A fire, a birthday, a town and a runaway

 From the Buckman News column, December 1910:
"The swamp fire is still burning south of our church.  The men gave up trying to put it out because they can't do so."  
What swamp?  Isn't the ball field south of the church?

 "A birthday party was given at the home of Mr and Mrs August B. Dehler in honor of their daughter Evelyn, it being her 5th birthday.  Those present were Erlinda and Loretta Janson, Rose Marion Seifert, from Little Falls.  Eleanor Davis, Lawrence Hortsch, Hildegard Dehler, Gertrude Schmolke.  The afternoon was spent in playing school and other games after which a bounteous supper was served.  Evelyn received many pretty little presents and her friends wished her many happy returns of the day."

Those few readers who've been following the New Pierz-Grainville-Genola saga might still scratch their heads over this clipping from 1915.

The tiny town we know as Genola, just south of Pierz, was still a big deal cuz it had the train depot, with merchants right across the street, including saloons.  If you intended to go somewhere, or arrived home from somewhere else, why go into Pierz to have a drink?  Flaudy Litke or the Kelzenbergs were right there...util a new state law came into effect whereby incorporating a town meant it had to be dry, liquor-wise.  This was a problem for our ancestors, let me tell ya.  The locals had just voted to drop the un-official "New Pierz" moniker and change it to Grainville, and that meant incorporating. DRY.  We know how this came out because it's not called Grainville anymore.

Now this clipping is especially interesting (and mystifying) to descendants of Michael Sand, whose own son Charlie had "left home as soon as he could". Evidently Mike replaced Charlie as choreboy on the farm with his grand-nephew, Mike Grittner.  It's incredible the article ever made the paper, knowing Mike Sand's standing in the Buckman community.  But then, see the next clipping below--a "V Grittner" had just returned home the year before.  Was it a rite of passage for Grittner boys?    LATER:  I know you're wondering if there are any other Grittners in our relationship--and there ARE!  Well, one, anyway:  Julia Grittner married mom's uncle, Gerhard Naber, about 1910. ☺

Gerhard Naber & Julia Grittner wedding.

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.  

Dehlers I actually knew ☺

HOW could I miss posting this family portrait from the Morrison Atlas when it's such a well-known and well-loved family from Buckman?  Chatting with Larry tonight, I went to find the pic on HH, but couldn't.  Ha!  I only think I've posted it.
I suppose it's cuz I can't name the kids for sure.  So what brought them to mind again lately?  
This week, a dark-haired woman came up to me and said she remembered me.  "From where?"  
"Buckman, in the store!"

Wow, that was at least 38 YEARS ago.
Her name's Faye, and she's Roman and Emily's youngest daud, so that's probably her, front left, and the little son, front right, must be George.

Naw, we didn't talk Buckman at all.....lol  Poor Faye!

Margaret Zenner Dehler 1884-1963

Rites Held Monday For Mrs. John Dehler

Mrs. John Dehler (Margaret Zenner), 79, a lifelong resident of Buckman and one of its earliest settlers, died Thursday in St. Gabriel's Hospital. She was born in Buckman, March 5, 1884, and in 1904 married John Dehler. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1954, and he died July 9, 1960. Mrs. Dehler was a member of the Christian Mothers Society.

Surviving her are the following sons and daughters: Herbert, St. Joseph; Edwin, Casper, Wyo.; Henry, Mrs. Fred (Alma) Stumpf, Mrs. Walter (Rita) Stumpf, and Mrs. Martin (Margaret) Tschida, Pierz; Lawrence, Little Falls; Roman, Mrs. Robert (Julia) Brixius, Mrs. Henry (Olivia) Kelzenberg, and Mrs. Herman (Amelia) Otremba, Buckman; Mrs. Roy (Marie) Paggen, Silver Lake, and Sister M. Herbert, OSB, St. Cloud. There are 87 grandchildren and 42 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services were held at 10 a.m. Monday in St. Michael's Church, Buckman, with Rev. Paul Kunkel reading the Solemn Requiem High Mass, assisted by Rev. Robert Voigt, Pierz, and Rev. Omar Maus, Minneapolis. Pallbearers were grandsons of Mrs. Dehler: David Dehler, Leo Dehler, Melvin Stumpf, Roger Stumpf, Norman Kelzenberg and Leon Kelzenberg. Honorary pallbearers were Mmes. Katherine Gruber, Edward Hortsch, Anna Bertelt, Mary Funk, Joe Kahl and Nick Mueller.

