Comparing 1880, 1890 and 1900 in Morrison Co.

These statistics interest me especially regarding the countries our folks came from, of course.  We know our Sands came from Luxembourg, as did the Neisius family, the Zenners, the Brixius and Majerus families among many others, but the census in 1900 says there was only one immigrant from there.  By then, people just said "Germany"--it was easier.  

Same with the Austria-Bohemia distinction: in 1900, Paul Hesch claimed Austria instead of Bohemia:

"After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the territory became part of the Habsburg's larger Austrian Empire, and subsequently the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867. Bohemia retained its name and formal status as a separate Kingdom of Bohemia until 1918..." (Wikipedia)

Otrembas, Rauschs, Schmolkes and many others came from "German Poland", "Austrian Poland" or "Russian Poland", while over 1,100 claimed Germany.

It's fascinating, too, how quickly Europeans in Morrison Co increased, from 618 in 1860 to 22,891 in 1900. 

Scofflaws of 1900

We're familiar with German tempers, right?   We grew up with the German sense of propriety and order, righteousness and stubbornness.  We even find those dubious qualities in (gasp) ourselves sometimes, and then we deny em.  But no, those 'qualities' came to us legally.  It's only accidental that Larry found accounts of the hotheads below; whew, a Hesch wasn't involved.

 Were there widespread incidents in 1900 that pissed off the priest?  Did women come to mass hatless?  Were people  genuflecting without a thump of the knee?  In any event, I can't believe that many people came to mass directly from the field, as Theo Stumpf did here.  Besides, working on Sunday was a worse sin.  Luckily, there was a defender of the faith there in St Josephs, ready and willing to toss him out on his ear.  I've never heard of a Church Policeman before.  It must have been a thankless job, and pretty unpopular too. No wonder it didn't last. Besides, Joe Bollig was only 31 in 1900--who'd listened to a youngster like that?

Here's a little tiff between neighbors Mary Kuder and Frank Otremba 

from July 27, 1900.  

Was 1900 a particularly BAD year?

Billy and Anna Meyer family photo

William "Billy" Meyer married Anna Otremba circa 1875.  Their first child, August, was born in 1876.  In the 1885 Minnesota census, the young couple lived with Katherina Otremba (Anton's widow) and some of Anna's sibs.  Anna was a sister to Mary (Otremba) Hesch, Paul's wife, and our great grandmother, ok?   To grandma Lizzy, they were Aunt Anna and Uncle Billy ☺.

Back to 1885: Billy and Anna had 5 kids by then: August, Mary, Katherine, Willy and Anna (different and unusual names, huh?)  Twenty years later, in the 1905 Minnesota census, the additional kids were Katie, Maggie, Joseph, Anton, Cecilia, Lizzy and Mathias.

So, trying to figure out what year the above photo was taken, would you say the youngest kid looks about 10?  Then this was about 1900.  Billy would have been 49, and Anna, 43.

There are two especially cool things about this: 

1) the photo I found in the Atlas was tiny--3 inches by 2 inches--but just look how clear it is.  We were meant to find it ☺! And

2) We first ID'd Billy Meyer and Anna Otremba on the right in this picture.  We figure it was summer, 1925.  By summer 1926, both John Hesch and Billy Meyer were gone...John in January and Billy in March of 1926.

Credit: Family Search and The Pictorial Atlas of Morrison County, Minnesota.

Census information in 1900

Just look at all the wonderful info that was asked for on a census!  Every ten years, the government wanted different items included (or skipped) since the last census, but the basic info was the same for almost all of them: name, age, M or F, place and date of birth.  Items kept getting added so that by 1900, there were 28 possible spaces to fill in for each person.

Here's a relatively random chunk of Pierz Township in 1900--probably east of town, because that's where Marshiks lived.  See John PRZYBILLA there?  He was born in November 1841.  He and Maria had been married for 34 years, and Marie'd endured 11 births, with 9 living children.  In 1900, only Katherine (16), Joseph (14) and Anton (12) were still at home, but they had a 3 year old 'boarder' from New York named Franziska Shilz.  (I hope they adopted her eventually).  Maria and John were born in one of the parts of Europe ruled by Germany (we know it was Poland near the Otrembas, Schmolkes, and Mischkes).
Their next door neighbors were Julius and Josephine MARSHIK, a young couple with 2 kids, John (2) and Magdalena (1).   At first, I thought Grandma and Grandpa (Joseph and Maria)  MARSHIK lived next door, but not if the info is accurate.  It says they emigrated from Austria 17 years earlier, but then Julius wouldn't have been born in Minnesota.  They'd been married for 45 years, had 9 births with 7 living children.
It's interesting to see who was a "farmer" and who was a "farm laborer".  Probably one was on his own land while the other was hired out.  Katherine Przybilla was working as a hired girl in someone else's home.
If you really want to know what each column was for, check the Ancestry Wiki ☺.

