YAY! Some new OLD info

Today, I had coffee with a couple who found info about Center Valley here on HH.  Gene and Jeanne Marshik have a double connection, since Gene's father was the buttermaker in CV, and Jeanne was a Mueller (her dad was John P.'s son Roman).
Between them, we have a few more people identified in old photos and Gene mentioned a few more facts about Center Valley--YAY!!
Gene remembers the creamery and other buildings there...he said the store that John Hesch & Ket (Mueller) Hesch ran for a while was eventually moved "up by the highway", or the road going east out of Pierz (now 153rd St /County Rd 39), which was widened and  tarred by then. He said it's still standing, minus the false front.
 Gene said the inside of the Center Valley store had the counter running along the left wall, and a staircase going to the second floor along the back wall.  Was the upstairs living quarters, or storage?

I asked what other buildings he remembered there, and he said there was an ice house behind the Creamery, and a storage shed as well as a garage.  He said the Soo line had a spur in Center Valley, but never a depot.

Jeanne knew "kids" in Buckman, and was able to identify these kids cuz SHE's one of them:

Joanne Suess, Pat Schmolke, Carol Schmolke, Doris Brandl, James Suess, Tom Schmolke.  The small kids in the front are Jeanne Mueller and Francis Schmolke.

Hooray! Thanks, Jeanne!!

And, Jeanne said the middle woman in this pic is Agnes Braun.

A day like today is so much FUN.  

THANK YOU, Gene and Jeanne!!

Oh, BTW, I've changed some info on a post from July 29th, 2009 cuz of new info from the Marshiks.

A Tale of Two Antons

My great grandfather Paul had two brothers--Mathias and Anton--who also ended up in Minnesota, but by a different route than Paul did. (It's all explained on the blog header, above ☺)  Doing research at the Morrison County Historical Society's Weyerhauser Museum on Friday, I found good info about all three brothers, but especially about events after Anton's death.

The story gets confusing because my grandpa (Anton's nephew) was also named Anton.  So for the purpose of telling this episode clearly, here's what we'll do:

Anton the Elder, the one born in Bohemia, will be ATE, and his nephew Anton (my grandpa) will be GNA, just cuz I like stuff like this...lol  (Grandpa Anton the Nephew had a second name, so he could be AA, or GNAA, or even GAA, but....gotta settle on one, right?  GNA it is ☺).

ATE never married and died in October,1911 in Agram township, Morrison Co, about a mile from Pierz, Mn.  He left a will, altho is wasn't in his folder at MCHS.  Evidently at the time, when someone died and there was property to distribute, it went thru probate after 3 publications in the local newspaper.
◄(This clipping was attached to something called a Printer's Affidavit, signed by the publisher of the Pierz Journal E.H.Kerkhoff and notary A.P.Stoll on the 23rd of December, 1911).

--Now, a little 'backstory'--pay attention, ok?--when Paul died in 1900, GNA was 17, and ATE lived 4-5 miles away with no one to help him on the rather large farm he'd inherited from his father, Johann.  GNA didn't marry Lizzy Sand till 1910, so it's probable that GNA spent a lot of time with ATE during those 10 years...and it's likely that ATE promised GNA something for all his help...the herd of cows?  Machinery?  Tools?  Anyway, GNA contested the will in court, saying that Mathias had had undue influence on ATE in the last months of his life.  (We thought Mathias and his family moved to Pierz after ATE died, but no, they left Waumandee sometime after the 1910 census and before October 1911.  According to these papers, Mathias and Anton lived together 'as a family' on the farm in Agram).  

I've always wondered why our Hesch connections in Pierz were unacknowledged when I was growing up--dad knew and mentioned Hunzie (John) Hesch, (who was Mathias's son), but we never visited.  When I asked dad who Hunzie was, he wasn't sure.
It's possible that this contesting of the will caused a rift in the family that never healed, since GNA asserted that ATE lost his reason at the end of his life...and GNA lost the appeal.
Families can hold a grudge for a  L O N G time.

