Larry and I have developed quite a bit of curiosity about Grandpa's oldest brother, Wendelin. To start from the beginning, he was born in (present day) Balzfeld, Rhine-Neckar Kreis, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany on October 20, 1871, and died June 8th, 1958.When the family emigrated, he was 11. He had the distinction of being in charge of the family chamber pot on the whole journey. (When mom told us the story, she said it wouldn't have been that unusual on board the ship, but the train ride from Philadelphia to Chicago to Minneapolis to Little Falls was miserable for him. The story always made us laugh, tho.)
When he was 24, he enlisted in the Third United States Infantry in St Paul, Mn, at Fort Snelling, "for service in the Phillipines". This was just before the Spanish-American War, and we haven't discovered whether he went to the Phillipines or not.
When he was discharged, he took a trip to Europe, returning on the Kensington in early August, 1898.
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Since he re-enlisted in May, 1899 and deserted in August of that year, we assume he went to Virginia with the family in 1900....but again, we don't
know..
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Wendelin spent most of his life in Los Angeles, California. The earliest documentation of that, tho, is the 1915 city directory, where he's a freight handler living on Stephenson St. He worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad.
But, earlier, in the 1905 Minnesota Census, we find him at 258 East 7th Street in St Paul, Mn., one of 20 men living there.
I searched online to see what that address was. Maps put it near the Capitol, off Wabasha Avenue. Was it a rooming house, or was it the Ramsey County jail? Did they hold deserters in county jails?
If /when we find answers, I'll add to this post.
Stay tuned!
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