The Private Life of Charles Macomb Flandrau

 Charles Macomb Flandrau (1871-1938) ...best known for his 1909 travel book Viva Mexico! He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the son of noted lawyer Charles Eugene Flandrau, educated at Harvard but didn't receive a degree.  His experiences there formed the basis of his first book Harvard Episodes (1897). This small book was read by those who felt it's sting, and those who rejoiced at the snob-set getting a come-uppance. Commissioned pieces for the Saturday Evening Post followed as Flandrau became a popular contributor at the turn of the century. Flandrau’s other books did not prove to be as successful.  

Lawrence Peter Haeg has written two books on Flandrau: Little Corners of Great Places: The Private Life of Charles Macomb Flandrau (1981) and In Gatsby's Shadow  Shadow : The Story of Charles Macomb Flandrau (2004). 

I certainly enjoyed this book. As it was night time reading, I did it in small bites and enjoyed savoring it and also the after taste.  My objection is to the title as it has so little to do with F. Scott Fitzgerald 

  

Larry Haeg observes, "Flandrau felt literature was being prostituted, monetized, taken under the tent of the new mass media, and made a cultural circus featuring what he called 'trained performers"

 

Theodore Roosevelt often stayed on the Flandrau house when he was in Saint Paul.  The families were frequent correspondents. Many of the letters are archived in the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at the State University of Dickenson, Dickenson North Dakota

"Flandrau, a model of style and worldly sophistication and destined, almost everyone agreed, for greatness, was among the most talented young writers of his generation. His short stories about Harvard in the 1890s were called “the first realistic description of undergraduate life in American colleges”

Yet Flandrau turned his back on it all. Financially independent, he chose a solitary, epicurean life in St. Paul, Mexico, Majorca, Paris, and Normandy. In later years, he confined his writing to local newspaper pieces and letters to his small circle of family and friends."

"Using excerpts from these newspaper columns and unpublished letters, Larry Haeg has painstakingly recreated the story of this urbane, talented, witty, lazy, enigmatic, supremely private man who never reached the peak of literary success to which his talent might have taken him."(from publisher, Iowa University Press) 

 I have now also read Viva Mexico. He shares observations of life on his brother's coffee plantation. He carefully reports about growing coffee, the scenery, the workers, and the visitors. Interesting that in 1908 there wasn't a genre for memoirs which is where I will shelve it. 

President Theodore Roosevelt's Letter 

upon receiving Viva Mexico as a gift from

the Theodore Roosevelt collection at The

State University of Dickenson in Dickenson,

North Dakota                      

I was interested in finding out more about Larry Haeg and borrowed his new (2013) book, Harriman vs. Hill from the library.   Too much "Wall Street" and banking talk for me but I am enjoying the personal portraits.  Informative descriptions of the actual railroad building and the agricultural history continue to be good reasons to stick with it. There is a big demand for this book in our library system.  

 

photos from the article "In Search of the Real Grace Flandrau" by Georgia Ray

Minnesota History, Summer 1999

Now Reading: Loquacities by Charles Macomb Flandrau

Contents; The Bustle, an episode of the eighties -- Memory and Mrs. Grinder -- Yellowed with Age --Peace, Perfect Peace -- Arrival -- The Colonel's Hat -- Hotel de la Grille -- Melodeons and Hoop Skirts -- Of Earthquakes -- Hello! Hello! -- "The Old Things" -- Rag bag -- The Guignol, Revisited -- The Colt -- Jarana at breakfast.

 

a side trip to Jonesdale, Waldwick Township, Iowa County, Wisconsin

                  Rev. Griffith Jones

Reverend Griffith Jones was born in Wales in 1828. He emigrated to America in 1845 where he met Catherine Rowland.  They were married in 1848.  He and his wife helped to organize the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church and he ministered to the Dodgeville congregation.

Griffith and Catherine had nine children, four boys and five girls.  Oldest to youngest: John G., William G., Hannah G. Margaret G., Lacy G., and Marie Ann. 

As the family grew, Griffith moved his family to the country in Waldwick township.  They were engaged in farming.   Griffith Jones died on February 10, 1902. 

Griffith erected a mill along the Dodge Branch of the Pecatonica River in 1871. The Dodge Branch is a twenty-two mile long; spring fed tributary originating in central Iowa County, just north of Dodgeville. The stream is part of the Upper East Branch Pecatonica River watershed, and flows southeast, draining into the East Branch of the Pecatonica River near Hollandale.   

