1846 in History

January 20--Paul Hesch born in a tiny village in Bohemia

August 14-- Henry David Thoreau jailed for tax resistance

September 19-- Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning elope

October 31-- Donner party, unable to cross the Donner Pass, construct a winter camp

December 28-- Iowa becomes 29th state

The Buzza Card Company

In the late 30's, rural young people went to Minneapolis to work and to get away from the farm, the same as now. My mother Linda Janson did too. She graduated from Drew's Business College in St Cloud about 1936, went to the big city and got a job with the Buzza Card Company in the "Stenographers Pool". Man, it's not a fancy space--the walls look temporary, and what an odd bunch of desks....but it was war time, and they were only the steno pool:
There's mom, second desk from the corner window. She wrote on the back of the framed picture "1939, Buzza Co Steno", but the calendar on the wall says 1941...lol
Mom worked in Mpls till her own mom became seriously ill in late 1944. Margaret (Naber) Janson died in April of 1945, and mom met dad in December that same year.
They were married 28 September 1946...awww!

Soup that'll remind you of home

Here's a recipe from my 97 year old client. She was born the same year as dad.

Green Bean Soup

1 Qt. Green beans, cut in 1" pieces
1 Qt. potatoes, cut in smallish chunks
1 baseball size onion, chopped
Ham bone with meat
water to cover

Cook hambone for an hour first, with the chopped onion
add beans, then potatoes
but "don't stir the heck out of it"
(spuds will mush if you do )
boil 15 more minutes
salt and pepper to taste
The secret ingredient: a dash of sugar.

(She used home canned green beans, hence the "quart" measurements. If you use fresh beans, you'll need to cook em a bit longer before adding the potatoes).

Even if you've never had this soup before, I guarantee it'll remind you of home.
Mmmmm!

A wedding at The Hall

I've posted this photo before, I think. It was taken in October of 1956 when Sue's mom and dad were married in Buckman. 'Course, the edge of the original pic says "Jan 1957" because at the time there were no digital cameras. Back then, cameras used film , and you took pictures but waited till the roll was full before they got developed and you could see what the pics were of...lol
The developing service (local drugstore, usually) printed the date on the pic, but it was the month and year they were developed, NOT the date when they were taken. I know: Ya can't trust those old photos!

Sue sent this picture 2-3 months ago, asking if I knew who these women were. She knew the woman with the corsage was Aggie Suess, her grandma.
Since then, we've figured out that it's Alice (Jenssen) Hesch next to Aggie (JohnnyBoy's wife), and Girlie (Hesch) Block on the left (Aggie's sister). What we don't know is who the girl with the neck brace is, or who the woman with the print dress next to her is. Can you identify 'em?

Sue wanted to know if guests at a wedding would normally help in the kitchen at the reception? YES, they did--even I remember being asked to carry something or "go put the silverware out". I was 7 when Joan Suess got married, and my family probably were guests at her wedding. Dad was Aggie's cousin, and besides, it was an honor to be trusted by "the ladies" to actually DO what they asked you to do.

BTW, yes, that's a beer bottle in Alice's hand, and the woman behind Girlie could be Aunt Jeanette (Marshik) Janson....at least it looks like her.

Motorcycle pictures, revisited

Hmm! Wondering if Math SOLD many Excelsior Motorcycles while he was a dealer, I went back to see who was driving in the pic with the sidecar fulla kids:
Wow! That man could easily be Math...lol...giving his nieces and nephews a ride. Click each picture to enlarge and compare!

Later: In fact, this was probably downtown Buckman, where Math's bro John had the store. I think both Laura and Mary are in that sidecar--see the little face peeking around the front boy? These are "town kids"...and the building behind them is maybe the Ford Garage being built?

My brother Allan says Excelsiors are extremely collectible these days...wonder what happened to this one, huh?

What being a "well off Farmer" meant in 1900

109 years ago yesterday, my great grandfather, Paul Hesch, died from a broken back. Great grandma Mary became sole heir, and so, his posessions needed to be listed (click to enlarge):

(BTW, Adeline said that the horse who spooked and caused the wagon to tip was named 'Rowdy'--how's THAT for trivia?)

$3,686.40 in 1900.

According to a website called "Measuring Worth", $3686.00 in the year 1900 had the same "purchase power" as $97,494.70 in the year 2008...

Whew.

