John Ferschweiler, Mike Sand's Buddy

We've written before of LeSauk resident and neighbor of Peter and Angelique Sand, John Ferschweiler.  If you're interested (or you forgot), type Ferschweiler into the search box above, left ☺. Looks like when Larry and I were researching him, we didn't think to check the partly definitive "History of Stearns County, Minnesota" since you had to pay to be included in the book.  Our folks didn't pay, but hooray, John did. Also, another member of the Ferschweiler family, John's sister Magdalena, married J P Sand, our GGrandpa Mike's oldest brother.  That's a whole 'nother story.

  

To clarify, the Peter & Margaret Ferschweiler family and the Peter & Angelique Sand family were neighbors in Sartell, LeSauk township, Stearns county, MN before and during and after the Civil War.  There are houses, a strip mall and gas station/convenience store on that land now.

"The Sand sisters"

Jenny sent this somber and lovely unknown (to me) tintype photo.  It's marked on the back "the Sand sisters", but which family?  The photo is older than any we've seen of Mike Sand and family, and the clothing is of an earlier style, too.  These three must be Michael Sands' siblings then.
But according to the bio below (from the Stearns History Museum in St Cloud, Mn), he had four sisters, not three.  Still, even if we don't know what happened to Theresia, the sisters pictured would be Anna on the left (born 1859 in Iowa), then Mary (born 1870 in Sartell), and Katherine (born 1863 in Sartell).  Mary looks about 10 here, so I'm guessing this was about 1880.  Isn't this just amazing?

More thanks to Jenny!

At least one Sand mystery, solved

We heard from a wonderful new relative last night!  She's Magdalena (Sand) Block's great grand daughter Jenny, and she enclosed a few photographs.  Her grandmother was Hildegard Hoheisel and the delightful photos were passed along from her.  However, I believe a little suspense is good for your character, so we'll post them tomorrow or the next day ☺

But first, Solving the Sand Mystery:  remember the "Eight Women" photo we've puzzled over here on HH?  Over time, we figured out who each woman was except for two: the kneeling woman on the left, and the nectar pourer (bottom, with the pitcher). This was 1920, and we think it was probably a Hesch wedding.  In an exchange of emails, Jenny thought that the kneeling woman on the left was most likely Lena Block--dark hair, possibly pregnant, and one of Louisa's four daughters and a daughter-in-law to work that particular occasion. I think she's right.
Click the "Eight Women" link for the names ☺
THANKS, JENNY!!

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.

Which Hesch?

Here's one of the instances where our German families' repeated use of the same names drives me nuts. I clipped this item awhile ago, but just this morning started to understand. Sorta.
I think great uncle Math Hesch wrote it, because he thoroughly knew the relationships, and at the same time would have enjoyed the chance that it would confuse readers 95 years later ☺.

"A. A. Hesch bought the old Mike Sand farm, and John Hesch bought the farm from Anton Hesch.  Mr. and Mrs. Hy Block, who live on the Sand place now, will move to Genola where Mr. Block bought the Peter Beka blacksmith shop and also the John Kobilka house which they will occupy in about two months."

Now, "A.A.Hesch" was Math's brother Anton, which people knew.  A.A.'s wife was Lizzy Sand, daughter of Mike Sand, so buying the place was natural, right? The next sentence was meant to obfuscate, tho: "John Hesch bought the farm from Anton Hesch", meaning the Agram farm. This John was a cousin, not their brother*...and this Anton was their uncle (see header ☺).  BUT, uncle Anton had died in 1911.  Why was it mentioned, I wonder?  I doubt that A.A. ever owned the Agram farm, tho it's possible.  (We assumed Cousin John bought that farm from his own dad, Mathias).  So the clipping is actually still a mystery!

Hy (Henry) Block was married to Lena Sand.  They'd moved the the Sand place after their wedding in 1914. 
*Their brother John was an invalid who owned a house and store in Buckman.

Most of the descendants of Frank & Catherine Sand

Man, I can hardly think of a better way to spend a summer Saturday than getting acquainted and re-acquainted with relatives.  The pot luck was great, the weather was breezy and below 80 mostly, the talk and laughter and hugs was practically constant.  It was a terrific day!

Frank Sand, you'll recall, was the baby of the Michael and Louisa Sand family (so grandma Lizzie's baby brother from the 1900 photo).

Here are many of the grandkids of Frank and Catherine...

(plus spouses and drop ins ☺...)

...and their kids, the great grands....

And the delightful next generations, 

the great great grandkids.  

With any luck, they'll remember being there today, 

possibly even into the 2100s, can you imagine?

 (A small portion of the paparazzi ☺)

Thanks for inviting me--it was great fun!

