Water color that Thomas MacDonald-Williams made for Doug Fischer in 1980.
I also want to mention that below I've added commentary under parts of the feature, and that these are MY opinions and I'm NOT speaking for the Fischer brothers nor have they expressed any opinions to me...they are solely my comments.
As I've been writing about for 10 years now, how I'm working on a Manning Veterans' history book (2 volumes), and I'm asking Manning Veterans and family members of deceased Veterans to bring me their military pictures and information to scan and add to the database for use in the book - below are a perfect examples of why I have decided to hold off on publishing the book.
There is so much Manning history about the military aspects of the community that I continue to find in one collection after another.
Items that I've never seen before, knew of their existence, or I had never found to scan, and need to be included in the Veterans' book.
WWI & especially WWII was an "all hands on deck" war where everyone: men, women, boys, girls, had to help with the war effort.
George Fischer didn't serve but as this amazing historical card shows that some men and women had to stay behind to grow the crops and raise the farm animals, fix the town and farm equipment, build the weapons of war, and all of the other necessities to keep a country going, or those Americans who were fighting overseas would have been defeated.
I've scanned lots of WWII ration stamps but have never seen a V - Fuel Oil Ration coupon used by businesses who sell and deliver fuel oil.
Just in case you don't know what the "V" stands for it means "Victory" which was also a hand gesture of the index and middle fingers only held up. LONG before the peacenicks of the 1960s adopted that gesture as a sign of "Peace."
George Fischer's gas mileage ration stamp booklet.
Henry & Anna Fischer with baby George in their 1906 Model S Ford
Henry Fischer
The tank on the side was for acetylene gas for the headlights.
Hilda (Hansen) Fischer's side of the family
Peter Hansen, Margaret (Sierks) Hansen, Dora (Hansen) Drehmann, Lucy (Hansen) Andresen
As I continue to learn more about our history and as I reflect on what is going on today in our country - I realize more and more how important learning and understanding
our local and regional history is, and also gaining a very BLUNT truth...a perspective of how easy we have it today as far as physical demands just to survive from day to day as our forebearers lived through, how good we have it today with all of the freedoms we (at this point still) have, and how we live in the greatest nation on earth...a people who fought and died for, to gain all of our Freedoms we have now, to end slavery as a world-wide accepted practice, to fight off Nazism, Socialism, Communism, Imperialism, Marxism, and so much more!!!
The constant complainers and miss-guided politicians apparently have absolutely no clue as to how we got to where we are today, and the millions upon millions of individual Pioneers who gave us such a blessed lifestyle to live in.
I'm sure there are some of you who are on the other side of the political aisle and don't care about my thoughts and opinions, and even those who might agree with me to some extent and don't want to be bothered with my views and that is OK, but as long as I continue to hear politicians and wacko anti-American activists tear down this country, I'll continue to use various aspects of our history on my web pages to show how GREAT our country has been and still is...BUT it won't last long if these nuts take over complete control of all levels of our federal government.
Then compound this attack on our country by the invasion of illegals who are nothing more than criminals who are KNOWINGLY breaking our sovereign laws...and don't fall
for the "child" sympathy factor...these kids have cell phones and access the Internet - they know exactly what is going on and are not the backward people we are being led to believe.
Observe the videos of the gangs of people moving towards our country...there are "fat" people...they have modern and good clothing, many have cell phones - these are not destitute people on the last leg of survival.
I don't see hand-me-down clothes that has been patched and sewn up like I remember as a kid.
I have yet to see one person who is the "skeleton" image of a concentration camp victim, or the distended stomach like you see in a poor African country where they have a horrible dietary lifestyle.
Then the fact that the parents of these illegal kids pay the cartels to take them to the border - realizing that their kids may and probably will be sexually assaulted - so don't preach to me about being insensitive - I'm not sending kids into harm's way, but those parents who want to use their kids as "anchor babies" so they can also get into the US illegally.
We don't owe anyone or any country ANYTHING...if anything they OWE us!
I just don't understand why there aren't an endless number of people speaking out publically about the good of the country - there should be a huge roar of positivity but it is mostly crickets...
If all people want to do is spend every day to find every little fault that exists or existed in an imperfect world, then we are dooming our existence.
These complainers want to put everyone into little groups and if you are in a group who disagrees with them then you are part of a "hate" group.