Pauls last will and testament

My great grandfather Paul Hesch was born in Oberschlagles, Bohemia on January 20th, 1846.  He emmigrated c 1867, settled in Buckman, Minnesota, and married Mary Ortemba in 1874.  They raised 13 children on the farm a mile west of Buckman.  On August 22nd, 1900, Paul was thrown from a moving wagon and broke his back.  He lingered for 3 days, and died on August 25th.  He was 54 years old.


Yesterday, I went to the Morrison County Historical Society's Weyerhauser Museum in Little Falls, Mn, and asked to see Paul, Mathias and Anton's probate files.  How wonderful to know these papers are preserved, there at the museum.  I expected to see a typed copy of Paul's will, if there was one...but instead, the original is there, sheets of 110 year old paper fastened together into one long hand-written document.

When Larry and I studied the copy last night, we knew that Paul couldn't have been the writer, since he was bedridden and was told not to move or he'd die.  So who did the actual transcribing?  It could have been one of the witnesses there, or even the notary, since Hesch is mis-spelled (as is Buckman, Morrison, and Minnesota!), in the first part.  Larry pointed out the X before Paul's name and the improvised "seal" after his name, and that the document was notarized.
That "X" was probably all Paul could do, since he couldn't move...tho he could make them correct his last name.

It's interesting, too, to note who those witnesses were, and also, who was probably there keeping a vigil for those 3 days:  Paul's mother, Marya Schlinz Hesch would have been there, since she lived in Agram township, about 5 miles north of the farm, with his brother Anton.  (Brother Mathias was still living in Waumandee, Wisconsin, and their father Johann had died 3 years before).  Paul & Mary's oldest daughter, Rose, lived in Rice with her husband Louie Gottwalt, and came home to be with her father, too.

You know, I believe this photo was taken in the end of August, 1900.....

In April 1887, the town of Royalton in Morrison County incorporated.  In March that year, they placed an ad in the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper--not just a "Come see us", it was more than 2 columns of info about the town.  The idea was to get new people to move there, so the description was of an amazingly vital town.  All they lacked was a bank and a jeweler, honest!

Here's the copy-and-paste link to the page, courtesy of Larry:

 http://h1.ripway.com/miltoncrabapple/royalton.pdf

Christmas, 1956

There was a small Supervalu store in St Cloud in the 50s, the anchor store of the Miller Shopping Center on West Division St.  They had a small collection of kiddie rides in the parking lot, intended to keep kids busy while moms shopped.  A cool idea, but we rarely had the extra nickels required to ride the pink ferris wheel or the merry go round.  In fact, those rides were never busy in all the years I watched...lol

Anyway, in early December that year, we heard mom and dad mentioning pictures on Santa's lap and a bunch of German words, and a laugh.  What was that all about?  Huh--grownup talk, didn't concern us.

Then, one Saturday, DAD wanted to take us to Supervalu.   This never happened.

 When we got to the store, Marion and Kathy ran ahead, while Lois tried to keep them close, and dad quickly told me that Santa was his friend Gibbs Kelzenberg, and that when we got in there, I should reach under his wig and pull the small hairs on his neck!!  Wow, this appealed to me in so many ways, but it made me a little nervous, too--how could he be sure this wasn't the REAL Santa?  

The event was so low-key that dad had to ask where the pictures were being taken.  He was directed to the back corner, where they'd cleaned out a small room in produce.  It had grey cement  walls, and NO holiday decorations at all--just lights and a camera on  tripods, a photographer, and Santa, on a folding chair.  There was no line, either.
As we were herded into the room, I realized they were "talking over our heads", with dad being funny, and Gibbs trying desperately to remember our names...but mostly, we were too excited to care--this was our own PICTURE WITH SANTA CLAUS!  As the shutter clicked, I was wishing my hand was colder as I reached for small hairs, and as you see--Gibbs was keeping a pretty good straight face.
Good times.

