St Bonifacius, Minnesota c 1907

According to the eulogy below, some of these kids might have been Brandls ☺.

Found on Minnesota Reflections.

A Beautiful and Historic Eulogy

Kilian and Adela's grandson Mike sent this today.  It was read by Gene Brandl (Ed and Sadie's son) last summer at a gathering honoring Florence Brandl at St Michaels Church in Buckman. 
There's a lot of history and a lot of love in it: 

It is nice to be here, for several reasons. It is nice to have a gathering of the clan for a joyous occasion not a funeral. It is also nice to be back here again. This church has had a recurring presence in our family. I was thinking on the drive up here that the series of family events have been like mileposts in a lifetime. I remember my Aunt Leona’s wedding was the first wedding I ever attended. I learned about pew rental here and my Aunt Adela telling me to be sure to sit in a particular row. I have never been more scared to go to church. I was afraid I’d sit in the wrong place and be struck by lightening if not struck by an angry parishioner. One of the earliest sad days of my life was the first time I was a pallbearer, for Leona’s baby. Mary Lou Zenner’s wedding was the social event of the year. I have been in this sanctuary before, 50 years ago when I would be visiting Terry Zenner and we were mass servers. I remember Debbie Brandl’s wedding and Alvina and Charlie’s funerals. The last time was for our Grandmother’s funeral. As I will tell you, she is the main reason the Brandl’s are gathered here today. On behalf of the extended Brandl family, we would like to thank you for your recognition of Florence. I would also like to applaud your choice of improvements to help this institution mark another century of events. When we told your church council about her gift, they asked if it would be okay to use it for tearing down the old hall. Florence had fond memories of the hall and had wondered about restoring it. We told her it was probably beyond repair and we told the council that an improvement would be a better use of her gift. I think she would be pleased with your church improvements that her gift funded.

Since there aren’t any Brandls left in the area, I have been asked to say a few words about who they were. My name is Gene Brandl. Florence was my aunt. And across the street in the cemetery, those Brandls and Jansons were my ancestors. I mention the Jansons because they are the reason the Brandls were here. Like most of the early settlers, they were encouraged to come here by Father Pierz. He must have been quite a salesman to get people to uproot. He had come over from Germany and established a mission church. In the 1880s and 90s he wrote back to German Catholic newspapers extolling the life here. Unlike Europe, in America there was land for homesteading or buying at reasonable prices, the countryside looked a lot like central Germany, the church was established and the people in this area all spoke German so they would feel right at home. The Jansons came from a small farm community just south of Heidelberg. My great grandparents with 4 small children and one on the way, came over and settled about 1 mile east of Buckman. After a couple years they left their oldest son Sebastian to run the farm and moved to the state of Virginia. My grandmother said they didn’t find the people very friendly. I suppose the fact that they didn’t speak German contributed to the Jansons feeling out of place. They moved back and settled west of Buckman on what is now the Reine Janson heritage farm.

The Brandls were from Bohemia, that area where Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic meet. My great grandfather was a leather worker and first settled in St. Paul. The Irish had a monopoly on the leather trade so he moved first to St Bonifacius, about 20 miles west of Minneapolis, and then to New Munich in the middle of Stearns county. The link to this area was the railroad. The Soo line ran thru New Munich and Genola. My grandfather John Brandl as the oldest son had learned the leather trade. At the age of 20 he married Frances Janson and set up shop across the street. He sold and repaired shoes but primarily he made harnesses. If your only machine is a horse, the only way you get work from it is with harnesses. You need them to ride, pull a plow or pull a cart or carriage. But our grandfather was farsighted and realized that he wasn’t just in the leather business, he was in the transportation business. And when he realized that the car and tractor were going to replace the horse, he got one of the earliest Ford motor company franchises and started Brandl Garage later to be renamed Brandl Motors. His brother Joe Brandl joined him in the business and also in the family.

Joe married my Grandmother’s sister Rose Janson. So the Brandl brothers John and Joe married the Janson sisters Frances and Rose. Joe and Rose lived across the street from here on the corner. John and Francie built the house 2 doors down from the hall. They each had 6 children and each had 3 boys and 3 girls. 10 of the children graduated from Cathedral High School in St. Cloud and the 2 youngest, Florence and Lois, were among the first graduates of St. Francis in Little Falls. Of the 12 children 3 remained in the area.

My aunt Adela married Killian Zenner and they ran the General Store in what had been the Brandl Leather Shop. It was a mainstay on the corner across the street for 40 years. The 2nd one to stay in the area was my uncle Roman Charles Brandl. I think only his family called him Roman, to the rest of the world he was Charlie. Charlie Brandl was a one of kind. He was fluent in 3 languages, English, German, and a vocabulary all his own that was always special and often unique. My Grandfather died in 1945 and Charlie took over Brandl Garage when he came back from the army. He ran it until his son and son-in-law took over. The other Brandl in the area was Ervin . During the depression when Brandl Garage couldn’t support 2 families, Joe became the postmaster. His son, Ervin, took over and for nearly 50 years Joe and then Ervin were the Buckman Postmaster.

