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THE
HENSCHEL AND THE LARSON FAMILIES
A mere compilation of statistical data, dates
of births and deaths can never build and accomplish a real genealogy. There are
stories that also must be told. Stories that can point to the heart of the
matter and especially the motivations that directed and controlled the rolling
out of the stories. So, we are looking here for the facts but also for the
factors that motivated the individuals and family groups to do the things they
did, to leave the familiar to seek a better life and rise above the inherited
status.
In the following genealogies if any one
characteristic is dominant, it is the constant seeking for something better,
the urge to 'get ahead' and find a place in life. This one drive it seems to me
is the motivating force behind the stories of the Webb, Glenn, Henschel and
Larson families. This must be a primary force in the American tradition and is
certainly a dominant force lying deep in each of us.
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THE
LARSON FAMILY
From
the Recollections and Records of Anna Larson Tuttle (sister of Louis Larson)
Lars Larson was born of wealthy parents in
Appelbo, Sweden, in 1840. He was sent to Stockholm to be educated after
finishing his schooling. He married a girl from a farming family named Mott.
Anna Mottsdotter was born in 1841. Lars and Anna were married about 1862 in
Appelbo, Dallana, Sweden.
The brother of Anna, John Mottson,
after faithfully serving the Crown of Sweden for 30 years was honored by the
King. The King of Sweden changed his name to Johan Odman.
In Appelbo Lars and Anna were
shopkeepers. However, in June 1876, with a total of 20,000 krone Lars and his
wife left Sweden for the United States. Their children, Anna and Louis, were 7
and 4 years old respectively at the time. The family decided to immigrate to
Lake Park, Minnesota, because Mrs. Larson had a cousin and his family by the
name of Nelson who lived there. The cousin's name was John Nelson and his
daughter, Emma, was a friend of the Louis Larson family for many years.
When the Larson family arrived in
Minnesota the John Nelson family was there to meet them. The Nelsons had no way
to meet them except on foot. So after that long, long ocean voyage and the trip
to Minnesota, they had to walk miles and miles to their new home.
Lars Larson bought land and started
life among the Indians. Minnesota then was well stocked with wild life for food
and the country was covered with trees and lakes. The children started to work
in the fields along with the parents. They were plowing fields when hardly able
to reach the plow handles. The Larson property had an island on it and the
family was able to keep sheep on it after making a road to it. The only school
nearby was a Lutheran Church school, which the children attended. Louis would
play hooky whenever he could and go fishing and hunting with the Indians. The
Larson family was of the Lutheran faith as were practically all the people in
the Swedish settlement.
The very first year in Minnesota the
grasshoppers ate the entire crop not even leaving enough for seed for the next
year's planting.
In 1887 the Larsons sold their farm and
came to Kingsburg, California, which was another Swedish settlement. A few
years later they moved to Hanford, California where Anna met and married James
Knox Tuttle (1870-1932). Anna and Jim were married November 25, 1896. James
Tuttle adopted Arthur, Anna's son by a previous marriage, when Arthur was 7
years old. Arthur was born in Lake Park and came to California with the Larson
family. In 1903 the Tuttle family moved to Visalia, California bought land and
planted orchards. The widow Anna still holds title to the same land. The Tuttle
family is well known in the county as walnut growers. Arthur's son John carries
on the family interest.
The second daughter of Lars and Anna,
Amanda, lived with her parents with Anna and Jim Tuttle in Visalia. Amanda died
in 1911 and is at rest in Exeter cemetery. The mother, Anna, died in 1915 in
Visalia and the father, Lars, came to Lindsay to live with his son Louis. Lars
died in 1921. Both parents are buried at Exeter.
Louis Larson, the only son, married
Emma Henrietta Henschel October 26, 1896, in Hanford, California
Sweden
A friend went to Dalarne in Sweden in summer of 2006 to visit his second
cousins. This prompted me to look up a little more Larson history.
