Christmas, 2010

The West Bend Grotto

As a little kid, I remember going to a.....place built of pretty rocks.  It took a long time to get there, it was hot outside, and we had to be VERY good.  (You know how sometimes a kid-experience seemed like a nightmare, even tho you were supposed to be inspired?  THIS was it for me).

Over the years, when we visited Ida and Walburg Naber in Bancroft, Iowa, we'd often "go see the grotto", too.  It's 35 miles SW of Bancroft.  Ida and Walburg could easily get away for an afternoon to show us the newest thing that'd been added since our last visit.
There are a LOT of family pics taken with the grotto in the background.  It creates the desire to show your friends this...amazing...crazy...tacky...fantastic...beautiful...religious tourist trap.
See what you think:

The name Reinhard

Oh, the internet is AMAZING when you want to know about something.....

Tonight, I came across a reference to Reineke Fuchs,  (Reynard the Fox), described on Wikipedia as an "old allegorical French, Dutch, English and German fable largely concerned with Reynard, an anthropomorphic red fox and trickster figure".     My antenna twitched cuz mom's gramma was Franziska FUCHS, and mom's brother was REINHARD...hmm, there might have been some sort of influence there, however subtle.  The Reineke Fuchs stories were popular for centuries in Germany.

Google books version HERE (1832) and the illustrated version from Internet Archives HERE (1857).

So.  Reineke Fuchs "became throughout the 16th century within the German-speaking countries a bestseller.  It is the story of the mean, smart fox who always succeeds with his lies and triumphs in the end over his opponents".  Our parents didn't encourage "meanness"  or lying, but cleverness thru a bit of deceit was definitely admired.  And, no, they never read these stories to us ☺

Oh, and Wikipedia talks about the origins of REINHARD thusly:

  Theories about the origin of the name Reynard are:

• From the Germanic man's name Reginhard, which came from 'regin' = "the divine powers of the old Germanic religion" and "hard": "made hard by the gods", but with the disuse of the old Germanic religion was later likely interpreted as "rain-hard" meaning "staying steady under a rain of blows from weapons in battle" or similar.
• From the Germanic man's name Reginhard (later condensed to Reinhard), which comes from 'regin' = "counsel" and 'harti' = "strong", denoting someone who is wise, clever, or resourceful".

You're welcome!

Info from Obituaries

Two obituaries from  Iowa in 1915 and 1944.  Margaret Kauper Naber was the wife of Henry Naber, who was the half-brother of  great grandfather Gerhard Naber.  (Henry's mom was Elizabeth Rupipper, and Gerhard's mom was Elizabeth Richels).  But look what other info is included--she was born in Lohn, Hanover, Germany, which leads us to look in that area for Nabers, too, since immigrants tended to settle in the new world near people they knew in the old.  It turns out that Henry died exactly a year before two of his half sisters Mary Schlichte and Grandma Margaret Janson. (They both died in April, 1945).

This below is just a sweet bit of daily life on the Naber farm in Bancroft, Iowa.  The reporter was a friend, you can tell, and he probably got supper out of the deal that day, too...lol
(BTW, Larry said the woman mentioned, "Mrs Jos. Baltz" was the former Clara M. Raskoff (1872-1956), just so we know ☺).

On the left is Henry Naber with his daughter Walburga, and on the right, Henry with daughter Ida.  Below is a young Reinhard Janson with the sisters, probably in Bancroft, probably in the 1940s.

THANKS for searching newspapers, Larry! ☺

Fr Francis X. Pierz

This ► book was published in 1939, and it's a pretty clear history of how and why Catholic immigrants settled where they did .  A few pages have to do with Fr Pierz and the German settlers he encouraged to come to Minnesota.  The pages below are an interesting read because the grade school info we got from the nuns is only part of the story...it's well worth the time, trust me...☺

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The State Normal School @ St Cloud

On Thanksgiving, we were talking about how much debt students today are graduating with, a conversation that brought this 1910 ad to mind... 

