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- The Story of Schnake or how the Gnats came to America
Schnake: noun meaning 'gnat' or 'midge'. (from Collings German Gem Dictionary
The Schnakes were most likely members of the wandering tribes of Germans who came into the Central European area during the voelkerwanderung who finally settled in the area of the Westphalian marshes. They derived their name, Schnake, from the gnats that inhabited the marshes where they lived.
This is a story of the Schnake family in Germany and America. It is a story which should prove interesting to the many descendents of the first Schnakes---for, like the gnats of the Westphalian marshes from which they derive their name, the Schnakes have multiplied rapidly and have flown far from their original family home in the little German village of Unterluebbe, to teh distant land of America, and are now scattered throughout several states of that great land.
CHAP. 1 - SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR THE STORY OF SCHNAKE
The gathering of information of the Schnake family and its background would not have been possible had it not been for several chance meetings which brought together the right combinations of persons, opportunities, and information. For many years, two branches of the Schnake family lived in America with only vague knowledge of the existence of one another. These two family branches were: (1) the descendents of Ernest Heinrich (Henry) Schnake, whose family center is in Illinois not far from St. Louis, and (2) the descendents of his nephew, Karl Ludwig Hermann (Herman) Schnake, whose family center is in Southwest Missouri.
The meeting which caused these two families to make contact was a rare coincidence. Miss Winona Campbell, of Nashville, Illinois, great-great granddaughter of Henry Schnake, chanced to be at the First Methodist Church of Newtonia, Missouri, on a matter of Church work. Lawrence Schnake, a grandson of Herman Schnake, happened to be a member of that church. A discussions of family names led to the discovery that the two were related. The families began correspondence and began visiting one another.
The other chance meeting ocfcurred between Doris Irene Schnake, daughter of Lawrence Schnake, and one Roy Johnson, who was soon to be a member of the U.S. Army stationed in Germany. The two were married in August 1965 and they left home to embark on the service career which would eventually lead them to the discovery of the Schnake ancestral home in Germany. Mr. Johnson was stationed in Bad Aibling, Germany, in October, 1957, and Mrs. (Doris Schnake) Johnson joined him there in the spring.
The two decided to attempt to look up family records. Bits of information began to dribble in from relatives in the states to help in this attempt. Family legend gave the name of Herman Schnake's birthplace as "Bergkirchen", Church of the Mountain. This was some help, but there were several towns of the same or similar name in Western Germany. Then from the Henry Schnake branch of the family came the information that Henry's home had been Rothenuffeln, Kreis (township) Minden, Westphalia, Germany. This information led to the discovery of the Schnake home and records.
First, a letter was sent to the Recorder's Office in the city of Minden, Westphalia, Germany, asking about Schnake records or any information relating to towns of the above names in the Minden township. Before an answer could be received, the Johnsons left on a 10-day furlough which was to include North Germany and the Minden area as the highest points on the "must visit" list.
Arriving in Minden, the Johnsons visited the Recorder's Office in the City Hall. There was a Rothenuffeln in the township, but no Bergkirchen, "Church of the Mountain." The Johnsons were told that this was the place to begin their search, for the church there was the parish church for all the villages in that area and would have records on all inhabitants.
Some information regarding German record keeping is in order; otherwise an American might wonder how some of the information which will be revealed was discovered. The Germans, like most Europeans, have an orderly system of record keeping on all inhabitants which is more elaborate and detailed than could be imagined here in America. Births, baptisms, deaths, have all been religiously recorded for hundreds of years, together with all sorts of surrounding and minute details--godfathers, pastors at baptisms, incidents such as catastrophes, etc., which occurred at about the same time--these things are all listed carefully and have been since before the United States of America ever existed. From early times to 1870, such records were kept in the churches. At that time Germany became a unified nation and recored keeping was transferred to the Recorder's Offices in the principal towns and cities. Once the right location was discovered, the rest was easy.
