Kleiboeker Family Tree - Person Sheet
Kleiboeker Family Tree - Person Sheet
NameWilliam Zemke 
Birth1834
Death1905
Notes for William Zemke
CHAPTER 10: WILLIAM AND MINNIE ZEMKE
Wilhelmine Caroline (Lena) Wallhausen was one of three daughters of Wilhelm (William) and Wilhelmina (Minnie) Zemke, nee Juedes. At the age of 22 she became the wife of August Wallhausen, and they became the parents of seven sons and one daughter -- Harold, Arthur, Walter, Irene, Clarence, Raymond, Herbert, and Ernest Wallhausen.
If one can believe their entry in the 1900 census, William and Minnie came to the United States from Prussia at different times – she in 1854 and he ten years later in 1864. They were married in 1865.
Martin Friedrich Zemke, William’s father, was born March 5, 1794 in Kowalk, Pommern (Pomerania), now a part of Poland, according to one source. Another gives his birth date as “February 17, 1794, Kowalk, Neustettin Kreis, Mar Soisten, Pomerania, Prussia.” He was the son of Franz Zemke and Sophie Elizabeth Brach. His father reportedly died when Martin was four and his mother never remarried.
As a teenager, Martin was conscripted into the Prussian army, served in Company 4 of the 1st Pommeranian Infantry Regiment, and went to war from 1813 to 1815. His military experience reportedly included fighting against Napoleon’s army in the battle of Waterloo under the Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Bluecher, the German counterpart to the British Duke of Wellington.
After his military service, he and Dorothea Charlotte Luebke were married November 14, 1817 in Zornekow, Pomerania, Prussia. Dorothea was born July 28, 1800, in Gruenwald, one of eight or so villages surrounding Gramenz in the Prussian Kreis of Neustettin, Pomerania, where she and Martin apparently settled after their marriage. She was a daughter of Martin Luebke and his wife Henriette (Krause). Martin was a tailor and rented farm land. The family attended an Evangelical (Lutheran?) Church four miles away from Gruenwald in Gramenz.
Since the region was made a part of Poland after the Second World War, Gruenwald has been called Mieszalki and Gramenz is now known as Grzmiaca. A fascinating “History of Gruenwald, Kreis Neustettin, Pomerania” (name of female author not shown on the document) is available on the internet at www.pommerscher-greif.de/service/daten/pdf/gruenewald.pdf.
Dorothea and Martin were the parents of nine children: Johanne Maria Louise (1818), Friedricke Wilhelmine (1821), Auguste Ernestine Caroline (1824), Carl Charles (1825), Johann Friederich Christoph (1828), Maria Henriette (1831), Wilhelm (William) Heinrich August (1834), Johann Gottlieb (1836), and Frederick Albert (1847). All were born in Gruenwald except Johann Gottlieb, whose birthplace is listed as Steinburg, a couple of kilometers south of Gruenwald.
According to one source, four of these children reportedly came to America with their parents in 1858 – Carl, William, Johann, and Frederick. However, another source states that Auguste Ernestine Caroline died January 13, 1904, in Pierce, Wisconsin, so she may have been one of the four who came with the parents and brothers in 1858. William may have come later, since the 1900 census form states that he had lived in the U.S. for 36 years, which would put his arrival in 1864 instead of 1858. MORE RESEARCH NEEDED.
The family story is that Martin, his wife, and his four sons immigrated to America because Martin hated war and did not want his boys to fight in European wars as he had been forced to do. He was 64 and his wife 58 when they made the voyage to America in 1858 aboard the ship “Washington.” They disembarked in Quebec and traveled from there to Collingwood, Ontario; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Watertown, Wisconsin; and finally Wausau, Wisconsin, where the family put down roots and many descendants still live.
We know little or nothing about Minnie’s family – Juedes – except that they probably came from Prussia and settled in the Milwaukee and Wausau areas of Wisconsin, where many with that name still live. On her death certificate, Minnie’s son Albert stated that her father’s name was “Chris Juedes,” but Albert did not know her mother’s maiden name.
If Minnie Juedes came to America in 1854, as indicated on the 1900 census form, she would have been six or seven years old when she made that voyage, presumably with her parents and siblings, if any. Her obituary, published in the Sweet Springs, Missouri, newspaper when she died July 27, 1923 at age 80, says she spent her childhood days in Wisconsin. MANY OF THE PRUSSIANS WHO SETTLED IN WISCONSIN CAME THROUGH CANADA. RESEARCH SHIPS DOCKING IN QUEBEC.
