Lienen is about 7 miles north of Versmold close to the home of the Rocklages. The Ahmann name apparently was derived from a stream by the name of "Ah" or Ahlen which flowed by their farm. The use of the surname Ahmann is first documented in the year 1284 (17). The spelling was altered to Aemann in 1577, to Amann in 1625 and again Ahmann in 1677. Herman Ahmanns´ father was a relatively successful citizen of Lienen, although his official station in Prussian society was that of a "Kolon" or landowning peasant. He owned a larger than average farm which would have passed to the youngest son of the family of each generation according to Prussian law. Mr. Ahmann built the most modern home in the community from solid timber harvested and hewn on his farm (Figure 12).

This large structure housed his family, all his livestock to include chickens, swine, cattle, horses and sheep plus the feed supply with a hallway large enough for a four horse team hitched two abreast to a wagon to turn completely around without backing. Young Herman Ahmann could have eventually inherited this property but chose instead to marry his beloved Sophia Maria Suhre after they arrived in Charette Township in Warren County, Missouri. This out-of-class marriage was not allowed in Prussia since Herman was of the ´kolon´ land owning class of peasantry while Sophia came from the day laborer class of peasant ´heuerlings.´ ´Once a heuerling, always a heuerling´, unless one paid a fine for an out-of-class marriage, purchased land or married into land which was only possible for a very few peasants. Hermann and Sophia left Prussia from Brehmen on March 25, 1836 for New Orleans to meet his brothers Friedrich and Jacob who had come to America via of Baltimore in 1833. William, another older brother, inherited the farm and by 1839 another older brother Heinrich Wilhelm also came to America.

By 1853 all was not well at Meckelwedge 5 in Linen. According to a January 17, 1994 newspaper report from Lienen by Dr. Wilhelm Wilkens, Konrad Wilhelm Ahmann, the remaining German patriarch of the Ahmann family in Lienen was having difficulty with his son in the farming partnership. They were experiencing fiscal problems with their farm. New crops of cabbage and chiory were being cultured and incomes were not as expected. There were also disagreements regarding the transfer of the farm from one generation to the next, and when Konrad Wilhelm was found dead in the well of his farmyard, suspicions pointed to the son although no legal action was taken. Tragic family happenings continued into World War II. Anneliese Eichholz of Bad Iburg relates that the two remaing Ahmann sons both died in Russia during the war, effectively terminating the Ahmann surname of this family in Lienen, Germany. Dr.Thomas Meyer Ahmann of Mexico, Missouri is another direct descendant of these Ahmanns who maintains a large Missouri Ahmann genealogical data base. His e-mail address is tmahmann@ktis.net.

About a mile northwest of Lienen was the little village of Lengerich (Lengereich), home to Rudolph and Frederika Hillebrand. In 1850 they too would come to Missouri and eventually Charette Township with their twelve-week old daughter, Elsie Henrietta who would later marry Otto Ahmann, son of Herman and Sophia Ahmann, in 1868 at Marthasville. The following 1800 map of Lienen also shows Lingerich as well as the location of Iburg, its monestary, Meckelwedge and the Teutoburger Wald. The map is from the 1990 Auswanderer-Chronik der Gemeinde Lienen book.

Villages of Lemgo and Luerdissen
Lemgo is about 16 miles north of Detmold, the capitol of Lippe. It is considered as one of the older cities of Lippe in the Bega River Valley which was founded in 1190 by the Knight-Monk-Abbot-Bishop Bernard II. Populations grew to 6,100 by 1886; 8,840 in 1900 and 36,693 by 1969. This was the home town area of the Jobst Heinrich E. Ritter family before coming to America in 1856 (18). Early family life for Jobst Heinrich E. Ritter was possibly somewhat different than for other families presented here, as his baptism record of February 10, 1808 document that he was the illegitimate son of his parents. No known records document the marriage of his mother, Sophia Henrietta Meier. Jobst´s father and step-mother Louisa Sophia Elisabeth Stermeir were married in 1807. By 1813 they lived in their new home shown below in the small settlement of Bentorf. Regardless of his childhood life, Jobst eventually became a tenant farmer in the Luerdissen community and lived there with his wife Sophia Klemme and their two children, Ernst Adolph Heinrich and Herman Simon Heinrich. Jobst´s son Simon Phillip August had emigrated to Charette Township in Warren County, Missouri in 1855. Simon Phillip August was one of five children born to a previous marriage of Jobst and Anna Marie Freitag. Two other sons, one representing each of Jobst´s marriages, also came to America according to Erika Sievert of Lemgo. However, nothing is known regarding the dates of the voyages of Friederich Christian, born January 15, 1844 and Hermann Simon Heinrich, born January 6, 1850, or where they may have settled. Jobst and Anna Marie Frietag were married on April 2, 1833. She died on June 8, 1847 in Hohenhausen.

The home (above) of Jobst Heinrich and Louisa Sophia Ridder built in 1813. Photograph taken in 1998 when the structure served as an apartment building in Bentorf. The turschild (doorplate) inscription is presented below with additional details given in German.

