THEN & NOW

This post is mostly for my sibs--remember how empty we thought the north end of 4th Avenue was when we moved there in 1959?  Well, it really WAS--we built on the edge of a corn field, with only Bigleys and Larsons north of us.
Here's the area in 1940....not too different than it was 20 years later:  the farm upper left was Shaws.

Compare that with how it looks now: click the image to biggify.  4th Avenue North is in the middle here. The Good Shepherd Community has grown into the entire block with the "H" looking buildings, upper left.  WOW, huh?

Quickie Quiz Question:  Where did Earl the cop live, in the 1940 photo? 

BTW, you can see my reading tree in the school yard, even from the air!

A great quote

Douglas Adams said it best, "The technology that existed before you were 15 is just the way the world has always been. The technology that was invented between when you're 15 and 35 is wonderful and proof that you're alive at the best time ever. The technology invented after you're 35 is unnatural and against the will of God."

John Terhaar

Here's another photo from the Minnesota Historical Society website..this time, there's more indication of WHERE it was taken.  We're still talking 1925, and we know John Terhaar was listed as "Bank/Cashier" on the 1920 and 1930 censuses....

I would say the man behind the counter in the bank could easily be the same man that Anon identified as John Terhaar, baseball player, don't you think?  According to earlier censuses, John was born in February, 1891 in Pierz.  The second man is probably Otto Janson, son of local blacksmith Joe Janson.  I believe John went on to work at the bank in Rice, Mn--does anyone know if this is correct?  YES!  According to the comment left below by Michael Hortsch, John got itchy feet in 1931 and moved to the new bank in Rice.  He died there, in Rice, Mn, at only 51 years old.   

THANKS, Michael--have a wonderful trip!

The Sand connection in Saskatchewan

Our grandmother Elizabeth (Sand) Hesch had an older brother named Joseph.  In the 1911 Canada Census, Joe's young family shows up living with his brother Charlie Sand in Moose Jaw, Sask.

We know Charlie didn't stay in Canada, but Joe did.

Joe Sand in Buckman, 1898.

Joe married Antonia Poser in Buckman in 1908, and they had two kids before moving to Moose Jaw.  One of those kids was Kunigunda Mary, who probably weny by "Mary" most of her life. 

Here's Mary with her husband Peter Lewans and their 12 kids in 1976.

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Here's an earlier picture of the Lewans family in 1947:

from THIS SITE

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Music from the Tyrolean Alps ♪ ♫

Heinz Binder sent this today--its a powerpoint file of 15 different songs that are typical traditional music from that part of Austria.  The words at the bottom are Hungarian, and it basically says "Click any musician--each one is a different tune"!

CLICK HERE

I love this music!  THANKS, HEINZ!!

Sr Laura, O.S.B.

My dad's aunt, Sr Laura, was a missionary to the Ojibwe near Onamia, Minnesota, beginning about 1941.  (If you visit the Mille Lacs Casino, you'll see what's left of those buildings at the south end of the casino parking lot).
I don't know if she had funding from the convent or diocese, but if she did, it was inadequate...so she mailed  a newsletter to her Spiritual Mother's group (Catholic moms who "adopted" Indian children), and basically tapped any friend or relative who came by.  In fact, almost everyone who met Sr Laura has a story about being asked for a donation...lol
Here's one of the letters that I found among the closet photos:

It's actually pretty interesting!

Who were these people?

At Aunt Eileens party, I brought a copy of this pic, and she knew WHO the mystery people were.
Left to right: (adults) Vernie (Sand) Wintermeyer, Anton Hesch,  Irene (Hesch) Kulig, Elizabeth (Sand) Hesch (in back, with the hat), Eileen (Muyers) Hesch, Henry Hesch, Matt Hesch, Mike Hesch, Marie Wintermeyer, John Wintermeyer, and Anton Janson.
The girls are Bev and Carol Hesch, and the boy is probably Irene's son.
TaaDaa!  One more photo, ID'd!

