Lost and Found |
Surfing on the Internet I visited your site about the history of the town of Alto. I was very surprised to find one of our long lost family members on that page. We are working on a family tree of the Oonk family from the town of Winterswijk in the Netherlands. One of the early settlers was the Loomans family. We did not know that they moved to Alto. We have some more information about this family. Jan Willem Loomans (John William) was born in Winterswijk on 1/23/1793. His parents were Jan Albert Loomans and Aaltjen te Sijpe. Willemina Oonk Loomans was born in Winterswijk 1/16/1799. Her parents were Jan Willem Oonk and Berendina Elferdink. They were married on 9/11/1818 in Winterswijk. They lived on a farm called Kde SlippeL in the Meddo township near Winterswijk. On 5/8/1844 they emigrated to the USA. We hope this information is useful to you. Annemiek Oonk and Paul Stuit My patron is looking for information on the NanaupaPostOffice. Information states that the Post Office, perhaps under a different name, closed in 1899. He is seeking the location of the Post Office--he suggests that it may have been in the general store, perhpas the Wilkinson store. We have checked your website and our records...we have found some information but not the exact location. The information we found was in the print copies of the Fond du Lac History by Western Publishing, which is the source of your material on Ladoga/Springvale. Ruth Shaw Worthing's book, The History of Fond du Lac County as Told by Its Place-Names, lists Nanaupa Post Office as being "established in 1852 and discontinued in 1870.It began its existence in 1847 under the name of Pulaski which had been changed in 1851 to Springvale." The "its" aren't very clear in her record--we aren't sure if she is referring to the Post Office or town (we are guessing the town). Nancy Paul, Librarian There is a wonderful Web site with some hard to find historical publications hosted by the University of Michigan and called "Making of America" (http://www.umdl.umich.edu/moa/). It contains the following references.In the List of Post Offices in the United States (Washington: U. S. Postal Office) apparently published in 1859 but whose title page indicates that the lists were from January 1, 1851, Springvale is listed as the post office in the town of Springvale, A. A. Hubbard, postmaster. In John Warren Hunt's Wisconsin Gazetteer (Madison: Beriah Brown, Printer) published in 1853, Springvale is listed as the post office, but no postmaster is identified. In James Ritchie's Wisconsin and Its Resources (C. DeSilver, Chicago: W. B. Keen) published in 1858, Nanaupa is listed as an area post office, and Springvale is not. No postmaster is identified. In the Post Office Directory: List of Post Offices in the United States (Washington: Government Printing Office) published in 1870, Nanaupa is listed as the area post office, again not Springvale. No postmaster is identified, but the postmaster's salary is identified as $6 annually. As you've already found, the 1880 History of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin indicates that William Cheeney was the postmaster of the Pulaski Post Office in Springvale in 1847. Give or take a year or two, these sources seem to bear out Worthington's history, but I know your real question is where the post office was located. I have gone back to the federal land patent records and to the Bogert and Haight 1862 Map of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin to locate the names of the postmasters I have. Abijah A. Hubbard purchased federal lands in section 28 (NENW) and section 29 (NENE). The 1862 map makes no mention of Hubbard. William Cheeney (Cheney) purchased federal lands in section 33 (E1/2SW and NWSW). The 1862 map shows him still in possession of both parcels. It might be a jump, but it seems likely that the early post offices at least, Pulaski and Springvale, were located near their postmasters' properties. That would be just north of the intersection of Co. Highway M and Lange Road in the case of Hubbard, and at the intersection of Co. Highway M and TC in the case of Cheeney, only about a mile apart. Without a postmaster's name I'm not sure where that leaves Nanaupa.. I was commonplace, however, for them to be located in a "public" building, That would seem to be likely in Springvale, too. The next step, then, would be to find the business records for Springvale and to look at the federal census records for the name of the postmaster. |