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.

A challenge for you...

Here's an amazing view of our little Minnesota town, found on the top corner of a page in the 1970 Pictorial Atlas.  It's definitely Buckman, looking north from high in the church steeple.  Highway 25 is still a dirt road.  The roof at the bottom of the photo was Brandl's Harness Shop (later, Zenners Store).  Brandl Motors wasn't there yet, tho if you look closely, there seem to be signs of building on that lot.  John Hesch's store is the two part building second from the bottom right corner....right after the white Millinery shop.  Schmolke's house and store are there, as are the houses we saw in the 'pouring sidewalks' picture.  In fact, if you zoom in and use your imagination, you can see the sidewalk between Schmolke's Store and the bank corner. Mischke's Hardware and Muellers Bar and store are in the distance on the left, see?

 The challenge is to figure out what year this photo was taken. 

(Bonus points if you know who climbed the church steeple to take the pic ☺)  

ALL the answers are here on HH, by the way (except for the "Who?" question, natch).  It'll help if you've been paying attention all along, but if not, try the labels to the left, or the search engine way up top.  Good luck!

Incidentally, this post happens to be the 900th post on Hesch History.  

YAAAY, Larry and Me!!

Cousin Joe's book

("A History of the Market Town of Schamers, in Bohemia" by Joseph Binder)

Here's a delightful email from Su, recommending TWO books along the way ☺--

"Dear Marlys,

Cousin Joe himself

I've been leafing through what I will henceforth refer to as 'cousin Joe's Book'  (Heimatskunde Des Marktes Schamers in Böhmen, Herausgegeben von Josef Binder. Prag 1908 being something or a mouthful and Josef being Rob's first cousin 3x removed) and I think I can now see why it has been re-printed.  It is something of a tour-de-force and your adopting him as patron saint of Obsessed  Bohemian Genealogist is even more appropriate than perhaps you realised at the time.
  Most relevant (so far!) to us, and possibly you too, is the whole chapter he has written on the local Schamers dialect.  So, not only have we been struggling with the difficulty of doing research in a language-no, two languages we don't speak, there is the added complication that the German would be Austrian German and now I find it is a separate local dialect. Let's all give ourselves a self-congratulatory pat on the back for getting so far!   I know you don't really have family in Schamers except for the marriage of a distant cousin but it would be very surprising if this dialect was limited to just the parish of Schamers and your ancestral villages are close enough for it to be relevant. 

Cousin Joe has written what amounts to a paper on the subject of the dialect.  He is, I think, writing in Standard German, and what I have translated of the chapter so far suggests it to be a thoughtful and well-considered study.  The gem of it all (apart from a good index)  is vocabulary of local words.  I have already solved one mystery word problem and it looks so useful that I'm going to scan it and send you the images. The original volume, which was scanned for the publication, is held in Harvard Library.  My edition is a Nabu Public Domain Reprint ISBN 9 781271 609727. The public domain is 'the United States of America, and possibly other countries'.  There is a note in the front of the reprint  to say that "You may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has copyright on the body of the work" so you can do what you like with it - how refreshing! There are 8 pages (p408-415 inclusive).  I think it's going to take me years to read the whole thing (464 pages long) but, by golly, I'm going to have a good try.

I don't suppose we shall be reading many medieval documents unless Heinz unearths a few more at the Abbey** but this website is a really useful, beautiful, and well thought-out guide to medieval handwriting".
 [**Heinz sent Su the above pics of a Binder document from 1356.  We haven't deciphered it yet, but the website should help immensely. Be sure to enlarge the pictures--M].

"Have you or Larry used this one? It gives you a guide on how to use the current Czech cadastral register website- what I'd call the Land Registry.  You can find the name of the current owner of any house you are interested in and very detailed maps as well.   I don't think it is complete yet.  I tried Schamers Nos 40 & 42 and found them OK but had no luck with Niederschlagles/Dolni Lhota because there are several Dolni Lhotas and the one in the correct district didn't appear.  The Czechs are amazingly free with their information.  To find the same sort of information here I'd have to fill out forms in triplicate, pay a fee and explain what I wanted the information for at the very least and it would be 'in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign outside the door saying "Beware of the Leopard."'* and that's after the Freedom of Information Act!

love Su

 *The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - possibly the funniest Sci-Fi book ever written in a genre not generally known for humour (or good writing for that matter)". 

BTW, I know the brown thing on the parchment document looks like a desiccated  mouse, but Heinz says it's not...☺

A Kapsner recap

...the puns'll probably stop, eventually ☺

In last week's episode of The Kapsner Family, I couldn't think of a way to add these next pics without tangling myself up royally.  (It would be so much easier if only ONE member of each family moved here and then married the ONE daughter of another family, and any kids would have unique-to-them names--but then, really, this wouldn't be a challenge at all.  Also, there would be way less potential for mistakes...but I'm fearless.  Mistakes are only an alternate reality).