Some uncertainty exists regarding the arrival of Jobst Ridder in Warren County, Missouri. Warren County Circuit Clerk records document that Jobst applied for U.S. citizenship on August 5, 1851 while published records of Lippe citizens traveling to America show that Jobst and his family left Lippe in the spring of 1856. The unresolved, yet possible outcome of this apparent incongruent situation is that there were two Jobst Ridders who came to Warren County in the 1840´s, or that our Jobst came and returned to Lippe to father his children and return to Missouri in 1856. This is further supported by oral family history via Flora Schake indicating that the Ritter family came to Charette Township in the 1840´s and that the Schakes stayed with them for some duration upon their arrival in 1855. Or perhaps the Schakes stayed with Simon Phillip August Ridder upon their arrival to Charette Township in Warren County.

St Nicholas and St Mary are present day Lemgo churches recognized among the finest ecclesiastical edifices within the region, one of which was altered from Romanesque to the Gothic style in about 1290. No doubt the famous ´Black Death´ of 1347-1460 claimed many of these church members as it did in rest of Europe. Religion was becoming a major influencing factor upon society during these and subsequent times, yet Lemgo became a synonym for witch-hunting and torture into the 17th century. Churches in the region forbade trial by water as early as 1215 AD which was enforced by excommunication. But as late as 1435 at nearby Hanover the council decided to submit an accused person to trial by water. After the middle of the 16th century this test was restricted only to cases involving witches, at least in Westphalia. Yet on the eve of Michaelmas in 1583 Scribonius traveled into Lemgo in time to witness three witches burned to death as ordered by the council. On the same evening three other alleged witches were put in prison. At 2 p.m. the next day, for the better establishment of their guilt, they were thrown into a pond outside the town gate to determine if they would or would not sink. They were stripped of their clothes with hands secured to their big toes of each alternate foot. Several thousand people were present to witness each of them tossed into the water three times. Each of the accused floated to establish their guilt, even in torrents of rain which started at the beginning of this ´trial.´ The philosopher Scribonius gave the question of trial by water serious thought and pronounced in favor of the custom. He said that the nature of the devil was airy and light which caused these witches to float. As proof positive of this was his observation that the devil often takes witches high up into the air. Herman Neuwalt, Professor of Medicine at Helmstadt, physician Thomas Erastus and theologian Lambert Danaeus were all at variance with this conclusion (19). What the official position on this behavior may have been by the churches in Lemgo is not known. In 1533 a preacher in Lemgo by the name of Jodocus Hocker made a great deal of money by driving out the devil from people for he claimed to be the true and powerful exorcists of the wicked enemy. Another account (17) of 16th century logic from Lemgo references a medical booklet by Cardanus who offered the following encouragement....."everything secret and hidden can be learnt quite infallibly, for his father before him, as he himself says, was instructed in these matters by a familiar spirit, and he, the son, was in such remarkable communion with the spirits that, whenever he wished, he could see into the future." Cardanus concluded that if someone wanted to know what can be ´read´ in the hands they should come to him, not the gypsies. Today one of the most popular tourist attractions in Lemgo is a torture chamber built in 1568 called the ´Hereburgermeisterhaus´ were 220 people were executed. The last execution was carried out in 1681.

On June 2, 1998 Rolf Sievert of Lemgo, cousin of Erika Sievert, accompanied Lowell and Wendy Schake to the Stadtarchiv of Lemgo. Here the 20 page handwritten proceedings of one such trial of 1631 was revealed to involve the wife of Johann Eikermanns of Lemgo as shown below. His wife, Ilse Schake Eikermanns of Betzen (the ancestoral village of both the Simon Heinrich Schake and Cord Henrich Schake families of the Sievert and Schake lineages of today) was accused, and convicted of witchcraft. Her punishment, as recorded in these court proceedings, was ´feuertod´, or burned at the stake. The last witchcraft trial in Lemgo in 1681 convicted a Mrs. Blattgerste whose husband was allowed to pay a sum of money to the courts which allowed her to be put to death by beheading rather than burning. Since Ilse Schake Eikermann was a widow at the time of her trial no one came forward to pay extra funds to the court to result in the more humane death. Ironically, the maided name of Rolf Sievert´s wife is Annelore Blattgerste. Thus Rolf Sievert and Lowell Schake, in addition to being distant cousins and friends, share a unique interest in the last witchcraft trails of Lemgo.

The translated summary of the trial reads as follows. ´In this embarrassing matter, the prosecutor for the above matter of the City of Lemgo in a once and ending case against Ilse Schake from Betzen, widow of Eikermann on one side and two councilman of Lemgo on the other, turned this embarrassing matter over to the Judges and the procedure of the Hanging Court who rightfully concluded that the accused Ilse Schake, widow of Eikermann, because of committed crimes openly before said court voluntarily admitted knowing witchcraft, thereafter the acused was turned over to well earned and just punishment and as a means of a dishonoring example, to be put to death by fire and also rightfully damned her.´

