ELEVEN GENERATIONS - THADEN

My husband, upon reading about the eight generations I named between our great granddaughter and my great, great, great grandfather Plucker, said that I should do the same thing with the Thaden side of my family. So here is another limb on Auri’s family tree.

 My second cousin, Peggy Nelson has gone to great lengths to follow the generations started in the mid-1650’s by the ancestor of my grandfather, Eilert Ludwig Thaden, Tade Taden.  The first two were named the same, but Peggy assures us that they are father and son. Here is what I have put together – with help from her impressive work on her own genealogy.

 ***

TADE TADEN was born in Ardorf, Ostfriesland, Preussen in about 1650. There is no information regarding who he married, but the records show that he was married about 1676 in that same town. From that union, came:

 TADE TADEN  who was born in 1681 in his father’s home town. He married Metke Johanssen [or] Janssen on June 1, 1707 in Burhafe, Ostfriesland, Pruessen.

                At least one of their children was:

 BRUNE OR BRUNO TADEN who was born on February 14, 1713 [or] 1714 in Nevenbargen, Burhafe, Osfriesland, Prussia. He married Fahlde Dirks in North Dunnum, Dunum, Ostfriesland on June 22, 1741. He was 28 years old and his wife was 20.

                 From this union, was born:

 ETTE BRUNEN (or Bruns) THADEN (daughter of Bruno Thaden) who was born on July 28, 1747 in North Dunum, Ostfriesland. She married Thade Hinrichs Wilken , the records say “bef. 1769” in Ostfriesland, Prussia.

 

                They named their child:

  THADE MAMMEN THADEN who was born on January 17, 1790 in North Dunum, Ostfriesland. He married Teelke Margareta Weerts [or] Stindt on May 18, 1816 in North Dunum.

 

                When Thade was 46 and Teelke was 41, at least one of their children was:

 GERD LUKEN THADEN who was born on August 18, 1836 in Willen, Germany. He married Johanna Christina Amelia Wilken on October 27, 1859 in Essens, Germany. She was born in Aurich, Hannover, Germany.

I've been told that the men in this car are Thadens and/or Buus's.
Therefore, I will surmise that the fellow in the front, on the left, is Gerhard Ludwig.

                Gerd  (My grandfather identified his father as Gerhardt Ludwig) and Johanna left their home in Aurich (where he was a teacher and Johanna was a music teacher) to come to America. They eventually moved to Peoria, Illinois where my grandfather was born. When my grandfather was an infant, they moved to Grundy County, Iowa and later to Luverne, Minnesota before moving on to Tacoma, Washington in 1891 – again as farmers. He died in 1910 when he was 74. She died in 1924 when she was 65. They were both buried in Tacoma.

 

                The Thadens were blessed with eight children, one of whom was:

 EILERT LUDWIG THADEN who was born on May 25, 1870 in Peoria, Illinois. He married Harmina Buus on March 11, 1897 who he met when he was working on a farm near Lennox, South Dakota. [Eilert’s story was the first posted on this blog in March, 2011.]They were married on March 11, 1897 in Lennox, South Dakota. They lived at Chancellor, SD until 1903 when they moved to Bryant, SD and later bought a farm south of Willow Lake, where they lived until 1943 when they moved into town.

Louie & Minnie's
wedding picture

Louie & Minnie's
50th Wedding Anniversary
1947

 On September 8, 1949 Minnie died at age 71 and Eilert lived alone for 13 years and died on December 19, 1962 at the age of 92 years, 6 months and 24 days.

 

Eleven children were born to this union between 1898 and 1917. Their middle child:





Dena in 1969 

 HENDINA MAREGARITA THADEN was born on October 29, 1902 on a farm near Chancellor, South Dakota. She married Menne Elvin (M.E.J. Plucker on June 4, 1924 in Bryant, SD. She became known as Dena Margaret Plucker and carried the music gene forward from her grandmother, Johanna. She took two years of nurse’s training before my father convinced her to marry him.

They were parents of three children: Dorothy June, Robert Elvin and

Jean in 2011

 JEAN ELLEN PLUCKER STRAATMEYER, who was born on November 25, 1938 on a farm near Chancellor, South Dakota and married Henry Gene Straatmeyer on June 11, 1957.

