Wendelin's "Dan Janson"

Back in November, 2009, I posted a letter that grandpa Anton's brother Wendelin wrote as Anton lay dying at Wendelin's house in LA.  He was angry that Anton hadn't stayed in Minnesota, and, I think, that it was beginning to seem like Jansons came to California to die...on Wendelin's dime.
In the letter, he wrote that  "we can't let this thing end up like Dan Janson..." Larry and I had no idea what that meant--we hadn't discovered Daniel yet (in Rice, Mn) and what could have happened that upset Wendelin so?  
Eventually Larry and I pieced stuff together,and realized he meant his father's COUSIN Dan, the Janson immigrant who'd settled in Rice.  
"None of you would be in Buckman or St Cloud today without the help from here.  I’ll tell you again, we just can’t afford to let this end up like Dan Janson we just can’t".
Whew.  Dan Janson died in Sacramento, California November 10, 1910.  Grandpa Anton died in 1955, so Wendelin was still smarting about something that happened 45 years earlier.  Did Mom and Uncle Reinhard even know what he was talking about?


Frankly, we don't know the story either, but we can speculate:  based on the fact that even in 1955 when grandpa Anton died there, he couldn't be shipped home unaccompanied on the train.  A relative had to claim the body and go along with it--so in 1910, was Wendelin elected to take time off work, identify the body, and take Daniel home?  And oh-oh, was he expected to pay for both, plus doctor bills?  

Daniel and Wendelin would have known each other, surely, but they probably weren't close, or it wouldn't have bugged him quite so much.  Obviously it did anyway, all those years later.

Jansons in the Pierz Journal

ACK!  It's such a shame that mom's family was so private.  The Janson mentions are rare in the 'Buckman News' column in the Pierz Journal, even with Math Hesch being a close neighbor.   Still, once in awhile.....

This visit may have been the occasion this photo was taken, huh?

____________________________

OK, this one refers to Joe Janson the blacksmith in Buckman, not our great grandfather Joe.

 ___________________________

A whole string of extended family mentions here, starting with the news (still new to us in 2012!) that GG Joe went to California to recuperate.  Was this the occasion for one of the financial setbacks Grandpa Anton spoke of?

Grasping at straws, see?  But this proves grandpa was spotted in town.

 Great grandpa Joseph Janson died on December 19, 1911

December 28, 1911

_________________________________

____________________________

Finding this next clip was stunning for a number of reasons--one being that the PJ didn't know Daniel's name, but printed the item anyway.  Also, Daniel must have been well known in Pierz/Lastrup/Buckman, because of his brother John Janson.  People "knew" which Janson they meant, I guess.

We didn't know that Daniel died in California, either.  

From the Pierz Journal, December 1, 1910:

 (BTW, Larry thinks it's cool to see an incidence of a  letter misplaced by the typesetter ☺)

This state fair seal was in the Journal.  I just thought it was cool.

Hundred year old Janson news

 From the December 21, 1911 Pierz Journal--a clipping just loaded with family connections!

The first line about Mrs. Naber and son:  That was our grandmother Maggie's mom, Elizabeth, and brother, John.  (It still surprises me to find diverse relatives in the Buckman News!)

The party held at Ignatz Ronellenfitch's farm (first place south of the Janson farm) is interesting too.  Everyone who read that would have known that (my g-grandpa) Joe Janson had died two days earlier, and that the Jansons and Ronellenfitchs were relatives from the same town in Germany...so loosing Joe made celebrating a bit harder.  Still, that set of guests insured SOME merriment.

Lastly, "J. B. Brander was a visitor at the home of Joe Janson Sunday."  Was J.B. Brander the parish priest?  Maybe Math was implying that he visited as a family friend rather than the pastor, huh? I suppose they would have been making funeral arrangements that night...

Joseph and Wendelin Janson NEWS

From the Pierz Journal, April 20, 1911--
"Joe Janson Sr. left for California Monday to visit his son Wendeline, who is running a truck farm out there.  Joe will stay a year for his health.  He has rheumatism and we hope it will help him".

Wow!  Three short sentences and look what we've learned: 1) Great grandpa tried California weather as a cure. 2) Wendelin did something besides the railroad, at least for awhile, and 3) Buckman knew Joseph as the Senior Joe Janson because his cousins' son was also Joe Janson (blacksmith in Buckman).

It's hard to imagine Wendelin trying something as agricultural as truck farming.  On the other hand, just cuz it's in the paper doesn't make it true.

