Flew the Coop

 This week's prompt is "Flew the coop," which immediately makes me think of chickens. Over the years I've acquired a small collection of chicken knick-knacks. I was surprised, and delighted, when I found out that my Grandma Henrickson also had a small collection of chicken items in her kitchen. In my current neighborhood we have a band of wild, wandering, free range chickens. There's nothing quite like waking up every morning to a rooster crowing. 

But, this prompt mostly made me think of my paternal 2x great uncle, George Herman Karg. George was the uncle of my great grandmother Emily Dobbratz Ashley, on my Dad's side. George was born in Germany in 1866 and immigrated to America with his family, and led quite the life. He lived in Chicago and Los Angeles. He was a life long bachelor. He liked to travel. He was a pharmacist and is the uncle who introduced cousin George Remus to becoming a pharmacist, before Remus became a bootlegger. Uncle George was an actor at one point, and, near the end of his life, he helped operate and run a chicken ranch in California.

In 1930 George Karg decided to move to California. I'm not sure what made him decide to move, or what prompted it. Maybe a change of scenery? I found this article in the Monrovia News, from February 21, 1930.

I found some pictures that Uncle George sent to his niece Emily, my great grandmother. They're very cool.

George Herman Karg, 1930

The 1930 Federal Census gives us a few more clues about George's chicken venture. He's listed as being a boarder and living with the Berlin family. A husband and wife, child, and mother in-law, and boarder George, all living at the same house. Unfortunately for George, the chicken ranch didn't seem to work out. In 1933 I found a foreclosure sale for the property in the local newspaper. For nonpayment of debt.

I know Uncle George went back to Chicago for a bit, but then later returned to California as he was living in Los Angeles when he passed away in 1948. He was 81 years old when he passed away. From a family history book I have on my Dobbratz and Karg relatives, it was stated that Uncle George was "highly thought of" by my great grandmother and her brother and sisters. In addition to these pictures, I also have postcards that Uncle George sent to Emily from his travels to Canada. She must've thought highly of him if she kept his pictures, letters and postcards. 

I did some research on Monrovia and Duarte California. The land where the chicken ranch was on was originally part of a much larger plot of land deeded to Andres Duarte after he retired from the Mexican army. When the land was handed over to America he was validated as the landowner and kept his land. He later became unable to pay the taxes on his land and it was developed and sold off. It sits in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains. The land was primarily used as agricultural land until the end of World War II. I wasn't able to find an exact address for George's house so I couldn't google it to see what the land looks like today. I'm pretty sure there's no chicken ranch left though. :)

In the newspaper

This week's prompt is "In the newspaper." I've been able to find out a lot about my various family members by searching the newspapers. Not only are newspapers great ways to find out about weddings and obituaries, but you can also find out if they ran for office, who they had Easter dinner with, or if they visited friends at Camp Custer. I have a subscription to Newspapers.com and that has been a tremendous help, especially with extended relatives who moved to other parts of the country. Unfortunately, the Allegan Gazette, and Allegan Journal have not been made a part of the Newspapers.com family. I did find a way, though. While searching the Allegan Library website one day I discovered that they had digitized the two newspapers and put them online. There was even a search engine! Unfortunately the search results just tell me which issue of the paper my relative may be in. It doesn't show me which article or highlight the name like Newspapers does. Nevertheless, it's been an invaluable tool in helping me research the Strands, Henricksons, Thompsons, and Ashleys. 

For this prompt I went back and searched for Henrickson and popularly misspelled "Hendrickson" again to see what I could find.

We start with June 25, 1915. I've mentioned wanting to know if our Swedish ancestors observed Midsummer festivities in Michigan as they would have in Sweden. Well, I wonder no more. I found this article describing the Midsummer party hosted at the farm of Mr. and Mrs. George Hen(d)rickson.

Allegan Gazette June 25, 1915

Malvina's father, Charles, had passed away in March of 1915, so by June she and George were already living on the farm. This also shows that George must've had a good singing voice to be part of a group that performed. It also shows that Hjalmar Anderson was part of the social circle. Hjalmar would go on to marry oldest Henrickson daughter Selma. 

