Happy Veteran's Day

Adolph Stebler (28 March 1889 - 18 Feb 1956) was my granduncle and is a veteran of WWI serving from 1917 to 1918. When he was called to service he had been a setter at the Brace and Hurger Company Saw Mill in Seattle Washington for seven years. When he returned to the states after the war he continued as a Saw Mill setter in Milwaukee, WI but only briefly. He returned to Seattle where he married in 1922 and remained there until his death. He is the hat-less one kneeling in the top picture with the crazy wavy hair! Remember a vet today. (-;

Honoring my Dad for Memorial Day!

My Dad, Harold, better known as "Sarge" during those days, served in the Army during World War II and during the Korean War. He enlisted when he was 18 years old, on his birthday. He was inducted into service on 5 June 1943. For a year he trained in parachuting and gliding as a private in Fort Bliss, Texas with the airborne troops. The Army decided not to put so many men into airborne because they were losing too many men, so he was transferred into the infantry. Good thing or there was a good chance I'd have never existed. lol!

He went overseas on 12 Aug 1944 and joined Company F, 110th Infantry, 2nd Battalion, 28 Division as a replacement. The 28th Division was in France at the time and they liberated Paris after he joined them. He also participated in the Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central Europe campaigns. He was a Platoon Sergeant.

He was wounded twice. The first time was shrapnel from an artillery shelling and the second time he wasn't sure what it was, but he thought it was a sniper's bullet. The second time he was evacuated to Paris, France and then to England for medical treatment. He wrote his mother on 8 November 1944, just 3 months after arriving in Europe, that he was in a hospital in Paris with a slight injury. On 21 May 1945 he wrote his mother that he earned the oak leaf cluster on his purple heart from a concussion and back injury when he had actually been shot in the leg. He didn't want her to worry.

On 7 May 1945 he wrote his mother "Well the war in Europe is over. Sure am glad of that. " He was just paid 6 months pay - $490.00. He saved $40.00 for a pass to Paris and sent the rest home. After the war his unit occupied Saarbrucken, Germany until his return to the states. He wrote his mother "I'm starting to put on weight. I was down to 160 lbs. which was 36 lbs. less than when I came overseas".

On 25 June 1945 he wrote "Well I got 2 more battle stars yesterday and that gave me 3 of them and 57 points. Now if I get the other one it will give me 62 instead of 63 points." He needed 85 battle points to go home. He was just appointed as a Platoon Sergeant and had 33 men under him. He talked about his old job as machine gun section leader where he had 2 squads under him. With the new job he would have 2 machine gun squads and 3 mortar squads under him. The new job would give him a TSgt rating which drew about 115 dollars in the states and 150 dollars overseas. My Dad was offered a battlefield commission of 2nd Lieutenant but turned it down. He returned to the United States on 26 July 1945 and was discharged on 20 Nov 1945.

For his service he was awarded the European African Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon with Four Bronze Campaign Stars, a Purple Heart Medal with One Oakleaf Cluster, the Combat Infantryman Badge, Good Conduct Medal and American Theater Ribbon. In the late 1970s, early 1980s he was also awarded the Bronze Star. In August 2002, just two months before his death, he received a certificate from the French government for his role in liberating France.

During the Korean War he joined a reserve unit in Baraboo, WI that had been activated. "Sarge" was recalled into active duty on 23 Jan 1951. He spent time at Camp Carson in Colorado training in engineering and then did some construction work at Fort Riley, Kansas. He was trained in The ENGR School at Ft. Belvoir, VA as well and spent time in Newfoundland, Labrador and Greenland renovating World War II bases that were abandoned after World War II. One of those places was in Sondrestromfjord in Greenland. He again was offered a First Lieutenant's commission because of his experience in WWII, but he turned it down again. He was discharged 1 Nov 1952 as a Master Sergeant.

My Dad passed away in 2002 and I miss him dearly. I am very proud of who he was. When I drive past Fort Carson I think of the time he spent there. (-;