Another mystery photo

This picture had to be taken in the spring--there's blooming bridal wreath on the right, see?  All four boys look vaguely familiar.  Anon said he has no idea who they are, and I'm spending too much time wondering myself...lol  I'd put the date most likely in the 1940's.  Any ideas who they are?

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??

(No, we didn't draw on the aerial map...someone did that in 1940).

Buckman Minnesota in 1940

WOW!  This morning before I went to work, Larry showed me an amazing (and frustratingly non-intuitive) website from Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources (DNR).  Evidently, beginning in 1930, chunks of the state were mapped from the air. 
Of course, we tried Morrison county--nada in 1930, but  YES!  in 1940...this is the whole section--find the jog in Highway 25 to orient yourself, ok?  (The link above takes you to this page).

Now, on the actual site, click on the place you want magnified (like the village of Buckman...lol), and you'll find this:

Isn't it just magnificent?  Some buildings we grew up with were there in 1940 (St Michaels, the Hall, the Creamery, Zenners) and MUCH has changed since then...but to look back like this is stunning. 

Dad was 27 and hadn't left Buckman for the Army yet, the city hall was being built, the school had no addition, and look at the tiny pine trees on the north side of the church lot.  And WOW--no ballpark! 

The photo was taken in the early morning (see the shadows on the highway?)

Does anyone know who owned the farm in the upper right corner? 

A HUGE thank you to Larry.  OMG, what would we know without HIM?

Aunt Eileen

My sister Lois was baptized in August, 1947, and these are her godparents pictured that day: dad's brother Matt and his wife Eileen (Muyres) Hesch.  Matt died in 1984, but Aunt Eileen will celebrate her 90th birthday on Sunday.  It's a SURPRIZE party, so if you call her, don't blow it!

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It was a GREAT party--and a total surprise. 

Happy 90th to a pretty wonderful aunt!

A favorite photo, August 7, 1944

Doesn't this picture just make you smile?  The groom is my dad's brother Ted Hesch, and the bride is Mildred Rau, our wonderful Aunt Millie.  Everybody in the pic seems to realize what a fun combo they were, and would be over the next 50+ years.  Ted and Millie were each others' perfect foils, I think. She was Gracie Allen to his George Burns (and if you get that reference, you're old!)
Left to right: Henry Hesch, Rosie Hesch, Ted & Millie, Fronie Hesch and Ted's twin brother, Matt.

** Much later (like August, 2018)**
Shirley sent a few pictures she found as she and Gene were moving out of their house this month.  It's a 3" by 4" B&W of Grandpa Hesch and his bro Math.  They both have beer bottles in hand, and there's a little light-haired girl running up to Grandpa on the right.  It had to be Carol (born in 1939, so she would have been 5 on August 7, 1944 when Uncle Tader and Aunt Millie were married). 

Family sleuthing at its finest, doncha think?

Have they ALWAYS been the Buckman Billygoats?

This was 1925 and we're trying to figure out WHO these men are.  Most likely, one or two were employed at Brandl Motors?

Why, YES, they were!  Anon is "95% sure" these men were:

Back Row: Ed Kohler - Red Sitzman - Hass Weissbrich - Bill Gohl - Conrad Kapsner - John Brausen - Kilian Zenner

Front Row: Peter Blake - John Terhaar - Frank Mischke - Sam Glfnifkowski - Bill Pohlkamp

Batboy: Raymond Blake

Oh, and no, they were not always the "Billygoats"--in the 60s and 70s, the team was called the "Bucks", and after that, the "Saints".

WOW--thanks, Anon!!

WHAT were they thinking?

Some of the ads we found in Overland Magazine and Harpers are truly interesting because you can see the roots of modern ads in them.  What works as well as what doesn't.  This one seems to protest too much--every housekeeper already realizes that scrubbing is scrubbing, no matter what soap ya use.

I especially like the last bit--it's almost a whine.

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In the piano ad, all I see is "MOUSE PROOF PEDAL".  How long before they stopped using that line? 

 And The Best Toy Out was real stones?  Wow.  But the pastor of a Methodist Episcopal Church endorsed it, so how bad could they be, right?