Secret Societies

One of the fun online sites for genealogists is Google Books, mostly because they're searchable by individual words or phrases, like  "Schmolke, Buckman, Minnesota" or "Marshik, Morrison County" or just "prohibition".

 Another great resource I've mentioned before is Internet Archive for (among other things) their city directories, some as old as 1855.  You can flip thru the directory for, say, Atlanta, Ga., 1892 and find an ad for those old springs we had under our mattresses when we were growing up....you know, the ones that sagged in the middle.

You'd also find a list of businesses, churches, government offices, hospitals, railroads, schools, libraries and societies you could join, and it seems like all of those directories had at least a page or two of "secret societies".  I know....it's no secret if they're LISTED, right?.

So, we started investigating--turns out being in a secret society meant that there were initiation rites, passwords, ranks or ceremonies in each one, and members had to promise not to disclose what they were. In Atlanta in 1892, there were 7 pages of listings with Knights of Pythias, Knights of the Golden Rule, Improved Order of Red Men, Royal Society of Good Fellows, Catholic Knights of America, and Masonic societies, among many others.

From what we can tell, insurance was often available thru these groups, and no doubt they were business associates who scratched each others' backs....better to do business with someone you know, and who better than a lodge brother?

The Catholic church, of course, took a stand on secret societies, complete with a 1902  nihil obstat and imprimatur. Click the link to see the table of contents if you have any doubt where they came down...lol

Two things:

First, if you live in Minnesota (where it's been raining a helluva lot lately) and your computer's been acting weird?  It's possible its the HUMIDITY.  Here at Hesch History Central, my comp's been freezing in mid-click lately--and Ctrl+Alt+Delete does NOTHING.  I have to shut down and reboot....
BUT, when the A/C is on, the problem just vanishes.  I'm just sayin....

Second, tomorrow is the 25th, and we know what that means, right?  (Ok, besides that today is little sister's birthday!)  It means that tomorrow I'll post the world's cutest Christmas photo of Hesch girls from 1956.  Stay tuned!
Until then....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, K.L.!!!

Mike Hesch and WWII

The 9th Armored was dad's division when he served in WWII.  Like so many men who came home, he really never talked about it.  (We visited "army buddies" occasionally, or they visited us.  If they talked about the war, we weren't privy to it).

If you click the link above, you'll find a movie taken during the war (on a website Larry found called Critical Past, where you can "search over 57000 videos and seven million images").  This particular video was recorded in  Remagen, Germany in 1945.  


Dad was a tank mechanic, and just look at all the places he fought--click ► to enlarge...




(BTW, I was sure I posted these before, but couldn't find them.  This time, I'll label the post).

Just so ya know, I've sent copies of these papers to the National Archives.  I emailed a request for whatever they had, and was told his records were in a 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center that destroyed most of the WWII enlisted persons records.
.............................................


The National Archives has an online database of World War II Army Enlistment Records with more than 9 million entries. The database is in the Access to Archival Databases (AAD) at THIS ADDRESS.


Thanks again, Larry...☺

TG for Google

"Who can we get to play the organ at our wedding?"

When a subject gets brought up here on HH,  it starts  a round of new searches online for mentions of that person, and that's exactly what happened last night with Sr Laura.

Larry asked if I knew she played the organ?
LOL--well, no, even tho I remember she was happy we were (more or less) taking piano lessons, saying we'd be happy we did later in our lives.  (We didn't believe her).

As proof, he showed me this article from the Brainerd Dispatch (Sept, 1962).

Of course, it also made us curious about Fort Ripley (the town), and why this couple were married in Onamia at the Mission church.
No answers there...lol

More about Sr Laura's mission church...