Heolas Lars Larson, my great grandfather, was also from Dalarne and came to
Minnesota in 1876. Lars as he was called by his family was met at the
train station in Minneapolis by Nels Nelson, a cousin of Anna and a friend from
the old days in Sweden. There is no census record of the Larson family in
Lake Park, Becker County, that I could find in the 1880 census. (I didn't make an exhaustive search but the
family had already moved to Kingsburg, California by the time of the 1890
census.)
The following account was in the History of Becker County.
Nels Nelson.
Nels Nelson is a prosperous farmer residing on Section 6 of Lake Park Township. Mr. Nelson was born in Appelbo, Dalarne, Sweden, April 5th, 1837. He was married in Sweden when he was twenty-two years old, and at the age of thirty three set sail for America with his wife and three children, arriving at New York, July 3d, 1870. From New York he proceeded westward as far as Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where he remained until the following spring. Early in the spring he purchased a pair of horses and a bob-sleigh and with his family proceeded toward the West. Arriving at Sauk Center, he left his family behind in a small log shanty and proceeded on the journey until he finally arrived at the place of John O. Johnson near Audubon. Being informed by Mr. Johnson that there were homesteads to be had, Mr. Nelson hurried back after his family and on the 4th day of April, 1871, they arrived sound and healthy in the northwestern part of Lake Park Township, where he decided to take a homestead. One month and four days were consumed in journeying from Wisconsin to this place, because of snow-storms and the bad condition of the roads. The family had to walk nearly the entire distance.
After a few years Mr. Nelson acquired more land by purchase from the railroad company, so that his farm now comprises three hundred acres of the finest agricultural land.
Mr. Nelson is a member of the Lutheran church, and has assisted in building one of the finest Lutheran churches in this part of the state. This church is situated in the northwestern part of Lake Park Township, and has been constructed of brick and stone at the cost of twelve thousand dollars. This magnificent edifice for religious worship stands as a living monument to the untiring energy and the industry of the sturdy pioneers, who by the sacrifice of their labor and money have contributed to its construction. As has been related in the beginning of this sketch Mr. Nelson has been eminently successful in following the pursuits of agriculture. The numerous and well constructed buildings on his farm bear evidence of a successful and prosperous life.
Click below to see a short history of Swedish Emigration in the 19th century
"EM AND LOU"
The story of Emma and Louis Larson
(This title
was suggested by Evan Owen, a son-in-law, who was born in Dyffern, Wales. Uncle
Evan always said he was going to write a book called "Em and Lou".)
Emma Henrietta Henschel and Louis Larson were married in Hanford, California, in 1896. Em was 20. Lou was 23.
"Gee Say, Man" -- Lou's Story
Lou was a Swede, all his life. He was born in Appelbo, Dallana, Sweden February 26, 1872, and came to the U.S. with his parents, Heolas Lars Larson and Anna Mottsdotter, and his sister Anna, (born September 6, 1868) in 1876. Another sister, Amanda, was born May 2, 1879 in Lake Park, Minnesota, where the family settled.
The Larsons were met at the train by their old friends, the Nelsons, who had immigrated earlier. Together they walked the 30 miles back to Lake Park where the Nelsons were homesteading. The Larson cleared forest land and tried to farm. They lived on an island in one of the many lakes and Lou told his grandchildren many years later of how he had grown up and played and hunted with Indian children during his early days in Minnesota.
Life in Minnesota was too hard. Grasshoppers ate their crops and Lars decided to bring the family to Kingsburg, another Swedish settlement, in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Lou was 19 in 1891 and he was already driving a team of 20 mules, harvesting grain in the great Tulare Lake area west of Kingsburg. As a single man he knew all about the boisterous life in the California cow towns and told many a story of Saturday night in the frontier saloons and gambling halls.
