Janson

Aunt Jeanette Janson

2012-01-21T11:58:00.002-06:00

A late Happy

85th birthday

to you, AJ!!

Help preserve the Pierz Journals!

2011-12-30T14:45:00.001-06:00

John William Janson 1891-1979

2011-12-28T20:22:00.000-06:00

This morning, Larry asked if I recognized these folks: I didn't. But it turns out they're related ('course they are, or I wouldn't post em! ☺)

Remember the two Janson families who arrived in Minnesota in the spring of 1883? One was Joseph Janson, his wife Franziska, and their first five kids. They were our great grands.
The other was Johannes Janson, his wife Maria Anna Sauer with their first five kids. Joe and John were cousins, so the relationship is a generation farther removed, but they're still "our" Jansons, from Horrenburg, Rhine Nekkar Kreis, Baden, Germany.

John and Maria had 14 kids in all, but 3 of them died from a flu epidemic in November 1883. The surviving 11 grew up just fine. Some had families, some didn't, and one became a nun. Yup, the man in the pic up there was one of the 11, also named John. The photo was taken in 1955--John with his wife Anna Weires, and two of their daughters, Hildegard and Roseanna. Pretty cool, huh?

That's John William Janson as a kid (left)--maybe his First Communion or Confirmation?--and as a World War I soldier (right). He would have been 27 in 1918. He married Anna Weires in April 1920.

The photo below was taken in May, 1956. By December that year, both Mike and Joe had died, so it was a pretty precious get together for them. John is second from the left sitting in front.

These two pics are pretty faded, but it looks like John and Anna enjoyed their lives and their family.
Working up from the youngest kid shown, we have Albert, Roseanna, Edward, Hildegard, and possibly Bernard in back, next to John. We figure this was about 1944, since Roseanna looks about 10. We don't know who the grandma or grandpa is in the back there. Anyone know?

Ok, what else do we know about John and Anna? This is their eldest son, John Herbert Janson. I remember meeting him when I was a kid, at weddings and funerals, I suppose. He was born in 1924, so he was 9 years younger than mom. I remember him only as "old" and "nice".

And look--here they are on the cover of a reunion booklet from 2004. Anna died in 1969, and John in 1979. Looks like they had a huge wonderful family, huh?

Thanks to Carrie Stave, Bev Janson, Larry and Ancestry.com--!
☺

To all my relatives:

2011-12-25T07:59:00.002-06:00

Stille Nacht

2011-12-24T07:08:00.000-06:00

A virtual sing-along with my siblings, at Christmas.

Musical Christmas presents for you

2011-12-23T18:05:00.000-06:00

OK, this isn't Christmas music, but I can't think of any other legit

reason to share it with you.

I just LOVE it, every time I watch it, and you will, too--trust me ☺:

Larry grew up in Hawaii. Maybe 5 years ago, he sent four CDs by this man, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. I think I can sing along with 99% of them now...☺

This sweet infectious tune is one you can sing along with. It's as tho Iz is singing a harmony part, just waiting for you to sing lead.

YAY, Lord, of course

2011-12-23T06:23:00.003-06:00

Let's hear some harmony!

Silver Bells

2011-12-22T07:09:00.003-06:00

Ahh, this song is so fulla images of lights, cities and silver bells--how else to illustrate it, especially if you have Windows Movie Maker right there??
Still, I love it ☺

A family Fav

2011-12-21T13:56:00.001-06:00

Let's Sing Christmas

2011-12-20T21:48:00.000-06:00

I picked videos in our voice ranges to post the rest of this week. Sing your part, ok?

Mom's probably listening....

Words

2011-12-16T20:50:00.000-06:00

Mom was a champion speller in grade school (loosing a spelling bee to Cecilia Kapsner and resenting it for the rest of her long life) and a stickler for proper usage. She believed you could fairly judge a person by the way they used words. How hard was it to use 'saw' instead of 'seen'? To her, poor usage was willful stupidity.
So, I'm affected with a good share of it, too, but rarely run into it; I had to find my own peeve, and it turns out to be words-you-understand-on-the-page-but-can't-pronounce-or-use-even-tho-you-might-want-to.
For instance:

DEMUR (disagree or object)

DEMURE (modest, reserved)

EKES (...out a living) Great for crossword puzzles, tho.

SCION (...of a family)

TUMULT

DAIS

MELEE (a riot)

PUTATIVE

LEIGH (name)

LOUGH (pronounced lock)

PICARESQUE (pik-uh-RESK)
adjective:
1. Of or relating to humorous or satiric fiction describing, in a series of episodes, the adventures of a roguish hero.
2. Of or relating to rogues or scoundrels.

PICTURESQUE like a picture

LASSO

CHOATE is a school in Connecticut, right? but then, what's

INCHOATE?

I think of Garrison's monologue about reading the word Egyptian and sounding it out in his head as E-gip-tee-un. I truly get that, don't you?

Odds and Ends

2011-11-28T19:56:00.001-06:00

For no particular reason, here are various articles and ads from old magazines, and one pic from about 1966. LOL...because I CAN.

How do these people connect?

2011-11-20T09:39:00.001-06:00

Yup, a good way to find family stuff online is to periodically search for the names, even if you just did it a month ago. Between Larry and me, the one who remembers to do this isn't me ☺.

These two obits were found in the Brainerd Dispatch, Nick Meyer's on October 23, 1969 and Marguerite Faust in the July 20th, 1971 edition. So, why are they here?

Well, they were brother and sister, children of Math Meyer and Catherine Brausen. Two of their sisters married Jansons--Leonard and Alfred--sons of John Janson who arrived in America with our Great grand, Joseph Janson. See?

The aforementioned Alfred was the grandfather of Carrie, who's contributed facts and photos to the blog.

It's just cool to make these connections, I think.

Joseph Janson's American Citizenship Document

2011-11-20T09:13:00.001-06:00

Thanks to Tom Janson for this!

Remember this singer?

2011-11-06T22:00:00.002-06:00

Just for fun ☺!

Have YOU worried about this, too? ☺

2011-10-29T13:38:00.000-05:00

Evidently the homesteader who sold his claim to Joseph JANSON was named J. JOHNSON. This map is the 1907 plat of Buckman township, and the land is still labeled with that name. There was a time in the 1920s when the farm was owned/labeled "J. Brandl", but otherwise, 'Johnson' seemed to persist.
I've wondered alot whether ownership actually was that iffy. Grandpa Janson mentioned major ups and downs during his own tenure--was he really that close to loosing it, so often?

Well, not necessarily. Here's the well restored 1895 Minnesota census, enumerated by someone who didn't seem to care about correctly spelled names. The JANSON family is spelled Johnson, see? Hm, did Joseph say it that way? If Joe and John were pronounced CHOE and CHON, then you'd think Janson would be pronounced CHANT-SON...?
However, in those years, if the census taker came around when you weren't handy, a neighbor could give the info, and often did, I think. You were accounted for, even if it was wrong.

It's just something to keep in mind when we look at plat maps, ya know?

Leaving Antwerp in February, 1883

2011-10-26T19:32:00.000-05:00

Here's the family story about how Josef and Johannes Janson and their families left Europe:
Mom said they packed up and left by night, secretly loading their stuff and kids into rowboats on the river. I always assumed "the river" was the Rhine, like we'd mean the Mississippi, but looking at the map of that area, there's a tributary to the Rhine right from Dielheim. Wow--was that river really deep and wide enough to float get-away boats?
Anyway, the Rhine seems to meander all over, but eventually leads to the ports in Rotterdam and Antwerp in a whole different country, Holland. Mom said they were "safe from pursuit" there, and could leave on the next ship out. That ship turned out to be the Zeeland, a Red Star Line ship (last post, right!)

So this week, Larry found a pdf containing places in Belgium, the US, and Holland where you can write to find info about ancestors who left on Red Star ships. However, what really interested us were the photos sprinkled thru the brochure:

The Red Star Line building, evidently at the port in Antwerp.

Waiting to go.
Judging by the women's clothing, this was a good 40 years
after the Jansons left, but possibly from the same building?

"Everything for passengers is done free of charge in this building"
says the sign (in 5 languages). These were luggage disinfecting machines...
but I think they were not even thought of when our folks left.
These pics seem to be from well after 1900.

The most interesting photo, I think, is this pic showing passengers filing on board.
The words under the pic are the only explanation given,
but the walkway in the foreground vs. the line of people farther down the quay
speaks volumes.

And, damn, that's one SMALL ship.

The ship they rode in on...

2011-10-25T21:40:00.000-05:00

(A title stolen directly from Larry☺ who also found this picture--surprise!)

Our Jansons came here on a ship called the ZEELAND. It was a Belgium ship when they sailed, but here it says Norway. lol...what did I miss?
Anyway, Larry's been trying to find an image of it for ages, and finally succeeded. Just LOOK how small that deck is--I believe there were over 800 passengers on board. Whew.

(Right, any nationality could sail on any ship as long as you had the cash, huh?)

A report card from 1915-1916

2011-10-10T17:33:00.000-05:00

A legend in our family is the story about mom going to High School in Buckman. She said the nuns only taught freshman and sophomore classes, and only in alternate years, so she was a sophomore first and a freshman second. That would have been 1931-32 and 1932-33. (Mom finished HS in St Cloud, at Cathedral, while she worked for board and room with a local family).

Irene Janson, mom's cousin three-times-removed, attended St Michaels Parochial School (1st year) in 1915-16 when she was 14, about the year this photo was taken...

