Matthew is 3 today! Hip Hip Hurrah!!!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Happy Anniversary Judy and Frank
Judy's Picture is below....don't have a picture of them together. Hope you guys have a happy anniversary. m
Monday, September 29, 2008
June and Len are still planning on Wedding
The wedding celebration for June and Len is still on dispite the fire. October 18, 2 p.m. in North Branch at the Catholic Church. June wanted me to let everyone know. m
Prayers Requested!
Dear Family,
Mom and the family are asking if you would please send Neva prayers.
She is currently in the hospital. We do not have a lot of
information to share at this time. Thank You!
Our Love To All of You!
The Hauge Family
Mom and the family are asking if you would please send Neva prayers.
She is currently in the hospital. We do not have a lot of
information to share at this time. Thank You!
Our Love To All of You!
The Hauge Family
Happy Birthday Judy V.
Hope you are enjoying the sunny California skies! And all those grandkids! Happy Birthday! Love all your younger cousins, and sisters! Oh....and Jeannie too! m
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Sandy V. is Turning "40" You're Invited
It's Time to Party!
Sandi is turning 40!
Please join us in celebrating Sandi's 40th Birthday on Nov. 29th at 7pm at Turtles Social Centre in downtown Shakopee.
No gifts please! just come and help console her :)
Kids are welcome - Music (maybe a little Joan Jett?)/Dancing/Cash Bar
Turtles 1890 Social Centre
112 South Lewis St.
Shakopee, MN 55379
Please RSVP to Mike Vermeulen at:
952-890-1128 or mpv1986@aol.com
Fire at June and Len's Home
Hi All: If I have for gotten anybody please send it to them. As you may have heard. There was a fire at Junes house on Tues. morning. It started in the clothes dryer. Brenda was downstairs sleeping. She woke from a phone call at 10 a.m. and then discovered a smoke smell. As of yet the smoke detectors had not gone off in the basement. Investigating,she opened the door to the room under the stairs, and then the smoke detectors started. She saw flames from the door on top of the stairs, and called 911 and got out safely.
I was over at Junes yesterday with Brenda and Julie, and the fire inspectors. The upstairs is a total loss. She will be able to salvage anything that didn't have cloth, or wood. The loss is GREAT. All of Tom's sculptures she had hanging are gone. That's just the tip of the Mountain. As you can imagine. She and Len will be returning home, this weekend, and will have to find a place to stay for probably 4 or 5 months. Next week, they will have to start inventorying everything that was inside. This I'm sure will take a couple of weeks. Keep her in your prayers.
Jackie
I was over at Junes yesterday with Brenda and Julie, and the fire inspectors. The upstairs is a total loss. She will be able to salvage anything that didn't have cloth, or wood. The loss is GREAT. All of Tom's sculptures she had hanging are gone. That's just the tip of the Mountain. As you can imagine. She and Len will be returning home, this weekend, and will have to find a place to stay for probably 4 or 5 months. Next week, they will have to start inventorying everything that was inside. This I'm sure will take a couple of weeks. Keep her in your prayers.
Jackie
Monday, September 22, 2008
A Picture from the Past
September 9, 1933
Phillip Gendreau, Betty Schieber Gendreau, Theresa Schieber (sister of bride)Maid of Honor, Sam Gendreau (Brother of Groom)Best Man
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Happy 17th Anniversary Jimbo and Ann
Hope you have a great year just like the last 17. Love ya lots, mom
Friday, September 19, 2008
Happy Birthday Nicole
Oh my gosh....a teenager!!!
Colie Rose is 13!!!
I couldn't find one good picture of Nicole by herself....so I had to put three pictures in the blog. Katie one of her cousins and Matthew her little brother share the limelight. Happy Birthday Nicole...Love ya lots, Grandma K
Sunday, September 14, 2008
More Pictures for your enjoyment
Grandpa Schieber cutting one of the boys hair next to the house in Canada.
Elizabeth, Mildred, Loretta, Art, Ed, Leo, Joe and Theresa
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Addition and Corrections
I talked to Aunt Loretta last nite, and have some changes to Phils story....she says she was about 6 weeks old when then went to Canada....and was about 5 or 6 when they returned....she remembers coming home on a train....and thinks that Ma Blewitt took a train up to get them, and that they originally took a train to Canada...that explains the paths for roads.
She also remembers Leo carrying gartersnakes in his pockets. That explains mom's fear of snakes too!
She says she thinks she stayed with Ma Blewitt for awhile and then moved to Winsted where she started school....before moving to Watkins. So that fills in a few blanks. I wonder if Millie has anything to add to this? m
She also remembers Leo carrying gartersnakes in his pockets. That explains mom's fear of snakes too!
