Yet another HORRIBLE craft project

..I just want to know WHY you'd ever waste the cable ties on this?  Ish.

The Battle of Attu--70 years ago this month

"It was the only land battle in the war fought in the Americas, the first amphibious landing by the U.S. Army and, aside from Iwo Jima, the most costly in terms of the percentage of American casualties. "For every hundred of the enemy, about 71 Americans were killed or wounded,"according to the official Army history.   It was the first time in the war that the U.S. military retook occupied American territory, and the first time the Army encountered the fanatical fight-to-the-death ethos of the Japanese.   It remains the only time American soldiers have fought an invading army on American soil since the War of 1812.

It was the deadliest battle on the continent since the Civil War".

Our mid-distant cousin ☺ Deborah emailed a couple weeks ago with this article from the Anchorage Daily News; (she lives on Kodiak Island, remember).  Uncle Tader was stationed on Attu (Dad's brother Ted), so we have a more-than-passing interest in that part of the war.  Was he there as early as May, 1943?  I don't know when he enlisted or what job he had in the army...but he was there.  Wow.

Thanks, Deborah!

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/05/04/2891040/70-years-ago-this-month-the-battle.html#storylink=cpy"

YES! Another map ☺

Many thanks to Larry and his side-kick, The Library of Congress.  Just look at this cool map they found, from 1897. It was a Galbraith's Railway Mail Service map, a quick reference to towns served by railroads where customers could pick-up freight.  It's loaded with visual puns of localities in Minnesota--like a king for Royalton or a goat for Buckman ☺.  (If you're enamored, Galbraith also did Illinois, Michigan, Kansas and Nebraska, Indiana and Missouri).

It's kinda melancholy to see train lines that never existed, like the one shown here, from Little Falls to Gravelville to Pierz.  It was maybe the planned Luce Line that never materialized, or the Great Northern line promoted by John Schmolke.  How different our history would be if those tracks were ever laid, huh?

Auto count

One in ten citizens of Minnesota owned a car in 1919...incredible, huh?  

Too bad I couldn't find current statistics for 2013.

Another picture ☺

A picture from the early 1960s of grandparents Lizzy and Anton Hesch.  We've mentioned grandpa's hands before, but wow, look, they really WERE like a bunch of bananas.  That little piggy had security.  
Really, isn't this the way you remember them?

Two great women

...what was it about grandmas and their kitchens?

                        My Grandma Lizzy                      Larry's Great Grandma Alice

Larry thought to put these pics side-by-side this week, and he wrote:

"So iconic an image that we have pictures of great grandmothers, aproned, ready for anything, no one leaves hungry. And no one did. 

Two strong women".

Have we covered Hesch history now?

Obviously we've slowed down posting here on HH.  Larry and I have been at it since January of 2009, and it's been fun so far, but we're finding less new stuff on line.  (Actually, I'm AMAZED we found so much ☺ about my taciturn family).
Yeah, we've missed some people I'm sure, and when we find something, I'll post it, but for now, I'm busy posting photos from the Morrison Co Atlases on a new blog we called

       * * * * * Morrison County (Minnesota), Remembered * * * * *

It's all photos of people who aren't related but whose photos are precious.  I tried it on a Facebook blog but realized those images aren't google-able, and the whole point of posting pics is so relatives can find them by searching a family name from Morrison County.  It works already.  Try the snapshot setting on MCMR--you can get a great overview that way!

Yes, I have TONS of Pierz Journal clippings that you haven't seen, and eventually I'll post more, if they seem pertinent.  
For both of our loyal readers, check back weekly or monthly rather than daily, ok?  Thanks!

A Photo of the Faust Opera House

Look what a beautiful picture Larry found (on Ancestry) of our favorite street in Pierz.  This time, the photographer set his tripod in the middle of the street, in between the Pierz city hall on the left and Dr Kerkhoff's on the right.  It had to be after 1916 cuz the bank is there in the middle background.  Probably just after the Fourth of July, too, cuz all the weeds are trimmed away from the curbs, the road looks pretty rut-free, and there's only one pile of horse turds ☺.