Leaving the town hall at Minden, the Johnsons drove to the town of Berkirchen. Inquiring, they located the parsonage and met one of the ministers. Bergkirchen is now a dual pastorate, serving two areas with one church. He stated that he had received the letter and immediately picked out one of the heavy, dusty old church record books from a shelf. Turning to the year 1851, he read: "Karl Ludwig Hermann Schnake, born 10 September 1851, at 5:00 o'clock A.M. Father: Johann Daniel Ludwig Schnake, Mother: Marie Elizabeth Schnake, born Weihe, originally from Bickhorst: Parents home: Unterluebbe, house no. 19. Baptized September 17 at Bergkirchen./ Pastor at baptism: Linameyer. Godfathers: 1. Karl Hilkdebrandt 2. Hermann Juergens 3. Hermann Westel".
Records verified the relationship between the Schnake families in America. Ernst Heinrich Schnake was born on June 22, 1819, in Unterluebbe at house no. 19. He was baptized June 27, 1819, in Bergkirchen. His wife was a Brink, and her address was given in the church books as Rothenuffeln. The most likely explanation of the family record of his address as Rothenuffeln lies in the local custom of primogeniter---the oldest brother inherits the entire estate in this part of Wesphalia; others must shift for themselves. Henry probably went to live with the Brinks in Rothenuffeln when his brother, Hermann's father, inherited the Schnake farm in Unterlubbe.
The records showed further that the Schnakes had lived on the plot of ground at no. 19 Unterluebbe since 1600 and probably for many years or perhaps centuries before that date. Seeking out earlier records than this would present many difficulties, and time was not available for this research. The oldest church book in Bergkirchen archives (date 1600) had the following entry: "Unterluebbe, in the part of the village known as Hilverdingsen, Schnake, his wife, four children."
Having discovered the above records, the Johnsons left the parsonage to explore the church and the ground around Bergkirchen. While they are exploring Bergkirchen, we have an excellent opportunity to review some information necessary for a full understanding of the Schnake history.
CHAP. 2: THE HOME OF GNATS: LAND AND PEOPLE
Sweeping across all of Northern Europe through Holland, northern Germany, Poland, and into Russia, the North European lowland Plain stretches unbroken from Amsterdam to Moscow unbroken except for two mountain ridges. These mountains are not high by the standards of the Alps of the Rockies, but to the people who live on the flat, marshy plains they are indeed impressive. the rides lie only a few miles apart: between them, the country is rolling. North of the northermost ridge, the Wishen Gebirge, the countryside is flat, only a little above sea level, and marshy.
Chapping the Wishen Gebirge off sharply at its eastern and separating it from another ridge to which it was connected in prehistoric times is the Weser River, one of Germany's great waterways. The Weser break through point in this mountain ridge forms a spectacular pass which has some fame as a geological wonder. It is known as Porta Westfalica, the Westphalia Gap. The Weser flows north, through Minden a few miles north of the Gap, and into the North Sea at Bremerhaven on Germany's north coast. The river has payed a major role in the history of the area. Until recent years it formed the major artery of transportation adn communication. Although it is 80 miles inland, Minden is a seaport via the Weser, and wealth gained through trading caused Minden to be an important city early in German history. Minden and the other free cities of the Hanseatia League developed a spirit of independence that led them to resist force from the outside. Thus Minden was one of the first areas to follow Luther and become protestant, and to resist all attempts to force the area back into the Roman fold.
Southwest of Minden and due West of the Westphalian Gap, directly atop the Wiehen Gebirge's ridge commanding a sweeping view to the North and the South, stands the "Church of the Mountain"--Bergkirchen. This church will naturally be the center of our story, as it was teh center of the lives of the Schnakes in Germany. On the flat marshy land two miles to the north of the ridge lies the village of Unterluebbe--birthplace of the Schnakes in Europe as far back into history as records extend. A mile east of Unterluebbe is Rothenuffeln, Henry Schnake's home before coming to America. Five miles to the North and West of Bergkirchen, the buildings of Minden can be faintly seen reposing on the winding Weser.
According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, Westphalia (meaning Western Plain) is an extension of the great North German plain, which is broken by outcrops of the underlying Cretaceous beds, and is not very fertile. The climate is temperate except in the South, which is cold in winter and has a heavy rainfall. Crops include grain of all kinds, peas and beans, buckwheat, potatoes, fruit and hemp. The cultivation of flax is very extensive, especially in the Northeast Minden. Swine, which are reared in great numbers in the plains, yield the famous Westphalia hams; horse breeding and the rearing of cattle and goats are also important.
