The Pierz Journal office (now with cool added info! ☺)

Look what Larry found on a website called familyoldphotos.com   It was titled "Men in Pierz MN newspaper office".  It had to be the PJ since that was the only Pierz newspaper, and because, look, the doors line up with the ones in the press room, below.  

Even tho we can't see the date on the calendar (argh!) in the sepia pic, we think the second photo was taken later, perhaps as Larry suggested, one of the 1925 sweep of pics on the Minnesota Reflections site.  (This was a series of un-identified pictures of businesses and creameries that seem to have been taken by the same photographer over a day or two in Buckman, Pierz and 

other area small towns. We've posted quite a few here on HH).

Click these pictures to enlarge--if the office one was early in the PJs history (look, no mess near the spittoons!), then the guy behind the desk could be original Editor C.L. Bailey, and it might have been as early as 1909 ☺.

But wait, there's more!

Four days later:  Su, our wonderful British corespondent and honorary Hesch, took a few minutes from her spring gardening to peruse these photos.  She saw what we missed: that both pictures are lit with electricity, not oil lamps.  And yes, we happen to have PJ articles telling us exactly when buildings in Pierz were electrified.  Isn't that cool?
It's entirely possible, and more than probable,  that the two men at the front desk were Dr Kerkhoff and AP Stoll.

Wow, THANKS, SU!

THIS is incredible--in a quite sensible maneuver, Larry checked Ancestry.com for photos of A P Stoll, since we already had this funeral card picture of Ed Kerkhoff.  Looking again at the front office photo, your three HH "experts" pretty much agree that the man behind the desk is probably Dr Kerkhoff.  And now, the problem of what Anthony P. Stoll looked like is no longer a prob either!  Larry found two portraits and a wedding photo of A.P., and I think the resemblance is remarkable between the man with the overalls and the Stoll family photos below. (I've added the photos to Morrison County, Remembered--click the link ☺).

 OK, so the obvious burning question, then, is why was our staid banker dressed like a farmer?  I think it was probably something like Market Day in Pierz, or a bet he lost...or maybe he was appearing in a play at Faust's Theater across the street, and he stopped at the office for a photo op.  Yes, the man on the right could be a local farmer, but a few things make that unlikely, in my mind.  For one, his stylish hat, suit coat and fancy shiny shoes--I wouldn't be surprised if the borrowed bibs were actually on over his suit pants.  
Then there's his casual pose, and Dr Kerkhoff's ignoring him--they look familiar to each other, don't you think?  Besides, having a pic taken then was a planned affair--this was no snapshot.  There was a reason it was taken, maybe just for the fun of it.

Researching A.P. Stoll was confusing because A.P. had a brother named Alfred, who was also a public figure in Morrison Co, and who went by A.M. Stoll, as in this ad.

It's easy to goof on this one, so pay attention:
A.P. was DIFFERENT than A.M.  You're welcome.