Saturday, October 10, 2015

On this Date in Minnesota History: October 10

October 10, 2000 – “Rep. Bruce Vento, a 12-term liberal Democrat, died [on this date] at age 60. He championed environmental and homeless causes. The Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary in St. Paul was named in his honor.”

http://timelines.ws/states/MINNESOTA.HTML




Rep. Bruce Vento
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ventob.jpg
               __________________________________________________________

If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

Website: 
TheMemoryQuilt.com ®  click on Family History

Contact me at:
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Friday, October 9, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: October 9

October 9, 1968 – “American film director, animator, screenwriter and producer” Peter Docter was born in Bloomington, Minn., on this date. “He is best known for directing the films Monsters, Inc. and Up, and as a key figure and collaborator in Pixar Animation Studios.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Docter




Peter Docter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PeteDocterByPhilKonstantin.jpg

               __________________________________________________________

If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

Website: 
TheMemoryQuilt.com ®  click on Family History

Contact me at:
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Thursday, October 8, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: October 8

October 8, 1915 – Five of Nels Nelson’s children, former residents of the town of Frohn, but now of Zerkel, Minn., a little village 14 miles south of Bagley, were burned to death this morning between 1 and 2 a.m. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson and their little baby narrowly escaped with their lives. It is thought the fire originated from a defective chimney between the store building and the addition, which was being used as living quarters. Both buildings were burned to the ground.

The oldest son of the family was in North Dakota at the time of the fire, and he, together with Mr. and Mrs. Nelson and the baby, are the only survivors in a family of nine. Two of the children had been attending school in Bagley and had returned to spend the weekend at home; both were burned to death.

Mr. Nelson was burned about the head and Mrs. Nelson’s face was also burned while they were making their escape. The little baby was sleeping with the father and mother, which is the reason it is still alive. Dead are: Amy, 16; Roy, 14; Kenneth, 12; Lillian, 11, and another little girl, aged 7 years old.

Mr. and Mrs. Nelson were forced to walk half a mile to a neighbor’s home in their night clothes in order to obtain shelter. Both are suffering severely from the terrible shock. There was no insurance on the buildings or their contents.

The charred remains of the five children were found this morning lying in a position that indicated they were overcome by smoke and never left their beds.


Bemidji Daily Pioneer; “Five Children of One Family Burn to Death. Early Morning Fire Destroys Store Building and Living Quarter at Zerkel. Father, Mother and Baby Barely Escape. Parents Forced to Walk Half a Mile in Night Clothes to Obtain Shelter.”; October 8, 1921; p. 1.




 http://www.whizmoandgizmo.com/JerkQuest03/images/Day04/ZerkelJerk.jpg

               __________________________________________________________

If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

Website: 
TheMemoryQuilt.com ®  click on Family History

Contact me at:
pjefamilyresearch@gmail.com   





Wednesday, October 7, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: October 7

October 7, 1918 – A telegram received today from Camp Grant, near Rockford, Ill., announced the death of Bagley, Minn., native Edwin Nelson by Spanish influenza.

The young soldier left for Camp Grant on Aug. 4. He was 21 years old and one of the best known young men in Bagley. He will be greatly missed.


The Bemidji Daily Pioneer
; “Spanish Plague Takes Young Bagley Soldier”; October 07, 1918; p. 1.



http://www.lakesnwoods.com/images/Bagley83.jpg

The Spanish flu arrived at Camp Grant on Saturday, September 21, 1918, with 70 hospital admissions. Hospital admissions rose to 194, then 370, then 492, to a high of 788 admissions on September 29. Hospital officials summoned all officers on leave, converted barracks to hospital wards, and by “extreme effort” expanded the hospital capacity from “10 occupied beds to a capacity of 4,102 beds in six days.” Influenza still overwhelmed every department. The hospital laboratory resorted to local civilian facilities to perform specimen tests. Camp ophthalmologists saw patients with conjunctivitis, an influenza complication, and ear, nose, and throat specialists saw those with other dangerous secondary infections. As individuals became seriously ill, camp officials sent out “danger” or “death” telegrams to families and loved ones, but soon they received so many return calls, telegrams, and visitors, they had to set up a separate hospital tent as an information bureau. Medical personnel were not immune. Eleven of the 81 medical officers fell ill, and three civilian and three Army nurses died. The epidemic even caused the Medical Department to drop its prohibition on black nurses so that Camp Grant called African American nurses to care for patients. The women had to wait, however, until separate, segregated accommodations could be constructed.

Ten days after the epidemic struck, hospital admissions began to fall but pneumonia took hold, and Camp Grant's daily death toll began to climb. It reached double digits on October 1 with 14 deaths, then 30 the next day, 46 the next, and 76 on October 4. The mortuary was designed to handle only four deaths a day. On Friday, October 4, with more than 100 bodies in the mortuary camp, officials negotiated with local undertakers to take the bodies at $50 each, but when someone produced a flatbed truck to remove the dead, the Army quickly provided more dignified closed trucks. The number of dead broke 100 on October 5 and reached a horrifying high of 117 deaths on October 6.

