HESCH HISTORY: Mark Twain and Franz Otremba

This branch of the Austrian Hesch family is descended from Johann Hesch and his wife Marya (Schlinz) Hesch, who came to America from Oberschlagles, Bohemia with three sons: Paul, Mathias, and Anton. +++Johann & Marya settled in Buffalo County, Wisconsin but moved to Pierz, Mn in about 1885. .+++Mathias settled in Waumandee, Wisconsin and moved to Pierz in 1911. +++Anton never married but farmed with his dad in Agram Township, where he died in 1911.+++And Paul, my great grandfather, settled five miles away, in Buckman, Minnesota. He died there in 1900.

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Monday, November 23, 2009

Mark Twain and Franz Otremba

Now, HERE's a story for ya!

Larry was searching online for Otrembas in the United States, and found one mentioned in his home state, Hawaii....a Franz Nicholas Otremba. He was somehow associated with Samuel Langhorn Clemens!

We found the family in the 1900 Honolulu census...Frank, a woodcarver born in 'Germany', his wife Augusta, and three children-Arthur, Hedwig and Frances.
Then Larry found this in an online book called The Letters of Mark Twain...

Somehow, Franz Nicklaus Otremba, most likely from Poland, had become "a native woodcarver". He must have married Augusta and moved with her to Hawaii, since the census says they'd been married 17 years and that they'd emmigrated 17 years before, in 1883.

HERE'S an example of his woodcarving.

I dunno--I think we should claim him.