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.

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

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Cleaning up the Sands

So, today I got a wild hair to "declutter" around here.  The first project was kitchen related--cupboards with WAY too much stuff in em, in particular the bottom shelf in the corner next to the stove.  Haven't seen what's back there in years.  It would take a flexible kid with a flashlight to spelunk that space.  I figure what I couldn't reach isn't causing any problems, right?  It's fine where it is. A "legacy" someday, even.

Since I still had some energy left, I thought about my genealogy files.  They occupy most of a drawer in the file cabinet, and they're in NO order at all.
When Larry first got me interested, I started printing info as soon as I found it online--"HEY!  This is US--I need a copy of it!"  Not to mention tons of copies from research trips to the Weyerhaeuser in Little Falls or to the History Museum in St Paul. Naturally, EVERYTHING had to be copied...and subsequently, stored.

  And you're right--I haven't looked at/needed that stuff in years, either.  It's all online, but the hard copies simply can't be tossed.  I just can't.  They're too precious.  Sigh. For instance, the first folder contains:
  • a copy of the last will and testament of Mathias Hesch (GGrandpa Paul's brother); 
  • the two SCTimes "local history" issues published on their 150th anniversary as a newspaper; 
  • a 3 page-taped together copy of the marriage license of Peter Sandt and Angelique Stoltz in May, 1848; 
  • a scan of a letter from my daughter-in-law's grandmother about their family; 
  • a bunch of family group sheets (Muellers, Otrembas, Dehlers, Hortschs)
  • Dad's "Farm and Home Management Plan" from--wow, he tried to make the Dropps farm work, in 1939?  I've looked at that file before, but never saw the "G.Dropps farm" designation.  It says "Buckwheat 30 acres, corn 20 acres, hay 60 acres".  As of December 15, 1940, he had 3 work horses, 2 cows, a tractor plow, corn planter, set of harnesses, and a Chevy Coupe....
 Anyway, something else I found and never questioned is a "Descendants of Matthew Sand" list.  (It's in print, so it must be true).  Matthew was born in 1653 in Luxembourg, and married Johanna Crehes, born 1682.  Looks like they're the earliest Sand ancestors we know about, but only 7 generations later, it's screwed up ☺.
There were two kids in that generation named  John Peter Sand...one was Mike Sand's brother, the other was their cousin, son of Paul Sand and Katherina Didier...and the birth of one is paired with the wife and death of the other.  Argh.  How much energy do I have left?  Nope, not enough.
 New Munich cemetery list, with Paul & Katherina's grave.

3 comments:

  1. What was he doing on the dropps' farm before the war? I thought they bought it with Mom's inheritance after the war. K

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, the Dropps farm was the brick house out on the prairie south and west of Buckman. It was the abandoned place we often ended up at when we went on Sunday rides. Curly said Aunt Katie and Uncle Blaise had lived there, but he never mentioned that HE had. It's the farm that A and I bought--240 acres with house and barn, fences and a pond, for $20,000...pure blow sand and no plumbing. Sheesh.
    The farm they bought with mom's money was the one west of Mayhew Lake. Another sand pile that wouldn't grow crops, so they moved to St Cloud and Curl got a regular job.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I feel your pain. so hard to decide what to keep and what to throw...Sound like stuff to keep to me. ;-)

    ReplyDelete