These people who claim to be morally superior are nothing more than blithering idiots and again, know NOTHING about our history...that there were/are hundreds of millions of Americans who went about their daily lives, long before these present-day morons were born, and simply worked hard, raised their families, helped to build up their churches, schools, and communities and didn't stick their noses into someone else's life/business in another town or another state.
Again, these hard-working people basically had to spend their time working to survive.
Here is another ONE of those "millions" who came before us who made the US into the exceptional country it is today.
Another one of my Manning helpers (Tim Hansen) found Joe and his wife's obituary for me.
We now know the business was a tavern
and at least know more about his family...hopefully a descendant will see this thread and contact me to get pictures and more information about this Nagl family.
Joseph Nagl, 77, of 1425 Harriet Avenue, Carroll, died Monday evening, December 12, 1966, of a heart ailment at St. Anthony Hospital, where he had been a patient for three days.
Requiem mass will be read at 9:30 Thursday morning in St. Lawrence Church by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Henry B. Karhoff. Interment will be in St. Mary's Cemetery, Willey. Friends may call at the Sharp Funeral Home in Carroll after 7 p.m. Tuesday. The rosary will be recited at 8 and 8:45 p.m. Tuesday; Wednesday at 3 p.m. by the Legion of Mary, also at 8 p.m. and at 8:45 p.m. by Court Sacred Heart No. 454, Catholic Daughters of the Americas of Templeton.
Mr. Nagl, son of Michael and Crescentia Nagl, was born at Willey January 24, 1889. He lived at home until his marriage to Elizabeth Hansman on May 18, 1915. The wedding took place in St. Mary's Church, Willey, with the late Rev. John B. Baeumler officiating. The couple moved to a farm northwest of Templeton. In 1939, they moved to Manning, where Mr. Nagl went into business; and in 1952, they moved to the present home in Carroll. He was a member of St. Lawrence Church.
Surviving are his wife; four daughters, Mrs. L.F. (Germaine) Dominise and Edna Nagl,
Carroll; Delores Nagl, Oakland, California; and Mrs. Ray (Ruth) Thieleke of Urbandale; also six
grandchildren, three great-grandchildren; a brother, Frank Nagl,
and a sister, Mrs. Henry Hoffman, both of Dedham. Four brothers and one sister receded him in death.
Mrs. Elizabeth F. Nagl, 78, of 1425 Harriet Avenue, Carroll, died Friday, January 24, 1975, at St. Anthony Regional Hospital, where she was a patient for eight weeks.
Mass of the resurrection will be celebrated at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in St. Lawrence Church by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Henry B. Karhoff. Burial will be in St. Mary's Cemetery at Willey.
Friends may call at the Sharp Funeral Home, where the rosary will be recited Monday at 3 p.m. by the Legion of Mary, at 4 p.m. by the CDA Past Grand Regents of Templeton, and at 8 p.m. by St. Lawrence parishioners.
Mrs. Nagl, daughter of John and Anna (Greteman) Hansman, was born July 29, 1896, at Willey and spent her early years in that vicinity. On May 18, 1915, she married Joseph M. Nagl at St. Mary's Church in Willey. They spent a year in Carroll and in 1916 moved to a farm near Templeton. In 1940, they moved to Manning, where Mr. Nagl owned and operated a tavern until 1946. Following his retirement in 1952 they moved from Manning to the above address in Carroll. Mr. Nagl died December 12, 1966.
Mrs. Nagl is survived by two daughters, Mrs. L.F. (Germaine) Dominise of Carroll and Mrs. Ruth Thieleke of Des Moines; five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren; two sisters, Mrs. Ann Matt of Omaha, Nebraska, and Mrs. John (Bess) Baglin of Santa Rosa, California; and a brother, Louis Hansman of Chillicothe, Ohio.
Preceding her in death besides her husband were two daughters, Edna and Delores; a granddaughter, Marijane Dominise; three brothers and two sisters.
Mrs. Nagl was a member of St. Lawrence Church and Ladies Guild; Catholic Daughters of the Americas and Past Grand Regents of Templeton; and the Legion of Mary.
Today what do we see happen to many of our old buildings and historic structures???
A huge excavator comes in and crunches the building into oblivion and then they haul it to the landfill, or the structure is burned to the ground.
"Why they are old useless buildings I hear constantly..."
Then I think about the buildings in Europe/Germany that are a thousand or more years old...our buildings are still in their diapers.
Recycling became a "fad" word in the 1970s and 80s, but if the people even then would have known their history better, they would have realized they were only following in the footsteps of their Pioneer ancestors who wasted nothing and tried to find a use for everything...CASE in point down below.