So.  Here we have a photo, from 1850, of one Franz Kapsner, who wore an odd beard under his chin.  Wouldn't shaving that way be a huge challenge? Nevermind, it was distinctive. We'll appreciate that shortly.  Franz (Frank) Kapsner was born in May, 1831 in 'Germany', or Bohemia. In this 1850 photo, he looks about 20, so I think we have the right guy.  By 1875, he and his wife Theresa had 10 kids, one of whom was August.  I'm pretty sure the August in the photos below is Frank's son--they're similar in face shape, eyes, and the way he held his mouth, don't you agree ?

These pics are all from the Pictorial Atlases, of course, including these two of young August Kapsner.  I believe he was born in 1865, which means he was 15 in the oval portrait, and only 18 when he posed with August Janorshke, (a local family name I've found elsewhere in the atlases).  It was probably a buddy photo, cuz they were both named August and both buttoned their jackets funny.

Well, it looks like Frank kept that beard all his life.  It looked strange when he was young, but here, it fits--probably cuz there's more of it.  

 This was labeled "Four generations of the Kapsner family", but I can't name Frank's son or grandson, let alone the baby.  Isn't it an elegant photo tho?  Eventually, someone will ID these people, and then I'll add it here.

20 July 2015...Hooray, today we heard from David, who's the great nephew of one of the couples pictured here, and he knows who all of them were:
"The photo [is] Franz and Theresia (Tilsch) Kapsner. Standing left are his son Carl and his wife Mary Kopka.  Behind are his daughter Cecilia and her husband Henry Terhaar, holding their oldest child.  She only lived three years."   
Henry Terhaar was David's great uncle...David's grandpa was Nicholas Terhaar. Cool, huh?

THANK YOU, DAVID! ☺

"4 Generations Otremba Family"

 Again, a tiny almost forgotten photo from the Atlases, labeled "Four generations of the Otremba Family".  Problem is,  that family was extensive, and it's hard to know when the pic was taken...or to recognize which Otrembas we're seeing.  Still, there are some clues:  the baby isn't dressed as a kid would have been around 1900.  This baby looks more 1950s/1960s, I think, as do the men (dad and grandpa).  A generation is figured at about 30 years, so daddy was maybe 30, and grandpa was about 60, and great-grandma might have been around 90.  'Course, those ages are statistical, not real--your results may vary.

If you recognize the people in the pic, please let me know.  I'd love to label it for future generations.

Chips off the ol' Block...

.....possibly the oldest, most obvious bad joke they endured ☺.

The Block family was a mainstay of Morrison county history.  Everyone knew a Block, married one, wished they had, or knew someone who did.  

This is a good illustration of how obituaries (and Find a Grave.com) can clear up genealogical questions:

From February, 1960:

The Gerhard Block Family c 1920

Solemn Funeral Services For Gerhard H. Block

Solemn funeral rites were held at St. Joseph's Church, Pierz, Tuesday morning at 10 for Gerhard H. Block, 94 years, 26 days, who passed away at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Martin Stalpes, Saturday morning at 9. Celebrant of the Solemn Requiem Mass was Rev. Robet Voigt with Rev. Robert Schulzetenberg assisting as deacon and Rev. Richard Leisen, the subdeacon. Interment was in the Pierz cemetery.

Pallbearers were Donald Zenner, Roman Block, William and Joe Block and Donald Newman.

Honorary pallbearers were Jake Girtz, John Gau, John Weber, Leo Langer, John Schraut, and Herman Poser.

Mr. Block was born in Englern, Germany January 10, 1866 and arrived in the Pierz vicinity when 19 years old. He married Mary Leeb at St. Joseph's Church in Pierz, January 10, 1893, who preceded him in death. His death was due to advanced age. He was a member of St. Joseph's Society.

Surviving are the following children: George, Royalton; Ernest and Walter, St. Paul; John, Little Falls, Otto, Pierz; Mrs. John Zenner, Buckman; Mrs. Martin Stalpes, Pierz; Mamie, Perham, Minn.; and Julia, St. Paul.

There are twenty grandchildren and thirty great grandchildren.
Family links: 
 Spouse:
  Mary Leeb Block (1871 - 1950)
 
 Children:
  George John Block (1894 - 1990)
  Mayme Laura Block (1895 - 1990)
  Ludmilla Block Zenner (1897 - 1978)
  Elizabeth J Block Stalpes (1898 - 1983)
  Walter Gerhard Block (1902 - 1997)
  John Block (1904 - 2001)
  Julianne Block (1906 - 1994)
  Otto P Block (1908 - 1975)

In that 1920 photo above, I think the oldest kid, George, is in the back row, 3rd from the left.  Here he is again, this time as the dad.  He married Mary ("Girlie") Hesch, daughter of John and Ket Hesch.  This photo was probably taken on George and Girlie's 50th wedding anniversary, in 1975.  The highlight takes you to a profile done of them when they retired to the Pierz Villa.  Pretty cool, huh?