Probably anyone who knows St Cloud knows SCSU (St Cloud State University), and that it began as something called a "Normal School".  According to wikipedia, "A normal school was a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose was to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name".

Imagine-- "Tuition is free to all who pledge themselves to teach at least two years in the state".  Wow.

(BTW, if you're interested in early photos of St Cloud Normal School, click here.  There are 157 of them on Minnesota Reflections).

(You're welcome...☺)

The other Jansons

In 1883, there were two Janson families who came to Buckman, Morrison county, Minnesota to settle--one was   Josef and Franziska (my great grandparents) and the other was his cousin Johannes and wife Maria Anna.  Each couple had five children and both wives were pregnant.
They'd purchased a farm west of Buckman where there was a log cabin in a small clearing.  Imagine 4 adults, nine boys under 12 and a seven year old girl...all stuffed into a tiny one room cabin with a loft reached by a ladder outside.  Then, within a month, add two new babies.
Whew.  No wonder Johannes and Maria Anna moved away; somebody had to!
Tragically, that November, three of their children died--the new baby Franziska on the 5th, Johann August on the 18th and Lorenz on the 23rd.  They were 5, 2 and 6 months old.

NOTE #1:   When we first began looking for Janson info online, I found a site called "All my relations..." by Carrie Stave.  She has since taken it down, but I emailed her and asked to use some of the wonderful photos she had there.  She gave me her blessings because, like here on Janson, the photos aren't "mine"--they belong to the family.

NOTE #2:  Going back to various genealogy message boards, its funny to read how we all had enthusiasm and incorrect "facts" in equal measure...names, villages and years all slightly off plumb.  We wrote what we believed was right at the time, and as much as I'd like to apologize or change it, hell, others can have the fun of figuring it all out too!

Still, John and Mary had 11 other children who grew up and grew old.  Most had families of their own and one became a Benedictine nun, Sr Mumertha.

The above photo would have been 1915 or so.

Below are the 11 kids in 1956, on Mike's 50th wedding anniversary 

(he's sitting second from right, I think).

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I'll post more pics as I make the proper connections, ok?

Many thanks to Carrie for these photos!

More NABERS

Most mornings, Larry and I chit-chat a bit on instant messenger before I go off to work, and if either of us found something fun, we share it.  My sharing tends to be news items and goofy pictures, while Larry shares vids and music and family links from places online it never occurred to me to look.  Today, he was looking at Arcadia, Carroll County, Iowa. (Why there, huh? But we knew some Nabers traveled thru Carroll and a few stayed.  We didn't know much else, and still don't ☺ ).  The website has a bunch of old pictures from Arcadia's early years, and THERE .....

H. F. Schroeder, Joe Schweers, Ted Staples, Gerd Hammers, Elmer Schroeder, Bernard Naber, Mike Booth, Ras Nelson, Gilbert Michael, Barney Vander Loo, Shorty Anderson, Val Naber, Harry Wood

...in one of the few photos with names, we have TWO Naber men--Bernard in the middle of the top row, and Val, second from the right.  The photo isn't dated, but it looks like late 30s/early 40s. No, we don't know how they connect, but it's a good bet that anyone with that name in the U.S. does.

Click the link--Arcadia looks like a nice little town--there's an Aloysius Naber pictured on a baseball team from 1923-24, too.  If you have info about these Nabers, let me know, ok?  I'll post it!

BTW, if the photo above was a map of IOWA, then Carroll Co would be Ted Staples waist band button.  Got it?  ☺

Grandpa and Minnesota Power and Light

In the desk downstairs that belonged to Grandpa Janson (the one we were not supposed to touch),  I found this photo of some sort of harvest-related activity--theres a hopper, and a belt, and two large taped-together tubes like stove pipes going left and right.  Were they shooting out those piles of straw?  And, was that an electric generator (lower right)?
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When I asked mom about it years later, she said it was the Janson farm, and grandpa was trying to prove that farms could definitely be electrified--not only lights in the house and barn, but also this kind of thing--silo filling, shredding,  feed distribution, milking and milk handling, barn cleaning-- there were endless possibilities.  She said Grandpa worked with the power company to get an electric line strung to his farm, and proved that electricity was not dangerous.