Sr Waltrudis seems to have been a tough marker--but then, just look at the list of subjects taught, beside the fact that report cards came out monthly--whew.

I've left these two scans large so you can examine them better when you click the pic. Oh, and don't miss the didactic missive "TO PARENTS". Evidently the nuns knew best how to raise good Catholic kids.

The other Janson family in Buckman

2011-10-08T07:25:00.001-05:00

If you're from Buckman and remember when my ex-husband and I owned Zenner's Store, you'll recall that Irene and Robert Janson helped out there quite a bit. Their dad was "the other" Joseph Janson, the blacksmith, and their mom was Mary Poster. Irene and Robert had a brother, Otto, a cashier at the bank in town, who married Philomine Theis. (That's all I know about Otto, except that he and Philomine lived in Minneapolis in 1965, according to her sister's obituary).

Anyway, back to Zenner's store. I left the marriage, the store and Buckman in June of 1974, but Andre' stayed on with even more help from Robert and Irene.

Robert died in 1978, and when Andre finally closed the store, he was the nearest thing to family Irene had. As she got older, Andre' and his wife Sue graciously provided a home for her with them.

When she died in October 1993 she was buried next to Robert in St Michaels Cemetery in Buckman. Her box of photos and mementos has been sitting in a closet of Andre's house ever since, waiting for someone who wanted them.

Now, 18 years later, I realized they could be here, on the blog. Andre' brought them along on a trip to St Cloud, and here they are--too many for one post, but let's start with her family of origin, ok?

If you know this part, just skip it... ☺

Two cousins came to America with their families in 1883. They were Joseph Janson and Johannes Janson. (Joseph was my great grandfather).

Johannes was Irene's grandfather. His son Joseph was Irene's dad, or "Joe Janson, the blacksmith" in Buckman. Here he is on the left, back row.

The Johannes and Mary (Sauer) Janson family in about 1895 before their family was complete.

Joseph Janson and Mary Poster

August, 1901

Below, the family on a summer day in about 1917: Robert, Irene and Otto with their mom Mary and dad Joe. The kneeling woman might have been Gramma Janson. or Gramma Poster?

It's all in the perspective

2011-09-27T06:24:00.001-05:00

Over the past four years, Larry and I have discussed Nabers quite a bit, in particular my grandmother's mother, Elizabeth.
(Grandma's father, Gerhard Naber, married his second Elizabeth in 1871. They had 5 more kids together: Elizabeth, John, Catherine, Margaret, and Gerhard. My grandmother was Margaret).
We've wondered why Elizabeth and her grown kids left Petersburg, Iowa and moved to Buckman, Minnesota, of all places. Ok, daughter Catherine was living in Pierz with her husband and kids. Did they move to be near her?
In my mind, it was a mother who moved to another state and whose unmarried kids came along. But 'society' saw it differently, evidently. Here's a blurb from the Buckman News of March 4th, 1910:

John Naber, his two sisters and mother, who are now the proprietors of the A.L. Kiernan farm arrived here from Iowa on Saturday with their stock and household goods, and will make their future home here.

Wow. Ok, we know Elizabeth's husband Gerhard died in 1891, so she'd been a widow for almost 20 years by 1910. John was 37, his sisters were 38 and 28, but his mom was only 64 when they arrived in Minnesota...hardly over the hill.
But wait--John's brother Gerhard wasn't listed with the family there. No wonder--he'd married Julia Grittner in 1909. Her family was from Buckman, so the Nabers had earlier associations with Morrison County...it's a still unfolding story!
(Thanks to Horst's book (see the sidebar) for including this blurb).

Russian Squirrels

2011-09-24T11:27:00.002-05:00

For your edification regarding wildlife and your pondering on how-the-hell-they-knew-that, here's a blurb from a 1908 Minneapolis newspaper:

One Hundred thirty-five years ago, yesterday

2011-09-15T18:53:00.001-05:00

From the Minneapolis Tribune, September 17, 1876. Amazing that we weren't aware that CB Buckman had an amputation or wore a wooden leg. Wow. For context, this incident happened 10 years before the devastating tornado that swept thru Sauk Rapids, Rice, Buckman and Pierz in 1886. Buckman wasn't a town then, either, not until 1903, and the Janson families wouldn't arrive for another seven years.

CRUEL ACCIDENT
________________
A Well Known Minnesota Farmer Mangled by a Threshing Machine--His Condition Critical.
_______________
Pioneer Press and Tribune
St Cloud, Sept. 14--Yesterday morning, about 9 o'clock, an accident happened at Rich Prairie, in Morrison county, by which Mr. C.B.Buckman, one of the best known and highly respected citizens of northern Minnesota may loose his life. Mr Buckman was engaged at work around a threshing machine at his place, Rich Prairie, and had occasion to go upon the machine while in motion. While passing over the cylinder his left foot was caught in the remorseless teeth, and literally torn to fragments. A messenger was immediately sent to Little Falls, distant eighteen miles, who there telegraphed to Dr. McDonald, at St Cloud. The doctor made all haste, but during the long interval between the accident and the arrival of the doctor, Mr Buckman suffered terribly and bled profusely. Dr McDonald amputated the mangled member a short distance below the knee, and reports that when he left him, his patient was comparatively comfortable, although in a critical condition.
Mr Buckman is well known not only in northern Minnesota, but in St Paul and Minneapolis as well.

Naber bits and pieces

2011-09-11T22:49:00.002-05:00

Sometimes you just need to wonder about stuff--like, how come the Nabers are such a cipher in our family lore? I think mom knew who was who and how they connected, but we didn't think to ask, I suppose. And then, mom's grandma pretended that she couldn't understand English, so perhaps she flew under the local radar back then. Maybe they were just quiet people? Or, more likely, when Gerhard's second wife* left Iowa, she and her kids were lost to the relatives there. Settling in Buckman c. 1900 must have been tough, since there were no relatives to rely on for social intros. Daughter Catherine was the only Minnesota connection, but she lived with her family north of Pierz, at least 15 miles from the Naber farm.
Anyway, it only re-occurred to me tonight that single persons mean 'no offspring', so their genealogy stops dead when they do (sorry ☺). Of the kids that moved to Buckman with Elizabeth (Richels) Naber*, two, Elizabeth and John, died with no issue. Catherine & Wm. Bahns had kids, and Gerhard & Julia (Grittner) did, too. Margaret married Anton Janson and luckily became my grandma, but Elizabeth and John and their half sister (a nun) are only grave markers and obits now. By the time we came along, only grandma's brother Gerhard was still living. He lived in Crow Wing county until 1962. Wonder why we never connected. Or did we--and I just don't remember?

Elizabeth Naber 1873-1910

Miss Nabor of Buckman Dead

After Several Years of Suffering with Chronic Bright's Disease–Buried in Buckman Monday

Miss Elizabeth Nabor, of Buckman, died Friday morning at four o'clock, of Brights' disease, at the age of 38 years. She had been ailing for several years, but was able to be about and attend to household duties until Monday last week, when her condition became more serious.

The alarming symptoms increased until Friday morning, when, well prepared with the last sacraments, she passed away.

Miss Nabor was born in Petersburg, Iowa, January sixteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-three. She leaves a mother, two brothers, John and Gerhard, two sisters Katherine and Margareth, two step-brothers, Herman and Henry, and two step-sisters Mary now Mrs. John Schlichte,

and Sister Raphael O.S.F.

The funeral services were held in the St. Michael's church in Buckman and she was laid to rest in St. Michael's cemetery.

Pierz Journal, April 20, 1911

We have John's grave marker at St Michael's in Buckman, but no obit or even a funeral card. He was born in 1874 and died in 1922, at 48. What kind of life did he or his sister have? Who were they?

I'd like to know someday.

So, here's an article about a wedding from the 30 April 1899 issue of the Dubuque Herald. The bride's family was probably related, and most likely Elizabeth and her children attended:

Dubuque County News.

____________

Notable wedding at New Vienna Tuesday morning.

____________

Cascade ___ Ballists have organized for the season--Improvements being made by the Great Western at Dyersville--Other news of interest to Dubuque County residents.

____________

____________

A notable morning wedding took place in St Boniface Church, New Vienna, Tuesday morning April 25 at 9 o'clock. It was that of Barney Vaske and Miss Mary Naber, both prominent young people of that place. The ceremony was performed by Rev Father Pape (?) in the presence of a large assemblage of relatives and friends. After the ceremony the newly married pair, in company with the invited guests, repaired to the home of the groom's mother, one and one-half miles west of New Vienna, where a grand reception was held. The day was pleasantly spent and much amusement was furnished those present. The bride is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Naber, prominent people of New Vienna, and is a young lady who possesses many noble traits of character. She has been a dressmaker in her home town for many years and her friends are many. The groom is a prosperous young farmer who has made his home with his mother for many years.

And just so these pieces are together, here's grandma's sister's obit:

Services Wednesday For Mrs. Bahns

(January, 1954)

Funeral services were held at St. Joseph's church, Pierz, at 10 o'clock Wednesday morning for Mrs. Katherine Bahns, who passed away at St. Gabriel's hosptial at 12:20 a.m., Monday, January 18th. She had been ill for one year and after a stroke, was admitted to the hospital where she died several hours later.

Pallbearers at the rites were Ben Nagel, Alfred Gohl, Joe Gohl, Werner Schamal, Carl Virnig, and Ed Schwinghammer. Interment was made in the Pierz cemetery.

