A Janson Relative?

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. ☺

Online Iconography

(This post is copied from our other blog, Hesch History, but it's more about St Michaels in Buckman than it is about Heschs.  It concerns a painting "procured from Bernard Richter in St Annaberg, Silesia" in 1902, which hangs now in the new part of St Michaels.  (Walk in the main door and look up to your left).  

I'll probably always be stunned by what's available online in the way of tools (and toys).  Photoshop, for one.  Sure, everyone knows you can fade wrinkles or replace a whole body with PS, but there are other WAY more useful things it can do.  Larry took the side view of the painting from the church in Buckman and made it a full-view, AND lightened it alot (so we could see it better).  In fact, it's  probably never been cleaned.  We expect it was lighter and brighter 100 years ago (tho certainly not as bright as the image at the bottom of this post ☺).

Another amazing tool here is the plethora of images available online...but why would we need other pictures?  Well, Larry and I were both brought up Catholic.  We've all seen St Michael the Archangel a gazillion times, right?....but looking at the painting, we realized something was wrong.  The classic St Michael image holds a sword in his right hand (to conquer Satan), and a scale in his left (justice).  In earlier images, he might have held a shield instead of the scale, but the sword was a given, as was the dragon/devil/lizard under his feet...the flames not so much.
In the Buckman painting, those iconic elements are missing or..odd, somehow.  
The Buckman painting shows something in the clouds above the angel, who's holding a chain in his left hand, and something we can't figure out aloft, in his right.  In fact, Larry wondered if the figure was more like Archangel Gabriel iconography.  
So, last night, Larry started looking for more info on Bernard Richter and St Annasberg in Silesia, while I started looking for classic pics of Mike and Gabe, to check iconic differences between them.
(BTW, 'iconic' means the elements in an image that stand for this particular saint, like a tonsure, lily and book always means St Dominic, even if you can't read the inscription).
We both scored.  Larry found a book called 
The St. Anne Church  in Annaberg, by Ernst Oswald Schmidt,

 published in 1908.  It's written in Old German, but it's been machine 

translated...which helps, but not much ☺.  We definitely found the name 
Richter there, as well as a stained glass window depicting Archangel Michael. 
However, that image is completely different from the painting in Buckman.

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My search results were interesting.  I used Google images as well as TinEye reverse image search and found that Gabriel was most connected with the Annunciation, and he almost always had figures in the clouds around him.  And  I was looking for some connection between the high altar statue in St Michaels in Buckman and the Bernard Richter painting, both of which have the odd element of a chain rather than a scale in Michael's left hand.  I found only one other.  Was that just boredom with painting scales?

:::::::::::::::::

Here's the adjusted painting, as well as the lighter version.  On the right is a holy card that must have been in most Catholic prayerbooks back then, because that pose is used over and over for St Michael. Maybe it was part of the 1800s Gettyimages?

Larry figured out that the two figures in the clouds above Michael identify the painting as coming from Annaberg.  They are St Ann and her daughter, Mary.
But what is that in Mike's right (dominant) hand?  In icon-language, the right hand was like the summation of a story, so what it holds is important.  Is it the severed head of the dragon? Or...mundanely, is it Michael's hat?  Hey, it matches his clothes.  Richter wasn't Michaelangelo, after all, but he painted something more personal for his patrons in Minnesota, more in the Polish German spirit, meant to remind them of their roots in the old country. Das war gut genug.

If you're reading this and you find yourself in St Michaels in Buckman, would you check the painting and see what you think he's holding?  Blogs can be changed...let me know, ok?

Mr. & Mrs. John H Nabor celebrate

It's pretty neat that searching online casts such a wide net.  To find mentions of relatives from long-past years, it helps to use a "wildcard" like "Nab*r", which is probably exactly what Larry did here.  (One problem with searching newspapers for the word Naber is that it's used for 'neighbor' in stories written to sound like 'country' dialect--sheesh!)  But the index comes from a machine reader, so the interpretation is iffy anyway.