If a new building was needed where an old one stood, they "simply" moved it to a new location.
If they didn't move it they tore it down to salvage the lumber and most everything else in that structure...sometimes used the old lumber to build the new replacement structure.
I'm old enough to be a part of that recycling era...in the 1960s, dad would tear down old houses and we saved pretty much everything - we even straightened the nails we pulled for reuse! We also tore down/salvaged old farm buildings and salvaged a lot of the flooring and other lumber from the old grade school...so I have a deep appreciation and understanding of what recycling really means.
Moving the old Lincoln No. 3 school house to make room for a new school house.This school house (original Lincoln No. 3 school building) was moved to the farm presently owned by Tim & Joni (Siepker) Kienast who lives in section 5 of Lincoln Township. This building was replaced by a newer country school which was built on the same site - Lincoln No. 3.
While pulling the school house down the road, they got it stuck in the road "V" cut and had to dig out the sides of the road embankment so the schoolhouse could get through.
When they arrived at the Dammann farm, the school house was to be positioned at the top of a hill. Large hay ropes were hooked to the front of the Oil Pull tractor which was still hooked to the school house. The ropes ran through a series of pulleys which were attached to another set of pulleys tied to a group of trees at the top of the hill and the 2 smaller tractors pulled on the ropes going "downhill" to assist the larger tractor going up the hill.
At the very start of moving the school.
Rumley Oil Pull hooked to the school house - Henry Fischer on ground - George Fischer driving
Another common scene in the countryside years ago.
George & Eddie Fischer pouring water for the threshing crew 1921
Another thing I know about the people of our past is even though they worked hard most of the time - they also "played" hard.
When there was no TV, or Internet, and even when they got radio, most people had to entertain themselves and their local community.
There were families of musicians and they spent countless hours practicing and then performing in front of neighbors and community members with some of the local bands who performed around the state and Midwest.
Now the people who were entertained didn't just sit around and drink beer...they danced and boy could most of them really dance well and for hours on end.
Today we mostly watch as couch potatoes, either on a big screen TV or on a small screen with something from the Internet...and much of the time by ourselves or only a few people
around us.
If you were fortunate to live long enough or at a specific point in time you were blessed to participate in community anniversary celebrations.
Besides musical talents Manning has been blessed with a lot of skilled actors and actresses, from Tent Chautauqua, to skits and plays performed on stages over the decades.
One of the 1981 plays was "Dearie Do you Remember" and skits such as "Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs."
In case you don't know some/all of the actors in the video it starts out with Ruth (Brady) Hiatt - grandmother of Nikki (Foutch) Sorensen. Next comes Aloha (Waterbury) Enenbach - sister to Cliff Waterbury. Dwarfs: Larry Genzen - son of Virgil & Florence (Hinz) Genzen, Paul "Herbie" Hiatt - son of Ronnie & Ruth Hiatt, Ray "Sammy" Irlbeck - father of Paul, Charles "Chuck" Hughes - brother of Mike, Joe Sonksen - husband of Edna (Karsten), Ralph Grundmeier - son of Hugo and Anna (Mergele) Grundmeier, Doug Fischer - our feature story family member.
Now I did not try to list every family member or generation above but wanted to give a "flavor" of who some of the relatives are to the dwarfs.
I also videotaped the 1981 Manning Centennial and need to digitize all of those tapes someday too. I need to get it done before the video tapes deteriorate - no one knows how long they will last - basically it is magnetic signal on rust.
One thing I dread is that at the beginning of the video technology, the tapes cost $30 or more, so I used the SLP setting which is the worst quality setting on the recorder...which now I'm kicking myself for but after spending nearly $3000 on a VCR, camera and accessories I didn't have a lot of extra money sitting around to buy an endless supply of tapes.
Anyway, here are some scans I made of pictures that Doug Fischer had in his collection.
I've scanned pictures from other people's collections before but these came from Doug and were taken in front of Manning Motor Company on Main Street...
Staging area for parade - Merlyn Irlbeck farm to the east
Jackie Handlos - I think Pork Queen
Budweiser Clydesdales
Merlyn Irlbeck - Fire chief's car
Barber Gerald Schulte - family
Brother's of the Brush jail
Pete Kuhl band
Larry Fischer piano, George Fischer,
Ralph Grundmeier banjo, Eddie Fischer, Gary Schroeder accordion