The original name was the Waldwick Mill but later changed to Jonesdale Mill.

 

The "Golden Meadow Mill" was built on the same stream, by Allen & Co., but owned and managed by William Uren & Co.

In 1887 John Ley built the Union Hotel. He had lumber shipped up the Old Helena River and transferred it by horse and wagon to the village.  John also operated a dance hall. The facility was also used for silent movies and home talent shows.  He was also involved with the Butcher Meat Market and the Jonesdale Barber Shop.

The Illinois Central Railroad was built through Jonesdale in 1887 with the track layers reaching Jonesdale on March 3rd of that year.  Henry Carter became the first station agent and lived in John Ley's hotel. His office was in a box car until the depot was finished in 1888. 

The Wisconsin Railroad Commission approved it's abandonment in 1938 and on July 25, 1942 the last train ran on the tracks. The tracks were quickly taken up followed by the demolition of the depot.  Less than 50 years from a bustling place to it's demise.

The lumber yard, opened for business in 1894. It was owned by J. Richart.  Much of the lumber was hauled out of Jonesdale by the Illinois Central Railroad.  

Main Street stores included those of Kramer, Reeves and Girardin.  The Post Office was located in the Reeves Store with Frank Van Matre as the postmaster.  When the telephone line was run through the village in 1904, the closest telephone for most villagers was also located in the Reeves Store.  

The village blacksmith shop was owned by Jerry Sullivan, who also repaired wagons.   Horse shoe repair was 50 cents per set.  

Dick Gribble had a farm implement store and also sold grain.

Farm machinery, including the John Deere riding plows, harrows, seeders, drills and corn planters, was sold by R. G. White at the Buggy Shop.  

Then and now photo comparisons:

Some of the information and most of the older photos appear in the book Jonesdale 1885.  It was edited by Tonia James-Anderson, Written by Jackie Gempler, Leotta Ley, and Tonia James-Anderson.  Book is a spiral bind edition and available through the Iowa County Historical Society. www.iowacountyhistorical society.org

A Curmudgeon's visit to Grand View

On a recent Sunday afternoon, Shan and I decided to take ride.  Our destination was the Waldwick cemetery where we were tracking Find-a-Grave requests.  You may remember I wrote about Find-a-Grave in the last blog.  We followed State Highway 78 to the junction with 39 and traveled west though Hollandale. On the way we passed the Outsider Environment of Nick Engelbert.  We decided to return for a walk-about after we were done photographing at Waldwick Cemetery.  As luck would have it, while we were walking around the grounds, a neighbor with a key asked us if we would like to have a look at the inside of the house.  We  were happy with our good fortune and had a look around. I had already taken some photos on the grounds and was able to add some of the interior.

Interior Engebert house: G.F. Glaeve photo

Interior: G.F. Glaeve photo

Much of the text of the rest of the blog is from the Kohler Foundation link to

nicksgrandview.com

Born in Austria in 1881, young Engelbert Koletnik attended school in Vienna and later apprenticed with a master machinist. Drafted into the Austrian-Hungarian army, he served two years, then fled first to Europe, then America where he changed his name to Nick Engelbert to start a new life. 

In 1913, Engelbert married Katherine Thoni, a recent Swiss immigrant, and in 1922, they settled and raised four children on a small seven-acre farm just outside the village of Hollandale, Wisconsin.  Engelbert created his first concrete sculpture in the 1930s, reportedly while recovering from a sprained ankle. 

Nick with his wheelbarrow and tools, photo from Kohler Foundation

Family members recall that Engelbert was rather quiet about his sculpture production, but, by 1950, his entire yard was transformed into an artistic landscape of

flower beds designed and tended by Katherine. Engelbert also decorated the exterior of the simple clapboard farmhouse with a colorful mosaic of concrete, embellished with stones, shells, glass shards, and fragments of ceramic dinnerware and porcelain figurines. 

The surrounding landscape of rolling hills and bucolic farmland enhanced the aura. It was truly for the "grand view" that Engelbert named his sculpted panorama. 

View of the countryside from the front yard,  photo by G.F. Glaeve, 4-20-2014

In 1951, on his seventieth birthday, Engelbert received a set of oil paints. He soon taught himself to paint, and in the next ten years, created his second body of art, approximately 74 paintings of his Grandview sculpture environment, the exotic places he visited, and the humor and essence of everyday life. These are held by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.

