Prussia, Silesia and Otrembas

 My great grandfather Paul Hesch arrived in Buckman Minnesota around 1873. He found a lovely Polish girl  named Mary Otremba   and they were married 10 November 1874.  Paul was born in Bohemia, and Mary was born in Silesia, below.  See the east section there, and the part labeled Niesse?  Just NE of Niesse is Falkenberg, where Mary was born in the village of Guschwitz.  (Niesse, BTW, is where Frank Hortsch owned a gasthaus in...Larzensdorf. Thanks to Larry for remembering that.).

You can see where the above map fits on the one below--just under the word 'Prussia' on the larger yellow section.  The country we know as Germany didn't exist till much later.  All these little kingdoms and empires wanted more of their neighbors, and were willing to fight for them.  In the meantime, our folks LEFT. 

(Note: If you came here to research Otrembas, see the left side of the page--and click the name).

Lower map  source.

Mrs Owens' Cookbook and Household Hints

Back in the part of my life when antiques were "precious", I had a very old cookbook.  It was cool but totally useless because of the measurements and products that either weren't defined, or were no longer available.   A hard cover book, about 8 X 11, it weighed a ton. 

This week, I thought to search on Google Books or Internet Archives, cuz I couldn't remember what the book was called--I thought the author was a "Mrs" tho.  
I was looking thru one by a Mrs Owens, from 1903, and much of it seemed familiar, but I remembered more illustrations and more quirky asides...anyway, in the "household hints" section, I found an unfamiliar term--Kalsomine.  It had something to do with painting, according to Mrs Owens. (I asked a client about it today, and she recognized the term right away--it had to do with CHEAP paint...lol)

Kalsomine– A white or tinted paint medium containing zinc oxide, water, glue, and color that is used as a wash for walls and ceilings.

Ah-ha!  A new word to me, but an every-day word to our grandparents, most likely.  

=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=

Still, Mrs Owens wasn't it, so I checked Internet Archives.com and

 found the RIGHT book!  (published in 1887, 1894, 1899 & 1913)

THE WHITE HOUSE COOK BOOK

Now THIS was a cool book.  Larry and I thought it might have been

 given to a young urban bride, because it depends alot on being able to

 buy  stuff like kalsomine, and also cuz there are instructions about

 etiquette and how to run a house with servants.

Click either link and flip thru a few pages. Our lives aren't NEAR as

 complicated as theirs were.

BTW, this was in Mrs. Owens book in the section on keeping house.  Beware! ☺

Remember last fall's "Pandemic" ?

This was part of an MPR story today--about concussions from playing sports:
"...But her family thought those were all signs that Nickel had caught H1N1 influenza, which was spreading rapidly throughout Minnesota at the time".


Argh!  I've heard references twice this week (on MPR which I normally trust), to the "rapid spread" of that terrible deadly H1N1 flu we were all just barely avoiding last fall at this time.  Remember the scare tactics?  and the draconian precautions?
In the past, in our ancestors' time, there really WERE epidemics of cholera and small pox and plague, where many thousands died and whole villages were wiped away.  How dare we call that mini-outbreak last fall anything more than a normal flu season?

I wonder--maybe humans need something to fear?  Johann and Marya Hesch lived thru the 1848 revolution in Austria/Bohemia.  The revolution caused food shortages, which caused more disease.  By 1869, having survived all that, they left for an uncertain future in America.  Son Paul was already in Minnesota by then  and he probably wrote home to encourage his folks and brother Anton to come.  But what a frightening thing traveling that far must have been for them.  THEY had true hardships, and lived in a relatively germy world with little sanitation and only folk medicines while WE live in almost sterile surroundings where most kids have never actually been dirty or even hungry.



WAIT, you say--there were people who caught H1N1 flu, right? And even some who died?
Oh yes, in a state with a population of  5,266,214 (2009 census bureau estimate), there were a whole 278 confirmed cases and three deaths.  Our ancestors would have used a few rude German words to describe us, I think.

