It occurred to me when I got the batch of family pictures from Uncle Babe that there was no way that we could divide the pictures in any satisfactory fashion. Since I was putting together a Geisert pictorial history for the Washburn Historical Museum, I decided to get copies made of both sides of the family and to try to write a history so that all of us would have some information about our heritage.
Some of the pictures had notations on the back helping me to identify and from reading over the obituaries, I was able to form some sense of timing.
Throughout this short famy history, I will refer to people as they relate to me. For instance, Grandpa Geisert will be August Geisert and not Lawrence Geisert. It could become somewhat of a hodgepodge if I don’t establish a format.
August seated with his fatherI can’t believe the first picture because it is identified on the back as August Geisert and his father”. I don’t know what his father’s name was. Since the picture was processed in Eau Claire, lm able to make some observations about Grandpa Geisert’s life. I knew that he was born in Pennsylvania, but I thought he and his brothers moved west when he was a young man. Now I know that his whole family came to Wisconsin when he was a young boy. It looks like he’s about eleven or twelve on this picture.
August was born in 1856 and married Amelia Salle (pronounced Sylee} in the late 1870’s. The bride’s hometown, Reed’s Landing, Minnesota, was the site of the wedding. They settled in Rice Lake where we know they lived for several years because their first four children were born there. Somewhere in-the mid 1880”s they moved to Washburn, living in the rather big house on 6th St. that many of you remember. I don’t know what August did for a living except that for awhile he ran a tavern.
August had two brothers that I know of, Louis and Chris, both of whom lived in the Park Falls area. I don’t think that either of them had any children. Louis died in1935. August died on December 20,1921, his wife’s birthday.
The second picture, the one on the right, is of August when he was a young man, somewhere in his 20’s it looks like. His face has slimmed down a great deal and is quite angular. There are a couple of pictures of him as an older man, maybe in his 50’s, where he is very hefty with a full face.
August Geisert as a young manWhen you consider the dates of the Civil War (1861-1865), you wonder if the fear of the war is what prompted the early Geiserts to leave Pennsylvania. Whatever the reason, their departure was a wise one since Pennsylvania became quite a battleground.