Stearns REA history

Minnesota Power & Light history

Hm.  It only takes a little research to discover this was almost certainly a crock.  Once towns and cities had it, farmers were begging for electricity.  What other  occupation but a farm took quite so much back-breaking labor every day?  Check this article from Popular Mechanics called "Electricity to end Farm Drudgery".  WHAT farmer wouldn't want less labor?  And even without electricity, farmers had used steam power for bigger tasks like threshing for years.  Besides, grandpa's farm was 17 miles from Little Falls.  If they'd wanted or needed a demo farm, there were plenty within a mile or two of the dam.  So, what was this a photo of?
Probably it was grandpa proving that he didn't NEED to go buy a big fancy piece of equipment like this one Larry found:

(I'd love to be proved wrong about our conclusions re: this cool family story, but.....)

The aunt we never knews

 Mom said her sister Loretta died at the end of October, 1938.
It was October 27th, seventy-two years ago today.

I think I would have liked Aunt Loretta, and mom wouldn't have felt so alone all those years.

There's a Portuguese word for a sense of missing something or someone you never had.  It's a sense of saudade for the aunt we never knew.

The Great Seal of the State of Minnesota

You have to admit I'm incredibly FUNNY!

Larry and I were talking about the history of Hawaii (where he grew up), and that led to discussing the statue of King Kamehameha on the Big Island and how the statue came to be. He mentioned that the image was used on the Hawaii statehood quarter, too, and googled it to show me ☺.  HERE'S ONE SITE that illustrates all the state coins...Minnesota has a bit of everything, Georgia has an unfortunate butt-shaped peach, and Hawaii  has the Roman-senator-like king.  THAT led us to state seals, and why Minnesota's is in French.

The earliest Europeans in Minnesota were French fur traders & explorers (Nicolet, Radisson, Marquette, Sieur Du Luth,  La Salle ) followed by French priests, in the 1630s to 1680s.  I suppose that felt like history by the time 1858 rolled around, huh?

Anyway, I remember being chagrined when I first saw The Great Seal of the State of Minnesota.  I was sure it would be German or Swedish or Norwegian and have a beer stein and a concertina, at least.  A French motto still feels wrong, don't you think?  But, 'Der Star des Nordens' doesn't have the same cache, I suppose....lol

What do these clippings have in common?

A recipe from Mrs Owens Cookbook from 1903

Gawd, I'm so FUNNY sometimes!

64 years ago today

Johann Heinrich NABER

THIS seems to me to be a really precious document for the Naber family in 1878 Nebraska.  It gave them ownership of 80 acres because they'd lived there for six years, and they'd improved it.  That 12 X 27 soddy was about the size of a small one car garage, and the 10 X 20 one is mentioned as a second house...like for sleeping maybe?

Below, December 1st, 1877, John becomes a citizen of the United States, and so his whole family became citizens too.
(John Heinrich was my grandmothers' uncle, or Great grandpa Gerhards' brother).

THANK YOU to Larry, and to the state of Nebraska for digitizing these records...

Royalton, Minnesota in 1922

WHY does Royalton figure so large in the history of our families in Buckman?  Well, Royalton was relatively close, and had a railroad station on the north-south Great Northern line, not to mention that there are few hills between the two towns, so hauling stuff there would be easier on the team.  Also, the Royalton rural mail delivery incredibly included the Janson farm a mile west of Buckman.  Then too, Royalton was the second largest city in Morrison County and aggressively recruited settlers.  It was built on the Platte river and there were a couple of mills using the water power (a flour mill and a saw mill).  So it's not so odd that this photo was published in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune of October 1st, 1922.  If you were on the train going northwest from Minneapolis, it's a town you might be curious about...