Katherine died in 1960 and Engelbert soon sold Grandview and moved to Baltimore to live with his daughter. Before he left, however, he painted a final tribute to the pastoral landscape that inspired his life: a mural on the living room wall of the farmhouse that depicted the Hollandale countryside.

A portion of Nick's mural with an outside view,  photo by G.F. Glaeve 4-20-2014

Kohler Foundation purchased Grandview in 1991 as part of its ongoing commitment to preserve art and sculpture of self-taught artists. By that time, most of Engelbert's sculpture had severely deteriorated. Many were found in pieces throughout the property and some were missing entirely.

The Grand View House photo by G.F. Glaeve 4-20-2014

Historic photographs gathered from family and friends were an invaluable preservation tool. They provided documentation and crucial information about individual sculptures and the surrounding landscape.

                                                                                       photographs from Kohler Collection

Reproduced Monkey Tree
photo G.F.Glaeve 4-20-14

The historic integrity of Grandview was restored with cooperation and assistance from an extraordinary cadre of professionals and volunteers. Art conservators, curators, area contractors, historians, architects and designers all worked together in a unique collaboration.

Kohler Foundation orchestrated a preservation plan that incorporated conservation, reproduction, and some replication of sculpture, as well as restoration and rehabilitation of the structures. An interpretive exhibit was installed on the first floor of the restored farmhouse that displays photographic documentation, sculpture remnants, and personal archives.

In 1997, Kohler Foundation donated Grandview to the Pecatonica Educational Charitable Foundation, Inc. The spirited stewardship of this group has made it possible to welcome visitors from all over the world. For more information, visit www.nicksgrandview.com. 

The Wisconsin Art Environment Consortium created the video podcast about Nick Engelbert's Grandview.

  

                          

Curmudgeon explores some cemeteries

The last few years I have taken my trusty Nikon camera into some of the local cemeteries.   The search is for headstones.  The headstone photos are then loaded into a searchable database. See post below for findagrave. 

The site was started by two guys who were interested in gravestones of famous people.  

Sinclair Lewis gravestone

Sinclair Lewis

Here is the listing for Sinclair Lewis, a recent subject in one of my blogs.  (findagrave listing here)

 It has grown beyond the famous grave sites into a large database of gravestone photos of us commoners who never made a name for ourselves.  Obituary info and family photos are often included with family genealogical information often attached.  Kick the tires and take it for a spin.  You may like it.  



Be forewarned however, there are some problems with this site.  Anyone can enter information, which is a good thing.   Most participants take good photos and are careful with the listings.  However, some are not  so the posts range from very good to not so much.   There are stated rules for the site but rules can or can not be observed.  I guarantee you will be frustrated at times, but after a couple of years, I still think the prize is worth the pain.  I have often found info not available in other venues.  

Yellowstone Lutheran Cemetery, Argyle Wisconsin, photo by G.F. Glaeve 8-15-2013

I usually take photos in the smaller cemeteries within a 20 mile radius of my home.  I prefer those nestled in the scenic hills to the south and the west.  One of my favorites is the Yellowstone Lutheran Church Cemetery in Argyle, Lafayette County.  It is a beautiful spot with scenic vistas and a charming church building. 

York Memorial Lutheran Cemetery, photo by G.F. Glaeve 10-10-2013

Another favorite of mine is the York Memorial Lutheran Cemetery,  York Township, Green County.  The church is situated on the top of a ridge.  In 1850 settlers that were located on the juncture of Dane, Iowa, Green and Lafayette Counties formed a church congregation.  Worship services were held at the Torger Skartum farm. York church was organized in 1855 by 20 families.  Construction of a church building was begun in 1861, but was delayed by the Civil War.  The church was completed and dedicated in 1872. 

York Lutheran Free Church 7-10-1935

 In 1880 a disagreement arose in the congregation and it split.  One congregation faction purchased the existing building and the other built a new structure.  These buildings became known as the “Old York” and the “New York.”  Over the years the Old York Church constructed in 1861 was added on to and remodeled with a parish hall constructed in 1953. 

Old York Lutheran Church marker, photo by G.F. Glaeve 4-20-2014

The church closed in 1966 and the building was razed in 1977.  A monument to its existence and the cemetery are all that remain. 

the Curmudgeon takes the CPAP on it's first road trip.

First trip with the breathing machine, otherwise known as the CPAP. Guess it went okay although it is a bit of a hassle to lug another case plus the distilled water jug. The alternative is no longer an option, and it gives me something else to complain about.

Johannes Brahms – “A Symphony is No Joke.”

