Let's meet in Buckman, ok?

This could be lots of fun.  And just think--it's a hometown event for a few of you ☺.  Here's the link to the   Morrison County Historical Society's website.  Check it out if you're curious, or just show up on Tuesday July 26th at the new Buckman Hall.

COOL!

Johannes Janson, the immigrant

 For years, I thought my great grandparents (Joseph and Franziska) just never had time for a portrait, or didn't like cameras, or something.  Turns out we do have at least one photo of both of them, not to mention the later lovely pic that graces the top of this blog with the widow Franziska.


But the couple who became our greats arrived here with another couple--Joseph's cousin John, his wife Anna (Sauer) Janson and their five kids.  THIS couple, it seems, had no problems with photography, at least once their family was grown.

The legend in the Janson family is that after Joe and John arrived in Buckman with their pregnant wives and five kids each, the one room cabin on the land west of town was a little too small.  Joe and John "had words", and John took his family five miles south.  I'm not sure where that was, but they eventually moved to Mayhew Lake, Mn.

When Larry first convinced me that genealogy would be fun, we checked to see if there was anything online already about Jansons.  Wow! there was a lovely website by one of John and Anna's great-grands, Carrie.  She had gobs of photos (including these, of course).  I copied those that applied, with her blessings.  At the time, only a few of the pics were people I knew about (Sr. Mamertha, for instance), but since then, we've made more and more connections.

One of the cool legends in their family regards who John was before he left Baden.  Here's a photo of him in 1870 (at 25) during the Franco-Prussian war when he was a soldier in Germany.  Later, he was a cabinet maker, and still later, a farmer here in Minnesota.  (Too bad we have no such legend about Joseph, who's history seems to have begun on a boat to America in 1883--sigh!)  As far as possible, we'll tell John's story now.  If you find this and are descended from John and Anna, let me know, ok?  "marlysky" on googles' e-mail service.

Thanks!

After Loretta's funeral

Anton and Maggie Janson had three children--Orlinda, born in 1915, Loretta born in 1917, and Reinhard, born in 1921.  According to mom (Orlinda), she and Loretta were very close, so it broke her heart when Loretta died at 21.  


From stories mom told about her, Loretta had to have a physical before she could try out for the swim team at the U.  They found she had a hole in her heart, so she wasn't permitted to be on the team.  Mom said she was never strong, or particularly healthy, which was probably due to her weak heart.


What she died of, tho, was rheumatic fever. (An inflammatory disease that may develop after an infection with Streptococcus bacteria (such as strep throat or scarlet fever). The disease can affect the heart, joints, skin, and brain).


She had just graduated from the University of Minnesota that spring, and she died 27 October 1938.  Mom was 23, and Reinhard was 17.  Sulfa drugs were developed the following year, and mom always said they would have saved Loretta's life. 

 The B&W photo here was taken the day of the funeral.  The older woman in front is mom's aunt Catherine (Naber) Bahns and her daughters and son, plus mom behind her and uncle Reinhard on the right.


Cousin Gary dropped off some photos this week that I hadn't seen in years--one was Margaret and Anton's wedding picture (2 posts down) and this one, below.  It's grandpa and grandma with Loretta's funeral flowers.

THANKS to Gary!

Another new Janson!

Here's a picture of Gary and Nancy's first grandchild--daughter of Vanessa and Brandon.  Grandpa Gary says he caught her first smile ☺

Welcome baby Addison!

A 1913 bride

For 38 years of my life I was a florist, so of course bridal bouquets always catch my eye and interest. This is even more true if they're from a family wedding.

This bouquet was the one Margaret Naber carried when she married Anton Janson in May, 1913.  It looks to be 4 or 5 large open roses in different colors at the top, with ranunculas and lily of the valley (or stephanotis?) cascading.
Ranunculas and lily of the valley are spring flowers, but full blown roses couldn't have been grown in Buckman in May.  Besides, these seem particularly large and sturdy.  Where would fresh flowers have come from in 1913?


I started looking online--Little Falls?  St Cloud?  Amazingly, there's a history of Minnesota florists online. A flower shop opened in Brainerd in 1901...hmm, maybe there?  Little Falls Greenhouse opened in 1947, and Lens Flower Dell in the 60s.  I didn't know of earlier florists....so I emailed Morrison County Historical Society and got a wonderful answer (bottom of this post).