Industries of the recent past in Lemgo included the manufacture of linen, leather, Meerschaum pipes and other goods. In 1886 Baedeker claimed Lemgo as the exclusive manufacturer of Meerschaum pipes. Thus a curious fact of pipe manufacture exclusiveness arises as one of our Missouri Ahmann relatives from Lienen gave the idea for the manufacture of Meerschaum pipes to Mr. Buscher of Washington, Missouri. This business continues to this day in Washington by the Buscher family with worldwide distribution of these exclusive pipes. Part of the Buscher family business occupied the same warehouse previously used by Fritz and Adolph Schake to store processed pork in the latter 1800´s. Furthermore, another account of this same episode by McClure (1939) of Washington, Missouri involved different people. None-the-less, Lemgo was contributing in its own way to commerce on both sides of the Atlantic while continuing to have problems of its own. According to Kamphoefner (20) the sale of linen decreased by half at the main linen market in Lemgo from 1838 to 1845, while earnings of typical family of spinners dropped from five to one taler per week. During the next decade this trend continued forcing many residents to join a migratory labor pool into Holland to find work. Most young people over 14 years of age were actually servants -- either to their parents without payment for their services or living with other families in other parishes with pay. Most children over five were also expected to contribute to the family economy in some manner, generally resulting in little or no formal education for them. These local factors eventually influenced the decision of many Lemgo citizens to emigrate heavily to North America, as elsewhere.

The modern day village of Lemgo has numerous richly adorned Weser Renaissance mansions, the Weser Renaissance Museum with the systematically planned medieval town layout unchanged with ramparts still in place. The Lippe Regional Association has administered the property of the former Lippe State since 1947 and is headquartered in Lemgo. Lemgo is recognized as a handsome town with many quaint old gabled houses dating from the 16th century which attract numerous tourist each year.

Oesterweg, Parish of Versmold
Pronounced Fers´molt, this parish of about 1500 citizens in 1900 is located 24 miles east northeast of Muenster and some 7 miles south of Lienen where Herman Ahmann lived until March of 1836 (19). This ancestral home of the Rocklages since at least the 1650´s carried one of two street addresses at various times, either Oesterweg 17 or Peckeloh 33. Karl Wilhlem Rocklage was a manual laborer who immigrated to St Louis and then Washington, Missouri with his 24 year old bride in 1859. Karl Wilhelm and Maria Elizabeth Freese (sometimes Frehse) were married in the Evangelisch Lutheran Kirch in Versmold on August 21, 1859 prior to their departure to Nord Amerika. They had planned these travels for some time since Maria was listed on the ships manifest as Freese, not as Rocklage since they were required by law to be granted permission to immigrate months in advance of departure. Father Peter Heinrich Rocklage, a tenant farmer 62 years of age and his wife Maria Ilsabein Rahen, age 60, their 20 year old daughter Maria Wilhelmina also emigrated to St Louis in 1859 . As was often the case at this time, Peter Heinrich Rocklage lost his first wife four months following the birth of Heinrich Wilhelm. His mother, Marie Agnese Bergfelds, had married Peter Heinrich on March 6, 1821 in Versmold and was only 29 years of age when she died. Maria Ilsabein Rahen and Peter Heinrich were then married in the Evangelisch Lutheran Kirch in Versmold on April 10, 1827 and lived at Oesterweg 17 (pictured below). On November 8, 1892 in Marthasville, Missouri, Maria Elizabeth Freese Rocklage died resulting in the second marriage for Karl Wilhelm to Emma Bollmann there in 1895.

Oesterweg was another rural farming community recognized for its grain and pork production. Typical daily diets of these peasants would vary from season to season and from year to year depending upon what had been produced locally (21). Two warm meals per day with a minimum of variation were served at about 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. as the routine. Meat was often in very short supply. Typical dishes were mus (mash) or brot (bread) served as a gruel made from ground millet and oats. Wheat and rye were most often used for bread-cereals although barley and brans were prepared in a similar manner. The increased use of bread was equated with a great luxury and most likely Oesterweg had a communal oven for baking these favored breads like many other communities of that time. Roasting and boiling were commonly used in preparation of meat dishes, to include soups of many types -- vegetable, barley, meat or mixtures of all of these. Citizens here as elsewhere were struggling with everyday chores of life. Farmers would seed crops, plant potatoes and castrate male animals according to phases of the moon, a practice which would follow their descendants to Missouri into the 20th century. Many attempted to use the best of their powers of observation to improve life but it was difficult to understand why crop yields and animal performance would vary from year to year, from sow to sow and even from farm to farm. Matters of health and hygiene were at this time poorly understood. Some chose to seek out new ideas from other farmers, others continued on with time proven practices. The emerging physical sciences were only beginning to impact their daily lives while the biological sciences were still very much in their infancy. Education was greatly, if not exclusively, influenced by the churches and then with only narrow agendas. Life by present day standards was risky and difficult - yet the lives of individuals then were possibly as enjoyable and fulfilling as any today.