This couple almost has to be "ours" because  York, Nebraska is in the right part of the state (52 miles west of Lincoln) where other Nabers settled.  Also, they were born in Oldenburg, Germany in 1841 and 1852.  

York, Neb. April 13~Mr. and Mrs. John H. Nabor celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary recently.  They were married at Hammelswart, in Oldenburg, Germany on the 18th day of March, 1872, and on the third day thereafter sailed for United States.  They arrived in York county soon after and homesteaded south of Waco where they made their home for forty-five years.  Five years ago they moved to Utica to make their home.  Their family consists of ten children, twenty-four grand and great grand children.  Mr Nabor is eighty-one years of age, and Mrs. Nabor, seventy.

I'm of course under a "Women Are Every Bit as Important" obligation to find Mrs. Naber's first name.  According to the 1900 census from Waco township in York Co Nebraska, it was Gerhardine, even tho the enumerator spelled it funny.  How can I be so sure?  Look below the census excerpt:

Ahhh...I found John Henry Naber on Find a Grave.  His wife's name was Gerhardine Schmidt Naber.

Birth:	Jan. 3, 1841 Oldenburg, Germany
Death:	Mar. 30, 1930 Nebraska, USA
Family links:  Parents:   Anna Lucia Schroeder Naber (1799 - 1881)  Children:   Infant son Naber*   William Heinrich Naber (1877 - 1959)*   Metha Mathilda Naber Hoffschneider (1879 - 1967)*   Henrietta Anna Naber Hoffschneider (1881 - 1955)*   Karl F. Naber (1884 - 1887)*   Clara Gerhardina Naber Schlechte (1888 - 1990)*  Spouse:   Gerhardine Schmidt Naber (1852 - 1936)* *Point here for explanation
Burial: Saint Johns Cemetery Waco York County Nebraska, USA

Elizabeth Reichls Naber 1846-1926

Interesting that this obit from Find a Grave.com gives us another surname spelling for Gerhard Naber's second wife.  REICHLS would be the German spelling, while Richels is simply the name in English.  Also, look at her bio.  Five children, four step-children...her husband Gerhard had died in 1891, well before they moved to Buckman, so there was no mention of him.

Elizabeth Reichls Naber  was our maternal great grandmother.

Birth: April 2, 1846
Death: August 17, 1926
Buckman Lady is Called by Death The death of Mrs. Elizaeth Naber of Buckman, aged 80, occurred at St. Gabriel's hospital at Little Falls at 6 o'clock Tuesday morning Aug. 17th. Death was caused by metastitie carcinoma of the lungs and liver. She had been ailing the past three months. Mrs. Elizabeth Naber, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Reichls, was born April 2, 1846, in Germany. At the age of 24 years she came to this country and a year later was married at Vienna, Iowa. The Naber family lived at Vienna until about 15 years ago when they moved to Buckman and made their home there since. In 1918, they moved to the village of Buckman. Mrs. Naber was the mother of 5 children, 3 of whom are living to mourn her death, they are Mrs. Wm. Bahns of Pierz, Mrs. Anton Janson of Buckman and Gerherd Naber of St. Cloud. Four stepchildren also mourn her loss, they are Henry Naber of Bancroft, Iowa, Herman of Nebraska, Mrs. John Schlichting of Granville, Iowa and Sister Mary Raphel of Dubuque, Iowa. John Reichls, a brother and a sister whose home is in Sell, South Dakota, also survive. She was grandmother of 26 children. The burial service for the deceased Mrs. Naber was held in St. Michael's church in Buckman at 9 o'clock this Thursday morning and interment followed in the Buckman village cemetery. Pierz Journal, August 19, 1926 Family links:  Children:   Elizabeth Naber (1873 - 1910)*   John Naber (1874 - 1922)*   Catherine Naber Bahns (1881 - 1954)*   Margaret Naber Janson (1882 - 1945)*