Minimalistic design that only has four parts Forehead support designed to easily flex to the needed position for a better fit

Air vents designed for quieter and gentler air diffusion to reduce noise

"Positive airway pressure (PAP) is the most common form of treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).  OSA occurs when the tissue in the back of the throat collapses and blocks the airway as you sleep.  This causes you to stop breathing many times during the night. Breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes. They may occur 30 times or more an hour.  PAP supplies a steady stream of air that blows gently into the back of your throat.  When it is properly set, a PAP unit provides just the right amount of air to keep your airway open.  This allows you to breathe normally as you sleep.  The level of air pressure needed is different for each person.  A CPAP study at a sleep center will determine the level that is right for you." from UCLA sleep disorders center (see more here)


 "Sleep Apnea usually is a chronic (ongoing) condition that disrupts your sleep. When your breathing pauses or becomes shallow, you’ll often move out of deep sleep and into light sleep.  As a result, the quality of your sleep is poor, which makes you tired during the day. Sleep apnea is a leading cause of excessive daytime sleepiness."   National Institutes of Health

Bottom line, if you want to keep breathing, and you are accused of snoring, best to get yourself checked out or go sleep with the dog.

Celebrities with the disorder include:

Rosie O'Donnell was diagnosed with sleep apnea in 2007, and she discussed her sleep problems on The View. "I didn't know that I had it, but I suspected," O'Donnell said on the show, adding that she had been a little embarrassed about the issue because of the well-known connection between sleep apnea and excess weight. She underwent a sleep study and found out that she had more than 200 micro-awakenings (waking events that you might not even notice or remember) a night and once stopped breathing for about 40 seconds.

Shaquille O'Neal 

Nicole Alexander, the 7-foot-1-inch retired basketball legend's former girlfriend  actually noticed that Shaq would snore deeply through the night and sometimes stop breathing.

Roseanne Barr

In an episode of her reality show "Roseanne's Nuts" called Life's a Snore, Barr attends a sleep clinic to address her snoring problem, where she receives a diagnosis of sleep apnea.

Reggie White   The late Reggie White, a National Football League Hall of Famer who led the Green Bay Packers to a win in Super Bowl XXXI, had also been diagnosed with sleep apnea. In 2004, he died of the rare lung disease sarcoidosis at age 43, and it's possible that his sleep problems contributed to his early death. White's wife, Sara, co-founded the Reggie White Sleep Disorders Research & Education Foundation in his honor. The foundation's goal is to raise awareness of sleep disorders and make CPAP machines available to those in need.

Thomas Edison: About eight hours of sleep a night is the ideal for most people. But Thomas Edison is rumored to have worked and slept in alternating fits and starts, sleeping only four hours a night and taking frequent power naps during the day. This lifestyle of napping, working, and sleeping in short spurts multiple times a day is sometimes referred to as polyphasic sleep. Other notables who followed a similar pattern are Leonardo DaVinci, Nikola Tesla, and Napoleon.

Jerry in 1968

Jerry Garcia  the lead singer of the Grateful Dead, Garcia also had sleep apnea.  Jerry passed away in 1995 from a heart attack that his doctors say was exacerbated by sleep apnea. If Jerry were with us today, he’d probably go for something like the AirFit P10 Mask System, which is one of the quietest and lightest masks around and would accommodate that amazing mane of curly white locks and really good vibes.

Even with the CPAP, my sleep pattern is more like Thomas Edisons (polyphasic sleep).  My sleep therapist seems okay with that though he would prefer that I get a straight, uninterrupted 8 hours.  Both he and I are resigned to the fact that it ain't going to happen.   

Curmudgeon heads to his home town, Saint Paul MN

Just back from Saint Paul, and a few places north of there, to work on some genealogy stuff and meet cousins who I didn't know existed until recently.  There was snow cover but a 70 degree day helped wipe out much of the previous week's 10 inch snow.

I promise nothing about F. Scott Fitzgerald or John Dillinger.  Those two personalities, with Minnesota connections, have been over-reported and though I still find the fascination with Dillinger fascinating, I won't go there. Not too many places in Minnesota that don't claim a Dillinger sighting. Best book on Dillinger in Saint Paul is the Paul Maccabee book, John Dillinger Slept Here.

James J. Hill Reference Library, Saint Paul Minnesota

One story I find interesting is the one about Sinclair Lewis and his move to Saint Paul's Summit Avenue to write a novel about James J. Hill.   He moved in just down the block from the Hill residence.  As he set about his research he found it overwhelming and gave up.  Understandable since the James J. Hill personal papers alone consist of 672.0 cu. ft. including 1231 boxes, 65 folders, 49 tubes, and 175 microfilm reels.