Honorary pallbearers were Mrs. Joe Gohl, Mrs. Ben Nagel, Mrs. Henry Kobilka, Mrs. Werner Schamal, Mrs. Gordon Anderson, and Mrs. Ed Schwinghammer.

Katherine Naber was born at Petersburg, Iowa February 8, 1881 and married William Bahns 51 years ago. They resided on the present Bahns farm northwest of Pierz about 40 years, which is now being operated by her sons, John Bahns. Mr. Bahns passed away in 1932.

Surviving are six children, Mrs. Sigmund Syzyeblewski (Rose), Toledo, Ohio; Mrs. Leonard Hoheisel (Regina) and John, Pierz; Mrs. Stanley Sarp (Alvina) and Mrs. Lawrence Cable (Helen), Minneapolis; and Mrs. Bernard Carlson (Angeline), Little Falls.

There are nineteen grandchildren and two great grandchildren. One brother, Gerhard Naber, also survives.

Ok, these are puzzle pieces that'll fall together someday. We're just laying them on the table with the colored side up. ☺

"Buckman, its Pioneer History, its Cultural Legacy"

2011-09-10T09:42:00.000-05:00

Remember all the references to "Anon" here on Janson and over on Hesch History? Well, he's about to become a published author, so that'll be the end of his online anonymity. Horst Hanneken's been working on a book about Buckman for the last 18 months or so (based on a lifetime there). The book contains 75-100 old photos, some in color. It documents the homes and businesses in town since the very beginning...who built them, who bought them later, and what became of them. He's hoping the book will be ready by September 18th (St Michael's Church Bazaar this year).

His parents, Anna and Gus Hanneken, lived in the third house west of the Hall after they emigrated from Germany with their first child, Horst, in 1950. That kid grew up to teach German in Pierz and to write "Buckman, its Pioneer History, its Cultural Legacy" for us to discover. I can hardly wait!

When Horst figures out how he wants to merchandise it, I'll add that here, but in the meantime, if you want a copy, email me and I'll forward it to him, ok? He figures it'll be about $40.00, plus postage. (marlysky at gmail dot com) BTW, Horst is way more concerned with documented facts than Larry and I are. I'm pretty sure he doesn't guess hardly at all in the book ☺

YAY, Horst!!

Probably why Daniel couldn't leave Horrenberg....

2011-09-09T19:43:00.000-05:00

Aw'right!--we Buckmanish descendants come thru for each other again! This time, I sent copies of Daniel's file (denying his family permission to emigrate to America in 1853) to Michael Hortsch, who lives and teaches in Michigan....actually, not too far from Jackson ☺. The Hortschs are related more thru the Hesch/Otremba side of the family, but I doubt his graciousness comes from them. Michael was educated in Germany and speaks fluent German. No doubt his attempts at reading Suetterlin from 158 years ago would be rough, but WAY better than Larrys or mine.
Of all times to ask a college prof/scientist for a favor, early September is probably one of the least-well-thought-out. But being all excited about discovering Daniel's story from Stephen and Carrie, I assume it'll be just as interesting to everybody else. Honest. And Michael didn't run away screaming, so....
Here's what he thought:

From what I understand from the pages I looked at, the major concern that local administration is expressing is the financial support the Janson family is lacking for their travels to America. One document is a statement of a Peter Körner, who came visiting from America and he promises to pay for the food the family would need while traveling. However, the local council doubts even that his support is sufficient as they state that they don't know whether Peter Körner has the money to keep his promise. On some other pages are excerpts from the local church books about the Janson family. I am not sure how helpful my transcripts are as I was unable to decipher everything and I am unable to read many words. I did not look at all the material and did not see a final verdict or justification of the denial to emigrate.

I suspect Daniel owed money in town as well, since he'd just lost his fight with the municipality of Horrenberg over where to build the city hall. It must have been galling to stay there, too.

Anyway, here's what Michael found, in German, followed by the Google translation of it.

We are SO indebted to Michael!

Page 7
(This page is an excerpt of the catholic church book)
Auszug
aus dem k?derbuch der Gebornenen und Getauften
der katholischen Pfarrgemeinde besteingen
Page 8
Auszüge
Aus den Pfarrbüchern der Pfarrei
Balzfeld
Daniel Janson Bürger und ?? zu Horrenberg ist
am 28ten Januar 1816 geboren und hat sich mit erster Ehe-
frau Regina Schweigert (gest. 2 Dez 1846) gezeugt:
a Magdalena, geboren den 11 März 1844
b Johannes, geboren den 19 Sept. 1845
mit zweiter Ehefrau Maria Anna Helfniger von
Oestringen (Östringen) gezeugt:
c Josef, geboren den 26 Juli 1849
d Daniel, geboren den März 1850
e Valentin, geboren den 7 August 1851
f Christina, geboren den 11 Oktober 1852
Balzfeld, den 9 Februar 1853
Gr. Kath Pfarramt
Page 9
Grossherzogliches Bezirks Amt
Herrenberg am 18ten Februar 1853
Page 10
Grossherzogliches Bezirks Amt
Herrenberg den 28ten Februar 1853
Page 17
Geschehen ?? dem 24 ?? 1853
Verehrlicher Oberamtliche Verfügung vom 16?
d.. M. Nr. 5443 zufolge, hat der Gemeinderath den
Peter Kürner welcher vor einigen Wochen aus
Amerika hierher gekommen ist auf das Rathhaus
Eingeladen, derselbe ist heute erschienen,… man
Hat ?? demselben das ?? gekommen…
Schreiben des Grossherzöglichen Bezirksamt Wies=
loch demselbigen vergelassen, und dessen Erklass?-
ung hierauf undergeschrieben, und ?? von
demselbigen unterzeichnen lassen wie folgt..
“derselbige erklärt sich, dass er für die ??
Jansen Eheleute samt 6 Kindern, nur die Leb=
ensmittel bei der Überfahrt ?? nach Am=
merika bestreiten wolle, allse übrigen
Kosten für die Überfahrt muß Daniel Jan=
Page 18
sen selbst für sich und seine Familie be=
streiten für ???
habe er keine Mittel und habe es ?? seinem
??? nicht ?? ?? alle zu
zahlen. ??? und als ?? angegebenen
??? unterzeichnet
Peter Körner
Der ??? Gemeinderath hat hiermit
Zu bemerrken, dass nicht einmal er ??
?? nur Peter Kürner so viel Mittel besitze
um die hier versprochenen Lebensmittel für
fragliche Familie bestreiten zu können, hier
besitzt er keine Mittel, und ob er zu ??
?? so viel BaarGeld mitgebracht
und ?? besitzt ist ihnen nicht
bekannt, ??? hat derselbe keins
?? und ?? wurden zur ge=
fällig ?? Verfügung ??
Oestringen den 24 Febr 1853
Gemeinderath
(5 signatures, probably the members of the Gemeinderat)

Page 8

Excerpts

From the parish books of the parish

Balzfeld

Daniel Janson and citizens? is Horrenberg

Born on 28th January 1816 and has been with first-marriage

Schweigert wife Regina (d. December 2, 1846) begat:

a Magdalena, born the March 11, 1844

b born John, 19 Sept. 1845

with second wife Maria Anna of Helfniger

Oestringen (Östringen) begat:

c Joseph, born in the July 26, 1849

d Daniel, born on March 1850

e Valentin, born on 7 August 1851

f Christina, born in the October 11, 1852

Balzfeld, the February 9, 1853

Gr. Catholic rectory

Page 9

Great Duke's district office

Mr. Berg on the 18th February 1853

Page 10

Great Duke's district office

Herrenberg the 28th February 1853

Page 17

Happen? the 24? 1853

Official Upper honorable order of 16?

d.. M. No. 5443 According to the municipal council has the

Peter Kürner from which a few weeks ago

America has come here at the Council House

Invited, the same is released today, one ...

Has? the same? come ...

Letter from the district office Grossherzöglichen meadow =

vergelassen same hole, and its top notch? -

UNG under written thereon, and? of

have the same sign as follows ..

"SAME explained that he for?

Jansen married people, including six children, only the Leb =

ensmittel at the crossing? by Am =

would deny Merika, alls other

Cost for the trip must Daniel Jan =

Page 18

sen for himself and his family be =

arguing for?

He did not have any means and it? his

? not? ? to all

. pay ? and when? given

? signed

Peter Körner

The? Common Council has hereby

To bemerrken that not even he?

? Peter Kürner only possess so many means

here the promised food for

Family dispute in question can be here

he has no funds, and that he?

? baar brought so much money

and? owns them is not

known? none has the same

? and? were to ge =

due? Available?

Oestringen the 24 Feb 1853

Common Council

(5 signatures, probably the members of the council)

Thank you, Michael, for all your help ☺

Fabric words

2011-09-03T13:32:00.000-05:00

We definitely had play clothes
that mom made of seersucker
(but naw, nothing as
cute/fussy as this).

The other day, a client mentioned a favorite summer dress she used to have. It was made of seersucker trimmed in rickrack, words I hadn't thought of in years. Pretty soon, she and I were remembering all the fabrics we could think of: pongee, muslin, percale, poplin, buckram, taffeta, dotted swiss, tricot...all words sweetly associated in my head with mom.