A new "eight women" picture connection

 

When we finally figured out when this picture was probably taken, and why, we posted about it.  I was, of course, most interested in the five Sand women (Grandma, her sisters and mom) and the woman on the bottom right (most likely Charlie Sand's wife, here on a visit from Wenatchee,Washington).  We still don't know the woman with the pitcher, or the kneeling woman on the left, but we figured they were the cooks and servers for one of the three Hesch weddings that took place in 1920.

Then, when Chris sent the picture of Lena Dengel Mueller, I was thrilled, cuz now she fits, too ☺ See?
Added April, 2015:  Lena Sand Block's great grandaughter says the kneeling woman is most likely LENA--of course!  So I've changed the photo to include that ID.  Now, all we need is the name of the nectar-pourer ☺. Thanks, Jenny!

Look closely--mother Louisa is holding Angie's hand, and has her arm around Lena; Jenny mentioned that it might be little Hildegard, 

just out of the picture next to her mom on the left.

That'd be cool ☺

What's Sartell got to do with it?

Sartell is the town just north of Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, and a couple miles upriver from St Cloud.  It was originally LeSauk township, where one or two leading citizens of St Cloud had stock farms in the 1890s (D B Searle for one). J B Sartell moved there about 1854 and built a sawmill and grist mill on Watab Creek. Eventually, he became the namesake of the village.
The lucky Sartells were neighbors of the Peter Sand family.  As near as we can tell, Peter's land bordered on the Watab (from legal descriptions of his parcels).  A family story says Peter was in on the mill businesses, at least for awhile.  
The description below says that the grist (flour) mill had 15 feet head (which I think means how deep the dammed water was behind the mill.  There'd be more force with more water, I suppose). A quarter mile further downstream (toward the Mississippi) was the saw mill, with 14 feet of head.  What a lucrative pair of businesses--everyone needed flour as well as lumber. 

By 1906, the SARTELL section in the St Cloud City directory listed almost all  residents either working for the Sartell Brothers OR Watab Paper Co.  

STILL, you say, what have we to do with the Sartell family?  Ahh, you haven't been paying attention.  You've neglected to read every post we've written in the last five years?  What a shame. 

 Peter Sand's daughter Kate, our great grandpa's sister, married Linton Longly Sartell in 1881. They had eight children, so I expect at least a few of them had kids and took pictures...?  ( OK, I'm sorta developing an unhealthy passion for old pics ☺.  But there ARE worse things).

Woohoo--another de-SAND-ant heard from ☺

When Larry and I find "a little more" about one of the ancestors, especially something COOL, we always wonder if one of their kids' kids' kids' will see it.  For sure, we know how exciting it is to discover a connection, and find "Wow, they came from Bohemia, not Germany like I thought" or "I didn't know he fought in the Civil War", or "worked for the railroad", etc. (I don't quite understand why so much of our family history was forgotten, and not passed along proudly, altho if they HAD passed it along, what would Larry and I have done for the past five years?)

Just so you know,  our first post on Hesch History was exactly five years ago today, January 18, 2009.  YAY, US!

Like a blogiversary gift, we got an email yesterday from David, who recognized his family here on HH.  He and I share great-great-grandparents Peter Sand & Angelica Stoltz Sand, he says (I agree). In his case, he didn't know that the Von Sandt family came from Luxembourg.  Like us, he thought they came from Germany.
  
The most fun part of David's discovery tho, is that his great grandfather was Mike Sand's older brother John Peter Sand, deputy sheriff in Little Falls in the 1880s and 90s, and his wife Magdalena Ferschweiler Sand.  JP's story has been one of the really fun research subjects on HH.  It involved scandal, new laws, a hanging, freeing a prisoner, escaping, a manhunt, horse thieving--and it was all recorded in the newspapers of the time.  

David says he previously had no idea who his great grandparents were.  

This is just COOL ☺  

WELCOME to the family, David!

The 1909 wedding of Angela Sand and Anton Gerwing

Pierz Journal, July 22, 1909

July 22, 1909

Remember my whining about German naming traditions before on HH?  The idea that the first son was named after his dad's father, and the first daughter was named after her mom's mother, etc...makes families easier to trace over the years, but MUCH harder to distinguish between 3 or 4 cousins all named John or Peter, or John Peter, or Anna, Mary or Angeline, all born in the 1880s.

We're talking about an Angeline Sand, daughter of Nicholas and Christina Sand from Meire Grove, Stearns Co, west of St Joseph, Mn.  Was her dad a brother to Michael, or a cousin?  Brother makes sense cuz of the names of their children but cousin makes sense too because the Nick I was thinking of married Katherine Didier.