While he was still single, he rode with the posse that ran Evans and Sontag to ground at the Stone Corral near Woodlake in 1892. In the 1930's, Ed Webb, another son-in-law, growing tired of Lou's retelling of the posse ride from Visalia, the site of the train robbery, to the shoot out at the Stone Corral, looked up the story of Evans and Sontag in the History of Tulare County. The account is complete with a picture of the two dead desperadoes propped up against the Stone Corral and a list of the members of that famous posse. The sheriff was named Reed, later a banker and lifelong friend of Lou's, and at the end of the list of riders by first and last name, the list concluded with "and a man named Larson. That was Lou, and his story was never doubted again.
Lou had dealings later in 1905 with Sheriff Reed, now banker Reed, when he and Em, now married 10 years, bought Cap Hutchison's ranch in Lindsay, California. Lindsay was named for Hutchison's wife whose maiden name was Lindsay. The ranch was the first naval orange orchard planted in Tulare County, and already in bearing in 1905. Lou met with Cap Hutchison to close the deal at the banker's office. The papers were signed and the deal was made, an ambitious purchase for a young man. As he was leaving, Cap Hutchison turned to Lou and said with a laugh, "I'll give you one year, Larson. You won't make it, and I'll get the place back." When he was gone, banker Reed looked at Lou and said, "Don't pay any attention to him, Larson, I'll stick by you." And he did. And Lou and Em owned the place free and clear by the mid 30's when the Great Depression was in full swing. Lou had the last laugh!
He worked hard. And Eda Webb remembers how hard they all worked to make the mortgage payment to Cap Hutchison. Anna, Lou's sister, had married Arthur Tuttle from Visalia. The Tuttle ranch was 60 acres of prunes, apricots and peaches in the Deep Creek District near the St. Johns River, east of Visalia. Summers, the entire Lou Larson family would work for Annie and Jim, picking peaches and shaking and picking up plums. Lou would shake the trees and the children would pick them up. Eda always admired her Uncle Jim who was warm and affectionate. He was also an inventor of note and is credited with the peach pitter and later the olive pitter and stuffer.
Lou never really knew English well. But he could read and write his name. But for Lou his lack of formal education was never a handicap. He practiced real estate brokerage for many years and Ed Webb says he sold or traded most of the ranches in the Lindsay and Exeter area. Whenever he traveled or vacationed he was always making mental notes of properties and talking real estate. He liked to smoke cigars and owned a big black Lincoln which he bought in 1929 and kept till he was an old man though other cars came and went. He had a flair for dressing in his younger days and Em thought he was a wealthy man when he came to call.
In a sense, even though he wasn't a native, he represented the Californian of his time: from the Midwest, attracted to California and the Central Valley for farming, but ready to deal in real estate on a moment's notice.
When he was first married, Lou became the foreman of the Kimball Ranch, some 2,200 acres of prunes stretching from Hanford to Wildflower. Em and Lou's daughters, Ruby, Delma and Eda, were born in Hanford; son, Irwin, was born in Exeter in 1905; and son, Kermit, was born on the Combs Ranch in Lindsay in 1913. Celia, Em's niece, came to live with Em and Lou in 1902 when Emma's sister, Minnie, died.
Emma Henrietta -- Her Story
No one is really adequate to tell Em's story. She was the spark plug and the glue. She urged her children on to education and held them together with her sense of pride and personal worth. She was determined, to say the least. She marked two generations, her own children and her grandchildren, with her own brand of strong love.
As a wife and mother she worked long hours sewing for her girls and baking for her husband. The baking became so ingrained in her list of activities that she baked until she was in her eighties. Her needle work was unparalleled, I think, in modern history. She made heirloom crocheted bedspreads for each of her children and each of her grandchildren and there were fourteen of those. She was a force, moving and working for her family all day and into the night, a marvelous woman, a natural lady, sometimes with a sharp tongue, but never petty and mean. A person in her own right long before women got the vote, an equal with her husband in all things. Her bearing announced to the world "I'm Emma Henrietta. I'm proud of who I am and what I am. And I am to be treated with respect because I deserve it."
