Serendipity

I'm rifling the Atlases again this week, since I know some treasures were missed the first time I paged thru, especially photos of people I didn't immediately recognize.  You may not find these pictures all that interesting, but someone will.  Be sure to enlarge each one (the detail's amazing, considering how tiny each pic was in the books).

I particularly love this one, of "James Foss, John Kieffer & Tom Czech". Obviously friends, they might have been illustrating the most usual clothes for men in Buckman in the 1920s--Tom was comfortable as the farmer in overalls (his 'look' for all 98 of his years).  John in his dress shirt, suspenders and tie would have been the store owner, the local businessman.   James was the city slicker, the man about town, maybe the  rum runner?  Check the jaunty angle of  their stoggies ☺.

I know this building looks like  Mueller's Bar and Hardware Store, but no, it was Schmolkes General Store, with the annex on the far side serving as the US Post Office, I believe.  It was located kitty-cornered from Muellers and Mischkes stores.  Competition in Buckman must have been fierce.  Wouldn't you love to know who all the people were on the porch?  Probably John Schmolke and Pete Blake, for sure, and any boys who were out running around that day.

This must have been the wedding of a Stangl grandkid--one daughter is wearing a corsage too, see?

The Frank Stangl family is notable to me because of the two "kids" on the left.  Recognize either one?  Seated is Marie (Stangl) Pohlkamp, wife of Lambert and long time neighbor of Roman and Emily Dehler...and he's Fr. Alfred Stangl, chaplain at the St Cloud hospital, who also says the televised mass many Sunday mornings.  My Sunday client loves him ☺.

Remember hearing about "Pinky Suess" when we were kids?  I don't recall meeting him, but I've always been curious about that nickname.  The photo looks like he and John Mueller had a great day fishing.  This was probably in the late 40s or early 50s.
(No, there was no Pinky Quess).












Here's an individual  portrait of Mary Mischke,  but I don't know how she fits.  We know the immigrant Mischke couple was Joseph and Mary, but they were in their 60s in 1900, and this photo looks to be from about that time--1890 to 1910, so this Mary is much younger.
Wait--I bet this was August's mother, the daughter who lived with Joseph and Mary in the 1900 census, huh?  One of three living children, sure.  She was 20 in 1900.

Speaking of Czechs...

...the American pronunciation of the ethnicity Czech is 'check', right?  We say 'Check Republic', and the old combined state was pronounced  'Check-a-slovakia'.  However, when it comes to the Morrison county family named Czech, it's pronounced with what seems like a Germanic twist: (ts)'zek.  It's similar to czar--a tiny 'ts' sound at the start, so it's not just zar or Zech (tho that's heard around here, too).

In my mind, there are 3 or 4 associations with the Czech family, beyond Roselin Sand marrying Alphonse Czech.  One is the old couple northeast of us when we lived on the Dropps farm, in the early 70s.  I've cobbled together four section photos from the 1940 Minnesota DNR air survey to illustrate.  (Yes, I KNOW how much you love stuff like this ☺.  Just humor me, ok?)

Lower left corner of
the photo composite above

I doubt whether even my sibs remember much about the Dropps farm.  It had been abandoned years before we bought it, and for good reason.  The land, all 240 acres of it, was blow-sand, and totally hopeless for crops other than sandburrs and scrub cedars.  Still the barn was good, and the house was a solid red brick Sears mail order house, without furnace or plumbing, built for $3,900.  In this 1940 air photo, the place was new, and no one had failed there yet.

Our nearest neighbors were Tom & Minnie Czech, who lived in a tiny house oddly connected to ours by a rutted field road.  We were starry eyed and fairly stupid hippies who thought we could go "back to the land".  They took us in to their hearts, and never laughed at us...as far as we know ☺.  They  babysat for Josh, and he loved it there.  I don't recall them ever being in a hurry--they had all the time we needed.  They were wonderful friends. And, they were the parents of Alphonse, who married Roselin Sand, a neighbor girl from across the road.  Neat, huh?

When I found this next pic in the Morrison County Atlases, I assumed it was Tom's family of origin, but nope, Martin and Mary Czech settled across the river in the Prussian areas around Bowlus and Swan River.  And since I already looked them up, here's the pic and the names of the kids. I'm assuming the boys are in chronological order: Charles (John) b 1874, Stanislaus b 1876, Michael b 1880, Frank b 1884, Peter b 1886, Rockus b 1889 and Robert b 1891.  The girls were Brigitta, b 1879, and Anna, b 1882.  Mary and Martin were both born in 1846.  Are they related to Tom?  I dunno, but they look like a nice family, huh?

The other connection I think of is an article Larry found ages ago, from the St Cloud Times, after I mentioned names I remembered from my childhood.  (The man is methodical in that he regularly searches for a whole list of names from his own family and mine.  We are truly blessed ☺).

This couple is connected too--possibly thru Sam, but certainly thru Alvina, who was a sister of Elegius Otremba. Cool, huh?  (TG we have Larry to research AND to comment on posts! ☺)

You're welcome!  

Love, Larry and Marlys ☺