One of Lou Blonger’s obituaries makes an interesting claim that has heretofore slid under our radar: In the early ’70s, Lou and Sam built and ran the first steamboat that ever plied on the Great Salt lake in Utah. Dancing was among the entertainment features on the boat. The venture lost them money. Time to shed a little light on… (more…)
A 1903 Sanborn map recently posted online confirms the location of the Elite Saloon building at 1624 Stout, next to the Equitable Building. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4314dm.g00985190302/?sp=15&r=0.262,0.279,0.401,0.164,0
In 1892, tax records suggest Blonger Bros. & Co. ran a theater in Denver, something we hadn’t yet seen.
Some new images of the Denham Building have surfaced. A suite of offices in the Denham served as the Blonger gang’s Big Store—the fake stock exchange where tourists were regularly relieved of tens of thousands of dollars.
May 1, 1883, Newhall (Santa Clarita), CA, Mrs. K. Blonger of Phoenix, AT, passes through on her way to San Francisco.d
Some more Shullsburg newspaper pages became available. There was a series called “History of Shullsburg” that ran during 1911-12. Of particular interest is the entry from November 30, 1911, and the one that follows, which touch on the Belonger homestead. Whether it refers to Simon Sr. or Michael I haven’t yet decided. The history was written by J. E. Rule,… (more…)
I was researching Chick Braley’s great-grandfather (our 3g-grandfather) James Rock Perrigo. He was born in New York, migrated through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois before ending up in southwestern Wisconsin, where his daughter Nancy married Albert Braley. Nancy is, famously, our only ancestor born in the south (in Kentucky, just across the river from Ohio). I got a hit on… (more…)
This is getting embarrassing. Gary Haas, a third cousin, has the scoop on our 5th-great-grandfather, a multiple-murderer named Sebastian Bauer. Once upon a time in Bavaria, Sebastian’s gambling debts were getting the better of him, and he soon found himself deep in the forest, bludgeoning his father-in-law with a heavy stick in a bid to collect his wife’s inheritance ahead… (more…)
sIt had long been my impression that the western Blongers were the rounders, while the folks back east were a bit more pious. Surprise, surprise. As it happens, Mike Belonger’s son John, his brother-in-law John Braley, and his nephew Mike Dunn were all tavern owners, though we don’t know if they were all connected to Dunn’s Evergreen Tavern in Madison,… (more…)
May 1, 1883, Newhall (Santa Clarita), CA : Mrs. K. Blonger of Phoenix, AT, passes through on her way to San Francisco.