She worked and saved and speculated from the day she married Lou until she had the "home place" in Lindsay. There never was a question of losing the place in the Depression as long as they could all work. She was honest and positive and had a taste for the finer things.
Em spoke only German until she was 15, and unlike Lou who only went to the fourth grade, finished the eighth grade in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. She was the 6th of 15 children. Her father, Herman was born in Saxony, Germany. He and two brothers, Adolf and Charles, came to the U.S. in 1848 with their parents, John and Christina Henschel. Emma always said her grandmother, Christina, was an actress in Germany. Emma's mother, Mary Maurer, was born
in Wisconsin. Her parents died of cholera when she was a girl and she came to live with the Henschels.
When Emma's brother-in-law, Ben Zumkiller, died in 1890, he left his wife, Minnie, and an unborn son. Minnie went home to Wisconsin for a visit and there convinced Emma, who was seriously ill, to return to California with her. The two women and little Ben took the train from Sheboygan to Chicago, and while they were waiting to change trains for California, there was a page for Mrs. Zumkiller. Minnie refused to answer the page because of a premonition. When she and Emma were safely in California, a letter arrived from the girls' mother, Mary. She wrote, "I tried to stop you in Chicago by telegram. I want Emma to die in Wisconsin and be buried with her brothers and sisters." Emma was so sick when she left Wisconsin that it was like a miracle to find good health in California. But that frail Emma of 15 lived to be Emma Henrietta Henschel Larson who died in Porterville, California in 1968 when she was almost 93.
In 1890, Minnie lived in Wildflower, a farming town on the flat grain land, 20 miles southwest of Fresno. After Ben was born Minnie suffered serious migraine headaches. She was often in bed for days unable to move because of the pain. When Emma came to the Valley she got a job as a live-in housemaid with the Gundelfinger family in Fresno. She worked there for three years. From the Gundelfinger table Emma carefully saved the leftovers and, on her one day off each week, walked the 20 miles to Wildflower with food for Minnie and Ben. On one such day, Ben was just starting to talk, and when Emma arrived, he was standing on a chair looking into a pot of moldy beans. He turned to Emma and said in German, "Grosse Boene!" Big beans! Minnie was sick and Ben was hungry. Emma loved Minnie. She had been the instrument that had saved her life. Later when Minnie was 24 years old she married Dudlef Schonwandt, a cattle buyer, and Emma was already married to Lou. Minnie died in childbirth with Edna in 1904 when Celia was one and one-half. Ben was grown when Minnie died and left home after a year at the Larsons.
Em and the children were in Wisconsin visiting the family when they received the telegram that Minnie had died leaving Edna just nine days old. But Emma never forgot her debt to her sister. Emma took her sister's children as her own. Celia became her fourth daughter. From then on it was Ruby, Delma, Eda and Celia. Delma said it all in 1985, "She was a helluva woman!"
Emma left the Gundelfinger's when she was 18 and got a job as a waitress in Kingsburg. Her English was improving and by the time her grandchildren were growing up she still retained a few well chosen expressions. Wanda Webb English remembers, "Ach, Du lieber Stroh Sack". (Oh, you empty-headed sack of straw!) I remember, "You little schmier Loeffel." (You little smearing spoon!)
It was while she was a waitress she met Lou. Emma told Delma she met Lou at a dance in Wildflower. Lou said after that dance "that woman is going to be my wife" . Emma recalled that Lou came to take her to a dance driving a buggy and wearing a black top hat and sporting a cane. She found out later the rig had been rented in Fresno. She was sure Lou was a man of substance. But even when she found out Lou was a muleskinner from the west side, she was satisfied. Em married Lou in Hanford in 1895 and when Lou died in 1955, it was the year of their 60th wedding anniversary.
