HESCH HISTORY: Cap, Tresco, Max, Pat & Charley the Percherons

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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Thursday, May 23, 2013

Cap, Tresco, Max, Pat & Charley the Percherons

Farm horses were pretty important from the time our relatives arrived in the United States right up to WWII. Like typical competitors, farmers were known by their teams--how big they were, how much they could pull, and eventually, how pure-bred they were (the teams, not the farmers). We started seeing "stallion service" ads in the Pierz Journal in 1910--a subject that was a bit earthy for tender sensibilities, but words like "service", "standing" and "a single leap" were euphemistic enough. You got the picture.

Watching was probably a popular (and randy) passtime, too. Ahem.