HESCH HISTORY: Center Valley in 1940

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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Friday, March 26, 2010

Center Valley in 1940

Remember the little place that Sue and I went to find last summer? It was a potential village seven miles east of Pierz called Center Valley. Her great grandparents, John and Ket (Mueller) Hesch, operated a store there around 1920. We found only the foundations of a creamery and store, plus a few other odd buildings...in a pasture. With an electric fence.

WELL. If you read the last post, you saw that Larry the wonder-researcher found a Minnesota DNR site with pictures taken from the air as early as 1940. Yes, Center Valley was pictured, altho someone drew on the photo with a grease pencil, and circled the buildings in Center Valley. But still.

Larry took the current aerial photo and faded it to the 1940 map--WAY COOL, huh??