MORE reunion pics

The pictures taken that day are trickling in....s-l-o-w-l-y. I know there were people with cameras beyond Joanie and me. Send them along, ok?

Louise(Mike's cousin), Kathy(Mike's daughter) and Laurel (Kathy's daughter). I think Laurel was the person who came the farthest to attend. She lives and works in NYC. YAY, Laurel!!

Sitting: Lois (Mike's daughter), Aunt Eileen (Matt's wife) and Louise. Behind Louise are Rich and Mary (Aunt Katies kids).

Argh...these are Aunt Katie's descendants, but the only one I'm sure of is Betty, in the red shirt. It's tough to keep track of WHO...lol...but let me know by email or in the comments and I'll add names, ok?

MORE outlaw relatives!

I woke this morning to find that and a message from Larry on IM: " Damn those muskrat house molestin' Tetivas. 30 days in jail!...."

LOL! Pete Gallus, George Dehler and Ed Gohl were fined, but Louie got JAIL TIME? Here's more than you ever wanted to know about MUSKRATS and why "molesting muskrat houses" was a crime. I suspect his sentence had to do with motivation...Louie didn't live anywhere near Skunk Lake!
Thanks to LARRY for an early morning giggle!

Something old, something new....

There must have been a fad in the mid-teens to have a pic taken in your best winter-wear. This is Mary and Lucy Hesch about 1915 (I'm guessing) when they were both about 20.
And this is Lucy Hesch, probably about the same time. Could be what she was wearing under that coat and stunning hat?

Here's the NEW part: pictures from the reunion. This is Aunt Eileen (Muyres) Hesch and 3 of her grandkids: Bev's sons, John and Ken, and Carol's daughter, Laurie. We really missed Sherri and Melody!

You've seen two of these faces before--Stephan Pozel and John Hesch--but on the left is Julie, daughter of JohnnyBoy, sister of John, and wife of Stephan. lol...I may have met Julie when she was a little girl, but neither of us remember it...

All of these photos are courtesy of Joanie Dion--a HUGE thank you to her!

At the Reunion:

I mentioned it was hot and humid at the reunion, right? This is me and Joanie, glowing...lol

Visiting with Adeline

OMG, today was FUN!

Joanie and I went to Pierz to see her mom, and the talk just FLEW...lol Part of what's so fun is that almost anything can surface when you're talkin' family--for instance, did you know that Grandpa's brother Math was an Excelsior Motorcycle Dealer? Or, that Huntzie Hesch was an accomplished whistler? (That tidbit came from a gentleman who grew up on a neighboring farm. He said when conditions were right they could HEAR him, almost a mile away! lol)

We shared pictures and stories, and we laughed. A lot!

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This pic is one I've waited for. Remember in Math's Diary, when he said "Annie Klein is here with us now. We're going to have our picture taken..." ?
I think THIS is that picture:

Do you think Annie was a relative of Max Klein who married Lucy Hesch?

:::///:::///:::///:::///:::///:::///:::///:::///:::

Later, Joanie and I had supper at the Old Bank Cafe. As we were leaving, a woman walking by looked at me and said, "Aren't you a Hesch?" LOL

THAT felt great!

FRANK....or THEO?

Remember when we identified these four as they're labeled under the pic? Well, it sounded good at the time, but it's wrong.

(It makes sense that they'd have a photo to take along to Europe, right?)

BUT, at the reunion Louise had the same picture, only it was labeled "Math, FRANK, Sr Laura and Rose". Tonight, I took the time to do a collage and compare em:

Ok, I think it IS Frank after all....not Theo.

Note: Frank died in 1922 after being ill for 2-3 years, and an extended stay in the hospital in Oshkosh, so this photo was taken before 1918 for sure. I just WANT it to be something they took along to Europe...

Which leads me to another interesting puzzle piece:

If you've kept up with Hesch history so far, you'll recall that Math and Holka rented the Docken farm west of the homeplace for six years when they were first married. Why didn't they just move to the home farm right away, in 1920?

Here's the backstory:

Frank owned the farm, and rented it out. He and his wife lived in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Her name was Elizabeth Kelly. When Frank died in 1922, Elizabeth inherited the farm from him.
Eventually, Elizabeth married a man named John Kroxner, who evidently wasn't all that interested in farming in Buckman, Minnesota.
So that's who Math and Holka bought it back from.

Isn't that cool?

