Hazel Rowe Grades a Railway

 24 June 1907 - Milwaukee Sentinel

Newspaper research helped to verify a family "legend" about my grandmother, Hazel Rowe. Not only was the story reported in the Waupaca area, it also appeared in the Milwaukee Sentinel. The Waupaca-Green Bay line was being built through the Elm Valley area, and Hazel (whose name was written incorrectly as "Arthea") and her brother were helping to build a grade for that railroad. She may or may not have appreciated being described as a "healthy, robust girl."

Cousin Peg has a copy of a paper written by Judy Olson for a geography class at Stevens Point some forty years ago about the construction of the railway in 1907. 

Title Page of Report

The map Judy included shows three stops between Waupaca and Scandinavia: Granite Quarry, the Rowe farm and the Knutson farm.

Map showing stops on the railway line

According to Judy's research, the railroad planned to discontinue the stops in 1916 due to "unjustified costs." However, Andrew Rowe objected, saying that he was promised the stop after "almost giving the railroad the right-of-way under those conditions." The crossing at the Rowe farm did continue for a number of years, although the Knutson farm crossing was eliminated.

The train traveled each morning and afternoon, and extra trips were scheduled during potato season. The stop at the Granite Quarry continued until the railway was abandoned in 1947. 

Thanks to Peg and Judy for this information! 

52 Ancestors: "Witness to History"

New Hope Cemetery

Several years ago we drove over to Portage County to explore the New Hope Cemetery where a few of our Norwegian connections were buried. 

Anders and Guri Groethe were names on two of the tombstones we photographed. Anders was Great Great Grandmother Kari Rowe's brother.

Anders Groethe

Guri Groethe

*52 Ancestors: "At the Cemetery"

Sideburns: Burnsides

Benjamin Ling Hales 1843-1905

Benjamin Ling Hales immigrated to Wisconsin with the Hales family in 1856. His middle name was the maiden name of his maternal grandmother. By 1860 he was working on a farm in the Town of Burnett, Dodge County. After serving for nearly three years during the Civil War, he married Sylvia Jewett of Dodge County in 1866. They lived for a time in Waupaca County but moved to Hancock, Wisconsin in 1874. He was the proprietor of a drug store there; first with his brother-in-law Selden Minor and later by himself.

I always admired the facial hair in this photograph of Benjamin as a wonderful example of "sideburns." The Wikipedia description matches his photo exactly.

"Sideburns are facial hair grown on the sides of the face, extending from the hairline to run parallel to or beyond the ears. The term sideburns is a 19th-century corruption of the original burnsides, named after American Civil War general Ambrose Burnside, a man known for his unusual facial hairstyle that connected thick sideburns by way of a moustache, but left the chin clean-shaven."

Benjamin Ling Hales

52 Ancestors: "Bearded"

1920 Census

Sometimes you just have to be patient! I have never been able to find the Churas family in the 1920 census. According to my mother, they moved to Portage County, Wisconsin sometime during that year. The 1920 census was the only time the census takers were asked to use January as the date. It seemed possible that weather was an issue: the family might have left Chicago before the census taker arrived and settled in Portage County after the census taker had visited the farm.

The explanation was much simpler, however. The indexer misread the name as "Chuvas" instead of "Churas." This mistake meant the name would not turn up when I looked for a closer spelling.

How did I find it? FamilySearch did, not me. They were living on Throop Street in Chicago's Fourth Ward.







* 52 Ancestors: Mistake