Sinclair Lewis Residence, 516 Summit Ave

The Lewis research is mentioned in correspondence to Alfred Harcourt.  "...'actually spent a couple of weeks reading oceans of dope'. Nothing came of it for he says he was baffled and that he couldn’t find his way out." Mark Schorer, Sinclair Lewis. An American Life.

"The year 1917 saw him (S. Lewis) residing in St. Paul, in a lemon colored brick house on Summit Avenue... During this Minnesota sojourn, He also visited the Cass Lake lumber camps and slept in a bunkhouse." The Minnesota Backgrounds of Sinclair Lewis' Fiction by John T. Flanagan, Minnesota History, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Mar., 1960)

The year 1917 was also my father's birth year in Cass Lake, Minnesota.  Sinclair had probably come and gone before dad opened his eyes.  Grandpa very possibly was working in the lumber camps.

Very curmudgeonly of Sinclair when he wrote on April 8, 1942: "Minneapolis is so ugly. Parking lots like scabs. Most buildings are narrow, drab, dirty, flimsy, irregular—in relationship to one another—a set of bad teeth." Lewis quoted in Esquire, 50:161.   Of course being of the same persuasion about Minneapolis, by birthright, (bad pun) I agree. 

"Those who knew Sinclair Lewis well found him alternately kind or curmudgeonly, swinger or recluse, liberal or petty, generous to rivals or nasty behind their backs, appalled by Main Street but nostalgic for its barbershop gusto, a slapdash stylist who made careful chronologies and street maps for his novels, a dissipated wassailer who arose at 4:30 to write until breakfast and then steadily into the afternoon." Mark Schorer, Sinclair Lewis. An American Life.

 One of my favorite Minnesota authors was Bill Holm. "He called himself a curmudgeon, and he was, but he was a really brilliant thinker and writer and musician (a pianist),... He was a Walt Whitman scholar. He was a contemporary Mark Twain." from Minnesota mourns the loss of author Bill Holm by Casey Selix and Amy Goetzman  02/26/09 in MINNPOST (see the whole article here)  

I have most of the Bill Holm's books, most I have read.  Two of my favorites: 

Boxelder Bug Variations: A Meditation on an Idea in Language and Music This collection of poems, prose, and songs illuminates the broad imagination of Bill Holm as he contemplates the mysteries of life and beauty while musing about the state of the boxelder bug. (from the publisher) This was my first acquaintance with Bill Holm.  I went to a party for some friends who were moving out of state. I thought the book an amusing gift since their home had a infestation of the miserable little things. I must have drunk too much wine for when I got home I found the book was still in my coat pocket. Probably a good thing.

and this is probably my favorite: 

                                   The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth

Growing up, Bill Holm knew what failure was: "to die in Minneota." But after returning to his hometown ("a very small dot on an ocean of grass") after 20 years' absence, he wasn't so sure. Finding pleasure in the customs and characters of small-town life, in The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth he writes with affection about the town elders, seen by those in the outside world as misfits and losers. "They taught me what to value, what to ignore, what to embrace, and what to resist." In his trek through the heartland, Holm covers a satisfyingly wide emotional terrain, from scandalous affairs in the 1950s to his aunt's touching attempts to transcend poverty with perfume and movie-star airs. (from the publisher)


Other curmudgeons in Minnesota:

On the political front is Lawrence R. Jacobs.

He calls himself the Liberal Curmudgeon.  He is the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert H. Humphrey School and the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. His center is a preeminent hub for political and policy analysis in the Midwest. (see more here)

On the other side of the aisle is the Right Curmudgeon. "The Right Curmudgeon is dedicated to finding nuggets in current news stories that the politicians and the media would just as soon you miss. Our mission is to help keep you informed, armed with the facts to counter the Left’s feelings, and hopefully to make you both think and smile every day."  Michael Becker is a Curmudgeon, and true to curmudgeon form, he’s crotchety and he bites.  In addition to his blogging home at The Right Curmudgeon, he’s a regular contributor at The Minority Report, Wizbang, Unified Patriots and Joe for America.(see more here)  

I think I once found something we agreed about but I can't think of what it was.

Back to the frigid Mount where temps have not moved out of the mid 30's since our return.  We may have to re-evaluate our garden planting.  More snow peas and snowball cauliflower.