Got an email this morning:
I found your Hesch family website while researching information for our centennial celebration for Holy Cross parish in Onamia (which includes St. Therese). One of the Crosiers just took photos of the church because a new cross was erected at the door. Enjoy. 
Tina Dickson 
Onamia, MN 
...isn't that NEAT?  When we were last there, I assumed the church was abandoned because of its condition, but Tina says there's a mass there on Sundays at 11:00, but that there are only about 12 parishioner families left.
  
Funny, I never knew it was called St Therese, but that's who the Little Flower was, after all, and who the statue depicts.  You think it had something to do with the fact that Theresa was Sr Laura's birth name?  lol


Thank you, Tina!

Even more info about the Little Flower mission church:
Sr Laura designed the shape of the building--she said it was a symbolic blending of our culture and the Ojibwe culture, so one half looks like a teepee, and the other looks more like a house or settlers cabin.  The architecture only  makes sense if you know that....☺

New history

My nice niece Laurel lives in NYC.  Her job took her to India  temporarily--but WOW--isn't it amazing that 5 generations and 140 years later, she can fly to a country Johann maybe never even heard of--for work?  Our world is strange and wonderful....

Anyway, back in New York, she has a money plant that needs watering every two days, so she left it with her Korean neighbor, John, who sent  this charming update on the plant's welfare:

Hi, Laurel.

How are you? What time is it now there?

Do you work on weekends there? I hope not.

I took a walk to Cnetral Park with your little botanic creature.

Both of us needed some sun light and I just came back.

But I wonder whether to bring a plant in the Park is so strange or not.

So many peple were interested in your plant.

At first, I put your plant a little bit far from me.

Then a guy approached to your plant and tried to take it away.

I stopped him and had to tell him that is mine.

So, I moved it near me and I got back to my book that I brought to read. 

But not a baby and a toddler have passed by without staring at it.

Some people told me it's a nice plant.

and some people asked me a few questions.

For instances, what that plant is and comes from and even someone asked me it's Marihuana????

Thanks to you, I had a very interesting experience.

I discovered that carrying a nice plant or not causes a big difference in the Park.

take care and stay healthy.

John.

Thanks for sharing this, Kath ☺!

How many ways are we related to Popps?

I just came home from a reunion of the descendants of Wenzel Popp--what a blast!  No, there's no Popp in my veins ☺, but there are several connections by marriage.

First, a little info about Wenzel.  Born in northern Bohemia in 1824, he homesteaded in North Prairie, Mn in 1877, where he died in 1878.  Wenzel had married twice, the second time to a widow with kids, and they had 3 more children together.

One connection-- Wenzel's son Joseph married Mary Klein.  Their son Jake Popp was Eugene's dad, and their daughter Anna was...see below..
(Eugene and Regina Popp had kids who were about our ages, and we visited them often, growing up).

Another connection--Paul Hesch's oldest daughter, Rose, married Louie Gottwalt, and TWO of their daughters married Popps  (Mary Gottwalt married Jake Popp, and Rose Gottwalt married Leo Popp...a two-way link).

More connections:  Uncle Eddie's mom was Anna, daughter of Joseph Popp and Mary Klein.  Eddie Janish, Idella Janish and Irene Janish all married Heschs.  A three way link!

LOL...the other link, I believe, was Eugene's sister Marlys...probably my namesake, as well as his own daughter Marlys.

(A speculative connection might also be thru Mary Klein--was she an aunt to Max, who married Lucy Hesch?  The Klein homeplace was right across the river from Two Rivers township, in Langola, Benton Co--Whew!)

But THIS last link is especially fun, since I just investigated the Minneapolis, St Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad.  The reunion was held at the Bowlus Community Center, in a re-constructed building that sits where the old train depot was--right beside the Rails to Trails Soo Line bikepath.
So how come the sign omits Genola/Pierz, Onamia, and Duluth?
Because now, it directs users of the trail, and the Soo line becomes an ATV trail beyond "Hwy 10".



Pretty cool, huh?