The next article also concerns Hjalmar, and the Sandahl boys again. In November 1917 we find Hjalmar, Charlie Sandahl and friend Carl Peterson visiting William Sandahl and Martin Swanty at Camp Custer. William and Martin must've signed up to fight in World War I. Interestingly enough, in this same blurb, we also find Carl Strandt and his friend Gordon visiting a school. If that makes any kind of sense to anyone I'd love to know more. Maybe it's a school future wife Mildred Bellingar was teaching at?

Allegan Gazette November 1917

The next mention I find is the wedding of Grace Henrickson to Harold Wall in August 1928. The reception, once again, was held at the Henrickson family farm. 

Allegan Gazette August 18, 1928

 

In the same issue, I also find mention of where Grace and Harold spent time at a cottage with Selma and Hjalmar. 

Our last mention of Selma in the newspapers is when she was celebrated on her 80th birthday. It mentions her long service to the Lutheran church and also that she was church organist for many years. A job her mother once held.

Allegan Gazette November 1980

These are just a few snippets I've found in the Allegan papers. My hope is that one day Newspapers will pick up the Allegan Gazette and Journal as their search engine is so much better, but until then I'll make do with what I have. 

As always, post any questions, comments or additional information down below. Or email me. Feel free to share and repost.

As a side note, Malvina's brother-in-law was Andrew Sandahl, so I'm guessing maybe Charlie and William Sandahl were related to him in some way? I'll have to research and see. 
 

Update. Charlie and William Sandahl were the younger brothers of Anders "Andrew" Sandahl, who married Selma Anderson. Younger sister of Malvina. I also discovered that their father Gustavus Sandahl, was from Slatthog, Sweden. Same parish as where George Henrickson was from. Gustavus also changed his last name from "Johansson" too, to Sandahl. Reason was there were too many Swedish men named Johnson in the lumber camps were he worked. 

The marriage of Viola Strand and Raymond Henrickson

 The prompt for last week's blog was "random." I decided to write about a random article I found in the paper about Viola Strand.

Viola Strand was the daughter of Carl and Mildred Strand. She was born in September 1922. By all accounts she couldn't wait to get out of her parents house and start her own life. When she caught the eye of nearby farmer Raymond Henrickson, that seemed to be her way out. 

colorized picture of Howard Strand, Viola Strand, Ray Henrickson

By Spring of 1940 Viola and Ray were engaged to be married. The random article I found was from the Thursday, March 28, 1940 issue of the Allegan Gazette. It's about a kitchen shower given to one Viola Strand. 

Allegan Gazette, March 28, 1940

I can only imagine the fun and excitement Viola must have had opening her presents. I wonder what happened to the recipe box and the recipes?

Viola and Ray were officially married on April 20, 1940. Viola's age is given as 18, but she was actually only 17 at the time of marriage. I've seen the age of many women inflated on marriage certificates back in the day. 

I found it interesting that the marriage occurred in Grand Rapids, and not Allegan. Also interesting is that Ray's sister Esther and her husband Milo are listed as witnesses. They were married by a Lutheran pastor, though. Ray's family was very involved with the Lutheran church. The Strand family has been described as not very religious and not officially belonging to any one church. 

Ray and Viola's marriage was later recorded in the Allegan Gazette.

Allegan Gazette, April 25, 1940

A few more interesting notes about the wedding. The marriage occurred on April 20. The 1940 US Federal Census was being conducted that year. On May 9, 1940 a census taker came to the Henrickson farm and recorded the persons living there, which included new daughter-in-law Viola. 

What's interesting is that Viola is also recorded as living with Carl and Mildred, and being single, on May 17, 1940. Viola was recorded twice on the 1940 census, living in two different households! I wonder if maybe a neighbor gave the census taker information for the Strand household? Or maybe there was a cutoff date? Anyway, Viola was counted twice. 

The next piece of random information I have concerns Viola's baptism. Ray Henrickson's grandparents had been instrumental in starting a Lutheran church in Allegan, Michigan. Ray was already a member so it only made sense for his new wife to join the church too. I found church records indicating that Viola was baptized and officially joined the church as a member on April 6, 1941. This would be one year before giving birth to her first child in May 1942.

Does anyone have anymore information on the wedding of Ray and Viola? Why they were married in Grand Rapids? Was there another wedding in Allegan at the Lutheran Church down the road? What happened to the recipe box full of recipes Viola was given at her shower? Did she use them? Let me know in the comments down below or email me.