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I ran across this picture while I was working on the biography of George Herbert Anderson.  George was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1897 but came to live with his grandmother, Christina Olson Long, in Stockholm township, Pepin county, Wisconsin after the death of his mother in 1901.  He lived most of his life in the Stockholm area until later in life when he moved to Minneapolis.  He is pictured here holding a dead wolf.   The wolf population of Wisconsin prior to European settlement was estimated to be from 3,000 to 8,000.  No one really knows for sure.  What we do know is that as fur trappers and farmers began to move in to the area in the 1830's, the animals that the wolves preyed on began to disappear. Typically the wolves prey included bison, elk, and white-tailed deer in the south and moose, deer, caribou, and beaver in the north. Hungry wolves began to feed on easy-to-capture livestock.  This was unpopular with farmers as one would expect...

 Luan Goodman, 2nd cousin once removed of mine, daughter of Aloysius and Irene Kuhl Goodman, married a man by the name of R. Wiley Brownlee during a time that he was employed in France.  I have not been able to find a marriage record for this couple but their marriage information has been passed down through family interviews.  This blog post is concerned with Wiley Brownlee. Richard Wiley Brownlee was born August 5, 1928 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  He was a well educated man, receiving a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1951.  After completing a master's degree from Michigan State University he accepted a teaching position in Newfoundland with Pepperrill Air Force Base, later transferring to administration in Spain and France.  While in France he married Luan. He returned to the US to pursue a Ph.D. at MSU.   In 1970 he accepted a high school principalship in Willow Run Community Schools.  Willow Run is located 35 miles west...

John Peter Anderson was born August 17, 1932 in Stockholm, Wisconsin, the fifth child of George Herbert and Mabel Elenora Johnson Anderson.  He was the name sake of his grandfathers, John Peter Johnson and Peter Anderson (Per Andersson).  John was baptized at the Little Pl um Lutheran Church located in Frankfort, Wisconsin, a few miles outside of Pepin.  The Little Plum church was the Johnson family church. John entered the Air Force on July 30, 1951 and graduated a year later from radio school at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. In 1953 he was stationed in Gottingen, Germany.  He served in the Korean and Vietnam Conflict as a radio operator.   John married Mary Elizabeth Thompson on July 28, 1956.  They were blessed with the birth of two daughters, Denise and Diane.   John passed away at his home in Red Wing, August 1, 2020  at the age of 87.

My cousin, Jude Tropp, emailed the other day asking about whether John B. Kauffman (JB), our grandfather, had been in a railroad accident at some time in his career.  Railroad accidents were extremely common when the railroad was at its height in the 1900's so it wouldn't be surprising.  The reason Jude asked was that his mother had shared a story about JB being in an accident that caused him to have all his hair burned off and when it grew back his hair was pure white. John B. Kauffman began working for the Chicago and North Western Railroad in 1904 working continuously for 41 years and 6 months and retiring in 1947.  It is likely that he heard about many railroad accidents over the years that he was employed.  Upon researching the accidents that occurred in Janesville involving the Chicago and North Western railroad during the time that JB was working I found three accidents that I would categorize as being quite severe and injuring railroad workers. In the reports...

In the old days of genealogy, it was difficult to always see the original source.   Because of distance and time constraints I relied on letter writing and the goodness of others to help me research family stories.   Such was the case when trying to find records of the Anderson and Long families in Stockholm, Wisconsin.     I wrote a letter to the Pastor of the Sabylünd Lutheran church in Stockholm where Dennis’ family worshipped.  This is the reply to my question regarding the Lång family.   In fact, twice in this letter Pastor Fehr named the wife of Peter Nilson Lång as Stina Kajsa Long.   Not being familiar with Swedish names, for years I assumed her maiden name was Kajsa.   While researching the family at one point I noticed that many other researchers had listed her name as Kristina Olson.   Where did they get that from?   When I was finally able to look at the original document, I understood why Pastor Fehr gave me the information ...

While preparing to write a Life Story on my grandmother, Emilie Stark Schachtschneider, I reviewed some of the documents that I had collected.  What power there is in review of what you already have!  I was looking at the New York ship manifest (which gave me a reminder that Emilie came through Ellis Island) when it came to my attention that Emilie was not traveling alone.  Listed with her was an Edmund Stark, age 26.   This made many things go through my head.  Of course, the first thing was, who the heck is Edmund Stark?  I had never heard of him before.  Then I thought, is this the correct Emilie?  Could this be a husband and wife instead of my grandmother and potentially a brother?  The one notation that made me continue to think that this was my grandmother was the destination of these two Starks:  Edgerton, Wis.  What are the odds that two young people from Germany would specifically say they were going to the exact small...

Thomas Edison invented a light bulb that was reliable and long-lasting in 1879.  In 1882, with the help of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, Thomas Edison installed electric lights in parts of Manhattan.  Most homes continued to use gas and candle light for many years after this. By 1925 about 50% of all American homes had installed electric lights.   While indexing the 1919 Janesville Daily Gazette I find interesting articles.  Sometimes they pertain to family but not always.  This article does not pertain to family but it certainly illustrates how dangerous electricity was in the early days of its use.   The article reads: The city council has awarded damages to the extent of $5,000 to Edward Draeger for the death of his wife, due to electric shocks when she attempted to turn on one of the city's incandescent lights a few weeks ago.  After a search, I was not able to locate any more information about this accident. ...