St. Cloud Times marks 150 years of stories

BY SUE HALENA • MANAGING EDITOR •

How does a news organization celebrate as it enters its 150th year? 

By doing what it has done best all those years: providing news and information to its communities so that they might know themselves better and make themselves better.

This special section and one coming Aug. 29 mark the 150th year of the St. Cloud Times. Our business lineage goes back to June 13, 1861, when The Minnesota Union published its slim first weekly edition.

These June and August sections recap 150 big stories from 15 communities where Times editors, reporters and photographers have done much of their work through the years. The sections don’t pretend to be a comprehensive history; we don’t even claim that these big stories are the biggest stories. But we know that the fires and tragedy, job creation and job loss, inventions and fame, faith and volunteerism defined and changed Central Minnesota.

Today’s section brings you 100 stories from the first 100 years. On Aug. 29, you’ll find the remaining 50 stories and a history that shows how the St. Cloud Times grew with its communities — and the world’s changing technologies.

To create these sections we called on University of Minnesota journalism graduate and Monticello resident Stephanie Dickrell. She immersed herself in the research and writing. We found excellent assistance from the staff of the Stearns History Museum and Benton County Historical Society.

Today’s news is tomorrow’s history. Our history informs but does not trap us. Read these pages to know your community better, and let every day’s news guide your quest for a better community. We now move on to covering the big stories of the next 150 years.

On June 13th, 2010, the Times published a whole history section of the paper.  I tried / failed to remember to pick up a copy, but three of my clients saved it for me!  Many of the stories recapped are familiar to Larry and me because we've researched them in connection with Hesch and Janson history.
The headline photo and article was the 1886 tornado--a story that's very familiar to us.  You can go to the St Cloud Times webpage and use the search box there to find other goodies from the section!

House fires and Heschs

and Dad was 3 years old.  Where were they?  We don't know, but they all survived.

When I was growing up, dad would occasionally mention the house fires his parents had when he was a kid.  He left the impression that it happened over and over...almost as tho any house they lived in was doomed.
I suppose you had to know dad and his sense of humor...to make it sound like his parents couldn't be trusted with a stove made it a much better story, after all.

When I asked Uncle Tony about it the other night, he said there were only two fires.  The first one was in 1916, six years after his parents were married.  They were living on the farm they were given as Paul's legacy (all 11 kids were given a start in life--either land or a dowry of some sort)....2 miles south and 3/4 miles east of Buckman.  He said the fire happened when Gramma was in the field with a four horse hitch, plowing or cultivating, and Grandpa was in the house...lol... evidently, Gramma always preferred working outside.  I can easily imagine her out there, too.
(Funny how the LFH reported it, tho ☺) ►

Uncle Tony was born in 1928, so he was only relating what he'd heard about it...but somehow, kerosene exploded, and the house went up in flames.  The adopted boys, George and Henry were 12 and 10, and dad was 3.  We don't know where they were at the time, but they all survived.

The second, and LAST, fire was 24 years later, in 1940, on the farm just south of the green schoolhouse.  Uncle Tony was 12, and definitely remembers it.
This time, Grandpa was away, at an auction.  Gramma, Tony and Lena Muyres were in the garden, picking green beans.  (BTW, Lena was Aunt Eileen's mother).  Maybe Gramma was canning beans too--a pressure cooker in the house, on the stove?  Anyway, they heard a loud bang, and saw the side of the brick veneer house on fire.  The kerosene tank on the porch had exploded.

He said Gramma ran into the burning house to rescue stuff, three times!  He described how the last time, there was so much smoke that Gramma lost her way.  She stumbled in the direction of the front door till she bumped into a rocker, and then, knew where she was.  She pushed the rocker in front of herself, and Tony saw it, leaned in and pulled it and his mom out.  He said she  started back inside, but he wouldn't let her.  20 minutes later, there was only the chimney left standing...