Through the eyes of Delma and Eda, looking back, childhood memories focused on the places the family lived. Hanford is only a blur of memories of Em buying two lots, building a four-room house on one for them and selling the other to make her first real estate profit. Lou was working from dawn to sundown as foreman for Kimball.
Itching to own their own place, they saved and bought 30 acres of grain land in Exeter. In 1902, like a dream come true, they had grain up to the waist and had found a buyer who bought the place. They had turned another profit. It was the stake that took them to Lindsay to the Combs Ranch and school. Eda remembers early each morning Ruby would brush and braid her hair and Delma would do Celia's. Then all would walk three miles to school, past the orange groves and grape vineyards.
Years later in 1995 Eda and Ed were sitting in their living room. Eda was on the sofa next to me and Ed in his wheel chair and we were talking about Em and Lou and laughing in that unrestrained way that our family members laugh, when we react to something that may be funny only to us. Or sometimes because we have heard the story before and the humor of the retelling magnifies itself and laughter rolls on till the tears come. Ed said "Do you remember when Lou came home from working out in Tulare Lake and had spent all his money of a new suit and it rained and the suit shrunk up to his knees?" And Mother said "It was a cotton suit and he didn't know cotton would shrink." And after a moment's reflection Mother said, "When Emma was mad at Lou she always said 'That old fool!" , and Lou would always just shrug and say 'Emma's gone crazy again.'" And we laughed and laughed till the tears came.
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The
Henschel Family
John Henschel left Berlin, Germany for America with his wife, Christina, four sons and one infant daughter in 1849. During the voyage the tiny daughter died and was buried at sea. The four sons were Henry, Adolph, Herman and Louis. It was to Russell Township in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin that John brought his family. The homestead was located in Section 14 and remains to this day (1958) in the hands of a descendent of Herman Henschel.
Sheboygan County was first organized in 1836, however no settlement took place in Russell Township until 1848 the year in which Wisconsin was admitted to the Union.
John Henschel died from an injury suffered in a fall from his horse as he returned from a cattle sale. Holdup men tried to stop him and frightened his horse. Mrs. Henschel died at 89 of burns.
The marriage of the first son Henry to Mrs. Amelia Wolf is the first marriage recorded in Russell Township and took place in the spring of 1855.
The History of Sheboygan County says that Herman was only six years old when his parents brought him to America. As soon as he was old enough he began farming in Sheboygan County on land which he purchased from his father and which he improved and cultivated until 1903.l In that year he moved to Door County, Wisconsin and purchased forty acres of land in Egg Harbor township which he subsequently sold. He then bought a twenty-acre tract in Sturgeon Bay Township and resided on that property until his death in February of 1915. Maria Maurer Henschel, his widow, was still living in 1922 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
Herman Henschel had married Maria Maurer about 1865. Maria was born in 1849 near Milwaukee where her father settled for a time before coming to Sheboygan County. Maria's parents died from cholera and Mary (Maria) and her brothers George and Conrad were raised by Richard Maurer at Thiensville according to a niece of Emma Herschel Larson in a letter dated July 9, 1958. Maria was fifteen years old when the parents died and to her fell the responsibility of caring for the three other orphaned children, Conrad, George and Molla who was only nine days old at the time.
Wisconsin was a wilderness in those days according to the county history with Indian and white man living side by side. The Maurer children came to live with their neighbors, the Henschels, and a year later Maria married Herman Henschel. To Herman and Mary were born 15 children. In order of birth they were Christine, Minna, Molla, Louis, Charles, Edward, Emma, Mary, Selma, Robert and Walter. Four children died in infancy or at birth.