We talked about the "endless hours" we spent buying fabric at Petters (which she did, too, with her kids along). We laughed about the stockpiling story (a clerk asked mom if she was just stockpiling, or did she need thread to match?) and she talked about making children's clothes out of adult skirts or coats.

So, when I finally got back online this week, I had to google "kinds of fabrics", and found this excellent descriptive list. It's eye-opening to peruse it and realize how many of the fabrics you can actually visualize. Here's a good part of my list:

moire percale sateen brocade crepe plaid broadcloth chenille chintz gaberdine flannel herringbone muslin georgette chiffon ...and organza for first communion dresses.

Could this be William Bahns?

2011-09-01T20:51:00.000-05:00

Wow! While I've had computer problems for the last nine days, Larry kept busy finding more cool photos and info, like this pic of the "Little German Band" (that's what it says on the bass drum).

Added later: We think the band leader here was probably Frank Boehm:

(1851-1927)Frank Boehm is Summoned Beyond
Died Sometime Saturday Night While Asleep and Found Dead Sunday Morning

Death has taken from our midst one of the most widely known men in this section when it claimed the life of Frank Boehm, for many years a resident of this village and vicinity. Heart failure was the cause of his passing away of which disease he was suffering the past twelve months. Although failing in health he did not complain of any serious attacks at any time previously to his death. On Saturday evening he attended the Saturday church services and thereafter went to attend the band concert, later retiring as usual. Death occurred during the night without anyone being aware of his departure from life. Sunday morning upon calling Mr. Boehm it was then that Mrs. Boehm found what had occurred.
Frank Boehm was born in Youleng, Lower Austria, on October 8, 1851, having been 75 years and ten months of age. He attended schools in the old country taking up music at the same time.
At the age of 16 years he came to America with his parents who settled near Durand, Wis. Immediately following the Civil war Mr. Boehm came to Pierz, then known as Rich Prairie, and took up a farm at what is now known as Agram township. In 1880 he was married to Maria Leeb in Pierz. The Boehm family resided on the farm until 1914, when the farm was sold and the family moved to this village. Their union was blessed with six children, one of whom died many years ago. On November 16, 1916 the death of Mrs. Boehm occurred. The surviving children are Mrs. Adam Billig of St. Cloud, Frank Boehm of Opheim, Mont., Mrs. Theresia Newman of Minneapolis, John of Denver, Colo., and Richard of McGregor, N.D. A brother and two sisters also survive, they are Dr. John C. Boehm of St. Cloud, Mrs. John Leidenfrost of Pierz and Mrs. John Erbe of Bowdle, S.D.
Mr. Boehm was married the second time to Mrs. Anna Preiner which marriage occurred in this village on January 15, 1918. Since 1918 Mr. and Mrs. Boehm have lived in the Boehm residence in the south end of this village. Mrs. Boehm is also surviving the death of Mr. Boehm.
During all his years of life Mr. Boehm was greatly interested in music at which he spent many years in the teaching of others. He has played various instruments at numerous social gatherings, dances, weddings and public entertainments, in schools and halls in Little Falls as well as all other towns in the county. As a band man he has held the position of director for several years following the organization of the Rich Prairie band by John Faust, now deceased. Later this band became the Little German band. A few years later another organization was formed which received the name of Pierz Union band, all of which Mr. Boehm was, above all, instrumental in originating. One of the marvels to his associates in late years was Mr. Boehm's vigor, enthusiasm and acumen in the continued practice of his musical profession, despite his advancing years. At any occasion, when asked to furnish music, Mr. Boehm was ready to lend his assistance, by which he has gained numerous friends who regret his passing away.
Burial service was held in St. Joseph's church Wednesday morning at 10 o'clock. Interment followed in the Pierz cemetery. Mr. Boehm was a member of the St. Joseph's Society of Pierz, the members of which attended the funeral. Among those present at the burial were Mrs. Adam Billig and Dr. J.C. Boehm of St. Cloud, Mrs. Theresia Newman and Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Erickson of Minneapolis, Richard Boehm and family of McGregor, N.D., Mrs. S.J. Gregory and family of Rice and Mrs. C. Forestwick of Crosby.
Pierz Journal, August 11, 1927

(Copied from his page on Find a Grave, emphasis added by me.)

I got sorta giddy, thinking the leader there might be William Bahns, grandma Margaret's brother-in-law (husband of Catherine Naber Bahns), but no. William was born in 1869, and their first two kids were born in Iowa in 1904 and 1905. Besides, Wm was 21 in 1890, and not even married to Catherine yet, but damn, speculating's fun.

Larry and I figured that this second pic of the Pierz Band was later, most likely 1898-1900. By then, they might have been getting a stipend for representing Pierz, so "Pierz" was on the drum. And, this might have been after a practice (no uniforms). They're posed in front of the Pierz city hall here.

The top, fancier photo, was probably taken before a parade in another town. Think some of the members are the same? And, anyone recognize the steps and door in that photo?

Just for fun--these people would be our parents' age.

Recognize anyone?

THANKS, Larry!

Wendelin, we hardly knew ya!

2011-08-18T22:32:00.001-05:00

OMG, look what Larry found on Ancestry.com regarding grandpa's brother Wendelin:

Whew--we have NO family stories about this.

(Grand Larceny--(Law) (in some states of the US) the theft of property of which the value is above a specified figure, varying from state to state but usually being between $25 and $60).

At first glance, you might say, "Wait, UTAH?" But Wendelin worked for the Santa Fe railroad, which went thru Salt Lake City. He was listed in directories as a freight handler--on a moving train, perhaps?
I suspect it was an accusation that was recorded, dealt with, and never removed once they found the missing freight envelope behind the file cabinet. But wow, unassuming ol' Wendelin seems to be chuck fulla SECRETS, huh?

Daniel's newspaper ad, 1853

2011-08-15T19:58:00.002-05:00

Here's the newspaper page from 1853 Horrenberg, with lots of ads concerning 'auswanderen', the people who wanted to leave Europe. Click the page and look for this little ship--Daniel's ad is to the right of it, in the 4th column.

OK, here's my attempt to transcribe the ad to Google Translate. This is what I came up with, but you should be a little skeptical:

A.468 Nr. 4794. Wiesloch. (Schulden liquidation.) Daniel Janson Eheleute von Horrenberg vollen nach Amerika auswandern. Zur Anmeldung etwaiger Forderungen wird Tagfahrt auf Freitag, den 11. d. M., Morgens, 10 11 hr auf diesseitiger Amtskanzlei anberaumt.

Weisloch den 1 Marz 1853

Grossb. bad. Bezirksamt

Frohlich

A 468. Number 4794. Weisloch. (Debt liquidation.) Daniel Janson of Horrenberg with his wife and family to emigrate to America. For any claims of debt he owes, please show up on Friday the 11th between 10 and 11 in the morning.

Weisloch, 1 March 1853

By the authority of
District officer Froelich

A huge THANK YOU to Carrie for sharing her research and these pages.

See, there ARE Janson Angels!

Daniel Janson Papers, part 5

2011-08-15T10:19:00.002-05:00

This is the end of the handwritten document that Carrie found in the archives in Horrenberg, Germany.

Additional pages were from the local 1853 newspaper with notices about local people who wanted to emigrate. That'll be another post ☺.

Odds and Ends

2011-08-13T18:32:00.004-05:00

This little screen cap is from the LA city directory in 1916. I saved it because Wendelin Janson (grandpa's brother) was listed as "Wm", but we know it was him--"Freight handler, residence: 852 Stephenson Ave."
Interesting too that there were 6 other Jansons in town then.

Janson, Elizabeth, dressmaker residence: 537 So Fremont Ave
Janson, Gustaf, harnessmaker with John Janson, residence: Long Beach
Janson, Gustav, vice president & manager of California Show Case Company; home: 863 Wall
Janson, Henry, ironworker, residence: 1626 Maltman Ave
Janson, Henry, laborer, home 1429 Elk Ave
Janson, John, harnessmaker, Exposition Park, residence Long Beach

Oh, look--a "Gustav Janson", also from Baden:

(I just like this quote, for what it's worth)

Ann Druyan, talking about her husband Carl Sagan:

“When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me-it still sometimes happens-and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don’t ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief and precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive and we were together was miraculous-not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance… . That pure chance could be so generous and so kind… . That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time… . That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me and it’s much more meaningful… . The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don’t think I’ll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful.”

Our Bev & Glenn on an Alaskan cruise ☺

Here's who great grandmother Franziska Fuchs came from:

And here's who Wendelin Janson was named after--Fran's brother Wendelin Fuchs:

Joseph and Franziska

Daniel Janson Papers, part 4

2011-08-11T10:50:00.004-05:00

I'm particularly curious about page 19 from this batch--with its official stamp marks, over-writing and (angry-looking) circled sections. Like some official was pissed off and lost his temper, ya know?

I wonder, too, if Daniel and family ever got to see the finished, rejected application? With all the different handwriting involved, were some of these pages slanderous?

WHAT would make the town say "NO, you have to stay"?

Monkey Ward Tombstones 1929

2011-08-09T20:08:00.000-05:00

Honest--you could order a 'monument' from Montgomery Wards, the Chicago catalog house. The link is a twenty-eight page booklet showing Vermont Marble monuments shipped from Barre, Vermont. There's a page of directions so you can save money by setting it yourself, too.

