The first line seems to be in Polish. The second line on…
nata die vigesima Decembris anno millesimo octingentesimo sexa- gesimo octavo in Wenecya (sp?) paroccia Wenecya Archidiocesis (…) Victoria filia legi- timatori Martini Wegner et Dorotheae (….) mari- torum religionis catholicae bapti- zata est in ecclesia (Venetensi) die vigesima secunda Decembris anno millesimo octingentesimo sexage simo octavo 1868 in fidem etc. etc.
Translation of the preceding follows.
Born on the 20th of December in the year 1868 in the parish of (Wenecya); Wenecya of the Archdiocese of (?). Victoria, daughter of legitimately married Martin Wegner and Dorothea… was baptized in the church of (Venetensi) on the twenty second day of December of 1868. In faith, etc. etc.
I think the rest is in Polish. I’m not sure about the stuff in parenthesis – or the spelling! Hope this helps!
The map shown below is of Golden Valley circa 1888. Highlighted is the forty acres that Grandma Keefe and great-aunt Lucille would inherit from the Hughes sisters in the 1930s.
Click on images to see larger.
And here’s a map from 2012 overlaid on the 1888 map so you can get an idea how Golden Valley has changed since.
Mary and Annie Hughes
Guankou Excerpt from correspondance from Aunt Pat to Tom Keefe. February 9, 2001
In a nutshell, my mother and Lucille were raised in a house on Royalston Avenue in north Minneapolis, near the Hughes family. There were four older children in the family, I think probably in late teens and twenties at least. The men, Daniel and Joe Hughes were firemen on the old horsedrawn fire engines. Their sisters were Mary, the oldest and Annie the younger. They were very fond of Mom and Lucille who visited them in the neighborhood and Mom stayed in touch with them after she moved away with her parents to 2536 Bryant Avenue S. when she and Lucille were in their teens and twenties.
When I was young and we all were living at 4112 Harriet Avenue S. I went with my mother and Grandma Byrne to visit the Hugheses especially at Christmas and sometimes at other times. Dan and Joe were dead, I never knew them. Mary died in 1934, in her eighties. I think Anne died in 1936 or 1937. None of the Hugheses married so there were no heirs and they in their will left everything to Mom and Lucille. This was a great surprise. They were on Relief, which was like Welfare, so my grandfather Byrne asked his lawyer and he suggested the heirs pay back to Relief what had been paid to the Hugheses during their life. They owned the house they lived in, which looked old on the outside but it was okay inside. I remember once I asked to go to the bathroom just so I could see the upstairs, I then saw the living room which was never used, had a full length picture of the Agony in the Garden on one wall, nice carpet on the floor, Dan’s and Joe’s uniforms hanging from a hall tree. There was a good bathroom upstairs and some bedrooms I did not look at. We used to sit in a tiny room with an old wood stove with the isinglass little amber windows in it with their big police dog. The kitchen had a hand pump and a sink and went out to the back where there used to be a stable for horses. It was like no other house I ever visited and fascinated me.
Next door there was a bar that was run and rented by some guy. Your father used to have to collect the rent from him sometimes. The Hugheses owned that and the forty acres in Golden Valley. They also owned some little tract of land near Lake Minnetonka and what was called Paisley Road. No one was ever able to locate it. Dick tried several times.
The forty acres had a house on it, a barn, a shed, a pump, an outhouse, and it was run by the Schultes, dirt poor farmers with ten children. The oldest girl, Henrietta, was my age, went to a German Catholic school, St. Joseph’s I think, as did the rest of the children. When in 1938 we decided to build on the land, the Schultes moved to a farm right behind us on 6th Ave. or Olson Highway. Dick bought a horse and kept it in their barn. He used to play with Kenny Schulte who was his age and with Lenny Brummer, who lived across Glenwood Avenue right back from where Bill and Lucille’s house was, the original farmhouse.
Excerpt from correspondance from Aunt Pat to Tom Keefe. February 10, 2001
Just wanted to add a P.S. to what I wrote yesterday. I think I said that Annie and Mary Hughes were in their late teens and twenties when Mom and Lucille were children. I think they were more like in their thirties and forties. John, my brother, said that when he and Byrne were young and were living on 25th and Aldrich, Annie Hughes used to come in a horse-drawn sleigh and pick them up and take them for rides around the lake. My mother used to pick up Annie after Mary (Hughes) died, bring her to our house on 41st and Harriet for a day’s visit, and made her a dress while she was there. I remember that very well. Annie was a peppy, jolly person. She used to dye her hair, and I remember that I thought it was the same color as Dyanshine shoe polish we used to use.
That’s all for now. Pat
Update from Maureen Gainey July 10, 2012
One thing I can add to is what the Hughes brothers did for a living. J. Byrne Keefe senior – my dad – always told me that they were not fire FIGHTERS, they worked for a company that would go into buildings on fire and cover the merchandise, materials or machines to cut down on a loss – almost like a fire insurance company type job. So they didn’t fight the fires, but worked to prevent or lessen the loss.
Just a tidbit from Dad’s remembrance.
– Maureen Gainey
Pictures
217 Paisley Lane – circa 1961circa 1966circa 1966
Aerial view of Tralee from 1967
In 2018 Danny was able to give Tom, Deb and I a walk-through of Grandma’s house before it was sold.
Alexander Patton 1791-1858 – Bio Marie B. Keefe’s great-grandfather who was Mayor of Columbus, Ohio in the 1840s. Bio is from the book Columbus Mayors.
Keefe Men’s Wear Keefe Men’s Wear on the Miracle Mile in St. Louis Park, MN.
Henry and Verna Kasmar – Audio File An audio recording made by Henry and Verna Kasmar on a Recordio home record maker. They sent it from their home in Springfield, Illinois to family in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
It starts off with Henry speaking in Polish, pretending to be a Polish radio station in Springfield, then switches to English about 30-40 seconds in. My best guess is that it was recorded in the late 1940s.
Begin the Beguine – Audio File Dolores’s Aunt Helen on piano with Dolores’s sister Margie singing – circa 1940s I believe. VERY scratchy at times.
