July 1999    Volume 3    Issue 4

Dies und Das

Did you know there are 85 Schwenk telephone listings in the Laichingen Phone book - or variations thereof? Schwenk 30; Schwenkmezger 3; Schwenkedel 22; Schwenkschuster 9; Schwenkglenks 20; Schwenkkraus 1. Did you know you can take this link and find any listed telephone number in Germany?...Did you know that all underlined names are Konrad's Kids?...Did you know that exactly one year ago there were only 37 Konrad's Kids identified?...As these words are being typed, Milton Schwenk and wife Joann of Yakima, WA, their son Kyle Schwenk and his wife Beth of near Astoria, OR are visiting Dieter Rehse, wife Irene Röcker Rehse and son Michael Rehse in Laichingen. On Saturday and Sunday, June 26th and 27th, they plan to spend time with Dieter's mother's brother Heinrich Schwenk and his wife Ruth, also in Laichingen...Maurla Haehlen White of near Washington, DC, is now traveling in Western Europe and hopes to spend a day in either Dettingen/Erms or Mundingen on around July 19th. Her immigrant gg-grandmother Maria Agnes Schwenk Baumeister was born in Dettingen in 1830, and her father was born in Mundingen in 1798...Just to drop a few names, Tyrone Schwenk of near Sun Valley, ID says he recently saw Tom Hanks at the Kneadery Restaurant in Ketchum-Sun Valley. A regular customer, Arnold Schwarzeneger, and wife Maria Schriver and children were also spotted there by chef Tyrone...On June 27th, Nikki Schwenk Cartney of Pittsburgh, PA, embarks on a 45 day automobile journey across the United States in her brand new Pontiac Firebird accompanied by her two children and a friend of the family...Joyce Schwenkbeck Spencer and daughter Kimberly Bartlett DeMarco of Hamburg, NY will visit Joyce's other daughter Cheryl Bartlett Johnson in Florida in early July. Grandma Joyce reports that these two daughters have five children, all girls under the age of seven, and they, their mothers and Grandma Joyce, will spend a week at the beach. Joyce adds, she expects to return to Hamburg tired...Richard Schwenk and wife Caring of Manila in the Philippines are now winding up 42 years of service as missionaries in SE Asia and intend to return in December to America  where they own a home in Pasadena, CA in which their sons John and Robert Schwenk currently reside. Richard visited his cousin Don Schwenk in Sunnyside, WA in 1957 on his way to SE Asia. He was just a kid, age 23 and single then. Fresh out of college. He and Caring have our greatest admiration for all the good works done over there!...Ken Simons of Silver Spring, MD, a Breymayer cousin to many of us, and wife Linnea spent part of a day on May 30th with Don Schwenk. He and Don had corresponded via email since June, 1996, but had never met. Don gave them the obligatory tour of Sun Valley and it famous Sun Valley Lodge in whose hallways hundreds of pictures of celebrities hang, and who have visited Sun Valley since it's opening in ca. 1937...Have you noticed that the names of many Konrad's Kids never appear in this column? Or hardly ever? Do you know why? The reason is simple: They just don't send email to the editors. Hint, hint - if they are reading this...

New Kid makes 53
 
 

In early June, a Charlene Laur Soos of Sanborn, next to Niagara Falls, NY, found Uncle Don's Corner Website after entering the word Laichingen in a search engine. A correspondence then ensued between the two. She had many years ago traced her Laur ancestry back to a Johannes Laur b. 1622 probably in Ulm, but had lived most of his life in Laichingen. She then sent Don the data of her three-way descent from Johannes. Don then connected one of her Schwenk ancestors (Georg Schwenkbeck b. 1669) to his grandfather, our Konrad Schwenk b. 1601. Click here for her 11 generation descent tree. Charlene was born in 1941 in Niagara Falls, is married and has children. Charlene, welcome aboard!

