This is a GFHC Open Thread.
Let's start with the treasured four-generations picture. The adorable little runaway toddler is your's truly. Not so grumpy, I'd say. But this picture was taken in 1949. So there's that.
Me, my big sister, my mother, my great grandfather, and my grandmother. On the right is my aunt with 3 of my 4 first cousins. The fourth isn't in the oven yet.
Each adult in this photo was born and grew up on farms near Viola, Richland County, Wisconsin. It's not pronounced the same as the musical instrument. In fact, this picture was taken in Oregon, Dane County, Wisconsin, which, as any Cheesehead knows, is not pronounced like the State of Oregon is supposed to be pronounced.
A special feature in Wisconsin is our own Miss Pronouncer web site. Very helpful for visitors and Scott Walker (even though Miss Pronouncer seems to be personally oriented to the right of center).
If someone pronounces Muscoda correctly without listening to Miss Pronouncer first, they're a native Cheesehead for sure. At one time, nearly half the people who lived in Muscoda got it wrong. My grandmother NEVER got it wrong. In fact, she dragged it out a little too much.
Let's meet on the other side of the Cheese Poof and talk about ships at sea and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings - and why the sea is boiling hot - and whether pigs have wings... wait. I digress.
Let's go back in time.
The old guy in the above picture is my maternal great-grandfather, Albert Grant Bender, who was called Grant by friends and Dad or Grampa by close family. He was born, lived, and passed away in Viola, Wisconsin. At his peak, he ran a dairy operation that populated over 200 acres of prime Wisconsin Dairyland.
The Bender family lived in what was known as Bender Hollow. The early settlers are buried in Bender Cemetery. My grandmother was a Bender and she made sure that everybody knew that.
Early settlers, they were. Several families had pooled their resources and left their homes in Pennsylvania and Indiana for the better opportunities offered in Wisconsin. Grant Bender's father, Elias Bender, was not the first to arrive. Two older brothers arrived first, way back in 1855 or so. They cleared the forest and built log houses. The first burial in Bender Cemetery was one of the pioneers' wives.
Bender Cemetery post-tornado in 2005
Viola was featured on national news reports back in 2005 after a tornado swept through town. Thankfully, nobody was harmed. The building supply facility lost much of the roof and a few other buildings were damaged, but the worst for me was to see that the tornado had destroyed many, many trees. It was strange to see the lack of trees in Forest Township. The tornado went right over my mother's and my grandparents' graves. They were in their underground tornado shelters.... Sorry.
Viola Cemetery lost trees and a few monuments were damaged by falling limbs. These were repaired right away. The gazebo was out for repair when we stopped by. The fountain had some damage, too. Ten years later, the place looks nice again.
It was hard to tell if Bender Cemetery was damaged by the tornado. It's been in bad shape for years and there's little to no funds to fix it up. The adjacent sheep shed hasn't fallen all the way down yet.
It wasn't like they had to hack their way through the wilderness and pretend to be survivalists or anything like that. They used the railroad for most of the trip. They were able to ship most belongings and themselves on barges and ferries once they ran out of railroad tracks. They were able to inspect and select the land they would eventually purchase. But there were forests to clear and meadows to be made. Before it was incorporated as Viola, Wisconsin, it was Forest Township. There's a simple explanation for that name.
Then several more families came to Wisconsin, that group consisted of 23 people. Elias Bender and family was among them. Soon their parents made the trip. Let me introduce you to my immediate family in this crowd:
This photo was taken in 1891, 5 years before my grandmother was born. The lovely young lady on the left is my great-grandmother, Anna Maria Brown Bender. The strong, handsome young man who is seated with children on his lap is Grant Bender, my great-grandfather.
The Bender family was pleased to have two marriages between the Browns and the Benders. The lovely young lady on the right is Phoebe Brown Bender, Anna's sister, and her husband, Edward Burnsides Bender, seated next to her, is Grant Bender's brother. I have a basketload of cousins who are cousins in more than one way. Double-cousin isn't a valid term. Maybe it should be.
The two ancient old folks seated in the center of the photo are Elias Bender and Eva Gull Bender, the brothers' parents and my great-great-grandparents. Elias served in the Civil War, so that's the source of the names Grant and Burnsides. Elias and Eva had a total of twelve children, ten who lived to adulthood. Grant lived the longest, 93 years, but two others were nonagenarians and four more were octogenarians (or close enough to count). But wait; there's more. Unfortunately, Eva, Elias' wife, died less than three years after this photo was taken. Elias married twice after her death. Elias was 84 when he died in 1910.
Elias was quite handsome and Eva was lovely I must say. Here are nice portraits of the couple:
Eva Gull Bender
Elias Edward Bender
Here are some of the sons of Emanuel Peter Bender and Susanna Wilt Bender. Elias is 2nd from the left in the back row. All of his brothers' classic 1860's beards show gray. Not young Elias. Service in the Civil War will soon change this.
Bender sons, about 1860
And the oldest generation photo I have, Susanna Wilt Bender, my great-great-great-grandmother.
Susanna Wilt Bender, my ggg-grandmother. Susanna gave birth to 17 children, 15 of which lived to adulthood.
Anyhoo. I didn't grow up in Viola. I didn't grow up on a farm, although my grandmother (Gramma) taught all of us how to milk a cow or a goat and to knit and mend clothes. SHe was an amazing woman. She could knit or crochet a top or a sweater in less than a day. This included complicated multi-colored designs. She was a one-person drapery department at the big city of Beloit department store. One woman. Thousands of curtains and draperies. Really. I still have some drapes that are over 50 years old. They are absolutely perfect, straight, strong, and not faded one bit. Store-bought curtains evaporate in a few short years these days...
Anyway, my point is that my family lived in the big city and we only went to Viola for funerals, weddings, and reunions. Although I am a Cheesehead through and through, my Dad moved us a few miles south across the Cheese Curtain into Illinois soon after we graduated from high school.
So strange as it seems, I've never cast a vote in Wisconsin. Ever. The voting age was 21 back then. Yet I've gone toe to toe with two different Wisconsin Governors and campaigned for several others.
I loved everyone in my extended maternal family. All are wonderful people.
My favorite picture of happiness in late life; Grant Bender and Anna Brown Bender. In love the whole time. If I ever find the picture on my computer, that is.....
Floor's open..
Got anybody who was born or died in:
Age, Cuanza Sul, Angola
At Sea-Sularvise Tengah, Indonesia
American, Allen, Ohio, USA
Bio, Lot, Midi-Pyrenees, France
Birth, Viersen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Church, Wetzel, West Virginia, USA
City, Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe
Colony, Laurel, Kentucky, USA
Falling, Arhus, Denmark
French, Lafayette, Arkansas, USA
Home, Brown, Minnesota, USA
Home, Indiana, Pennsylvania, USA
Jan, Bari, Somalia
Jun, Granada, Andalucia, Spain
Lost City, Hardy, West Virginia, USA
New England, Hettinger, North Dakota, USA
North, Carolina, Puerto Rico, USA
Not, Graz-Umgebung, Styria, Austria
Old, Forsyth, North Carolina, USA
Record, Apurimac, Peru
Sep, Swietokrzyskie, Poland
Soldier, Carter, Kentucky, USA
Under, Dornod, Mongolia
Y, Somme, Picardie, France
Young, Texas, USA
???