WITTE AND GERMANTOWN

More than a century ago,

 

when Dakota was not yet divided into two states,

when it was still one big territory,

when the town of Chancellor did not exist,

when the city of Lennox was just rising from the prairies

and was only a barren town site with a few wooden shacks and tents,

when there were yet prairie fires and Indian scares in the Dakota territory –

 

At that time, the country became settled with German people,

and the first East Friesian settlers began to arrive

in the part of the country now known as the “Germantown community”

located a few miles northwest of Lennox,

 and a few miles northeast of what is now Chancellor.

 

Back in 1886 and earlier, when the first settlers moved in, they attended the services of the German Reformed Church which was then located five miles south of the present church. Rev. Weiland came to hold services in a public school house, just 1/2 mile south of the present location.

Under present day conditions, it seems unnecessary to build churches within five miles of each other, but back in the 1880’s transportation was not such a convenient thing as today. Many of the people lived farther than five miles from any church and the only means of transportation was by “horse and buggy.” 

The Germantown Community had the desire and longing for a church near enough for them to attend regularly. The German Reformed Church through a committee sent from their church organization, decided that it was not advantageous for them to extend the amount of help needed to organize and build a church in the location requested.  The people of Germantown then turned to the Presbyterian Church (The Synod of the West) for help, which was granted.

A copy of the minutes from an early business meeting of the Germantown Community shows that a committee of three, consisting of Heere Heibuilt, George Heibuilt and Menne A. Plucker were sent to call upon Rev. Ludwig Figge (who was then the pastor of Turner County Presbyterian Church) for help. The committee's efforts were successful. 
 

Early Germantown Church and manse

As a result, on May 5, 1886, the church was organized and 21 persons were received as members. Among them were Menne and Engle Plucker (my great grandparents). Land for the church site was given by Engel and Menne as well as the land for the Germantown Cemetery across the road. Ernest P. Witte (later called Phillip Witte) served the new church as the Presbyterian Church’s “Stated Supply.” 

Services for the Germantown community had been held in a school house about one-half mile south of the church site for about a year, but by 1887 the first services were held in the newly constructed Germantown Presbyterian Church.  

In 1888, two years after the formal organization of the congregation, Rev. Witte was called to serve as pastor of the small group. He was the official pastor there for only about one year, but in that year, the first manse was built. Even though his pastorate was short, two of his daughters married men from the congregation. One of them was Christina Plucker (my grandmother), and the other was Lydia Hoogestraat (Mrs. John H. Hoogestraat).

Menne A. and Engel Pucker are seated in the second row center. John Poppe and Christina are seated second and third from the right - holding Alma and Lydia. In the top row, Wilbur is on the extreme left. Menne and Anna are seated directly below Wilbur. The year was around 1910.

John P. Pucker family.
Alma, Christina, Menne, Lydia, Wilbur, Anna, John.
The year was about 1916.

 

The treasurer’s reports of those days make interesting reading. In 1890 the entire budget of the church not including the pastor’s salary was $174.12. There are no records available to show what Phillip Witte was paid in 1888, but in 1890 the pastor received $350, paid semi-annually.

The following NEWS NOTES were gathered by Wiert Eekoff, pastor at Germantown Church in 1946. He wrote the text of the church’s 60^th anniversary booklet.

*  “On August 28, 1862, the residents of Sioux Falls fled to Yankton under cavalry escort for safety from hostile Sioux Indians. After the settlers had fled the Indians entered the town and burned all the buildings. In their escape the old settlers followed the “Old Yankton Trail” which” [was still visible in many placed in 1946].

*  “It was during the ninth session of the Territorial legislature at Yankton in the winter of 1870-1871, that a legislative act was adopted forming the new county of Turner. Under the territorial act the new county was formed by taking eight townships off the east of Hutchinson and ten off the west of Lincoln. The new county was named after John W. Turner, who was at that time a member of the senate from Clay County.”

*  “In 1880, 679 miles of railroad were completed in Dakota and 341 miles graded.”

*  “The year of 1863 was one of unprecedented drought in Dakota Territory. The Indians had burned off six hundred miles of prairie above Fort Berthold and navigating on the Missouri was fraught with many hazards.”

*  “Land in Dakota in the middle ‘80’s sold at from $5.00 to $10.00 per acre. Hundreds of families from the east came to settle on the low priced land in this new west.”

Much of the text of this post was taken from

The Sixtieth Anniversary,

The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary, and

The One Hundredth Anniversary

Booklets of

Germantown Presbyterian Church,

Chancellor, South Dakota

 

Below are several pages reproduced from the actual Anniversary books of Germantown Church:
 

 

PHILLIP WITTE BEGINS HIS MINISTRY



This is the church (Zion Presbyterian Church, Fosterburg, IL) from where Phillip Witte began his quest for the ministry.
Photo from 1902.

