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Dicke family, with emphasis on Wisconsin. Manitowoc
County families mentioned include Dicke, Huebner, Johnson, Lemkuhl, Schnoor,
Vogelsang, and Wagner. Much information is summarized in The Descendants
in America of Johnann Friedrich Dicke, 1775-1980, a Dicke family effort
that lasted some 40 years and that was completed by Lois Maurer Vogel for
private publication in 1980 by The King Company, Des Plaines, Illinois.
Additional material, and especially that which concerns Cord Dicke and
his descendants, came from photographs, documents, a manuscript prepared
before 1939 (attributed to Dorothy Dicke Maurer by Oscar H. Dicke, who
sent a copy to Solomon S. Huebner, July 14, 1956), correspondence between
Dickes and Huebners, some conversations between Huebners, and from the
the website www.2manitowoc.com maintained by Shari Milks and her colleagues.
- Prepared in 2001 by J. Stephen Huebner.
Earliest family records are recorded in the church at Schinna, northwest of Hanover, in what is now Germany. The family Bauernhof (farm buildings) is located southwest of Nienburg and a mile south of Steyerberg, was called Heemsche, and consisted of about 300 acres. The buildings were photograhed in 1935 by A.A. Dicke, who sent seven pictures to Solomon S. Huebner, July 20, 1936. Johann Heinrich Dicke, dairyman from Heemsche, had a son, Johann Friedriche Dicke. At that time, the mid-eighteenth century, Hanover was formally Brunswick-Luneburg, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire. Johann Friedrich Dicke was born about 1775, presumably at Heemsche. On October 20, 1797, he married Anna Maria Elizabeth Kruse (born 1777, the daughter of Johann Cord Kruse). Ten children were born and baptized at Schinna. The first three children died as infants. The survivors were Cord Heinrich Dicke (b. 1803, see below), Trine Margarethe Elizabeth Dicke Bakhaus (b. 1806), Maria Christine Elizabeth Dicke Koeper (b. 1809), Christian Heinrich Friedrich Dicke (b. 1811), Heinrich Johann Friedrich Karl Dicke (b. 1814, see below), Diedrich Johann Friedrich Dicke (b. 1817), and Diedrich Johann Ernst William Dicke (b. 1820, see below). Heinrich Johann Friedrich Karl Dicke and Diedrich Johann Ernst William Dicke emigrated to Sheboygan Falls Wisconsin; the other children settled in New Bremen, Ohio, and in Indiana. The history of Hanover suggests reasons for the emigration, over a period of time, of an entire family. Brunswick-Luneburg became the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814. William IV in 1833 provided a constitution that made it possible for the middle classes to have some political power. His successor, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, became king in 1837, cancelled the constitution, and in 1840 replaced it with a less liberal constitution. He was very unpopular and died in 1851. During this time, four of the Dicke children emigrated to America, and a fifth came in 1853. In 1866, following the Seven Weeks War, Hanover became a province of Prussia. By the 1880's, virtually all of the family was in America. Cord ('Kurt') Heinrich Dicke was born near Schinna, August 1, 1803, while Hanover was still a Holy Roman Empire electorate. Cord's first marriage, in 1824, was to Catherine Maria Elizabeth Helms (b. 1802, d. 1829), daughter of Ludwig Wilhelm Helms of Boerenwinkel. Two children were born before Catherine died: Henry Dicke (b. 1827, see below)Cord visited American in 1839, soon after Ernest Augustus became King of Hanover. Cord left his son Henry with friends in New Bremen, Ohio, returned to Hanover, and married Dorothea Paul. Two more sons were born in Germany; the first died before the second was born. Cord moved the family of three to New Bremen, Ohio, where twin girls were born in 1850 and Dorothea died about 1851. Cord left the children with his sister (Trine Margarethe Elizabeth Dicke Bakhaus, who had emigrated to New Bremen in 1846), returned to Hanover, and in 1853 married Wilhelmine Hartman, from Glissen. They returned to New Bremen, where seven children were born. Cord died March 21, 1881, and is buried in New Bremen. Henry Dicke was born 1827 in Hanover and came to Ohio as a child.
In 1852, he married Margareta Vogelsang,
who was born September 1, 1829, in Hannover and had emigrated to Ohio in
1851. Henry was a cooper. About 1853 an uncle, Heinrich Johann
Friedrich Karl Dicke, suggested that the couple might find hardwood for
cooperage in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. There Henry and Margareta
purchased 240 acres at $1.25 per acre. The barrels were shipped by
boat to Chicago. Two daughters were born in Sheboygan Falls.