A new Sand pic, a new Sand mystery!

Woohoo! 


Ok, NOW this info is correct, thanks to the 'anonymous' comment above ☺


We heard from another Sand connection, namely Frank Sand's grand daughter Carolyn.  (Frank's daughter Amelia was Carolyn's mom, ferschtay?)


Frank is the baby on Louisa's lap in this WONDERFUL photo she sent:

Since Frank was born in May, 1896, then this is late summer that same year--say, September?  How odd that the eldest child was front and center, overshadowing everyone else, but Joe couldn't stand in back, I suppose.  He woulda looked like a telephone pole.

 Here's the same photo, with names, as near as we could discern.  There were 10 children in the Mike & Louisa Sand family, but look, there are 11 here (don't forget to count Joe ☺).

The girl on the right looks "Sand", and was maybe 11-12 years old...but she doesn't fit in their family; there are no gaps in the birth order.  Could she have been a fraternal twin to Angie, maybe?  But then, what happened to her?  

We mis-interpreted the year this photo (below) was taken.  Now, I realize it was later, when Frank was 3-4 years old (that's him between Pa and Ma).  Let's say it was summer, 1900, ok?

(Added for comparing purposes ☺)

MANY THANKS and WELCOME to CAROLYN and her SIBS!

By the way, this post is the 800th post on Hesch History--pretty amazing for a family with "no history"...lol

"Let's have them build a railroad, ok?"

 

This article from the Princeton, Mn newspaper in December 1900 is interesting on a number of levels.  For one, I doubt that Lastrup OR Buckman were ever in serious contention for a Great Northern line, even tho most places dreamed of the railroad deciding to run thru their town.  There was a Great Northern line from St Cloud thru Milaca to Duluth, however.
Two, the only real rail line possibility was Pierz, but that was the Soo Line running to Duluth, and Pierz was rejected cuz North Pierz / South Pierz couldn't decide where the depot would go.
Three, was John Schmolke blowing smoke?  I wonder which bar the 'proposed  spur line from Milaca to Little Falls' was invented in. It's kinda preposterous, I think.

Four, the proposed "direct" route doesn't make any sense...lol

BTW, Larry found this article (surprised?) on Chronicling America from our own Library of Congress.  They've recently added more newspapers and more states, too.  Check it out--this is one of the GOOD things our taxes pay for.

Pauls last will and testament

My great grandfather Paul Hesch was born in Oberschlagles, Bohemia on January 20th, 1846.  He emmigrated c 1867, settled in Buckman, Minnesota, and married Mary Ortemba in 1874.  They raised 13 children on the farm a mile west of Buckman.  On August 22nd, 1900, Paul was thrown from a moving wagon and broke his back.  He lingered for 3 days, and died on August 25th.  He was 54 years old.


Yesterday, I went to the Morrison County Historical Society's Weyerhauser Museum in Little Falls, Mn, and asked to see Paul, Mathias and Anton's probate files.  How wonderful to know these papers are preserved, there at the museum.  I expected to see a typed copy of Paul's will, if there was one...but instead, the original is there, sheets of 110 year old paper fastened together into one long hand-written document.

When Larry and I studied the copy last night, we knew that Paul couldn't have been the writer, since he was bedridden and was told not to move or he'd die.  So who did the actual transcribing?  It could have been one of the witnesses there, or even the notary, since Hesch is mis-spelled (as is Buckman, Morrison, and Minnesota!), in the first part.  Larry pointed out the X before Paul's name and the improvised "seal" after his name, and that the document was notarized.
That "X" was probably all Paul could do, since he couldn't move...tho he could make them correct his last name.

It's interesting, too, to note who those witnesses were, and also, who was probably there keeping a vigil for those 3 days:  Paul's mother, Marya Schlinz Hesch would have been there, since she lived in Agram township, about 5 miles north of the farm, with his brother Anton.  (Brother Mathias was still living in Waumandee, Wisconsin, and their father Johann had died 3 years before).  Paul & Mary's oldest daughter, Rose, lived in Rice with her husband Louie Gottwalt, and came home to be with her father, too.

You know, I believe this photo was taken in the end of August, 1900.....