(I wonder too WHY this "pandemic" thing makes me so angry.  To hear even MPR so blatantly re-write history, so soon, disgusts me.  Next, we'll hear that the last president was actually eloquent). (SIGH!)

My dad, Mike

Dad was 68 67 when he died in 1981 1980.  He'd served in WWII, and one of his wartime buddies, Eugene Popp,  was at the funeral.  He was talking with my sister and she mentioned dads' box of souvenirs and how he'd never talked about what he did in the war.  Did they see a lot of combat?  Had they been 'front lines'?

Dad's papers say he took part in battles and campaigns in "Algeria-French Morocco, Tunisia, Sicily, Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes & Central Europe".  So yes, a lot of combat, including the Normandy Invasion--but how did they survive such awful conditions?  Eugene said they were not front line soldiers...they were second wave landing at Normandy on day 6.  He said the front lines were made up of city boys and glory seekers...but that the farm boys who came later had upper body strength and ingenuity, and they lasted in a fight.
Dad and Eugene survived and came home.  They married and raised families and tried to forget about the war.  I suspect Eugene never talked about his own part in WWII, but he was willing to speak of dads.  We just never realized dad would have done the same.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Frances Dengel

 

Wow, it really pays to go back over census records.  This time, I was reading them for relationships and who the next-door neighbors were, etc.
Going back over the 1910 Buckman census, the Joseph Janson family included a John Janson, grand child, 13 years old, born in New York.  Was this an adopted kid, or was he Sebastian's son, born 'out east' in Virginia?
--We had a question about the John Sand who lived west of town near Mike Sand--was he the same John Sand as the sheriff in Little Falls during the Bulow business?  (No, this was John M where the one in Little Falls was JP).
--William Bahns and wife Katherine lived in the township in 1910 (mom's side of the family).

--Actually, we were looking for Aggie Hesch's friend, Frances Dengel--where did she fit?  We have photos of her with Aggie courtesy of Sue's mom's photo collection.  In other words, Agnes Hesch married Joe Suess and they had 2 kids--Joan and James.  Joan inherited a lot of pictures from Aggie, but Joan died in a car accident before she could explain who these people were-to her daughter Sue.  Now, it's become a quest for Larry and me to help figure em out ☺

The young woman on the right is Frances Dengel.   I can't get over how photoshopped they look, levitating over the sidewalk there, in Duluth.
lol

A photo that Frances sent to Aggie, evidently.  This would be about 1923 if they were 17 in the photo ►.  They were going to school in Duluth, I think.

Ok!  Here's the transcription on FamilySearch from the 1920 Buckman census.  It says Frances was born in Oregon and was the niece of Nick Mueller and Caroline (Dengel) Mueller.  Frances was the same age as Aggie, and they were first cousins cuz Nick and Ket were siblings.

Eventually, Frances Dengel became Sr. Carmelita
Thanks, Sue! ☺
********************************************
And more thanks to Sue who sent Sr Carmelita Dengel's obit, which explains a lot.   She was born in Oregon, but her parents had died, which is why she lived in Buckman with her aunt and uncle.  Cool! Another mystery solved.  

Added almost four years later:

As it says in her obit, St Carmelita worked at St James Orphanage in Duluth during her career, having something of an affinity with parentless kids.  If I understood Chris correctly, Albert and Mary Stepan worked there in later years, along with their son Clarence (Chris' dad).

 These two pictures are of the Stepan family

Above, the Stepan family in 1983...and below, in 1995 

after Sr Carmelita's funeral.

THANKS to Chris for these last pics, and the info to go with em ☺

Maybe genealogy is like winter....

Andrew Wyeth said
I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape. 
Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn't show.


☺

December, 1916...or, Proof that Math was paid by the column-inch

CLICK to enlarge...




Well, great-uncle Math was getting his reporter sea-legs, it looks like. ( He claimed to have started reporting for the papers  9 years earlier in 1907). I was just re-reading the page on the right, where he makes maximum use of one incident,  an attack of appendicitis.
"Mrs Joe Wondro returned from Anoka Saturday, where she had an operation for appendicitis".
Then, farther down:
"Joe Otremba returned from Anoka Friday.  He was there with his daughter, Hattie, who had an operation for appendicitis"
and just in case you missed some part of the story--
"Mrs Joe Otremba returned from Anoka Friday, where she had been on a visit".
LOL!

