Karl Friedrich W. Strickert,1833-1917 (son of Johann and Christina Strickert)
by Norbert Hattendorf
Surely you wonder, like I, about the courage that drove our family predecessors. Take a look at Karl Strickert, my mother’s mother’s father (my great grandfather) and you can see that his courage came from within. Look at that stance! Head up. Shoulders back. Chest out. Here’s a lesson in posture, girls and boys. This was a self-assured man.
Why would Karl pack up his family and moved from the rich farm land (the land and style of farming is not unlike that of the U. S. Upper Midwest) of Perth County, Ontario, Canada, to the more challenging possibilities of Scott County, Kansas? In a visit to his farm site and in conversation with local people (June, 2003) I received no answer. We were told that Logan Township was on the edge of a swamp (since drained and now prosperous) and that settlement in this part of Ontario was long delayed until there was an influx of German immigrants about the time the Strickerts came over from Prussia. Those were dif-ficult times but the land was fertile and rainfall was usually more than adequate. The map (See the "Strickert Canada Home" page for a map of Logan county in 1880) indicates the proximity of the Strickert (Fred and Karl) lands to the village of Brodhagen in Ontario. Highway #23 on the right of the map runs south to Mitchell. To the right of Brod-hagen, on the map, is the small town of Bornholm.
Gustina Scherbarth, had been married to John Kriese. Widowed, she married Karl.
Karl, too, had lost a spouse. He had married Caroline Bach March 4, 1861, in Logan Township, Perth County, Ontario. Caroline was the daughter of Gottlieb and Justina Bach and born in Zohrnek, Prussia, November 12, 1832. Karl and Caroline’s son, Wilhelm August, was born February 1, 1862, and Caroline apparently died in child birth. Wilhelm died when he was six weeks old.
Gustina was raised a Scherbarth, a prominent family in the area. Why leave Perth County, Ontario? The only hint comes from the church records of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church where Karl and Gustina were members. (Karl’s mother, Christine, Johann’s wife, is buried in that cemetery.) “In 1870, an epidemic of quinsy and nerve fever or diphtheria wiped out entire families. The family of J. Siemon, eight in number, all died within twenty days, except for the second youngest, who actually escaped the illness while living in with the family. IN CARL STRICKERT’S FAMILY, THREE CHILDREN DIED, AGES 5-7, AND WERE BURIED NOV. 15, FOLLOWED BY TWO OTHER CHILDREN ON NOV. 30.” (Emphasis is mine. The quote is from History of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Brodhagen.)
That account is not entirely supported by the following record of births/deaths of Karl and Gustina’s children:
Anna Christina, born June 8, 1867, Brodhagen, Ontario; died November 5, 1870, Brodhagen, ON. Daniel William, b. Dec. 17, 1868, Brodhagen, ON; died Nov. 14, 1870, Brodhagen, ON Maria August Paulina, b. Dec. 26, 1869, Brodhagen, ON; d. Nov. 24, 1870, Brodhagen, ON Augustina Charlotte, b. Oct. 30, 1871, Brodhagen, ON; d. Sept. 24, 1896, Scott County, KS Charles Frederick William, b. Feb. 22, 1873, Mitchell, ON; d. Sept. 1956, Scott County, KS Caroline Wilhelmine Sophie, b. Aug. 18, 1875, Brodhagen, ON; d. Apr. 14, 1876, Brodhagen, ON August Frederick, b. May 16, 1876, Brodhagen, ON; d. Sept. 7, 1876, Brodhagen, ON Heinrich Wilhelm, b. May 16, 1876, Brodhagen, ON; d. Sept. 14, 1876, Brodhagen, ON Sophia Johanna Augusta, b. Aug. 25, 1877, Brodhagen, ON; d. Sept. 11, 1877, Brodhagen, ON Frederick William, b. Oct. 28, 1880, Brodhagen, ON; d. Aug. 31, 1925, Riverside, CA
Anna (3), Daniel (2) and Maria (1) did die in November of 1870. Caroline (8 months) died in April, 1876, and the twins, August and Heinrich (less than one month old) died in September, 1876. Sophia survived for only 17 days in 1877.
It was not until 1888 that Karl packed up and left. Why? Was there another threat of disease? I do not know. It is not difficult to imagine how discouraged the family might have become.
Karl was born in Mecklenburg province, Prussia, now north Germany, on May 1, 1833, in the town of Weggun. Karl was twenty-one when he came with his parents, Johann and Christine (Feuerhock) Strickert, older sister, Wilhelmina, and younger brothers Johann Jr., Frederick, Wilhelm, and Christian, to Logan Township, Perth County, Ontario, Canada. Johann Jr. and Christian would remain in Canada. Others would move to Kansas.
The Scott City newspaper, probably The News-Lever, reports on March 15, 1888: “Carl Strickert and Wm. Wilkin of Canada are in the city prospecting, with a view to buying farms and locating here. They have already purchased five quarters. Nine families from the Dominion of Canada will settle on these. They are thrifty German farmers.”
With his family, Karl moved to Scott County, Kansas, later in 1888. “Unlike most settlers, he had the money with which to set up business from the start. He bought school land and located in section 36, township 18, range 32 (six miles east of Scott City and three miles south), and developed his land from the buffalo grass. He had only a single quarter of land to start with, and he used his capital to pay for the quarter section and also to stock it. He made cattle raising a prominent feature of his business from the beginning. He also raised horses and hogs and derived as much income from livestock as he did from his crops. Before leaving the farm he had accumulated ten quarter sections of land in a single body and later he bought a section in Wichita County (immediately west of Scott County), upon which he also put up some improvements.” –History of Early Scott County
Beyond his “moderate” schooling, Karl was a self-educated man. He provided well for his children: Augusta (grandmother to Leona Numrich and me) who went by “Justine,” Charles F., and Fred W. Their first home doubled as a granary. When boom-and-bust Scott City went bust, he, like other farmers who stayed, bought and moved houses from the city to their farm places. He was known as a successful wheat farmer and continued farming until he was seventy-five, when he retired. He died nine years later (1917) and is buried in Scott County Cemetery.
He would experience the agony of his daughter Augusta’s death in 1896. (This, after the deaths of seven children probably to disease in Canada!!!) He was sixty three. Augusta (“Justine”) had married Fred Mahler (March 4, 1890). This happy marriage brought Karl and Gustina the great joy of granddaughters Louise Justine Mahler (April 20, 1891, Leona Numrich’s mother) and Elsie Emma Emily Mahler (July 4, 1893, my mother). When “Justine” died after a farm accident, the girls, ages six and three, moved in with Grandpa and Grandma (Karl and Gustina) Strickert. That arrangement lasted for no more than a year. Fred would marry Sophie Wickenkamp and a new home would be provided for Karl and Gustina’s granddaughters.
Karl and Mary Strickert
Sometime after the death of Gustina, August 31, 1904, Karl married Mary Hanneman. Mary survived Karl and is buried with the Strickerts in Scott County Cemetery. Her modest grave-stone reads: “Mary Strickert, Carl’s wife. 1846-1923.”
Karl died February 3, 1917, and is buried in Scott County Cemetery, Kansas.
Kansas and Kansans, History of Early Scott County puts it this way: “Perhaps no one family has furnished enterprise in greater abundance in this community during the past seventy-five years than the Strickerts.”
By Norbert Hattendorf, May, 2003 Revised, October 2003, February 2004, July 2005.
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