The last time we re-visited the "Wendelin saga", we did a short synopsis of what we'd learned about him (through records published online, mostly). I smugly thought we had about all the info there was on the life of one obscure, never-married, German immigrant. (But wait--Larry kept digging!)Wendelin was my grandfather's eldest brother. When the family came here in 1883, he was 12, and on the trip across the ocean he had the humiliating duty of being in charge of the family chamber pot. As he grew up on the claim in Buckman township, Morrison County, Minnesota, we expect he had an unfair share of the work, since he was oldest.
By 1895, when he was 24, he probably wanted OUT of farming. That's when he joined the army at Ft Snelling, in Minneapolis. He served honorably for a three year stint (ending in 1898), but most men who joined the army at the time expected adventure in the Spanish-American War, in the Philippines or Cuba. We found Private Wendelin Janson re-enlisting in May, 1899. We knew he deserted 3 months later, but we didn't know that it was in the Philippines or that he deserted at Bacoor, Luzon. (See above). By then, he was 29.
Did he see connections between his own childhood oppression in Germany with the local people near the battles he was in, was it too hot, or did he just reconsider this "adventure" thing? Anyway, according to the page above, he went AWOL in August. With luck (and Larry on it), we'll find out more of what happened, before he shows up again in St Paul in the 1905 Minnesota census. Stay tuned!
Whoa, thanks, Larry!