(And in other news, it's pretty cool the Fishermen in Buckman even had a president, don't you think? ☺)

Buckman News in the Little Falls Herald, 1916

It was probably 2 years ago, on one of my first visits to the Weyerhauser Museum in Little Falls, that I really got into old   newspapers.  Of course I was looking for Buckman News, and yes, Great uncle Math was the reporter, tho he hadn't fully developed his distinctive style yet...lol  

Once I got home, I started highlighting mentions of family, but now, looking at these pages, there are plenty of other interesting people mentioned too.  The really cool part of these columns is the peripheral information in them, like who was employed in St Cloud, and who owned a car, and who advertised (like Dr Fortier, upper left: it tells what school he graduated from in Canada, and his office hours, PLUS his home address--wow!)  And look--Math owned the Excelsior motorcycle already in 1916, since he took it to St Cloud, see?
The pages are worth biggifying and reading edge to edge, just cuz.


I'm sorry I wrote on the legal notices ►, but you can still read em, I think.  I was experimenting with reducing the size so I could copy more on one sheet, but it may be too small.  If it is, try right clicking  and tick "save image as..."  Then, it'll be in your Pictures folder, and you can open it with a photo editing program, like Paint.
THAT might do it ☺.

I have about 15 pages copied here, mostly from the end of 1916.  They're such a small sample of these fascinating bits of our history--and Anon says that the newspapers are off limits now at the museum so they don't deteriorate more...but will still be around to digitize someday.  Sigh!

So, ARE we related?

YAY!  A new a comment left yesterday on THIS POST,  by Gerald Hesch from Vienna, Austria.  He is certainly related to Wilhelm Hesch, but sadly, I'm doubting if his family is connected to us: both lines share a "Johann" , but his honorific lines include Jakob and Friedrich, names that are NOT in our line.  (We had Johann, Martin, Paul, Mathias, and Anton).  Besides, I think our Heschs moved north from Austria, where Gerald's people moved south from Elbeteinitz (near Prague), to Vienna. 


"Hi Marlys, yes you´re right that's exactly the town the opera singer comes from. It is very possible that Vilém Heš (that was his name as long as he was singing in Prague and smaller cities in Bohemia, later he changed his name to Wilhelm Hesch when he was joining the opera in Vienna) is some kind of relative to me. And I´ve got a cd of him at home :-) there is even a street in a district in Vienna benamed to him -> heschgasse. So I can confirm there is a link between Heš and Hesch. see also   HERE and HERE.
Vienna was the biggest city in the monarchy and so as it was seen as the best chance to find a job or make a career. everyone who could make it was going down from the provinces. That was common. Concerning my family tree, I can give you some facts (I have to scan it first at work because it´s A3 size): family tree after investigations start at about 1700, where Hesch Johann was born, his son Hesch Jakob (born 1729, died 1801), his son Hesch Anton (born 1783, died 1854 - was married to Regina Neuhauser - could be that she was from Neuhaus !?), his son Hesch Anton (born 1809, died 1892), his son Hesch Friedrich (born 1860, died 1915), his son Hesch Friedrich (born 1887, died 1969), than there is my father Hesch Friedrich...that´s it so far". 


We've speculated that Hesch was originally Heš, but couldn't prove it, altho we discovered that it's pronounced hesch either way.  Damn!  I really wanted Wilhelm in the family ☺!


THANKS for writing, Gerald...
.............................
BTW, Larry found THIS SITE where you can download recordings of Wilhelm Hesch  singing.  VERY COOL!