Biograpy by Karlheinz Schoenfeld  ,

    Hello fellow Konrad's Kids. My name is Karlheinz (Karl for short) George Schoenfeld. I was born February 23. 1937 and raised in Laichingen, the home of one of our common ancestors, Konrad Schwenk. How do I fit into the Schwenk picture?
    My maternal grandmother was Ursula Schwenkbeck Erz, also from Laichingen, of course. When you follow one of Don's family trees back, you'll see that some generations ago one of the Schwenk brothers tacked a "beck" at the end of his name, probably because he was a baker and to distinguish him from the proliferating other Schwenks. (Ed. note: click here for Karl's 11 generation descent tree from Konrad). Anyway, my grandmother was the youngest of five children by Michael Schwenkbeck and Barbara Betz. Barbara died at a young age after giving birth to another daughter who also died. Shortly thereafter, sometime in 1882, Michael disappeared, leaving the kids to be raised by his brother Hansjörg (the godfather) and wife. Eventually four of these children emigrated to the United States, while my grandmother remained in Laichingen. The passed down story has it that Michael went to America, never to be heard from again. Intrigued to find out what happened, to find traces that he really came to America, I began a serious research effort after my retirement in 1993. To date, I have not yet found any evidence that Michael ever was here. However, I have located just about all the descendants of his oldest son George (the brewer) Schwenkbeck. Most of them are still living in the Niagara Falls area, where all four of the immigrant Schwenkbeck kids originally came to. Since George's younger brother, John, died in Niagara Falls at the young age of 20, after being only about three years in this country, and the other two siblings were girls, Barbara and Agnes, it can be said with certainty that all the Schwenkbeck's in the United States are descendants of George.
    Now back to me. The years during and shortly after WW II were difficult for everyone. My father returned from the war in Russia with a missing arm and other terrible injuries, unable to work for many of years and the burden of providing for the family with four kids fell heavily on my mother and grandmother. Supplies of any kind were hard to come by and so was food, if you did not have your own little farm. We were one of the lucky families having relatives in the United States. One of my grandmothers sister and, especially a daughter, who also had emigrated in the 1920's, would send packages on a regular basis. These packages were like a gold mine. I still vividly remember how my grandmother would take me along to some of the outlying farms and trade such simple items as sewing needles or half a bar of Ivory Soap for several pounds of flour, eggs and other food items. Sometimes we would get really lucky and got a big chunk of sausage or smoked meat in return. My grandmother's sister passed away many years ago now, but my dear aunt Margret, at 95, is still living upstate New York. Today, I'm still grateful to both aunts for thinking of us during these
difficult years. I don't think that they ever realized how much difference they made in our lives back then.
    After schooling and an apprenticeship in tool and die making, Wanderlust befell me and I decided to see what America is all about. So, in the Fall of 1956 I boarded the "Ryndam" in Rotterdam for the voyage to the United States. By previous arrangement, I was picked up at the pier by a former Laichinger who owned a machine shop in New Jersey and from whom I had secured a job offer. While working there, I attended Stevens Tech in Hoboken evenings. During this time I also met my wonderful wife Lore and a few years later, in 1960, we were married in Laichingen by another Schwenk descendant, the then mayor of the city,  Daniel Schwenkmetzger. This is the justice of the peace version here and is mandatory in Germany. Only after this "legal" marriage can one go ahead and have a church wedding, if so desired. We decided to have ours in Lore's home town, Oehringen, a beautiful small medieval city with narrow cobblestone alleys and half-timbered houses, about 100 miles to the north of Laichingen. Being newly wed, you have to go on a honeymoon, right? So, we exchanged our airline tickets for a voyage back to the States on the "Rotterdam". Barely back and settled into an apartment, Uncle Sam came knocking on the door. The Army wanted me. With the help of my boss, I managed to enroll into the Army Reserve under a special program, before being drafted, saving me from being away for two full years. Instead, the Army gave us basic training and, after eight years in the Reserve, I was home free.
    Our son Fred was born in 1961 and a few years later, in 1963, Ellen followed. Shortly thereafter, I joined a large computer manufacturer as an engineer and we moved to Wappingers Falls, New York, in the beautiful Mid-Hudson Valley. In the following years, we were blessed with two more daughters, Karen and Andrea. All of them are grown now and on their own. While our youngest, Andrea, has been married for more than eight years, the others are still single. Hint, hint...
    After nearly thirty years with my company, I retired in 1993 to spend more time with Lore, who had undergone a heart transplant a few years earlier. We went on a number of trips since, most of them to Germany, where we still have brothers and sisters and many other relatives (Editor again: Click here for a recent photo of Karl and three siblings).
   Any hobbies? Well, I like to fiddle around with my computer. My kids rely on me to keep their cars going, a full-time job at times, but something I enjoy very much (especially when it works after I'm done with it ;-)). Then, sometimes I play my accordion, which I schlepped with me way back when I first came here. And then I got into this genealogy thing, still bugged not having been able to track down great grandpa Michael yet. Then, about a year ago my old company asked if I could help out for a while, so I'm working there three days a week. I guess you could say I keep busy. Life is good... Whew!!! This got kind of long, hope I didn't bore you too much. 
 

