Our 2009 Reunion video

In the past 5 and a half years, I've often thought about how I wish I could post the video Larry and I made for the reunion, but it's 13 minutes long, and a whopping 126 MB.  I have room on my computer, but do you?  Does Youtube?
And then, yesterday, Tommy's daughter wanted to see it, so I tried to "compress" it and send it by email--but HA! Es hat nicht funktioniert.
Then today, Yahoo suggested I use Dropbox.  The way I understand it, a copy of the vid is "out there", waiting for you to make popcorn and click

  RIGHT HERE.

There are only 3 or 4 small things I'd change if I could--one being that we didn't say where they came from in Europe, and another is the inclusion of the "eight women" photo before we identified almost all of em...but hell, you wouldn't have noticed unless you were Larry or me...or I mentioned it ☺.  Oh, and Tommy emailed to say I'd reversed his dad and Math in one of the last A A Hesch family pics.

Oh, and the music is the Stillwater Landler, played by Erwin Suess and the Hoolerie Dutchmen.

I'll miss you, Louise...

The death of Louise Desautel is a sad event for her family, but also for me and the blog.  Louise Hesch grew up in Buckman and was dad's cousin and contemporary. She knew the "old" stories, and filled me in on what really happened when I'd mention a story I'd heard, or an odd news article.  She enjoyed our interest in her memories, and loved being the conduit to our understanding how it was then.  She let me take her dad's 1914 notebook to copy, which gave Larry and me so much to research.  She was delighted to hear about the connections we made, too, between what he wrote and the people and places he saw there in Europe.  We laughed together about her dad's sense of humor and that he was ever a starry-eyed youth.
She knew her aunt, Sr Laura, so much better than I did, too, and she was delighted that Sr Owen Lindblad let her read the rough draft of the book she wrote about Sr Laura this spring.
Louise was fun and funny and kind, so willing to share advice, enthusiasms, jokes and stories.  Just look at her picture--there's mischief in those eyes.  We'll miss that especially.

Louise E. Desautel   1926-2015

A Mass of Christian Burial celebrating the life of Louise E. Desautel, age 89, of Albany, will be at 4:00 p.m. Friday, April 10, 2015, at Seven Dolors Catholic Church in Albany. Fr. Brad Jenniges, OSB will officiate and burial will take place in parish cemetery. Louise died April 6, 2015, surrounded by her loved ones. There will be a visitation from 4 p.m.- 8 p.m. Thursday, April 9, at the Miller-Carlin Funeral Home in Albany and again after 3 p.m. Friday at the church. Parish prayers will be at 4 p.m. followed by Christian Mothers praying the rosary at 6 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.

Louise Desautel was born in Buckman to Matthew E. and Mary (Tetvia) Hesch March 8, 1926. She attended St. Michael elementary school in Buckman, St. Francis high school in Little Falls and went on to earn her registered nurse degree at St. Francis hospital in Breckenridge. With a strong love for travel she pursued her career at numerous hospitals including: Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii. In these earlier days it was her lifelong friend and co-worker who joined her on many of these travels, Helen Schmolke of Houston, Texas.

 Returning from Hawaii Louise found herself working at a hospital in Crookston and it was there she met the love of her life and would go on to start her family. Louise married James George Desautel (from Crookston) Aug. 27, 1955, at St. Michaels church in Buckman. Louise and James settled in Albany, to raise their family. Louise retired from her nursing career and pursued other business ventures including “Big J” citizen band radio sales (a joint venture with her husband) and a distributorship in New Era cookware through which Louise’s entrepreneurial talents would find her door to door selling her products.

 Louise’s husband died suddenly, June 27, 1978, (age 48). Louise spent her remaining years in Albany, with a strong dedication to her children, community, and church. She was actively involved as a member in the Mother of Mercy Campus of Care auxiliary (Albany), the VFW auxiliary (Melrose), and the Boy Scout board of directors (Albany) and she was past president of the Christian Mothers, American Legion auxiliary (Albany). Louise maintained close relationships with many of the Franciscan nuns who would frequently join in at these gatherings.