Original pages from Math's Diary

Like most travelers, Math Hesch collected addresses of people he met in Europe in 1914, but he seems to have forgotten the most obvious ones like Franz Hortsch, the Otrembas in his mothers' hometown, and Lena Wiciak. Still, the names that are here tell us something, too: that he didn't think of getting addresses till they were in Amsterdam!

When he says in the diary, "Am using Van Belles pen"...we see who that was now, and the person who gave them tickets to the theater in Amsterdam was probably "R. Underberg". Was 'Wm Morgon' from Chicago the third American in the photo taken in Berlin?

Leo Hesch 1925-1972

Grandpa Anton Hesch had a brother named Joseph, who married Anna Heurung in 1912. They had 8 children before Joe died when a gun he was carrying "accidently" went off. Leo would have been 16 months old then.There's a part of me that wants to meet EVERY relative no matter how distant. Evidently a good part this contingent moved to Portland and beyond. (Larry found Rose's obit in California). Did any of them have kids? Do they know how they're related?  Do they care?

Sands in New Munich

I know you've been lying awake at night wondering WHERE in Minnesota our SAND family first settled. Where was Mike Sand, grandma Lizzy's dad, born? Did he come here alone, or with his sibs and parents?
As usual, the answers create more questions...lol
This photo is from the wonderful Minnesota Reflections site (link on the side bar) and we figure this John Sand is Mike's brother or cousin. You have to admit, "John Sand" isn't an unusual name, especially since we found another John Sand who was deputy sheriff in Little Falls and another who lived west of Paul Hesch at the same time.
However, our Sands came from the little country of Luxemburg, just below Germany (and often listed as "Luxemburg, Germany"), and they settled in Stearns County in New Munich, Meire Grove and St Joseph.
Here's a pdf of Stearns County. Click the address and let it load...then, you can set the size to 150% and check-out the area.
http://www.co.stearns.mn.us/maps/countymap.pdf
One of my next expeditions'll be to the New Munich Cemetery. We know Mike's parents were Peter Sand and Angelique Stoltz, and that they had 8 children. The Stearns History Museum has a terrific book on the family, and I found most of my info there. But a few old gravestones'd be neat, I think--just to help you sleep...lol

Wilhelm Hesch

Have we talked about Willy before here? He was a fairly famous operatic bass--and we have no real connection to him except that our ancestors all were Germans born in Bohemia about the same time, and that HESCH is a fairly unique name.

I finally went to the map to see how far away his home was from Niedermuhl and Oberschlagles.

See? He was born east of Prague (Praha) and our branch was from just south of Jindrichuv Hradec (Neuhaus).

Hell, let's just claim him, ok?

For what it's worth....

When Roger Weaver sent me pictures of Mathias Hesch's family in Waumandee, Wisconsin, he included this one. It's not only too dark to distinguish faces, but we have no idea WHO any of them are...lol
But, thanks to the miracle of online photo editing, we can see them now. Still no idea WHO!

Since Roger sent the picture, tho, one of em almost has to be Mathias, and maybe his sons Val and John, too, right? Click the pic to biggify--I'm voting #7 is Mathias, only cuz he has a beard.