A little Royalton history

Larry found this photo of the C. W. Bouck hardware store in turn-of-the-last-century Royalton, Minnesota.  I didn't recognize it, but it was probably still standing when I was a kid. 

So, I set out to find where it was in town.  These next three photos are from a website that's sadly no longer online.

Ah, there it is, on Center Street, the main east/west road thru town.  If you followed this street, you'd  cross the Platte on the old iron bridge, and eventually you'd be in Little Rock.

Another view from closer to Front Street (highway 10).  Of the buildings in these photos, the only ones still standing are the nearest ones on the left and right in this ► photo.  Too bad!

◄ Interior of the store.  Just LOOK at all the wood stoves along the left wall.  Wow!




Thanks, Larry ☺ !!

Gottwalts in Rice

A cool service (that I've lauded before here) is Google Books. They're digitizing obscure tomes and making them searchable online.
For instance, this, from 1881-1900. A report about where permanent markers were installed:

Isn't that COOL?

(Hug Larry for this one, too!)

The things you find on a census!

We were curious about who owned what in the village of Buckman, so since plat maps include names, I thought I'd look, say in 1902:

Did John Schmolke own the NE fourth of Buckman? Most of the time, there's a tiny square on each person's land to indicate where the house is, like on Brausens or Denzens there. We know John was a leading citizen and businessman in Buckman. Maybe he lived in town and farmed the land? Could be that two lots of the six marked here were lots he no longer owned....? And see? The church and school were originally opposite of the way they are now.
So, I went to see if his residence was in town. Here's the 'In Town' part of the 1900 census for Buckman. John and Hedwig have been married 14 years, they've had 5 children but only 4 are living; they've adopted a son, and look--Hedwigs' widowed father, John Peschel, lives with them.

AND wow...remember the doctor who cared for Paul Hesch after he broke his back? It was Edward Seguin, a 25 year old, newly arrived French Canadian, who boarded at Schmolkes. (And, according to a chat with Louise, the Doctors' office was IN the Schmolke house!)

Good thing that house was big.

Their son, John M., was born in 1887. He's the 'John Schmolke' referred to in Buckman still.

Der Nordstern Zeitung (Northstar Newspaper)

Here's the announcement of Paul Heschs' death in the German newspaper he would have read. The Nordstern Zeitung was published weekly in St Cloud, and later in La Crosse, Wisconsin by the Nordstern Association, I think.

What a miracle that the paper was archived....then every page was copied to microfilm...the Stearns History Museum in St Cloud has it, browsable...and that I could copy the page, scan it to my computer....reproduce it here....and show YOU. Wow.

Later~I typed what I think it says onto GoogleTranslator. This is pretty close:

"Monday last was one of our best inhabitant of the
54 year-old Mr. Paul Hesch buried. All members of
the community Buckman and many people from
neighboring towns were at the funeral present.

It is well known that Mr Paul Hesch was a hard
worker, a good husband and an honest man.

It is our understanding that he by one of his farms
Wednesday was returning home when the horses
shied and he was thrown from the buggy and was
from the fall injured.

Our Doctor Mr Seguin, treated him during his final
illness until Saturday morning, he blessed the time.
He died as a good Catholic, well-equipped with the
Sacraments and blessings of the Cath. Church.
Our heartfelt condolences to the widow and to the
children".

Need another picture?

The MIKE SAND Family, c. 1898 1900.

Grandma Elizabeth is second from the left here. Her parents were Michael Sand (born 1852) from Schoenfels, Luxembourg, and Louisa Rausch (born 1854) in Shedliske, Prussia.

The names of the kids, according to Great Aunt Lena:

L to R-- John, Elizabeth, Ann, Veronica, Joseph, Frank, Mary, Magdalena, Angelica, and Charles.

Ann became Sr. Teresita OSB and Mary became Sr Severine OSB, Angie married Joe Hiemenz, Vernie married John Wintermeyer, Lena married Henry Block and Lizzy married Anton Hesch.

.......................................................

I have information on 3 of the boys, but one, Joseph, answers a question I've had for years: How does Fr. Lewans fit?

Remember him? In the late 60s, we found out Grandma had a young relative who was a priest, and he was coming for a visit. Turns out, he was her brothers' grandson. Joe is the tall son in the middle of the picture up there. He married Antonia Poser in 1908 and promptly moved to Saskatchewan, Canada.

Their daughter Kunigunda married Peter Lewans, and Sylvester was one of their kids.

Last summer (2008), Sylvester Lewans, OMI celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination. Wow.