Three children were born to this union: Cynthia Jean,
Sandra Jean and Michael Gene.

Cindee in 2005

CYNTHIA JEAN STRAATMEYER KARNS was born on April 25, 1959 in Rock Rapids, Iowa. She married Curtis Edwin Karns on June 5, 1981.

To this union were born two children: Kirsten Jean, and Keith Thomas.



KIRSTEN JEAN KARNS, born on August 29, 1983 in Fairbanks, Alaska, married Daniel Leonard on December 29, 2006.

Shortly after their marriage, they both changed their names to Daniel Neilsen Leonard Talbot and JEANIE KARNS TALBOT.



Jeanie in 2006

Their first baby was born on June 25, 2012 in Fairbanks, Alaska and named:



AURELIA ELEANOR TALBOT

Auri in 2012

THIS BRINGS THE THADEN GENERATION COUNT TO ELEVEN – EVEN THOUGH THE THADEN NAME ONLY FOLLOWS THROUGH AS FAR AS MY MOTHER, DENA.

EIGHT GENERATIONS - PLUCKER

One day I began counting up the generations that have come from one person (my Great, Great, Great Grandfather Plucker) who was born in 1778! There were eight generations. So I thought I'd try to put faces to all those generations. Sadly, I don't have pictures for the first two "Grandpas," but I do have their names and a bit of information about them:

KOERT HINDERKS PLUKKER was born in Uttum, Ostfriesland on April 4, 1778. He was a "worker" which probably meant that he hired out to whomever needed help - most likely farmers. When he was 30 years old he married Antje Wessels and they had three children, one of whom was:

 WESSEL KOERTS PLUKKER, who was born in Uttum on January 27, 1812 and was also listed as a "worker." He married Harmke Mennen Eekhoff when he was 25 years old. They had nine children, one of whom was:



Menne A. Plukker
1910

MENNE ALBERTS PLUKKER, who was born on September 17, 1837 in Uttum. In 1866 he married Engel Poppen who was from Suurhusen. (See this blog "The Poppen Connection" and "Menne A. and Engel Plucker" posted in September, 2011 for their story). They were 29 and 28 years old respectively and had three children: Wessel, who married Velmke Johnson (they had seven children), John M. who died in 1869 after having lived for one year and finally:

John P. Plucker
1916

JOHN POPPE PLUCKER, who was born on November 11, 1869. He married Christina Rebecca Witte on November 29, 1893. He was 24 and she was 21. Christina was the daughter of Phillip Witte, the first pastor of Germantown Presbyterian Church. John and Christina had six children: Engel Anna, Wilbur (who died at age 22 - fall from a horse), Menne Elvin, Ester Lydia (died at age 3-1/2), Lydia Verna and Alma Christina.



The third born in this family was my father:


M.E.J. Plucker
1923

MENNE ELVIN (M.E.J.) PLUCKER, who was born on August 4, 1900.
 
He married Dena Margaret Thaden on June 4, 1924. (Both of my parents' stories are posted elsewhere on this blog.)

M.E.J. and Dena had three children, Dorothy June, Robert Elvin and me:




Jean Straatmeyer
1966

JEAN ELLEN PLUCKER STRAATMEYER, who was born on November 25, 1938 and married Henry Gene Straatmeyer on June 11, 1957.

Three children were born to this union: Cynthia Jean,
 Sandra Jean and Michael Gene.




Cindee Karns
1977

CYNTHIA JEAN STRAATMEYER KARNS was born on April 25, 1959. She married Curtis Edwin Karns on June 5, 1981.


To this union were born two children: Kirsten Jean, and Keith Thomas.

KIRSTEN JEAN KARNS, born on August 29, 1983, married Daniel Leonard on December 29, 2006.

Shortly after their marriage, they both changed their names to Daniel Neilsen Leonard Talbot and JEANIE KARNS TALBOT.

Jeanie Talbot
2007

Their first baby was born on June 25, 2012 and named:

Auri Talbot
2012

AURELIA ELEANOR TALBOT


Auri makes the eighth generation!








Note: This blog posted with regrets to my other two chdilren and eight grandchildren who prove six and seven generations from Koert Hinderks Plukker!

