Photographs can document history in many ways, so it’s fun to look deeper into historical images to learn what they can tell us. The image atop this post shows a man and a boy. The man has a cane pole, so we can assume the pair has gone or is going fishing. Look a little deeper. The photo has a Rockwell-esque quality to it. Set in the summer of 1942, the photo shows Carl Henry Frank Hanneman (1901-1982) and his youngest son, David D. Hanneman (1933-2007). You can see Carl’s love for fishing — something he shared with his children and grandchildren who learned to fish on Mauston’s Lemonweir River.
The son is following along, asking questions of the fishing expert. What is he asking? Perhaps, “Hey, Dad, why don’t I have a cane pole?” It’s a time-honored tradition,passing on a love for fishing from one generation to the next. We’ll cover more of that in a future installment.
When the Johann Adam Treutel family emigrated to America from Darmstadt, Germany, they spread out across Eastern Wisconsin. Young Philipp Treutel and his wife settled in rural Waukesha County and became neighbors of some of the area’s best known pioneers. The young blacksmith set up shop in the heart of the village of Mukwonago, former Potawatomi Indian lands on the banks of what was then called Mill Pond.
Sewall Andrews
According to the 1860 U.S. Census, Philipp, Henrietta and baby Adeline Treutel lived in the same area as Sewall Andrews, the founder of Mukwonago and a major Wisconsin land owner. Andrews built a general store in 1837 that became a major trade center for the county. He built his own red brick house at the village center in 1842. The brick house still stands today along Main Street in Mukwonago and now houses the local museum. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Sewall Andrews built his red brick house in Mukwonago in 1842.
The Treutel residence is listed as No. 379 made during census visits in Mukwonago. The Andrews’ home was No. 372. Other nearby residents included Samuel Worthman, the village cooper (barrel maker); Martin Field, who owned the saw mill; Hezekiah Job, the tailor; and Melvin Gibson, who ran the livery stable. Field was also an attorney who became town justice of the peace and later a Waukesha County judge. The village park is named in his honor.
Judge Martin Field
The 1870 plat map for Waukesha County shows Philipp Treutel’s blacksmith shop and residence mere blocks from Andrews’ famous red brick home. The Treutel shop was near the intersection of Fox and Mill streets, close to the office of H.A. Youmans M.D., the town’s physician and surgeon. Nearby was Mukwonago House, the hotel run by Adolph Platner. Just to the south were the E.H. Kellogg saw mill and grist mill on the banks of the Mukwonago River.
Cropped view of portrait of Henrietta (Krosch) Treutel (1838-1908). Henrietta Krosch came to America in July 1854 at age 16 from the town of Jessnitz, Saxony, Germany. Her family settled at Mukwonago, where her father, John Frederick Krosch, became a well-known farmer. She met and married blacksmith Philipp Treutel and lived the next 35 years in Mukwonago and North Prairie. Widowed in 1891, she moved her family to Vesper in Wood County in 1901, where she died on Feb. 6, 1908. She is buried at North Prairie Cemetery.
We know the Treutel family moved from Mukwonago to the crossroads village of North Prairie, since obituaries and other newspaper accounts referred to the family homestead at North Prairie. However, the family name is not shown on the 1891 plat map for North Prairie. It is possible they had a homestead on some of the property owned by the Carlin family.
The family included Adeline Barbara (1859-1928), Lisetta (1861-1931), Henry Adam (1864-1962), Charles (1869-1958), Oscar (1874-1967), Emma (1877-1962) and Walter (1879-1948).
After Philipp Treutel died in June 1891, his widow moved the family north to tiny Vesper, in Wood County. Her sons worked as blacksmiths, retail merchants and a U.S. Postal Service carrier. Emma Treutel Carlin served as postmistress of Vesper in the early 1900s. Henrietta Treutel died in 1908. Philipp and Henrietta are buried at North Prairie Cemetery.
It might not have been the Hatfields and McCoys, but thesimmering feud between the John Hinz and William Moody families of Wood County, Wis., almost turned fatal in February 1902.
