Wendelin Janson--The Mystery Years

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!

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".

Wendelin, we hardly knew ya!

OMG, look what Larry found on Ancestry.com regarding grandpa's brother Wendelin:

Whew--we have NO family stories about this.

(Grand Larceny--(Law) (in some states of the US) the theft of property of which the value is above a specified figure, varying from state to state but usually being between $25 and $60).
  
At first glance, you might say, "Wait, UTAH?"  But Wendelin worked for the Santa Fe railroad, which went thru Salt Lake City.  He was listed in directories as a freight handler--on a moving train, perhaps?
I suspect it was an accusation that was recorded, dealt with, and never removed once they found the missing freight envelope behind the file cabinet.  But wow, unassuming ol' Wendelin seems to be chuck fulla SECRETS, huh?

A partial answer

Remember the question that puzzled Larry and me (and, no doubt, YOU) regarding what sort of punishment Wendelin Janson received for deserting, back in 1899? 


 We haven't found the answer yet, but the question simmers in the back of both our brains, just waiting for more info.


This week, Larry found an article in a 1908 Los Angeles newspaper when he searched "Janson" on some newly added online newspapers.  Luckily a corporal Janson was in charge the day a prisoner tried to escape.  NO, the punishment wasn't firing squad, but the soldier was shot and killed because he didn't "Halt!" when told to do so...


Anyway, the operative line here is the very last one: "The penalty for desertion is from one to three years in one of the federal penitentiaries".


So, wow, it's possible that Wendelin spent time in jail, or, perhaps the punishment was lighter because he'd already put in three years of service honorably?  The next time he showed up in was the 1905 Minnesota census, in downtown St Paul.  


So, the Wendelin question remains, and on top of that, I wonder who this Corporal Janson was?

Casanova Street

Another found pic (HOW can they be so scattered in one small house?) of my grandpa's brother Wendelin.  This was most likely in his back yard on Casanova Street in Los Angeles.  Wendelin died in 1958, and his face from this photo was used on the funeral card.  The little boy was probably a neighbor.

To read about the Solano district in LA, click the above link, ok?

BTW, I'd really love to hear from someone who knew him out there.  It wasn't so long ago--the kid in the photo would only be about 58 now....

California, about 1930?

  When mom died, I sorted her pictures into boxes for each of my sibs, and they've been on the shelf in the guestroom closet ever since. (OK, not really!) Most of the pics are less than 30 years old, but a few are WAY older...like this one, of my grandpa's oldest brother, Wendelin Janson. 
There's alot here already about him, so try the list of tags on the left, or just type "Wendelin" in the search box (above the header, on the left) if you've missed it.
BTW, I have no other info about this pic except that mom wrote "Uncle Wendelin" on the back...

Online sleuthing/More about Wendelin

Larry and I have developed quite a bit of curiosity about Grandpa's oldest brother, Wendelin. To start from the beginning, he was born in (present day) Balzfeld, Rhine-Neckar Kreis, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany on October 20, 1871, and died June 8th, 1958.
When the family emigrated, he was 11. He had the distinction of being in charge of the family chamber pot on the whole journey. (When mom told us the story, she said it wouldn't have been that unusual on board the ship, but the train ride from Philadelphia to Chicago to Minneapolis to Little Falls was miserable for him. The story always made us laugh, tho.)
When he was 24, he enlisted in the Third United States Infantry in St Paul, Mn, at Fort Snelling, "for service in the Phillipines". This was just before the Spanish-American War, and we haven't discovered whether he went to the Phillipines or not.
When he was discharged, he took a trip to Europe, returning on the Kensington in early August, 1898.
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Since he re-enlisted in May, 1899 and deserted in August of that year, we assume he went to Virginia with the family in 1900....but again, we don't know.
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Wendelin spent most of his life in Los Angeles, California. The earliest documentation of that, tho, is the 1915 city directory, where he's a freight handler living on Stephenson St. He worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad.
But, earlier, in the 1905 Minnesota Census, we find him at 258 East 7th Street in St Paul, Mn., one of 20 men living there.

I searched online to see what that address was. Maps put it near the Capitol, off Wabasha Avenue. Was it a rooming house, or was it the Ramsey County jail? Did they hold deserters in county jails?
If /when we find answers, I'll add to this post.

Stay tuned!

Wendelin Janson 1871-1958

There are a few cool family stories about this great uncle--for one, that he sent ten $100 bills in a plain manilla envelope to mom and dad as a wedding gift. No note inside and NO insurance--just a cascade of money for the newlyweds. In 1946, it was a HUGE gift, too.


Wendelin was the oldest of eight children, and lived most of his adult life in Los Angeles, working for the railroad. His address was 743 Casonova Street, which was in a canyon, apparently (now, it's a freeway off-ramp). Uncle Reinhard said there were caves in his backyard, and that Wendelin had been filling them with kitchen cupboards....all shapes and sizes, stacked high. He bought them from demolition sites and auctions....there ARE worse things than a cupboard fetish, ya know.
Larry found Wendelin Janson on Ancestry.com as having served in the Spanish-American War.
I was amazed. Why was this not a family story?

What we pieced together from various sources (including a book called "Minnesota in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection" and Grandpa Anton's WPA biography) is a truly interesting story:

On April 20th, 1895, Wendelin enlisted in the Third United States Infantry at Fort Snelling in St Paul, Mn. He signed up for 3 years. He was 24.
Here's the first listing we found. It says he re-enlisted in 1899, but that he deserted after 3 months. By then, he was 29.

Evidently, he was part of a peace time contingent and probably served at Ft Snelling during his entire first three years. But as the problem with Spain was heating up, the Third Infantry was called and mustered out. They left for Georgia and then Cuba on the very day Wendelin was honorably discharged--April 19th, 1898. We assume he felt left out, or left behind...but the war lasted only 4 months, and his former comrads were back home by late August, 1898.

They were on a month's furlough which was interrupted by Indian problems at Leech Lake in northern Minnesota. Just back from fighting in the tropics, they were sent to Walker and Bemidji in October. Wendelin probably felt either lucky, relieved, or jealous--we don't know.

We assume, too, that there was some incentive to re-enlist, and it sounds like the men assigned to Fort Snelling before the war were a close knit group. So, Wendelin re-upped for another three years, in May, 1899.

BUT, just at that time, his parents were thinking about farming someplace warmer, that was more like southern Germany. Somehow, they settled on Hampden, Virginia. Grandpa said elsewhere that he, one brother and three sisters moved with their parents, but here's the 1900 census page from Prince Edward County, Virginia: It occurred to Larry that that one brother was likely Wendelin, and they may have moved right then to protect the deserter....?
It's still a mystery.
:::
Addendum: A couple days after this post, Larry found a "Vendelin Janson", 27, farmer and American citizen from Minnesota, returning from Europe in August of 1898.

So that's what he did once he was discharged after his first tour. Wow.

 Added in October, 2015: To answer a question we've had for years--how come there was no death certificate for Wendelin in California records?  Then TAA-DAA, this week, Larry cast a wider online net and found that Wendelin Janson died in Chicago, at the home of his widowed sister, Francie, who I believe lived with her daughter Florence Brandl. No wonder! 

 We really owe Larry, big time ☺