This branch of the Austrian Hesch family is descended from Johann Hesch and his wife Marya (Schlinz) Hesch, who came to America from Oberschlagles, Bohemia with three sons: Paul, Mathias, and Anton. +++Johann & Marya settled in Buffalo County, Wisconsin but moved to Pierz, Mn in about 1885. .+++Mathias settled in Waumandee, Wisconsin and moved to Pierz in 1911. +++Anton never married but farmed with his dad in Agram Township, where he died in 1911.+++And Paul, my great grandfather, settled five miles away, in Buckman, Minnesota. He died there in 1900.

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Saturday, March 1, 2014

Heschs in Ottenschlag ca 1654

A fascinating feature of our trip to Europe was the tour of Bohemian villages arranged by Heinz Binder.  In 1654, a proclamation was made and recorded in Neuhaus making a Hesch, and his descendants, a castle provisioner.  Heinz said it would have been farm produce, not game or fish.  The Heschhof would have provided fresh vegetables, wheat for flour, eggs (?), and some meat.  The farm was located in Ottenschlag (now Otin), the next village to Neuhaus.

I didn't realize, till Heinz drove us there, how close the farm would have been to the castle.  On the present day map below, I'm pretty sure the gray rectangles are the factory that replaced the farm ca 1948, when the communist regime took over.

So, who was this Hesch?  I know we had a tax list from Bohemia from the mid-1600s that a friend looked up in the Bohemian Society Library in
St Paul.  It mentioned a Jiri Hesch, as a serf and also as a landowner.  It didn't make sense, and now I can't find it..argh.  Was it him?  We'll do more research, of course ☺


Part of an 1828 cadastral map










Can you imagine the hof?

3 comments:

  1. It's very nice how the world is small.
    if you want some information about otin i can ask some older dezidens :)

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