 Larry and I were online this morning, talking it over.  I mentioned again that they look almost artificial, and if they were, they might have been ordered from anywhere.  He said, "Oh sure, mail order...maybe the Sand Sisters in LF?"


The lights went on! The Sand sisters owned a millinery shop in Little Falls, but there was also a millinery in Buckman, just south of John Hesch's store.  The flowers DO look like hat trimming flowers, don't they?  Her veil and Anton's boutonniere were largish lily of the valley...too big and too sturdy to be real.  WOW!
It makes sense that a milliner would provide wedding bouquets, and certainly, the flowers could be used later to trim a hat.  

(Kinda cool that the Sand Cafe is now the Flower Dell, huh?)

............

Wow!  And then, Larry found some wonderful catalogs and magazines online from the winter of 1912, and spring of 1913...it seems to me Margaret Naber bought a dress modeled on Paris fashion.  

Way to go, Gramma!

Here's the email answer from MCHS:

"In response to your question about florists, there are a few
possibilities. The Little Falls Greenhouse was opened around 1940.
Previous to that the Odd Shop offered flowers beginning in the late 1930s.
The Odd Shop was a gift store. There was also the Gordon Guy Flower Shop
in the 1940s but then it became a photography business. Also in the 30s is
Chinberg Florist; they appear to be the first actual florists, opening
around 1930. Lastly, the Levis Book Store carried flowers in 1916/1917 so
they are a possibility for where your grandmother bought her bouquet.

Another possibility, if the flowers were artificial is that they could
have been bought at a millinery".

Marissa Knaak
Intern

THANKS to the world's best researcher and to Marissa...Woohoo!

Oh sure, I suppose you want to see the WHOLE dress, right?

Anton Janson and Margaret Naber

May 19, 1913

Sebastian, Mary and family

Slowly, we're building an online album of ancestor photos--YAY!  Of the four members of Joseph & Franziska's clan to marry and have kids, we only have half to go...lol
This sweet photo had to be taken at the Janson farm in about 1912.  I don't know if it was in Leaf River, Mn, or if they'd moved to New Munich by then.  It's Mary and Sebastian with their first six kids (all boys) starting from the little one on the left: Fred b 1909, Henry b 1903, Raymond b 1906, John b 1896, baby Dick b 1910, and Joseph b 1901.  Not born yet were Rose (1913), Dorothy (1916) and Alice (1920).
All these kids were mom's first cousins, but I only remember Dick, Dorothy and Alice.  I suppose those three were really closer to mom's age, or maybe they were just the ones who stayed in Minnesota.  

Speculation on Denmark, Lutherans, Emigrating, and Jansons

Looking online to understand Danish history, this article sums it up best for our purposes, I think.  If our ancestors really were from Denmark, and if they were able to leave in the 1530s when things got rough, then they couldn't have been unskilled poor people. It was 450 miles to Horrenburg near the  Rhine river...a trip by horseback and wagon, I suppose, but not a safe journey.

And, might they have left earlier?  Or, later?  The earliest JANSON ancestor I have treed (☺) is Johann Adam Janson, born in Baiertal, Germany (west of Balzfeld) in 1709.  The Lutheran revolution in Denmark happened 170 years earlier.  
Evidently, being traceable wasn't uppermost in the Janson mind right then.


Anyway, a little history won't hurt you--g'head and read:

Lutheran Denmark, Norway and Iceland: AD 1536-1550
The nobles of Denmark's electoral council, the rigsraad, depose Christian II in 1523 and elect to the throne his uncle Frederick, duke of Schleswig-Holstein. Frederick I rarely visits his kingdom of Denmark. But when he does so, the rigsraad is alarmed to observe that he appears to sympathize with the Lutheran heresy. On his death in 1533 the Catholic majority in the rigsraad attempts to withhold the crown from Frederick's son, Christian, who is known to be an even more committed Lutheran. The result is a civil war, which ends in Christian's favour.
Christian III becomes king of Denmark (and with it Norway and Iceland) in July 1536 after capturing Copenhagen. He immediately arrests the Catholic bishops, confiscates their property and dissolves the monasteries. Vast funds flow into the royal exchequer. In October of that same year the Danish Lutheran Church is formally established. Next it is the turn of Norway, whose monasteries bring the crown further riches. The Norwegian Lutheran Church is in existence by 1539. Iceland resists a little longer, but it too is Lutheran by 1550. Brought to the new faith in a few short years, on the personal conviction of one powerful ruler, all three countries nevertheless remain firmly Lutheran.

