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.....