The Virnig Funeral Service was in charge of arrangements. The Rosary was prayed by the Christian Mothers Saturday and the parish Rosary was prayed Sunday night.

 Parents:

 Mathias Zenner (1857 - 1925)

 Anna Maus Zenner (1864 - 1926)

 Spouse:

John Dehler (1878 - 1960)

  Probably 1954, when John & Margaret celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. I recognize Herb, Armella, Olivia, Roman, Julia and Sr Herbert ☺ I'm sure I met others, tho.

 August Dehler and Julia Seifert were John's parents, of course. This photo was probably taken around 1900.  Looks like John in the middle of the top row, huh? Oh, and see the girl who looks about 10 over on the right?  That was Rosalia, who married dad's uncle Theodore Hesch in 1920!

John Dehler descendants--same day as top pic, huh?

THANKS again to Fran, the Pictorial Atlases of Morrison County, Minnesota and Find a Grave--wow!

Joseph H Dehler--1889-1949

The way Larry and I do genealogy online is to cast a wide net using search engines--old newspapers, books, family trees, albums, etc--wherever a familiar surname shows up.  Then we talk about it, and the result gets stored in My Pictures file.  Sometimes it gets blogged about right away, and sometimes months later, when we finally figure out exactly WHO is mentioned.
This is one of those months-later times: The article was in the Askov American on January 20, 1949, in news from the town of Hinckley, Minnesota (17 miles SW of Askov).  I think Larry found it a good year ago...


"....Jos. H. Dehler, 59, prominent retired businessman who passed away of a heart attack at his home Friday....."
"Joseph H. Dehler
Born July 9,1889 at Buckman, Dehler spent his early life there, and on Oct. 11, 1916 was united in marriage to Katherine Loscheider.  They lived for several months at Little Falls and St Cloud, coming to Hinckley in 1917 where Dehler purchased a dray and transfer line, later going into the implement business.  He was at one time a member of the school board and also active in other civic affairs.
Survivors are five brothers, John, Ed, Albert, and Peter of Buckman; George, St Paul; and six sisters, Mrs Katherine Siefert, St Cloud; Mrs Mary Dufert, St Paul; Mrs Rose Hesch, Mrs Rena Kelzenberg, and the Misses Anna and Teresa Dehler, Minneapolis.  A brother and a sister preceded him in death..."


He was buried in St Michaels Cemetery at Buckman.

So, how did Joe fit in the Hesch family, and in the larger Buckman neighborhood?  Well, his sister Rose, mentioned above, was the wife of Theodore, my grandpa's brother.  He was the son of August and Julia (Seifert) Dehler who came from Pennsylvania and settled in Buckman, just east of the Paul Hesch home place.

...

Note to my sibs in particular:

Another of August and Julia's sons, John L Dehler, married Margaret Zenner and was the father of dad's contemporary and buddy, Herb.  I happened to be in south east St Cloud the other day and ran into Edwinna, Herb's widow.  She's still every bit as sociable and nice as she was when we were kids.  But wow, she's into genealogy about 400X as much as I am!  ☺  

Dehlers and Kelzenbergs

So many families were my parents' and grandparents' good friends, and I've neglected to mentioned them here, mostly because they were so familiar to us.  To distinguish between neighbor, relative and friend was practically impossible.  The Dehler family,  for instance.  In the 1900 Buckman census, August & Julia Dehler owned the next farm east of Paul & Mary Hesch.  Their families were about the same size and ages.  (Actually, it's odd that only one couple resulted from that kind of proximity-☺-Theo Hesch and Rosalia Dehler, married in 1920). 

