Last year I wrote about my grandaunt and granduncle, Alma Mary Vadnais and Lewis Charles Heckel. Since then I have found more information that I’d like to share with you. Click here to take a look at those previous posts.
The first update is a short story I found in the Mahtomedi Memories book.1
The date of the storm was August 20, 1904 and it was a tornado with winds estimated to have reached 180 miles per hour. It created a path of destruction from Minnetonka, across St. Paul to Stillwater. By the time it ended, 14 people were dead, many were injured and there were property losses estimated at $2 million (about $553 million today2). The same storm blew down a large section of the High Bridge in St. Paul, where winds reach 110 miles per hour, the fastest recorded wind speed in the metropolitan area at the time. Unlike today, the people in the path of the storm had no forewarning as to what was heading their way.
The second update is related to an activity enjoyed by Lewis: square dancing and square dance calling.
Front row: ? Gneisman (Carl’s wife) and Norman Bibeau with the fiddle.
Louis Peltier is my half 1st cousin 3 times removed. Brothers James and Norman Bibeau are my 5th cousins twice removed.
(Courtesy of the White Bear Lake Area Historical Society)
The last update also has to do with Alma’s husband Lewis. Before marrying my grandaunt Alma, Lewis was married to Lena M. Cardinal, the adopted daughter of Solomon and Ermaline (Marcotte) Cardinal. Until recently I had not looked at her adopted parents’ genealogy, but in doing so I found that Solomon is my 5th cousin 3 times removed, so Lena as a result of her adoption, is my 6th cousin 2 times removed, which means that both times Lewis married, he married one of my relatives.
Thanks for visiting, come back soon,
Cynthia
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Footnotes for Updates – Alma Mary Vadnais & Lewis Charles Heckel post