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The words GOOD SENSE and CORSET don't go together in my mind, but maybe they did in 1889.  Anyway, a 'good tight corset' might have created cleavage...so you wouldn't need

 Adipo-malene...lol

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We all overthink stuff now and then, and it was no different with this reading stand from 1893.  Whew.  Are any of them "antiques" now?

Was this Schmolkes Store?

Whoever took these photos in Morrison County, Minnesota in 1925 took the one on the right first, cuz he moved the seed rack to get a more unobstructed view. 
(I think of these two photos as the "washline store pics" because of the overhead string of advertising cards.  The near one is actually a pipe, and the far one is more of a washline...which I'm SURE you needed to know...lol).
ANYWAY...I combined the two pics so we have a better idea of what the store looked like when you walked in.  Just imagine the repeated men as random customers, ok?

This was definitely a General Store--fabric, shirts, probably some jewelry, paint, canned goods, seeds, coffee...and if this store WAS Schmolkes--no wonder they didn't succeed with shoes.  They seem to be in boxes along the top of the left shelves there...
If this really was SCHMOLKE's STORE, then the first two men behind the counter on the right might be John Schmolke Jr. and Pete Blake.
Dang!  Anon says that, according to his information, Schmolkes sold the store to Herb Hartmann well before 1925, and that, in fact, the place burned down in 1924.  When you think about it, this store DOES seem awfully well-stocked for a town the size of Buckman. Still.....

Anon AND I could both be WRONG!  lol

And then we went to a rodeo...

Here's the song my sister sang (at the top of her voice) in a Catholic Church in Dent, Montana in 1956.

MORE about Buckman in 1925

Check out the REALLY COOL photos Larry and I discovered.  I posted them on the other family blog, because I'm related to Brandls thru mom, but DAMN, they're COOL!!

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Oh! Almost forgot:  Here's a (gratuitous) photo Larry found in honor of the day...lol

Compare and Contrast

Here are the occupations listed for Buckman in 1910, 1920, and 1930.  I added names if I recognized them or if they pertained to HH in some way.  I tabulated them in the order they were listed, mostly, so you can see where in town they started counting each time.  I didn't compare 1900 because it didn't distinguish town from township, and besides, the village only incorporated in 1903.

There are some surprises:  Killian Zenner was a school teacher in 1930 (probably a country school), and had been married for 2 years  by April, 1930.  In 1910, there were 3 general stores, 2 blacksmiths, and 1 bar.  The bank was built before 1920.  Note who 'owned' Brandl Motors, and who was a 'salesman' in 1930. 

And, what happened to Mueller's Hardware and Saloon by 1920?  Did John sell his share of the business to Peter so soon?  Maybe Anon knows....
I know there are a few of you wondering WHY there are no bars at all in 1920 and 1930.  Prohibition began in 1920 ( and lasted till 1933).  The trade just moved out of town, that's all!

(BTW, remember that all those "no occupation" folks were mostly children and wives, and that YOU can go look at the census forms online if you wonder about something here).

Isn't this just COOL?

"Yah, that's vat shoepolish is for!"

Makes ya shake your head, huh?  To think that there ever was a push by shoe manufacturers to convince the population to buy Dress Shoes.  According to the great national shoe weekly that Larry found on Google Books, some people just didn't think about it.  Horrors!

We're not making this up...lol 

This convincing poster was published in the Boot and Shoe RECORDER in 1921 to help merchants tell the hoi polloi that they were slobs without fancy shoes.

Evidently, the Schmolke/Blake team tried to get the word out about 'What the ladies think of men who are not well shod', but it didn't work in Buckman...that same issue of the Recorder had pages of notices, one of which  shows Schmolke and Blake in the "Failures" column. 

Wonder how Brandls did at the other end of the block, selling shoes in the Harness Shop?