I'd brought a box of photos along, and as we went thru them, Uncle Tony saw this one:

He paused with it in his hand.  He said there'd been a large framed version of it that had burned in the 1940 fire...maybe a 12 year old thought it was the only copy?  So, I gave him the one he was holding.  It was really never mine in the first place, ya know?

Lippincotts Gazetteer, 1913

A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names used in conjunction with a map or a full atlas. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup of a country, region, or continent as well as the social statistics and physical features, such as mountains, waterways, or roads. Examples of information provided by gazetteers include the location of places, dimensions of physical features, population, GDP, literacy rate, etc. This information is generally divided into overhead topics with entries listed in alphabetical order.
-Wikipedia
 Here's the BOHEMIA article from Lippincott's (page 237) that Larry found on Ancestry.  It's pretty interesting.  In context, it would have been the freshest info Math & Theo Hesch could have had when they went to Europe in 1914 (for that story, click the DIARY label on the left).  However, I doubt they checked...lol

A proclamation, recorded by Heinz

Copy of the Record of 1654 from the Provost's Archive Neuhaus

 I, Johan Joachim Graf Slavata of Chlum and Koschberg,  Sovereign of the House HESCH court in Ottenschlag Confess Public with this letter, therefore, the after his Todt, HESCH of the I, his son Eltister HESCH the II would, on Mr HESCH inherited his farm. He and his descendants provide afar, the castle kitchen.  

This happened at the castle at Neuhaus, Anno 1654    

Hans Joachim Graff Slawata m.p

The translation isn't perfect, but you get the meaning--it's a proclamation stating that the office of provisioner was granted to a Hesch, and that his son could inherit the farm and position. 

(BTW,  I doubt that the son's name was Eltister--it's probably a Google Translate goof ).  

(Aha!  Heinz says the term Eltister  means "eldest son" ☺).

Thanks for this, Heinz!

Hesch History, from Heinz Binder

It's remarkable that Heinz is doing HESCH research in Austria for us!  He sends the text in German and I translate it using Google, so sometimes it's difficult to understand (for instance, Oberschlagles translates as Otten Flip and Schamers translates as shame), so I've edited to make it more understandable....I hope!  To see the original German in Part II, hover on the words with your cursor, ok?
HESCH RESEARCH Part I
 

The big (ancestral) farm HESCH, the Farmhaus, was in Ottenschlag No. 9 ( now OTIN near Neuhaus ).

The family lived there from 1600 ( Archive record  from 1654 ) until after 1850. 

First sponsoring from (Countess) Catherine of NEUHAUS. 

Research and Develoment historical: all HESCH to hail from a place of Ottenschlag in Bohemia  near Austria border. (The farm supplied meat and produce to the) castle kitchen, was where the HESCH farm in Ottenschlag delivered.


 The k.k. Officer Major Franz HESCH from Prague* 1814 + 10/12/1880. Probable descendent of Zillertal jeweler/dealer Simon HESCH from Neuhaus / Prague. 

 Heidenreichstein, 1 June 2010 (Heinz BINDER)