George John Block, age 96, a resident of St. Mary's Villa and formerly of the Buckman area died December 6, 1990 at St. Mary's Villa in Pierz.

Funeral services were held December 7 at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Buckman with the Rev. Sylvester Maus officiating. Burial was in the St. Joseph's Cemetery in Pierz.

George J. Block was born June 10, 1894 in Pierz, MN, to the late Gerhart and Mary (Leeb) Block. As a young man he grew up in the Buckman area. On October 13, 1925 he was united in marriage to Mary E. Hesch at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Buckman. AFter their marriage the couple farmed in the Buckman area until retiring in 1969 when they moved to Little Falls where they were residents of the Pine Grove Manor. In 1987 the couple moved to St. Mary's Villa in Pierz, where he resided until his death. He was a member of the WWI Barracks of Little Falls and the St. Michael's Society of Buckman.

He is survived by four sons, Joseph of Pierz, Kenneth of Royalton, William "Bill" of Little Falls and Gene of Swanville; four daughters, Mrs. Donald (Doreen) Newman and Mrs. Raymond (Helen) Guck of Randall, Mrs. Kenneth (Florence) Starr of Royalton and Mrs. Richard (Mary) Peterson of Maple Lake, MN; brothers, John of Little Falls and Walter of St. Paul and one sister, Julia Block of Little Falls; 38 grandchildren and many great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, wife Mary on December 26, 1989, brothers: Otto and Ernest and sisters: Mayme Block, Elizabeth Stalpes and Millie Zenner.

Casketbearers were Scott Klein, Bob Newman, Ray Guck, Dan, Paul and Glen Block.

Painting pearls

This has nothing to do with HH except that it's old ☺.  I follow a blog called The History Blog; it has to do with archaeology, art, coins found with metal detectors, old books, Roman statues....any news of a historical nature.  It's fascinating, every day.

One post lately featured an altar piece that's being restored in St. Bravo Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium.  If you click the link, you'll find the article there, describing the altarpiece, with a nice photo.  But man, if you want to REALLY see it close up, then definitely click "Closer to Van Eyck: Rediscovering the Ghent Altarpiece". The pictures are so huge you can view details from every panel with microscopic magnification".  We're talking magnificent, here. 

See the BVM's crown in the main triptych?  I've always wondered how an artist painted something like jewels, and now I know, and so do you ☺

You're welcome.  Now, while you're there, bookmark the History Blog.

Ellis Island and Us

Sometimes you hear a story explaining how something was named, for instance, and you think, "Wow, that sounds way too pat--not sure I believe it..."

OR, on the other hand, you hear an explanation that sounds logical or typical, so you never question it, but just accept it, as is?

  

Well, here's a "fact" I never used to question, but should have--the idea that immigrants' names were arbitrarily changed by callous officials at Ellis Island.  

It's easy to believe, isn't it, especially with families from Eastern Europe, with all those diacritical marks and czezc's--I mean, who can pronounce names like that? And we all know those immigration officials were crazy with power, obviously.  "Czeczchski?  No one will say that right.  From now on, you will be Ignatz JONES."  By the time poor Iggy realized what happened, he was truly stuck with an awful, banal name forevermore.  [Head shake] Sooo sad. 

But think about it.  Our people came from Austria, Poland, Luxemburgh and Germany...five or six kids with parents, on the way to America.  (Oh, and we were all here well before Ellis opened, in 1892).  'We' were Roman Catholics, with home churches and parish priests back in Guschwitz, Oberschlagles, Schoenfeld and Horrenberg.  Baptisms, marriages, confirmations and first communions were all recorded by that priest, in the parish books.  That's what proved who you were.

Probably no church member--Catholic or otherwise--left Europe without documentation from their parish if they could help it.  Remember, the sacraments were building blocks, so receiving first communion depended on having been baptized, and confirmation depended on those other two, and marriage, etc.   After all, God knew you by name (and, by your sins ☺)...but YOU had to prove you and your family were Catholics in good standing to your NEW parish.

Those documents had your family name written many times.  You showed them to buy tickets for the ocean voyage, and to the purser on board who copied it into the ships list.  You showed them to buy train tickets too, I suppose, and for validation when needed.
However, if an immigrant wanted to change his name and didn't care to be affiliated with a church, I imagine he could simply give any name he wanted.  I bet it didn't happen often, tho.