She says she thinks she stayed with Ma Blewitt for awhile and then moved to Winsted where she started school....before moving to Watkins. So that fills in a few blanks. I wonder if Millie has anything to add to this? m
Friday, September 5, 2008
Final Story
As we all grew up, being the children of the children of Joe and Mary Schieber, we all heard the stories about living in Canada.
They had no electricity no running water, phone, TV or even a radio. They lived in a land that was still very unchanged and unfamilier with the white settelers. Joe worked the fields with horses and a single blade plow. He cleared trees by hand and worked very hard. I have a hard time imaginning how hard that must have been. None of us could do today what he did back then. Yet they survived and here we are.
I remember mom would say they had to run to and from school to keep away from the indian kids.
They would get let out of school 15 minutes early just to get a head start. The indian kids wanted beat them up or get them in the bushes as I've also heard. The paths were just that from house to house and no real roads. This school was called the Grand Narrows School. It later change names, closed and was moved.
At one time I remember my uncle Ed saying that he traveled back to try and find the farm again but I don't recall if he found it or not. This has always been in the back of my head as one of those memories as a kid.
This trip all started one day at my sisters house when we were looking for old pictures of the family for another big project of mine. We came across a land document.
On this documeny was the exact location of the farm.
When checking on this I found that this was an offer from Canada to come and farm the land. You had 2 years to make it work and the land was yours. I believe Joe was trying to grow corn on the land and the crops failed because the growing season was too short. The first year there uncle Ed was born. and 2 years later uncle Art was born. I think with the 2 little ones and the farm not working, Mary and the kids had to return to Minnesota. To do this, Mary's sister Rose drove by herself and picked them up and brought them back home. Joe stayed another year and work in the little town of Togo. I'm not sure what he did there.
I wanted to see the farm and realize this journey, and collect video for my other project so off I went.
It started off a little funny as I was talking with my boss about taking a week of vacation and he said he too was going to take some time off to go fishing in Canada. He is planning to go there in a couple of weeks. I told him about this trip (that wasn't a trip at that time) just as a bit of conversation. I thought I needed a passport to get to back from Canada. I didn't have a current one. Well the friday before my vacation was to start he came to me and said have a good trip to Canada. I told him about not having the passport and he said he checked into it and found that if you drive in and out all you need is a birth certificate and photo drivers license. So I thought, I have those...and so the trip was on. That fast.
Armed with a small internet map and credit card, off I went.
Arriving in Togo, a couple of ladies brought me across the street to a building. Inside was another gal that told me to go to Roblin and find the library. It was called R M of Shell River.
Once there, another couple of gals showed me a map on the wall and told me the stories of the area. She agreed the growing season was too short for corn and said that's why it's pasture land now. They also told me the name of the school was changed at one time to United Farmers of Manitoba before it finally was shut down. It shows up this was on the map but she said it was the Grand Narrows school. She also new the people that owned it now and where it was. I was out of there with everything I needed to find the farm and the school in an hour. The best part was it was still standing and only about 25 miles away.
Here is a section of that map.
The farm is in the upper left at box 18 and in the lower righthand corner and the school plot is in the lower right of the picture, next to square 33 upper right corner. The school now stands on the corner lot of Kevin Dixons land and was on the lot of his brother Edwin Dixons land.
It's 740 miles away from here.
It really was a fun adventure for me. I returned to the library before leaving for home and thanked the ladies for all the help that allowed me to make this happen.
I hope this helps to know a little more about our past.
Mom was always afraid of snakes and yes they're still there too.
See you all at Christmas!
Phil
They had no electricity no running water, phone, TV or even a radio. They lived in a land that was still very unchanged and unfamilier with the white settelers. Joe worked the fields with horses and a single blade plow. He cleared trees by hand and worked very hard. I have a hard time imaginning how hard that must have been. None of us could do today what he did back then. Yet they survived and here we are.
I remember mom would say they had to run to and from school to keep away from the indian kids.
They would get let out of school 15 minutes early just to get a head start. The indian kids wanted beat them up or get them in the bushes as I've also heard. The paths were just that from house to house and no real roads. This school was called the Grand Narrows School. It later change names, closed and was moved.
At one time I remember my uncle Ed saying that he traveled back to try and find the farm again but I don't recall if he found it or not. This has always been in the back of my head as one of those memories as a kid.
This trip all started one day at my sisters house when we were looking for old pictures of the family for another big project of mine. We came across a land document.
On this documeny was the exact location of the farm.