Grandpa Anton said his father was weak and ill when they moved home from trying Virginia in 1902, but we didn't know that he went to California for his health 9 years later.  He didn't last a whole year--he died after 8 months, on December 19th, 1911. I wonder, did he die in California?
 .......................
So, I went looking for the Joseph Janson obit in the Pierz Journals of December 21 and 28.  No luck.  All I found was this, in Math's "Buckman" column, complete with misspellings:
(Yes, yes...I know you're supposed to copy something exactly.  Tough ☺).
"Sebastian Janson returned to his home in Wadena Saturday.  He was here to attend the funeral of his father Joe Janson".

How does Eva Meyer connect?

Here's an interesting connection we figured out because of a wedding pic from the Morrison Co Pictorial Atlases--a 1945 photo of Alfred and Eva Janson (it's here, just down the post).

In case you don't know who Alfred Janson was:
--Cousins Johann and Josef Janson arrived in Minnesota with their families in 1883;
(Josef was our greatgrand).
--Johann eventually had 11 kids, one of whom was
--Michael, who married Antonia Hurdt.  They had 10 kids, one of whom was
--Alfred, born in 1921.

First tho, a bit about Eva's family of origin:

Eva was born in 1919, as shown in the 1920 census here, but everybody in this undated photo was younger.  I'd guess it was taken about 1910, since the oldest, Lena, looks about 15, don't you think?

But wait!  Thanks to Carrie for some clarification.  She wrote that this pic:.. "is my grandma's parents and kids (10) of them from about 1914. They had 13 all together, the very middle baby Mathias Jr. died as a baby. The baby in the picture is Gust who was born in October 1913. The inset picture is my grandma Eva (youngest) & her sister Catherine. We always figured they thought they were done after Gust so had a family pic done! My great-grandma was almost 40 I think when Gust was born. By the time they had my grandma, she was 45 years old and Math was 52. One of my grandma's nieces added the little pic of Catherine & Eva on the side".

 Here's more about Mike's family....and a charming pic of Mike (Alfred's dad) with a case of Cold Spring beer.  Par-TAY!

So the wedding photo below, taken June 5th, 1945, was Mike and Toni Janson, Alfred and Eva Janson, and Eva's mom, Catherine Meyer. (Her dad Math died in January 1933).

A fun extra is that the photos below were obviously taken on the same day--the wedding pic came from the atlases and the brothers' pic came from Carrie Staves' website at least 4 years ago.  (The checked paper decoration shows behind Eva when the bridal photo is expanded).  Isn't that cool?

Note from Carrie: the brother with Mike here was Joe (Alfred's sponsor) ☺.

Our enumerator ☺

Ok, you can breathe now--here's your first view of the 1940 census.  This is  Pierz township (the village itself was recorded separately).  LOOK who the enumerator was--top right corner.  Cool, huh?

Marshiks from Bohemia

  Argh--time is slippery, isn't it?  I've been debating with myself whether I ever met any of these children--they would have been born between 1856 and 1882, I think, so we're probably talking the NEXT gen, kids of these kids.

Joseph and Maryia Marshik were married in Bohemia in 1855.  They emigrated to America in 1882.  By then, he was 48 and she was 44.  This photo was published in the "Pictorial Atlas of Morrison County, Minnesota", submitted by a descendant, no doubt.  Did people have portraits taken before they left Europe?  This sure looks like that.

 I found Joseph and Maria in the 1895 Minnesota Census, but by then, only Wenzel (26) and Julius (19) were still at home.

One of these kids was John Marshik, born in 1864 in Bohemia.  He married Franziska Klimek, and had at least five kids: Annie, Felix, Frank, Herman and Wenzel.  Herman was Aunt Jeanette's dad, and he helped build our house in Sauk Rapids, with dad and Pauly Gangl.  (I need to research the Gangls, huh?)

Now, this is farther afield.  Looks like the wedding in the 1920s of Henry Marshik and Marie Rauch.  His brother and her sister were the witnesses.
Was this the same Henry Marshik, buttermaker in the Center Valley Creamery, who died when the boiler there exploded, in 1955?  
I don't know whose sons Henry and John were.  Maybe someone will let me know, and I'll add it.

I believe Julius Marshik was one of the kids in that top pic.  Are there five or six people there?  I didn't see most of them till I made it extra large--wow!

If you know the Marshik family and can tell, let me know, ok?  I mean, we already have the pic; all it needs is names ☺.

Ok, bedtime here--g'night!