The last day the Camp Grant death toll exceeded 100 was October 9, but the decline was too late for its commander. Col. Charles B. Hagadorn, a West Point graduate and career officer who had served in Russia and the Panama Canal Zone, was acting camp commander when influenza struck. Although Camp Grant's sickness and death rates were no worse than other camps and better than some, fellow officers later told reporters that Hagadorn had been showing the strain of the epidemic. Troubled as more than 500 soldiers died of pneumonia under his command, on October 7, he committed suicide with a pistol shot to his head. In the end, Camp Grant suffered 10,713 influenza victims, including 1,060 deaths in a population of 40,000.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2862337/




Arial view of Camp Grant taken in 1918
http://herolettersww1.blogspot.com/2009/07/wwi-ww1-letters-written-by-soldiers-at.html

               __________________________________________________________

If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

Website: 
TheMemoryQuilt.com ®  click on Family History

Contact me at:
pjefamilyresearch@gmail.com 

 


Tuesday, October 6, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: October 6

October 6, 1917 – His throat cut, First Lieutenant John H. Andres of the medical department, field artillery, was found dead this morning in his room at an El Paso, Tex., hotel. He came to El Paso from Camp Cody, Deming, N. M. His home is listed as Duluth.

Andres’ death certificate says the razor wounds to his throat were self-inflicted, and lists his cause of death as suicide.

Bemidji Daily Pioneer; “Duluth Officer is Found Dead in an El Paso Hotel”; Oct. 6, 1917; p.1.




               __________________________________________________________

If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

Website: 
TheMemoryQuilt.com ®  click on Family History

Contact me at:
pjefamilyresearch@gmail.com 



Monday, October 5, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: October 5

October 5, 1913 – A terrible accident happened today at the Uriel Markkula farm four miles south of Cromwell, Minn. Hugo Markkula, the 7-year-old son of the family, had taken an unloaded shot gun and a shell loaded with buckshot out onto the porch and there loaded the gun and accidentally discharged it.

The charge of buckshot bored a hole through the kitchen door and traveled across the room where his mother Hanna was sitting combing the hair of his sister Lempia, 10-years-old, who was sitting on a stool at her mother’s feet. His brother Charles, aged 11, was standing by his mother’s side when the fatal shot was fired.

One of the buckshot hit his mother in the chest, passing through her body, causing a wound from which she died five minutes later. Lempia was hit by a shot that passed through her neck, and another struck her in the face and lodged in the base of her brain, causing death instantaneously. Charles was shot in the right thigh, but his injury was not serious.

New Ulm Review; “Kills Mother and Sister. Boy Also Accidentally Wounds Another Child.”; Oct. 15, 1913; p. 2.

Cloquet Pine Knot; “Mother and Daughter Killed. Accidental Shooting Near Cromwell Brings Death to Mrs. Markkula and Daughter.”; Oct. 9, 1913; p. 1.


http://media.northlandsnewscenter.com/images/cromwell1.jpg
               __________________________________________________________

If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

Website: 
TheMemoryQuilt.com ®  click on Family History

Contact me at:
pjefamilyresearch@gmail.com 

 






Sunday, October 4, 2015

On This Date in Minnesota History: October 4

October 4, 1918 – Ervin Theodore Blix, of Nora, Clearwater County, Minn., was one of 25 men who died on this date when the USS Herman Frasch, the freighter he worked on as an electrician, third class, was accidently rammed by the tanker USS George G. Henry.

The tanker had just survived a gun battle with the SMS U-152 on Sept. 29, 1918, and was on her way to New York to repair the damage. The collision happened just after midnight about 110 miles southeast of Cape Sable.

The USS Herman Frasch “sank just seven minutes later taking twenty-five men with her. Boats were put over the side and about sixty-five survivors were picked up, but by morning the search was abandoned.”1

Blix’s mother, Mrs. James Blix, received a telegram on Oct. 11, 1918, from Z. C. Palmer of Washington, D.C., informing her that her son was listed as missing; however, The Bureau of Navigation, Navy Department, was reluctantly compelled to believe he lost his life.

1http://www.maritimequest.com/daily_event_archive/2013/10_oct/04_uss_herman_frasch_id1617.htm

The Bemidji Daily Pioneer; “Mother is Notified Son Lost Life When His Vessel Collided”; October 11, 1918; p. 1.




USS Herman Frasch
http://nswrecks.net/ns-images/hermanfrasch-1917-navsource.org.jpg

               __________________________________________________________

If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
census records,  birth records,  death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records.  I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MHS records.  Both short searches and family history reports.

Website: 
TheMemoryQuilt.com ®  click on Family History

Contact me at:
pjefamilyresearch@gmail.com