The Edward/Edvard RACKOW Family

from the research & family files of

Emilie (RACKOW) CHAPMAN, Marian Emma (CHAPMAN LOISELLE) BERRY, & D Giles LOISELLE

Germany → Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin → Sheboygan County, Wisconsin → Texas → Chippewa County, Wisconsin

 File last updated/revised: 06.27.2009

PART 1 - Introduction:

Edvard RACKOW emigrated from his German homeland to the United States about 1866. He first settled down in Fond du Lac Co, WI. At some point, his given name was anglecized to Edward.

Emilie "Millie" RACKOW [1889-1968]was the ninth of Edward's fourteen children - his eighth daughter. She married Clarence CHAPMAN on 9 February, 1910 in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. Millie and Clarence had three daughters and a son. Their youngest daughter, Marian Emma CHAPMAN married twice - first to Royal Charles LOISELLE and secondly to Emmert Ellsworth "Tex" BERRY. Marian died in Wickenburg, Arizona in 1988. 

PHOTO: standing: Marian CHAPMAN LOISELLE BERRY;

front (l to r): Emilie RACKOW CHAPMAN w/

dau of Barbara LOISELLE WARD; Barbara

LOISELLE WARD - 4 generations of RACKOW

descendants (abt 1954?)

 

PART 2 - The RACKOW data sheet - BACKGROUND information:

A genealogy sheet titled "The Rackow Family" was found by one of Edvard/Edward RACKOW's great-grandsons among his father Tex BERRY's papers some time after Tex's 1994 death in Phoenix, Arizona.  In Spring 2007, Tex's son mailed a copy of the paper and some family photos to our family.  Among the photos was one of Emilie RACKOW as a girl, and perhaps most importantly,  an annotated photo (ca 1924) of Edward RACKOW with six of his daughters. What a treasure for Edward's decendants!

"The Rackow Family" is a one-sided typescript page. It was composed using an "elite" typewriter style. The font is small but bold. The information is presented in an uncluttered, easy-to-follow manner and contains a wealth of family information. It briefly spells out Edward RACKOW's personal history and gives information about both of his wives and lists birth and death data for all of his fourteen children.  The sheet also lists the names of the siblings of Edward's second wife Bertha (WINKEL) RACKOW, mother of Emilie "Millie" (RACKOW) CHAPMAN.

In the typescript, lists of people are columnized with discrete columns for names, birthplaces, and birth and death dates.  At one point on the page, the compiler calls Edward "Grandpa Rackow."  That appellation suggests to me that the intended audience for the information was Edward's grandchildren. Evidence within the text also suggests that it was written by one those grandchildren with the help of his daughter Millie. No origination/file date appears in or on the document. 
 
Following Tex BERRY's death, we received the sheaf of family papers which outlined several generations of his maternal CHAPMAN ancestry. The compilation had been in a box of Marian (CHAPMAN) LOISELLE BERRY's family papers brought with Tex at the time he moved into his son's Phoenix home. Somehow the RACKOW sheet had been overlooked since Marian's death. In 2007, when my brother-in-law learned that I had been researching and compiling the family histories not only of the LOISELLEs but also the CHAPMANs, BERRYs, RACKOWs, and MOCKs, he pointed out the existence of that RACKOW genealogy page and mailed a copy of it to us for family records.

I believe, but have only scant, circumstantial proof - that both the CHAPMAN and RACKOW family data pages were originally compiled under the direct supervision of, or even originally authored by, Millie (RACKOW) CHAPMAN herself. Happily, in any case, the passion shown by family members - whether it was Marian's, her mother's, a sibling's, or one of her mother's siblings - for passing on family ancestry was respected strongly enough by Marian's husband Tex BERRY after Marian's death for him to have preserved both sets of information for Marian's descendants. That is why, in part, I also research and try to document Tex's BERRY and MOCK ancestors, too.

My supposition that Millie (RACKOW) CHAPMAN and one of her CHAPMAN children likely collaborated to create the RACKOW family document is based on the following points:

• The RACKOW document mentions that Edward RACKOW worked for a time for "our father," that is, the father of the page's author, on Cushing Farm. (See the document itself, below, for the full text and context.) 
• Marian Emma CHAPMAN was born on Cushing Farm, Cobban, Chippewa Co, WI on 12 Oct 1914.