I'm often surprised to find out where normal things came from years ago. I'm sure there were other sources for monuments (especially here in the Cold Spring Granite homeland), and I'm still curious about where the ubiquitous white engraved slabs (left) came from. They're the oldest stones in most cemeteries, at least around here.
(These two are Sand family monuments from the cemetery here in St Joe--one from 1900 and the other from 1909. They've lasted pretty well, I think).

Daniel Janson papers, part 3

2011-08-08T19:20:00.013-05:00

Das Gasthaus zum wilden Mann

2011-08-07T11:28:00.005-05:00

Ha--evidently, our Janson ancestors weren't always farmers. (For what it's worth, Mom said the "original" Janson was a tailor). More concretely, we know Jansons owned a pub called the Wild Man, which is still there in Horrenberg.
Carrie found info about it from Manfred Fuchs:

The Janson family owned the inn "for the Wild Man," in Horrenberg which still exists today. The municipality of Horrenberg, in 1843, decided to build a town hall in front of the gasthaus. It was a fight between Janson and the community. After lengthy court proceedings, the municipality finally allowed construction of theTown Hall (1845); Janson the owner was safe but in the processes was almost ruined, so little by little emigrated (after 1852) almost the whole family. Today there are no longer in Horrenberg Jansons. (Google translated and I re-arranged words).

She sent the website address of the Wilden Mann, and provided this additional info:

"From the website's history page it looks as though our ancestor Johann Ludwig Hamberger took ownership in 1688 and then it must have passed through to the Jansons. In 1850, the Knopf family bought it. So that's kind of making sense if they were used to running the inn & suddenly didn't have that anymore, didn't have much money that just 3 years later, Daniel would try to emigrate. I don't know who exactly of the Jansons fought the city or if it was a group but based on occupations, I have it being run by:
After Johann Ludwig Hamberger it went to his son:
Andreas Johann Caspar Hamberger, Wirt zum Wilden Mann 1710-1741 to his son-in-law:
Johann Adam Janson, Wirt zum Wilden Mann 1748-1749
Georg Adam Janson, Wirt zum Wilden Mann 1772-1791
Georg Valentin Janson Wirt zum Wilden Mann 1805-1825
I don't know who had it in those missing gaps, other brothers, cousins? And who had it after 1825. I wish there was more on the website. These men were also mayors, customs officials, farmers, etc".

To the left is a photo of "The old town hall" from the Wild Man website...and below is a random photo taken in Horrenberg by a visitor. A little zooming reveals the words on the sign: "Wilden Mann". Yeah, it looks like our ancestors had a legitimate beef, huh? But, I can imagine, too, a festering long-term Janson vendetta against that "unfairness". Sigh.

MORE thanks to Carrie ☺!

Daniel Janson papers part 2

2011-08-07T07:44:00.005-05:00

Johannes Janson's family historian and genealogist (Carrie) took the time to scan almost 30 pages of an application prepared in Horrenberg, Germany, in 1853, when Johannes' parents wanted to emigrate to America. They were Daniel Janson and his wife Maria Anna (Helfinger) Janson and six children.
A fascinating part of the era when Daniel and Maria Anna Janson were denied permission to leave Horrenberg was that other Jansons did leave that year.
Carrie mentioned information she has from someone named Robert Heimann. She said "in 1999, he gave me a list of Jansons who emigrated in the 1800s from Horrenberg. Egidius Janson to NJ bef 1873, Joseph b. 1844 to US 1883 (yours), Katharina b. 1831 to US 1852, Valentin to Columbia/USA 1853, Sophie, Theresia, Valentin & Veronika to US 1853". (NOT a complete list, we know).
But according to him, six Janson individuals left, probably with spouses, that year. We don't know what generation four of them represented, but one of the Valentins could have been Dan's older brother, born in 1805.
This calls for more investigatin' ☺, I think!

BTW, it's fun to see how MANY times you can find "Daniel Janson" in these pages. (I know, it depends on your idea of "fun"...lol)

Coulda been!

2011-08-06T20:38:00.003-05:00

There's a really cool website called Critical Past where you can "search over 57,000 videos and 7 million images". It's definitely a fascinating site.

Larry found this short film there, from 1918. The occasion was a Ford tractor demo day in a 'farming area of the United States'. (Can you imagine the amazement that day? Not only new powerful machines to do the work on the farm, but a moving picture camera was recording it all. No wonder grandpa Janson had such high hopes for the 20th century!)
The set up is a tug-o-war between a tractor and about 20 men (who lose, of course). But this gentleman evidently used the megaphone to direct the action. It struck Larry that he looked like grandpa Anton Janson--small stature, curly hair, glasses, shirt and tie...
Yeah, I CAN hear your skepticism from here. Ahem. You need to work on hiding it better...☺
BUT, we know some filming was done on farms around Pierz in those years because we found an archival listing online mentioning Pierz and a farmer named Gau ("A SON OF THE SOIL- TAKEN ON HENRY GAU'S HORSELESS FARM NEAR PIERZ, MINNESOTA, ca. 1920"--National Archives, online).

Anyway, even if you think we're nuts, it's fun to view a few of those old films at Critical Past. They're listed by decade, and there are quite a few from WWII. The opening page montage gives you a pretty good idea.

You're welcome.

The Daniel Janson papers from 1853

2011-08-05T20:10:00.008-05:00

Johannes Janson's family historian and genealogist Carrie took the time to scan almost 30 pages of an application prepared in Horrenberg, Germany, in 1853, when Johannes' parents wanted to emigrate to America. They were Daniel Janson and his wife Maria Anna (Helfinger) Janson and six children.
Carrie was able to decipher some of it, and Larry and I have barely begun. It's almost all handwritten by different people, so some looks legible and other parts look pretty scribbly. Still, I want to post it so it's available as an historic document, and so maybe someone will be able to read it and see what they were required to document...and perhaps find the reason they were denied.

I think I'll post it five pages at a time cuz thats how Carrie sent it, and cuz it's less overwhelming that way ☺. All the pages should enlarge when you click on them.
From what I copied to Google Translate, the cover sheet says, more or less:

Großherzogl. Badisches
Bezirksamt Wiesloch
Verwaltungssachen
Ort: Horrenberg
Rubrik: Wegzug
Trans:
Grand Ducal. Baden
District Office Wiesloch
Administrative Cases
Location: Horrenberg
Category: Exit
and then officialese for "Daniel Janson wants to leave with his family ASAP".....

Page 2 pretty much identifies who they're talking about. Daniel was married twice, so the two children from his deceased wife are listed as tho they're contraband, before the second family. Still, that fussiness gives us all kinds of detail.
Kids from wife I, Regina Schweigert:
1) Magdalena 9 years old
2) Johannes 7 " "
Kids from wife II, Maria Anna Hilfinger:
3) Joseph 4 years old
4) Daniel 3 " "
5) Valentin 2 " "
6) Christina 1/4 " "

Towards the bottom of the page theres something about 200. A fee they had to pay?

I assume some of this was affidavits from friends or religious docs from the priest, or tentative permission from local officials like the mayor.
Or it could be documents that say they've paid all the debts they owed in town.

(Click the pages to enlarge)...

I think 4 and 5 is a statement by Daniel and Maria Anna themselves. Their signatures are mid-page on 5, see?

The script they were taught to write was called Suetterlin. Here's a clear letter-for-letter transcription of their names. (It's an interesting exercise to ID one letter and go find that same letter in the rest of the pages. Handwriting really does make a difference!)

Isn't this COOL?

An embarrassment of riches

2011-08-05T13:45:00.004-05:00

It's odd that Larry and I come to dry spots in our research, and I think, ok, maybe that's all there is to discover about Jansons. Then all of a sudden people like Steve and Carrie show up and bring possibilities to the table that we didn't know about, or that didn't make sense when we did see em.

Today, I'm thinking "Woohoo! Where do I start??!"

Steve Janson (great grandson of the 1889 immigrant to Michigan Stefan Janson) sent vintage pictures of his family. I haven't posted most cuz I'm not sure which generation I'm looking at.

This one he labeled "Great Grandma and Grandpa Stephen Janson". Well, the immigrant Stefen was born in 1857, and came here about 1889. If he's 60 years old in the photo, then it's 1917 and perfectly possible, both re the car and how they look, ya know?

Now this photo was labeled Joseph Janson. Was this Stephan's brother? If so, he was born in 1848, so no, this Joe had to be Stefan's son. Maybe he owned that cool car? Probably the white clapboard house in the background was the same one too.

And IF this man was Stefan's son, then the next pic was earlier when he and sibs made their first communion (usually about 12 years old).

Wow, this photo really shows the "dark Janson" look, tho it might be an illusion against white clothes. Steve labeled this one "Valentine, Joe and Marie Janson". They were Stefan and Anna's oldest three kids. (Valentine b 1896, Marie b 1898 and Joseph b 1900). I'm guessing this pic was taken about 1913, so Marie would have been 15, Val was 17, and Joe was 13.

If this was first communion, how come Joe had no prayer book to hold? Cuz a kid didn't need his own book--they shared.

Aww, a boy and his dog. It's labeled "Grandpa Janson"--the fourth kid in the family, Stephan Anthony Janson. He was born in 1902, and I assume he was our Steve's grandpa? Just imagine a beard and mustache on the pic below and you have Johannes, huh?

BTW, I'm using the spelling STEFAN for the immigrant here, STEPHAN for his son, with STEVE for our contemporary Janson.
We're missing a generation, I think!

"Stephan A Janson II", b 1902.

