Written and Compiled by Esther Poppens Soderberg in July 1978
Christina Witte’s father was a minister, the Reverend Philipp Witte, who became the first pastor of the Germantown Presbyterian congregation which was organized in 1886. The building was erected in 1887 on land given by Menne Plucker. It was there that John Plucker and Christina Witte met and in 1893 they were married by the bride’s father.
They lived for 28 years on a farm that was originally homesteaded by a Frenchman and purchased from him in 1884. The land was half cultivated and half prairie. Before the prairie land could produce, the grass had to be burned in the fall, and then plowed back after being broken in the spring. This was called “back-set). Wheat was the only crop that would grow on this kind of land at first.
There are many stories to be told about life in the South Dakotas – drought, poverty, and hard work. The first house that Menne built for his family in 1877 was a mud, or sot, house. Benne had to borrow money to live and at that time the interest was 10% with an additional 5% commission to the lender. By contrast, prices were low: eggs 3 cents a dozen and corn 25 to 20 cents per bushel.
Since this was a community of German people, everyone spoke in the Low German dialect and children learned their English in school. School laws in the early days did not say at what age or in what grade a pupil could leave school. High schools were uncommon so if anyone wished to continue their education, they attended an Academy.
John Plucker bought his first car in 1916, a Reo. He kept it in the granary in the alley between the bins. The story is told that after he had instructions about how to start, stop and drive the new “contraption”, he decided to park it in the “garage”, namely the alley of the granary. Everything went well until he had gone as far as he thought necessary and decided to stop, but his mind went blank and all he could say was “Whoa!” Both he and the family were happy that both doors of the granary were open at the time.
In 1921 John bought a grain elevator in Lennox and a big home on the outskirts of Lennox. John and his son, Menne, operated the elevator until 1926. John and Christina lived in the Lennox house until their deaths.
FIFTY-EIGHTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
MR. AND MRS. JOHN P. PLUCKER
From The Presbyterian Messenger – written by Lydia Plucker Mihelic
1951
On November 29th Mr. & Mrs. John P. Plucker of Lennox observed their 58th wedding anniversary. They have spent most of their lives in the Germantown and Lennox vicinities. The parents of both of them were pioneers. Mr. Plucker’s parents came from East Friesland, Germany to Oregon, Illinois about 1860. From there they moved to Ackley, Iowa, and in the fall of 1877 they took a homestead in the present Germantown township area. Mrs. Plucker’s father, the Reverend Philipp Witte, became the first pastor of the Germantown Presbyterian congregation which was organized in 1886. The building was erected in 1887 on land given by Menne Plucker the father of John P. It was there that John Plucker and Christina Witte met and in 1893 they were married by the bride’s father.
After 28 years of farming the family moved to their present home in Lennox. Mr. & Mrs. Plucker enjoy visiting with friends and neighbors and especially with their three daughters and one son who come to see them as often as possible. At 82 Mr. Plucker still likes to tell stories of incidents which happened in his childhood, and which are of interest to our generation in that they furnish some very sharp contrasts in methods of work and attitudes of people then and now. Some of these stories follow and could be matched by other pioneer couples whose children still live in this area.
Mr. Plucker tells that the farm which is presently owned and operated by his son, M. E. J. Plucker, was originally homesteaded by a Frenchman. His father, Menne Plucker, purchased it from him in 1884. The land was half cultivated and half prairie. Before the prairie land could produce, the prairie grass had to be burned in the fall and broken the following spring, and then it was plowed back in the fall. This was called “Back-set.” It was not till the following spring that the land was ready for sowing wheat. Corn could not be planted because the land was too hard to work.
Another recollection of Mr. Plucker is that the first summer of their married life, in 1894, there occurred a very severe drought which caused a total failure of crops, both garden and grain. Then every effort had to be made in order to keep the animals alive.
