Names and phrases from the past

A story in the paper about the death of a young girl was entitled A faded flower. Another obituary about a person was entitled Called to his Eternal Reward. Still another obituary for two different deaths was entitled They Join the Great Majority.

These emotion laden obituaries were in vogue even up into the 1930's. The obituary for my grandfather Frank Baumann, who died in 1935, was very complementary and replete with praise in very poetic and flowery prose. However, I wish to say that many people have told me that my grandfather was indeed worthy of such an obituary.

Reading the paper prompted me to try to recall other euphemistic phrases for death.

- Called Home, Gone to a Higher Calling, Passed Away, Passed On, Meet Their Maker, Gone to the Pearly Gates, Meet Their Creator, Called on High, Gone to the Great Beyond, Went to the Final Resting Place, Joined Their Loved Ones, Expires, Breathed His(Her) Last Breath, Succumbed, Slept Away.

Contrast these reverent phrases of yesteryear with the cynical and insensitive phrases commonly used in conversation today about dying.

- Kicked the Bucket, Pushing up Daisies, Bought the Farm, Croaked, Cashed in His Chips, Down for the Count.

An interesting article in the 1884 edition of The Minonk News was about the fining of 6 of the 8 saloon keepers for allowing patrons to enter the back door of their saloons on Sunday when they were supposed to be closed. The saloon keepers were fined $18.20 apiece. The paper reported "Much hard feeling is engendered in the breasts of some of our German citizens for this interference, but as long as the ordinance is in force, we don't see how they could avoid it." The article gave the impression that people of German origin did all the drinking in Minonk. Interestingly, the prosecuting witnesses had names like Stoddard, Simpson, and Bell, all non-Germanic names.

The majority of people that settled in the Minonk area were of German origin, and therefore, bore German names. In the Uphoff family years ago, a common surname was 'Waite' which was pronounced as 'Veet' in German. There was at one time 4 Waite Uphoff's in the Minonk area.

Many of the older German surnames are no longer used as we tend to shed our ethnicity. Years ago names like Herman, Uffe, Gerhardt, Tjark, Harm, Eilert, Heinrich, Hanford, Otto, Wilhelm, Fredrick, and Honus were not uncommon. My favorite Minonk name was Harm Harms who died a few years ago. Today no parent would dare give these names to their son. I think this is probably because people today want to ignore names that suggest a particular ethnic origin. How many kids born after the start of World War II were named Adolph?

Similarly, many women names have been discarded in favor of more modern, less ethnic names. Names like Gertude, Hilda, Minerva, Fanny, Matilda, Henrietta, Bertha, Mable, Clara, Florence, Eleanor and Lena are no longer used.

Most names given to children today are ethnic-neutral such as Michael or Thomas or are biblical names like David. The one exception to this is the use of invented names by some black people. Names like LaTisha, LaToya, Kareem, Malcom almost immediately identifies the person as belonging to the black race.

Similarly, the other large minority in America, the hispanics, commonly use hispanic surnames such as Pedro, Juan, Salvador, Manuell, Pancho, Hector, and Alfonso. Not many hispanics have an English surname such as James Gonzalez. It seems like the more inculcated an ethnic group becomes within the American culture, the more they adopt Anglo-Saxon surnames.

Myself, I always said that if I had a son I would name him Wolfgang, a great German name from the past. Mabye it's a good thing I never had a son.