A Productive Summer - continued

On Wednesday, July 14 Kathy and I left for St. Gallen on the 8:09 train. This is a fairly fast train which is very comfortable. There were several stops before St. Gallen and we arrived at 9:15. After getting a map from Tourist Information we walked to the Staatsarchiv. Tienne met us as we approached the door and we went in together.

This place is well secured and many doors are locked. To leave the document area you must exit through a door locked from the inside. We put our bags in a locker and met with Marcel Muller who helped me last summer. His colleague, Patric Schnitzer also greeted us and we discussed a plan for the day. Marcel led us to a room with a very long table with documents laid out. Most obvious was a map of Guebsensee which was about 4 feet long.

Patric, Tienne, Kathy and Marcel

Marcel had a hand written copy of the sales contract between Kubel Elektrik and Albert Staeheli with a typed copy easier to read. He went through each point of the contract explaining its significance. Attached to the contract were some amendments or points of clarification. We looked at the map dated 1898 prepared by Kubel with excellent detail of Guebsenmoos and the proposed Guebsensee illustrating where shorelines would be. Tienne identified the property lines and Marcel noted from the contract who the neighboring property owners were. The Staeheli house and barn were shown on the map. From the contract and map it was clear Albert Staeheli owned two parcels separated by the property of another farmer. A road or trail crossed the neighbor’s land allowing Albert access to both of his acreages. There was a bridge on the road that Albert and his neighbor maintained jointly. The map and contract are a goldmine of information. Again, Patric and Marcel have done extreme detective work with excellent results.

Marcel lead Tienne and me to meet Ueli Risch, a retired SAK executive who is reviewing historical records from the early days of Kubel Elektrik. Mr. Risch had found the contract of Albert Staeheli after conversation with Marcel about our family research. Marcel showed me the stacks in the document storage room where the Kubel files are kept while Mr. Risch does his work. There are hundreds of thousands of documents. Some have been processed but most have not. It was serendipity that he spotted the contract among the documents. Mr. Risch also had some photos from the construction of the powerplant.

Marcel and Ueli

It was time for lunch so we took a break and walked to a nearby restaurant serving typical Swiss dishes. It was a warm, sunny day suitable for outdoor dining. For just under two hours we enjoyed fine Swiss cuisine and talked about contemporary life, politics, religion, medicine, travel and salaries among other topics. We learned that both Marcel and Patric have been to the U.S. Marcel studied in Nebraska for 10 months and experienced the U.S. medical system when he broke his leg playing soccer. After military service Patric started in San Francisco and drove a rental car through the southwest to LA and north along the coast highway back to San Francisco.

Back at the archive Tienne researched Staeheli’s by accessing microfilm records. Marcel and I researched property records kept by fire insurance companies for mention of the Staeheli’s. Briefly we attempted to locate a photo of the Staeheli house in Guebsenmoos believed to exist in an encyclopedia or publication about St. Gallen. This was determined to be looking for the needle in the haystack. We resumed our study of fire insurance records. I use “we” even though it was Marcel doing the looking and me standing by. His detective skills in overdrive, Marcel had three or four large volumes open and was flipping pages like Superman. Suddenly he exclaimed it was time for a “high five”. Success! He confirmed with Patric and affirmed we had the story of the Staeheli house in Guebsenmoos. It is fascinating but you will have to wait for it to come out in book form. Just kidding… I will update the website soon.

Kathy and I needed to return to Zurich so I collected all the documents Marcel had prepared and we left the archive feeling it had been another eminently successful day of discovery. Back in Zurich we had dinner and showered. It had been the hottest day of the year in Switzerland and sure felt that way even though we had spent most of the day underground. I called Tienne to confirm our meeting in Frauenfeld tomorrow.

Tienne shared joy for her discovery of our great, great, great grandfather during her record search today. Wow! It just kept getting better.

Staeheli Property in Gubsenmoos before flooding Reservoir

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