The Brittanica goes into much detail about the extensive industry of Westphalia. Much of it is centered in the Southwest part of the area, however, while Minden is in the Northeast. However, Minden does have a very important textile industry which has existed since the 14th century.
As to the people, the Brittanica states, The people of Westphalia are mainly of Saxon stock and speak low German dialects. To understand this statement fully, we will need to spend some time on the history of the area.
In Christ's time, the ancestors of the Schnakes were members of a group of wandering tribes of people, gradually making thier way Westward from what is now eastern Russia. They were pushed slowly westward by other peoples during the latter period of the Roman Empire, into central and western Europe. This groupof Germanic tribes roved over Europe for a time, raided and pilalged the existing civilizations, helped push the tottering Roman Empire off its weakened legs, adopted much of Roman civilization in the process, then finally settled down to become the ancestors of today's Germans, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Englishmen, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Austrians, and Swiss. The tribes which settled in the Westphalian area were members of the Saxon branch of the German peoples. Other tribes of the Saxons crossed into England, where, together with the Angles and Jutes, they became the ancestors of the Englishmen of today. Thus, today's English and North Germans are very closely related to one another, having sprung in part from the same Germanic tribe in the beginning.
LANGUAGE
Since there is considerable discussion and some confusion regarding the various dialects and the distinction between "high" and "low" German, some explanation regarrding this point in in order.
The people in various areas of Germany today speak dialects fo the German language that are very different from one another. People passing from one area of Germany to another are hard put to understand their fellow German from another section only a few miles away, and a Bavarian could not understand a North German at all if each spoke in his native dialect. There are perhaps a dozen or more basic dialects in Germany today, with hundreds of minor dialects. All this in a land not much larger than the state of Oregon.
In general, the North German dialects are spoken of as the "low German" dialects, since that area of the country is a lowland plain. The Germans refer to the speech of the people of the lowlands as "Plattdeutsch" or "Flatland german". The dialects fo the Souther portion of the country are ofter referred to as the "high German" dialects, since this is the highland section of Germany. There are several "high German" dialects, most of them quite different from one another.
To confuse the issue, there has developed a type of speech which the Germans call "Schriftdeutsch"--"Script German". This type of speech is used on the radio, in university lectures, and is taught throughout the world in language classes as "German". Without this form of the language, which also referred to frequently as "high German," the people of th various sections could not communicate easily. Everyone in Germany can understand this type of speech, but many, especially the less highly educated, cannot speak it. It is a language that almost no German speaks at home--not even a University professor. This language became known as "high German" because some of the early German emperors favored the Southern German dialects and an official court language grew out of these mountain dialects. However, modern "script German" or "high German" is quite different from the "high German" dialects of today, which include Bavarian, Swabian, Tyrelese, and others.
CHAP. 3: THE GENEALOGY OF THE GNATS: SCHNAKE FAMILY HISTORY
Having filled in most of the background information you will need to know about the area and the people from which the Schnake sprung, let us return briefly to the Johnsons and see what they have discovered.
After their short hike of exploration around the town Bergkirchen, the Johnsons returned to the parsonage. There they met the other minister of the dual pastorate, Hermann Havendell, his wife, and his secretary, Ingeborg Ewiedrich Pfarrer (meaning "pastor" Havendell was the elder of the two ministers and had served the Bergkirchen pastorate longest. He proved to be a wonderfully intelligent man, very helpful, and very anxious to aid in the quest for information for the Schnake records. He spent most of the day serving the Johnsons as a guide and lecturer,l telling them of the history of the area, and digging in the records for the Schnake history. The Johnsons stayed that night at the parsonage. The next day Pfarrer Havendell presented them with official documents with the Bergkirchen stamp, bearing the names and pertinant records regarding several of the Schnakes who were direct ancestors of Mrs. Johnson. He refused to take pay for his services or even to charge his usual fee for the official documents. The Johnsons gave him a small sum, which he would accept only when it was explained that it was for the church, and departed to continue their leave toward Holland.
