Spending Thanksgiving with Relatives

I love reading the old Princeton Union newspapers and learning things about the town and the people that lived there. I especially love finding names that I recognize! 
 
I wondered what was going on in Princeton 100 years ago on Thanksgiving Day so I looked at The Princeton Union dated November 30, 1911.  I hoped to find something interesting. And that, I did!

On page 5 under the column "Items Of Interest from various sources" where they list all kinds of things like who visited who, advertisements, announcements, and such, I came across a couple of familiar names!

First I saw this add:

"Fred Elsner started on Monday for Red Wing to spend Thanksgiving with relatives."

and about 4 items later I saw this one:

"Miss Rena Winsor of Wyanett departed on Monday for Zumbrota to spend Thanksgiving with relatives."

Fred Elsner of course is Albert & Lydia's son and he and Miss Rena Winsor would marry 2 years later on April 30, 1913.

There are a couple of interesting things about these two small statements. First, who are the relatives in Red Wing that Fred went to visit? This is the fist I've heard that we had relatives in Red Wing, MN. So this is a new clue that I will investigate. I will let you know later what I find out about that.

Second, when I looked up Red Wing and Zumbrota, I found both cities are south of Princeton. Red Wing is 102 miles south, and Zumbrota is 112 miles south.  And Red Wing and Zumbrota are about 22 miles apart.

This leads me to wonder if Fred and Rena rode together since they were going in the same direction to visit relatives.  Fred and Rena had already been dating for about a year at the time of this trip.  Or was it just a coincidence that they both left on Monday?

I think Fred would have picked up Rena at her home in Wyanett and taken her to Zumbrota.  After he dropped her off, he then would have headed to Red Wing to visit his relatives. 

Maybe I'll find something about their return to Princeton in The Princeton Union after Thanksgiving!  I'll let you know if I find anything.


The Princeton Union Newspaper information is from the Library of Congress, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspaper site:http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016758/1911-11-30/ed-1/seq-5/