Oh well, this'll get worked out and I'll change what I've goofed on.  In the meantime, it's 1909, and we have an account of a letter to Maud Berg, a friend in Pierz, from Anton Gerwing (the groom up there in the pics).  He says he married Angeline Sand from Meire's Grove in June (see photos!).  Apparently, Maud's brother (?) had also moved to California, and in July, sent a newsy letter home, along with his subscription to the Journal.  Luckily, this got him column inches and we find out about land prices and speculating on crops in California...not to mention explaining some lovely wedding pics from my files.

How was Anna Steinbauer related to us?

When Larry found Louisa Rausch Sand's obit (reprinted from the St Cloud Journal) in the Little Falls Herald of December 16, 1921, there was new info about when she and Mike were first married as well as some (mis-)information about her sibs.  C'mon, it was 1921...who did fact or grammar checking then?

According to this, Vernie (Wintermeyer) and Frank lived in St Cloud, Joseph lived in Canada;  Charlie lived in Cass lake (*) and the Buckman kids were Angie (Hiemenz), John, and Lizzie (Hesch). Lena (Block) lived in Pierz. Sr Severine was teaching in Brandon (?) and Sr Teresita in Gilman. (Only a few glaring mistakes in the original there).

We didn't know that Mike and Louisa lived in Sartell ("LeSauk") for a few years when they were newlyweds, or that Louisa had a stroke in May and lingered until December.  Wow.

Also, the last sentence, about visiting her brother and sister in St Cloud?  Nope, she would visit her kids, but her sibs were Mary (Meyer), in Buckman, August, a priest in Nebraska, John who'd settled in Arkansas, one sis who'd stayed in Poland, and another who married a blacksmith named Robert Harnish.  (According to Grandma Lizzy's WPA bio, they moved to Pierz later, but I haven't found them yet).  I assume the info was given to the reporter by one of the sons, perhaps Charlie, who mentioned his own brother and sister.

* Charlie and Elizabeth lived in Continental Divide, Idaho, in the 1920 census, so we assumed they were still there. We know too that they adopted her brothers' son, William, but he wasn't born till 1936.  Evidently, they were trying Minnesota on before they went back to Washington state for good.
(BTW, if you look for this part of the SAND family on Find a Grave, much of the info is wrong in terms of John vs John Peter and who had which kids because someone else posted them, not me).

But as to the Subject line Q up there--we're looking for Mike Sands siblings, one of whom was Anna (Sand) Steinbauer.  We had to find Peter Sand's obit for the rest of the story ☺.  At that time, 1894, this is where the sons and daughters lived:

J P Sand, in LF

Michael, in Buckman

Nicholas C Sand, LeSauk

John, in Graham, Benton

Joseph, in St Cloud

Mrs Michael Steinbauer, St Cloud

Mrs L L Sartell, LeSauk

Mrs Ben Seitz, St Cloud

(June 2015 addition: Larry found a book listing deaths in Stearns county, starting in 1870.  It says Peter and Angelique Sand had a baby girl in August, 1873.  They named her Sophia, but sadly, she died 17 days later).  

Mary (Sand) Seitz lived in St Cloud with her husband, Ben, and Kate (Sand) Sartell, mentioned above, lived in LeSauk township (Sartell), Mn.  Anna and her husband Michael had five kids, and Kate and Linton had 8 kids.  I don't know if Ben and Mary had kids, but just look at all the possible relatives might be out there that we've never acknowledged--wow! ☺

For some reason, I'm not able to answer the comment from this morning (not in the "Comments" anyway).  So, I'll add it here--the Q was, how come we highlighted Anna Steinbauer rather than other sibs.  Well, we know a reasonable amount about the brothers, and we were aware of Kate Sartell and her family, so that leaves Anna, and Mary Seitz.  As I said above, we don't know if Mary and Ben had kids (meaning potential 2nd and 3rd cousins to hunt for), but Anna did have kids...they're all names to watch out for, ok?

(Thanks for asking, Anon!)

Magdalena Ferschweiler Sand makes the news, again...

Look what Larry found at the online site of Prairie Public Broadcasting, North Dakota's  public radio service.  This is from October 4th, 2013 and they did the story because of the Cassleton, ND connection.  Yeah, some of the info came from Hesch History--we basically did the research for them--but we thank them for acknowledging it.
We realize they left some meaty parts out of the story, but the piece had to fit a time constriction, I suppose.
Oh, you want to review it?

