Remember when we talked about Nathan Richardson here on HH? He was the first Mayor of Little Falls and has had a book written about him (A Big Hearted Paleface Man, by Mary Warner). He might have been a great public servant, but I don't think ol' Nate listened very well, or had a whole lotta common sense.
Above, you see his handwriting. He was pressed into service enumerating the census in 1870, particularly in Agram township, around "Pierce". Admittedly, the Otrembas had been in the US less than a year, and probably none of them spoke any English, but how hard is "Ot-rem-ba" to sound out without making it look Irish? Argh...☺ Too bad he wasn't perfect like the rest of us...
Anyway, whining about Nathan Richardson isn't what this post is about. It's something Larry noticed about the birth places noted there on the census: Anton, his wife, and daughter Mary (our future great grandma) were born in Prussia, and the others were born in Poland? Surely they were all born in Gushwitz, Falkenberg, Silesia, Prussia...but checking Polish history, we found that Poland became a separate country again after 1853 when Mary was born and before 1857 when Anna was born. THAT info made a difference to Anton, and he was able to communicate it, even if they got his name wrong. Whew!
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