Revisiting Bohemia

I'm home sick today (can't be helpful if the nose drips and the voice doesn't work), so I figured I'd search the church books for Martin's birth.  We know he arrived in America in January 1883, claiming Neuhaus, Bohemia as his place of origin.  He must have gone fairly directly to Pierz, where we found him in the 1885 census in Little Falls township (later Agram).  I found him in the Pierz St Joseph church book marrying Mathilda Nelles in 1887.

Evidently, he was born in October, 1859.  I've checked the Jindrichuv Hradec parish books from 1854 thru 1862, with no luck so far, but he could have been born in any village nearby, right?
However, I found the Wanek entries, below......and then tried the Schamers book.

Oh, sure, I got sidetracked, but that only proves that the journey can be as 

useful and interesting as the destination ☺

Once we discover a name to be looked for--like Wanek--well, I can't just pass by without doing a screen capture.  This is 24/25 January, 1856.  Anton Wanek (son of Josef Wanek of #1 Platz Mueller (the mill)) and his wife Marie Schindler had a baby named Josef who, sadly, only lived to February 2, 1856.  I don't recognize Anton's occupation, but they lived at #81.

April 7, 2012 :  Su wrote to say " I've had a lot more practice at reading weird handwriting now and I think [his occupation] is probably 'Greißler'."  

See the word right under ANTON, below?  A Greissler was a general store proprietor.  Schamers was a market town, so there were businesses that would never have been in a village like Oberschlagles.  Anton Wanek lived at the mill and owned a general store. Wow!

THANKS, SU!

 Below is another entry, from September 1859.  Looks like Maria Wanek lived.  But see the tiny numbers written at the bottom?  That may be her death date, 77 years later, in 1936.  There are still mysteries in these pages.  Any idea, Su?

I was enjoying the Schamers books cuz there are twice as many entries on each page as there were in the JH books.  I started earlier (one record book covers 1842 to 1874, so I started near the beginning.  It was a time of less babies born per year, it seemed, and suddenly, I noticed all the little death crosses among the entries.  Oh my, this was 1846, 1847 and the first entries in the revolution year of 1848.  I remember reading that the revolution was preceded by crop failure years and famine, but this illustrates it really graphically.

 

I was struck by the other names I recognize in those books, too.  Some are familiar from the many times we've perused them, but others are familiar from here in central Minnesota.  And, some married a Hesch there in Bohemia, so their names are picked out specifically too.

I found Mathias, Johann and Josef MARZINI and Anton, Josef, Franz and Prokog BINDER, Franz and Martin BLASCHKO;  Johann, Josef and Bartel FIEDLER (so far) and lots of NOVOTNYs.  Kind of amazing that some our families have known each other for centuries!

 Now here's a treat from 1847--see the middle entry there?  The child was Josef BINDER, born to Anton and Anna Binder at #42.  See the notation there on his birth record?    THIS child eventually  became the new Patron Saint of Obsessed South Bohemian Genealogists.  Funny to come back around and re-discover his birth record when we originally found it in 2009.  That's when he became a saint, too ☺

A Newspaper from Neuhaus, Bohemia

It was a big deal in Bohemia to learn to read and write.  Schools were an important part of the culture, and pretty much everyone could read.  The Neuhaus General Indicator (Neuhauser allgemeiner Anzeiger) was one of three Neuhaus German language newspapers Larry found online on a site called Kramerius.  Since we really don't expect to find news items about our ancestors, I've opted to show you the front page of the paper that was published 2 days before Paul Hesch was born ☺.

If you're interested, you can transcribe the words below to Google Translate and see what else was news that day!

Just think:  This paper was published 165 years ago and 4,570 miles from here.  INCREDIBLE that we can read it just like they did.

Who was Francis de Vivaldi?

On Thursday, Larry found an intriguing article from the St Cloud Times, reprinted in the Topeka, Kansas newspaper in May, 1892:

The Globe-Republican

Dodge City, Kansas

13 June 1892 p. 2

_________________

Topeka Capital: A St Cloud (Minn.) dispatch of the 24th ult. contains an account of Francis De Vivaldi, a missionary priest, who abandoned his profession more than 30 years ago, married, went west, disappeared for twenty-five years, and recently appeared in Minnesota, again a priest.  This person was undoubtedly our Kansas Charles F. De Vivaldi, who in May, 1859, established the Western Kansas Express, the first newspaper published at Manhattan.  De Vivaldi became active in free state politics in Kansas, and in 1861, having secured the endorsement of our leading public men, obtained the appointment of United States consul at Santos, Brazil.  He gave up his Manhattan newspaper to Hon. James Humphrey, who continued the publication.  De Vivaldi's name appears on the United Stated official register as holding the position of consul up to the year of 1867, and as having been appointed from Kansas.