Still another story which he likes to tell is the one about their trip from Ackley, Iowa, to the homestead claim in the Germantown Township. His father came ahead to begin the homestead and to have some of the land broken. Six months later the family of six children came by train. With two wagons they brought some lumber, stock and one pig. Since there were no wild animals which could be hunted for meat, the pig which they brought with them was their only source of meat for the first year, 1878. Because of adverse circumstances, the Menne Plucker family had very little money when they moved from Illinois, and when Menne came to South Dakota to claim the homestead, he had only $5.00 in his pocket. He borrowed money to build a mud house and to buy the absolute necessities for his family. The interest on the borrowed money was 10% and a 5% commission. Another item of interest which Mr. Plucker recalls is the prices. In 1895 eggs were three cents a dozen, and corn cost 25 to 30 cents a bushel. In 1920 oats sold for $1.04 a bushel, but in 1922 it was only eight cents a bushel.
Amid all these difficulties and every day problems the Pluckers took a lively interest in the church. The church was to them a haven of rest and a source of strength. They did all in their power to preserve it for future generations. May the gracious Lord continue to grant the John P. Pluckers a pleasant eventide.
Obituary
Henry Gene Straatmeyer
3.4.1934-2.20.20
Due to complications after a fall and a broken hip, Henry Gene Straatmeyer, age 85, died in Galveston, Texas on February 22, 2020. Gene often said that his life changed when he started going to church as a child. He dedicated his life to God and became a Presbyterian Minister. After a very tough and trying childhood, the church became his life. He will be remembered for his gift of cross-cultural ministry from the deep south of Mississippi to the Arctic to Africa, as well as his constant jokes, and his larger than life personality.
Since he was born on March 4th during the Great Depression and the Dustbowl, it was always said that he was born to MARCH FORTH. He began by becoming the first in his family to graduate High School, and then went on to college and on to finish his Master of Divinity degree in 1959, and his Doctor of Ministry in 1978. Following the Scriptures’ guidance, he started early looking for “the least of these” to minister to, helping his churches become active in justice-based ministry in the process. As a young pastor he traveled to Mississippi to register African Americans to vote and, at one time, was even chased by the KKK. He started a farmer exchange program with white farmers from Iowa and black farmers in Mississippi. He led many mission trips to Indian reservations including Pine Ridge. After moving to Alaska, Gene saw the need for Alaska Native Leadership in the church and began encouraging Alaskan natives to become pastors of their own churches.
Maybe because he was so proud of his own 100% German heritage, he saw the impact of white pastors bringing the white culture with them to Alaska, and the need to preserve the Alaska Native culture. Gene continued on the mission of raising up indigenous Christian leadership, making that the focus of is Doctoral Studies. As a result, when he moved back to the Lower 48, he ran two different Native American Ministries Departments at two different Schools of Divinity: Charles Cook Theological School and University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. After Gene retired, he continued his cross-cultural work with a year in Malawi, Africa where he worked in a church and learned that culture. Indeed, he never quit learning. In his last years he did research and finished a book on the old German Synod of the West, to which he attributed his love of “mission work.” Even in his last years he was reading several books a month and enjoyed talking about his life’s work at Toast Masters.
Throughout life Gene used humor to interact with almost everyone. He often embarrassed his family by making cat noises in restaurants and then would sit back to watch all the waitresses look for the cat under all of the tables. Pun should have been his middle name. Most of the time, his puns were met with groans and sighs, which seemed to make make him laugh more than the pun itself, as if it were some sort of torture he enjoyed dishing out. On one Alaskan Christmas Eve he anonymously called his brother-in-law in South Dakota at 5am in the morning (1am Alaska time) and told him his cows were out. He waited 30 minutes and called back to laugh after his brother-in-law was back in the house grumping that he had found that no cows were out. It became a funny family story, that was really only funny to Gene at the time.
Gene was an imposingly big man--- 6’2” with a deep voice and was used to getting what he wanted…maybe because he was an only child. He loved to eat, but also loved to exercise. He started riding bikes and wearing shorts in the 1960s, which, in that day, was unheard of for pastors. He bought a green rambler instead of the traditional black car for pastors, which was scandalous in the Midwest. When he moved to Alaska he joined an adult basketball league. He started jogging. He loved to canoe, but had his wife gotten in one more time, they may have divorced, since he didn’t know how to steer them. (If he were here, he would deny that comment.) Gene documented every minute he spent exercising, making graphs and yearly announcements of how many hours he had done which exercise.