Louise is survived by her six children, Denise (Michael “Rocco” Theisen) Desautel, St. Cloud, Paul Desautel, Baudette, Peter (Janet Demarais) Desautel, Albany, Jane (Michael “Monk”) Montgomery, St. Cloud, Laurie Desautel, Lake Forest, Calif. and Harold (Angie) Desautel, Albany; sisters, Irene Kulig, Superior, Wis.; Laura Alkofer, Park River, N.D.; 13 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

She is preceded in death by her husband; parents; sisters and brothers-in-law, Adeline (Bob) Dion, Mary (Ralph) Linville, Helen Hesch and Dolores (Art) Eben; brothers-in-law, Gene Kulig and Ray Alkofer; and sisters-in-law, Harriet (Verne) Anderson and Jan Lee (Jim) DeLage.

Louise was remembered by many for her hats and earings. Louise asked to be remembered as a woman of faith. A woman who loved and cared for her family’s well-being.

At Louises request, donations are preferred in lieu of flowers to the Poor Claire Nuns.

A photo of seven Hesch kids from 1925

I had a delightful lunch with Aunt Eileen today.  On the way back to her house, she said she had some pics for me to see.  Gawd, she could have offered pure dark chocolate and I wouldn't have been as interested.  She knows me!

She had two pics of Bev, specifically because they looked so much like me ☺.  Made us both laugh.  There was a photo of Shirley and her grandson, and one taken in California of Uncle Tony, Aunt Fronie and Uncle Matt.  We looked at a brag book of Laurie's grandkids Ambrose and Augustine (honest, Aunt Eileen's great great grand kids)...but the two pictures I asked for were these:

Uncle Matt and Aunt Eileen
Hesch, about 1980

                                 Probably Fall, 1925                                                    

The kids pic is so COOL!  It fits with others we got from Judy after the reunion, but these are dad and all his sibs except Tony, who wasn't born yet.  Wait, let me put em side by side.  I think they might have been taken on the same weekend since the background is the same, even tho the big boys are dressed up.  If dad was 12 or so, the twins would have been 10.

 Rosie was a baby here (born in January), and she looks maybe 6-7 months old, so it was August or September 1925.  Henry was 2, Katie was 4, Fronie was 6. (The gap between the twins and Fronie was because Grandma lost a baby, Stephen, in 1917).  If you enlarge the new pic, you'll see that Mike is wearing the same suit as below--see the lapel pin?

 Here's the new pic, cropped closer.

Isn't this just neat? Click to biggify, too.

L to R--Matt, Mike holding Rosie, Ted

Katie, Henry and Fronie

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.

A 1928 letter from Aunt Fronie (and a correction)

Over the last 20 years or so, Jerry and Rita have often said "You have to come up to the cabin sometime", and I've said "Yes, one of these weekends...."  And then it'd be October, and we'd talk about next summer, ya know?  But a week ago, Jerry called and said THIS was the weekend.  Yay!  It was Jerry, Rita, Judy, Aunt Eileen and me.  What a pretty place, and what good company, not to mention poppyseed kuchen that J&J have perfected since Aunt Fronie died.
As we talked around the table (like our parents did so often), Judy brought out something she found tucked inside this hutch. (It originally sat in Gramma Hesch's kitchen along the south wall and seemed enormous to me. Judy has it in her house now:
"This is the hutch that was in Grandpa & Grandma Hesch's kitchen on the farm all my life-complete with the clock you see on top.  I'm betting you remember it too.  This is the hutch that had Fronie's teeny tiny thank you letter tucked in a drawer....
Anyhow, Fronie ended up with the hutch. The clock that had always been on top, like it is again, actually had belonged to mom & dad all along! Mom told me, when she got it after Grandma's death, that she & dad had received it as a wedding gift.  They "loaned" it to Grandpa & Grandma as they didn't have a place for it at the time.  I remember it ALWAYS being on top of the hutch on the farm so I guess it was a pretty permanent loan..."  

(More about Fronie's fancy curved glass secretary at the bottom of this post).

Anyway, what Judy found in the cabinet was a tiny letter that Aunt Fronie wrote after Christmas in 1928.  She would have been nine and Katie, seven. (Rosie was 3, and Math and Theo were 13). The envelope is the size of a flower shop enclosure card, 2 x 3 inches, and it went thru the mail to Minneapolis to Grandpa's sister Mary Hesch...who evidently gave it back sometime later ☺

"Buckman, Minn
January 2, 1928

Dear Aunt,
I will try and write a letter. 
I was glad when you gave me those colors.  
I like them very, very much.
I will tell you what I got for christmas".