A Short Story by Earl W. Schwenk

Editors note: In 1979, my father put to paper many short, short stories. These were memories of his youth. He called these Some of my Yesterdays. He passed away in 1991 at the age of 80. In 1995 and in memory of him, I self-published this collection of stories. Below is one of those. He was then age 13 and living in Chamberlain, South Dakota. Don Schwenk.

John and I Haul Hay

We had several stacks of alfalfa hay at our other ranch north of Fort Thompson. It was twelve miles from our home ranch. We needed hay for our horses and cattle.  John (ed. note: John Slattery, age 18) and I decided to leave early on a Saturday morning with two hayracks. We borrowed a large rack from Ben Knipling. It was approximately twenty feet long.  Due to the size, it was necessary to use four horses. Our hayrack was smaller and only required one team.
    We left early ... before daylight. It was cold in the latter part of December. We made good time on our trip north to the other ranch. We took a lunch and ate, and also fed and watered our horses after arriving. John and I loaded our loads and, since it was still fairly early in the afternoon, we decided to start home for the home ranch, which was an unwise decision since the days were short at this time of the year.
    All went well until we came to our first hill. John made it down in good shape, but I was not as fortunate. The road was very poor and there were rocks occasionally. My front wheel on the right side hit a large rock and the load of hay tipped over. In the process and commotion, the wagon reach was broken also. It was getting late in the afternoon and colder. I said, "John, what should we do now?" John answered, "Gee, guess we'll have to fix it some way and bed down in the hay for the night." We had no tools to fix the broken reach (a long 2x4 connecting the front and rear of the wagon).  Where was the closest neighbor?  Most everyone living in the area were Indians except the Thompsons, who lived close to our north ranch, and we were several miles from them now.  While John and I were discussing our problem and trying to decide what we should do, an Indian riding a white pony came into view.  When he got closer, we recognized him. He was Leo Walking Crane, who lived close from where we were stranded.
    John and I visited with him awhile and told him our problem.  He said, "Just east of us, about 3/4 of a mile, is the J.Q. Anderson cow camp, that is, one of them.  Perhaps you could get help there." John replied, "Seems that is our best bet right now ... let's go see about it."
    John and I unhooked our teams and we drove them over to the cow camp. The cow camp was what we had expected, however, nevertheless it was our best bet under the circumstances. The cow camp was so-called for it was used for wintering range cattle.  It was protected somewhat from the wintry blasts and was along a creek which had quite a lot of trees.  It was equipped with some large corrals, a few sheds and a one room shack for the hired man. It looked to John and I like a road construction shack. Anyway, it would be a place to stay all night ... we hoped.  We didn't see anyone around, but decided to wait until someone showed up and find out if we could stay there for the night, and put our horses in the corral. Before long a rider appeared. He had been checking on the cattle. John and I told him of our tipping over the load of hay, breaking the reach, and would like to stay all night and fix the broken reach in the morning. His name was a Mr. Satterlee.  An older man, probably in his late fifties.  He was very obliging and willing to help us. We were glad to be his welcome guests on a cold wintry night.  We unharnessed the horses, watered and fed them and went to his humble abode to have supper and spend the night.
    When Mr. Satterlee opened the door of the one room shack, this is what we saw in the interior.  Just the bare necessities.  An old cook stove - wood burner; a table, two chairs, an old cupboard on the wall, and a homemade bunk in one end of the shack.  The first thing that caught my eye when my eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room, was what was laying on the table. The ranch had butchered recently, and a half a dressed hog was laying on the table. It took up nearly half of the small table, and since the room was kept warm, the pork was not frozen, consequently some of the bloody fluids were oozing out onto the old oil cloth which was on the table.  It was an unforgettable sight, believe me!  However, we were game for whatever was in store, for it was a warm place to spend the night.
    Mr. Satterlee was most hospitable, and prepared a good supper for John and I. Fried spuds, and fresh pork cut from the half of hog on the table.  Later that evening, a ranch employee, an Indian by the name of Johnny Badger, rode in horseback bringing some mail from Ft.  Thompson, some news, and also some instructions from the home base ranch.
    At an early hour, possibly about nine o'clock, it was time to "hit the sack", "bunk", or whatever.  The homemade bunk, built of 2x4s and 1"x l2" lumber, was furnished with some old comforters and blankets, with a tanned cowhide robe for the top cover.  Well, the three of us piled in and were soon fast asleep, regardless of anyone snoring. If there were bedbugs there, we didn't notice.  Anyway, we slept good and awakened rested, ready for the events of another day.
    The new day dawned ... another cold December day. John and I went out before breakfast and fed our horses. They were covered with frost, for they were outside in the corral. Mr. Satterlee prepared a good breakfast. Flapjacks and more fresh pork. We were grateful for a good warm meal. I guess we had plenty of coffee as well.
    After breakfast we borrowed some tools and a piece of 2x4; also a pitchfork, for mine was covered up when the load tipped over.  John and I walked over to the highway ... fixed the broken reach and got the rack back on the wagon running gears, then reloaded the hay. Next, it was walk back to the cow camp, get the horses harnessed and back to our loads, and resumed our trip homeward.  We thanked Mr. Satterlee kindly.  In these parts, money offered for such acts of hospitality would have been an insult.
Everything went along fine and we arrived back at our ranch in the middle of the afternoon glad that the trip was over, and nothing more had happened than a tipped-over load and broken reach.