In 1958 Emma and two brothers, Walter and Robert both of Elkhart Lake were the only surviving members of the family of Herman and Maria Maurer Henschel. Walter was living on the original homestead taken up by his grandfather, John. Walter had married Katie Buchman Jun 29, 1905. Walter and Katie had seven children, Julius, Selma, Theodore, Walter, Alfred, Louise and Florence
The seventh child of Herman and Maria was Emma Henrietta. Emma left her father's home in 1890 some thirteen years before the family moved to Door County. She therefore always felt that the original homestead at Elkhart Lake where she was born was her home. Several of Emma's sisters were living on the West Coast. Christine had married a man named Mathes and was living in Portland, Oregon. Minna married Ben Zumkiller and moved to Fresno, California where Mr. Zumkiller died. Minna returned to Wisconsin and it was at here parents where he second son also named Ben was born. When Minna returned to California after the birth of her child Emma went with her. This occurred in the year 1890 when Emma was fifteen years old. In California Minna married a second time to Dudlef Schonwandt. To Minna and Dudlef were born three children, Lillie, Celia and Edna. Edna died when she was tow years old in Lindsay, California
Emma's brother Edward H. Henschel took up land in 1902 in Door County which he farmed successfully. Edward was married in April 1901 to Mary Lenhart. Their children were Harry, Flora, Ruby, Clarence and Raymond. The following article is from the “Door County Magazine” and updates the history of the Ed Henschel family in Door County. Edward was about a year older that Emma. His great grandson, Mike Henschel, is farming the Door County farm (now much expanded) and lives in the family home. Mike is Raymond’s grandson.
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THE DESCENDANTS OF LOUIS LARSON AND EMMA HENRIETTA HENSCHEL
Louis Larson born 2-26-1887 at Appelbo, Dallana, Sweden, died 1-24-1955 at Lindsay, California, married 10-26-1896 at Hanford, Kings county, California, to Emma Henrietta Henschel, born 10-28-1875 at Elkhart Lake, Russell Township, Wisconsin.
Their Children:
- Ruby Alvina Larson (Holworthy) born 1-31-1898 at Hanford, California, died
- Delma Beatrice Larson (Owen) born 12-13-1899 at Hanford, California, died
- Eda Levina Larson (Webb) born 6-28-1902 at Hanford, California died at Visalia, California.
- Celia Amelia Schonwandt Larson (Mohnike) adopted niece, born 5-18-1904 at , died at Lindsay, California.
- Irwin Henschel Larson born 4-30-1906 at Exeter, California died at , .
- Kermit Herman Larson born 7-13-1911 at Lindsay, California died at Visalia, California.
1. Ruby Alvina Larson married 9-20-1920 at Oakland, California John Charles Holworthy, born 6-6-1896 at Wallace, Idaho, the son of Alfred John and Anna Frances Holworthy (1868-1954).
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Their Children:
Their Children: Grant Holworthy died at birth 9-13-1947 John Craig Holworthy, born 8-28-1950 at Lindsay, California. Brent Irwin Holworthy born 8-17-1952 at Lindsay, California.
Their Child: Bryan Leonard Woolsey, born 6-15-1952 at Visalia, California.
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2. Delma Beatrice Larson married
11-6-1920 at Oakland, California Evan Wynne Owen, born 3-20-1894 at
Trealow, Wales, Great Britain, the son of Watkin and Jane Roberts Owen of
Wales.
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Their Children:
.Their Child: Stephen Jay Stuart, born 111-5-1949 at Lindsay, California. Married (secondly) 1-28-1952 at Las Vegas, Nevada, to Alfred Victor Stuart, born 6-26-1924 at Denver, Colorado, the son of Alfred McCorrison and Jessamine Wood Stuart of Lindsay, California. Their Child: Owen Gilbert Stuart born 9-16-1953 at Visalia, California. |
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3. Eda Levina Larson married 4-30-1924 at Lindsay, California Edward Glenn Webb, born 10-1-1901 at Ellendale, North Dakota, the son of Richard William and Emma Louise Glenn Webb of Lindsay, California.