Louisa Wilhelmine ('Minnie') Dicke was born December 27, 1852, in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. Her parents took her to New Bremen, Ohio, but following her father's death she returned to Wisconsin. On April 8, 1866 she was confirmed at the First German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Manitowoc. She became a seamstress/dressmaker, in business with her sister Lizzie (see below). Minnie and Frederick August Huebner of Manitowoc were married on December 9, 1875; they lived in a farmhouse on the Huebner Seed and Stock Farm. Minnie died September 13, 1933. There were four children; the first two were daughters who did not survive long; sons Grover and Solomon were raised in Manitowoc and led successful careers at the University of Pennsylvania. The website contains more information about these Huebners. Katherine Margaret Lisabeth ('Lizzie') Dicke was born in Sheboygan Falls, August 21, 1854, moved to New Bremen, Ohio when she was three, and returned to Wisconsin where she attended schools in Manitowoc. She and her sister Minnie had a dressmaking shop. Lizzie married Jerry Gerhardt Lemkuhl on August 16, 1876. Jerry, Lizzie, and her younger brother, William (see below), ran a merchandise and farm machinery business called 'Lemkuhl and Dicke.' Lizzie died in 1938. There we no children from the marriage.Cord Dicke, in New Bremen, wanted to start a steam-powered saw-mill that would produce lumber for Cincinnatti. At this time, the land that Henry and Margareta Dicke had purchased for timber in Sheboygan Falls was now cleared of hardwood trees, so they sold their Wisconsin acreage and invested $8000 in Cord's venture. At this time, a son, William Frederick Dicke, was born. Henry died of pneumonia, December 22, 1857, before mill operations began. The mill was a failure, leaving Margareta Vogelsang Dicke without support for her three children. Her father, who by that time had emigrated to Newton, Wisconsin, took Margareta and the three children back to Newton. Margareta moved to Manitowoc and did nursing, housework, and catering; the children went to school and helped support the family. Cord died in 1881 and is buried in New Bremen. William Frederick Dicke was born in New Bremen, Ohio, August 30, 1857; following his father's death four months later, he was taken to Newton, then Manitowoc, Wisconsin. He went to Manitowoc schools, helped support his mother and sisters, and attended Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin. Following college he worked as a clerk for J. Schuette & Bros., then with his sister Lizzie and her husband Jerry Lemkuhl formed 'Lemkuhl and Dicke.' William married Bertha Wagner of Manitowoc on April 3, 1880. Four children (see below) were born before William moved the family to Waco, Texas because of Bertha's poor health. In Waco, William died of Texas slow fever (probably yellow fever); he is buried in Manitowoc. By March 26, 1890, the remaining family was back in Manitowoc. It is probable that the Lemkuhls and the Huebners helped support Bertha.The four children of William Frederick and Bertha Wagner Dicke are as follows: Kurt William Dicke was born in Manitowoc on January 12, 1881. He ran a clothing shop in Phillips, Wisconsin, married Ida Johnson of Ashland, Wisconsin, on April 7, 1915, and died in Manitowoc on April 29, 1935. There were no children.Heinrich Johann Friedrich Karl Dicke was born June 25, 1814, at Heemsche, and maried Louisa Schroeder in 1839. Three children were born in Germany before the family emigrated to Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, where eight more children were born. Henry made wagons and barrels, and brewed beer. He died September 10, 1894. Diedrich Johann Ernst William Dicke was born January 29, 1820, in Heemsche, the family homestead. He was a cabinetmaker. Following his engagement to Maria Dorothea Hemschemeyer (born April 6, 1831 in Hanover), he fled Germany in 1846, travelled by boat to New York, New Orleans, and St. Louis, then by ox-drawn wagon to Sheboygan Falls. He first worked in the lumber camps of Kewaunee County. He signed a declaration of intent on May 31, 1847 (in which he renounced allegiance and fidelity to Ernst August, King of Hanover) and in 1850 acquired land in Two Rivers Township from the government. By that time, Maria Dorothea Hemschemeyer had emigrated with her parents and the couple married November 11, 1850. As they cleared the land, Diedrich and Maria sold shingles for buildings and bark for tanning. When the land was cleared he became a dairy farmer and sold milk in Two Rivers. Diedrich died March 2, 1895; Maria died April 24, 1924. There were four children: Marie Emilie Dicke was born December 22, 1851; she died October 13, 1868. |