Funeral Cards and Genealogy

Obviously, the cards printed and distributed at funerals give us an excellent source of information about ancestors. Once in awhile, there's a family member who collects them, too--like Aggie Suess and her daughter Joan did. Sue sent the HESCH cards from that collection:

This is ANOTHER Paul Hesch, son of grandpa's brother Joseph. When Joe died, his widow Anna married John B Otremba, so that's where this Paul's sibs are found in the 1930 census. (Also, this is the Paul who played "Paul Bunyan" in Brainerd for years).
Here's grandma, Elizabeth Sand Hesch...

Joseph Hesch, father of Paul, and brother of Anton....

Frank, grandpa Anton's brother, an engineer on the railroad, died in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. (Good thing there was no German Spellcheck back then!)

Louis E Gottwalt--you can tell if he's unnamed in a photo because he's the only man with his hair parted on the right...

This young man was Paul and Mary's son Paul, who was killed in a train accident in Washington state. Uncle Tony told me that he was caught between two train cars, in the hitch, and that he was alive till they pulled the cars apart.

From Wikipedia:

"In the US, the brakeman was the person who would walk the length of a train atop the cars while the train is in motion and turn the brake wheel on each car to apply the train's brakes. A brakeman's duties also included ensuring that the couplings between cars were properly set, lining switches and signalling to the train operators while performing switching operations."

If you go to St Michael's Cemetery in Buckman, you'll see two markers, same design, with 'Paul Hesch'. One is, of course, this young man, and the other is his parents.