When checking on this I found that this was an offer from Canada to come and farm the land. You had 2 years to make it work and the land was yours. I believe Joe was trying to grow corn on the land and the crops failed because the growing season was too short. The first year there uncle Ed was born. and 2 years later uncle Art was born. I think with the 2 little ones and the farm not working, Mary and the kids had to return to Minnesota. To do this, Mary's sister Rose drove by herself and picked them up and brought them back home. Joe stayed another year and work in the little town of Togo. I'm not sure what he did there.
I wanted to see the farm and realize this journey, and collect video for my other project so off I went.
It started off a little funny as I was talking with my boss about taking a week of vacation and he said he too was going to take some time off to go fishing in Canada. He is planning to go there in a couple of weeks. I told him about this trip (that wasn't a trip at that time) just as a bit of conversation. I thought I needed a passport to get to back from Canada. I didn't have a current one. Well the friday before my vacation was to start he came to me and said have a good trip to Canada. I told him about not having the passport and he said he checked into it and found that if you drive in and out all you need is a birth certificate and photo drivers license. So I thought, I have those...and so the trip was on. That fast.
Armed with a small internet map and credit card, off I went.
Arriving in Togo, a couple of ladies brought me across the street to a building. Inside was another gal that told me to go to Roblin and find the library. It was called R M of Shell River.
Once there, another couple of gals showed me a map on the wall and told me the stories of the area. She agreed the growing season was too short for corn and said that's why it's pasture land now. They also told me the name of the school was changed at one time to United Farmers of Manitoba before it finally was shut down. It shows up this was on the map but she said it was the Grand Narrows school. She also new the people that owned it now and where it was. I was out of there with everything I needed to find the farm and the school in an hour. The best part was it was still standing and only about 25 miles away.
Here is a section of that map.
The farm is in the upper left at box 18 and in the lower righthand corner and the school plot is in the lower right of the picture, next to square 33 upper right corner. The school now stands on the corner lot of Kevin Dixons land and was on the lot of his brother Edwin Dixons land.
It's 740 miles away from here.
It really was a fun adventure for me. I returned to the library before leaving for home and thanked the ladies for all the help that allowed me to make this happen.
I hope this helps to know a little more about our past.
Mom was always afraid of snakes and yes they're still there too.
See you all at Christmas!
Phil
Leo Steffan
I've been seaching for years to come up with a possible father for grandpa (illigitamate). The other day I went into Ancestry.com and found this: Leo Stephan born April 09, 1854, Speicherz, Unterfranken, Germany. It is found in the LDS library Batch: 2170493, Sheet 25 Source Call Number: 1553898. I need to do somemore digging, but the age is about right....and maybe he was in the service at the time and met ggrandma that way. But it's a start. Also he is the son of Jesepha Stepan...note all three different spellings. The evolve over time. m
Thursday, September 4, 2008
He made it!
Today went very well. I stopped into town and got a lot of info to head out with. The main thing a map. I'll tell you another time the name of the place because I left it in the car. Anyway, 2 ladies there gave me pictures of the school and a map of where Grandpa Joe Schiebers farm was. It's a few miles futher north than Togo is and closer to San Clara.
First stop was the spot where the school stood. The energy I was getting from there was awesome! The road to get there is 1 mile south of the road to San Clara. It's called 168th, the parallel line on a map. I quess they couldn't think of a better name but it works well. To get here you travel up hwy 83 to this road and turn west. Go 2 miles, (the roads in here are gravel and set at every mile os it's very easy to find. Turn south and about 300 feet in is the place the school stood. It was shrouded with woods and wet land to the north side. I stood in the school yard. The site is about a mile south of Lake Cucumber. The lake next to the farm.
The school, the ladies told me, was moved to a farm 2 miles west of there. They even gave me the guys name and number. I didn't need it as you can see from the pictures it's near the road. They have gutted it and it's now a garage but at least it still exists. The road I turned onto to get the picture of the front of the school, looked like it went close to the south side of the lake that touches the farm on the far side. I took a chance and drove as far as I could and walk onto someones land and saw most of the lake but not enough to see Joes farm.
Not out of luck yet.
The farm is not on any road and it's now part of the San Clara Community Pasture. Government stuff. Well it turns out that just another couple of miles down the school road (168th), the road comes to a T. The ladies told me to turn north there and I'll come to the main gate to the pasture and gave me the name of the guy in charge. Well getting there I came across 2 guys leaving and I asked if I could walk in and see the land. They said sure just don't break a leg.
They left and it was just me there on my own.
From this point the farm is about a mile to the east of this gate. The first thing a did was drop and break part of my camera. My heart sank! I still had 2 smaller video cameras along but this was my good one. I picked it up and it's covered in mud. Well only at the view finder. My wide angle button is a little weird now but, it worked!
I said to Mom, "all this way and you play this trick on me?"
