Gypsy Heart
Gold Member
Maybe with a little map searching and digging, you could find out if there is anything left in the cellar?
.......A second Germany community, led by Joseph Oesterle, developed in northeast Portage County. A passenger ticket made out in Oesterle's name reveals that it was picked up at Le Havre, France, April 23, 18492 Oesterle also left Prussia for reasons connected with the new spirit of the revolution but apparently was not a member of the underground. According to family legend, Joseph Oesterle's father was a forest warden whose main duty in Germany was to keep poachers out of a game reserve maintained by a titled family. During the period of the revolution he clandestinely permitted a few outsiders to enter the forest for needed food and game and among these who took advantage of this leniency was his own son, Joseph. When word of this finally got back to the owners, new orders strictly prohibited (streng verboten) any further poaching, and anyone caught was to be shot on sight. At this point son Joseph allegedly said, "I can't let my father shoot me, and I said Joseph it's time to leave."
In the next several years he acquired around a thousand acres of land in east Sharon. At least two forties in Sec 26 were acquired under a pre-emption entry made May 24, 1856 under the swamp lands act approved by the state legislature in 1855.3 The 1876 plat reveals that even after he had sold land to men like Koziczkowski, he was still holding more than 800 acres.
Joseph Oesterle, built a log cabin and trading post where the Indians came to exchange furs for flour, salt pork, beads, and calico. Said granddaughter Frances Oesterle: "Grandmother had chickens and they (the Indians) would buy eggs from her. Once a week in that cabin he (Joseph) had a dance for the Indians. Had liquor, but he measured it out for them, only so much, no more. They were camped all around him on the lake and they used to pick blueberries, highland berries, and dry them. Made little racks and put a canvas on, and turned the berries. And they were there the whole summer and even winter."
The exact date of Oesterle's arrival in Sharon is uncertain, but his reputation as a hunter had already reached the ears of the editors of the Pinery who on Oct. 25, 1855 noted that "that invincible hunter, Mr. Oesterle ... keeps his friends supplied with venison and bear meat. He killed three deer and four bears last week."
During the Sioux Indian uprising in Minnesota in the early 1860s, the Indians around Oesterle Lake began to show signs of hostility and one morning while Mrs. Oesterle was down to the lake for water, she was shot at, whether with a rifle or bow and arrow is lost in family legend. In any event the aim was poor and after that the Indians were persuaded to leave.
Far more interesting is the story of hidden gold found in the cellar of the Oesterle frame house which replaced the original log cabin and is still standing. A few years after he came to Sharon, Oesterle learned that a boy, to whom his wife was related in Milwaukee, had been left an orphan as a result of an outbreak of cholera. Oesterle drove his team to Milwaukee and brought back Albert Steiner and raised him as one of the family. In the 1890s, after Joseph passed on, Steiner, considerably older than August, only son of Joseph, kept insisting that he had once seen "grandfather" bury gold in the cellar. No one took him seriously. This went on for several years until one day, Mrs. August Oesterle, at Steiner's insistence, went down to the cellar and began digging and shortly struck an old soda can, rusted and scarcely in one piece, but filled with gold coins. She continued to dig and found many more rusty tins. Said her daughter Frances: "I can see her yet, coming upstairs, with her apron filled with gold coins. And we counted $2500 in fives, tens and twenties!"
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/ethnic-german.html
.......A second Germany community, led by Joseph Oesterle, developed in northeast Portage County. A passenger ticket made out in Oesterle's name reveals that it was picked up at Le Havre, France, April 23, 18492 Oesterle also left Prussia for reasons connected with the new spirit of the revolution but apparently was not a member of the underground. According to family legend, Joseph Oesterle's father was a forest warden whose main duty in Germany was to keep poachers out of a game reserve maintained by a titled family. During the period of the revolution he clandestinely permitted a few outsiders to enter the forest for needed food and game and among these who took advantage of this leniency was his own son, Joseph. When word of this finally got back to the owners, new orders strictly prohibited (streng verboten) any further poaching, and anyone caught was to be shot on sight. At this point son Joseph allegedly said, "I can't let my father shoot me, and I said Joseph it's time to leave."
In the next several years he acquired around a thousand acres of land in east Sharon. At least two forties in Sec 26 were acquired under a pre-emption entry made May 24, 1856 under the swamp lands act approved by the state legislature in 1855.3 The 1876 plat reveals that even after he had sold land to men like Koziczkowski, he was still holding more than 800 acres.
Joseph Oesterle, built a log cabin and trading post where the Indians came to exchange furs for flour, salt pork, beads, and calico. Said granddaughter Frances Oesterle: "Grandmother had chickens and they (the Indians) would buy eggs from her. Once a week in that cabin he (Joseph) had a dance for the Indians. Had liquor, but he measured it out for them, only so much, no more. They were camped all around him on the lake and they used to pick blueberries, highland berries, and dry them. Made little racks and put a canvas on, and turned the berries. And they were there the whole summer and even winter."
The exact date of Oesterle's arrival in Sharon is uncertain, but his reputation as a hunter had already reached the ears of the editors of the Pinery who on Oct. 25, 1855 noted that "that invincible hunter, Mr. Oesterle ... keeps his friends supplied with venison and bear meat. He killed three deer and four bears last week."
During the Sioux Indian uprising in Minnesota in the early 1860s, the Indians around Oesterle Lake began to show signs of hostility and one morning while Mrs. Oesterle was down to the lake for water, she was shot at, whether with a rifle or bow and arrow is lost in family legend. In any event the aim was poor and after that the Indians were persuaded to leave.
Far more interesting is the story of hidden gold found in the cellar of the Oesterle frame house which replaced the original log cabin and is still standing. A few years after he came to Sharon, Oesterle learned that a boy, to whom his wife was related in Milwaukee, had been left an orphan as a result of an outbreak of cholera. Oesterle drove his team to Milwaukee and brought back Albert Steiner and raised him as one of the family. In the 1890s, after Joseph passed on, Steiner, considerably older than August, only son of Joseph, kept insisting that he had once seen "grandfather" bury gold in the cellar. No one took him seriously. This went on for several years until one day, Mrs. August Oesterle, at Steiner's insistence, went down to the cellar and began digging and shortly struck an old soda can, rusted and scarcely in one piece, but filled with gold coins. She continued to dig and found many more rusty tins. Said her daughter Frances: "I can see her yet, coming upstairs, with her apron filled with gold coins. And we counted $2500 in fives, tens and twenties!"
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/ethnic-german.html