• Members of Clarence CHAPMAN's family were descendants of Edward RACKOW.
• In addition to being Marian CHAPMAN's birth location, the Clarence CHAPMAN family is known to have worked Cushing Farm, the farm specifically mentioned as a residence for Edward RACKOW. I can infer from the relationships suggested by the phrase "our father" that the sheet was almost certainly compiled by one of Clarence and Millie (RACKOW) CHAPMAN's children - Marian; one of her sisters, Clary or Marg; or their brother Coob.
  
• In the listing chart, "Mrs. Clarence Chapman" - Emilie (RACKOW) CHAPMAN - is given some emphasis by being the only individual on the chart whose data is set apart by being further indented (as below).

see http://picasaweb.google.com/Tntype

 

PART 3 - The RACKOW family document:

The document that follows contains the text of the original copy sent to the LOISELLEs. I have, however, capitalized and put into bold font all of the surnames in it. Table borders were not in the original, either, but I added them for ease of reading and to facilitate note-taking and further research.

[begin transcription:] The RACKOW Family

 

	[Given Names of Females]	Birth Place	Born	Died
Edward RACKOW		Germany	1-4-1840	4-24-27
Married Ernestine BROMME				1884
Six Children:
Mrs. Louis BLEOCHER	Ida	Fond du Lac, WI.	8-22-1870	6-4-55
Edward Christian RACKOW		"	2-10-1872	8-19-57
Mrs..[sic] William SCHUBERT	Clara	"	[blank]	[blank]
Mrs. Ed. WUSSOW	Lydia	"	3-15-1878	9-28-62
Mrs. Julius JANKE	Anna [corrected typos in orig]	"	8-26-1881	1-29-45
Mrs. Herman ARNDT	Ernestine	Eden	3-18-1884	11[blank day]47

 

	[Given or Nicknames]	[Birth Place]	Born	Died
Second marriage June 25, 1884    to Bertha WINKEL		Howard's Grove	7-24-1860	1-30-20
Eight Children:
Mrs. Arthur BROMME	Lizzie	Eden	3-14-1886	6-15-1969
Mrs. Frank HOEHNE	Ella	"	11-4-1897	12-8-1981
Mrs. Clarence CHAPMAN         [larger indentation in orig]	Emilie	"	8-2-1889	9-25-1968 [date in orig]
Mrs. Albert KLAHN	Mayme	"	3-22-1891	7-29-1971
Mrs. Cora SPOONER HOLLIS	Cora	"	8-12-1892	[blank]
Louis Gottfried RACKOW	Louis	"	10-1-1893	11-10-1984
Mrs. Charles HENNECKE	Emma	"	2-2-1896	10-21-1985
Rudolph Herman RACKOW	Rudy	"	1-9-1898	11-2-1981

     Edward Rackow came to America when he was 28 years of age and resided in Fond du Lac , Wis. for 16 years before moving to the town of Eden where he farmed for 17 years.  Selling his farm he moved to the town of Osceaola where he continued to farm for another five years.

     Then Mr. Rackow moved to the town of Greenbush, Sheboygan County, Wis. where he conducted a farm and general store for 9 years.  He then moved to Texas where he engaged in different prusuits for several years.  (Near Galveston)  The last 12 years of his life he had made his home with his children.

     Grandpa Rackow stayed on Cushing Farm for a time and brushed off and burned a large acreage for our father, clearing the land  for cultivation.

 

Bertha WINKEL RACKOW's sisters and brothers:

 

Mrs. G. KRUEGER, Curtiss

Mrs. Fred PERRONE, Howard's Grove

Mrs. J. GRUENEWALD, "            "

Mrs. Ida MINSTER, Sheboygan

Mrs. L. KRUEGER,         "

Mrs. Louis MARBES, Boltonville

Herman WINKEL, ["Kiel" x'd over]  Cleveland

Fred WINKEL, Kiel

Louis WINKEL, Howard's Grove

Charles WINKEL,   "            "

Gustave WINKEL, "            "

 

 

    Bertha RACKOW was survived by her mother, Mrs. G. WINKEL of Howard's Grove, Wis., six sisters and five brothers, according to a newspaper clipping [typos corrected in "clipping"].

