In Portland Oregon, I sketched the pioneer sculpture which reminded me of my first ancestor who settled in Grand Island Nebraska in the 1950’s named Augustus Thorspecken. He thought that Grand Island, Nebraska would likely become the nations capital since it was in the center of the country.
Augustus came to America in his 20s, studied to be a doctor in Saint Louis and met his future wife, Lucinda in Iowa. The town he met her in flooded when the river changed course. He was a founding member of a German singing society in Grand Island and he is mentioned often in the town newspaper.
The tongue in cheek stories are fun and not always factual. In one, the doctor found a man sawed in half in his saw mill. Augustus assessed the situation and simply sewed the man back together. He was described as a man who offered advice but that advice would often do more harm than good. He died in his early 40s, likely from an airborne virus he picked up from a patient. He gave a lecture on virology to local doctors at a conference, but masking was just not a thing that was practiced in those days.