HESCH RESEARCH Part II
  The (first) HESCH generation  about 1600 family farm in Ottenschlag, characterized by the Hussite wars and the wars of religion did, loudly Geburtsmatrik, trace the provost in Neuhaus, since the year 1634 in an interrupted series of generations of their home village, the inherited perfectly lawful. From where they lived mainly by agriculture and cattle breeding and supplying the castle kitchen in Neuhaus. 
Ottenschlag in the Kingdom of Bohemia. That was part of the western half of the Austrian Monarchy, was the unwritten law of succession, which the Court to the eldest son inherited  undivided, was to preserve the unity of the family farm. (In contrast to the BINDER in the Zillertal, where the youngest son of the yard got the parents to care for a long time). Therefore, influx of artisans and the eldest sons of farmers and others also TIROL.   Changes in 1645-1900 are due at least in marrying, if here and there the Hoferbe is excreted. It is difficult for the survival HESCH family farm, the darkness of successions, to clear completely.   At that time the area had remained south of  Schamers and Niedermühle in Austria.  Until 1900 many HESCH and other emigration to America took place, increased the influx of Czechs. 
Neuhaus and environment are demonstrated in late HESCH: 
HESCH Theresa + 03/10/1767 and  Josephus, + 17/04/1772 
Johann, + 11.29.1800, Josefa, +  05.03.1873,  
(I believe Heinz  found these other Heschs who were born there AFTER  our ancestors left for America):
Maria + 18.6.1819,  Simon, * in Ottenschlag, + 03.02.1831, 
(their children?) Ignaz + 08.02.1860,  Martin + 08.22.1859, Wenzel + 6/10/1874,  Ignaz +11.5.1877, Johann + 9/2/1877, 6/15/1879 + Mary, Agnes + 19.08.1879, + 12.27.1890 Johann, Johann +1893, Karl + 19.3. 1895, Mary Bartholomew 1907 + 28.12 + 30/07/1908 (both in Oberschlagles No. 23), Matthew + 27/03/1915 and Frantisek, born HESCH, + 11.20.1927, as the HESH, (Name Czechicized) in Ottenschlag No. 7 . He is (thought to be the) last from the HESCH dynasty.  Other descendants could not be ascertained. 
( Cool!  HESH is the Czech version of HESCH ).
 Now is the former Heschgrund a factory area. The place name is now Otin. Adjacent to Neuhaus, now Jindrichuv Hradec. The archive Czernin many information resources are available, however, is the archive (with the parish registers of the Provost Neuhaus) is not digitally accessible. On the already in the HESCH Research Part I, cited registration: Johann HESCH, born on 12 May 1820, in Ottenschlag No.9 than unmarried son of the Catholic HESCH Anna, daughter of Simon HESCH, farmer in Ottenschlag be noticed.
Heidenreichstein, 15 June 2010 (Heinz BINDER)
More THANKS to Heinz!

The Minneapolis, St Paul and Sault Ste Marie Railroad

I've been wondering about the relationship between towns in Stearns Co and the Buckman/Pierz area...how come Sands and Jansons lived in both places?

  Sure, there's good soil in both areas...and there were Germans throughout the area.  We know immigrants tended to settle near their countryfolk, but it wasn't as town-for-town as you'd expect (like a mass migration from Oberschlag to Buckman, for instance). If the earlier settlers spoke German, "das ist gut genug". 

My GGGrandfather, Peter Sand, eventually settled in Le Sauk township, but his brothers homesteaded in Grove and Oak townships to the west.  Looking at the plat maps from 1925, Grove township had Sands, Fuchs, Welles, Meyers, Kulzers and Terhaars who owned land near Meire Grove and Greenwald.  In Oak township (New Munich and Freeport), Sand, Welle, Terhaar, Thielen, Metzger and Sebastian Janson had farms.  Albany township shows Schwinghammers, Eibensteiners and Fuchs;  Krain township: Math and John Muyres.

(A small digression..lol:

  Larry found this cool academic study  of the Sauk Valley, if you're interested.    On the map below, the blue lines encompass the Sauk River valley, a particularly German area of Minnesota.  It became a much-studied enclave because German ethics and traditions lasted there much longer than in other predominantly German areas of Minnesota.  ◄This excerpt talks about why the Sauk valley appealed to them.

BUT, back to the connection between New Munich and Buckman--it was the railroad!  The Soo line was direct, cheap, and much faster than horse and wagon.  Most likely, every train had a passenger car or two, in both directions. Visiting (and helping out) would have been "relatively" easy, while the distance kept things cordial.

Mining old magazines

This article was published in Bret Harte's Overland Magazine in 1899.  The author had visited  Tyrol, in Austria, and was impressed by the singing he heard there...it's a very American 'take' on the old country.  Would our Hesch ancestors have recognized what the author describes? 

And...this, from a filler in 1906.  It's still funny! ☺