
church organists.
Henry and Emilie Raedeke and several of their daughters are buried in Carver‟s Mount
Hope Cemetery. As late as 2008 a Raedeke grandson was still living in the old church
parsonage.
100 Broadway, Temperance Hotel. Built as a hotel in 1856-57 by Edmond Walton, it is
one of the oldest surviving structures in Carver. Walton was an early Carver
businessman who was born in Ohio about 1831 and who by the 1890s was living in