The information they gathered were the history of the Schnakes into the tapestry of German History in such a way that it could not be separated. To tell the Story of Schnake well, we must go back to the period which has already been mentioned--back to the time when the Schnakes were members of wandering tribes of Germans who came into the central European area during the period the Germans today call the Voelkerwanderung (emigration of the Peoples). These wandering tribes roamed over the entire continent of Europe. Some of them came into contact with the Romans in the South---they pillaged and burrned Rome and helped to deal the Roman Empire its deathblow. Others wandered into France and Spain. The Franks, who settled largely in what is now France, took on elements of Roman culture. Their religion became Roman Catholic and their speech borrowed so much from the Romans that French today is considered a Romanic rather than a Germanic language. The Saxons, the Schnakes undoubtedly among them, settled in Northern Europe. Some of the Saxons continued westward to England. It is interesting to note that the low German dialects of the flatlands are nearer to English than anby other German dialect. The word "twenty" for example, is twintig in low German, zwansig in Script or High German. In this case, low German and English are closer together than are low German and high German.
The early Saxons were a heathen people, worshipping various gods. However, the entire future of the Schnakes and their Saxon countrymen was to be changed by a person named Charlemagne--Charles the Great, the most powerful ruler since the Caesars. Charles was a Frank, and the Franks, as we recall, had been converted to Roman Christianity. Charles was also a conquering warrior. He inherited a large kingdom in 768 A.D. and set out to enloarge it. His goal was to bring as much of the known world as psosible under the Frankish crown and teh Christian Church. He set out to subdue the Saxons, but they proved to be made of tough stuff. A local leader, Wittekind, held him off and became a Saxon hero. Place names in the Schnake neighborhood--such names as "Wittekind's Mountain", "Wittekind's Spring", etc., give evidence that much of the action took place near the Schnake's homesite--perhaps they were even involved in it. John l. LaMonte's Medival History describes the contest as follows: "In thirty years, they were eighteen campaigns in which the Franks would invade and conquer the Saxons, "conver" them the Christianity, and set up churches, which began to collect tithes; the Franks then withdrew; the Saxons burned the churches, killed the priest, and went back to paganism--and the whole business started again the next year or so." This process continued from about 772 to 804 A.D. Finally, Wittekind was subdued and Christianity extablished. Saxony came under the thumb of the Franks and Charlemagne.
Charlemagne divided the lands of the Saxons into Westfalen meaning "Western Plain", and Ostfalen, or "Eastern Plain". Although the area is not now the same, this is the origin of the name "Westphalia"--the English rendition of "Westfalen".
The church which stands atop the Wiebengebirge at Bergkirchen was founded, then, in about the year 800 A.D. during Charlemagne's conquest, by the local duke Wittekind. A saxon legend tells of the founding of the church. The gist of the legend is that Witekind 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. The spring still flows in the churchyard and bears the name "Wittekind's Spring." It is sunk about twelve feet below the surface and is now walled; one has to descend a flight of steps into a well-like enclosure and "Wittekind's Sping: is a mere tricle at the bottom.
A variation of this legend is that Wittekind was attempting to decide whether to accept Jehovah or cling to his pagan gods. He made the statement, "whichever God gives me water, him 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 spot.
A most 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. This, however, is only a guess and is not intended in any way to quell the romance of the legend of Wittekind's Spring.
The coming of Christianity, however, did not change the life of the 9th century Schnakes to any great degree. The Schnakes were uneducated peasants who tilled the soil; the doings of kings and nobles were none of their affair. The new Christianity simply substituted a saint of the Church for the former local God. LaMonte's Medieval History describes it like this:
"The horizon of the medieval peasant was a narrow one. While some sought and found the world outside, the majority began and ended their days within the limits of their own manor. Their food and their clothing were produced there, and beyond food and clothing they had few possessions. The steward of the estate was the authority they knew and recognised; count, king, and emperer were but vague rulers far beyond their personal ken. God was in heaven and the king was on his throne; but to the peasant it was the local saint and the local steward who represented religion and government; he obeyed the steward and prayed to the saint and did not bother his head with higher powers." LaMonte also states the "Peasants and livestock had much in common in the Middle Ages, they often shared their quearters and were both listed as the property of the farm which stocked both men and beasts."