"I got a big dolly. It says mama. Rosa does not like her dolly. She always wants my dolly.

From Aunt Anna papa got a cigar and mama got some brown candy.  Aunt Anna is Katie's godfather. She got a blue dress from her.

Rosa Hesch Leone Hesch got a big dolls too. Adeline Hesch she did not get a doll. She got a pencil box and some pencil too a little sissors too and a big book.

I will tell you what I got from Sister Lura she gave me a 2nd grade it is called Rosry (work?) book.  We saw Santa claues he was not bad he was very good he mad us pray I not have to Math and theo and Katie said the our fathe just a little bite.

Math and Theo got a game Henry got a Tedy bear and papa got a stick from Santa claues".

"Mama got nothing from him but from Aunt Mary she got something. You gave Katie a handbag. Sophia Steinbauer gave me one too mam said I wand how they did know that I wa from Veronica Hesch"  (Her mom Lizzy added: "It is quite interesting to read, Veronica and Katie wrote their letters all by themselves fairly well, eh? L")

Just so you know, the whole letter was 4 x 6 inches, folded in forths ☺

I thought this was the cabinet Judy meant:


Here's a pic that's similar to the curved oak secretary that was originally in Aunt Fronie's living room, remember?  Kids were NEVER allowed to run near it, and even thinking about touching it was verboten.  It looked sorta like this, but I think the glass was curved around more? It was as delicate as it looked, and wise kids gave it lots of distance.  Turns out the one in Fron's living room originally belonged to Uncle Leo's mom, Anna Yorek Karash, and stayed with the house when she died, so Fron inherited it.  It surely wasn't her style ☺.

THANKS to Cousin Judy for sharing the little letter and for clearing this up!

Thanks to Larry and Photoshop

 Once again, we benefit from technology and people who know how to use it.  The day Susan sent this photo, Larry and I lightened it, to see what Great Grandma Mary was holding, and to see her better. We often lighten old pics and usually stop there, but last night, Larry subtly colored the photo, not to replace the first, but to make Mary a bit more real.  Wow. Just wow.

Tales of Fisticuffs and the Long Arm of the Law

 An amazing story from the Little Falls Transcript, November 12, 1909:

ARE FINED FOR PITCHING INTO MARSHALL
Two cases of assault and battery, in both of which John P Brown, the marshal of the village of Buckman was complainant, came up for trial in Justice Gerritz's court Wednesday morning. In one, Jos Otremba of Buckman was defendant. He pleaded guilty and was fined the costs of the case, $7.85.  In the other, Anton Hesch was defendant.  He pleaded guilty and was fined $5 and costs, a total of $12.85. They paid their fines and were given their freedom.
The above cases resulted from a quarrel and fight between Anton Hesch and the marshal, during the course of which Jos Otremba became mixed up in it, stating that he did so thinking that the marshal was reaching in his hip pocket for a weapon.

Grandpa Anton would have been 26, not yet married. Joe Otremba was his mom's brother.  Hmm...possibly, they were in a saloon at the time?  

I never thought of grandpa as a scrapper, and certainly haven't had an opinion of the Otrembas before this either.  From January 8th, 1897 Little Falls Transcript, here's something about another Otremba:

 A PARTNERSHIP SCRAP

_________

Christ Olson Polishes the Countenance of his Partner, Carl Otremba

_________

The firm of Olson and Otremba, proprietors of the saloon on First street near the German America bank, became involved in a quarrel Monday, which resulted in Otremba receiving a severe drubbing, a "shanty" being put over each eye, and a swing on the jaw gave his face the appearance of being much fuller on that side than the other.  
Otremba entered a complaint against Olson before Justice Shaw, and the latter pleaded guilty to the charge of assault and was fined $10 and costs.
The trouble between the two business partners has been brewing for some time. Olsom claims that Otremba appropriates the receipts and will not give up anything to pay the bills.
The collector for the Little Falls brewery was in to collect for the beer furnished and Olson demanded Otremba to disgorge from his "hold out" sufficient currency to liquidate the indebtedness.  Otremba refused and then Olson cleared off a portion of the floor and went after his man. His calculations were good for Otremba did not fall much outside of the space cleared, and although he received a hard whipping, he cannot bring an action for damage done to his clothing.
Those who frequent the place sympathize with Olson.
The firm has an application in for a renewal of their liquor license, and now each one of them has made an application for a license for the same building.  The outcome is uncertain.  Olson offers to sell his interest or buy his partner out, and the latter, it is said, will not consent to either proposition.

