Another Sauk Rapids mystery

 We find the following in the Sauk Rapids Sentinel of the 18th inst.: Day before yesterday, while the quarrymen, employed by the Sauk Rapids Water Power Company, were engaged in quarrying rock for the dam which is being erected across the Mississippi at this place, they found embedded in the solid granite rock the remains of a human being of gigantic stature.  About seven feet below the surface of the ground, and about three feet and a half beneath the upper stratum of the rock, the remains were found imbeded in the sand, which had evidently been placed in the quadrangular grave which had been dug out of the solid rock to receive the remains of this antedeluvian giant.--The grave was twelve feet in length, four feet wide and about three feet in depth, and is today at least three feet below the present level of the river.  The remains are completely petrified, and are of gigantic dimensions.  The head is massive, measures thirty one and one half inches in circumference, but low in the osfrontis, and very flat on top.  The Femur measures twenty six and a quarter inches, and the Fibula twenty five and a half, while the body is equally long in proportion.  From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, the length is ten feet nine and a half inches.  The measure around the chest is fifty nine and a half inches.  This giant must have weighed at least about nine hundred pounds, when covered with a proportionable amount of flesh.  The petrified remains, and there is nothing left but the naked bones, now weigh three hundred and four and a quarter pounds.  The thumb and fingers of the left hand, and the left foot from the ankle to the toes are gone; but all the other parts are perfect.  Over the sepulchre of the unknown dead was placed a large flat limestone rock that remained perfectly separated from the surrounding granite rock. 

Finders keepers

The wonderful remains of an antideluvian gigantic race are in the possession of a gentleman who has started with it to his residence east.
         ..................................................
NOTE:  
The above article was found in the Winona Daily Republican 24  December, 1868.  We figure it's total BS, of course (who quarries rock IN the river, in December?)  
Turns out there was a rash of giants "discovered" around the country in the late 1800s, including one 'found' by Mark Twain.  After reading a few accounts, you realize there were slow news days and bored reporters then too.  
Who could prove this sort of "report" was a fabrication?

BTW, here's north Sauk Rapids today, via Google Earth.  The red tag (upper right) is a former quarry that had filled with water by the time we were kids.  In the spring of 1962, a body was found frozen into the ice there.  Larry and I are researching the story (another post, another day).    Just below that quarry is a large open patch in the trees--see?--it's the abandoned quarry we found by following those old railroad tracks.  It was used later as the town dump.  Maybe it's the compost site now.  Does anybody know?

Frage wer ist Anon ?

LOL...Larry and I have found amazing information about the Hesch family in the past 2-3 years, and about our Bohemian/Austrian/Polish origins.  We've delved into Morrison county history, mostly Pierz, Little Falls and Buckman.  We've figured out the names of people in old photos and published them here.  We've speculated about the order of events back then, and the human emotions our folks must have felt sometimes.  We've shared stories and pictures from relatives, too......but the biggest question we get is: WHO is "Anon"?...even from Heinz Binder in Austria!

  Anon is someone who grew up in Buckman.  I vaguely knew of him when we owned Zenners back in the 70s, but he was leaving town to go to college just as we took over.  His parents were customers, and I know I met him then, but if he hadn't found the blog, I would never have recalled it...lol


(BTW, doesn't he look like Walter Brennan? ☺ )    

After he graduated, he married and moved back to the area and started teaching German in Pierz, not necessarily in that order.  He was born in Germany, and he's led many school tours to Germany over the years. 
Now, almost 40 years later, he's retired from teaching.  He restored his parents home just west of the Hall, and he's really interested in the history of the village of Buckman....the who and when of all the buildings in particular.
He's not trying to hide who he is....he just doesn't want his name online, ok?


(LOL...Anon probably wonders where that pic came from?!  But you KNOW who found it online, right?)

Heinz found Shedliske!

Note: Sunday, Nov 21--This post is mostly wrong, ok?  (Crossing-out one sentence is funny, but a whole post is overkill.  Leaving it, however, is a lesson to me about not jumping to conclusions, and also about remembering what info we've ALREADY FOUND!  Jeeze....)
As we investigated Louisa Rausch Sand (dad's maternal grandmother), it seemed like all the (family tree) documents online give her birth village as SHEDLISKE, Prussia.  Hmm.  Curious to know where in the world that was, I tried JewishGenWeb's Schtetlseeker pages--it's a marvelous listing of practically every town or village in Eastern Europe, in each of the languages, too.
So, I tried Shedliske.  No results for that spelling, but more than 20 places in Poland called SIEDLISKA.  Larry and I have learned to translate words that seem "too common" in their context, and this was one instance.  Siedlisk means Habitat....so they were.....villages named Village?  Would it be like me saying I come from Town, Minnesota?  Might it have been immigrants giving an "It-doesn't-matter" answer rather than making a big deal of exactly what town they came from?  So far, we don't know.
Sure, it's possible the Rausch family came from a Shedliske that doesn't show up on Shtetlseeker, but I think it's actually a mis-spelling on our part, here in the states.
If you know different, let me know, ok?


LOL--vielen dank to Heinz Binder, our kind relative in Austria, who sent this link this morning  without any snotty remarks:


http://ortopedianew.appspot.com/wiki/Powiat_Falkenberg_O.S. 


It's a wiki page in Polish and...YES,  Schedliske was in Falkenberg, just like Guschwitz (where the Otrembas came from).
Population from the 1910 census:
Guschwitz - 538

Schedliske - 56

LOL...then,  this morning on Instant Messenger, Larry reminded me of Rev August Rausch who was Louisa's brother, and who we'd made the connections to in May, 2009  Duh.

BUT, what we didn't know before was WHERE Schedliske was, and now we do.  Oh, and Larry also found this on Google Books:


A Schematic of  Germans and German speaking Priests, from 1882,  page 127:
Theres August RAUSCH, born 27 April 1847 in SCHEDLISKE, Schlessien (Breslau).