Zenner's Grocery Store

HOORAY,  we know a bit more history now:

"Zenner's was [first] owned and operated as John and Joe Brandl's Harness and Shoe shop. Since Della was John's daughter, it was only natural for her and her new husband, Killian, to assume the recently-vacated building, since the advent of the automobile prompted John and Joe to build Brandl Brothers Garage next door. Several other former grocery stores in Buckman had closed and in c. 1924 the old Schmolke Grocery Store, then already the Herb Hartmann Grocery, had just burned down and Buckman actually was open to a "new" grocery..." (Thanks, Anon!)

These photos are from the MNHS website...since none of the 'interior' pics from the database have more ID than this, we just have to compare the space to what we know, and speculate. 

I think the chances of this being the Brandl Harness and Shoe Shop are pretty good, since there's a door in the back left corner, as well as another way in back that would have gone to Zenners' stockroom, and one in the right corner alcove (would have opened into the sausage room).  The building is shaped right.  The corker for me is the boxy-looking thing on the shelf behind Mr Brandl (top left in one pic, top right in the other).  It was made of brick print corrugated paper, placed to cover the stove pipe hole in the wall.  It was still there in 1972 when we removed it--almost 50 years later. Wow.

Killian Zenner and Adella Brandl were married  June 5, 1928, so that fits, too. 

MNHS

The Minnesota Historical Society has a huge Visual Resources Database-- a collection of photographs online.  If you search "Morrison" there, you'll find quite a few store interiors from 1925.  Sadly, none are identified more than that, but they give us a glimpse of what merchants offered then.  It's REALLY cool!

A really good map of Morrison County

Here's where to click It's a pdf, so it'll take a bit to load, but then you can enlarge it like crazy.

THANKS for finding it, Larry!!

Corrections

Just so ya know, I've changed the info in the 5th and 6th posts down....lol

Google Earth

Oh, MY!  If you want to see Buckman as it is today, download Google Earth to your computer and search "Buckman, Mn"--wow!  There are little cameras along the streets, and double clicking each one advances your position, where you can look all the way around you--its amazing and WAY fun.  The only weird thing is that any people who happened to be captured are blurred out.  You see vehicles and yards, open doors and businesses, but not one soul!

It'll give you a much better idea of what we're talking about here, too!

One ringy-dingy....

I remember the operator asking, "Number, please?" when I picked up the receiver--in 1954 or 55 in St Cloud, Minnesota.

This week, Larry was curious about when Buckman connected to the outside world by telephone, and he went looking online.  The startling thing was that he found the answer (!) from "Telephone Magazine", in 1904:

And, even better,  this from 1906:

We wondered if that's really all it took--a few people deciding to string lines?  Evidently, it was, more or less.  I saw an earlier bit in  Telephone Magazine that insisted on nothing less than  #8 gauge wire be used.

(BTW, the pic above is a random operator in 1925--she's no one we know...lol)

A whistled song

When I was little, one relatively cheap entertainment for the family was the Cloud Drive-in Theater, out in the boonies west of St Cloud.  Mom would make a grocery bag full of pop-corn and we'd put our pajamas on.  Part of the fun was leaving the house at dusk, right when we were usually getting ready to go to bed.  We didn't go often, so we never remembered the swarms of mosquitoes at the drive-in--the window had to be open enough for the in-car speaker, and besides, it was SUMMER in Minnesota, and too hot to sit in a closed car.  Ahh, such fun!

It was probably 1958.  I would have been almost 9 when mom & dad decided we'd go see the Bridge on the River Kwai--not exactly a good kids' film, but I'm sure they thought we'd be sleeping by the time anything scary happened.  They were wrong about that.
The movie had a really catchy whistled theme song--is it going thru your head yet?  Every time I've heard it in the last 50 years, I've thought about how incredibly cruel people can be to each other (the metal cages in the movie horrified me).  If there was nobility or understanding in the movie, I missed it.

Yesterday on MPR, there was a discussion of "the best war movies", and of course, 'Bridge' came up.  It made me wonder what dad's reaction to it was back then.  These were Brittish officers in a Japanese POW camp in Burma, and he'd been a US army infantryman in the North African and European theaters, but he would have made connections. But then, I was a kid, and he was a grown-up who'd been there--what could I have asked him?

Companies that've survived--wow

(select ads from Overland Magazine, 1889)