The church at Bergkirchen underwent several changes during the Middle Ages and early modern times. The original church was a wooden structure. History tells us that the early Christian churches were built on the model of Roman public buildings in what is known as the besilica form. They were rectangular buildings, with rows of columns marking out aisles and supporting a flat wooden roof. It is probably safe to assume that this was the form of the early church at Bergkirchen.
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, the stone building which now stands was built on the exact site of the original building. The flow of ideas and events across the face of Europe through the next 650-odd years of time had left its imprint in the stones of Bergkirchen. The pastor today recites the history of Germany as he takes you around the church--here a window was remodeled to fit the architectural ideas of the Reniassance; there is a lamp, the only article remaining when the interior of the church was destroyed in the thirty years' war which ended in 1648. The windows, the roof, the interior have all changed, but the walls still remain, much as they were placed, stone upon stone, in 1300.
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wurtenberg, and thus caused the second great religious change that occurred in the lives of the Germans. Soon all of Europe was in a religious turmoil between Protestantism and Catholicism. It is interesting to note that the areas of Germany which resisted the Roman religion in the beginning were the first areas to cast off Roman authority when the opportunity came. Thus the Saxons of Bergkirchen, who had clung to their pagan gods until they were forced to do otherwise, some 800 years before Luther, were among the first to accept the opportunity to break with Rome--and the church at Bergkirchen became protestant. This was no popular revolt sprinting from the people of the church; rather the prince of leader of each area would decide for his people, and a whole area would become Protestant. The the peasant farmers, it meant little more than a change of priests and, quite often, turmoil and was a between the religious factions.
By the year 1600, record-keeping had developed enough that a record of peasant families was kept. This was called a "soul register". In the soul-register for the year 1600, 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 Unterluebbe, Hilverdingsen section, is listed: Schnake, wife, four children."
A glimpse of what village life was like during the seventeenth and 18th centuries is provided by Robert Lowie in his Toward Understanding Germany. There were differences in rank among the peasants, from the most important to the least. "Foremost was the Meier or Schulte, originally the headman of the settlement and economically characterised by the use of from six to ten horses in tillage. Theoretically, there could be only one Schultenhob or Oberhof, but as the headman's office decayed, the terms were applied to any estate of requisite size. Locally, the proprietor of a somewhat smaller farm was called the Hosner. Next came the owner of from four to six horses, the Volibauer (full-fledged peasant), also called Voellerbe (full heir) or Kolone. Below him ranked the cotter (Koetter or Halbhauer, half-peasant) with only one to three horses at his disposal and commonly obliged to go into service or to take up a trade--there were Westphalians who kept no horses at all, working their plots with oxen or cows, and who lived in a cottage called Stelle; it this stood on communal ground, the inmate was called Brinksitzer; if it was located on a full peasant's Hof (farm), he was an Einwohner, Einlieger, or Huerling (hireling). These designations varied in time and place, but half-a-dozen grades were obviously not uncommon."
Lowie describes the means by which a girl is often married. The father hears of or knows a young man who has a good background and proper economic circumstances. He sends for the young man to put in an appearance. The daughter's are not consulted, but sometimes she does get to go along for the inspection (B'schan) of the young man's estate, where the father "carefully examines the dungheap, the table, the livestock, and the granery, He discussed the matter with his wife, never with the girl herself, and if all is well, a notary is engaged to draw up the contract, such an agreement was everywhere meant to be strictly adhered to; in about 1800, Westphalians cancelled weddings because the bride's parents refused to give up a copper kettle or a spinning wheel that had been stipulated in the bond."
Anna Maria Engel Schnaken, the daughter of Johann Hinrich Schnake and Anna Maria Schopen/Schoper born Volkmann, was born 6 October 1745 at Hilverdingsen #19 near Unterlubbe. She was baptized on 8 October 1745 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bergkirchen. Her baptismal witnesses were Anna Margaretha Heirsayer, Anna Maria Ilsabe Martin, Anna Engel Roffing. She married Tonies Hinrich Brink, the son of Tonies Heinrich and Trin Ilsa Brink nee Bache on 23 February 1773 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bergkirchen.
Information provided by Roy Johnson
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1745 - 1777 (31 years)