Grilling in Winter

One of my Dad's favorite winter activities!

Can't remember the last time I had a barbecued steak. Decades.

Wouldn't touch it today, but back then I liked nothing better. Medium rare, please.

In February.

Ed 'n' Ann

When we were kids sometimes we would get out the old slide projector (big heavy metal thing you had to feed the slides through one at a time) and explore the ever growing collection of family photos. Mostly they grew by 2 or 3 boxes each year in late August when the vacation slides came back from Park Row Drugs or wherever it was we took slide film then.

Along with years and years of obligatory Cape Cod beach photos, we would occasionally break into the "old boring" black and white slides from my parents early days. Must have been raining out.

Here's a gem from that collection. Could be pre-marriage. Can't see Ann's left hand and Ed looks like he's got a college ring on his left ring finger. I don't think he ever had a wedding ring, though, did he? Men didn't always wear them then. I wonder whose apartment the party was at. He had one over by the YMCA on Garden Street in Little Falls. They look so happy.

Postcards From Home

Here's a selection of images from Waconia courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

All are from within a couple years of Ed's birth.

 Main Street, ca. 1910. Is that a Model T Ford? Maybe earlier model; they only just came out in 1908. Reminds me of the story of my dad driving one (learning to drive, presumably), having an accident and putting his father through the windshield. Anybody else remember that tale?

 Public School, ca. 1910. 

There was a Catholic school as well, built in 1908. Presumably the Mocksters went there.

North Star Buffet, ca. 1909. Where folks went to belt one down, presumably.

 

St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, ca. 1909.
From the PARISH'S WEBSITE: 

In 1857, the first Mass was offered in the Sam Schmitt home, the father of Veronica Johnson and Barbara Born, on the site of the Adrian Rademacher residence, about two miles southeast of Waconia. The first church was built out of logs in 1859 on what is now the front lawn of the rectory.

 

Our ancestors quickly outgrew this log church and built a larger brick church in 1875 on the southeast corner of the same block, where the rectory driveway is today. Within twenty years it was outgrown, so a new church was planned and built on the present site in 1900. It remains today. 

Engineers say the granite rock foundation can last at least two hundred more years.

 Looking west over the lake, 1910.

All the early references call the lake "Clearwater Lake". Google maps label it "Lake Waconia."

I think the name Waconia actually means something close to clear water. True?

 Landing at Coney Island, ca. 1908

I guess "the Coney Island of the West" was kind of a big deal.

Don't think I ever heard about it.

Grandfather: Ferdinand Mock

Following text excerpted from Ferdinand Mock's obituary in the Sept. 10, 1915 Waconia Patriot

Ferdinand Mock was born in Gossmans Dorf, Bayern, Germany, on January 31, 1845, and received the best education in the schools of his community. His father was the proprietor of a cobbler shop where, after school, Ferdinand would spend hours learning the shoemaker trade.

When a young man he joined the German army, becoming a member of the 3rd Baierischer Yaeger regiment, and by true patriotism was advanced to one of the officers of his company. His company took an important part in the battle of Woerth* on August 6th, 1870, when the French and Germans fought a bloody battle.  After this battle Mr. Mock was awarded a medal of honor which he has worn ever since.

Württemberg  troops attack at Woerth

Almost a month later or on September 1^st, his regiment was again in the thick of the fray in the battle of Sedan. It was a fierce battle and thousands of men were lost on both sides. He fought gallantly side by side with the rich man and the poor man, men falling mortally wounded all around him. It was a decisive battle in which the French military power was destroyed and the western Germany frontier was rendered secure and the German empire established.

Soon after the latter incident in his life Mr. Mock was taken sick with typhoid fever and lay in the German military hospital for over a month, when he was honorably discharged.

In the year of 1873 he emigrated to this country stopping at St. Paul with a party of friends of his childhood days. In this party was also Miss Maragetha Kolb. They became closely attached, their friendship growing to love and they were married at Waconia on October 4^th, 1873.

