This is a cabinet photo of the crew of the USS North Carolina ACR-12 taken between 1908-1909. The photo gives an idea of how wide this ship was.

A little history about the bread banners from the previous post. Many thanks to Connie Loop, daughter of Oswald Jaeger.

To start with Franz Jr.(Frank) was the first Jaeger to come to America. He arrived on 4/20/1871 on the ship Hansa that traveled from the port of Bremen Germany to New York. He arrived in Milwaukee Wisconsin on the 24th, which was "...the goal of my voyage." The original family name was Jager which meant "hunter" and the name was changed in immigration. Then Franz Sr. came to the US on the ship New York that arrived on 5/10/1873. Franz, his wife Helene and 5 children made that journey. Franz Sr. had earned 4 university degrees in Germany, science, art, music and literature. He also had worked for about 10 years at the Papalcy in Rome and while in Rome he traveled to Egypt and was part of the original team that worked on translating the Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Franz Jr. bought in to a mill and then bought out the other 2 owners. The mill is in Danville, Wisconsin. The mill was known for its rye flour which was sent down to the Oswald Jaeger Baking Company for its famed Sichling Rye bread. The Jaeger line still owns the mill. Franz Jr. helped build the Gesu Church in Milwaukee which has a cornerstone dated 1893. Franz Jr. also helped write the state constitution.

When Franz Sr. came over here with his family, one of his children was Oswald. He received citizenship papers in 1888. He was a Cooper, which is a barrel maker. He became friends with a man who happened to be a baker and taught him the trade. He took to it so nicely that he started his own bakery, thus Oswald Jaeger Baking Company. Sadly, when Connie’s father needed to retire, he had no one to take over the bakery. He then sold out to Beatrice Foods. It, in the end, was sold to Sarah Lee who ran it for a while and then closed it permanently.

Connie’s father had 7 children. Except for Connie they all got to work in the bakery. She was the youngest and too young at the time to work at the bakery before it closed. She was nice enough to send some pictures of the bakery also. See the photo with the five men in it. These were the Jaeger family members that ran the Jaeger Bakery. The last gentleman on the right was Connie‘s father.

Bread Banner Artifacts for the USS North Carolina ACR-12

These are two banners of the USS North Carolina ACR-12 that came from bread packages. The bread name and its company was Oswald Jaeger Pan-Dandy Bread. There are several of these floating around even today.

Visit my webpage: http://historynut1776.googlepages.com/home. It includes all of the ships named after the state of North Carolina and a couple that almost received the name North Carolina.

This is one of the many items that I have collected over the past three years from the USS North Caroina ACR-12. Many are postcards to home like the one I have here. Others are more rare items such as a diary and photos of a sailor who had entries from the time he enlisted until October 1918 during escort missions onboard the North Carolina.

This postcard comes from Cuba on 28 May 1911. I couldn't really get the sender's name but the recipient was a Mr Sargent. The writing on this card is incredibly small. I had a hard time reading it even with a magnifying glass.

USS North Carolina Armoured Cruiser ACR-12

This is about the second USS North Carolina Navy Ship. I have been collecting postcards, diaries and other items from this ship for about 3 years. I consider it the lesser known ship by the name North Carolina. Most think of the third USS North Carolina BB-55 when they hear the name USS North Carolina mentioned.

The North Carolina ACR-12 was part of the Armoured Cruiser class of ships that were built between the late 1800's through the early 1900's. US armoured cruisers were some of the first of the US "steel Navy" ships to be built. They replaced the old monitor class ships and were themselves replaced with the larger dreadnought battleships. The famed USS Maine which sparked the Spanish-American War after it sank was the first armoured cruiser.

The North Carolina ACR-12 was laid down March 21, 1905. It was launced on October 6, 1906 and was commisioned on May 7, 1908. The North Carolina ACR-12 was used to launch the first airplane by catapult while underway on November 5, 1915. It served in the World War I as an escort for transport ships in the US Navy's Cruiser and Transport Force. After the war it was used to return American soldiers back home. On June 7, 1920 it was renamed the USS Charlotte CA-12. It was decommissioned on February 18, 1921 making way from the construction of the USS North Carolina BB-52. It's name was struck from the Navy list on July 15, 1930. It was sold for scrap on September 29, 1930.