As far as Larry and I know, there was only one Charles (Karl) Otremba, whom we mentioned before, HERE.  Turns out Karl left Minnesota permanently a few years later ☺.

THANKS, LARRY!

Her name was Louisa

 Every time Heschs got together when I was a kid, if the subject of family history came up, the "first child" was debated.  WAS there a baby before Mike born to AA and Lizzy?  Maybe it was after him...but no, Gramma mentioned her as being first...what was her name?  Was it Mary?  The debate was never settled, because nobody knew for sure, and there was no internet.  
Now, tho, we have the fabulous record by AA's brother Math reporting weekly for the Pierz Journal, online.  YEARS worth are posted in the newspaper section of Minnesota Reflections...and reading thru late 1911, we found these few lines about her birth and death.  

I couldn't find a marker for her in the Buckman cemetery on Find a Grave.  It might be under the sod in the childrens section, or not marked at all.  She was named after Lizzy's mom, Louisa Rausch Sand.  
The Pierz Journal was published on Thursdays.  The Thursday before the 21st was December 14, 1911.  She would have been baptized on Sunday the 24th, Christmas Eve day, and died of pneumonia 21 days after her birth  (January 4th, 1912).  
Dad was born January 29, 1913.

Math Hesch & Mary Tetiva

One hundred year of old NEWS

Whoa, I already have an exciting file of interesting stuff we've found in the Little Falls newspapers from 1893 to about 1932.  For instance, did you realize that Little Falls hosted Chautauquas?  "The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers and specialists of the day".  They were the TED talks of those years.
And remember John Heach who was written up in the Pierz Journal in 1914-15?  He was known around Pierz as a vagabond, an eccentric fix-it guy who preferred to sleep in peoples' barns.  Well LOOK what Larry found from November, 1899--John wasn't destitute after all, unless he blew thru $23,000 in 15 years, which is, I suppose, possible.  

 Here's the announcement of the birth of Dad's older sister Mary Louise, the baby who died before he was born.  She died when she was a year old, January 1911.

 "Joe Hortsch, Jr., cut his foot quite badly last week while cutting wood at home.  The foot part would not be so bad, but a brand new rubber is gone too."

 No, Little Falls wasn't a big town in 1900, except by rural Minnesota standards.  5,774 people was big enough that you didn't know everybody.  It had grown a lot in 3 years, and St Cloud was only about 3,000 people larger.
Little Falls showed "every indication of still greater growth in the immediate future."

And here's the obituary of Louisa (Rausch) Sand, grandma's mom.  She died at the end of 1921 at the home of her daughter, Vernie Wintermeyer, in St Cloud.  Mike Sand lived until 1931, in Buckman.

There are a couple glaring mistakes here, like Sr Teresita, not Ccriza, and John Sand and Mrs Anton Hesch of Buckman, not John Anton Hess.

We figure a more concise obit was published in the PJ, but so far 1921 isn't online.  We'll see, eventually.
















This ad for the 1916 Minnesota State Fair caught my eye cuz it's so....different.  It looks military, with those wings and gears  and psudo-helmet at the top.  Makes me wonder if they had a competition back then too, for the design of the posters and logo.  If not, we should remember that this was right before we got into WWI, and everyone knew we were gearing up for it.  The thought of 3,000,000 square feet of labor saving devices for home, factory and farm IS daunting.  But then, it's still what's shown at the fair ☺.

Ok, this is just a small sample, the first installment,  of what we've found.  Stay tuned for a Mike Sand story about a missing Grittner boy, and why Genola decided against calling itself Grainville, and a few wedding announcements of people you'll recognize, and a birthday party mom attended when she was five....good stuff!