VIA


Oh, and here's a good explanation of the History of Lutheranism with much of the stuff the nuns omitted.


Yer welcome.

Glenn X2

Hooray, you can stop holding your breath now.  We've successfully figured out how Washington Glenn is related to us, and the info ads another layer of Janson immigrants to the tree!


The Minnesota part of the family arrived here from Horrenberg in 1883--Joseph and his cousin John settled in Buckman and John's brother Daniel settled in Rice.  Evidently, Daniel wrote home and recommended Minnesota (altho, I can't imagine why he'd suggest the poor sandy soil around Rice)...and two years later, in 1885, another Janson cousin, Johann Michael, Carl Fredrick Janson, arrived in Minnesota, settling near Rice.    However, they only lived in Minnesota from 1885 till 1903, when they moved to the west coast. (Turns out, Carl F was the son of Johann Michael).


 Carl Fredrick Janson  was WA Glenn's grandpa...Carl's son Reinhold (born in Rice, Mn) was his dad, so see?  No wonder one Glenn recognized the other.  SUCH good genes.


Relationships in a family are figured from the "common ancestor", who in this case Was Georg Adam Janson and Maria Elizabeth Epp, in the mid 1700s.  They had two sons and six daughters.  Suffice it to say one son begat a different line than the other ☺.

****************************

Ok, I know you're anxious to figure the relationship exactly, right?  So here's another chart found on the 'net.  Joseph, on the left above, is our great grandfather, so I think that makes Washington Glenn our...fifth cousin.

Is that the way YOU read it?

(Still, the question of Dan Janson in Sacramento in the 40s isn't cleared up--but I assume Dan knew he had more relatives on the west coast than just Wendelin.  I hope we find out some day...)


BTW, THANKS again to Bev !!

Sebastian gets married

Sebastian Janson was just 10 years old on the voyage to America with his parents and sibs in 1883.  The heavy work of clearing land and helping out on the farm in Buckman would have fallen to him and Wendelin, since Sophie would have helped in the house, and Eugen and Anton were 5 and 3 when they arrived.
Comparing his physical build here to his parents', it looks like he inherited Fuchs genes more than Janson, so he wasn't willowy and thin like his dad, but more sturdy, like his mom.


According to his WWI draft card (when he was 45) he was of medium height and medium build, with blue eyes and dark brown hair.


I hope Mary Roos at least liked those blue eyes, since he did not become the world's kindest man. They raised nine children together on a farm in New Munich, Stearns County, Minnesota.  

Now finally, with photos of Sebastian, we have individual pictures of all four boys in that family to add to the pictures of the four girls.  (Yes, there's one more pic of Sebastian with his family, but waiting for that will add suspense to the blog, right?)

Here they all are, together.  Who do YOU resemble?

THANKS again,  TOM!

A portrait of Joseph and Franziska

Joseph and Franziska (Fuchs) Janson were married in Balzfeld, Germany in November 1869, and arrived in Minnesota in the spring of 1883 with 5 and 8/9ths kids.  Wendelin, Sebastian, Sophia, Eugen and Anton were born in Europe, while Anna, Frances and Rose were born here, in Buckman.

When the kids came of age, Wendelin joined the service, Sebastian got married, Eugen and Anton stayed on the farm, Frances and Rose married and moved to town, while Sophia and Anna became nuns in Campbellsport, Wisconsin (near Milwaukee).  

Sebastian's grandson Tom has the original of this photo and sent me a copy this morning:  

  

As far as I know, this is the only photo of Joseph Janson, our great grandfather.  And, seeing them now, he certainly looks familiar, and she has to be the woman in the blog masthead.

In figuring what year (and occasion) this was, we know Sophia did not move to Virginia with her parents as she was already in Campbellsport by 1900.  We know too, that Joseph died in 1911, so this photo had to be from between 1903 and 1911.  Was it the day of Anna's final vows?   I'll research that, ok?


Much later: Ahh! I think the photo was taken on the occasion of the sister's visit home in July, 1909.  Thank you, Pierz Journal, and 














THANK YOU, TOM!