The Moody and Hinz farms sat just across the road from one another in the Town of Arpin, about a mile north of Vesper, Wis. On Monday, Feb. 3, trouble started when the two family dogs got into a fight. Members of both families then got into a roadside meleethat ended with William Moody being shot in the chest by 22-year-old Frank Hinz.
The Moodys and Hinzes lived directly across from one another.
Newspaper accounts of the donnybrook varied wildly. The Marshfield Times said Moody was “probably fatally wounded”by the “young criminal” Hinz, whom the paper said has a “sneaky and guilty look about him.” The Grand Rapids Tribune called Hinz a “poor shot,” noting that he missed once and actually shot his own father in the wrist with another of his bullets.Lena (Treutel) Moody, aunt of Ruby Treutel of Vesper, swung an axe handle at Frank Hinz during the fracas.
The Tribune said neither man was seriously wounded, although three surgeons responded to the scene. Hinz was arrested by Wood County Sheriff James McLaughlin and charged with assault with attempt to kill Moody.
Newspapers carried the story of the shootout.
According to newspaper accounts, the dispute between the families involved pets, children and parents. A few months before the shooting, Martha Hinz reportedly threw pepper in the face of one of the Moody children. The dogs would fight whenever they came into contact.
On the day of the shooting, Lena Moody and John Hinz got into a shouting match in the road after the most recent dog fight. When William Moody came upon the scene, he got into fisticuffs with the elder Hinz. Young Frank Hinz retrieved a revolver from the farmhouse and fired several shots at close range.
At his trial in May 1902, the prosecution called numerous witnesses, including William Moody, Lena Moody, daughters Esther and Anna, and Lisetta (Treutel) Moody, another aunt of Ruby Treutel. Each witness for the state was paid $2.28 for their appearance in court. Hinz was found guilty of a reduced charge of simple assault and fined $50 plus court costs by Justice of the Peace T.J. Cooper. With costs the total levied against Hinz was about $200, in lieu of a six-month jail term.
It would be hard not to respect a man who worked diligently at his job six days a week for 30 years. For Walter Treutel, the job record was even more impressive. His career as a rural letter carrier took him on a nearly 240,000-mile journey making sure the people of Vesper, Wisconsin received their mail and packages from 1904 to 1934.
Walter Treutel of Vesper, Wisconsin.
“The new rural mail carriers who will begin carrying mail on the 10 new routes on December 1st received their appointment from Washington last week,” the local Grand Rapids, Wis., newspaper announced in November 1904. “These carriers all took the competitive examination in this city four weeks ago and those fortunate to receive an appointment will now only have to file their bond for the faithful performance of their duty.” Walter’s first day as a letter carrier was Dec. 1, 1904. He was just two years married to the former Mary Ladick, and their firstborn child, Ruby, was just six months old.
His first trip over Rural Route 1 was made in an open buggy pulled by two ponies. He and his sister, Emma Carlin, rode that first 26.5-mile run together to deliver just 35 pieces of mail. At the time, the Vesper postal station was located inside the Treutel Bros. store, run by Walter’s brothers, Charles and Henry Treutel. Walter’s official postal substitute was his wife, Mary.
Walter Treutel picnics with children Nina, Elaine and Marvin, circa 1925. Behind the camera is Ruby (Treutel) Hanneman.
The dirt roads were rough and filled with chuckholes. The buggy rode over corduroy — soft or swampy sections that were shored up by placing logs across the path. Roads were so punishing in those early days that horses typically lasted only two years in service.
The first open postal buggy was eventually replaced by a covered postal wagon. Walter used a dozen horses on his route over the years. One of the toughest, “Old Baldy,”served for seven years in all sorts of weather. His first automobile, a two-cylinder Buick roadster, was nicknamed “The Little Red Devil.” Three other postal vehicles served on the route during his tenure.
He served under five postmasters during his 30 years, including his sister Emma Carlin, who was Vesper postmistress for nine years starting in 1906. In November 1934, Walter took his overdue two-week vacation, then returned for one final route on Dec. 1 — thirty years to the day after his first day on the job.
Walter Treutel with second wife Vera (at left), sister Emma Carlin, daughter Ruby Hanneman and grandchildren Lavonne and David D. Hanneman.