Florence was the youngest and left Buckman for Minneapolis and worked at the Northern ordinance plant during the 2nd world war and then as a beautician in Minneapolis, Chicago and back again in Minneapolis where she retired. She never married and lived with my grandmother. My Grandmother had some of the Janson pioneering spirit. At the age of 65 when most people are retiring, she sold her house and moved to south Chicago to live with Florence. We think this invigorated her because she lived to within a few weeks of her 100th birthday. The 2 two of them were avid supporters of the Catholic missions and so her final gift was a logical conclusion to a generous life. So I’d like to thank you again for your recognition of Florence. She was a little shy but I think she would have been honored by your recognition.

Thanks, Mike!

Discovered photos

Being a Minnesotan, I'm VERY proud of the Minnesota Historical Society website and the cool searchable photos they have online.  Click the link and search "Morrison"--among the photos that come up, you'll find maybe 40 of them with "unidentified Morrison Co businesses", mostly interior shots taken in 1925.

 

Since Larry and I are trying to 're-construct' Buckman in about 1919, we were particularly interested in those photos, and I believe I've FOUND a few from inside Brandl Motors!

Let me show you:

For one thing, doesn't the man at the desk (left) look like a Brandl?  That was my first impression, but we figured it was wishful thinking...lol  We did see that both pictures were the same office, so we saved them for closer inspection......

Now, LOOK at the shelves behind John and Joe here, five years later...and at the double row of white tabbed drawers above the desk, and the invoice box above that.  Theres a phone in all of them, and glass on the desk top, the shelves behind 'em are the same, and the post has a poster in all three pics!

Ah, you say, but the top two pics have a stove behind the men, where there's a stack of tires in front of the brothers.  Yes!  I found out lately that it was a common practice to remove the stove during the summer, in homes as well as businesses. Such wasted space could be better used in other ways, at least part of the year.

YAY!! Anon emailed to say WHO the men were in these photos: above, John Brandl seated; standing behind him left to right: Bill Gohl, Tony Sand, Hank Poster.

Anon said the seated man here is Bill Gohl, then left to right behind him: Hank Poster, George Poster, "unknown", Bill Weisbrick, John Brausen, and Tony Sand.

Isn't this just COOL?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

THIS photo was identified by whoever took the pictures in 1925...so we KNOW it was Brandl Motors, right?

See the man in bibs? (Bill Weisbrich).  And the one with the dark shirt and cap? (Hank Poster). The one in coveralls (John Brausen) is back by the post, and the guy with his fist on his hip is definitely the same man in both pics (Tony Sand).  That's John, with the tie and pork-pie hat, for sure.  (And SUE just emailed to say the man to John's right was Andrew Suess, retired, who just liked hanging around the garage). Don't know who those last two men were, tho.

  Oh, MAN, this tickles me!!

Mystery solved!

This photo has been a question since last summer, when Aggie Suess' grandaughter Sue sent it to me.  She didn't know who these men were either, but I thought they looked like Brandls.  Still, the only Brandl men I've ever seen would have been sons of these guys...lol

This weekend we found out for sure who they are.  The photo was taken probably around 1930, at Brandl Motors.

John Brandl (1883-1945) (l)

&

Joe Brandl (1891-1950) (r)

We don't have a copy of John's obit, but we do for Joe, thanks to Find A Grave.

: : : : :

November, 1950

Rites For Joe Brandl At Buckman Friday

Joesph E. Brandl passed away at his home in Buckman at 11:30 p.m, Monday, death being caused by a heart attack. he was in fair health most of his life. He recently experienced injury to his right leg, for which he was given treatment at St. Gabriel's hopital about a month ago.

His birthplace was St. Bonifacius, Minnesota, January 23, 1891 and he attended St. John's University for some time. He lived at Almena, Wisconsin a short while and married Rose Janson at Buckman 37 years ago. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Brandl.

In 1918 he went into partnership with his brother, John Brandl, and conducted the Ford Agency business with him until 1940. About four years later, John Brandl died. He had also been the Buckman postmaster since 1938.

Besides his wife six children survive, including Erwin, Buckman; Mrs. William Lonsdale (Marion), Brainerd; Rev. Leo Brandl, Bertha, Minn.; Sister Joyce (Armella), St. Gabriel's hospital, Little Falls; Bernard, Marshall, Minnesota; Doris Mae of the nurse training dept., St. Joseph's hospital, St. Paul. There are 7 grandchildren.

Among the brothers and sisters surviving are Hubert, Black Duck, Minn.; and Andrew and Frank, and Mrs. Joe Scharenborich, St. Cloud.