BEING GREAT GRANDPARENTS

Arriving at the milepost of becomming Great Grandparents is no small feat. When I became a grandmother for the first time I couldn't really believe I was old enough for that, but now, this event gave us a warm feeling of fulfillment. Below are some pictures to show what I mean.

Aurelia Eleanor Talbot

was born in Fairbanks, Alaska on June 25, 2012



 

Here's Great Grandma trying to remember how it is that you are supposed to hold newborns.

 

And the Grandma, here, just moved beyond her previous persona as our child
and became what I am to her children.  Now that is an interesting development...

 

Here is Auri (as we now call her) with her Mom and Dad. These two, who so recently had no more responsibilities than to get themselves educated and safely established in the working world, now have this small one to care for as well.

 

And here she is, resplendent in her "meeting my public" outfit.
A beautiful child.

TIME OFF

I'm taking some time to look for and edit more family stories from a different family link.

In the meantime, pick a story from my contents list below.

Just go to the blog archive on the right,

pick a month and then a story.

3/3/11                   Grandpa Thaden’s Story

3/9/11                   One Very Old Letter

3/9/11                   A Very Old Church Newsletter

3/10/11                Another Mystery (Two letters by Great Grandma Thaden)

3/11/11                I wonder - - - what my Great Grandmother went through

3/14/11                Would you like to Build a Sod House?

3/17/11                A Sod Church – The Thadens first Church in Minnesota

3/26/11                Dena Thaden Plucker’s Story – Part I

3/28/11                Dena Thaden Plucker’s Story – Part II

3/30/11                Dena Thaden’s Nursing Memoire

4/1/11                   Dena Thaden Marries Menne Plucker

4/27/11                Four Generations of John Poppe Plucker

8/7/11                   Bremerhaven – The German Emigrant Center

9/1/11                   The Poppen Connection

9/1/11                   Menne A. and Engel Plucker

12/1/11                The Pleasant View Cemetery

12/5/11                A Christmas Story (Cindee’s doll – the car in the snowy ditch)

1/12/12                Plucker Family Photos

1/23/12                Autobiography of MEJ Plucker - Introduction

1/26/12                MEJ’s BIO – The Early Years

2/2/12                   MEJ’s BIO – Transportation

2/8/12                   MEJ’sBIO – Threshing Time

2/15/12                MEJ’sBIO – The 1920’s

2/29/12                MEJ’s BIO – The Dirty Thirties

3/7/12                   MEJ’s BIO – The Family

3/14/12                MEJ’s BIO – Germantown Church

3/18/12                MEJ’s BIO - Conclusion

INSTALLMENT NINE - MEJ's Bio (Conclusion)

Conclusion

                You remember I said that my parents decided I was to be a preacher. I am convinced now, after all that has happened that the Lord had a very pronounced hand in the things that came about. During those three years that I spent in school in Dubuque, I spent much time singing with different organizations. Even though I was enrolled in the Academy or High School part of the school, I was a member of the college Glee Club.

               Also the head of the vocal music department organized a mixed double quartet to sing every Sunday morning in the downtown church. It was my good fortune to be a part of that. Also, I was given many pointers in the art of directing a choir by this same lady. So now I am firmly convinced that all this was in preparation for the time when we were to move back to South Dakota just one fourth mile east of the Germantown Church.

                This happened in 1934. In 1936 a Men’s Octet was organized and I was chosen as its leader. From 1936 until 1954 I was always connected with the music program of our church. Several times during those years we presented Easter and Christmas Cantatas with as many as 50 voices.

1946 Men's Chorus.
Dorothy DeVries, pianist; Wiert Eekhoff, Pastor

1955 Contata Choir
MEJ Plucker, Director

               The Octet that was organized in 1936 is still in existence in 1966, but is now known as the “Men’s Chorus” with a membership of about 15 or 16, instead of the original eight men.

        
               This seems to be the end of my ramblings about things that happened to me. Of course, there are many more events that I could have mentioned but they are of small importance to anyone but me.

                I hope that the effort I have put forth

is of enough interest so the person reading it

can stand reading all of it.

If not, so what?

Paper is cheap and so is my time.