LOTS More about Otto Janson

WOW--we still don't know if Otto was related to us, but Larry found information and pictures online, some of which Bev pointed out.  (Scroll two posts down ☺ )
We found that Otto's parents were Carl (Charles) Janson and Anna Amling, and he had a sister named Elsa.  Here they are, in San Francisco c 1892.  Isn't that a cool house?

"From left to right: Anna Janson, Frida Janson, Elisabeth Amling, Ernestine Amling, Elsa Janson & Otto Janson. Taken in Berlin, Germany in 1897 when Anna & the kids went back to bring her sisters over to the USA".  


Otto was seven...can you imagine that trip?  Traveling from California by train, then a long ocean voyage from NY to Hamburg, then train again to Berlin.  As a little boy, it must have been fascinating, but terribly long for Anna.  Still, you know she didn't travel without a nanny or two to help with the kids and luggage.  I love the elegance of this pic, right down to the hoop Otto's holding.

We assume this photo was taken sometime after his run-in with the judicial system, possibly when he was 29, and about to get married.  This is based on the next time we found him, in the 1930 federal census from Berkley, Ca.  He's listed with his wife Evelyn (nee Connolly) and six year old son Richard.  That census asked for "age at first marriage", which for him was 29.  Otto was listed there as a "Manufacturer" with the product being "Steel".
Evidently, he didn't serve the whole five years in prison, but I bet he was pretty introspective about speaking out ever after.  What a shame for America.

These pictures come from a family album online depicting the Coates-Janson-Bertelsen relationship.  It's interesting to click thru to get an idea of how those families connected. 
This photo is Howie Coates, with his cousin Richie Janson and Uncle Otto Janson.  


Otto and Evelyn had another son they named Thomas, but there are no pics of him in the online album, as far as I can see.

Now, WHY, you ask, are we all that interested in this family, since we have no documentation that they were connected to us?  Well, we're pretty sure the name JANSON, in that form and spelling, was Danish, not German.  Yeah, our immigrant Jansons hailed from Deilheim and Horrenberg in southern Germany, while Carl's family came here from farther south still, along the Swiss boarder, but they were only "German" for a few generations, we think. 


So, perhaps Otto's sons Richie or Thom could be the father of that west coast Glenn we mentioned here...that is, if he isn't Dan Janson's grandson.


Hey, that makes sense to me, even if it just confuses you. This is one of the places you need to TRUST us, ok?  LOL!

Added a few days later:  There's an interesting wide-ranging blog I follow called the History Blog, and the topic on June 12th was the invention of the Zeppelin in Friedrichschafen, in southern Germany.  That's the city Carl Janson was from!  (I've read about the Zeppelin before but never knew there was any connection for us--even a tentative one.  Cool, huh?)

BTW, the History Blog is well worth bookmarking. 

Dixville Lutheran gets new temporary members

Here's a cool episode in Buckman/Pierz history, told partly by our friend Anon, and corroborated by someone else's family story. It concerns the school/church controversy in Pierz (c. 1900 to 1960).
I've been corresponding with Charlie Brandl's grandson Kyle, and asked him if this story sounded familiar:

"When Anon was a kid (1950s), he helped at Zenners store, especially on Sunday mornings. He said there were very few cars thru Buckman at the time, so those that did drive by were notable.  

A few Sundays in a row, he noticed the same car, with two men, headed south thru town, and then it would return in a couple hours.  He asked Kilian or Dela who those men were, and was told they were Mr Gau, who'd been excommunicated over the school controversy in Pierz, and his friend Mr Wermerskirchen, the editor of the Pierz Journal.  

Rather than NOT go to church at all, Mr Gau had joined the Dixville Lutheran church, and Mr Wermerskirchen was angry at the priest in Pierz for excommunicating Gau, so he quit St Josephs too".

And here's Kyle's reply:

"I haven't heard that story specifically, but it certainly sounds accurate.   My grandfather Alfred (James) Wermerskirchen was the editor of the Pierz Journal, and was neighbors with Mr. Gau on Main Street in Pierz, across the street from the church.  I know that they were friends, and also that my grandmother, Gladys... was of German-Lutheran decent, and grew up in Little Falls.  She happened to attend the Dixville church as well.   Each of their children attended school in Little Falls as a result of falling out with the Pierz church over the school controversy.  That is, all except my dad who attended Pierz,  I am told,  to play sports.  Nonetheless, I've always been told the whole family attended St. Joseph's on Sundays except my grandmother, so I'm not sure if my grandfather W. actually quit St. Josephs.   