For about four months he labored among farmers, clearing the brush, falling trees and building roads, and assisted in laying out the townsite of the present village of Waconia. For these labors he received a few dollars with which he purchased some leather and a few tools and opened the first shoe repair shop in Carver county. As the business grew he added a light stock of shoes, increasing as did the trade until he had established one of the finest and well stocked exclusive shoe stores in this part of the country. He remained active in business until about fifteen years ago [circa. 1900] when he retired because of his hearing being affected.

* From Wikipedia:
The Battle of Wörth, also known as the Battle of Reichshoffen or as the Battle of Fröschweiler, should more correctly be called the second battle of Wörth, as the first one occurred on 23 December 1793. This second battle of Wörth took place on 6 August 1870 in the opening stages of the Franco-Prussian War. Troops from Germany commanded by Crown Prince Frederick and directed by his Chief of Staff, General Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal, defeated the French under Marshal Mac-Mahon near the village of Wörth in Alsace, on the Sauer, 10 km north of Haguenau.

See entire obituary:

 

Bobo's Birthday!

Happy 100th!

Edward J. Mock

aka: Bobo

born: February 1, 1911

in Waconia, Minnesota

left these parts:

February 13, 1982

he was a pretty good dancer, actually

Eugene & Mary

Eugene H. Mock was born in Waconia, MN on April 18th, 1880, the son of Ferdinand and Margaret Mock. Mary Zahalka was born in Hopkins, MN on July 11, 1879, the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Alois Zrust. (Ed.: I am unclear as to why Mary was referred to as Mary Zahalka in her obituary and as Mary Zrust in Eugene's obituary)

Eugene and Mary were wed on May 22, 1902. In that same year, Eugene established himself in the cigar and tobacco business which he gradually made into a successful enterprise. 

Their children:

Gertrude, born June 22, 1903
Lucille, born July 10, 1905
Edward, born February 1, 1911 
and Richard. (birthday, anyone?)

Click on photo and take a good look. Captions, anyone?

The origins of Bobo

Waconia from Coney Island (Steeple is St. Joseph's R.C. Church)

Waconia, Minnesota

The first inhabitants of the Waconia area came from New Orleans, up the Mississippi River, over the Minnesota River to Carver’s Landing at Carver, Minnesota.  From there, they followed Carver’s Creek to Burandt’s lake, and found their way through heavily wooded area to what is now Waconia.

The actual settlement of the area where Waconia is now located began as soon as the Indian title to the land was extinguished and a government survey made.  Ludwig Sutheimer and Michael Scheidnagel are claimed to have been the first permanent settlers.  

In 1857, a group of German settlers arrived to the fertile lands of Waconia Township and many remained permanently.  Additional nationalities settling in the area were Bohemians, Swedes, and Swiss.  

The first church in Waconia was St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church which was organized in 1857 by Rev. Father Bruno Riss.  The first services were held in private homes but in 1858 a frame church was built at a cost of $600.  

While white settlers continued to move into the Waconia area, in 1862, a Dakota Indian tribe settled on a reservation along the upper shore of the Minnesota River.  The settlers had to pay the Indians for the land they now lived on.  With the start of the Civil War, times were tough for the settlers of this region.  The harvest was bad that year, and many of the men that normally farmed the land were sent off to fight in the war.  This sparked the so-called “Sioux Uprising.”

During the uprising, most settlers were forced to flee their homes and properties.  Many women and children buried their belongings in their backyards and fled to the Island (what we now know as Coney Island). They holed up there for fourteen days surviving by hunting the wild game provided by the then heavily forested island.  Those settlers who had stayed behind made barricades around an old log house and fired at their attackers through holes they made in the barricades.  

At the end of the fight, the Indians left the area and scarcely returned.  Those that were killed during the fighting were buried in two mounds on the north shore of the lake and the settlers were able to return to the farm land they had left behind to begin to rebuild.

Paradise Island, later changed to Coney Island in 1884 by Lambert Naegele, was considered the paradise of the northwest.  Development on the island started after Naegele’s purchase with the first full season at the resort in 1885.  This was a successful season and sparked further growth on the island.  After the ice melted on the lake, construction of another resort started along with a boarding house, several cottages, and a boathouse.  Two large steamships traveled back and forth to the island.  Many of the residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul were frequent visitors to the resorts. 

Text taken from www.waconia.org

Postcard, 1915: view from Coney Island