Dark Jansons

2011-08-03T12:02:00.002-05:00

Marion, Marlys and Lois c 1954

In the comments on yesterday's post, Carrie referred to dark haired, dark skinned Jansons, which made me think of genetics and this picture. I got the dark, curly (fuzzy) Janson hair but I burn with 5 minutes in the sun. All four of my sibs got light colored eyes from them, and Marion thanks her Janson heritage for her long oval head...lol I probably got my brassiness from the Heschs, huh?

They stayed in the old country

2011-08-02T13:31:00.003-05:00

This precious photograph traveled a long way, and probably became almost painful to look at as the years went by. The couple is Daniel Janson and his second wife, Maria Anna Hilfinger.

They were the parents of Daniel Janson, who settled in Rice Minnesota, and Stephan Janson, who settled in Jackson, Michigan. He and his first wife, Regina, were the parents of Johannes Janson, who arrived in Buckman, Minnesota with my great grandfather, Josef Janson and settled there.

Daniel was born in 1816 in Balzfeld, Germany and died there in 1897 at 81. Anna Hilfinger Janson was born in 1822 and died in 1902, at 80.

When Horrenberg families left for America in those years, they said goodbye for ever. We know Wendelin went back for a visit, and probably others did too, but Wendelin was a kid when he left and only 25 when he returned. Still, he would definitely have visited this couple and told them all about Amerika.

(In fact, he would have stopped in Michigan on his way to NYC to board the ship, since the train route ran between the Great Lakes and into Canada then).

Below is Daniel and Anna's son, Stephen, as a young man in Germany. He would have been in the service just like his half-brother Johannes.

When Stephen the great grandson of Stephen the immigrant sent these photos, he remarked about the inherited traits passed down among the Jansons--how much the men resembled each other, gen after gen.

Having Daniels pic now makes me agree even more. Look:

Do the actually look alike, or have I studied them so much I can't tell? I don't know when Stephan II was born, and maybe he's not in the right generation, but the idea is to compare faces.

The second pic ("Daniel?") is speculating, but he and the gentleman marked "guest" were at Johannes' 50th wedding anniversary in 1924.

I think "Daniel?" might have been Johannes' brother from Rice, Mn and Stephan (who would have been 67) probably attended too, huh?

------------------

Nope, to answer my own question: Daniel Janson, who settled in Rice, Mn died in 1910, so he couldn't have been at the anniversary in 1924. So, who was that bearded man? He's the one who looks most like Johannes...

WOW, Stephan, these are so COOL!

Jansons, Sr Mamerta and Fr Coughlin

2011-08-01T14:10:00.004-05:00

There's so MUCH to discover and connect to our extended family, especially with all the info available on line these days. Our new found cousin Stephan, in Michigan, sent some pictures this morning (and promises more). One was this one marked "Jack, Mamerta and I, Irish Hills"...

This was Stephan's daughter Marie Janson with her husband Jack Rose on one of Sr Mamerta's visits to Michigan.

I had to find out more about the Irish Hills, of course. As I looked around online, it turns out the Irish Hills area is known for a couple of towers, and for St Joseph's Shrine, which was built by those Irish immigrants. But, there seemed to be no structure similar to what's in the background here. Still, the Irish Hills were a definite draw for taking your cousin-who's-a-nun-from-Minnesota to see. (Don't miss "History of the Irish Hill Towers" in this article...made me laugh out loud).

The Hills are west of Ann Arbor, and SE of (and closer to) Jackson, where the Janson's settled. Turns out the Irish Hills were a 19^th century stopping point during the 5-day stagecoach trip between Detroit and Chicago.

Now, we need to switch gears to check out a 1930s Irish radio phenom from Michigan by the name of Fr Charles Coughlin.

At its peak in the early 1930s, Coughlin's radio show was phenomenally popular. His office received up to 80,000 letters per week from listeners, and his listening audience was estimated to rise at times to as much as a third of the nation.

A priest on the radio would have been a must for Catholics in the country, including those in convents. His influence would have been greater than Bishop Fulton J Sheen when we were kids, remember?
Anyway, his preaching got more and more anti-semitic and isolationist until he was refused air-time by most radio stations. His home church was the Shrine of the Little Flower in Detroit, which "was completed in two stages, from 1931 to 1936, and funded by the proceeds of the radio ministry of the controversial Father Charles Coughlin who performed radio broadcasts from the tower". The shrine is in Royal Oak, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.
And when were they visiting? Well, Jack died in 1942 but looks pretty healthy in the photo. I'm guessing it was taken c. 1938-39.
I expect Sr Mamerta might have asked to see Coughlin's church, and possibly even to meet him, since by 1939, he'd been demoted to being only a parish priest at the shrine. He served there until he retired in 1966. But see? THIS is where they were standing in that picture at the top.

THANK YOU to Stephan!

In mom's honor

2011-07-30T09:02:00.001-05:00

My mom (Linda Janson Hesch) was a language nut. She was disgusted by poor usage and she appreciated puns (altho I don't remember her ever deliberately punning). If we wanted to bug her, we only needed to twist a sentence...lol

So, when I saw this vocabulary test online I had to take it. "Most Native English adult speakers who have taken the test fall in the range 20,000–35,000 words" and my score was 34,500, so hooray! Mission accomplished.
(Thanks, Mom)

Bobby pins

2011-07-26T20:36:00.001-05:00

See at the bottom of the card there--"Protects teeth and nails"--? Whew, I hadn't thought of it in years!
Bobby pins were made to hold hair, either in pin curls or just in place. The open end had droplets of rubber on each tip so it wouldn't scratch your delicate head (awww). Plus, if you opened the pin with your fingers, the rubber should cushion the pin if it slipped against your fingernail. Makes sense so far, right? Yeah, it helps to be a female of a certain vintage to understand.

But what did rubber tips have to do with teeth? Ack, the easiest way to open a bobby pin was to pull the longer end outward with your front teeth. It often slipped, and snapped against that tooth, rubber tip or not.

Dr. 'Subtle', my dentist, looked in my mouth one day and called to his hygienist, "Mary, come in here, I wanna show you something".
When she arrived, he said, "Look, look--these are CLASSIC bobby pin chips!", and damn it, he was right!

(BTW, I always thought the two girls on the card there were Kathy and me AFTER a hair set...lol)

VIA

Where else would this stuff fit?

2011-07-22T14:41:00.003-05:00

My picture files are chuck fulla quirky small items that I intend to share, but which don't merit a whole post by themselves. Here are a few of them--a batch of

These four little faces should be recognized by all good Catholic school kids in the forties and fifties. Take a few minutes to ponder, but naming two of them is good, three of them is remarkable, and if you know all four, you probably googled it.

For extra credit, tell us your most memorable episode from their books.

________________________

________________

M'k--remember the post where we speculated about where Margaret Naber got her wedding flowers? At the time (1913), there was a milliner in Buckman, but like brides everywhere, the tendency to upgrade might have kicked in. The next nearest hat shop was in Little Falls and was owned by the Sand sisters. We'll probably never know for sure which shop provided those flowers. However, we only have a newspaper ad from ONE of them.===== Speaking of newspapers, here's a snarky bit from the St Cloud Times in June of 1909. I wonder if the use of the word "journal" here had anything to do with the eventual name of the Pierz paper?

_______________________

______________

This photo hangs in the new Buckman Hall (sorry about the glass glare). The priest in front on the left is Fr Ray Donnay, who shared the title of town constable with Math Hesch. His name was in the Buckman News column pretty often in those years.

With just a quick skim of this wonderful photo, I see Sr Joyce, Sr Teresita, Sr. Severine, Fr Leo and at least one of the older Mischke priests. See the sister in the fourth row up, on the right? I think that's Sr Laura, and Sr Mamerta was most likely there too.

They all look so proud to be home that day!

________________________

_______________

OK, these two will help answer the first question up there. I remember being fascinated by how careful you had to be pronouncing "are our" so people didn't think you were saying "are are"...honest!

Naming Johannes' sons and daughters, I think

2011-07-20T09:11:00.001-05:00

Two Janson families arrived in Buckman, Minnesota in 1883. One couple was Joseph and Franziska Janson, my great grandparents. The other was Joseph's cousin Johannes and his wife Mary Janson.
Michael Janson, Johannes' eldest, married Antonia Hurdt in 1906. This photo was taken 50 years later, in 1956, at their Golden Wedding Anniversary celebration, when all the sibs were home. I'm pretty sure about most of the IDs, but then I was comparing faces with the oval family portrait, and considering Carrie's opinions, too. See what you think:

From 43 years earlier:

(Damn, I love stuff like this! ☺)

A partial answer

2011-07-19T18:42:00.000-05:00

Remember the question that puzzled Larry and me (and, no doubt, YOU) regarding what sort of punishment Wendelin Janson received for deserting, back in 1899?

We haven't found the answer yet, but the question simmers in the back of both our brains, just waiting for more info.

This week, Larry found an article in a 1908 Los Angeles newspaper when he searched "Janson" on some newly added online newspapers. Luckily a corporal Janson was in charge the day a prisoner tried to escape. NO, the punishment wasn't firing squad, but the soldier was shot and killed because he didn't "Halt!" when told to do so...

Anyway, the operative line here is the very last one: "The penalty for desertion is from one to three years in one of the federal penitentiaries".

So, wow, it's possible that Wendelin spent time in jail, or, perhaps the punishment was lighter because he'd already put in three years of service honorably? The next time he showed up in was the 1905 Minnesota census, in downtown St Paul.