She and William were married in Wisconsin in 1865, and their first child, Albert, was born the following year. Other children born in Wisconsin were Emilie (Bergman), born in 1867 or 1868; Herman, born in 1869 or 1870; and Anna (Maines), born in 1872. In the 1870 census for the town of Maine, in Marathon County near Wausau, Wisconsin, William was listed as a farmer with real estate valued at $2,000 and personal property valued at $200.
Their great-great-granddaughter Dorothy (Bergman) Brockus, says William was a dairy farmer in Wisconsin, but the family left that state because it was too cold. So for that reason and probably to look for more or better land, William and Minnie left Wisconsin between 1870 and 1873 with their four children and moved to Freistatt in Lawrence County, Missouri, southwest of Springfield, where they lived for almost a decade. We believe Emelie completed her eighth grade education at the Lutheran school in Freistatt. Here, their daughter Lena (Wallhausen) was born in 1876 and their last child, Bertha (Windler) in 1879.
According to Dorothy Brockus, the family left Missouri because the land around Freistatt was so poor. Still heading west in search of good land, like many pioneers of that era, the Zemke family moved in 1881 to the Block community near Paola, Kansas. According to the obituary of Emilie (Zemke) Bergman, “the family came to the place now the Carl Prothe farm, one-half mile south of the Block Lutheran Church.”
Arthur Wallhausen, Sr., retold stories from his Grandma Minnie Zemke about days on the farm, most likely the farm in Kansas. She told her grandchildren that Indians roamed around out on the farm and she kept the children inside the house, not knowing whether the unwanted visitors were “good or bad Indians.”
After 24 years in Kansas, William Zemke died in 1905 “after years of lingering,” according to Minnie’s obituary. He is buried in the cemetery at Block.
Minnie moved to Sweet Springs, Missouri, in 1916, and made her home with her son Albert Zemke and her daughter Lena Wallhausen. “She was a faithful member of the Lutheran church from childhood to her death,” the Sweet Springs newspaper reported. She died July 27, 1923, at the age of 76 and was buried at Fairview Cemetery in Sweet Springs.
Dorothy Brockus remembers her grandmother, Emelie, saying that during and after World War I all things German were very unpopular in the Paola area. “We were not allowed to learn German,” Dorothy says, “and Grandma said everyone lost contact with German relatives during the war and thought it best to keep it that way.”
William Zemke’s brother Carl Zemke died July 24, 1902 in Mara City, Wisconsin; Johann on April 5, 1913 in Wausau, Wisconsin; and Frederick Albert on April 8, 1928 in Winthrop, Washington.
Wilhelmine Caroline (Lena) Wallhausen was one of three daughters of Wilhelm (William) and Wilhelmina (Minnie) Zemke, nee Juedes. At the age of 22 she became the wife of August Wallhausen, and they became the parents of seven sons and one daughter -- Harold, Arthur, Walter, Irene, Clarence, Raymond, Herbert, and Ernest Wallhausen.
If one can believe their entry in the 1900 census, William and Minnie came to the United States from Prussia at different times – she in 1854 and he ten years later in 1864. They were married in 1865.
Martin Friedrich Zemke, William’s father, was born March 5, 1794 in Kowalk, Pommern (Pomerania), now a part of Poland, according to one source. Another gives his birth date as “February 17, 1794, Kowalk, Neustettin Kreis, Mar Soisten, Pomerania, Prussia.” He was the son of Franz Zemke and Sophie Elizabeth Brach. His father reportedly died when Martin was four and his mother never remarried.
As a teenager, Martin was conscripted into the Prussian army, served in Company 4 of the 1st Pommeranian Infantry Regiment, and went to war from 1813 to 1815. His military experience reportedly included fighting against Napoleon’s army in the battle of Waterloo under the Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Bluecher, the German counterpart to the British Duke of Wellington.
After his military service, he and Dorothea Charlotte Luebke were married November 14, 1817 in Zornekow, Pomerania, Prussia. Dorothea was born July 28, 1800, in Gruenwald, one of eight or so villages surrounding Gramenz in the Prussian Kreis of Neustettin, Pomerania, where she and Martin apparently settled after their marriage. She was a daughter of Martin Luebke and his wife Henriette (Krause). Martin was a tailor and rented farm land. The family attended an Evangelical (Lutheran?) Church four miles away from Gruenwald in Gramenz.
Since the region was made a part of Poland after the Second World War, Gruenwald has been called Mieszalki and Gramenz is now known as Grzmiaca. A fascinating “History of Gruenwald, Kreis Neustettin, Pomerania” (name of female author not shown on the document) is available on the internet at www.pommerscher-greif.de/service/daten/pdf/gruenewald.pdf.
