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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Monday, September 8, 2014

Dirty Thievin' Horse Thieves Part II


(BTW, here's Dirty Thieven' Horse Thieves Part I). 
Sorry we made you wait a whole year for this.  It's worth it just to see who JP Sand was.

I started to transcribe the article but figured anyone who's followed this story so far is incredibly patient and will ask if they really need it transcribed.  Those who are mildly interested probably already read English.  

We found out some previously unknown (to us) facts with this letter.  For one, the train didn't stop in Little Falls in 1883?  JP says he boarded at Rices (Rice, Mn--18 miles south of LF) and the telegram from Fargo came to him there. Ok, a little research tells me that the Great Northern depot in LF wasn't built till 1899...so they didn't stop unless there was a water tank, a building and a telegraph link, I suppose.

Another fact we've wondered about was whether the J.P.Sand in Buckman was the same as deputy J.P.Sand in Little Falls.  They were, and here JP says he's busy stacking grain (on his farm) in Buckman.  (He showed up in the 1885 census there).

Evidently, JP and Sheriff Rasicot weren't best buddies.  The problem had to be more than this, but still,  it was less than politic to call your boss a liar and a boasting beer-swilling saloon loud-mouth in the paper.  Whew. How did JP expect no retaliation over this?  But it sounds like he'd already had his reputation besmirched and his ego wounded--that'd piss off just about anybody.

I expect people were hollering about nepotism, too, since this whole episode had to do with a matched team of JP's brothers' horses (belonging to Mike Sand, our great grandfather).  Even if he would have proceeded the very same way for any other citizens' horses, people can be awfully small-minded.

This kerfluffle took place well before the Bulow trial (five years in the future), but JP and Henry Rasicot were still working together as sheriff and deputy then.  Must have had some kind of truce, but it had to be galling for both.

At the time, there were two newspapers in LF, as JP mentions here: The Sun and the Transcript.  The Sun isn't online, so we have to trust JP's version of events ☺. 

Later:  Wow, Larry found some intriguing news clips from the late 1880s.  Watch for another post ☺









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