Cardboard Barrels

Ok, today a client and I were talking about what fun it was when older cousins or friends sent hand-me-down clothes for us to sort through and wear.  She's almost 30 years older than I am, but we both remembered getting cardboard barrels full of clothes--and that both our mothers used cardboard barrels to store off-season clothes (like winter coats in the summer).
Good memories.
But neither of us could remember where those barrels originally came from--what was shipped in them?  Or, if you could buy new empty cardboard barrels, who sold them?

Do YOU know?

Sporlein

Margaret Brandl (daughter of Erwin & Rose, from the post office) sent an email about an old timer she remembered in Buckman:

"I was wondering if you know anything about Fred Sporlein--1874-1958--he lost his wife in 1955 and the story was that he stopped shaving that year.  I played with Mikey Kappas every day and we would go to Sporlein's place and talk to him while he worked in the garden.  He was not called Fred only Sporlein.  I also got to know his daughter Louise who lived in Little Falls and was an RN.  He gave me one of his daughters' old dolls and some doll clothes.  He lived in the house dad was born in--the house behind Zenner's store.  He kept a team of horses and a wagon on Math Hesch's farm and one time he brought it to town just to let Mikey and me ride it down main street as if we were in charge-he sat next to us--it was thrilling--he died when I was seven so I must have been about 4 or 5 because Mikey moved to St Cloud before starting first grade.  I have a wonderful small pic of him with a full beard.  Margaret"

We did some research and found Fred's obit and Mary's too--

Recent Rites of Mrs. Mary Sporlein

        (May 4, 1955)

The last rites of Mary Magdalene Sporlein were solemnized at St. Michael's church, Buckman, Monday, May 9 with burial in the Buckman cemetery. Celebrant of the funeral mass was Rev. Paul Kunkel, pastor of the church, with Rev. Robert Voigt, Pierz assisting as deacon, and Father Benno Mischke, Onamia, the subdeacon.

Mrs. Sporlein was born at New Ulm, Minnesota June 15, 1874. Mary Margdalene Fischer married Fred Sporlein at New Ulm in June of 1897, and they settled in Agram two years later, where they lived on the farm 55 years. Clarence Smieja now operates the former Sporlein farm. Mr. and Mrs. Sporlein retired in the Village of Buckman fifteen years ago.

Mrs. Sporlein's illness started after a fracture some twenty months ago. She had been living since then with her daughter, Mrs. Louise Strutzel, in Maywood, Illinois. Mr. Sporlein made periodic visits there for extended periods during this time. He recently returned to his home in Buckman after having spent the past winter in Maywood.

Surviving are her husband, Fred Sporlein, four sons, Walter, Minneapolis; and Bernard, Edward and Henry, Chicago; and three daughters, Frances, Elgin, Illinois; Louise, Maywood, Illinois; and Freda, Chicago. One son, Joseph, preceded his mother in death, June 21, 1951.

There are twenty-one grandchildren and thirteen great grandchildren.

Other survivors are four sisters, Mrs. G. Happke, Wauconda, Illinois; Mrs. A. Weimar, Deerfield, Illinois; Mrs. F. Hanson, Minneapolis; and Mrs. E. Juni, St. Cloud.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Solemn Requiem For Fred Sporlein Wednesday

January 19, 1958
Funeral rites were held for Fred Sporlein, 83, Wednesday morning at St. Michael's church, Buckman, with Rev. Paul Kunkel, the celebrant for the Solemn Requiem, and Fr. Robert Voigt and Fr. Richard Leisen assisting as deacon and subdeacon. Interment was in the Bukman cemetery. He passed away Sunday at his home in Little Falls.

Six grandsons served as pallbearers: James Hocker, Ambrose Sporlein, Michael Sporlein, Robert Schroedl, Walter Sporlein, Jr. and James Mateyka.

He was born in Naperville, Ill. and moved to Agram township in 1901. Since that time he farmed there and later retired in the village of Buckman, and when his health began to fail, lived in Little Falls.

He was a member of St. Michael's Society of St. Michael's church, Buckman, for a half century.

