Those Bicycle Building Norwegians

So, there I am last week, surfing through google's book search, looking for stuff about the old Green Bay Trail. (I'm a bit obsessed about that old road, you may have noticed). Once I'd exhausted those hits, and being of a genealogical mindset, I started searching for info on my ancestors, among them the Huseby family. My Great Great Great Uncle Arne Huseby was a bicycle manufacturer in Milwauke in the late 1890s through early 19-teens. The company was called the Huseby Cycle Company. Innovative, no? They specialized in wooden frame bicycles, but also made some more unusual bikes like the bamboo-frame bike shown at right.

Searching google books, I got a hit on one of those old vanity publications they used to do all the time - the kind where you pay a fee, and they do a glowing writeup of your company and include it in their book along with a photo of your premises. Or, you don't pay a fee, and you get half a paragraph, and no photo... or you don't get mentioned at all. This book was an overview of Milwaukee manufacturing at the turn of the century. And there was the Huseby Cycle Company! The listing was very nice. It included a pic of the main building (shown at left), and gave a location. I've seen the location of the company described before, but it never helped me locate the building. Milwaukee changed a lot of street names, and most of the street numbers sometime in the 20s or 30s. An address was almost useless unless you have a map from before the names changed - which I don't. But this time, the building was listed as being on the corner of Lake and Ferry. And thanks to "the power of the internet", I was able to find a listing of street names before and after the switch. Lake and Ferry translated to "2nd and Pittsburgh".

A quick check of google maps showed what looked to be the building! Sadly, street view is not available for the streets in that area, so I'd have to visit in person to see what the building looked like now. Happily, I'd be a few blocks away over the weekend!



View Larger Map

And sure enough, it's the same building... or at least what's left of it. There's no trace of "Huseby" on the building. The name Laskin does appear in the stonework, indicating that, while the Husebys used the building, they weren't the original owners. Despite, the bricked up windows, awful paint job, and other atrocities inflicted upon the building, it was still pretty cool. I mean there I was, standing in the same spot that relatives of mine stood over 100 years ago!



So, photographic documentation of the exterior complete (see here for the full set of photos), I checked to see if I could get inside. It was a long shot, this being 9:15 on a Sunday morning and, sure enough, no luck. One entrance featured a sign for a theatrical supply company. Closed on weekends. The other entrance seemed to connect to a series of artists' studios/galleries. Glancing over the names I saw that I recognized one! James Hempel, a highly talented portrait painter has space inside the building where my long-gone relatives made bicycles out of inappropriate materials! Now, I've never met James, but I'm familiar with his work because a good friend of mine has known him for ages... went to school with him or some such. So, once I finish typing this up, I'll have to shoot an email to my friend. Perhaps there's some Huseby Cycle memorabilia floating around the building. I'd love to get a look at it if there is!

Prohibition Genealogy

I'll be the first to admit that it sometimes takes me longer to put 2 and 2 together than it takes the average person. But how did I miss making the connection that my grandparents were kids during prohibition? I knew they were kids throughout the depression (1929-1939), but somehow failed to realize that this meant they were kids during prohibition (1920-1933). I just looked it up in the family genealogy... Grandpa L was born in 1922, Grandma L in 1925, and Grandma F was born in 1916.

I asked Grandpa and Grandma L about it yesterday, and they both had memories of prohibition. Specifically, the had memories of how their families flouted the law. Let me refresh our collective memories. The 18th ammendment prohibited "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors", which was basically anything with ethanol in it, with a few exceptions which I haven't bothered looking up.

And how did my proud American ancestors react to this restriction of their ability to purchase beer, wine, brandy and schnaaps? Well, my Grandpa's family brewed their own beer in the basement. Grandpa didn't remember, but I'm guessing this involved malt syrup, water and bread yeast. Probably not the tastiest thing ever, but apparently palatable enough. Grandma's family took a different approach, possibly because they had a source a few doors down where they could buy the distilled stuff. I'd guess the difference was a cultural one, though. Grandpa's lineage is german, so beer was the object, with brandy and schnaaps viewed more as window dressing. Grandma comes from Polish stock, more oriented to vodka. Whatever bathtub hooch the guy down the street had must have fit the bill nicely.

I'll have to see if I can find out what Grandma F's family did during prohibition. They're Norwegian-descended, so their alcoholic heritage would have combined farmhouse brewing and flavored spirits. On the other hand, her granddad moonlighted as a lay preacher, so maybe illicit liquor wasn't an option. I'll let you know if I find out.

Great Great Uncle Einer and Family

The Alaska's Digital Archives have recently put up some pics from a photo album which documented the depression era farming experiment in Matanuska, Alaska. People with failed or failing farms in the upper midwest were relocated as settlers in the Alaskan territory. One such family was that of Einer Huseby, my Maternal Grandmother's Uncle. I've included some shots of the pics below. You can see Einer, his wife (Inez), his son (either Donald or Kenneth, I'm not sure), the family dog, the cabin in progress, the tent they lived in while working on the cabin, and some of the crops they grew. I tell you, these people worked their asses off with insufficient help from the government that had dragged them out there. They cleared the land of trees, tore out the stumps, built their own homes and cared for their families without electricity, or pretty much any contact with the outside world. Read more about the Matanuska colony in Palmer, AK here. (Click on the photos to see larger versions, or go to the link in the title and search for Einer Huseby).