So, the Wendelin question remains, and on top of that, I wonder who this Corporal Janson was?

Brothers?

2011-07-14T22:23:00.000-05:00

This was a Johannes Janson family gathering in 1925. (I posted it a few days ago, too). It was in honor of John and Mary's 50th wedding anniversary so a group photo was taken. You can see them in front of Sr Mamerta, right? But look at the other end of the crowd--a man with white hair and beard...was that John's brother Stephan? It would have been the perfect occasion for a visit from the Michigan relatives, after all.

I suppose we'll find out once Steve sends pics.

Oh, man, waiting is so DIFFICULT!

Sr Mamerta, OSB

2011-07-14T17:20:00.005-05:00

Some cool connections are being made by emailing back and forth with our new-found cousin Stephan Janson! He said his uncle Carl remembered a nun from Minnesota coming by train to visit during the summers when he was a kid. Carl is 79 now, so if he was, say, 10, it would have been 1942.

I assume the nun was Johannes' daughter Anna, or Sr Mamerta. (I emailed St Bens to get more info about her, but in the end it was faster to go over to the nuns cemetery 6 blocks from here and find her grave ☺ )

So, she professed her vows in 1915, when she was 25...and died 65 years later, in 1980.

Wow, she died at 90 years old.

(Thanks for the pic, Carrie!)

This next photo is Johannes Janson's kids in 1956, on the occasion of Mike's 50th wedding anniversary. (Mike is sitting, second from right). I know so little about these people, but I'm posting them so Carl can see them, and maybe ID the nun from Minnesota. She would have been 60 here.

Another pic from that same day, of 'just the girls'.....

....and another of 'just the boys'.

Carrie, if you see this, would you tell me who's who?

I imagine we'll goof if we try to guess ☺

Does anyone grow raspberries?

2011-07-13T20:38:00.007-05:00

I found this in a Good Housekeeping recipe book from 1920. I think it'd be interesting to try,
if only to see what was considered "good" back then.

You wouldn't have to make a lot of it, just enough to taste

and report back to us, ok?

I'd pay ya twice what dad paid us to help trim trees, promise.

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

Two days later--I mentioned this recipe to a client and her husband yesterday just thinking they might remember a tart raspberry drink from when they were young. They didn't, but thought the vinegar would be too much, since raspberries are already fairly tart.

Ten minutes later, he went outside, and came back with half a pail of raspberries that "needed picking", and gave me about a quart of em!

YES, I'm sacrificing a cup of them in the interests of

science, and genealogy.

I'll let ya know...

OK! Well, it's a whole lot better than I expected. When I first strained it and added sugar to the liquid, it was definitely a vinegar-y raspberry flavor (duh)--not terrible, but I was pretty sure I'd wasted a cup of raspberries.

I actually did exactly as the recipe said: equal parts liquid and sugar, boiled for 10 minutes. (This is my 1 quart pot, so about 6" across. I love close-ups).
The taste when it's done is only slightly vinegar, and it's as beautiful as you'd expect it to be. I tried maybe a quarter cup in a glass, and added that much water.

Nope, the flavor was way too concentrated (but definitely a pleasant no-vinegar raspberry), so I added about a half cup more water. If I'd had ice cubes on hand, that would have been good, too.

WOW--now its a nice fruity "pink" flavor. It's not really raspberry tasting, but the fragrance is there, and I probably should've waited till it was nice and cold.

The syrup would probably make a good addition to iced tea, or a topping for vanilla ice cream, or mixed with 7-up...or booze.

LOL...no, I probably won't make it again, but it was worth trying. For sure, it'd be one more way to use those delicious raspberries in the 20s, when there were no freezers available.

And even THAT should have been a hint. I put the syrup in the fridge (which they couldn't have done). When it's cold, it doesn't pour, and it dissolves reluctantly. If you were making this for use later, it would have been sealed and left on the fruit cellar shelf. Duh. (I learn, but s-l-o-w-l-y).

Musta been SOME tires...

2011-07-12T13:31:00.006-05:00

"Look out! There's a huge tire about to squash ya..."

"The truck pictured below is owned by Mr. John Janson of Grand Rapids, Mich. It is shown at the bottom of a gravel pit forty feet deep. The road out of this pit is very steep and, of course, is soft and sandy. To pull out with a 2 1/2 yard load this truck needs all the traction it can get; and it gets all the traction it needs with Caterpillars.
The broad surfaces of Caterpillars have a snow-shoe effect. They pack the loose sand down, thus building a more solid footing for themselves. At the same time, the notches in the sides act as a lock, getting a firmer grip on the road than ordinary tires could get even with chains.
Many truck operators have been under the impression that pneumatics were the only tires that would give them the traction needed for this kind of work. As a matter of fact (and Mr Janson's experience proves it), Caterpillars not only give plenty of traction but they also give far greater mileage than pneumatics without the danger of punctures and blowouts..."

It's amazing that relatively obscure trade magazines are online these days. Even for those of us who were around and reading by 1922, the chances of seeing Highway Engineer and Contractor Magazine would have been nil. But, look--a web search found John Janson from Grand Rapids, Michigan, endorsing the tires he used on his trucks. Isn't that COOL?

( No fair--Larry finds all the GOOD stuff! ☺)

NEW COUSINS--The Michigan Jansons

2011-07-10T10:40:00.004-05:00

Dielheim

Our folks came from a few small towns south of Mannheim--Baiertal, Balzfeld, Dielheim, Horrenburg--all in a string within 5-10 miles of each other. They left for Amerika in the 1880s, particularly JOHANNES, DANIEL, JOSEF...and STEPHAN.

We know Johannes, Daniel and Josef settled in Minnesota in 1883, and our just-revealed Stephan arrived in Michigan 1889 or so. How did these men connect to each other?

Well, the ancestor-couple we have in common was Georg Valentin Janson (b 1773) and his wife Eva Katherina Reissfelder (b 1781). They had a son, Johannes (1803), who married Maria Juliana Bayer (1801), and their youngest son was Josef (1844), our great grandfather, who settled in Buckman, Mn.

Ok so far?

Now, Georg Valentin and Eva Katherina Janson had another son, Daniel, (1816), who was married twice and so had two families. The first wife was Regina Schweigert (1820), and their firstborn was Johannes (b 1845) who came here with his cousin, GG Josef.

When Regina died in 1847, Daniel married Maria Anna Helfinger (1822). THEIR son Daniel (1850) was the Janson who settled in Rice, Minnesota, and, their son STEPHAN (1857) was the Janson who settled in Michigan, and whose great grandson contacted Kenny and me this week.

Now, I hope I got that all straight, and that YOU understood even half of it. Remember, the test at the end will constitute 75% of your grade.

YAY! Welcome (back) to Stephan's descendants--we've been waiting for you! ☺

Relative greetings

2011-07-08T22:18:00.001-05:00

Talked to Kenny tonight--he said he'd heard from a JANSON in Michigan who's related somehow to the immigrant Johannes (John). Since our great grandfather Joseph was John's cousin, the Michigan contingent is probably related that way too--the descendants of one of John's brothers ~~or Daniels brothers, or cousins...~~
hope we find out, huh?
☺
YAY!

Off Topic

2011-07-07T09:52:00.003-05:00

Something not genealogy related at ALL:

A client has a spray bottle of auto windshield washer solution for her mirrors and windows in the house. It works great and doesn't streak. Works way better than vinegar and water, and it's cheap.

You're welcome.

(Yes, I HAVE been waiting to use this illustration for months...YAY!)

For the women of the family

2011-07-03T20:51:00.002-05:00

Ever since watching Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke when we were kids, I've wondered what women wore under those voluminous skirts and tight looking bodices. I knew only "Miss Kitty's type of woman" would let others see her ankles/legs, and that it had to be terribly uncomfortable for 'regular' women to wear all that fabric while living in a sod house or helping harvest crops, let alone crossing the prairies in a wagon.

So last week when Larry found Eaton's catalogs online, I thought I'd see what was sold for foundation garments in 1913 at least.

Evidently all females wore corsets of one kind or another--even little girls wore them, supposedly as "posture training", and to hold up their stockings.

Now, even if the word Brassiere is used in that ad above, there seems to be nothing specific to address boobs larger than tea cups. But remember? Miss Kitty had a grand canyon cleavage...what would that...I mean, how could that effect be achieved with these under garments?

But look: "Bust forms" > I assume they were tucked into the top of the corset right under your 'tea cups', but why they were lined with rubberized fabric is still a mystery. Maybe so they stayed where you put em?
Quote from 74-227 below:
"...Will give rounded effect to the undeveloped figure. Removable bust pads of rubber sheeting filled with down; boning is removable also. Sizes 32 to 40 inches". Oh, UNcomfortable!

And for heaven's sake, LOOK where the stocking clips were placed. They were never comfortable (front and back, on girdles), but all of them in the front would have felt so odd. Evidently too, corsets served the same purpose as the bustiere Em wore when she worked at the Renaissance Fest--a snug, lace-up vest with a low squarish edge that fit right under the girls and....supported and compressed, you might say. Looks like the same principal here.

From other pages in the catalog, I think you wore a hip-length shift sort of thing under the corset (the brassiere), and a petticoat layer over it, under the dress or skirt and "waist".

I think what we wear now is a bit more reasonable, huh?