Lindburgh and Little Falls

To a great extent, the Morrison County Atlas was a record of stuff that was important to the residents, and what distinguished them from other counties. The family photos, of course, and the church-link photos, the weddings and confirmation/communion pics, the tractors, cars, horses and farm photos--all distinguished Morrison County from Todd or Mille Lacs, Benton or Stearns.  But probably the most distinguishing Morrison county event was in 1927 when a local boy, Charles Lindburgh, flew solo to Paris from New York in May of that year.

By August, he was flying around the country, stopping in at least one city in every state, to promote aeronautics. 

There's an online article from Minnesota History Magazine (MNHS) that tells the story, including info about this photo from the atlases--the Brutcher farm?

 Mom often mentioned that her dad thought it was important that his family witness Lindy's triumphant return, so we know they were there at the Brutcher farm, north of Little Falls, that day.  Mom was 12 and remembered it as a sort of beginning to her ventures into the larger world.

The Brutcher farm was chosen because it had room for parking as well as a nice flat field where the plane could land.  Looks like Lindburgh's father owned some acreage nearby, and maybe that had something to do with the choice too.  
Mom said it was a hot day, but they had to have a parade too.  Click the pic to enlarge it--so you sorta have a feel for where this is, that's the Buckman Hotel in the distance.  The photo is looking NE.  
If you want to know more about the hotel, check this out:

Captcha coolness!

I hope no one's noticed it, but we've been receiving more and more Stupid Spam Comments.  It's usually something like "I have been reading your excellent blog.  I have learned a lot...." etc.  There's always a link to "my website" at the end...but if you click it, they've captured your email address.

  It's really irritating to think that someone programmed a computer somewhere to find blogs like HH and paste that drivel into comments. It tricks new readers, and irritates the shit outta me.  Argh!

Of course, there are ways to thwart SSC.  The best way is to make real readers prove they're human by asking em to copy distorted words (which computers aren't good at, but we are).  It's called a captcha.  

We're not getting tons of SSC, but its way more now than it was two months ago.  But here's the cool part:  Larry showed me a TED talk by the man who invented Captchas, and what he explains is fascinating!  He says individuals all over the world typing two words help to digitize books.....trust me, its well worth the 15-20 minutes for him to explain.   So now I'll go switch the sign-in and word recognition ON.  I apologize for asking you to do it, and thank you for bothering.
-------------
10 minutes later:
Evidently I can comment, but blogger didn't challenge me ☺.  Maybe one of my sisters would try it?  C'mon!

A Bi-cultural Occasion in Little Falls, in 1880

Wow, yesterday, Larry and I became fascinated by a photo (unusual, I know ☺) he found in a book written by the staff at MCHS.  

(That link is the whole book, ok?)

According to the caption below the pic, these were Ojibwe men in downtown Little Falls...with a gaggle of white settlers behind them.  My first thought was "Oh, oh", but it turns out the real story was way cooler.  Read on...

 Some bonus history here: In 1862 in Minnesota, the situation between Native people and the US Government was awful.  "Throughout the late 1850s, treaty violations by the United States and late or unfair annuity payments by Indian agents caused increasing hunger and hardship among the Dakota".  The conflict is known now as the Dakota War of 1862. 

In Little Falls, tho, the local Chippewa (Ojibwe) warned the settlers about what was happening in Mankato and southern Minnesota.  No one knew if the fighting would spread as far as Morrison Co, but the settlers were grateful for the warning.

Because of this, the relationship between the settlers and the Ojibwe stayed pretty cordial, and by 1880, when the same dire situation was threatening the Mille Lacs Band, they came to Little Falls to ask the businessmen to intercede for them in Washington.  THAT's what this photo is of--see the name above the door of the business behind the people?  It says "Simmons", a name that shows up HERE, among others.  Larry found that they also met at the Louis Vasaly home in Little Falls, and that the gentleman on the left was one of the Ojibwe pictured above.  
The businessmen took the cause to the government and had some limited success, we know. The problem still existed in 1913-16 (reported in the Pierz Journal here) with white citizens' prejudice and was still virulent in Sr Laura's era and our own.  
Thank goodness for Casinos!