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Their Children:
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4. Celia Amelia Schonwandt Larson, the daughter of Dudlef and Minnie Henschel Schonwandt was adopted when her mother died by Louis and Emma Henschel Larson. Celia was married at Lindsay, California to Paul Harold Mohnike.
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Their Children (adopted):
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5. Irwin Henschel Larson married (firstly) Alice Jones of Santa Monica, California. Divorced.
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Their Child:
Married (secondly) 12-24-1929 at Yuma, Arizona, to Letitia Mary Wilson, the daughter of W. G. and Letitia O'Brien Wilson of San Francisco, California. Their Children:
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1. Kermit Herman Larson married 7-18-1932 at Lindsay, California, to Lucille Mae Walters, born 7-13-1910 at Valencia, Pennsylvania.
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Their Children:
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The Records
According to the History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, vol. 1, page 239 in the Library of Congress, John Henschel came to Russell township, and took up government land in Section 14 in that county. The first white settler in the area had arrived in 1848, the year in which Wisconsin was admitted to the Union. From the same History we learn that Henry Henschel married a Mrs. Amelia Wolf in the spring of 1855. This was the first marriage recorded in Russell. Thirty-nine years after John Henschel came to Sheboygan County the Directory of Sheboygan County for 1889-90 lists A. Hentschel and H. Hentschel as farmers on Section 14 in Russell township and L. Hentschel as farming on Section 2 in the same township. The 1889-90 record indicates a William Maurer as farming Sections 8 in Herman Township, Sheboygan County and also farming on Section 6 in Sheboygan Falls Township. William Maurer was also the proprietor of a general store.
George Henschel was a cousin of Emma. His story is recorded in the History of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, vol. II, page 593, Library of Congress.
"George Henschel is engaged in blacksmithing in Kiel and the shop which he now owns and conducts was the first establishment of the kind in the town. He was born in Russell Township, Sheboygan County, December 4, 1877. His father, Louis Henschel, a native of Germany, came to America with his parents in his boyhood days, the family home being established in Russell Township at the period when the work of development had scarcely begun there. The grandfather (John Henschel) followed the pursuit of farming throughout his entire life and Louis was reared to that pursuit. He worked on the old homestead in his youth and then on his own account clearing a tract of land in the midst of the forest and there developing his fields. For a half-century he has lived upon the place which is still his home, but he is now retired from business cares at the age of 77 years. He married Louisa Buchman who died in 1911 when 66 years of age. Unto them were born 10 children, Louis, Philip, Charles, George, Adam, Jacob, John, Ida (Mattes), Bertha (Rockless) and Emma (Rockless) .......
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The
Maurer Family in Wisconsin (A letter from Mrs. Lester Lutz, a niece of Emma
Henschel Larson)
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July
9, 1958 718
North Street Kiel, Wisconsin |
Dear Aunt Emma,
At the time
you were visiting at the home of my folks, the Walter Henschel's, we promised
you information about the Maurer relation on your mother's side. John Maurer,
the oldest son came to America first because his dad was courting his girl
friend and later married her. We are sending you a picture which was a retake
of a photograph from your great granddad and his second wife which was John'
girl friend. There were four boys and one girl in the Maurer family from his
first marriage. They were John, Fred, Richard, George and Mary. Three brothers
and one sister came to America first. George and Fred settled at Millhome.
Richard and his sister settled at Thiensville.
Whey they
came to America, they were on the water thirty-five days and they had the Black
Cholera. Thirty-six were buried in the watery grave. John died the same year
and two hours later his wife died. George, Conrad, Mary and Edmund Henschel's
mother whose name was Molly were the children raised by Richard Maurer at
Thiensville.
The children
that were born to great grandpa Maurer during his second marriage were three
boys whose names were Casper, Bastian, and Peter. Peter stayed in Germany and
inherited all the wealth. Casper and Bastian got four dollars when they left
the old country. Casper had a tavern at Elkhart Lake, which later burned down.
