Brennecke Links | Brennecke Crest | German Church
Cluster 1 (Sebexen, Hanover, Germany to Gordonville, Missouri) (our line)
Cluster 2 (Austria, Germany) | Cluster 3 (Ringelheim, Germany, to St. Louis)
Cluster 4 (Goddenstedt, Germany to America) | Cluster 5 ( Heidelburg, Germany to Marshall County, Iowa)
Cluster 6 (Evansville, Indiana, to Nashville, Tennessee) | Cluster 7 (Essinghausen, Germany, to Quincy, Illinois)
Cluster 8 (Hanover, Germany, to New York) | Cluster 9 Hanover, Germany, to Walhalla South Carolina)
This descendant information was obtain from:
Charles N. Brennecke of Nashville, Tennessee
who communicated with Herb Schaper (Cluster #1) and provided their information to him.
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPTION OF LETTERS
OF COMMUNICATIONS WITH HERB SCHAPER (Cluster #1)
I am providing the transcriptions here as they put a little light on the research and may help us make connections. Where a dot, dot, dot (...) is seen, transcription has been skipped, leaving more pertinent communications.
*******************
Sunday, August 7, 1977
Dear Herbert,
I just returned from a two-week vacation and found your box with the Brennecke Chevrolet logo and your very nice letter.Thank you very much..
What I do know is from census records and the baptismal records of the Trinity Lutheran Church in Evansville, plus some information from the Evansville city directories that is occasionally very puzzling.
Here's what I have:The 1860 US Census for Evansville shows my great grandfather Christophe Brennecke and wife Henrietta (Age 42) and the following children:Wilhelm (1848), Fritz (1851), Carl (1853), Pauline (1855), and my grandfather Henry Martin (1858).The Baptismal records show that Henrietta's maiden name was Herbst, and this agrees with the information on my grandfather's death certificate.The Evansville directories indicate that Christopher died between 1868 and 1870, since there is no entry for him after 1868, and the entry for Henrietta lists her as "widow."The children begin to show up in the directories as they turn 17 or 18 and get jobs of their own:William (Wilhelma clerk), Fred (Fritz? - a molder), Charles (Carl? - a harness maker).Suddenly in 1872 a really bewildering variety of Brennecke's show up, all living at the same addressFred, a varnisher; David, a butcher; Theodore, a bricklayer.Then in 1874 Fred the varnisher is no longer listed, and instead Theodore and David are living at a different address with Julia, a widow Fred the varnisher's widow?But where did they come from?
Charles continues in the directory until 1898, and in 1899 the same address lists Louise, widow, and Gertrude.Fred become a town constable, detective, and after many changes in 1906 Chief of Police.He retires, apparently, in 1911, and is listed as Manager of the Furniture Bldg until 1931.William, after many different jobs, has a lengthy career as a traveling salesman for the Indiana Stove Company which is one of the ancestors of the present big Whirlpool factory in Evansville today.William's children begin to show up in 1895 Estelle, a clerk; William S. (Baptismal records say Shepard) in 1898, student; Bessie in 1902, clerk; Jessie in 1903 (twin with Bessie?), a milliner.William S. doesn't show after 1900; I think Bessie married a man named Fox.Estelle and Jessie apparently never married, since they live at the same address together until 1932, when Estelle disappears.The last entry for Jessie or any other Brennecke's, for that matter, is 1943.
There is one entry for my grandfather Henry Martin in 1880, when he would have been 22.He is listed as a watchmaker.He apparently went to Henderson, Kentucky for a while and from there to Nashville (he shows up in the Nashville directory in 1888 as a salesman for Stief Jewelers) and became something of a diamond expert.Must have done well for a while, since they supported a staff of five servants and lived in a swanky neighborhood.Then in 1910 he apparently sold the home to start his own store, didn't make a go of it, and died, more or less broke, of cancer in 1914.He had two daughters, Georgia, who married a man named Archer and had two children; my father, Charles Henry, who must have been the black sheep of the family since he dropped out of High School and became a telegrapher on the RR; and Henrietta, who married a boy named Raymond who died in the first war and much later remarried a man who left her quite well-fixed;no children.Both Georgia and Henrietta are still alive, though Georgia has lost her mental faculties and no longer recognizes anyone.My father and mother had three boys me, Henry Martin, and Magnus Carlson.Magnus Carlson died of polio at age 8, and Henry is a PHD for DuPont in Corpus Christi.Dad died in 1956 of leukemia, and mother is still living (age 87) in a nursing home in Corpus.