 

     Edward RACKOW was survived by one sister, Mrs. Gottfried SIEGFELD [typos corrected in surname] of Kewaskum, Wis., and one brother, Caesar RACKOW, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

 

[end document transcription:  "The Rackow Family"]

Part 4 - Further family research:

 

 

Section 1 - Leads to relationships for Edward and Bertha RACKOW:

 

Note that the family genealogy chart lists the following important relationships in addition to the names of Bertha WINKEL's sisters and brothers:

 

Edward RACKOW:

     Sister: Mrs. Gottfried SIEGFELD (Kewaskum, WI)

     Brother: Caesar RACKOW (Milwaukee, WI)

 

Bertha WINKEL:

     Mother: Mrs. G. WINKEL (Howard's Grove, WI)

 

 

Section 2 - Birth data documentation:

Below is data from a databse record typed by S. Connie Halbur in May-June, 2005. I have underlined family surnames:

Source document:
R-046
Church Register information from the Peace Evangelical Church, Waucousta, Wisconsin

• Births/Baptisms, 1888 – 1930
• Marriages, 1890 – 1930
• Deaths, 1911-1930

Entered on Computer by S. Connie Halbur, May and June, 2005


Rackow, Albertine Emma
born 2 Feb., 1896
baptised 5 July, 1896
Parents: Edward Rackow & Bertha Winkel

Rackow, August Herman Rudolf
born 9 Jan., 1898
baptised 30 Jan., 1898
Parents: August Rackow & Bertha Winkel <<<NOTE  the father's given name August RACKOW. The only RACKOW married to Bertha WINKLE in the RACKOW family document is Edvard/Edward RACKOW. Since the family document contains a son for Bertha and Edward named Rudolph Herman "Rudy" RACKOW born 9 Jan 1898 in Eden, this is undoubtedly that individual's birth record. So: Is Edward's given name in the register an error, or does Edward have "August" in his own name, as well? Further research is currently needed on this (as of 16 Jun 2007).

Section 3 - Further leads, Part i:

The following entries are also from the church register of the Peace Evangelical Church, Waucousta, Wisconsin. They, too, likely contain family data, but I have not yet established exactly who the Anna RACKOW who married Emil MARQUARDT is. Dates certainly would fit Mrs. Julius JANKE [Anna (RACKOW) JANKE] who may have first married a MARQUARDT, but at this point, that is far from being documented. It is also possible that the family document contains erroneous information for Edward RACKOW's daughter Anna. The entries, then, appear here only as possible leads:

Marquardt, Altah [Sic] Esther
22 Sept., 1910 Osceola
16 Oct., 1910, parents’ home
Emil Marquardt & Anna Rachow

Marquardt, Dorothea Elisa Maria
17 Jan., 1913, Osceola
9 Feb., 1913, parents’ home
Emil Marquardt & Anna Rackow

Marquardt, Edna Adele Emilie
28 May, 1919, Osceola
22 June, 1919, Peace Church
Emil Marquardt & Anna Rackow

Marquardt, Elaine Elsa Linda
25 July, 1925, Osceola
16 Aug., 1925, Peace Church
Emil Marquardt & Anna Rackow

Marquardt, Dorothea Elisa Maria
17 Jan., 1913, Osceola
9 Feb., 1913, parents’ home
Emil Marquardt & Anna Rackow

Marquardt, Edna Adele Emilie
28 May, 1919, Osceola
22 June, 1919, Peace Church
Emil Marquardt & Anna Rackow

Marquardt, Elaine Elsa Linda
25 July, 1925, Osceola
16 Aug., 1925, Peace Church
Emil Marquardt & Anna Rackow

Further source information for R-046:These excerpts from the Peace Evangelical Church's register, Waucousta, Wisconsin can be found in an online database at http://campbellsport.govoffice.com; the file is in PDF format and can be accessed via a shortened URL from tinyurl.com which translates to <http://tinyurl.com/ytkpqy >

MORE:
Ella RACKOW, Emile's sister married Benjamin F HOEHNE (b Mar 1885 in Plymouth, WI). Ella died in Ingleside, Lake Co, IL as did her husband, who died 14 Mar 1973.

Mayme RACKOW's [1891-1971] name is spelled in the standard "Mamie" spelling on the back of a family studio portrait of her and her sister Emilie - called "Millie" on the back of the picture.

Bertha WINKEL RACKOW's obituary contains many of the relationships spelled out in my "inherited" document (above), including the mentioned names of her siblings.
 
Cora RACKOW SPOONER had 1947 passport record (for a trip, apparently, to France) which says she was b 12 Aug 1892 in Eden, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

Research Notes and Analyses

http://tntype.com

File last updated/revised: 06.27.2009