On March 28, 2005, on our trip to Dubuque, Iowa, we found old records in the Archives of the University of Dubuque Library. We found a book identified as “Minutes of the convention of German Presbyterian Preachers (Ministers) and elders of the Northwest 1862-1889”  listing Phil Witte several times. 

A Certificate of Incorporation of “The German Presbyterian Convention of Ministers and Elders in the West” dated August 14, 1868 was handwritten in this book.  Most of the minutes were written in German, but the wording of this certificate is in English.  One of the things that stood out was that German, Dutch and English would be used, but the minutes would be “chiefly in the German language.”

Trustees of the incorporation were Rev. Gottfried Moerz, Jacob Conzett and Conrad Knackstedt.  A. VanVliet was the first signer.  Then a listing of all the ministers and elders present at that time showed Phil Witte on line #52.  (He must have been an elder.) 
 

Early picture of the Presbyterian Church in Prairie Dell, IL.

Phil Witte must have been an ordained minister by 1883 because his name is listed as being from Prairie Dell, Illinois in May of that year (ostensibly as a minister in that Presbyterian Church).  We saw monetary amounts listed by each name on this page ranging from the $100’s down to almost nothing.  After Philipp’s name was the amount of $32.50.  It might have been the amount of money given by his church to the Convention. (There was no official indication as to salary paid to each pastor.)

An April 30, 1885 entry shows Phil Witte as attending the Convention, but no church was identified. 

I believe this was the time that Phillip Witte moved his family to South Dakota - the Lennox/Chancellor area where he assisted in the organization of Germantown Presbyterian Church .

 

PHILLIP WITTE'S SECOND FAMILY

Phillip Witte's second wife was Henrietta (Harriet) Voss. She was born on September 8, 1858 and died on March 19, 1935 (according to a "descendants' chart" put out by Joe & Judy Adamski - in 1989). Apparently, the Adamskis are descendants of one of the children of Phillip and Henrietta. They shared the survey with my cousin, Eleanor Poppens of whom I have spoken elsewhere in these blogs.

 

I haven't been able to find a marriage date for either of Phillip's wives and the dates of births, deaths or marriages of other members of the Witte family are also suspect. However, with that in mind, I shall continue...      

 

        

Children of Phillip & Henrietta: 

            Infant son                                         No birth date            (The obituary notes five children, but family records show only four, with birthdates available for only the two girls.)
 

            Anna Witte Tellinghuisen     Born: April 22, 1884.     Died: April 16, 1910

            Lena Witte Hippen                 Born:  2/7/1890              Died:  7/27/1984

                                       Lena had nine children and many descendants.           

            Carl Fredrick William (Bill) Witte     No birth date             Died:  1955    

                        Married 2/22/1910  to: Mary Johanna Handwerk  Born:  5/10/1894   Died:  3/1/1985

                        Children of Bill & Mary:

            Ernest Witte – No birth date.     Died in 1955.

            Elma Witte – No birth date.      Married Lee Mabee.  She died 9/29/99.

            Ellory Witte - Born in 1914. Died in 1961. – Married Mercedes (no last name)

 

            Eunice Witte – married Raymond Ries who died on  1/14/2000

                         Eunice and Ray lived in Marian, SD many years but after his                                        death she moved to Sioux Falls, SD.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Mary with their grandchildren.
Circa 1950.

NOTE from Jean Straatmeyer:  Uncle Bill and Aunt Mary (my father’s aunt & uncle) lived in Marion, South Dakota and when I was young, we would visit there quite often.  Eunice, although older than me, would pay a lot of attention to me.  They had a lovely home and a beautiful garden with a fish pond in the back yard. 

Evelyn Witkop, age 84, of Sioux Falls, SD, on Thursday, March 16, 2000, tells that “no one ever talked of Henrietta’s beginnings.”  She said her mother - Lena Rosina Witte Hippen - nor her grandmother ever discussed Henrietta’s family, how she met Phillip or how she got from Louisiana to Illinois. Evelyn Witkop said she was 16 or 18 years old when her Grandma, Henrietta Witte, died.

 

[As a grandmother, I am determined not to be close-mouthed about my ancestors to my grandchildren! It will be here for them to peruse or continue to research whenever they wish.] 

The Witte grave marker.

See tombstone information below.

On Phillip’s tombstone in Germantown Cemetery, there is a loose square of cement with the word, “Anna” on it.  According to Mrs. Witkop, this is the name of his daughter, Anne Tellinghuisen, who died when she was young, although already married and had a child. Anne married Andrew Tellinghuisen and bore him a daughter, Ethel T. Tellinghuisen on March 31, 1909. Ethel died on September 17, 1935. 

Mrs. Witkop said that both of Philip Witte’s wives and his daughter are buried with him at Germantown.  (We believe that is not true since his first wife's (Anna) grave marker was found in Fosterburg on March 24, 2005.) However, Henrietta Voss Witte may be buried at Germantown since we could not find her obituary due to a fire at the courthouse in Marian, SD.

