Anton Richard and Catherine Zinsli

Anton was the the 4th child of Gallus Martin Zinsli and Anna Gass. Anton was born in Arcadia, Wisconsin November 12, 1897. Gallus and Anna had seven more children after Anton. One of Anton's older brother's he never got a chance to meet because Anna's first child Martin M. Zinsli died as an infant in January of 1893 seven months after birth.

Anton lived with his older brother Joe in Billings County, ND, working in Wibaux, Beach and Yates. Somehow he ended up in Minnesota working in a ship yard or a train yard. He met and married Catherine Jerry. Anton also worked in a meat packing plant at one time while in Minnesota but had to quit on account of his lungs.

When Anton was dating Catherine Jerry, or Kate as she was known to those close to her, he owned one of the first Harley-Davidson motorcycles. He had warned Kate's younger brother Sam "not to mess with the motorcyle". It wasn't enough to quell the youngster's curiosity. I'm sure in the early 1920's any type of a motorcycle must have been quite different especially in the rural midwest. Sam pushed a button and the motorcycle took off, crashing it into a tree. Sam ran and hid. Kate was more mad than Anton. Anton never owned another motorcycle after that.

Anton and Kate worked their way across North Dakota with the railroad crew. Anton worked with the crew and Kate cooked for the crew. Mary was just a baby. Eventually, they settled down on a farm just south of the town of Sentinel Butte, ND on the west side of the butte by the same name. They worked the farm and raised their family of seven children. Anton eventually gained employment working as a janitor for the Sentinel Butte School. I think it was there that he obtained the nickname "Mike". A fellow worker called him that, whether it was because the man couldn't remember Anton's name or just thought he looked more like a "Mike", the name stuck. Anton became known to everyone as Mike.

After most of the Zinsli kids had grown and moved out on their own, Anton moved the family into a house he had purchased in town. He continued to work at the school. Anton was industrious as anyone in those times. He built a couple additions onto the two story house in town, a bathroom with indoor plumbing (one of the few in town) and enclosed the back porch that extended the width of the house. Anton developed cancer, deteriorating quickly and died in 1957, long before many of his grandchildren even got to meet the man we call grandpa.





and Catherine Jerry was the second oldest of Louis Jerry, (who was one of seventeen children), and Mary Ann MacDonald. Gallus Zinsli was mean especially to kids. Anna would hide things from Gallus so that he wouldn't find out about mistakes that the kids made, such as spilling milk or getting into his tools. He cussed horses, and everyone, really, in German. He carried mail in 2 wheel cart in Sentinel Butte, North Dakota from the train depot to the post office. Gallus did liked working in the garden. Gallus came to live with Anton and Kate in Sentinel Butte when Mary was a baby. He and Anna were separated, but it wasn't anything that people talked about especially while the kids were around. Anna lived in Oregon at the time they were separated. Anna did like to visit though and she especially liked Anton & Kate's daughter Rose. Anna's special nickname for Rose was her "little Tootsaly" [Toot-sa-lee] Mary Ann MacDonald came to the US, supposedly from Nova Scotia, with her twin sister Sara. They had an older sister Mary and a brother Daniel. Sara married Frank Lemere and had two boys Abe and Phillip. Both Mary Ann and Sara were known in the Aitkin area as mid-wives. Mary Ann named one of her children for her brother Daniel and his children, Mary Ann's grandchildren, own the old farm site in Aitkin.

Louis was the 5th child of Antoine Giguere/Antony Jerry and Hennriett or Harriett Sophie Bisson. Sophie, as she was better known, and Antoine met in New York, married and had 3 children before moving to Wisconsin. Antoine came to the US from Quebec. Louis spoke French also and would curse in French. My older brothers knew how to say "fichu cheval blanc" (damn white horse) before the age of 3.