Benedictine Vows

I assume that most orders of nuns require something like this from each postulant: the written-out vows a sister agreed to when she joined an order.  This is the form for Benedictines in St Joseph, Minnesota.  It's a copy of Sr Mamerta's vows, from July 1918.

Coulda been!

 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.

Who was Otto Janson?

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

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


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