Gene knew everything and told everybody what he knew. He was rarely wrong, but even if he were wrong, he would insist he wasn’t. Gene knew a LOT of people and never forgot a face or name. He maybe should have gone into politics since he loved glad-handing everyone. In busy places he would scour the crowd to find people he knew and would go talk to them, which would lead to talking to the guy next to him and on it went. He did love to talk, which is probably why everyone said he was a such a great preacher.
His roots were in South Dakota where there was a concentration of German immigrants from Northern Germany. He heard German growing up, but was not taught German because of World War II. Gene especially enjoyed the summer of 2011 that he and Jean spent living in Northern Germany where much of his low German came back to him, allowing him to communicate in his quest to find out more about his ancestors.
He was born in Chancellor, South Dakota, 3/4/34 to Henry W. Straatmeyer and Gertrude Bossman. On the eve of his marriage to Jean Plucker, 6/11/57, at Germantown Presbyterian Church, they found out they shared the same great-great grandmother. Fearing at first that they were too closely related, they then decided it wasn’t that important and went ahead with the wedding. A family of genes, Gene and Jean had three children: Cynthia Jean (Karns), born 4/25/59, Sandra Jean (McCubbin), born 4/21/61, and died 11/2/2018 and Michael Gene, born 4/19/65.
Gene is survived by his wife of 63 years, his daughter Cynthia and son-in-law Rev. Dr. Curtis Karns of Eagle River, Alaska; his son, Michael Straatmeyer, of Crystal Beach, Texas; as well as his grandchildren: Jeanie Karns Talbot of Upland, California; Keith Karns, of Salem, Oregon; and Aaron, Tyler, Layni, Conner, Chase, Ashlynn, Kylee McCubbin all from the Houston, Texas area. There are 5 great-grandchildren as well.
Memorial services will be held at First Presbyterian Church in Galveston on what would have been Gene’s 86th birthday, March 4th at 2pm. A graveside service at Germantown Presbyterian Church near Lennox, South Dakota will be held sometime in the future.
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In lieu of flowers, we ask you donate to the Gene Straatmeyer Memorial Fund
Much of Gene's life was given to training indigenous Christian leaders. This fund will provide scholarships for future Native Americans students at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, who don't have the funds to realize their goals of ministry at this time in their lives. You will be giving to master degree programs in ministry. It trains followers of Jesus to empower others to join in God’s mission in a variety of callings. Graduates are equipped to pursue such callings as ministers of outreach, urban ministry, new church development, young adult ministry, teaching, or work with parachurch organizations. It would give Gene great joy to see you contribute to this very vital mission. Visit www.dbq.edu/Invest to make your donation.
Make sure to put GENE STRAATMEYER MEMORIAL in the Alternative Designation box
Addendum:
Gene religiously listened to Paul Harvey every noon on the radio, so with that in mind, here is “the rest of the story.”
Sadly in Gene’s later years in retirement, without the focus of a mission, without keeping himself so busy and distracted with his work, he succumbed to the need to continue the cycle of violence that was so prevalent in his own childhood. Having never dealt with his own demons of abuse, he plead guilty to violating his Texas granddaughters and spent the last five years of his life in prison with regret and shame. He was stripped of his ministerial ties to the Presbyterian Church USA. He was only two weeks shy of his possible parole.
In the prison infirmary, because there was no TV, radio, roomates, windows, or even his glasses, he reported that he would sing old hymns to pass the time. An old Stanley Brothers gospel song summarized his last years of struggling with forgiveness.
Oft I sing for my friends
When death's cold hand I see
When I reach my journey's end
Who will sing one song for me?
I wonder (I wonder) who
Will sing (will sing) for me
When I'm called to cross that silent sea
Who will sing for me?
When friends shall gather round
And look down on me
Will they turn and walk away?
Or will they sing one song for me?
So I'll sing 'til the end
Contented I will be
Assured that some friends
Will sing one song for me.
