January 1955

Anton Janson, my grandfather, died in Los Angeles in January, 1955.  Mom kept a box of mementos about it, including newspapers (St Cloud Times and Pierz Journal), sympathy cards she received, correspondence from Wendelin, his brother, and from Helen Hesch, and his personal effects (his billfold and rosary). 

The box has been in my basement since mom died in 1996.  I finally opened it again this week.

54 years later, the leather billfold and rosary pouch have a light green patina.  His zippered billfold has three LA Transit tokens, two library  cards, and his Townsend Club membership card.

The rosary pouch had an unusual rosary in it...nine decades sections of three beads.  It's very light-weight--was it intended for travel?

Here's a close-up of both sides of the medal, in German.  If you can translate the words, I'm sure there's an indulgence in it for you.

Some Janson Photos

I've always liked this photo of my Janson grandparents.  It must have been taken in the 1930s / early 40s, possibly at Pine Grove Park in Little Falls, Minnesota.  (Grandpa's straw boater seems earlier than 1930, but Grandma's hat seems later, and the grills in the left background indicate it was a park.  The grills're probably still in service).

Grandma's wearing the same dress and hat in this photo....but I don't think it was the same day, and she looks thinner in the park picture.  Also, the grass is short (mowed) in this picture, and it's not, in the park.  I'm trying to think of a reason for the corsage, tho.  She was no longer alive when her two surviving children were married.

Mom's sister Loretta died in October 1938, and this photo was probably taken the day of her funeral.  Here, from the right, is Reinhard at 17 and Linda at 23.  The older woman has to be Katherine (Naber) Bahns and 5 of her children--I recognize them, but not well enough to name them, except for Johnny. 

They're Betty (Sarp), Helen (Cable), Angie and Regina Bahns, I think.  If you know, let me know and I'll change the post.

Here's Loretta (left) and Linda (right) with ??  Mom looks to be about 8 there, so it was about 1923.  They're in a farm yard...near a cellar door I don't recognize.  It could be from a trip to see Ida and Walberg Naber, in Bancroft, Iowa? 

More later...

Old Newspaper news

I've spent way too much time lately on the CHRONICLING AMERICA site from the Library of Congress, but it's kind of a homage to Grandpa Anton, cuz he'd have loved it so much.  It fascinates me because there are newspapers from as early as the year he was born, 1880, from 15 states, including Virginia and Minnesota. 

After clicking around and downloading lots of those pages, I'm beginning to understand more about the times around 1900--what the topics of conversation probably were (the weather and prices..lol), and what their humor and stories reflected: some prejudice against immigrants, and the normal city-dweller scorn for rural folks. 

I've been curious about the Jansons' decision to move--leaving 18 years of hard work behind--did they have any real facts about where they were going?  This glorious ad and others like it were fairly regular in the Globe pre-1905. 

The northern newspapers realized there were lots of German immigrants here--surely some of them wished they had settled in a warmer climate.  According to a taped biography Dick Janson gave in the 1970s, the family expected a German Catholic Church in Hampden.  There wasn't one.  Dick said, too, that "My mother especially talked about life in Virginia, and that they were looked down on at the time.  The blacks were alot nicer than the whites that they knew".

This article was in the Farmville, Virginia, Herald   in March, 1903.  This was the year all the Jansons returned to Minnesota.  As Larry observed, Virginia seemed to be a revolving door about then.

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Another interesting series in the Globe was the extensive coverage of the cyclone that damaged St Cloud, wiped out Sauk Rapids and continued to Buckman in April, 1886.

This was Grandpa Antons recollection of the 1886 tornado, and how it affected him as a child of 6.

Jacob Woolhart 1819-1892

I went to the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Rice today to find Daniel Janson, and I did.  (See post from this morning).   But I 'had to' stop at the Rice public cemetery, in case there were familiar names...and of course, there were, just not related to me. 
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The public cemetery in Rice, Minnesota is a desolate place, a large, flat, neglected field.  Headstones face in different directions and the oldest ones are mostly crooked or broken.  The grass is cut in the main section, but over half of the fenced area has no graves--it's just weeds.....except for one lone monument at the southeast corner.
I was curious...who was buried out there, and why?  So, I went to look:

It's a family monument with the name WOLHART in relief on the bottom east face--Jacob Wolhart.
On the south face is Mary Maria Wolhart, and the north face, Lettie and Effie.

Judging by the birth and death dates inscribed there, I checked the 1880 census for Langola township, Benton County, Minnesota.
Ah....

The Jacob and Mary WOOLHART family. 
Here's what's inscribed on the stone:

Jacob Wolhart Born April 6, 1819, Died June 8, 1892
Mary Maria Wolhart Born July 21, 1834, Died July 30, 1916
Lettie M, Born July 24, 1855, Died December 25, 1873
Effie R, Born July 31, 1860, Died September 20, 1880

I still don't know WHY they're so far from the other graves.  They aren't related to Jansons; I just don't want them forgotten.  I've posted them so the name is searchable.

More clues...

One of the neatest things about online research is that you can cast such a wide net.  If you type JANSON into a search engine, any mention of the name shows up in all the documents that engine has access to.  Then, the human brain chooses which hits are relevant. 
Not that long ago, searching for family was incredibly hit-and-miss ("Hmm, maybe born in Buckman, records would be in the church books.  I need to go there and see..."). 
But now, records are often online, especially census pages.  Looking for Jansons in Minnesota in, say, 1900, on ancestry.com narrows the search to...wow!  Not only Joseph's family in Hampden, Virginia, and John's family in Mayhew Lake, but Daniel Janson, in Rice!

Hmm, my tree doesn't show a Daniel Janson born in 1850, but there's a good chance he's related, as Larry says, by proximity.

Ok, so what else is online about this man?  He was 50 in 1900, and with his wife Katherine, had 5 children--Alois, Sophia, Amelia, Joseph and Daniel, Jr.

They owned land west of Rice--10 acres of what I know to be sand prairie.  Our Master Researcher Larry found this plat map from 1903:

                                                                             (While it doesn't tell us much about them, the map adds to our general knowledge of the area...like, where the train depot in Rice was, and that there was a hotel right across the tracks.  (When I was a little girl, I remember dropping Little Grandpa off there).  And look, Rice had 2 schools, and a stockyard, and a second hotel.  It was a small but booming village).



Daniel died in 1910.  His son Joseph, 27 and single, must have seen profit in adding to the size of Rice.  This "Jos. Janson First Addition to the Village of Rice" plat is also online (Thank you, Larry!):

 

These are intriguing clues, ya know? 

Eventually, we'll find out how Daniel connects.  Mysteries abound, but some of the answers are online...we just haven't found them, yet.  Sometimes, tho, all it takes is a trip to the cemetery:

Immaculate Conception Cemetery, Rice Minnesota

Stearns History Museum

I didn't expect to find Buckman history in Stearns county, but my grandfathers' brother, Sebastian,  did settle  there, in New Munich.

In his folder at the MUSEUM, I also found this obituary for his sister Anna.

Fall in Minnesota

Listening to MPR yesterday, I heard an essay that tickled me.  Of course, I can't find it on their website, but the author was talking about seasonal changes here in the Heartland.  He said this time of year is the "So Long Salad, Hello Hotdish" time of year.