Then he bought a farm and after some time was forced to declare bankruptcy. The
very same evening that he lost the farm he pulled up a chair and sat down with
his accordion and started playing. Then his brother, Bastian, made a remark,
"Doesn't losing of the farm mean anything to you?"
The answer
was, "Being sad will not bring the farm back." So he kept right on
playing. He was as happy as though nothing had happened.
Casper had at
one time bought a piano for his girls so that they could learn to play it.
After a number of months when the piano wasn't paid for the sheriff was sent
out to pick him up and bring him to court. After picking him up Casper
convinced the sheriff that they should stop in the John Muller's tavern in Kiel
before they would proceed to the courthouse. Here is where Casper pulled a fast
one. After having a number of drinks together, Casper asked permission of the
sheriff to go to the toilet, which was granted him. Casper then crawled out of
the bathroom window and disappeared. If the sheriff is still living, he is
looking for Casper today yet, as he never got him. That same night he left for
Chicago where he started a rooming house and lived there until he died. He was
fifty-five at the time of his death.
The reason
you could not perhaps get information on the death of your great grandpa Maurer
was that he died before he could make application for citizenship papers. This
information was gotten from a cousin of yours, Albert Maurer of Route 1, Kiel,
Wisconsin.
Mother and
Dad are both well and send their best wishes. I don't know if you remember me,
but my name is Lucy. You and your two daughters and one of their husbands
[Delma Owen, Eda and Ed Webb] visited us here at Kiel when you were on your way
home from your trip out East. My husband and I hope that this letter finds you
in good health.
Your
Niece,
Mrs.
Lester Lutz
718
North Street
Kiel, Wisconsin
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L. F. Henschel
(History of Door County, Wisconsin, vol. II, page 162-3)
L. F. Henschel, a
well known farmer and stock raiser whose home is on Section 11, Sevastopol
township, was born in Russell, Sheboygan county, Wisconsin, on the 4th
of September, 1869, his parents being Adolph and Amelia (Maurer) Henschel, also
natives of this state. Throughout his active business life the father followed
farming but is now living retired in Kiel, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. The
mother also survives. In their family were seven children namely: Crystal, now the
wife of Henry Brickmeier, living near Chilton, Wisconsin; L.F. of this review;
Mary, the wife of Philip Sinc, of Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin; Conrad and Gustav
both living in Greenbush, this state; George a resident of Egg harbor Township,
Door County; and Edmund, still on the old homestead in Russell township,
Sheboygan county.
L. F.
Henschel passed his boyhood and youth in much the usual manner of farm boys,
his early education being acquired in the schools near his father's farm, which
he attended until fourteen years of age, and during the following five years he
gave his father the benefit of his labor in the operation of the home farm. For
one year he then worked as a farmhand and later spent a year in Fresno,
California. In 1886 he came to Door county, Wisconsin, and purchased the
northwest quarter of Section 11, Sevastopol township, to the improvement and
cultivation of which he has since devoted his energies with marked success. He
now has a very valuable farm on which are good and substantial buildings and in
connection with agricultural pursuits he is engaged in the raising of
registered Guernsey cattle.
Mr. Henschel
was married November 22, 1892 to Miss Elizabeth Arnold, a daughter of Christoph
and Charlotta (Stark) Arnold, of Manitowoc County. Her mother died in 1917 and
was buried in that county, but her father is still living and has now retired
from farming, which he made his life work. He now makes his home in Kiel,
Manitowoc County. Mr. and Mrs. Henschel have two children: Dora, now the wife of
Otto Conrad, of Forestville township, Door County; and Ella, the wife of Otto
Voeks of Sevastopol township.
The
Republican Party finds in Mr. Henschel a staunch supporter of its principles
and for a time he served as town chairman but has never taken a very active
part in public affairs. He is an earnest and consistent member of the German
Lutheran church and is held in the highest regard by all who know him.
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