Never-the-less, fear was a basic aspect of day-to-day peasant life (21). Their lives were greatly influenced by the uncertainty of disease, natural catastrophe, misfortune and death. Most lived in small hamlets and villages similar to Oesterweg where it was common for 20 to 30 percent of the infants born to die. Peter Heinrich and Maria Ilsabein Rocklage would see only 3 of their 9 children attain adulthood. Up through the 1870´s the death of an infant was often seen as a divine ordinance or even rationalized for Malthusian and/or eugenic reasons. The typical peasant life, if not their entire world, was an extension of the values and happenings in ones´ own village. No other points of reference were available, or sought. Community social life, as was ones value system, was greatly influenced by peer pressure of ones neighbors and friends. These traditions were reflected in village laws and regulations obligating neighbors to help in emergencies and on special occasions such as weddings, births and deaths. It was routine to lend oxen and horses to neighbors for field work except at time of harvest when this courtesy was extended only for someone in dire need. Major festivities of several days duration were associated with weddings and baptismals. Even funerals followed strict conventional patterns in most communities.

Daily chores were difficult, especially for the women who not only were at risk at childbirth but were expected by the men to manage the home and assist with field work. Women were often malnourished, weak and infected with diseases at time of birthing. Average life expectancy for the general population was between 40 and 50 years, lower for women. A bride was subject to the ´rule´ of her husband who was the master of the house and the person in charge of all the family possessions, including the property of his wife. Men had the right to punish their wife if she insulted him or wronged the neighbors. The exact nature of these practices would very from one village to the next but generally tended to improve from about the 1400´s on, and especially after the late 1800´s (21). These prideful people worked hard to make the correct choices whether they dealt with farming, politics, religion or daily living. What most people did not have was the benefit of knowledge gained through disciplined reasoning processes combined with the scientific method. Pastor Friederick Nohl of Prussia was one of the first to recognize the need to teach science to farmers. In 1844 he established the first School of Agriculture in Prussia to instruct young men between 15 to 23 years of age in soil science, mathematics, land surveying, book keeping and cattle husbandry. However, the benefit of these influences for the Rocklages would largely need to await their arrival in America, especially as related to agriculture. Ironically, what was to become the unquestioned worlds´ model for agricultural research and the extension of research information to the public was initiated somewhat to the east of the Teutoburger Forest at Leipzig, Germany by basic chemist Justus von Liebig in 1850. His contributions, as those of other scientists and teachers, would prove to have a profound impact upon animal and human nutrition, physiology and health throughout our modern day world.

Humfeld, Bega Parish
Lippe, or incorrectly Lippe-Detmold, was a dwarf (only 469 square miles and barely thirty miles across at its widest point) principality nestled astride the Middle Werre River where it makes its east-west bend in the Teutoburger Forest. The capital city of Detmold was first known as Theotmalli, chartered as Lippe in about 1350 and today is part of the North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany. One of the early tribes in recorded German history to live in or near Lippe was led by the Cheruscian tribal leader, Arminius who commanded the defeat of the Romans in the Teutoburger Forest in 9 AD (19). As a result of this decisive victory many Germans were never under Roman law or absorbed Roman culture. This omission has been looked upon by some scholars as the source of the faults they found within German behavior. Valentin in 1946 describes Germans as ...." Never placid or pleasant neighbors. They did not want to be liked, and by in large, lacked the gift of arousing such feelings; they enjoyed being right about things, and they could not resist the pedantic urge to instruct others in the conduct of life." The obvious vernacular translation of this observation in present day society is "Hard Headed German." Thus is the backdrop for an 1850 village blacksmith by the name of Johann Cord ´Kurt´ Christoph Adolph Schake who lived in the acknowledged peasant village of Humfeld, Lippe who would later come to Missouri. Kurts´ father died when he was eight. Later Kurt would purchase the Schwarze home at Number 38, Humfeld and practiced the ´smithy´ trade like his father and grandfather. Here Kurt would acquire the name ´Schwarze-Cord´, just as his father became known as ´Smith-Kord´ by combining the name of their trade with a given name. Smith-Kord was identified on village documents as a master smithy. Both of these colloquial names became recorded in the Bega church book as official surnames. Kurt would also be recorded as Heinrich, J. Kurt, John, as a heuerling, a hoppenplocker, a village blacksmith, a country gentleman and a farmer over the span of his life. How long these Schake families lived in Humfeld is unknown. Today there is a street in Humfeld by the name of Schakenburg. The Bega church, as was the case for all the family churches studied, had its origin in the 1100s, or perhaps earlier. The Bega church book of 1599 is the earliest known document showing Schakes living in Lippe. Engler Schake was living in Betzen, as well as other Schakes, Sieverts, Kuhfusses and Ritters during this era. We and Erika Sievert of Lemgo, whose grandmother was a Schake, assume Betzen to be the home of our common ancestors. The following map shows the relationship of Humfeld to Betzen and other communities involving the activities of these families. The map comes from the 1967 book, Das Kirchspiel Bega by F. Wiehmann.