Some odds and ends:Grandfathers sister Pauline apparently married a man named Zurstadt, since they show up in the baptismal records as sponsors for one of William's children.Theodore, the bricklayer, leaves a widow named Anna, daughter Tillie, a cashier, and son Theodore, a clerk, in 1894.Theodore never shows again, Tillie stays one more year and disappears, but Ann continues in the directory until 1941.Christopher F., laborer, comes from no where in 1894 and never shows again;however, there is a Claude listed as a laborer in 1895, who likewise never shows again; however again, a Fred C.laborer turns up in 1896 and stays until 1908, variously as a laborer, miner, farmer, machinist, and engineer.Mystery where did he come from and where did he go?David, who started as a butcher in 1897, last shows as a PROFESSOR OF DANCING (all capitals!) in 1883.Where did he go?Where did his nephew Theodore (Anna's and Theodore's son) go?What happened to Gertrude, the daughter of Charles?
One more little item, a friend of mine from St. Louis says she ran across a Henry Brennecke in the 1860 census of Quincy Illinoisa shoemaker from Brunswick born in 1836, married a woman named Eliza, and with a daughter named Eliza born in 1859.I don't know any more than that, but the woods in Brunswick and Hanover must have been full of Brennecke's.Well this about exhausts my knowledge of Brennecke's.I am trying to look up the cemetery records in Evansville to see if I can find some more of these relationships and pin down some of the dates.It wouldn't surprise me to find that some of the people that disappeared from Evansville turned up in St. Louis.I'd like to get into the directories there and see what I can find.Maybe I'll get a spare weekend this fall.
Charles Brennecke
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October 10, 1978
Dear Herb:
It was mighty nice to talk to you on the telephone again last night..
After I talked to you I had a chance to call a Margaret Brennecke out in California.This is a contact that my daughter in Boston developed for me from a young lady by the name of Barbara Brennecke who lives in Cambridge Peggy and Barbara are the only Brennecke's in the Boston telephone book! Anyway, it turns out that Margaret has doen an extensive amount of work on their branch of the family, which I got the impression immigrated to Wisconsin.
I...I am beginning to fill in some of the blanks in my own family back in the 1870's,
Chas N. Brennecke
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December 6, 1978
Dear Herb,
...I have managed to trace down the Prof Don Brennecke, whose obit you had a clipping of from the Glove.He is from one of the offshoots of the Betty Depping clan, though I haven't yet got them precisely located.Ruth Brennecke (from the St. Louis phone book) is his widow and she has apparently fallen on hard times since Don's death.
The Brennecke's from Southern Illinois are still another strand.I haven't got them all located yet, but in the process stumbled across still another Illinois clanthese are descendants of Erdman Brennecke, who settled in Nashville Illinois about 1890 and was apparently a very successful businessman there.Raymond Brennecke and P(at) M. Brennecke from St. Louis are two cousins descended from that line.
..Charles N. Brennecke, C.L.U., National Life Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37250
FIRST GENERATIONS ONLY (more information available)
Christophe BRENNECKE
b: Bet. 1868 - 1870
Number of children: 5
+Henrietta HERBST
b: Abt. 1818
Number of children: 5
2 Wilhelm "William" BRENNECKE
b: 1848
Number of children: 4
Occupation: Clerk, then lengthy career as a traveling salesman for Indiana Stove Company (now Whirlpool factory in Evansville)
3 Estelle BRENNECKE
d: Aft. 1932Age at death: ?
Occupation: Clerk
Special Comment: Never married
3 William Shepard BRENNECKE
3 Bessie BRENNECKE
Occupation: Clerk
+FOX
3 Jessie BRENNECKE
d: Aft. 1943
Age at death: ?
Occupation: Milliner
Special Comment: Are Bessie & Jessie twins?
2 Fritz "Fred" BRENNECKE
b: 1851
Occupation: Molder, then in 1899, town constable, detective, and after many changes in 1906 Chief of Police; retires in 1911 and become manager of Furniture Bldg until 1931
2 Carl "Charles" BRENNECKE
b: 1853
Occupation: Harness maker
2 Pauline BRENNECKE
b: 1855
+ZURSTADT
2 Henry Martin BRENNECKE
b: 1858
d: in 1914
Cause of death: cancer
Number of children: 3
Occupation: in 1880 - watchmaker; in 1888 - salesman for Stief Jewelers
3 Georgia BRENNECKE
Special Comment: Had two children
+ARCHER
3 Charles Henry BRENNECKE
d: in 1956
Cause of death: leukemia
Number of children: 3
Occupation: Telegrapher on the Railroad
4 Charles Norton BRENNECKE +Patti Eugenia ROBINSON Number of children: 8 4 Henry Martin BRENNECKE 4 Magnus Carlson BRENNECKE 3 Henrietta BRENNECKE +RAYMOND d: in in WWI *2nd Husband of Henrietta BRENNECKE:
b: March 30, 1922
Number of children: 8
Residence: Nashville, Tennessee
PROVIDER OF THIS INFORMATION
b: February 27, 1922
m: June 7, 1944
Residence: Saint Paul, Minnesota
Occupation: PhD for DuPont in Corpus Christi
d: at age 8 from polio
Special Comment: No children
+Name unknown