There are many amusing stories I have heard over the years about minor friction between my grandparents and the parish.  It seemed that my grandmother, as a Lutheran, was more willing then many other townsfolk to call a spade a spade so far as the church was concerned, so that her other friends, who were members of the parish, would come to her to set the priest straight on one issue or another.  It is definitely a relic of another time, as I don't think the town priest has as much clout, for good or bad, today".  

 Who better than the editor's wife to take on the OTHER powerful person in town, huh? I  LOVE that part especially ☺ .

If you're interested, Here's the school controversy  story, complete with newspaper clippings (tho they're not from the Pierz Journal).

THANKS, KYLE!

Who was Otto Janson?

Here's another possible connection we'd never be aware of if it wasn't for digitized newspapers online, their searchability, and Larry..  
In Sausalito, California, in 1918, a local businessman was overheard questioning America's involvement in the war in Europe.  He happened to speak German as well as English, and people assumed he was sympathetic to the German cause.  He also made the mistake of succeeding in business here in America, so:
  
                                           
5 YEARS IN PRISON FOR OTTO JANSON
Head of Oakland Iron Works is Sentenced on Disloyalty Charges
San Francisco--Otto Janson, head of the Janson Iron Works of Oakland, and the first German-American to appear in the local federal courts on charges of disloyalty, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at McNeil Island May 10th by Federal Judge M. T. Dooling.
In sentencing Janson, who suffered a change of heart and sought permission to join the United States Navy since being indicted, Judge Dooling took occasion to condemn organizations of citizens taking it upon themselves to punish pro-Germans.
Judge Dooling scored Janson, for his sentiments expressed to several witnesses.
"It is a matter of public notoriety", said Judge Dooling, "that throughout the country at this time there are misguided citizens organizing themselves into so-called Knights of Liberty and Ku Klux Klan and other organizations for the purpose of dealing with these people in the country presumably on the theory that the courts are not able to do it, or will not.  It seems to be difficult to make some realize that this country is really at war and in earnest about it, and that all the energies of this country must be bent to the winning of the war."
Judge Dooling asserted that he imposed a substantial sentence upon Janson for the purpose of checking others.
"Why a young man, born in this country," said Judge Dooling, "should entertain views of this kind--I have no doubt that he entertains them, because these declarations were not made to single individuals or at one time--I cannot understand.  I have an idea that if he were in Germany, which he so much loves, and should make declarations of that kind against the German government he would be dealt with much more harshly than he could be in this country."

These photos of Otto Janson, with a summation of his "crimes", were found on Ancestry.com.   MCNEIL ISLAND, WASHINGTON, U.S. PENITENTIARY, PHOTOS AND RECORDS OF PRISONERS RECEIVED, 1875-1939


His physical description says he was 27 years old, 5 feet 4 1/2 inches, 152 pounds, with brown hair and hazel-grey eyes.  (Oddly, more than half of the description was a list of his teeth?).  
Now, almost a hundred years later, I'm still horrified by the travesty of "justice" that Otto was subjected to.  From other articles we found in California papers, Otto took over the business from his father, Anton (Charles in the census) who founded Janson Iron Works.  The Jansons weren't poor immigrants-- they certainly worked hard to get where they were by 1918.  In my mind, Otto's actual "crime" was being successful and speaking his mind with a German accent.
Sigh.  
When Larry investigated further, he found that Otto at one point said his family was from Denmark, rather than Germany.  I assume he meant his grandfather, since Otto's father claimed Germany on the 1910 census.  

Our Wermerskirchen connection

HOORAY! This week, we heard from a descendant of another early settler in the Pierz/Buckman area, namely immigrant Melchior Wermerskirchen's great grandson, whose mom was a Brandl.  (Trying not to use googleable proper names, ya know?)  
Here's the bio printed in the  Clara Fuller's History of Morrison and Todd Counties, Minnesota , in 1915. 

I was hoping the article might have explained where 'Wermers Church' was--maybe a district in or near Cologne?  

THANKS for writing, K!