Surviving are three daughters and four sons: Frances, Elgin, Ill.; Mrs. Louise Strutzel, Little Falls; Mrs. Louis Schamal and Henry, Bernard and Edward, Chicago; and Walter, Minneapolis. His wife, Mary, and a son, Joseph preceded him in death. There are 19 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Today, Margaret sent the photo of  Fred (above).  Doesn't he look like the kind of man who would laugh and tease small kids?  But you know he loved having them show up in his garden...☺ We didn't find much else about them, but if you have a story, I'd love to add it here, ok?


Added later: Anon wrote 
 "He [Fred Sporlein] kept his horses in our pasture behind our house in Buckman when I was young, so in the early & mid 1950's, until he sold them.  Great old guy, friendly, loved kids and gave most of us a ride on his freight wagon pulled by the horses. Rarely wore shoes, skin thick as pieces of cardboard glued together". 

   

It's interesting, too, that many farm couples retired and moved into town, into one of the houses close to the stores and church.  It'd be fun to list who lived in each of them, huh?

THANK YOU,  Margaret!

Why it pays to clean the garage

It's Labor Day, so I thought I'd spend a bit of it cleaning the garage.  Yeah, I found this photo out there:

WHY was it in the garage rather than an album?  Well, the original photo is an 8 X 10, and there are 63 men pictured, so that makes some pretty tiny faces.  Still, dad made a frame for it, and I remember the thing hanging in his garage.  I think it was in moms garage at the condo later, and I had little connection to it by the time I got it after mom died in 1996. There was no good place for it in the house, so it spent another 14 years in MY garage.

 Gawd, how patient can one photo be?  It's 68 years later!

When I first scanned and enlarged it, I thought the crouching guy on the left was dad--he has the ears, and he looks like my son Josh at the same age (dad was 29 in 1942).  But then, as I was counting the men, I realized nope, dad was in the second row, 5th from the right.
The legend at the bottom reads:

2ND PLATOON CO. A  2ND BN, CAMP WHEELER, GA AUG. 42

LT. CLARKSON, SGT ABERCROMBIE-CPL WENGER-CPL MCEWEN

Here's some info about Camp Wheeler and about the 9th Infantry, dad's eventual division.  I believe Camp Wheeler was where dad learned how to fix tanks.
************************
Later: Larry found this film about Camp Wheeler on youtube!


You'll find other training films on youtube too, if you're interested.

A cool quote

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action.  There is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. The   world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. 
Keep the channel open.
                                                        --Martha Graham
        

A winter photo in Buckman

Here's a cool family photo that tickles me with all it tells us.  It's obviously Johnny Boy and Agnes Hesch, two of five children of John Hesch and Ketrina Mueller.  (Another pic from JohnnyBoy's daughter, Julie).  Agnes (Aggie) was born in 1906 and Johnny Boy 10 years later in 1916.  Here, he looks to be 8 or 9? making the year 1924 or 1925.  Aggie would have been 18 or 19 then...and the background is probably Buckman.

Anon and I have been debating WHERE they were standing relative to the old water tower in the left corner.  (I know--only a real gen geek would CARE--so sue me...lol) We know it stood behind Brandl Motors until sometime in the 80s, so what building is between the tower and the tree where they stood?

If the pine is one of the trees on church property, then the building would be the back end of the Harness shop/later Zenners.  We can see the back side of a false front over Aggie's shoulder, but the roof lines don't match, left to right, and the Zenner building never had a second story window, did it?    Hmm.  OR, they might have been standing in their own front yard, which would be about where Sev's Bar is now, but then the buildings REALLY don't make sense.  The third option is Anon's thought: that they're standing near the old convent, kitty-corner from the Harness Shop and Brandl Motors.

I'd ask for you to vote, but I realize that only Anon and Larry and I care....☺  

Oh, and something else--the inscription on the photo is Johnny Boy's adult handwriting. ( Sue sent a copy of a note Aggie wrote, and it's different than that).

The recipe for Zenner's Sausage

...is over HERE, on the Janson blog!

From the wonderful Minnesota Historical Society

This is COOL.  Click the picture and read stories of four people with first-hand experience in logging, sawmilling, farming and flour milling in the new state of Minnesota.