1864 – Karl Christian Heinrich Struckmeier
Karl Christian Struckmeier was born on July 26, 1864 in Holsen, Provinz Westfalen, Königreich Preußen to Christian Friedrich Struckmeier and Anne Marie Charlotte Kottmeier. He was baptised five days later on July 31, 1864 at the church in nearby Schnathorst. He was the second youngest of eight children.
The relationship to the Struckmeyers in my family tree is
the name ‘Struckmeier’
The Struckmeier name derives from two words. The word struck is a variation of strauch which is a shrub or bush. A meier was the term for a farm manager on an estate. Sometimes it is translated as a farmer, but the typical German word to describe a farmer is bauer, or sometimes colon. As surnames developed in the Middle Ages, they sometimes reflected a person’s occupation, or location, or both. Struckmeier may refer to the manager of a farm in a grassland near the woods. Just north of Holsen is a low mountian range known as the Wiehengebirge which is covered with an oak and shrub forest. The spelling of the name varied in different records, usually Struckmeier, sometimes Struckmeyer, and even Strukmeyer or Struckmÿer.
Holsen
The small farming village of Holsen is situated on the southern slope of the Wiehengebirge (the Wiehe mountains). The name Wiehe comes from Old Saxon and means ‘sacred mountain’.
The mountains stretch along a curving east-west axis beginning at the Weser River near Minden (to the east of Holsen) and terminating in the vicinity of Osnabrück to the west. The highest elevation is 320 meters (1,049 feet). The photo at the right shows the view of the mountains from Holsen.
Farmers in the area of Holsen often raised wheat, oats, peas, turnips, and potatoes. By the middle of the nineteenth century a majority of the population also grew flax which was spun and woven into linen cloth as a cottage industry.
In 2010, Holsen celebrated its 750th anniversary, putting its founding in the year 1260 when it was first mentioned in writing. Today, it has about 1,100 residents.
Karl Christian Struckmeier emigrated to the United States in 1882 at age 18.
Eden Seminary in Wellston, Missouri
He enrolled in the seminary about 1886. Eden Seminary was located on the western outskirts of Saint Louis in the town of Wellston. It was originally known as the Evangelischen Predigerseminar (Evangelical Preacher’s Seminary), the school that had been established by the preacher’s association in the summer of 1850 in a rural valley four miles east of Marthasville, Missouri. The location was isolated, and in October 1883, the seminary moved to Wellston where the students had better access to transportation, libraries, and many German Evangelical churches. (In 1924, another relocation brought the seminary to its present location in Webster Groves, Missouri.)
When Karl Struckmeier enrolled, Die College und der Theologischen Seminar der Deutschen Evangelischen Synode (the College and Theological Seminary of the German Evangelical Synod) was situated on 19 acres fronting on St. Charles Rock Road at the intersection of Lucas and Hunt Road. Eden Station, a stop on the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad was nearby. A streetcar could travel from the Eden Station to downtown St. Louis in 30 minutes. The students spoke of making the trip to Eden, and the name began to apply to their school which was soon known as “the seminary at Eden.”
It was an ironic name for a place so rugged and austere. The men followed a rigid schedule of lectures, dictation, and manual labor. They were only allowed to leave the seminary on Saturday afternoons, and they were forbidden to go to the theater or a saloon or to have anything to do with women. All classes were in German. There was a gradual relaxation and modernization over the years. English was introduced in the 1890’s and students were allowed to become engaged in 1900.
He graduated from Eden Seminary in Wellston and was ordained in 1890.
The website of Immanuel UCC lists the founding of the church on June 3, 1888 when the first pastor Emanuel Evangelical Church, Rev. Carl Struckmeyer, was installed on Dedication Sunday, June 3, 1888. I wonder if the seminary allowed a student preacher to serve as the pastor of a startup congregation while continuing his studies. He evidently remained there as pastor until sometime in 1893.
Karl Struckmeier was ordained on June 22, 1890 in La Salle, Illinois, probably at Trinity Evangelical Church (now Trinity UCC) which was founded in 1873.
He became a naturalized citizen on April 21, 1891.
Marrige – 1891
Karl Christian married Martha Koenig on July 26, 1891 in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Martha Emilie Elizabeth Koenig was born on January 7, 1873 in St. Louis, Missouri to Carl Julius Koenig and Leopoldina Martha Gast. She was the ninth of twelve children. Her father Charles (Carl) was a horticulturist and gardener as was his wife’s father. Carl and his wife, Martha (she seldom went by Leopoldina) were both born in Provinz Sachsen (Province of Saxony), Königreich Preußen (Kingdom of Prussia). Martha was brought to the US by her parents was she was four years old. We have no record of when Charles emigrated, but they married in St. Louis on April 15, 1866.
Bet. 1893–1894 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois. Pastor of St. Nicolai Evangelical Church. During the pastorate of Rev. C. Struckmeier, a parsonage was built, and a bell tower was added to the church structure.
Their daughter Julia was born in Illinois.
Bet. 1896–1904 in Saint Louis (Independent City), Missouri, USA; Pastor of St. Stephen Evangelical Church
The 1900 census lists Karl Christian (35) living on Halls Ferry Road in St. Louis. In the household was Martha (27), his wife, and four children Julia (6), Robert (3), Norma (2), and Matha J. Bock (15), who was adopted.
Bet. 1904–1906 in Redding, Shasta, California, USA; Pastor of Mission congregation
Bet. 1906–1911 in Oakland, Alameda, California, USA; Pastor of St. Mark’s Evangelical Church
Bet. 1911–1928 in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA; Pastor of St. Paul’s Evangelical Church
Bet. 1928–1936 in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA; Pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church
Death – 15 Nov 1938 in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
Buried – Olivet Memorial Park in Colma, San Mateo County, California, USA