Dorothea and Martin were the parents of nine children: Johanne Maria Louise (1818), Friedricke Wilhelmine (1821), Auguste Ernestine Caroline (1824), Carl Charles (1825), Johann Friederich Christoph (1828), Maria Henriette (1831), Wilhelm (William) Heinrich August (1834), Johann Gottlieb (1836), and Frederick Albert (1847). All were born in Gruenwald except Johann Gottlieb, whose birthplace is listed as Steinburg, a couple of kilometers south of Gruenwald.
According to one source, four of these children reportedly came to America with their parents in 1858 – Carl, William, Johann, and Frederick. However, another source states that Auguste Ernestine Caroline died January 13, 1904, in Pierce, Wisconsin, so she may have been one of the four who came with the parents and brothers in 1858. William may have come later, since the 1900 census form states that he had lived in the U.S. for 36 years, which would put his arrival in 1864 instead of 1858. MORE RESEARCH NEEDED.
The family story is that Martin, his wife, and his four sons immigrated to America because Martin hated war and did not want his boys to fight in European wars as he had been forced to do. He was 64 and his wife 58 when they made the voyage to America in 1858 aboard the ship “Washington.” They disembarked in Quebec and traveled from there to Collingwood, Ontario; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Watertown, Wisconsin; and finally Wausau, Wisconsin, where the family put down roots and many descendants still live.
We know little or nothing about Minnie’s family – Juedes – except that they probably came from Prussia and settled in the Milwaukee and Wausau areas of Wisconsin, where many with that name still live. On her death certificate, Minnie’s son Albert stated that her father’s name was “Chris Juedes,” but Albert did not know her mother’s maiden name.
If Minnie Juedes came to America in 1854, as indicated on the 1900 census form, she would have been six or seven years old when she made that voyage, presumably with her parents and siblings, if any. Her obituary, published in the Sweet Springs, Missouri, newspaper when she died July 27, 1923 at age 80, says she spent her childhood days in Wisconsin. MANY OF THE PRUSSIANS WHO SETTLED IN WISCONSIN CAME THROUGH CANADA. RESEARCH SHIPS DOCKING IN QUEBEC.
She and William were married in Wisconsin in 1865, and their first child, Albert, was born the following year. Other children born in Wisconsin were Emilie (Bergman), born in 1867 or 1868; Herman, born in 1869 or 1870; and Anna (Maines), born in 1872. In the 1870 census for the town of Maine, in Marathon County near Wausau, Wisconsin, William was listed as a farmer with real estate valued at $2,000 and personal property valued at $200.
Their great-great-granddaughter Dorothy (Bergman) Brockus, says William was a dairy farmer in Wisconsin, but the family left that state because it was too cold. So for that reason and probably to look for more or better land, William and Minnie left Wisconsin between 1870 and 1873 with their four children and moved to Freistatt in Lawrence County, Missouri, southwest of Springfield, where they lived for almost a decade. We believe Emelie completed her eighth grade education at the Lutheran school in Freistatt. Here, their daughter Lena (Wallhausen) was born in 1876 and their last child, Bertha (Windler) in 1879.
According to Dorothy Brockus, the family left Missouri because the land around Freistatt was so poor. Still heading west in search of good land, like many pioneers of that era, the Zemke family moved in 1881 to the Block community near Paola, Kansas. According to the obituary of Emilie (Zemke) Bergman, “the family came to the place now the Carl Prothe farm, one-half mile south of the Block Lutheran Church.”
Arthur Wallhausen, Sr., retold stories from his Grandma Minnie Zemke about days on the farm, most likely the farm in Kansas. She told her grandchildren that Indians roamed around out on the farm and she kept the children inside the house, not knowing whether the unwanted visitors were “good or bad Indians.”
After 24 years in Kansas, William Zemke died in 1905 “after years of lingering,” according to Minnie’s obituary. He is buried in the cemetery at Block.
Minnie moved to Sweet Springs, Missouri, in 1916, and made her home with her son Albert Zemke and her daughter Lena Wallhausen. “She was a faithful member of the Lutheran church from childhood to her death,” the Sweet Springs newspaper reported. She died July 27, 1923, at the age of 76 and was buried at Fairview Cemetery in Sweet Springs.
Dorothy Brockus remembers her grandmother, Emelie, saying that during and after World War I all things German were very unpopular in the Paola area. “We were not allowed to learn German,” Dorothy says, “and Grandma said everyone lost contact with German relatives during the war and thought it best to keep it that way.”
William Zemke’s brother Carl Zemke died July 24, 1902 in Mara City, Wisconsin; Johann on April 5, 1913 in Wausau, Wisconsin; and Frederick Albert on April 8, 1928 in Winthrop, Washington.