Detmold, the capital of Lippe, was first recorded as a geographic region in 783 AD as Theotmalli (Figure 13). Theotmalli translates into a phrase denoting ´the peoples court place´ or the ´place where people meet to make decisions.´ One of these Lippe meeting places was the location of a victory by Charlemagne over these Saxons. As part of Charlemagnes´ mission to Christianize these Germans he offered one of two alternatives - embrace Christianity or be annihilated. He baptized many and then celebrated Christmas on his newly acquired Lippe estate of Lugde in 784 AD without his family. His wife and children arrived later in the winter and stayed in nearby Eresburg. By 814 Lippe was under the rule of Charlemagne as part of the Holy Roman Empire. Charlemagne was successful in converting many heathens to Christianity and provided them bibles while gaining their political support. Lippe first appeared as a manorial demesne and then as a principality in the 12th century taking its present-day name from one of its first lords who earlier rule around Lippstadt on the Lippe River. Lippe then became a part of the loose federal unit of Germany with poorly defined frontiers by the 14th century. From the 12th to the 15th century peasant colonist were enticed by nobel landlords of Lippe to settle there to secure contracts offered for tax- and rent-free farming, but when the contract expired the peasants were without any rights or political representation whatsoever and became rural wage-slaves referred to as a robots (21). Eventually these robots were to add to the growing peasant population of Lippe. Later in 1720 Lippe became a principality of the Holy Roman Empire. It then joined the Confederation of the Rhine in 1807, the Germanic Confederation in 1815-16 and the North German Confederation in 1867. In 1918 Lippe became a republic but lost sovereign statehood to the Third Reich by a local election in January of 1933 which elected the National Socialists helping Adolph Hitler gain a political foothold when his Nazi party was at a very low point,

eventually providing momentum for his control of Germany. Thus the territory of Lippe was self governing from the later 12th century into the 20th century. This was possible because the Nobel Barons and Lords of Lippe enjoyed a remarkably long dynasty from 1120 onward. From 1196 to 1666 the descendants of Bernard II passed their lands from father to son for sixteen generations and a collateral branch of the family continued this tradition for 8 more generations until 1905. A distant relative became the last of these rulers of Lippe until 1918. Overall, more than 300 noble families were recorded as rulers of Lippe. Following World War II in 1947 Lippe was incorporated into the North Rhine-Westphalia State of Germany. Officially referred to today as Lippe, it consist of two counties, Lippe-Detmold and Schaumburg-Lippe. Because of its´ stability, small size, rather independent statehood and relatively limited interruption during the World Wars, more complete records were available than in most German areas to Benecke (21) and other scholars to study society and politics in Lippe from about 1500 and beyond. Therefore, more is known of Lippe compared to many other political and social units in this region during this span of time.

The famine of 1315-1317 was caused by poor harvests which shook many regions of Europe far more severely than any previous crisis. Cereal prices rose dramatically and animals became diseased resulting in malnutrition, widespread starvation and epidemics among the human population. Increased cultivation of the common lands and greater deforestation further reduced the animal populations and the availability of animal foods and manure for fertilizer. Yet within the next century the human population continued to grow. During the mid-1500´s peasant life in Lippe apparently improved in some ways but was still highly restricted and regulated (20). Peasants were forbidden to have more than three godparents; not allowed to carry arms; go hunting; import bad corn; carry on trade or commerce; export or buy cereals; trade in wool or cattle; own too many livestock; take live-in servants without the consent of his lord; drive carts recklessly in town; sell spirits; take lodgers; brew or bootleg beer and if he had only one son, this boy could not become a craftsman without consent of their lord. Many more regulations existed including the duty of reporting all begging Jews to local authorities. Peasants were forbade to reside in towns but they could gain permission to move to another community and were free of military service. In 1511 a cattle tax was exchanged for 8 to 12 days of free peasant service per year for the rulers, nobles and burgers.

About this same time Germans adopted the use of surnames which would frequently change from time to time for various reasons. By 1811 a decree of the Kaiser required all families without a permanent surname to establish one. The ruling classes also acknowledged the needs of their less fortunate subjects. The Lippe landlords provided 50,000 impoverished guest with food in the court and castle kitchens in 1570-1571 and well over 28,000 in 1574. This castle hospitality resulted in extraordinary food expenses which added to ever threatening economic concerns for the rulers as they had incurred many debts in order to maintain their ruling status. By 1777 Lippe passed its first law dividing the common lands for private development. Cord Heinrich Schake would benefit from this opportunity by 1782. This law was intended to restore productivity of the land and increase food production for this growing human population. The Count of Lippe also managed three accounts to provide loans and other forms of support to Lippe peasants. Overall, one may rather easily identify similar social, economic and governmental issues in our society today as were present in Lippe centuries ago.

Lippe had an established reputation by the end of the 1500´s as a country minting coinage to be held in evil repute by others because it was coined well below value. So common was the problem that within 10 years 11 alchemist or "gold-makers" were in the Court of Lippe accounting for the considerable sums they had dissipated according to Janseen (18). Religious and formal educational processes were also experiencing difficulty in refinement and development in Lippe. In 1580 people from Hesse, Brunswick and Lippe traveled to Paderborn to hear a Jesuit preach..... But they knew he was a fake because he did not speak what was in the holy scripture. So deep was the distrust that many seriously believed that the Jesuits had cloven hooves like goats. But by 1585 holy communion was attended by 750 citizens and a school was opened in Paderborn with 140 students attending in the first year. Many Lippe citizens considered the sacrament of communion nothing more than bread and wine or even anti-christian idolatry. By 1600 Count Simon of Lippe joined the Calvinist sect as part of a growing trend toward religious discussions and practices. Lippe citizens generally accepted the teachings of Martin Luther by 1538 and then Calvinism by 1605. For many religion would take, and occupy, center stage for some time into the future.