Your guess is as good as mine. Ooo, and look: #8 seems to be wearing

Ted and Mary

Again, I don't know whose album this photo came from--probably Louise's tho. I think Mary is Holka (Tetiva) Hesch, but Ted looks a tad skinny...wait! this is probably Tader, her nephew, one of the twins, I bet. He looks about 15? Then it's 1930. Too bad they couldn't photoshop that kickstand out...lol Still, the pic gives us a pretty good idea of a farm, in Minnesota, back then.

~~~~~~~~~~~>o<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later:
Wow--remember the pole Mary was standing under in yesterday's picture? It was a BIRDHOUSE pole!

To clean a birdhouse like that, or to repair it, you'd need to get it down. The easiest way would be if there was a hinge or pivot point about 6 feet up the pole. The rope she tied to it would be there to pull it upright again.
Ha! Mary decided to get that birdhouse down!
lol...WOW!

Later x2: Larry found this...lol It's probably a purple martin house:
They eat mosquitoes, too!

Out, Standing in the Field

LOL...there must have been film left on the roll:

Math Hesch, probably in his 20's, near a corn field. He's looking down at the photographer, so it might have been a kid taking the picture?

Awww, Uncle Leo and Aunt Fronie (Hesch) Karash, probably in the field east of the house. Did they ever grow flax?

Is that a ladder?

Funny, the pictures that survive....
This is grandpa Anton's youngest sister, Mary Hesch (who eventually married Joe Peterson). Even at first glance, it's a fairly odd picture. It could be from the year she spent at her brother Math's house while Holka was in the hospital. If it is, then that's the west or north side of the house, I suppose, because I don't recognize it...lolSo, WHAT's the pole she's standing under? There's a pivot-thing by her shoulder--which brings to mind...a birdhouse pole??
Naw. I'm thinking maybe it was wash day, and she'd rigged up a washline. That could be a clothespin bag at the bottom center of the photo. But then, we're talking a farmer and his seven daughters, so there HAD to be a more permanent washline in the yard!
When the pic's enlarged, you can see that the pole's been repaired with metal a few times. It was something permanent in the yard or they wouldn't have bothered, I think.

The only other thing I can think of is...Math was superstitious, according to his daughter Louise: did he take that picture BECAUSE Mary was tempting fate by standing under a ladder?

LOL

What do YOU think?

More look-alikes

When I first saw a photo of great-grandpa Paul Hesch, I was struck by how familiar he looked. Well, SURE, you might say...lol
But the faces he reminded me of were my Aunt Katie's kids, in particular, Gary and Butch when they were kids.
These pics are from the 60s (none more recent unless they SEND ME SOME...ahem!), but look how similar:
LOL...'course, Gary here looks like Uncle Tony did at the same age, and Butch (below, without a smile) is almost identical. WOW. It's the eyes, I think....

It seems like YEARS!

How odd that, here, we're dealing with the family in the past two hundred years, and still, being offline for six days seemed like an eternity! lol
I had a "massive virus" on the computer, took it in for repair, and there was problem after problem....
But, TG, it's fixed!
One really good thing that happened because of the virus was that yesterday, they said, "Can you find something to do for another hour?"--ARGH!--so I finally stopped at the Benton County History Museum. Oh MAN, the place is LOADED with info about Langola township, including
Karashs and Kleins and Gottwalts. They close at 4PM, which is exactly when I arrived...but Mary the director showed me stuff and chatted till almost five! Whew--I'll go back SOON--during business hours.

Who owned that motorcycle-with-a-sidecar?

Some of these pictures are from a source I haven't thanked before: dad's cousin LOUISE . (One problem of pictures scanned from different albums is that it's hard to know WHO's album...lol)


This cute picture is of sibs Math, Mary, and Theo--a hot day, washing up at the pump, being goofy...lol Larry thinks Mary looks like she could keep up with those two just fine...
This picture could have been the same day? Theo's still wearing bibs and that hat....

AND, the motorcycle looks like it could be the same one we saw loaded with kids at the John Hesch farm, huh? Above, Math's "driving", with his wife Mary in the sidecar, then Theo with the grain scoop, and Paul Doyle, as a kid!
COOL pictures! THANKS, Louise!!

Mary Agnes Tetiva

What a lovely photo. Great uncle Math called her Holka, which means "little girl" in Bohemian German. When he teased her (often!), he called her a "Bohemian"....as tho that was a bad thing? lol (He thought HE was Austrian, I think).
She was a funny, smiling, joyful person, always ready to feed guests, visit, trade stories and laugh. She was Math's 'straight-man', but she was able to give it back just like THAT, too!

I remember visiting once when they were "having words" with each other, and we became foils in the argument. It was a comedy routine because they knew what they were doing so well, and it only needed an audience...lol

She spent a year of her life in a TB sanitarium (c 1939) away from her husband and kids. It was a tough year, but I think it made them all appreciate what they had in each other.

Lucy and Max Klein, Math and Holka Hesch

This photo would have been from about 1925, during Prohibition. Math (sitting) looks pretty much like he did in the Moonshining post from last month, but the really COOL thing about the picture is that his sister LUCY is pictured, with her husband, Max Klein.

Larry and I couldn't find much about Lucy except for a newspaper article from 1934: But NOW, we have a photo of Lucy at 28, & Max at 31 years old, and of Holka at 30.
Oh, yes, there ARE more pictures!

To: Those who left early!

LOL...there's one piece left here in my kitchen, but not for long!

Joanie Dion had to work part of Saturday, but when she arrived, we had this wonderful cake!
(Joan is Adeline's daughter and Math's grandaughter).
THANKS, JOANIE!! (she said, licking her fingers!)