 Augusta and Fred by their house in Oxford
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 Augusta at her sewing machine in her house
in Oxford. She spend a lot of time mending
things for people and making quilt squares.
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Fred and Augusta Henke were both born in the NE portion of Prussia which is now part of Poland. Fred immigrated in 1889 and Augusta in 1884. Fred lived with his parents on the farm adjacent (to the south) of the Bruckner farm where Augusta lived with her first husband J. Lewis Bruckner. Fred and Augusta were married in 1913 about six months after J. Lewis Bruckner died. They had known each other for a long time and Augusta badly needed a man to help run the farm. Fred and Augusta had two children who were born in the farm house; Dorothy in 1915 and Annie in 1919. Augusta had previously born seven Bruckner children in that house. Several of Augusta's grandchildren were also born in that house.
After Augusta married Fred there was the issue of inheritance for the Bruckner children. Augusta's parents, John & Gustina Stroschein, and her brothers, Rob & Willie, did not think very highly of Fred Henke and were concerned that he would "drink" away all the money from the farm and the Bruckner children would not get any inheritance. Note, Fred may have drank some in his younger years but did not have any such problem after he married Augusta and was a hard worker and good father. It was decided that the Bruckner children would each be paid their inheritance based on the value of the farm at the time of the marriage. This put a real big financial hardship on Fred and Augusta and they had to borrow money to make the payments. There were some bad feelings amongst some of the Bruckner children as deductions were made for any money that had been spent on their education.
The family's first car was a Model T, which Fred bought when his step-son Lewis, the youngest Bruckner child, was old enough to drive. The idea was that Lewis would drive them to town for shopping, church, and other such things. Lewis was a bit of a wild one and often took the car without permission. There are stories that he even used it to run moonshine during the probation years.
After their daughter Annie married John Dornacker in 1943, Fred and Augusta sold the farm to them and lived with them until they bought a house in Oxford and moved there in 1944. Augusta had lived in the farm house for 47 years. Annie and John Dornacker raised four children in the Bruckner/Henke farm house. John died in 1966 after having farmed and dealt in machinery for 26 years. Annie later sold the farm and moved to Adams. The house is still being used as a vacation home.
The house in Oxford had been build in 1880 by James Worden as noted in this 1880 Oxford newspaper.
 In Oxford, after her husband Fred's death in 1949, Augusta kept on sewing and making quilts for her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She also like to garden and always had lots of flower and a large garden. She remained alert, although sick the last few months, up to her death in 1966 from cancer at the age of 87.
Click on one of the links below with your speakers on if you would like to hear the voice of Augusta Henke. The voices you hear are Carol and Craig Cottrell talking to her (Craig's great-grandmother) about 1963.
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