In the counties of Lippe and Schaumburg a church ordinance of 1571 was lamenting the fact that in almost all hamlets boys were growing up without any teaching or discipline, just like unreasoning beast -- ignorant, light-minded, criminal, lewd and godless rascals (18). "The boys attend school very irregularly, especially in the summer, for then they are obliged, some to mind the geese, some of them the pigs, some of them the calves, some the cows, some the oxen, while some of them follow the plough." Teachers too were blamed for their half-hearted abilities and discipline over the students. Schoolmasters of the 18th century survived on the margins of rural society. Most worked in the "lower" schools to supplement other meager livelihoods and lacked training and other qualifications for teaching. The title "master" (Meister) was also misleading suggesting skills they did not possess. Schoolmastery represented an extension of the pastorate, but was not comparable to it. These rural part-time teachers were paid directly by the parents of their students further complicating their lives and their control of the classroom. However, Count von der Lippe was so impressed by the theatrical performances at Paderborn in 1592 that he gave the Jesuits a sum of gold and wood with which to construct a college there. By 1602 those who were attending school would sometimes escape over the walls at night to join drinking parties. Punishment, when caught, would range from being placed in the school prison for several days with bread and water to floggings, both or expulsion.

What then was everyday life like for the ordinary citizens of Lippe? Most of Lippe was recognized as remarkably archaic and economically deprived into the mid-1600´s with about three-fourths of the population living in the country as peasants, serfs, servants and farm laborers of the ruler, clergy, nobles and burghers. As late as 1918 Lippe, Waldeck and Mecklenburg represented some of the few German states in which feudal law still existed. The Lords of Lippe had five walled towns where most of the remaining population lived. Early modern peasant life was strictly administered. There were no records of dissent, no Lippe peasant rebelled and no one took part in any of the great movements that affected southern Germany, Austria and other parts of their world. Taxes were imposed in every conceivable manner upon the citizens. One edict forbade felling of fruit-bearing trees. The fine was 5 Groschen per tree to include oak trees as they provided acorns in the fall and winter to fatten hogs. Every farmer was ordered to plant 10 oak trees per year to maintain this practice. A lawsuit was brought against a Mr. Schack (another spelling for Schake) in 1535 who was said to have sold wood from his ruler´s forest for his own profit, manufactured lime in the rulers kilns which was not accounted for among other transgressions (22). Apparently Schack was absolved of his alleged crimes and not otherwise punished.

Detmold is described by Baedeker (1886) in his travel guide as a pleasant little capital with a 16th century structure in the middle of town which is worthy of a visit. The structure contains some fine silver vessels and tapestry. To the north of the palace square are the prince´s stables for his 80 horses. To the south is a new palace, occupied by the prince. The palace and gardens were constructed in 1708-18 and enlarged in 1850. A war monument is in Kaiser-Wilhelm Plaza near the market and near the gymnasium is the Natural History Museum. He continues by describing a footpath southwest of town leading to the Grotenburg ...

..."passes some ancient german fortifications called the Kleenex Hunenring and is indicated by stone pillars...the high road leads ...to the Grotenburg (1162 feet above sea, 840 feet above Detmold; Reincke´s Inn), one of the highest points in the Teutoburgain Forest, rises the colossal Hermanns-denkmal or monument of Arminius, which was inaugurated in 1875. Upon an arched substructure, 100 feet in height, stands the figure (56 feet) of the prince of the cherusci, with raised sword. (the point of the sword is 30 feet above the top of the helmet, so that the total height is 186 feet)...."

According to Kamphoefner (20), Lippe-Detmold was represented by some of the most spectacular concentration of Germans in the region. Too insignificant for separate enumeration in the U.S. Census, Lippe-Detmolders comprised only one-third of one percent of the German population but 20 percent of the German immigrants to Warren County, Missouri, second in number only to the Prussians (Figure 7). About two-thirds of those who emigrated were rural farmhands, tenant farmers or day laborers. Lippe-Detmolders lacked political unity and worshipped somewhat differently than their neighbors in the states of Hannover, Oldenburg, Burnswick and those in the districts of Minden and Munster in Prussian Westfalia, yet they shared in their Low German dialect and in the rather varied hilly topography of the Teutoburger Forest. Most also shared in cultural traditions of independent peasantry and impartible inheritance.

Most Lippe-Detmolders were involved in farming, usually in a share cropping tenant-type arrangement with living quarters provided by the kolon (landowner). During the 1600, 1700 and 1800´s there were three farmsteads in Humfeld owned by Schakes, Numbers 43, 47 and 73. Today number 47 Schakenburg, Humfeld remains in the Schake family of Ms. Erica Sievert of Lemgo. One of her grandmothers was a Schake and one of her family is the heir to Number 47. Additionally, her family name was changed from Kuhfuss to Sievert in 1798, a descendant from the same Kuhfuss family as Wilhelmine Friederike Kuhfuss from nearby Ludenhausen who would marry into our Schake family in 1831. In 1611 the Court of Simon VI was the first to require that all births and deaths be recorded in Lippe. The birth of Ilsabein Kuhfuss (Kovoiths in the old dialect) was the first entry recorded in Ludenhausen on March 15, 1611 as a result of this new law. This distant relative of ours was to die the next day on March 16. Another relative, the great-great-greatgrandfather of the authors, Cord Heinrich Schake, a heuerling, is reported to have purchased somewhere between five to fourteen acres of land at Number 73 in the village of Humfeld in 1782 (Figure 14).