Schwenk Reunion June 2001

Based on an exchange of ideas by some of us, it seems that June of 2001 would be the time to hold this Schwenk Reunion in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We need to set a tentative date, so let's jot down on our calendar the 27th and 28th of that month. That is a Wednesday and Thursday. Okay. We've got the date and place determined. But that will not make a reunion. That can happen only if someone steps forward to chair a committee. Hello out there! Is anyone listening?
A Word from Uncle Don - Almost a Kid.
 
 

This is a story about Reinhard Breymayer of Ofterdingen, Germany near the University of Tübingen where he is a professor. He was born in 1944 in Urach, not far west of Feldstetten and Laichingen. It was one year ago that he found my Website and left a message in the Guest Book. He said briefly that his Breymayer roots were in the village of Mundingen. When I read those words, I knew he was a distant Breymayer cousin (as he is to nearly half of the 53 Konrad's Kids). Click here to view his Breymayer descent tree. We have corresponded regularly since then. A few months ago, I traced some of his lines of ancestry in Feldstetten (sister community of Laichingen) to see where these might lead, hoping that one would lead back to our Konrad. One line led back to Philipp Hilsenbeck, 1628-78 in Feldstetten ( a common ancestor of probably 80 % of Konrad's Kids). Another led back to Bernhard Mangold, 1600-1636, a large farmer in Laichingen and also a common ancestor to most of us. Then I followed a Schwenk line. This led me back to Conrad Schwenk, cabinet maker, 1610-1666 in Laichingen. Another line led back to Andreas Schwenk, lawyer and local judge, 1604-1682 in Laichingen. He was not a brother of our Konrad, but very likely a close cousin. Incidentally, he is also an ancestor to many of us. A search of a third line of Reinhard's Schwenk ancestry ended with a Johannes Schwenk, 1617-1666. He carried the nickname of edel. His descendants took on the family name of Schwenkedel of which there are many in Laichingen today. Johannes was an innkeeper of the Rößle Inn (little horse).  So, as you can see, Reinhard and I share many common ancestors, but Konrad Schwenk, weaver, 1601-1686 is not one of them - or apparently not. Tracing someone's ancestry is like exploring a river - you have to travel up every little tributary. And each little stream entering the tributary must be followed as well. And when you have explored each of these, then you have to go to the other bank of the river and do the same search on that side. And if you are not really careful, you might overlook the exploration of one of those streams feeding the river. I hope I didn't miss a stream.  Reinhard has a Website. It is written in German. Drop in and check it out.  http://www.ingen-info.de/breymayer

Links

If you are new to the Internet, take time to visit Micron Internet Services, "Beginners Guide to the Internet." This online guide was written with the new user in mind and is loaded with information on a variety of basic Internet topics. Just go to the link below and you'll be on your way,  http://www.micron.net/subtlbx/primer.html

This is another handy people finder: phone numbers, street addresses and email addresses: http://yp.uswest.com/

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