Obituary
Of Jean Ellen (Plucker) Straatmeyer
November 25, 1938 – April 23, 2021
On a dark November winter evening in 1938 in an upstairs room of the South Dakota farmhouse, Jean Ellen Plucker was born. How many times did we hear the story that Aunt Alma had to sleep with her the first night to keep her warm after she helped with the delivery? Her cries were a thrill to her brother Robert (10) and Dorothy (12), but especially her dad, since Jean was a surprise baby and her mom was older. She grew up adored and babied. She didn’t do much work on the farm, and often got in the way. The baby lambs followed her around each spring and sometimes the cranky goose chased her.
One Sunday in 1956 a young man from Lennox, who was headed to Dubuque Seminary in the fall, came to Germantown Church as a guest speaker. Jean batted her eyelashes and the rest is history. Jean married H. Gene Straatmeyer on June 11, 1957 when she was still 18 years old. Sadly, on the night of their wedding rehearsal, Jean’s grandfather on her dad’s side died. As news of his death arrived at the church, it turned out that Gene’s family was also related to Jean’s grandfather. The couple shared the same great-great grandparents: Jurjen Roelf and Swaantzje Bossman, a testament to the tight-knit German community that settled near Lennox from Ostfriesland Germany in the 1800s. They decided to proceed with the wedding, but to forgo their honeymoon in order to stay for the funeral.
Jean and Gene moved to their first rural German church, Stateline Presbyterian Church, near Rock Rapids, South Dakota. The church, manse and cemetery sat in a cornfield in the country, many miles from town. Luckily Jean had a sewing machine so that besides doing her preacher wife duties, her days were filled with sewing clothes for all of the family members. Their first born, Cynthia Jean, arrived on April 25, 1959, the same year that Gene graduated from Seminary. Sandra Jean arrived April 21, 1961.
In 1963 Gene received a call from Colfax Center Presbyterian Church, another German country church near Holland, Iowa. It was in this church that Jean came into her own as a strong preacher’s wife. She had a beautiful voice and sang at all of the weddings and funerals. She sang in the choir. She taught Sunday School and Bible School music. She made desserts for each session meeting. She dressed perfectly and pinched her kids so that they would behave and look perfect in church. One summer she and Gene left the girls with grandparents in Lennox and went to Mississippi to register blacks for the vote. After they were chased by the KKK and had to take cover in the safety of a bar all night long, they decided that henceforth Jean would stay home with the girls. They wanted to make sure the girls would at least have one living parent. That experience solidified her life-long stance for social justice.
That decade also brought “The Sound of Music”. Jean was so enamored, she scraped enough money together to buy a ukulele. She learned to play it and in no time, the family became the Straatmeyer Family Singers, singing for all sorts of church events and special music. A lot of practice time was driving in the car.
No longer going to Mississippi, Jean sometimes joined the work parties and mission trips to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Gene and Jean felt strongly that they should do something to help children growing up in poverty. They requested to adopt an Indian baby. Much to their surprise the adoption agency called and said they had a perfect baby boy, but of German descent. They took one look at Michael Gene and it was love at first sight. Michael was born on April 19, 1965 and joined the family 3 days later. He brought much joy, laughter, adoration and some jealousy to is older sisters, Cindee and Sandee.
In 1971 Gene accepted a call to First Presbyterian Church in Fairbanks, Alaska. It was an adventure. They sold most of their belongings, packed up the family in an LTD Ford, and headed up the Alcan Highway. That was a LONG 7 days in the car! But what a change. This was the first time Jean lived in a town, as well as the first time the manse was not next to the church. It was the first community that didn’t share the German culture. Instead the church was bilingual English/Iñupiaq. When Jean started using her perfected preacher’s wife skills, the session started feeling guilty that she was bringing desserts, so they started bringing their own. She joined the choir, but wasn’t asked to sing at weddings and funerals. Truth was, times had changed. It was the 70s and women didn’t work at home anymore. She was no longer expected to work alongside her husband. Jean’s world shifted.
Jean got her first for pay job at the Presbyterian Hospitality House, a boarding home for mostly Iñupiat girls going to high school in Fairbanks. She liked her job, but that meant that she had to give up cooking dinner. Cindee took over that job and the food got a lot better. Sandee took over the cleaning and the house was cleaner. Mike, the baby, didn’t get a job. When Gene suggested to Jean that she get her degree in social work, Jean fought the idea. It really wasn’t her goal to become a working woman. In the end, she graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a BS in Sociology and got her first job at the Literacy Council teaching adults to read. It was rewarding work.