This purchase moved Mr. Schake up the Lippe social ladder one very small rung but would change his status from a poor heuerling to a poor strugling ´neubauer´ - a new land owner who technically may now be considered a kolon except that in most villages farms numbered over 25 were still represented by poor peasants (20). This was the first documentation of some upward mobility away from peasantry in the Schake family as well as an expression of their desire to own land. Apparently he was also the village blacksmith. By 1806 Johann Kord Schake would inherit this little Humfeld farm from his father where he also worked as a master blacksmith. At that time the farm consisted of a house, a barn with stalls and the smithy where he practiced his trade. In 1816 eight year old Kurt Schake´s father would die and his mother would remarry within about a year. By 1838 Kurt Schake was known as a hoppenplocker or ´hops-plucker´ - a tiny farmer - and continued to live in the village of Humfeld and later purchased the Schwarze property. Kurts marriage announcement indicates that he was the surviving legitimate son of Johann Kord Schake and married the daughter of Johann Kuhfuss at Number 8 from the village of Ludenhausen. Since farmsteads were numbered from the largest down within a village, Johann Cord Christoph Adolph Schake ´married-up´ in his home community. He and Friederiche lived at Schwarzeschen Statte Number 38 in Humfeld (Figure 15) and was in the process of changing their name to Schwarze because Kurt had acquired his farm from Mr. Schwarze. If Kurt and Friederike had remained in Germany our surname would have become Schwarze. He too may have inherited the farmstead at Number 73 and sold it to help purchase Number 38. In preparation for his 1855 move to Charette Township, Warren County, Missouri he sold Number 38. Upon arrival in Charette Township the Schake family would also re-establish close relationships with the Jobst Ritter family of Lemgo. These ties would continue for another four generations.

According to 1840-1860 data on occupations of male emigrants from Lippe-Detmold, 31% were einliegers or tenants, 34% kolons or landowners with brick workers, merchants, artisans and others completing the tally. The most accurate data available (20) suggest that over 70 percent were from the rural lower classes like the Schakes and Ritters. The desire to own land and share in other forms of freedom for themselves and their families were very strong feelings within these rural populations. These very small farms could support only a few livestock with flax (linen) production for cottage weaving as the paramount activities. Rye was the primary small grain produced with potatoes serving as the vegetable staple. These and other crops were subject to wide variations in yield, often threatening starvation. Quite logically human population growth was frightening to many citizens of Lippe. The total population of Lippe was about 35,000 in 1590 which grew to 128,495 in 1890 with further increases to 139,952 and 187,220 in 1900 and 1939, respectively.

The division between the haves and the have-nots was creating social unrest as early as 1830 and by 1848 revolutionary activity was underway. People took to the streets venting hostilities by stoning houses of authority figures -- tax collectors, local officials, pastors, and merchants. One demonstration in Lippe involved over a thousand people and troops were called from Detmold to restore order. Whether or not 40 year old Kurt Schake living at Number 38 in Humfeld, Lippe or Jobst Ritter of Lemgo, Lippe were among these dissenters is unknown. Another uprising was reported in nearby Tecklenburg which also required the summoning of troops. Obviously these Germans were having difficulty with the observed economic and social conditions in their country, a realization which would further influence their decision to seek a better life.

Religion continued as a topic of much passionate discussion in this German principality into the 1800´s. Churches had gained considerable control over their congregations by offering explanations and order to their lives where none previously existed. Lippe-Detmolders were noted for their strong religious commitments but not all were affiliated with formal church doctrine. Many with religious convictions of this nature referred to themselves as "free thinkers." The most prominent churches were Catholic, Methodist and Evangelical. The Catholics had disallowed lay marriages in the home since the 13th century (21). On September 15, 1831 Johann Cord Christoph Adolph Schake and Wilhelmine Friederike Kufuss were united in matrimony representing the twelfth wedding of the year for the Evangelische Kirche von Bega, which would eventually prove to be the longest documented Schake marriage for the next 160 years or more. This same church is where his parents, Johann Kord Schake and Anna Marie Ilsabein Driften were married on June 20, 1801. From 1818 to 1838 at least eight other Schake weddings were recorded, some with the spelling as Schaake. Many Schake and Schaake babies were baptized. It was common for couples to marry later in life than today since men were expected to document their ability to provide for a family before taking on the responsibilities of marriage. A smithy or a loom and a rented cottage were the accepted prerequisites for this purpose. Apparently Lippe-Detmolders had ample opportunity in this regard as this dwarf principality was in first place in all of Germany with nearly 220 looms per 1,000 inhabitants according to a 1838 Berlin report cited by Kamphoefner (20). In general, however, Lippe-Detmold was not considered as industrially developed as most of Germany at that time. Today news and events in Lippe may be obtained at http://members.aol.com/grusuhumf/Index.htm, the Home Page of Rolf Kersting who is an acquaintance of Rudolph Schake of the Simon Heinrich Schake lineage, both of Humfeld.

