Now let’s talk about Joe, the Quiet One, the Lone Prospector, Joe Straight-Tongue. Born in 1847, Joe was eight years Sam’s junior, and two years older than Lou. Joe enlisted in the 125th Michigan Infantry just shy of his fifteenth birthday. The 125th saw more than its share of action in the Civil War, including […]
Month: January 2012
How Bout Sam?
Lou’s older brother Sam was born, like Lou, in Swanton Falls, Vermont, in 1839. Though no photos of Sam are known to exist, it is said that in many ways he was Lou’s complement; where Lou was short, stout and affable, and prone to rely on his personality to get his way, Sam was tall and imposing, with […]
Pronouncing the Name
When we first saw the names Belonger and Blonger, we assumed, as you may have, that they were pronounced like the word “longer“. It’s hard to tell because the name is very nearly unique, but the evidence suggests three options: We use what we believe to be the Americanized pronunciation, which rhymes with conjure. If […]
Meet Lou Blonger
Born in 1849, he enlisted in the Union Army at age 15 as a fifer. He only served a few weeks, until a fall injured his leg, which left him with debilitating “varicose veins” that served as a good excuse for a lifetime of avoiding real labor. After the war he hooked up with his […]
The Blonger Bros. Investigation Continues
A few words of introduction to new readers: The previous incarnation of this blog began in 2003, shortly after we first discovered our connection to history: great-great-great-uncle Louis Belonger, from rural Wisconsin, had grown up to be the notorious Denver gangster and confidence man known as Lou Blonger. Blonger’s arrest and conviction has been extensively documented, […]
Hello Twenty-First Century
We’ve finally made the obvious move and created an actual blog. Please subscribe, so you’ll know that something new has been posted! All new information will appear here. Just for the record, though our updates have been few and far between of late, our work continues. and — most importantly — we’ve been doing some […]