Well!  Who wouldn't follow up on something like that?  Someone in Kansas remembered the name when they saw it come across the wire, since it IS a fairly unusual name.  As we traced de Vivaldi online, it's startling that through all his long and interesting life, he didn't use an alias that we know of. (On the other hand, if he did use an alias, HOW would we know?) I suppose he needed to hold onto the "noble Italian birth" story, and it wouldn't work without the name:  

Princeton newspaper 26 May 1892

__________________________

HE WAS NOT DEAD

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Francis de Vivaldi, Believed to Be Dead, Suddenly Returns to St Cloud

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Was Formerly a Catholic Priest and His Career is Tinted With Romance.

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St Cloud, Minn, Special, May 24-- There is a name on the register of the West hotel in this city to-day that hides a romance.  Francis de Vivaldi is a younger son of a noble Italian family who wandered years ago to the American frontier as a Catholic priest and was stationed in this county for a time.  Later he went to Wisconsin, married and renounced the priesthood, and then went to South America.  He had one daughter by his marriage, and after going to Brazil he suddenly disappeared.  Years passed and he was supposed to be dead, and his widow married again, her husband becoming secretary of war of Brazil under the emperor Dom Pedro.  Later the wife died leaving the child known as Corinne de Vivaldi Coaracy and so the family history might have closed but for a forty-acre tract of land which is now in the eastern limits of the city of St Cloud and which was once owned by de Vivaldi.  He was supposed to have deeded it to Father Pierz of the Benedictine order and the Hon. H.C.Waite of this city bought it in 1880 from the order for $500.  The deed, however, was never put on record; it was lost and Father Pierz was dead, and an enterprising lawyer, the land having become quite valuable, hunted up the daughter and a suit was brought in her name to recover the land.  It has been in litigation for two years now and tried in the courts always under the supposition that de Vivaldi, who disappeared so many years ago, was dead.  Absolutely nothing had been heard of him until to-day he reappears in the flesh and registers at the West.  Old friends here remember him, and it is said that he has been all these years in a monastery in Patagonia.  What his action in the case will be no one knows.

Ok, so he showed up in St Cloud.  What connection besides the land did he have in this area?  It's a fascinating story that Larry and I think has probably never been pulled together before.  Each community who dealt with de Vivaldi was just happy to see him leave, it seems, starting with Bishop Cretin, the first Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of St Paul, Minnesota.

Evidently, Cretin and de Vivaldi arrived on the same immigrant ship from Europe in 1851.  Cretin was heading to his assignment to be Bishop, and de Vivaldi was a young priest who impressed Cretin with his devotion and charm.

Still, wouldn't the name Vivaldi have had more currency in Europe than in America?  Years earlier, yes, but this was after the 1848 revolution that changed laws and hierarchy in most of Europe, and with revolution, 'nobility' became a liability.

So Cretin assigned his young friend to a position as a missionary to the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) Indians in Long Prairie, west of Little Falls, Minnesota.

Benign, right?  But evidently, Francis began running up bills locally and charging them to Bishop Cretin, who was not happy about it.  $5000 was $5000, ya know?

  (BTW, de Vivaldi couldn't have started an order of nuns before he arrived here in 1851.  1847 is wrong, but could very well be information he provided!)

OK, that's the first part of the story...to be continued.

August 2014---a little more background:

1846!
  Paul HESCH was born in Oberschlagles, Bohemia that year.  Here in Minnesota, the Long Prairie Reservation already existed, tho Charles deVivaldi wouldn't arrive for another five years.  Minnesota itself wasn't a state till 1858. There was no Morrison county yet, or very few towns we'd recognize either.  But see the lowest corner of the reservation on the map?  That would become Sartell, eventually, where Peter SAND settled. 

 I tried to find another corresponding map that was also marked with the series of rapids on the Mississippi so I could tell where the future town of 
Little Falls would be.  
They weren't as particular then, evidently, but you get the idea.

Quite a difference in ten years, huh?

Here's this whole map on the Davis Rumsey Historical Map Collection website.

1846 in History

January 20--Paul Hesch born in a tiny village in Bohemia

August 14-- Henry David Thoreau jailed for tax resistance

September 19-- Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning elope

October 31-- Donner party, unable to cross the Donner Pass, construct a winter camp

December 28-- Iowa becomes 29th state