| Notes |
- THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION FROM SHEETS RECEIVED FROM BERTRUM DUEKER (AUTHOR UNKNOWN):
Have since learned that this material comes from a history of theSchnake family written by Roy Johnson after he and Doris (Schnake) Johnson had visited the Schnake area in Germany in the 1950's. It is essentially accurate, but some has been superseded by later evidence. The legend of Wittekind; a Spring comes from the oral account by the local minister as told to Roy Johnson and remembered later; some details are inaccurate. They have been corrected in the recent version of "The Story of Schnake" by Roy Johnson. This may be found at his web site: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake/story. Click on Religious History I to find this modern version.
With the coming of Christianity, the church which stands atop the Wiehengebirge at Bergkirchen was founded, about the year 800 A.D. during Carlemagne's conquest, by the local Duke Wittekind. A Saxon legend tells of the founding of the church, which goes like this: Wittekind swore to establish a church at whatsoever place God would give him water. He stamped his foot and out gushed a spring; he established the Bergkirchen church on the spot. A variation of this legend is that Wittekind was attempting to decide whether to accept Jehoval or cling to his pagan gods. He supposedly made the statement: "Whichever God gives me water, his will I accept." The pagan gods gave no water, but when he stamped his foot in the name of Jehovah, the spring gushed forth, and he founded the church of Bergkirchen on the sport. A more likely explanation is that Duke Wittekind needed something to tell the superstitious peasants to justify the change in gods, and the legend was invented for this purpose. History tells us that Roman Christianity was forced on the Saxons, and that there was no question of Wittekind making a free choice. The spring still flows in the churchyard and bears the name "Wittekind's Spring". It has sunk about twelve feet below the surface and is now walled; a flight of steps descends into the well-like enclosure and "Wittekind's Spring" is a mere trickle at the bottom.
The church at Bergkirchen underwent several changes during the Middle Ages and early modern times. The original church was a wooden structure that was probably built on the model of Roman public buildings, in what is known as the basillica form which was a rectangular building with rows of columns marking out aisles and supporting a flat wooden roof. There may have been more than one of these wooden buildings on the site of the present church; at any rate, it was five hundred years before a stone building was constructed about 1300 A.D. The windows, roof, and the interior of the church have all changed over the years, but the walls still remain as they were placed in 1300 A.D. The interior of the church reflects the changes of the years like the window that was remodeled to fit the architectural ideas of the Renaissance or the lamp which was the only surviving article when the interior of the church was destroyed in the Thirty=Years' War which ended in 1648.
By the year 1600, record-keeping had developed enought that a record of peasant families was kept. This was called a "soul-register". In the soul-register for the year 1601, the first written record of the Schnake family was found. Quoting from the official records signed by the Bergkirchen pastor: "In the soul-register of the oldest church book of the Evangelical Lutheran Church District of Bergkirchen, under Unterlubbe, Hilverdingsen section, is listed: Schnake, wife, four children. Records are continuous from this date. The Schnakes definitely lived on the same plot of ground at Hilverdingsen. The name "Schnake" originally referred to a certain house or farmstead in Hilverdingsen near the town of Unterlubbe, the Minden district of Westphalia, West Gerjmany. Since the name referred to the house or farmstead, the people living there adopted the name as their own last name. It is interesting to note, that because of the custom of the name going with the land, that the Schnakes missed the opportunity to be called Brink, for if the modern custom had been followed in the case of Toenies, the names of many people might be Brink instead of Schnake.
The Schnakes lived at Hilverdingsen #19 by Unterlubbe from at least 1600 to 1851. The house that stands at the site of #19 was built in 1848 by Johann Daniel Ludwig Schnake, after a fire destroyed the previous house in the early 1840's. It probably took him several years to rebuild the house. It was of brick, a variety larger than most bricks made today, with huge inner timbers that were probably hand hewn, with a slate roof. The original roof was most likely thatched. The gable end of the back of the hosue was "half-timbered" -- the hosue supports showed on the outside and a stucco-like material simply filled in between them. The central hall was large, probably twelve feet or mroe wide and twelve to fourteen feet high. From this hall there were openings to various rooms. Animals shared the hosue with the family, so the doors openedonto the parlor, kitchen, bedrooms, cow stalls, horse barn, pigsty, etc. When Johann Daniel finished the house, he carved his name and his second wife's name with the date 1848 in wood over the rear entrance to the central hall. Even though the Schnakes no longer live there, the house still goes by the name of "Schnake" as it had since 1600. In August 1979, it was rumored that the house built in 1848 by Johann Daniel Schnake had been demolished and a new house built on the site.
One interesting discovery in the church records of about 1700, is a listing of an assigned pew in the church. The listing states:
"By the exit behind the last door is a covered pew belonging to Johann Hermann Schnake on the Farm--3places. Althought eh present pews were installed in 1684, after the 30 Years' War, there is no longer a "cloth covered pew" in this section, so the exact seating position can not be determined.
Even though the church records on the Schnake family reach back to 1600, the records before 1688 were very incomplete on individual members of the family. Because of this, we will be gin with the earliest documented member of the Schnake family and trace our heritage until the Schnake family ties in with the Donnig family. I have made no attempt to trace the Schnake line in America.
I would like to point out here that there were other Schnakes listed in the Bergkirchen records. One Schnake family lived at Husen #33 near Unterlubbe and the line that concerns us at Hilverdingsen #19 near Unterlubbe. It is entirely possible that these two lines are related.
The following heading appeared under a picture of the Bergkirchen church: BELOW - THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH OF BERGKIRCHEN. The first church - built 745 A.D. The second church - built 799 A.D. of stone. The third and present structure - built 1265 A.D.
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- 1773