In 1978 Gene uprooted the family to accept a position as seminary faculty at the University of Dubuque, Iowa, his alma mater. It was back to their roots. U.D. was the same school that Jean’s father graduated from and Jean’s mother got a nursing degree from; the same seminary that all of her uncles graduated from. However, she was not happy and neither were the kids: they did not want to leave Alaska. It just felt wrong. This was the first time Jean was not a preacher’s wife and she was not living in a manse. She and Gene purchased their first house, but to do so they needed a second income. Jean easily got a job using her degree inspecting low income houses. She wrote grants and oversaw the work of repairing the homes. Cindee and Sandee left home and Mike, in high school, learned to cook. This was the 9 to 5 era where she banked her money and they felt very well-off.
In 1986 Gene accepted a position at Cook Christian Training School in Tempe, Arizona. Jean got a job working for a renewable energy company. Jean learned to swim, she started scrapbooking, she continued singing in the church choir, she began her love of bike riding. She loved Arizona. It was here that having her own jobs/identity broadened her perspective on service and she was truly happy with life in general. She always wanted to return to Arizona, but never got a chance.
In 1991 Gene accepted a call to return to Alaska at First Presbyterian Church of Wasilla. It was in Wasilla that Jean finally had a job that truly connected her calling for service with her profession. She felt just as fulfilled as her preacher’s wife dream job—maybe more. She was the Director for the Valley Women’s Resource Center, where she helped low income and often abused women, often with the goal of helping them get jobs through education, improved personal appearance, and other efforts to improve self-esteem. In Wasilla she also served on the Habitat for Humanity board and was in charge of at least one home build. Jean spent a year organizing and picketing the XXX Video store on the street where she lived---all winter and all summer, every Saturday until finally the Video store closed.
Because Gene developed a severe allergy to glacier dust, the doctor suggested they retire to a beach somewhere where the air would be clean and moist. They chose Crystal Beach, TX. Jean said she’d be happy anywhere as long as she had a sewing machine.
It wasn’t long after retirement that they applied to be missionaries in Malawi, Africa. Again, Jean rose to her preacher’s wife status with perfection. She called her sister, who still went to Germantown Church and got that church to donate and send the first treadle sewing machine all the
way to Africa. Jean started sewing classes and soon the women there began having their own spending money and independence. She was so loved in Africa.
After returning, Jean started writing children’s books to continue raising money for the orphaned children in Malawi. You can still find those books on Amazon: Tales of an African Dog; Tales of an African Dog in Alaska; Tales of an African Dog in Texas.
Jean and Gene took one last major trip together to Ostfriesland, Germany where they lived for one summer and traced their ancestors. They made new friends, walked through many cemeteries and practiced the low German dialect they had learned as children, but were forbidden to use during the World War II era.
Sadly, in her last years of life, she basically went to prison with Gene, who was sentenced to 10 years for sexual misconduct with his granddaughters. She was so angry, but in reality after spending over 60 years with him, could not justify abandoning him. She wrote to him every day and talked to him on the phone every other day. She drove 200 miles once a month to visit him. When he died February 22, 2020, Jean lost her confidant and best friend. She was so sad.
And then Jean became a statistic. Long time partners often die within a year of each other. Most people only last 3 months in an assisted living facility. Her heart gave out on April 23, 2021.
She and Gene will be returned to the Germantown Presbyterian Church Cemetery just ¼ mile down the road from Jean’s old farmhouse where she was born and where many of their relatives have been laid to rest over the years.
Jean is survived by daughter, Cynthia Karns, son-in-law Curtis, of Anchorage, AK; her son, Michael Straatmeyer, of Crystal Beach, TX; her sister, Dorothy Plucker (95), of Sioux Falls, SD; and her brother Robert Plucker (93), of Haines, AK. She had 9 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her daughter, Sandra McCubbin and her husband Henry Gene Straatmeyer.