HERE's what happened to Magdalena after her return to Little Falls...and HERE'S the earlier stuff (scroll down, the news articles are even transcribed for you).    Yah, you're welcome ☺

Iffy career moves by Deputy Sheriff J P Sand

Two interesting newspaper articles, one BY J P Sand, and the other about him.  The first had to do with horses stolen from J P's brother Mike Sand (yup, our great grandpa).  Evidently, JP's nose was out of joint because of an article in the Little Falls "Sun" newspaper, which we don't have and probably don't need.  Thing is, it's kind of amazing that he remained deputy when he was so publically  snarky here about Rasicot.  This was in the Little Falls Transcript on September 21, 1883:

Evidently, JP was a better (or at least more trusted) deputy four years later, when this account appeared in the Little Falls Herald  (September 23, 1887).  Now he was a hero--cool!

The Sand-Hiemenz-Lewans Connection

Ok...a quick review--Mike Sand & Louisa Rausch had ten kids.  The oldest was Joseph, born in 1878.  Our grandma, Elizabeth, was born in 1888, the fifth kid was Angelica, born in 1884, and the second-last kid, Magdalena, was born in 1894.  Wanna know why I'm mentioning those four?  Ha! Read on ☺

This small pic is Joe at about 22 years old (about 1900).  He was still living at home then, but by  1911, he was married with two kids, and living in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.  He and Antonia Poser had four kids in all (Mary, Michael, Erwin and Agnes).  They made their home in Saskatchewan.  

Their daughter Mary married Peter Lewans, and they had 12 kids, one of whom, Sylvester, became a priest.

------

Angelica Sand, Angie, married Joe Hiemenz in 1907, and their son Eddie was a good buddy to dad.  Eddie sent me these pics this week--this was on the occasion of a trip to Minnesota by Mary and Peter Lewans, and their son Sylvester in 1963. 

See?  Here's a dinner at Eddie & Marcy's with Fr. Lewans on the left, then dad, Eddie, Mom, Marcy and, I assume, Peter and Mary facing away.

 (I don't know who the other diners are).  Make sure to enlarge this one--it's good to see the parents enjoying themselves!

Now this pic is why I mentioned Lena up there...pictured left to right is Peter Lewans, Frank Sand, Lena (Sand) Block, Mary (Sand) Lewans, and Fr. Sylvester Lewans.  (Frank and Lena were the two youngest of Michael and Louisa Sand's brood.  Fr Lewans, then, was their great nephew).

(Wow, Mary looked like her mother...and married a man who looked like her father!)

THANKS for the corrections, Carolyn ☺!

Nicholas Sand & Sophia Dehler

A clipping from the Minnesota Journal published on August 4th, 1903--an obituary of Sophia (Dehler) Sand.  (The red edge means Larry found it, for sure ☺).  I've had it in my files for ages and only re-discovered it this week.  Did you know that another John Dehler lived in LeSauk (later, Sartell)?  This Nicholas  was Mike Sand's younger brother (both born in Luxembourg).  After Sophie died, he   married Magdalena Brodie, who went on to adopt 2 orphan train kids.  The link tells that story ☺.

LEFT A LARGE FAMILY

_________

Funeral at Sauk Rapids of Mrs. Nicholas Sand.

SAUK RAPIDS, MINN.--Mrs Nicholas Sand died Saturday evening, aged 43 years.  Besides a husband, nine children are left.  She was a member of the Degree of Honor lodge, and daughter of Mr and Mrs John Dehler of LeSauk, wealthy farmers of that section.  The funeral took place yesterday from the cathedral.

Notes:  The cathedral would have been Immaculate Conception, the German church, in St Cloud....The "Degree of Honor Protective Association began in 1886 as the Ladies Auxiliary of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Membership was originally comprised of wives, daughters, mothers and sisters of the AOUW. Their purpose was to provide fellowship for the women, and also support the AOUW."  The nine kids were Odell*, Sylvester, Alfred, Francis, George, Robert, Victoria, Alma and Gertrude.    (* see clarification in the comments-- Thanks, Mary!)

 I suspect the Sand family wasn't as important in the community as the Dehlers were.  

More fun stuff from my obsessive PJ files ☺

 I love this:

NOTICE is hereby given that hereafter all those not members of the fire Department are strictly forbidden to Interfere with any fireman or taking hold of hosecart or hose during a fire, unless ordered to do so by the chief.
Nobody is allowed to enter the engine house and touch the engine except the engineer.
The use of foul language and swearing at firemen while they are doing their duty as they see it is strictly forbidden.
All those who disobey the above rules will be severely dealt with.
Jacob Neisius, president of village of Pierz

(I see ne're-do-wells sneaking into the engine house and leaving finger marks on the engines, just cuz they could). (It's what I would do ☺)

 This priest was Fr John Sand who served in Lastrup, Mn (NE of Pierz) for a number of years.  Was he related to us?  Yup, he was Mike Sand's younger brother (the one named John, as opposed to the one named John Paul)