Walter was born July 23, 1879 in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, the son of Philipp and Henrietta (Krosch) Treutel. Walter’s wife, the former Mary Helen Ladick, died in 1925 after suffering a post-operative infection. She was just 41. They had five children, four of whom (Ruby, Nina, Marvin and Elaine) survived into adulthood. Walter died Feb. 15, 1948 of lingering heart disease. He was 68.
The Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune wrote about Walter Treutel’s last day on the job in 1934.
FAMILY LINE:Johann Adam Treutel >> Philipp Treutel >> Walter Treutel >> Ruby (Treutel) Hanneman >> Donn, David and Lavonne Hanneman.
Another newly discovered photograph from 1905 shows the Chas. Hanneman family of Grand Rapids, Wisconsin. It is the earliest known photo of this family, and the only clear photograph we have of mother Rosine Bertha Henrietta (Osterman) Hanneman.
This photo is a real treasure for its clarity and detail. Often prints this old have many flaws and defects, but this is one of the best in the Hanneman Archive collection. We received it courtesy of Tom Hanneman of Minneapolis. It was originally from the photo collection of one of the boys in the photo, Carl Henry Frank Hanneman (1901-1982).
It is also one of perhaps three photos we have that show Rosine “Rosie” Hanneman. This mother of five (her firstborn died in 1891) died on Easter Sunday 1918 of diabetes. She was just 47 years old. She lived in the days before availability of insulin.
The father of the family, Carl Frederick Christian (“Chas”) Hanneman (1866-1932) worked many jobs in central Wisconsin. He was initially a farmer after emigrating to Wisconsin from Meesow, Kreis Regenwalde, Pomerania, in November 1882. He worked in the timber industry before moving his family to the city of Grand Rapids (now called Wisconsin Rapids). There he worked as a laborer (17 cents per hour) digging and installing the city’s new sewer system in the early part of the 20th Century. Eventually, Chas took on work in a paper mill. He died of prostate cancer shortly after retiring from the mill.
One of Chas’ grandchildren, Donn G. Hanneman, recalled sitting on the hospital bed when Chas was being treated for his cancer. “I’m going to heaven soon,” Chas told the 6-year-old. “I’d like it if you would put flowers on my grave.”
Rosine Bertha Henrietta (Osterman) Hanneman (1870-1918), Frank Herman Albert Hanneman (1895-1947), Arthur James Hanneman (1893-1965), Carl Henry Frank Hanneman (1901-1982), Wilbert George Hanneman (1899-1987) and Carl Frederick Christian (Chas) Hanneman (1866-1932).
A newly discovered 1903 photo shows four Hanneman brothers of the Carl Frederick Christian Hanneman family. It is the earliest known photograph of our own Carl Henry Frank Hanneman (1901-1982). The photo was taken at Grand Rapids, Wisconsin.
In the front row are Carl (at left) and Wilbert George (1899-1987). In the back are Frank Herman Albert (1895-1947) and Arthur John (1893-1965). The firstborn of this family, Charles M. Hanneman, died just after his birth on November 24, 1891.
The boys were the sons of Carl Frederick Christian Hanneman (1866-1932) and Rosine Bertha Henrietta (Osterman) Hanneman (1870-1918). The couple were married in 1891.
The photo was scanned from a collection loaned to us by Thomas Donn Hanneman of Minneapolis, one of the 16 grandchildren of Carl F. and Ruby (Treutel) Hanneman of Mauston, Wisconsin.
For years, family genealogists have searched in vain for the emigration records of Matthias Hannemann, the earliest known ancestor of the Hanneman family of central Wisconsin. Over the years, the registers of hundreds of immigrant ships were searched, covering tens of thousands of names belonging to people who came through ports in New York, Baltimore and New Orleans. But no Matthias.
All of that changed several nights ago. During a routine search of newly transcribed records from the Port of Hamburg, Germany, I found Matthias’ name. He and his second wife, Caroline, traveled with their son, William, daughter Justina Louisa Henrietta Saeger and her family. They were among 474 passengers aboard the SS Hyram when it sailed from Hamburg on April 19, 1866. Matthias is listed on the register as a schwiegervater, or father-in-law, referring to his son-in-law, John Saeger.
