Monday, November 30, 2020

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"

Saturday, November 14, 2020

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"