Trapp Family Zingers

From a post here on November 8th, 2009:
"Yesterday, I heard from a relative named Bonnie who has Gerhard Naber in common with us:  if you recall, Gerhard was married twice to women named Elizabeth.  Bonnie's descended from the first Elizabeth's family, and we're descended from the second.
The first batch was Herman, Bernard, Henry, Mary, and Anna.  Henry was Ida & Walburga's dad, but Herman was Bonnie's connection.
Herman Naber was born Mar 6, 1861 New Vienna, Delaware Co, Iowa, and died Feb. 15, 1928 in Randolph, Cedar Co., Nebraska.  Herman Naber married Anna Trapp Feb 10, 1897 in St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Granville, Sioux Co, Iowa. They lived at or near Bancroft, Iowa, for about 7 years, then moved to Randolph, Nebraska.  Herman died from burns due to a house fire.  They lost their home and everything in the fire.  He's buried at St. Frances de Chantal Cemetery in Randolph.". 

Now, Randolph is about 100 miles northwest of Omaha, but evidently there were also Trapps living in Benson and Clifton Hill, suburbs of Omaha.

The following articles were all in the Omaha Daily Bee newspaper, starting with this one on  20 April, 1891► 

How horrible to have a house burn down, and then to be hit by lightning in your rental house two months later. Perhaps he figured things couldn't get worse, so why not try politics and public office?

This more cosmopolitan part of the family made the newspaper fairly often in the 1890s.

Larry and I were entertained by the snarky tone of this article from 1892--"Trapp is a man who has a grievance and a lacerated reputation which nothing but a money judgement in the sum of $5,000 will heal"...  

(The follow up article the next day said he was awarded $250.  We don't know if that did the trick or if his nose was permanently out of joint...)

Here's another sarcastic but fun article from June 14, 1893.  We don't know that this particular "Mr Trapp" was Edward Trapp, but it's pretty likely. Ed's reputation was restored now, and  he probably intended to run for public office in the future.  Being appointed park cop was a way to begin, but it sounds like he almost blew it.  
We hope they had some of that $250 left to apply toward Mrs Trapp's bail.

Evidently, Ed lost an election that fall, and didn't take it lightly.  He was either a very interesting character or.....kind  of a jerk.

BTW, checking out references made in the article, like "Captain Jenks"...(which turned out to be a satiric poem by one Earnest Crosby), I couldn't find the actual poem online. Also, since Mr Trapp "has the reputation of being a politician of the E. H. Cole stripe", I tried to find Mr Cole, but he, too, is lost to Janson history.  Oh well!

Pin curls

I saw these instructions from 1947 and thought about Saturday afternoons at our house in the 50s/60s.  Mom did her own hair, and all four of our heads, in pin curls every week.  We had to hand her the bobby pins while she did ours.  The idea was to try not to be the last head done, remember?

(It's too bad that even naturally curly hair like mine had to be pinned into submission!) 

Our heads looked a lot more like a pineapple than this does, but then, our heads were smaller, and we had LOTS less hair than this woman.

Man, what a lotta work to achieve such a dorky look.

VIA

A Legacy of Stamps

I think the late 1940s must have been a time of  real optimism in America-- the GIs were coming home and there was a rampant sense of prosperity.  Just think, we'd survived the Depression and two world wars--most likely nothing else would ever again be as bad.  

For people like Grandpa Anton Janson, the first 40 years of the new century might have truly felt like trial-by-fire (add being German during the 1918 "Safety Commission" era and fluctuations in the fortunes of the family farm)....by 1946, he must have felt he'd earned this new country.


  

I don't know where he got the idea to buy sheets of postage stamps to put away for their future value.  Evidently, he bought a page or two and tossed them in a box on a regular basis in 1947-1949 at least.

That box was in our hall closet for years.  Don't know what happened to it.  But I've had two envelopes around for at least a year, and finally soaked them to separate them.  There are duplicates of these five stamps...the most valuable ones are the bright pink Edison ones at about .55 each, and most are supposed to be worth .40 or so.
And these "Saluting Young America" stamps?  The online source suggested you use them at face value, on letters.  LOL

Still, click the Doctor stamp to enlarge it--what magnificent detail!  There's a whole story there that's tough to see without the internet...

Thanks, Lil Grandpa, you tried...and they're beautiful.