Another picture ☺

A picture from the early 1960s of grandparents Lizzy and Anton Hesch.  We've mentioned grandpa's hands before, but wow, look, they really WERE like a bunch of bananas.  That little piggy had security.  
Really, isn't this the way you remember them?

A hot day at the river

Just for the fun of it--this photo would have been from the summer of 1948 cuz (L to R) mom's holding Lois who looks almost a year old..dad, Aunt Eileen, Uncle Matt, Uncle Leo, Uncle Tony (holding the shorts(?)) and Bob (?) Karasch, with Bev and Carol in front. 

 It's stunning and sweet to see young faces when you know them as old, now.  

Shirley sent pictures!

Our cousin Shirley wants us to know that she's finally retired ☺.  One of the jobs she intended to do when she retired is to go thru Uncle Tader's Army trunk.  Evidently, it was where stuff (pictures, mostly) got stored over the years, and so I got a handful of photos in the mail last week--woohoo!

Summer, 1948--Mom holding Lois, dad, aunt Eileen, Uncle Matt, uncle Leo and uncle Tony and ?with Bev and Carol in front.  WHY was UT holding someone's shorts up to his waist, huh?

No, I have NO IDEA what they were doing on the right with
uncle Blaise, uncle Leo and uncle Tony.  Look away.
That's aunt Katie (standing, left) with one of her kids, and mom sitting.
Must have been hot that day--the kids are mostly wearing diapers or bathing suits.

July, 1960--One of the occasions where uncle Tader & aunt Millie came for a visit--
Me, Tommy, Mom and dad caught unaware at 1004.

Dad, being silly!  This may have been the same day as the top 2 pics, I dunno.
The back says:

Oh, and one more pic before I go to bed...from September 28th, 1946:

Tony Hesch, Reinhard Janson, Mike and Linda Hesch, Jeanette Marshik and Rosie Hesch.

Sweet, huh?

THANKS, Shirley!!

A catch-all post ☺

Hard times--other Heschs--church paintings--CHS, St Cloud

 In the files of the Brainerd newspaper from February 22, 1934 comes this clipping about a Hard Times house party in Granite Ledge, Mn. at the home of Mr and Mrs John Otremba.  I looked for "Granite Ledge" the town, but found only Granite Ledge township, in Benton co....which seems a bit far away from the Brainerd news area.  Anyone know?

Added later:  Larry and I assumed a Hard Times party was a benefit for someone maybe, but nope!  He did the research today and it sounds like much more FUN than that.  Evidently, people came dressed...well, let the Unbirthday article explain.  The group photo is one of 4-5 that Larry found.  I can imagine our relatived really getting into the spirit of this, can't you?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's an article and picture from the Albert Lea paper on January 31, 1944, about another Raymond Hesch, son of "A.T. Hesch".  I have no idea who that would have been, but Larry thought maybe he was a Waumandee Hesch.
I know, I know...there were other Heschs in Minnesota, in particular the Rosina and Valentine Hesch family.  He was from the Canada Heschs.  They lived in Long Prairie and Aitken, Minnesota, and were about the ages of our grandparents.  Did they have a grandson named Raymond?

BTW, that's them--- >

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A really COOL photo Larry found online this week explains something.  Evidently, the village of Dolni Zdar (Niedermuhl) had a concert on Christmas eve, in the very chapel where our ancestors were baptized and married.  There were 7-8 pics posted there, and I'll link to them later....  

What I noticed about it tho, was....remember the question we posed about WHY a painting was purchased for St Michaels church, cuz what church has paintings?

Well, look!  This was a village chapel in Bohemia, just south of Falkenberg, Poland.  The church-decorating customs would have been similar, I think.  I suppose statues would take up too much room in a tiny chapel, huh?  Wow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And for St Cloud historians:  LOOK!  It's a pic of Cathedral High school when it was ONLY what we knew as the North Building.  The trees were planted where the Central building would be later, and there's Bishop Zardetti's fancy brick house, next to Holy Angels Church.  What a surprising photo, huh?

(Pretty sure I found it in Mitchell's 1915 "History of Stearns County", online).

(BTW--any pic edged in red is something our favorite researcher found.  However, sometimes he just sends links. 

Today, the only one that's 'mine' is this Cathedral High pic--sheesh! ☺)

Wheat-weeo--Thanks, Larry!