Mary Boeckenhauer

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• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-150818

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• FindAGrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/195048627
• Name: Carl Boeckenhauer
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-96104
• Occupation: 1856, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; labourer

Carl married Wilhelmina Sophia Christina Friederica "Sophia" Gunsel 30 Sep 1856, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Wilhelmina (daughter of Carl Frederick Gunzel and Magdalena Sophia Anna Peterfeld) was born 6 Apr 1841, Glasin, , Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany; died 22 Aug 1921, West Point, Cuming, Nebraska, United States; was buried , Mt. Hope Cemetery, West Point, Cuming, Nebraska, United States. [Group Sheet]

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• FindAGrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/110888294
• Name: Sophia Gunzel
• Name: Wilhelmina Sophia Christina Friederica "Sophia" Boeckenhauer
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-96105
• Immigration: 1855, , Canada
• Residence: 1856, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

Notes:

TO A HIGHER LIFE

Mrs. Sophia Boeckenhauer was released from her suffering and called to a higher life on Monday forenoon at 11:10 o'clock, August 22. She had been ailing for the past fifteen years and has been bedfast for nearly two years. Through all this time she had the most tender care of her children, her daughter, Emma, being with her constantly. The immediate cause of her death was bronchitis. The many years of her sufferings she bore with the true Christian fortitude and trusted in Him who doeth all things well.

Sophia Boeckenhauer, nee Gunsel, was born April 6, 1841, at Glasin Mecklenberg- Schwerin, Germany, a daughter of Carl Frederick Gunsel and Sophia Anna (Peterfeld) Gunsel. Her father died when she was ten years of age. For three years after that she made her home with her aunt and then joined her mother and stepfather, Adam Schroeder, and came to Berlin, Canada. This was in 1855. On September 30, 1856 she was united in marriage to Mr. Carl Boeckenhauer, with whom she lived in happy union for fifty- six years. They celebrated the golden anniversary of their marriage in 1906. Six years later, on September 28, 1912 the husband passed away.

West Point News, 26 Aug 1921

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• FindAGrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/110888016
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-150862

Notes:

Founding Families - Family of Herman Boeckenhauer

In 1852 Herman Boeckenhauer, his wife Elizabeth, and their family emigrated from Mecklenberg, Germany to Ontario, Canada. In 1868 they moved to Cuming County, Nebraska. Four of their children, Joseph, Henry, Will [founder of Beckenhauer Construction, Inc.] and John lived in the Wakefield area in the early days.

According to the History of Wayne county by Dorothy Huse Nyberg, "On October 14, 1873 in the first called election in Wayne County, Joseph Boeckenhauer was elected County Commissioner. At that time he was a 31-year-old bachelor living on his hometead seven miles south of the present site of Wakefield.

In 1872 he built the first school house in District One in Wayne County. There had been many disputes over the location of the school. As a result of these and many later disagreements, the district became known as "Bloody One."

County records show that Joseph received a patent from the United States Government dated June 24, 1878 which gave him title to his homestead. Ten years later he sold the farm and moved to Wakefield where with his brother, Henry, he operated a livery stable. He was elected sheriff by Dixon County in 1890. When he took up his new duties, the brothers sold the livery stable and Henry moved to Washington State.


After his term as sheriff, Joseph was postmaster at Newcastle. He moved back to Wakefield in 1905.
Joseph's daughter Lucy married J. O. Peterson who operated a harness shop in Wakefield for many years. His son Emory worked as a mason with his Uncle Will.

Will worked as a mason and builder in Wakefield and later established the Boeckenhauer Construction Company at Norfolk. His sons continued this company and a grandson operates it today. The Sackerson building on the West side of Main Street was built by the Boeckenhauers.

John, whose wife Mary Thaler, was a native of Ontario, came to Cuming County in 1871. He came later than the rest of the family because it took some time to sell Mary on the move from the wooded Grand River area of Ontario to the treeless plains of Nebraska. No wonder that several years later she said to a granddaughter concerning their coming to Wayne County, "Just think, Annie, all you could see was grass."

In 1877 John received a tax deed to the NW1/4 of Section 3, Township 25N, Range 5E, which is six miles south and one mile east of Wakefield. The tax title cost him less than $700. Willard Graves, father of Philo Graves, had failed to pay the taxes and this lost title to the land.

In the spring of 1880 the family moved from a dugout on a farm south of Beemer to the house they had built of the land in Wayne County. The house was quite an improvement over the dugout where snakes would sometime crawl out of the ceiling and drop on the table and rodents would nurrow through the walls.

Like other pioneer families, they broke the sod, planted crops for the grasshoppers to eat and fought the prairie fires. Rattlesnake Creek ran across the farm [in Cuming County] and there were plenty of rattlesnakes. The Boeckenhauer children always carried a stick long enough to kill a snake without the risk of being bitten when they ventured out into the fields.

John also purchased 240 acres on which he had a 200 acre fenced pasture. Here he would hold the cattle overnight. During the day they were turned out on the open range to graze. This was land that still belonged to the government. It was the job of the Boeckenhauer children to herd the cattle during the day.