Pallbearers will be Dick Janson, Reinhard Janson, Edward Brandl, Roman Brandl, Alfred Brandl and Alcuin Brandl, all nephews of the deceased.

A Solemn Requiem Mass is being offered at St. Michael's church, Buckman at 10, Friday morning. Celebrant of the mass will be Fr. Leo Brandl, son of the deceased, with Fr. Paul Kunkel, the pastor of the church, the deacon; and Fr. Leonard Benning, OSB, Muenster, Sash., Canada, the subdeacon. The latter is a brother-in-law of Erwin Brandl.

Interment is in the Buckman cemetery.

More forgotten pics

Cleaning out a drawer yesterday, I found a stash of photos--some you've seen already, but here are a few I haven't posted.  This one, if the 3rd kid is Loretta Janson, had to be about 1919.  I think the boys are brothers Ed and Charlie Brandl...who were sons of Frances Janson and John Brandl.  Theres a machine shed in the background, so I expect this was a day on the farm with one family visiting another.

Fast foreward 60 years, and we have these:

I think this was Adella & Killian Zenner's dining room--it had to be before 1983--that's when Fr Leo died, and both these women died in 1985.  (I'm not positive the near one is Frances, but it probably is).

(Ok, I'm not positive it's Zenners dining room either!)  Rose was Leo's mother, and she was his housekeeper for the last years of their lives, after Joe Brandl died in 1950.

Ah, it's nice to see those faces again, the way I knew them.

 John Anton Brandl married Frances Janson c. 1906. John died in 1945 when he was 62.  Mom's Aunt Francie died at 99.  One of their children, Edward Joseph, married Mercedes Hiemenz, better known as Sadie.  They were married in 1936, and I believe this photo was taken in honor of their 50th Anniversary, in 1986.  Ed and Sadie Brandl had five children, one of whom inherited that JOHN name again.  To overcome this, he got into politics, and eventually became Representative John Brandl.

Here he is in 1978.  The picture is from a newsletter he sent to constituents in his district (61A), and mom had a copy somehow.  He was also teaching at the University of Minnesota..."courses in budgeting, tax policy and evaluating government programs". 

This article from 2007 mentions his date of death as the 18th of August.  On the 19th, he would have celebrated his 70th birthday.

BRANDLs

Yesterday, Larry found this online:

No, this is not the John Brandl who married Frances Janson.  This John lived in St Paul, Minnesota, but look:  he was applying for a passport to go visit the village where he was born , Hagenfurth, Bohemia.  Larry found that John went back to Bohemia several times, and came home with people from there.

But wait!  Can an ethnic German be a 'Bohemian'?  Sure...

A little background:  The country of Bohemia was located mostly within the current boarders of the Czech Republic.  Sometime around 1500, Germans began moving to Bohemia, and German became the second official language there in 1627.  There was animosity between the native Czechs and the German settlers tho, so most of the separate German villages were around the edges of the country. Some of my Hesch relatives were among those settlers.  Many of them settled around Buckman, Minnesota.  The Czech government is currently digitizing the church books from all those tiny villages, starting with southern Bohemia, exactly where the Heschs and Brandls lived pre-1850, see?  (BTW, when we looked for the Hesch name near Neuhaus (Jindrichuv Hradec on the map), we saw the name BRANDL ocassionally too, so it wasn't only in Hagenfurth).

AND, this gives us a reason to look in the online church books provided HERE.  Click the "Littera Scripta manet" button, then "Parish Registers", then "Roman Catholic Church".  If you just want to see what the books look like, try any letter there, then any parish.  Try a B (births) book in the mid-1800s as they're a little more legible to us.
.......................
Oh darn! we'll need to wait till they get to the "V" villages...they're doing the "R"s now.  Check back in...six months?

Janson & Brandl kids

The photo (top right) was probably taken about 1920, in the front yard of the Joe Brandl house in Buckman, Minnesota. It was the house that's kitty corner from the church, but now, the porch is gone (removed when the road in front was widened for the highway). Mom pointed it out as the house where her grandma Janson died, in the main floor corner bedroom.


In trying to determine who the kids in this picture are, we needed to look at the family tree and see who was born between Adella Brandl and Leo Brandl. (Two of Anton Janson's sisters--Frances and Rose--married Brandls--John and Joe). Judging by moms' apparent age here, and by Leo, the baby, it had to be Spring, 1921.

My best guess: Standing are Adella, 13--Ed, 11--Ervin, 6--Charlie, 8--Franziska (Fuchs) Janson--then mom, 6--Leona, 5--and Loretta, 4.
The baby had to be Leo Brandl (born Jan, 1920). The only other kids in those familys who were around 4 years old were Marion and Alfred. (However, I'm pretty positive about MOST of the names).

(If you happen to know I've mistaken someone here, please, let me know in the comments).