(Cute illustrations needed to be used somewhere ☺)

Mischke Family Photos

Joseph Mischke and his wife Mary Otremba came to America in 1871.  He was 30 and she was 24.  These pics came from the Pictorial Atlases so I'm drawing conclusions with info from Federal censuses.  In 1900, when Mary was 63, she said she had 6 kids, 3 living.  One of them, daughter Mary, was part of their household, with her own son, August.

 John (below) was their son and arrived with them in 1871 when he was 4.

Isn't this a great photo?  A large prosperous family with kids ranging in age from about thirty down to five, looks like. It's John Mischke and his wife Theresia Peschel.  Ok, I need to go find them on Family Search.

Right, in 1910: Dad's 43 and mom's 38.  Kids are Ida (16), Joseph (15), Charley (13), Hermina (11), Mary (9), Agnes (6), John (4), Leo (2), and Hildegard (3 months).  Obviously the eldest offspring are the four in the middle of the back row and son in the wicker chair. Since there are 2 younger kids in the pic and Ida looks to be at least 30, I think this portrait was taken about 1925, even if their clothing seems much older.  Anybody have better info? (Btw, this is the 2 priests, 2 nuns family, and those two little boys became priests, eventually.  Sorry, I don't know which two girls became the nuns).

I wonder if this Livery Stable pic is the same Mischke family?   Wait, we know Frank Mischke lived here when he started the hardware store across the road (behind the photographer, here).  Since that looks like Mary Otremba Mischke among the family group in front (see?), then perhaps Mary & Joseph Mischke's third child was Frank.

My goodness, it can get complicated, huh?

Extra, Extra! Getcher old news here!

Among family history buffs, the availability of old newspapers' online is a godsend.  We've found info we would never have known to search for, since the articles were often wire service fillers in other towns' papers.
In particular, we can search for family names over thousands of issues in dozens of towns from, for instance, 1880 to 1922 (earliest to latest digitized copies).  Unusual names work best, of course.
These first two are interesting not only for the familiar name involved, but for the physical distance between the two newspapers (Los Angeles, California, and Washington D.C.) BTW, I'm not typing the family name to keep it from being searchable from HH...you need to recognize the name in the article.
(Clever, huh?)

Now this blurb made me laugh.  We called this practice a "Shiveree"--something family and friends did to a newlywed couple early in their marriage, when the couple was probably engaged in what newlyweds often do.  THIS one got out of hand, sounds like.  

And lastly, here's an article Larry found in the Duluth Tribune of August 1, 1915.  We're pretty sure this wasn't OUR Charlie.  We do know that Charlie and Elizabeth were back in Duluth, at least for a time, around 1917 (we have his WWI draft card from there).  But we also know a Norwegian Charles Sand lived in Duluth around this time. Well then!

Never SUESS to amaze!

The Pictorial Atlases of Morrison County, Minnesota  (1970, 1976 and 1988) continue to provide some wonderful family and Buckman history photos.   I open that file and pick a family or face from fifty or a hundred years ago--and start researching.  Thing is, I saved pics of families I recognize, but I rarely know all their names, or the year the photo was taken, or how this pic relates to that one.  I'll figure that stuff out online as I type, or I'll summon the Big Guns* if I'm really stuck, but he's often researching someone else at the same time.  It's really pretty mind-boggling...

Ahem, I suppose you've guessed which family this post highlights, right? ☺

Skip this part if you already know how Andrew Suess fits in HH:

Dad's uncle John Hesch married Ketrina Mueller in Buckman in 1902.  They had 5 kids (Mary, Agnes, Paul, Laura, and John, Jr) before John died in January, 1926.  

Andrew Suess was widowed in 1924 when his wife of 33 years, Elizabeth Wurtzburger, died.  They had six kids (Frank, Catherine, Joseph, Anna, George, and Mary).  Andrew was 13 years older than Ket.  His last kid was born the same year as Ket & John's first kid, 1903.  In other words, Ket still had child-raising responsibilities when they married in February, 1927, while Andrew didn't.  Her youngest was 11, and his was 23.

Andrew & Elizabeth Suess family about 1925.
Catherine, Andrew and Elizabeth, seated;
Anna, Frank, Joseph, George and Mary, standing.

I'm fairly confident of who's who in the pic above, but I was going on their birth years and how old they looked in the photo.  Still, I'd only have goofed on the boys, and the one I labeled "George" looks the most like the guy below, don't you think?

This portrait was probably taken about 1944. We know George Suess married Rose Heurung (a sister, btw, to Anna Heurung, wife of Joe Hesch).  According to the 1930 Federal census, the oldest four kids were Leander (1922), Rose (1924), Alvina (1926), and Esther(1929).  I don't know the name of the fifth kid, who looks maybe 7 or 8, young enough to have been a "surprise" ☺. Anybody know?

*Big Guns=Larry ☺

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 ☺