◄ Here's the 1900 census page with Dehlers and Heschs.  Click to enlarge

You'll notice August & Julia (Seifert) Dehler had a son named August.  When dad spoke of "Gus Dehler", he meant that son, who was 27 years older than dad and so, one of the "old guys" in town ☺. 

Now, August & Julia also had a son named John, who married Margaret Zenner.  By 1920, John & Margaret had 10 children, two of whom are in the  photo up there--Olivia and Herb.  Herb was dad's good buddy.  We went to St Joe to visit "Herb'n'Edwina" pretty often when I was a kid.  And, once we bought the store in Buckman, Olivia (Dehler) and Henry Kelzenberg were our neighbors to the south.  (This is the Olivia who taught in the Weiling Schoolhouse). They were always fun, but it was never a short visit.  No matter what time of day, you HAD to eat something.

An interesting sidelight to that family was the daughter named Hildegard.  She entered the convent in St Joseph, Mn and became Sr. Herbert Dehler, sister to Herb Dehler who lived 2 blocks away...lol  No confusion there!

OLD News from Buckman

Another of the MARVELS of the internet is entering names in a search engine and finding newspaper articles and links to photos from years ago with those names....from all over the USA.
Here are a few discoveries Larry's made lately:


The wedding of Roman and Emily Dehler in 1947. This is one of 3 "Emily"s my own precious daughter is named after.
This wasn't from a newspaper, but we'd been talking about the Store in Buckman, and Larry found Killian Zenner's picture!

From the Albert Lea MN newspaper in 1934.

Pierz was often misspelled as PIERCE in news articles across the country. This obit from North Dakota in 1963 makes a connection to Pierz--her husband Charles (Karl) was the son of Johann Otremba and Anna Rosina Hesch Schultz.

STRANGE fad: Turtle Painting! This was Oakland California in the summer of 1927.

A terrific service from Google: they've digitized whole books (once the copyright is lapsed) and put them online. This article would have been something a person paid to have included in the book, so of course a LOT of our folks aren't there...lol...but just LOOK at all the information!

St Michael's School, Buckman, Minnesota

This was the first St Michaels school, built in 1887, and this was the first class. It was located where the church is now. Click the picture to enlarge it, and the one below, too, of just the people.

MINNESOTA REFLECTIONS

I've numbered this photo, because I'm pretty sure my other Grandpa (Anton Janson) is #19. He's the right age and his grandsons looked like #19 at the same ages...lol

(If your ancestor/relative was born between about 1874 (oldest kids) and about 1881 (youngest), and lived in Buckman, look closer...s/he might be HERE!)

Added:

Sue thinks #8 is Ket (Catherine Mueller, born 1880), and I expect two of the boys were Joseph and John Sand...

This is what the school looked like until it was torn down in 2012 (?).  Now it's just a blank space behind that big house on the corner.  Kids from Buckman attend school in Pierz:

....

"The village of Buckman is located six miles south of the city of Pierz. In 1887, a parochial school was opened. When this building no longer met their needs, a two-room schoolhouse was built on the ground where St. Michael’s Church is located. In 1901, Fr. William Lange, decided to build a church where the school resided. The school was moved across the highway from the present church. Later, a four-room school was erected to replace the previous school, because it had become inadequate. In the 1950’s, four more classrooms and bathrooms were added to the structure".

...

(From the Pierz Holy Trinity website that no longer works).

Evidently, 1990 saw the end of St Michael's in Buckman.

But, THIS was 1939:

#3, Margaret (1921), daughter of John Dehler and Margaret Zenner;

#4, Irene (1924), daughter of Math Hesch and Mary Tetiva;

#6, Rosie (1925), daughter of Anton Hesch and Elizabeth Sand;

#12, Richard (1925), son of August B Dehler and Regina Hortsch.

(BTW, mom started high school in Buckman, and she said they offered Freshman and Sophomore classes in alternate years, so she was a Sophomore first, in 1932....making '39 a Freshman year...lol)

Do you recognize any others here? Let me know and I'll add the names.