Esther (Bruckner) Janke interview in 1889 when she was 91
(Corrections in brackets and notes have been added)
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OXFORD - A smile and a hug, and the aroma of baking bread, are the delights of a visit with Esther Janke, who has a birthday on Saturday. She will give the bread away!
In a sunny room surrounded by photos of the people she loves, it is easy to launch the subject of family history, and we are soon walking county roads on the border of Marquette and Adams Counties, where her grandparents - the Bruckners and Stroscheins - settled in the middle of the last century.
To begin, she says, the story would be different if, 130 [125] years ago, the girl who would be her grandmother had not drawn the shortest straw and crossed the ocean to marry a total stranger.
"She didn't want to come, but her sisters told her it was, 'the will of God'. When she saw the Wisconsin wilderness, and the old man who was to be her husband, she wished she could go home, but there was no turning back."
The 51-year-old man was John Galtfried [Gottfried] Bruckner, who had come to America when he was 38 [39], and settled near a brother in Pennsylvania (note 1). He married twice, but each time his wife died in childbirth. "A German woman would be stronger," he said.
He migrated to Wisconsin and hewed logs to build a cabin in the woods, south of Fenner Lake, in Adams County. Big enough to accommodate a family, it had a basement, a hall and three rooms down stairs, and two rooms above. (note 2)
With cabin finished, Bruckner wrote to a Home For Girls in his native Germany, asking for a wife (note 3).
It is not know if the three sisters who were given the letter were workers at the Home or residents, but this was their opportunity for a "better life." They agreed to draw straws, and they prayed.
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The youngest, 33 [37]-year-old Anna Helen McLausch [probably spelled Micklausch], wept when she drew the short straw, but true to her word, she took her 4-year-old son, Edward (note 4), by the hand and, paying her own passage, sailed to America. When she arrived by livery at the Bruckner farm, the man who had boasted the "biggest house around" did not have money to pay the driver.
Anna McLausch and John Bruckner were married on July 10, 1860 (note 5). John "Lewis" was born in 1865; Samuel, two years later.
Bruckner was a stern disciplinarian. He insisted on family devotions before bedtime, no matter how late the chores. And he would not let the boys leave for Sunday School at New Chester church until five minutes before the hour, as they must not play before worship.
As adults, Edward and Sam went to live in Colorado (note 6). "Lewis" married Augusta Stroschein and remained on the farm.
John Stroschein - cobbler and carpenter - came to look America over in 1882, and decided to stay. Homestead land east of Fenner Lake, in Marquette County, reminded him of the sandy soil of Germany, and there he built a log cabin, bought a couple of cows and some horses, and sent for his wife, Justina, and their children: 5-year-old Augusta, and Emil, age 3. They came by sailing ship, bringing Augusta's mother, Grandma Pehlke, with them.
Augusta [Justina] was a seamstress and had lived in a fine home with servants so she, too, was ready to turn back when she saw the undeveloped wilderness. But in pioneer fashion, she made the best of it. Two more sons were born in the new land: Robert, who would take over the farm, and William, who farmed north of Fenner Lake. Emil stretched his experiences to become a streetcar conductor in Milwaukee, a storekeeper in Packwaukee, and a farmer at Coloma.
After three years of schooling, Augusta worked in a boarding house in Lawrence and, at 16, married 31-year-old Lewis Bruckner. As a wedding present, her father helped build a second house on the Bruckner farm. It was here that Esther was born - and Walter, Edwin, Evelyn, Arthur and Lewis.
Grandma Anna Bruckner-widowed in 1882 - lived alone in the big log cabin until, finally, Lewis took her into his home. She died in 1907, age 85.
Notes:
1. According to his naturalization record J. G. Bruckner arrived in April 1849 which would have made him 39 when he arrived. There may have been a brother already in PA but no record of that has been found.
2. It was probably 1857 when J. G. Bruckner built the log house as he homesteaded 120 acres by Fenner Lake in 1857.
3. German historians have stated that there were no such places in Germany in the 1860s and another family story says he wrote to the pastor of his church in Germany.
4. Edward (Henry Edward) was born in 1857 so he would have been seven in 1864 when he came with his mother.
5. July 10, 1860 is actually the date J. G. Bruckner married his second wife Johanna Burghardt who died 30 May 1863. It is after she died that he sent for a German wife. He would have married Anna in 1864. No record of that marriage has been found.
6. Edward first moved to Nebraska, married there in 1882, and then moved to Colorado in 1904 after having 13 children in Lincoln, NE.
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