Historian's Corner

Max Henius: Founder of Rebild July 4th Celebration and Brewmaster

by Donna Christensen Thomas, National DSS Historian

The Rebild 4th of July celebration and the Rebild Danish-American Friendship Society was the topic of my last article. What I didn't realize was that it was the centennial celebration of this organization! Congratulations to such a wonderful and important society. Numerous photos are posted to their website. Please check them out! What I would like to concentrate in this article is the man who became the founder behind the organization. I first became aware of this man several years ago when one of the Henius family descendants visited the Museum of Danish America's Genealogy Center and shared his experience in which he "was treated like royalty" when he attended the event shortly before his visit to Elk Horn. In summary of his Wikipedia page, Max Henius was born in Aalborg on 16 Jun 1859 and died on 15 November 1935 while on a visit to his motherland. His parents were Emilie née Wasserzug and Isidor Henius (1820-1901), both Polish Jewish immigrants. His father, was born in West Prussia, now Poland, and emigrated to Denmark in 1837 and worked in the spirit distillery industry to improve and standardize production. He co-founded a distillery in 1846. He also owned a small castle in Aalborg which since 2005 has been the site of a gourmet restaurant. Max Henius was educated at the Aalborg Latin School and went on to study at the Polytechnic Institute in Hanover, Germany. He also attended the University of Marborg, earning his PhD degree in chemistry in 1881. That same year his father sold the distillery and Max emigrated to the United States at age twenty-two, settling in Chicago. Max had two brothers who remained in Denmark. Erik S Henius (1863-1926) became Chairman of the Danish Export Association. His brother Louis Henius (1870-1938) was the grandfather of the accomplished author Suzanne Brøgger. Following employment by the Northern Pacific Railway between Fargo, NE and Bozeman, MT, he opened a drug store 1886. Next he formed Wahl & Henius, an institute for chemical and mechanical analysis with his former schoolmate, Robert Wahl in 1891. The Chicago-based Brewing Academy (Later known as the Wahl-Institute of Fermentology became a premier brewing school of the pre-prohibition era. It later expanded with a brew master school that operated until 1921. Mr. Henius became interested in Danish-American organizations in Chicago. Funds were being raised by Danish American to purchase 2000 acres of heather-covered hills, located in the Rold Forest, Denmark's larget forest. In 1912, Max Henius presented to the deed to His Majesty King Christian X as a permanent memorial from Danish Americans. The Rebild National Park is located near the town of Skørping, northern Jutland, Denmark. Every July 4 since 1912, except during the two world wars, large crowds have gathered in the hills of Rebild to celebrate American Independence Day. A bust is placed there in his memory. In his personal life, he was married to Danish-born Johanne Loiuse Heiberg (18601934) on Jun 4, 1883. She was the daughter of medical doctor Emil Theodore Heiberg and Johanne "Hanne" Henriette Jacoba Schmidt. They had three children, Henry, Emil and Gerda. Their great-grandchildren include actors Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine, Christopher Carradine, and Michael Bowen. All these years later, Max Henius' and Wahl's work and expertise remains the standard in brewing and is the basis for numerous wellknown beer manufacturing companies for the fermenting process.

The Museum of Danish America Accessing Online Collections

Hello Sisters, I was asked to give a brief tutorial on how to access your online collections. I will preface this by saying that scanning all of the materials, in their entirety, was never the goal of the two year project I worked on. I have however tried to scan examples of many of the types of material in the collection. The goal of this project was to organize and catalog these items to allow for ease of access. You should now be able to view what the collection consists of and what is available from the national, district and lodge level of donated materials. First you will navigate to https://danishmuseum.pastperfectonline.com where you will click on Advanced Search. In the Search Terms box, you will search “Danish Sisterhood of America” or “DSS” for all materials related to the Sisterhood. This will be a lot. You may narrow your search with “Lodge #21” or your own lodge number. If nothing comes up, we may not have any materials pertaining to that lodge number. You can also search names, last name first, i.e. “Jensen, Jenny.” Please remember to use quotation marks for whatever you decide to search. You can also use this for searching our whole collection. As always, if you need assistance, or have more questions you can reach out to me by calling the museum or emailing me at cjansdatter@ danishmuseum.org.

Mange tak, Cheyenne Jansdatter