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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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The interesting mind of a devoted researcher

One evening last winter, Larry showed me something curious he'd found online about missionary nuns among the Ojibwe in Northern Minnesota.  We'd been talking about Sr Laura, my dad's aunt.  He found an article in a Minnesota Historical Society magazine that was digitized online.  One faded photo from that article fascinated us both--a classroom with a band of children, and a nun covering her ears ►

Well.  One of us kept the pic in her file for awhile, and the other of us kept hoping to find the original photo.  It stayed in the back of his mind all this time.  He knew they wouldn't have used a terribly faded photo, and that our copy was probably just a digital distortion, but still!  There had to be a story there...lol

Last night we realized that MHS had to have the original, or they wouldn't have used it in their magazine.  So, while one of us was blathering away by herself on instant messenger, the other of us was searching the Minnesota Historical Society's collection of photos.

Voila!


It's labeled "Childrens band, Drexel Indian School, White Earth" in 1910 or so, and it's a much clearer photo, taken outside, with five serious kids, two adult musicians, one placid nun, and one laughing, with her ears covered.

YAY, Larry! ☺

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