C. The Decision to Auswander

The most common answer from our parents regarding the question of why the Ahmann, Ritter, Rocklage, Hillebrand and Schake parents, grandparents and great grandparents came to America was to avoid military service. As early as 1677 Count Lippe from Braunschweig attempted unsuccessfully to establish a subsidy-financed standing army to defend the Hessian boarders, maintain domestic order and to form many favorable alliances with other European dynastic rulers in Denmark, the Netherlands and other states (22). The specifics as to date, location, motive and state leadership would change from time to time but military service obligations of various kinds became a routine part of life for most male residents of Lippe. Flora Schake loved to relate the story of one of her Prussian great uncles, and of her great grandfather Herman Ahmann, who were to report for military service. As 19th century draft dodgers, Herman isolated himself in a cellar, ate only bread and water and did not shave for several weeks to make himself appear unhealthy. Upon the day he was to report for his physical exam he did not get drunk as rest of the recruits ridding the wagon to the military post but smoked a "green" pipe and later ordered a glass of vinegar in the saloon. All this made him appear very unfit which eventually was successful in keeping him out of military service. His brother Frederich, who was badly burned as a boy, had a friend hold a jar of bees to this old scar creating a very ugly and mysterious illness designated as ´Kings Evil.´ Kings Evil is actually a tubercular swelling of lymphatic glands which was common prior to the 20th century and once thought to be cured by the touch of royalty. Thus he too was successful in avoiding military service since Kings Evil was known to be incurable unless the king could touch Frederich. Cutting off one´s trigger finger or other disfigurement was also effective in avoiding the draft, however, embarrassing.

The Schake family may have had yet other motivations to consider migrating to America. In 1853 Kurt attempted to gain permission from Lippe authorties to purchase land from a neighbor but that request was denied. Furthermore, of the nine children born to Johann Cord Christoph Adolph and W. Friedericke Schake four would die early in life. Their first two children were twin girls who both died as infants. Then in January of 1855 heartbreak would strike at Number 38, Humfeld. Friedrich Ludwig, five years old and his two year old sister Henrietta Charolotte would die. What the causes of death was for these young Schakes may only yield to speculation. None-the-less, the combination of remorse from these losses, the opporunity to travel without young children, the inability to purchase more land and the desire to come to America for a new start in life were undoubtedly major factors weighing into the decision. Kurt and Friedericke possibly discussed these realities and chose to make the most significant move of their lives, and decided to offer their homestead for sale to determine if sufficient funds could be raised to go to America and buy a farm.

The great mid-century transatlantic migration began about 1830 and lasted until 1854 (23). During this interval 42 Lippe-Detmolders per 10,000 inhabitants left for North America each year. The greatest surge of frontier settlements in Missouri occurred from 1854 through 1858 (23). In 1837 the Missouri Gazeteer reported that much good public land was still available at $1.25 per acre in Warren County. The idea of emigration, or wandering out -- auswandering -- was widely discussed in Germany. While auswandering had its root origins in Germanic tribal tradition, this form of transatlantic auswandering actually started about 1816 and was influenced by many non-traditional factors. The presence of political unrest, famine, cholera epidemics, the desire to own land, to provide an improved opportunity for ones´ children, high food prices partly due to potato rot and poor rye harvests, economic depression, strict class distinctions limiting one´s ability to marry and select careers out-of-class, lack of religious freedom, military service and many other factor influenced 19th century auswandering. The then new and popular Malthusian theory of exponential growth in the human population to result in overpopulation of the world worried many. Some were so destitute and motivated as to accept indentured servitude to pay for their passage to America (24).

Duden´s enthusiastic book of 350 pages first appeared in 1829 (25). He was able to describe his experiences in what was then Montgomery County, Missouri (later known as the Lake Creek community in Warren County north of Dutzow) in the best of present day Chamber of Commerce prose. Gottfried Duden was from Remscheid, Duchy of Berg between the Rhur and Lippe Rivers close to the same region as ancestors to the SCHAKES OF LA CHARETTE. In fact, he was claimed as a friend of Herman Ahmann´s father (great-great-great grandfather of the authors) when the Ahmann family lived at Lienen Kreis Wandorf Regierungs-Bezirk, Muenster, Germany as related by Martha Rocklage in 1978. Duden told of his experiences gained in Missouri as well as from his 270 acre farm on the Femme Osage Creek. This picturesque creek was named by the Osage Indians in honor of a Indian woman who drowned there. Duden often repeated how highly fertile the Missouri land was in his region. One account chronicles how his neighbor, William Hancock from Kentucky, the first to farm the Missouri river bottom lands of Warren County (since 1798) never needed fertilizing, even after 20 years of cropping. Today this area is known as the Hancock bottoms. All of Duden´s observations of Warren County were not enthusiastic, as noted in a footnote to his 1829 book ..... "a German mile from here (Duden´s Femme Osage farm which is close to present day Dutzow) an attempt was made to found a town. It is called Marthasville. Its location was chosen unwisely and it will hardly grow. It has only a few houses, but there are two stores, a post office, and also a doctor."

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