Quick--where was Joe Blow's Bar eventually located?

Zenner's Sausage

When we bought the store in Buckman from Kilian and Dela Zenner,  part of the purchase was learning how to make their wonderful sausage.  Local folks loved it, and vacationers and hunters stopped especially for the sausage on their way 'up north' or 'to the lake'.  They were loyal either to Zenner's Sausage OR Thielen's Sausage (Pierz), not both.  (Thielen's seemed a bit sweeter to me, and the meat was ground finer.  Zenner's was WAY better!)

Anyway, at the time, we were sworn to secrecy.  This was a recipe NOT to be shared, even with family.  It was a sacred trust, ya know?

But now, so much has changed.  It's been over 30 years since the last batch was made at Zenners.   Kilian and Adela have been gone for more than 20 years.  Even the building that was Zenners is gone...maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to share the recipe now, huh?  A sort of Legacy gift from them to us.....especially if some of YOU make it, and think about your memories of Buckman and them...

Of course, you can make this in any quantity you like--as little as a pound or two--and make it into links or not; have it smoked, or not.  It's almost as good frozen in patties, unsmoked.  

As to the amount of garlic, I think you can never have too much.  We were usually limited by how long it took to peel and chop all that garlic, but these days, you can buy quart jars of it, ready to use.  

The mustard seed adds a little flavor, but I add it cuz it's such a treat to find one stuck in your teeth afterwards...lol  DO make a batch, ok?  

It tastes so much like HOME.

Added MUCH later: Here's a workaround if you can't get 

Morton's Sausage seasoning~

 

Morton Sausage Seasoning Knock-off: It can be difficult obtaining Morton's sausage seasoning at a reasonable price. If you can't find it or are unwilling to pay outrageous shipping fees, try this recipe: 4 tsp Kosher salt | 4 tsp ground or rubbed sage | 2 tsp fine ground black pepper | 2 tsp red pepper flakes | 1 or 2 tsp Coriander 

This recipe should flavor 4lbs of ground meat.

A sincere THANK YOU to Kilian and Adela Zenner

The Red Star Lines ZEELAND

This is the ship that Joseph and Franziska Janson arrived on, with their first five children--Wendelin, Sebastian, Sophia, Eugene and little Anton.  Evidently, ships leaving Europe and arriving in America were reported in the newspapers, and not just cuz Jansons were arriving ☺.
In these clippings Larry found, there are quite a few facts in shorthand, like that the ship was a steamer led by Captain Buschmann; it left Antwerp, Belgium on February 14th, 1883, passed the Delaware Breakwater on March first, and arrived in Philladelphia on March 3rd with "mdse and passengers" at the Peter Wright & Sons dock (Pier 54, foot of Prime Street).

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THIS ► is a most interesting list of  merchandise aboard the ZEELAND on that trip.  The word "do" means 'ditto', and probably 'dozen' too; I assume it was copied from an actual list, but look: window glass, extract of meat, silk ribbons, pencils, marbles, toys, china, pipes, clay, champagne, wire.  And, a warning, below, to any merchant foolish enough not to pick up what he'd ordered--within 24 hours of arrival--whew!





AND..."don't trust the crew"?  (Wow, how incredible to be able to figure out what international commerce was like in the 1880s). 

An historic ad, letting us know how often the ZEELAND sailed and how much it would cost to steam back across the Atlantic on that valiant ship:

first class cabins were $60 to $76...second class cabins were $55 and steerage was $26 (per person, I suppose.  From our research, fares TO Europe were higher because there was more money to be made in freight from America, rather than people).  

(BTW, John Janson, his wife Maria Sauer, and their eldest 5 kids arrived on the Zeeland this trip, too).