Note: I wonder what MEJ would say if he could know that his writings would be posted on a page of the Internet. He would have been an avid user of the new technology, I know, although he might not have been so bold as to put his own story out there. But I am proud to be able to share his story and hope that it tells just a small bit of what his life was like from 1900 to 1968 when he died.

INSTALLMENT EIGHT - MEJ's Bio (Germantown Church)

Germantown Church

                Perhaps an account of the history of the Germantown church building would be if interest. As stated before, it was organized in 1886 and was built on land donated by my paternal grandfather. The first building was a wooden frame building, built mostly by the charter members of the church. It would seat about 100 people. The first heating system was a large coal and wood stove, standing in the very center of the auditorium, and the stove pipe hung from the ceiling all the way to the end of the church, directly over the pulpit.

               Some time after this a sort of basement was dug under the church and a coal furnace installed. This was a great improvement since the stove was taken out and pews put in its place. The lighting system, of course, was kerosene lamps until a very complicated system of gas was added. The gas was manufactured by adding water to carbide in a large pressure tank outside the church. This system was replaced by electricity. More room was needed in the so-called basement to accommodate the gasoline powered generator and twelve large glass storage batteries. This system of lighting served the church until 1948 when the power line finally came out this far.

                When the congregation was organized in 1886, the first building to be erected was the church. The foundation was rock laid on the ground, no concrete. The lumber had to be brought from Parker, ten miles away. When you consider that all this was accomplished with horse power, it looks like a big undertaking.

                After the church and the manse were built, some of the people thought that it was necessary for the horses that were used to come to church, to have shelter during the time services were being held. So another project was started. A barn that had room for fourteen teams of horses was built. Each stall was built for two horses and the name of the man whose horses were to be in that stall was nailed above that stall.

               This barn, although it was no longer used for horses, was still in existence until the late 1920’s or early 1930’s. During the time that it was in use by the people, it happened quite often that while the services were going on in church, one could hear horses squealing and the sound of kicking against the partitions. Then one of the men of the congregation would quietly get up and go straighten out the quarrel.

Germantown Church with the Sessionj
Early 1900's

INSTALLMENT SEVEN - MEJ's Bio (The Family)



Bobby and Dotty

The Family

Because we moved around a lot during our early married life, our three children were born in three different states. Dorothy June was born soon after we moved to Princeton, Illinois. She grew up to be a cute curly-headed little girl, the kind that made people turn around for a second look when she was old enough to go shopping with her mother. When she was still just a little girl, she showed signs of becoming a good house keeper because she helped her mother with the dusting and sweeping and other household chores. After going through grade school, high school and a short normal course, she taught a country school for two years. Then she decided to become a farmer’s wife, which is a fairly permanent job any way you look at it. (Pictured on the right is Menne (MEJ), Dorothy June and Grandpa John P. Plucker)

Bobby & Dotty at 9 & 11

Robert Elvin was born while we lived in Dubuque, Iowa. When he was small he would spend hours watching the wheels go around on his toy train and his many toy trucks, so we expected he would be a mechanic when he grew up. That changed soon after he got into high school and found out about music, especially the vocal kind. As soon as he graduated from high school he enlisted in the army – to keep from getting drafted. He was sent to State College at Brookings, South Dakota for a short while, then inducted into the paratroops. He had a teaching position at Faulkton, South Dakota, but since he was still in the reserves, he was called back into service and sent to Korea for a year. Since that time he has been music instructor in Winona, Minnesota and Green Bay, Wisconsin. He married a college schoolmate who is also a teacher. 

Bobby, Jeanie, Dotty - 1939



Dots, MEJ, Dena, Jean, Bob - 1945

Jean Ellen, our youngest, was born here in South Dakota where we now live. One reason she was named Jean was because for a year or so before she was born, there was a complicated musician’s strike going on that made it impossible for radio stations to play any kind of music except these numbers on which the copyright had run out. All of Stephen Foster’s songs were in this classification, so the song “I Dream of Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair” was usually heard several times a day. Also, the name, Jean, is the feminine counterpart of the name, John, which was her grandfather’s name. Besides all of that, we like the name. We had no idea that she would some day marry a man named Gene. It seems to me that even when she was real small she had an idea she wanted to marry a minister. If that was true, she succeeded famously.

Jean Ellen, Robert Elvin, Dorothy June - 2011