One day when they were out herding, they heard a strange sound. It was repeated several times. They became frightened and although it was only midafternoon, they rounded up the cattle and brought them home. Their parents explained that the strange sound was the whistle of a train.

Besides his own cattle, John pastured cattle for George Waitt, who had a lumber and coal business in LaPorte and also was a livestock dealer When the railroad failed to come to LaPorte he moved his business to Wakefield. He built the house where the Haskells lived for many years just northwest of the former schoolground. One very cold winter Mr. Waitt sold too much coal on credit to the settlers. When the coal companies wanted their pay for the coal he was unable to collect from his customers. He sold his buisness and his house to pay his bills. He then moved to Sergant Bluff, Iowa and was one of the pioneers of the Sioux City Stockyards. When he moved his cattle from Nebraska to Iowa he drove them to the Missouri River and they swam across.

Mary Boeckenhauer served her community as a midwife and helped nurse the sick. One of the little girls that she nursed through a serious illness asked to sing at her funeral. That little girl still lives in Wakefield. Her name is Myrtle Quimby.

Mary made a salve from beeswax, sheeps tallow, and rosin. Her family called it "Grandma's Salve". It was a sure cure for an infected wound.

The Boeckenhauers belonged to the Evangelical Church (German Methodists). An itinerant preacher living in West Point would travel to the Boeckenhauer home via horse and buggy, visit parishoners in the area, stay overnight, and the next day go on to Pierce and so on around his circuit.

The family attended the Pleasant Valley Methodist Church. [Pleasant Valley, built in 1892, was 8 miles NW of present day Pender - it was destroyed by a tornado in 1954 along with the District 7 schoolhouse that was established in 1877.]

John died in 1905 and is buried in Wakefield. Mary sold the farm in 1911 and moved to Wayne where she lived until 1920. She then moved to a new home in Wakefield. She died in 1925 at the age of 81.

Ten of the John Beockenhauer children grew to maturity. They were Elizabeth (Mrs. Henry Giese), Ephriam, Lavina (Mrs. D. S. McVickers), Louise (Mrs. George Whipperman), Leah (Mrs. Fred Steinman), Amos, Ezra, Herman, Clara (Mrs. J. O. Driskell) and Elmer.

Descendants of Elizabeth, Ephriam, Amos, Ezra and Elmer still live in the Wakefield-Wayne area. Mr. and Mrs. George Whipperman built the house now owned by Jerome Pearsons. They had no children. State Senator Shirley Marsh of Lincoln is a granddaughter of Lavina.

Ezra who married Lydia Haglund and Elmer whose wife was Alice Mitchell were more closely connected to the Wakefield area than the rest, except for the Whippermans.

Ezra was born in the dugout in Cuming County and was about three months old when the family came to Wayne County in 1880. When the post office was established in Wakefield, Box 105 was leased to John Boeckenhauer. When Mary left the farm Ezra rented it and when he moved to a rural route his son, Robert, rented it until 1938.

Ezra's children are Dorothy Lofgren of Bremerton, Washington, Robert and Opal Wriedt of Wayne. Robert's sons Lauren and Maurice operate farms in the Wakefield-Emerson area.

Elmer's children include John who died in 1979, Louise (Mrs. Laurence Hanson) of Tilden, Ann (Mrs. Weldon Mortenson), Jane (Mrs. LeRoy Griesch), who died in 1980 and Clarence (Bud). Members of this family have been the more permanent residents of the Wakefield area.

John and his wife Ruth (Anderson) Boeckenhauer are parents of Lyle, Dean and Mary.

Bud and his wife Donna (Baier) Boeckenhauer are the parents of Roger, Keith, and Tim.

Ann (Mrs. Weldon Mortenson) and her husband are the parents of Merlin, Marcia Lou Barge, Carol Ann Willers and Melvin.

Fifth generation Boeckenhauers with a Wakefield address in 1981 include: Adam, Keri Lynn, Kurt, Kelly, Brenda and Karla Boeckenhauer, Tanya, Trisha and Todd Willers, Christopher, Kobey and Tracey Mortenson.

The Wakefield Republican - November 19, 1981

Herman — Dorothea Elisabeth "Elisabeth" Brasch. Dorothea was born 31 May 1812, , Germany; died 1894, West Point, Cuming, Nebraska, United States; was buried , Mt. Hope Cemetery, West Point, Cuming, Nebraska, United States. [Group Sheet]

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• FindAGrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/110888213
• Name: Dorothea Elisabeth "Elisabeth" Boeckenhauer
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-150885

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• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-87256

Carl — Magdalena Sophia Anna Peterfeld. Magdalena was born 19 Aug 1809, , Mecklenburg, Germany; died 1890, Caro, Tuscola, Michigan, United States. [Group Sheet]

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• Name: Magdalena Sophia Anna Gunzel
• Name: Magdalena Sophia Anna Schroder
• Name: Magdelena Sophia Anna Peterfald
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-150840
• Immigration: 1855, , Canada