I walked in and spent about an hour and a half enjoying the view of the lake and walking the land. It was wonderful!
I'm sending a few stills I clipped from the videos.
I'll be home tomorrow.
Phil
P.S. Janet, I have soil samples from the school yard and the farm for you.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Getting Closer!
Today I was at Togo. Immediately I was sent back in time.
They're right on the time zone line. Very small town.
I talked with a couple of ladies there and they said the township on the document is not near Togo but didn't know exactly where it was.
The document also says Joe Schieber OF walkerburn. They pointed that out to me but then said that could be because the post office was there. That town is gone but they said someone now lives in what used to be the post office.
One of the ladies remembered a school that burned down and said there was nothing left of it.
They directed me to a library in Roblin Manatoba where I'm staying tonight. The library was closed before I could get there. Tomorrow I'll see if they can help.
If that doesn't work then it's off to Dauphin about 100 miles east of here. That's where the stamp on the document is from.
The ladies told me that in 1924 the area was all forest. The only paths were wagon paths from house to house.
I drove through some very deep valleys to get here as this area is near a mountain range that would have blocked the path for travelers, and still does. On my way home I'll stop and shoot some video of the valleys.
The rest of the trip is all flat farm land that was also thick forest lands. Everywhere!
440 miles of nothing and 60 mph single lane highway.
I'm staying at the Harvest Moon Inn. A very nice place for out here in nowhere land. I have a bedroom and a living room with a couch, tv, fridge, microwave, coffee pot, kitchen sink and two entrences. If anyone ever plans to do this same trip, this is the place to stay.
Until tomorrow everyone!
Phil
They're right on the time zone line. Very small town.
I talked with a couple of ladies there and they said the township on the document is not near Togo but didn't know exactly where it was.
The document also says Joe Schieber OF walkerburn. They pointed that out to me but then said that could be because the post office was there. That town is gone but they said someone now lives in what used to be the post office.
One of the ladies remembered a school that burned down and said there was nothing left of it.
They directed me to a library in Roblin Manatoba where I'm staying tonight. The library was closed before I could get there. Tomorrow I'll see if they can help.
If that doesn't work then it's off to Dauphin about 100 miles east of here. That's where the stamp on the document is from.
The ladies told me that in 1924 the area was all forest. The only paths were wagon paths from house to house.
I drove through some very deep valleys to get here as this area is near a mountain range that would have blocked the path for travelers, and still does. On my way home I'll stop and shoot some video of the valleys.
The rest of the trip is all flat farm land that was also thick forest lands. Everywhere!
440 miles of nothing and 60 mph single lane highway.
I'm staying at the Harvest Moon Inn. A very nice place for out here in nowhere land. I have a bedroom and a living room with a couch, tv, fridge, microwave, coffee pot, kitchen sink and two entrences. If anyone ever plans to do this same trip, this is the place to stay.
Until tomorrow everyone!
Phil
Ain't it the Truth!
Got this from Gary Hauge in Florida. But we have Jim, Bill, Carol, Paul and Monica and most of Gary's family living there.
Trip to Togo
It's 10:15 and I'm in Grand Forks. Hope to get an early start tomorrow and video sights along the way.
By now Rose would only be about 120 miles from Minneapolis.
Drove through a rain storm for about 50 miles with visability about 100 feet. Enough to see the truck in front of me. I just followed his tail lights. It stopped about 20 miles from here.
Later.
P
My brother Phil has camera and computer in hand and is on his way to Togo, where in the 1920's grandma and grandpa took Betty, Theresa, Leo, Joe, Millie, and Loretta to live....and while there Eddie and Art were born. Phil's remark about Rose was Ma Blewitt. Can you imagine her driving a car all the way to Canada by herself to get Grandma and the kids and bring them back to Minnesota? The roads were almost none existant. Woods, indians and wild animals all around! How brave and tough she must have been. I'm sure there were no rest areas....or truck stops....much less motels! m
By now Rose would only be about 120 miles from Minneapolis.
Drove through a rain storm for about 50 miles with visability about 100 feet. Enough to see the truck in front of me. I just followed his tail lights. It stopped about 20 miles from here.
Later.
P
My brother Phil has camera and computer in hand and is on his way to Togo, where in the 1920's grandma and grandpa took Betty, Theresa, Leo, Joe, Millie, and Loretta to live....and while there Eddie and Art were born. Phil's remark about Rose was Ma Blewitt. Can you imagine her driving a car all the way to Canada by herself to get Grandma and the kids and bring them back to Minnesota? The roads were almost none existant. Woods, indians and wild animals all around! How brave and tough she must have been. I'm sure there were no rest areas....or truck stops....much less motels! m
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