Evelyn Witkop on 3/16/2000 said she remembers John & Christina Plucker very well and that they would often come to visit. She said Grandma was (in her estimation) “The best example of a real lady.” She would always be wrapped in a blanket. She would get out of the old Marquette, bring her blanket along with her and wrap herself up in it (her legs) during the visit. Mrs. Witkop said that Christina Plucker had such a “kindly face.”

 

*** 

Henrietta Voss was 76 years old when she died.  She married two more times after Phillip Witte. She was Mrs. Van Gerpen and Mrs. Ben Cornelius – in that order, but nothing is known of those unions.  She is said to be buried in the Germantown cemetery with Phillip Witte and that Bill Witte was put in charge of getting her name on the tombstone.  He never did.  In March of 2000 it was still a “sore subject” with Evelyn Witkop, his niece.

It is obvious here that Phillip's information was put on the right side and the left side is empty.
Was Henrietta's name to be put there?
The tablet with the word "Anna" is loose between the pedestals.

It is interesting to note that I seem to have more information about Phillip Witte's second family than his first. However, the closer proximity in time has made the information more accessible. Most of the information above came from research done since the year 2000.

The next posting will show what I know about Phillip Witte's beginnings as a Presbyterian minister.

 

PHILLIP WITTE 1860-1880

What did Phillipp Witte do between 1860 and 1880?

 

Ernst Phillipp Witte, 23 years old at the time of his arrival in the United States, was born in Detmold, Germany in 1837. He came to New Orleans in 1860, made his way with his family to Fosterburg, Illinois and joined the Zion Presbyterian Church there on March 28, 1861. As his time in the United States went on, Ernst Phillipp became Phillip instead.

        
Phillip and  E. Anna Wiemers who was born August 2, 1943 were married in Fosterburg. The date is unknown, but she joined the Zion Presbyterian Church in Fosterburg on August 4, 1864. Her death occurred around the same time as the death of her fifth child, May 19, 1878.
            
(The date of their marriage must have been around that same time – at least between 1864 and 1869 when their first child was born.  Since she didn’t arrive with the Witte’s at the same time, she may have lived in or near Fosterburg for quite some time, but it is doubtful that she was born there since so many Germans came to the U.S. during that time.)

Phillip and Anna's Children:

Lydia Witte Highstreet                        Born:  1/26/1869

Baptized as “Lidia Karolina” Witte in Zion Presbyterian Church, Fosterburg, Illinois on February 28, 1869.  “Philipp Witte and Anna” as parents. (Found in Session records of Zion Church on March 24, 2005)

             
Christina Rebecca Witte Plucker              Born:  12/1/1872   (Grandmother of Jean)

Emma Witte Coleman                                    No birth date

Martha Witte Ludwig                                     No birth date

Anna Witte                      Born:  3/2/1878                 Died:  6/19/1878

There is speculation that Phillips’s wife, Anna, died in childbirth and the baby, Anna, died just a month later. Note from 3/24/2005:  The Witte grave site was found in the Fosterburg cemetery.  The cemetery records show “Phil Witte” owning 10 plots, but visible is only one large stone with two small stones on each side.  It looks like mother (Anna) and baby (Anna) were buried together. The sandstone marker has worn away quite severely, but some of the lettering is still visible. 

Here is a picture and a partial translation of the wording.  Translation was very difficult since it was written in Platt Deutsch, not High German.  No other Wiemers names were found in the community and no one remembered the name other than to say that “they must have moved away.”



Two Anna's
The wording on the stone is very faint, but speaks of  Anna's righteousness and faithfulness
so that when she stands before God she will get into Heaven.

I cleaned the stone as much as I could on 3/24/2005, but the sandstone is so worn down that the dates are almost gone.

Kind is the German word for child.

 

I believe that between 1860 when the Witte’s arrived in the U.S. and 1878 when his wife and child died, Phillip was farming with his father – probably in Madison County, Illinois. But after that, he gave his life over to becoming a minister of the Presbyterian Church. He moved his family with him to Dubuque, Iowa where he attended Seminary. 

In 1878 his four remaining children were under the age of nine. They required full time care. He must have been hard pressed to find help. I’m sure his mother helped him during that time, but in her 70’s she could no longer find the energy it took to care for four little girls.  

In the 1880 census from Madison County, Illinois, the following information about the Witte family was gleaned:

                William Witte                     72

                Amelia                                 72

                Philip                                    42

                Henrietta (Voss)                 18

(No record was available for children under the age of 18). 

My speculation here, is this: I believe that Henrietta Voss was a young woman in the Zion Presbyterian Church in Fosterburg. Phillip may have hired her to be the “nanny” for the girls and a housekeeper for himself. There is no record of their marriage, but we can presume that some time between 1880 and 1890 when their first child was born, Henrietta married Phillip.

 

Stay tuned for more information coming soon...

 

 

On March 24, 2005, we (my husband and I) drove through Fosterburg, Illinois on our way to Dubuque, Iowa to find information about the elder Witte's in the churches and cemeteries located there. Much of the information in this posting was found at that time.