After forty-two years in America

2011-07-02T19:25:00.001-05:00

Evidently, there were lots of pictures taken in 1925 on the occasion of John and Mary's 50th. This photo, below, was labeled 'Janson and Sauer families' in 1925. Five sons and six daughters provided quite a nice crop of kids, even if one sib was a nun. I count 55 people including John and Mary, tho certainly some were their brothers, sisters and spouses.

BTW, the son on the left in the top pic was Joseph, who was the blacksmith in Buckman. He married Mary Poster in 1901, and they had three kids: Irene, Robert and Otto.

Many years later, Irene and Robert would help out pretty often in the store after we bought it from Zenners. They were 23 and 20 when this pic was taken. I wonder which ones they were...

Let's meet in Buckman, ok?

2011-06-29T20:48:00.000-05:00

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

2011-06-24T13:30:00.000-05:00

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

2011-06-23T20:48:00.000-05:00

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!

2011-06-22T21:01:00.000-05:00

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

2011-06-22T13:54:00.006-05:00

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

2011-06-20T20:46:00.000-05:00

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

2011-06-20T10:02:00.002-05:00

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

2011-06-18T17:11:00.006-05:00

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, arrived in Minnesota, settling near Rice. However, they only lived in Minnesota from 1885 till 1903, when they moved to the west coast.

Johann Michael was WA Glenn's grandpa...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

2011-06-17T09:03:00.001-05:00

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

2011-06-15T12:06:00.001-05:00

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, not Elizabeth Naber. (I'll go change that).

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?

THANK YOU, TOM!
(BTW, stay tuned--there's more ☺)

LOTS More about Otto Janson

2011-06-10T09:09:00.004-05:00

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

2011-06-08T16:25:00.001-05:00

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?

2011-06-06T22:40:00.001-05:00

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

2011-06-04T17:42:00.001-05:00

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!

Why it's good to wear stripes

2011-05-31T12:27:00.003-05:00

The only quiet moment on Saturday--
Glenn, me, Pauline and Tom

Tom served a delicious lunch of soup and fresh popovers. All went well (read: no soup on the blouse) until he offered some terrific grape jam for the popovers. That was my downfall, but we were talking so non-stop that I never saw the glob on my chest till I was almost home...sigh! We got up from the table on Saturday, and Bev had her camera ready. Thank goodness Pauline agreed to stand in front. (Anyway, you can barely see the jelly ☺).
A gracious host, a consuming subject and delightful people to share it all with. What a good time!

Janson news from 1955 and this weekend ☺

2011-05-30T22:31:00.004-05:00

Last summer, I got an email from Sebastian's grandson Tom. We compared notes, answered questions each of us had, and decided we should get together with Tom's cousin, Glenn, since we had so many stories to compare. (Tom is Dick's son, and Glenn is Joe's son).

We finally got together this last Saturday (!) at Tom's house and had a wonderful time. What made it even more fun was Glenn's wife Bev and Tom's mom, Pauline (Bev is the real genealogist of that cool couple, and Pauline, at 93, actually knew a lot of the people we were talking about...including mom, who she said I looked like ☺). So, we talked like crazy, and shared pictures, documents and stories.

~~I'm waiting for copies of old photos from Tom~~ (Got em, THANKS, Tom!) ~~and new ones from Bev,~~ (got em--THANKS, Bev!) but here's a really cool story we pieced together in the meantime. It's amazing, I promise:

In 1955, grandpa Anton Janson had a heart attack and eventually died at the home of his brother Wendelin, in Los Angeles. As Wendelin sat watch over Anton that night, he wrote an angry letter to Mom and Uncle Reinhard. He said he'd seen this coming, Anton should be at home in Minnesota not in California, etc...but that "We can not let this thing end up like Dan Janson ended up in Sacramento"......"I'll tell you again, we just can't afford to let this end up like Dan Janson we just can't".

When Larry and I first read the letter, we'd never heard of Dan Janson, but we've done considerable research since then. Dan's parents left Horrenberg when the other two families did, but sailed later, and settled 17 miles from Buckman, in Rice, Minnesota.

We still don't know what happened with Dan/Wendelin, but on Saturday, Glenn told us about accidentally finding another Glenn Janson, in Spokane, Washington. Evidently, the two men wrote back and forth, and when MN Glenn had occasion to fly to Washington, he arranged to meet WA Glenn. MG said that as he came off the plane and glanced at the people waiting there, he picked out WG right away. MG said they tried for an hour and a half to find relatives in common, but failed. But as MG got up to catch his plane, WG asked if MG had ever heard of Rice, Minnesota? Evidently, WG had relatives from there, but our Glenn didn't know of any Jansons in Rice....

So now, Bev and Glenn intend to call Washington Glenn and make the connection, and maybe ask about the infamous Dan. Isn't that COOL?

Of COURSE we'll let you know what they find out, ok?

Mom and Muriel

2011-05-27T13:56:00.006-05:00

Today, Minnesota Public Radio broadcast a program called

Remembering Hubert H. Humphrey's Life in Politics .

Of course, Muriel Humphrey was part of the audio, which made me think of mom, who admired Muriel a lot.

In fact, my sisters wrote to Mrs Humphrey and asked for an autographed photo. It arrived in time for mom's birthday, I think. We teased about framing the photo or building a little altar ala the BVM. Since Muriel had sent the photo on request, "Muriel" could be asked for just about anything, like, "I've always wanted blue eyes--I bet Muriel could get em for me..." It was always funny, really.

Well, ok, I suppose you had to be there.

I think mom liked her apparent calmness and loyalty, and that she spoke well. When I think of mom's heros, I'd say they were Jack Paar, Winnie Doroff and Muriel Humphrey....a pretty elite subset of humanity, but only Muriel sent an autographed 8X10 glossy.

A Janson Relative?

2011-05-21T10:57:00.002-05:00

WOW--last night, I found this interesting obit from a newspaper in Canton, Ohio, June 1st, 1906. (Searching for family names on the Library of Congress website called Chronicling America just got better because they've added more historic newspapers--YAY!)

Doesn't the name and occupation seem awfully familiar? So, is "Wendelheim, Hessen, Germany" anywhere near Deilheim and Horrenburg? When I look at a map of Germany, I locate Mannheim first, because our Jansons came from just south of that city....so, when I found a current map of where Hessen is...yes, Mannheim is on the bottom of the bright pink part, see?
Evidently, the newspaper misspelled the name of the town, too. It should have an s:

Hmm, there seems to be two Wendelsheims, both in southern Germany--one in Rhineland-Palatinate and the other is a suburban district of Rottenburg am Neckar in the administrative district of Tübingen in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). I'd guess we're talking about the second one, huh?

While googling "Wendelheim, Hessen, Germany", a family history book from another family showed up too: Record of the Descendants of Johann Jost Wentz, by Richard Willing Wentz. What caught my eye was a discussion of name origins, specifically WENDEL and WENDELIN (like grandpa's older brother, Wendelin). Take a few minutes and read these three pages--it's background that definitely pertains to our family and the naming traditions in Catholic Germany of the time:

No, you're right, none of this connects the above obituary to our Jansons. He might have been related or not, but finding that obit got us a whole lot more information, and THATS cool. ☺

Janson

Aunt Jeanette Janson

Help preserve the Pierz Journals!

John William Janson 1891-1979

To all my relatives:

Stille Nacht

Musical Christmas presents for you

YAY, Lord, of course

Silver Bells

A family Fav

Let's Sing Christmas

Words

Odds and Ends

How do these people connect?

Joseph Janson's American Citizenship Document

Remember this singer?

Have YOU worried about this, too? ☺

Leaving Antwerp in February, 1883

The ship they rode in on...

A report card from 1915-1916

The other Janson family in Buckman

It's all in the perspective

Russian Squirrels

One Hundred thirty-five years ago, yesterday

More about the school problem...

Naber bits and pieces

"Buckman, its Pioneer History, its Cultural Legacy"

Probably why Daniel couldn't leave Horrenberg....

Fabric words

Could this be William Bahns?

Wendelin, we hardly knew ya!

Daniel's newspaper ad, 1853

Daniel Janson Papers, part 5

Odds and Ends

Daniel Janson Papers, part 4

Monkey Ward Tombstones 1929

Daniel Janson papers, part 3

Das Gasthaus zum wilden Mann

Daniel Janson papers part 2

Coulda been!

The Daniel Janson papers from 1853

An embarrassment of riches

Dark Jansons

They stayed in the old country

Jansons, Sr Mamerta and Fr Coughlin

In mom's honor

Bobby pins

Where else would this stuff fit?

Naming Johannes' sons and daughters, I think

A partial answer

Brothers?

Sr Mamerta, OSB

Does anyone grow raspberries?

Musta been SOME tires...

NEW COUSINS--The Michigan Jansons

Relative greetings

Off Topic

For the women of the family

After forty-two years in America

Let's meet in Buckman, ok?

Johannes Janson, the immigrant

After Loretta's funeral

Another new Janson!

A 1913 bride

Sebastian, Mary and family

Speculation on Denmark, Lutherans, Emigrating, and Jansons

Glenn X2

Sebastian gets married

A portrait of Joseph and Franziska

LOTS More about Otto Janson

Dixville Lutheran gets new temporary members

Who was Otto Janson?

Our Wermerskirchen connection

Why it's good to wear stripes

Janson news from 1955 and this weekend ☺

Mom and Muriel

Of course, Muriel Humphrey was part of the audio, which made me think of mom, who admired Muriel a lot.

A Janson Relative?