Janson: On the Move...

We were looking online for the answers to a fairly complicated set of genealogical questions about the Janson family, and Larry found answers that we could ONLY have found online. I'm still stunned, in awe of how his mind works, and delighted....I feel like Dr Watson to his Sherlock Holmes.

What we knew:

1. The Janson family moved to Hampden, Virginia in 1900 after spending 18 years in Minnesota improving their acreage, clearing fields, planting crops, and building a house and out-buildings on the farm west of Buckman.

2. Their eldest son, Wendelin, had enlisted in the military, served a 3 year stint, and was honorably discharged (1898). That summer, he took a trip to Europe.

3. The next spring, he re-enlisted, stayed 3 months, and deserted (1899).

4. In 1903 when Buckman incorporated, Joseph Janson was back there as one of the petitioners.

5. Altho the whole Joseph Janson family is listed in Hampden in the 1900 census, we believe that only Anton, plus 'one brother and three sisters*' accompanied Joseph and Franziska there, and that Anton stayed in Virginia for 3 more years after they went back to Minnesota, according to his WPA bio, right.
(* Anna, Rose, and Frances, plus Sebastian and his wife Mary Roos, who lived in Meherrin, Va).

6. The first two of Sebastian & Mary's kids were born in Virginia.

This all produced quite a few questions for Larry and me--like, what made them decide on Virginia, and why, right then? What kind of farms were available there? How did they find out about Hampden and Prince Edward County? Were there other German families in the area? Was the climate there really similar to southern Germany? (We were suspicious that they moved to hide Wendelin, but no, we don't think he was there at all).

The Library of Congress Chronicling America website: It's digitized historic newspapers from 15 states so far, and they include some from Minnesota and Virginia.

Larry found this article in the St Paul, Minnesota GLOBE Newspaper. A young scholar (W.E.B.DuBois!) uses Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia as a "typical" Southern town 30 years after the Civil War. Farmville happens to be about 5 miles from Hampden, and we think the Jansons may have read it, not with a view to the "Race Problem", but instead, imagining how they might fit there.
Click the article to read it.
Another internet WOW was information found in Google Books: this short rundown of Prince Edward County mentions German farmers moving there about 1900, and another book said it was about 12 families...