The Koehler Bakery

This is my Grandpa, Ed Koehler. In 1921, when he was 21 years old and newly married (I was born on the same day they were wed -- many years later of course), his Dad help set him up in this bakery. He and his family lived in the second story apartment upstairs from the bakery. My Mom was only two years old at the time and her older sister was three. Grandpa did most of the baking and would load up his truck with bakery items then make his way to rural farms to deliver his goods to people who didn't get into town much. In 1928 Ed and his wife Erna (my grandma) added their third daughter to the growing family. In the next year our country experienced the collapse of it's economy in the Great Depression. Berlin Wisconsin was no exception to the ravages of the Great Depression and one of the main businesses in town, a shoe factory where many women worked, went out of business. These women and others who were suffering with the down turned economy went back to making their own bread so business was slow in my Grandpa's bakery. According to family lore, one of Ed's employees was unscrupulously stealing sugar from the bakery to use in his still to make moonshine. To make things worse, soft hearted and charitable Ed issued credit to people who couldn't pay for his bread and eventually he couldn't pay his own bills. So in Sept 1929 he sold his bakery and moved in with his in-laws with his family of five. Ed used the proceeds from the sale of his bakery to keep my Great Grandparents from loosing their farm. He went to work in Milwaukee, 82 miles away, where many of his seven brothers and half brothers worked until he was able to get a job with Skelly Oil Company and move his family to Weyauwega. I love him for his loving and giving character.

Have you looked into your family tree? You should! It's a lot of fun and very interesting.

What are the odds?

Who'd have thought that two pictures could be so interesting? I found these two pictures in my Great Grandmother's album. The one on the right is my Great Great Grandfather, but I didn't know who the one on the left was. I decided they looked a bit alike and wanted to get my second cousin's good advice on the subject so I sent it to her. She thought they might be brothers who both lived and died in Wisconsin, where I was also born. Coincidentally around the same timeframe I came into possession of a letter written in the 70's by one related individual to another with the same family name as the two men in the photo. It was postmarked from a town in Colorado about 40 mile from where I now live. I decided to take a chance and look in my hometown directory for the surname and found the letter writer! I took the photo to the now nearly 90-year-old man and to my delight he was the descendant of the man on the left and my second cousin twice removed! He and I proved the two men in the photos were indeed brothers! I was also able to identify his wife and children from two other photos I had that were taken by the same photographer and the same place. It was truly remarkable that all these things came up at the same time to help me link clues together to identify these unknown pictures. What are the chances that he and I, whose common ancestor was a man who died in 1912 in Wisconsin would both end up in the same town in Colorado!

The 6th picture in the 6th folder!

Shari, a fellow CQer friend, stash hunting buddy, and a great Coloradoan tagged me for a fun idea called "6 picture meme".

Here are the rules: You have to go to the pictures section of your computer, find the 6th folder and then the 6th picture in that folder. You post that picture on your blog and tell the story behind it. Then choose 6 other people to tag to do the same thing.

Well, the photo on the left is the picture I found. The story is this: In 2007 I met (through the internet) my second cousin, Cheryl. We are both keenly interested in family history and over the years have spent a lot of time sharing information and going through old family photos in our "unknown" pile. I believe this is a photo she sent me of three separate photos to compare what she believed were 3 pictures of the same gal. So, all you analysts out there, what do you think? I think it's possible -- they all have a very soft look about them. I don't think it's conclusive though. What I do know is that this young lady hung in the same crowd as my Great Grandmother, Helena Wangerin, pictured in the 2nd photo. The mystery girl was at Helena's wedding and a member of Helena's sister-in-law's wedding party. Who she is is still a mystery - maybe a cousin, a friend or a neighbor. The mystery goes on....

My three aunts and my Mother have adopted Cheryl and largely as a part of our relationship, we have been sharing family stories over email together. Every week we'd pick a new topic and talk about it (all 6 of us). It has enriched our knowledge of the family and drawn us closer together. Eventually many of my cousins and my sister also joined in on the conversations.

Now for my 6! I choose in no particular order:

1. Gerry K. http://olderrose.blogspot.com/2008/09/rose-buttons.html I met Gerry at the last retreat and since then she has been a continuous inspiration!

2. Janet from Colorado http://gocrazywithme.blogspot.com/ I also met Janet at the retreat and she is a real sweety and a great quilter!

3. Ann F.
http://crazyqcorner.blogspot.com/ Ann, who seems like a wonderful nice person, and I are on at least two lists together, and we are about to begin the Sumptuous Start RR adventure together!

4. Skye L. http://skyescreativeworld.blogspot.com/ Skye is also in the Sumptuous Start RR and I just love her enthusiasm and contributions to CQ for Newbies Group!

5. Leslie E. http://pinyoncreek.blogspot.com/ I also met Leslie at the retreat and she is one of the nicest people you want to meet. We've also done some stash hunting together in Denver and she's been trying (unsuccessfully) to get me moving on my Western CQ!

6. Robin K.
http://www.allthingsrobin.wordpress.com/ Robin is on a quilt group that originated from Rootsweb. We have several of the same interests such as quilting, photography and genealogy. She, like me, can hardly contain her interest when it comes to what she is passionate about!!

I hope you all will participate!