From: Larry Myrland Harnisch

Greetings....I have been reading about the history of Grantsburg since my great-grandfather, Aug. J. Myrland, was district attorney for the county and a partner in one of the local papers, The Sentinel.

I'm curious as to what sorts of historical societies there are in Grantsburg and what sources of information there might be about former residents (the Myrlands lived there from about 1898? to about 1911 or a bit later. In fact one of the children, Louis Myrland, who died in infancy, was apparently buried in Grantsburg).

Right now I'm reading microfilm of The Sentinel from 1899-1910. It's quite an education and of course I'm especially interested in the newspaper

As for me, well let's see... I'm a copy editor for the Los Angeles Times. I work in the Metro section. As far as I know, I have no living relatives in the area... Let me tell you a little more about my family's experience in Grantsburg and see what you want to make of it:

My great-grandfather, A.J. Myrland, was born in Norway and moved to Dane County when he was 6, went to the University of Wisconsin and moved to Grantsburg about 1898 or so. I wasn't sure of the date until I got into the newspapers. My great-uncles and aunt were already born, possibly in Belleville, where A.J. was school principal for 5 years (I learned that from the newspapers too).

I have to say that Grantsburg wasn't a completely happy experience for the family, though. Their house burned down about 1911 or 1912. My grandmother, who was born in Grantsburg, was a little girl at the time of the fire and always said it was pretty traumatic for her. She used to say that someone set fire to their house to get them to leave town. (an alternative story is that someone's "feeble-minded kid" (her term) set fire to the house.

Sometime before that, her older brother died in infancy in Grantsburg. So after the house burned, the family moved to Madison. My great-grandfather became the lawyer for the state Tax Commission and died in the 1930s. The family farm had been at Primrose, Wis., and he had grown up with Robert LaFollette (also from Primrose I'm told), and possibly this played a role as well in his move to Madison.

And as I said, A.J. bought an interest in the paper about 1901. I've got a wonderful family photograph of the building, with A.J. and my Great-Uncle Arthur, who graduated from Grantsburg H.S. about 1911, standing in the doorway about the age of 10. It would be fun to dig it out and get it scanned in. Maybe you could use it as a gif. :)

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, A.J. had an interest in the paper until about 1908.

To make a long story short, my research on Grantsburg is focused on resolving the question of the fire (I've been noting all the problems involved in the Grantsburg Fire Department... boy things were primitive in those days) and infant mortality. (I should mention that I was an adult before I learned that one of my grandmother's brothers died in Grantsburg. It was *never* talked about.)

I have learned another amazing fact, however... A.J.'s brother Canute paid him a visit in 1900 and was living in Los Angeles. And all this time I'd been congratulating myself on being the first member of the family to live in California, only to find out that I'd been beaten by almost 100 years.

By the way, thanks for providing the forum and I'm glad you don't feel I'm intruding. I was so happy to find the Burnett County pages, but a little disappointed to find that the forum wasn't being used perhaps as much as it might be. I *did* notice that someone went to a lot of work to set up the tax table in HTML. :) I do know a little HTML but that table would have been beyond me. You did a nice job. :)

If it's OK, I'll keep posting about one item a day. I have to return these reels of microfilm May 21 and I'm only up to 1901 so I've been picking away at the material every day. In other words what I've got right now will be from a pretty narrow band of time (1899-1910) rather than ranging from 1875 (when the Sentinel was founded) up to relatively modern times.

I'll try to make it a variety of stuff. Thanks again for your interest. :) Cheers.

(and there is an odd sort of symmetry in me posting news on the Internet almost a century later, about the town where my family lived, from the newspaper of which my great-grandfather was editor.)

The Burnett Regional Web Site extends our appreciation to Mr. Harnisch for his interest in helping to build a better site for our community.