It was a long journey aboard the segelschiff, or sailing ship. The ship docked at Grosse Isle near Québec on the St. Lawrence Seaway on June 4, 1866. Grosse Isle served as a quarantine station for ships destined for the Port of Québec in Canada, to prevent the spread of disease. Grosse Isle was the site of tragedy in 1847, when more than 5,000 Irish immigrants escaping the famine in their homeland died from typhus and other diseases upon reaching Canada. A large Irish cemetery and two monuments bear witness to those sad days.
Eight passengers on the Hyram died during the journey in 1866. Two children were born onboard ship. Once the 10 members of the Hannemann and Saeger families disembarked, they likely continued traveling by boat along the St. Lawrence River, across Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. From Detroit, they might have traveled by rail to Chicago and then Milwaukee on their way to tiny Kellner, Wis.
The Hyram’s ship registry is among the earliest documentary evidence of the Hannemann family’s exodus from Pomerania to Wisconsin. We know at least two of Matthias’ other children arrived in America in 1861, but their travel records have not been found. The earliest emigration record from this family is that of Michael Friedrich Ferdinand Hannemann, who arrived aboard the ship John Bertram in May 1863 with his wife, Wilhelmina and infant son, August.
For years we’ve wondered about the identity of a pretty young woman with dark hair and a beaded necklace. The photo was an old mounted print that came from the Hanneman collection at Mauston. There were no notations on the back of the print. Nor were there any similar photos among the hundreds of prints and negatives in the collection.
A recently discovered photo of a much older woman offers a hint of the identity of the younger woman. Both appear to be Rosine Bertha Henrietta (Osterman) Hanneman, the mother of Carl F. Hanneman.
The woman at left in the image above was identified as Rosie Hanneman by one of her sons, Wilbert G. Hanneman(1899-1987). A digital copy of the photo was supplied to us by one of Wilbert’s grandsons, Tim Swanson. The shape of the face and hair pulled back show similarities to the other photograph.
The photo at left is a bit shocking, because Rosine Hanneman was just 47 when she died of diabetes in 1918. It provides visual evidence of how the disease aged and otherwise wreaked havoc on its victims before the advent of commercially produced insulin in the mid-1920s.
Rosine Osterman was born on July 8, 1870 in Four Mile Creek, Wood County, Wisconsin. Her father, John Christian Osterman, came to America from Thuringia, Germany. Her mother, Wilhelmine Dorothea Schroeder, came from Prussia. On April 2, 1891, she married Carl Frederick Christian Hanneman, a sawmill laborer. They had five children: Arthur John (1893-1965), Frank Herman Albert (1895-1947), Wilbert George (1899-1987), Carl Henry Frank (1901-1982) and C.H., who died as an infant in 1892.
We have further evidence that our earliest Hanneman ancestor to come to Wisconsin went by the name “Martin” rather than his given legal name of Matthias.
The 1868 tax roll for the Town of Grant in Portage County says Martin Hannemann had property with an assessed value of $49.00. On that amount, he paid a tax of 98 cents for the school district, 66 cents for the township and 62 cents in other local taxes. His total tax bill was $2.26.
This is at least the third piece of evidence that Matthias Hannemann was known by the name Martin. On the 1870 U.S. Census he is listed as “Mart Hannemann. His name was also listed as Martin in a newspaper obituary for one of his children.
The tax document also establishes that Matthias was in America as early as 1868. We have yet to locate documentary evidence of his emigration from Kreis Regenwalde, Pomerania. We know two of his daughters came to Wisconsin in 1861.
Two newly discovered photographs show four generations of Hannemans, starting with Christian Hanneman, who came to America in 1882. The photographs were supplied by Richard Swanson, grandson of Wilbert G. Hanneman (1899-1987).
One of the photographs shows Arthur J. Hanneman and his then-infant son, James A. Hanneman; along with family patriarch Christian Hanneman and Art’s father, Charles F. A. Hanneman. Christian Hanneman is identified in the photographs as Cristofer. The other photograph shows Frank H. Hanneman and baby daughter Dorothy. The photos date to approximately 1917.
The Hanneman Archive 