Ozaukee County News Articles

The following is an article that appeared in THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL by Lewis C. French of the Journal Staff dated Monday, August 16, 1948

Maechtle Family Reunion

Waubeka, Wis. - Sunday in this Ozaukee county village, the Maechtles held a centennial family reunion.

Thereupon was unfolded the saga of the century old story of Wisconsin, and a mighty sermon of plain people who loved their God and church, the new freedom of America, the soil.

More than 200 descendants of the German immigrants came here to pay tribute and respect to the sturdy pioneers, those who made this reunion possible. Some were from California, others from as far south as Georgia and from 28 different Wisconsin cities.

All started the day by attending the Evangelical United Brethren church in Port Washington.

Then they went to Waubeka, the Indian named village, under cloud?less skies to pause at the original Maechtle farm, a few miles out of Port Washington. Not a sign of the pioneer buildings remain. The log cabin, rail fence, towering pines and hardwoods have disappeared.

As you sit in the orchard shade near the pleasant brick farm home, with Its cultivated fields, machinery and good cattle, you can hardly believe the accounts of what this modern farm was like a century ago. The harvest this year on the homestead place has been bountiful. The 100 acre farm is run by Walter Maechtle, 62, a grandson of the founder. The 30 acres in oats yielded 2,266 bushels, the mow is full of hay, there's a mountain
of clean straw for bedding, and a fat corn crop is coming along. It's a scene of security and plenty, thanks to electrical power and machinery.

The descendants were amused when the Rev. Lowell Maechtle, formerly on the staff of the University of Indiana and now with St. Olaf's college at Northfield, Minn., traced the lineage back to 1520. There was a title, an estate and a family coat of arms, but the titled Austrian had to sell the estate. His descendants settled in Diefenbach, Wuerttemberg, Germany.

John Maechtle decided he could not support a family decently on one or two acres. America beckoned. The poor had no chance in Germany and the rich were domineering. So John, his wife and John, jr., 5, left in 1945 for the United States. Indiana was their objective.

A baby daughter was born aboard ship and died in Cleveland. The Maechtles had no money. A hotel keeper provided burial for the child. John Maechtle worked for three years in Cleveland as a shipping clerk at 50c a day to earn money enough to buy land . . a homestead grant in Wisconsin.

The grant, on exhibit at the family gathering, had been signed by President James K. Polk, Feb.10, 1848.

The Maechtles arrived at Sheboygan by ship and hired a wagon to haul them and all their possessions to the wooded farm of 80 acres. Farm is the wrong term, for it was solid woods, the trees so thick you had to look up to see the sky. All they had, except for trinkets in two hand forged iron chests and four wooden chairs, was raw courage and faith.

Grandmother Maechtle often told her children of the "forsaken place," bitter cold and bleak, the raw new, land in Wisconsin.

The log cabin with the floor of split logs cost $10.

"The roof was so poor that when the boys got up after a blizzard they had to shake snow out of their trousers. There were no tools, oxen, nor food," recounts Mrs. Arthur E. Sylvester, 2414 N. 41st St., Milwaukee, one of the historians.

John Maechtle walked through the woods to wade the Milwaukee river and work for the "lazy Yankees" across the stream. To a thrifty German, anyone who hired labor rather than do it himself was lazy. For pay, he received "due bills," good for trade in flour, bacon, turnips and barley.

His wife picked berries and walked the winding trail seven miles to 'the "Port" to peddle the berries for 1 1/2 c a quart to pay taxes. When not hired out, John Maechtle hewed out a field around the cabin to sow wheat, which his wife and son John cut with a sickle and flailed for grain. It was a start.

After three years there was $30 to buy a cow. Maechtle walked clear to Milwaukee and drove the animal home, the whole family gleefully welcoming both. There was one milking and a feast, and that was the 'last drop of milk the critter ever gave', for grandfather had been "rooked" by a city sharper, who had sold him an old stripling. It went to the butcher for $9, a net loss of $21.

Maechtle borrowed $100 at 20% interest. This bought a pair of oxen to clear more land.

There were more children, 11 in all. Two died of diphtheria.

There were no candles or lamps, not even a lantern. Every night the sons whittled fagots and shavings so their mother could read the Bible aloud. Simple things counted. The children feasted their eyes and imaginations on the few colored cards that had been brought from Germany. Only on especial occasions, mind you, and only with clean hands, Sunday, Easter and Christmas.

Gradually the farm emerged from the wilderness. There were plums by the tubful at threshing time. During the Civil war Maechtle sold 500 bushels of wheat for $2 a bushel, a fortune he brought home in a bag to pay debts and buy more land. After the war the grandchildren remember Mrs. Maechtle selling springer chickens to the hotel keeper for 10c each.

The ambition of father Maechtle was to leave each son 40 acres of land. He almost made it before he died, gnarled and crippled from working so long and so hard in all kinds of weather, grubbing out that woodland farm that now enjoys such a fat harvest.

Grandfather John Maechtle died May 26, 1875, and his wife on Mar. 29, 1900. Many went over to the family cemetery Sunday to pay their silent respects.

The children carried on well. Most of them were people of the land, but others ventured into the ministry, the stores and professions. At one time there were so many Maechtles along the road that county trunk "K" was Maechtle road.

Descendants told how a brother of grandfather John came over from Germany expecting a life of ease. Most certainly any one with 80 acres of land was rich, he thought, and all they had to do was walk around an estate with a cane. He was startled to see how they worked, and "not even wine in the cellar."

The others explained they had freedom, priceless to them, and a chance to get ahead.

The descendants of Jacob, Jacobina, Henry and Catherine Maechtle, brothers and sisters of John, the pioneer, were present to contribute the reunion history carefully recorded by Mrs. Sylvester of Milwaukee. Her mother was the youngest child of John Maechtle, jr. In all there are 248 direct living descendants.

Everybody brought food, and then some. There were potatoes, salads, baked beans, meats, pickles and relishes, thick pies and cakes and good strong coffee.

The descendants looked over the reunion exhibits, including one of the original four chairs, the fancy cup and saucer brought out from the iron chest only when the preacher came, and the hand stitched baptismal dress grand-mother Maechtle made for the first son born on the farm. Many still honor this fragile dress, using it for their children.

They thumbed through thick al?bums to pause at the old tintypes of stern faced women and men, the women with bustle skirts and lace collars. They looked at pictures of sons and daughters who wore uniforms in the last two wars.

The oldest direct descendent was George Maechtle, 78, now living in Saukville. And there was Mrs, Lois Maechtle, 84, who lives with her daughters in Milwaukee and Port Washington. She is the widow of Jacob Maechtle, who died in 1934, leaving eight children Eight Maechtles, all grandchildren , who used to gather on the farm to sing and were in the choir, stood up and sang the old hymn, "In the Garden." Then the great-grandchildren sang. The teen agers often seemed a little bored. The couldn't quite understand why people
paid so much to the past and its oxen when airplanes roared overhead.

Out in the grove hack of the hall one of the ministers of the family, the Rev. Wesley Maechtle of Batavia, Wis., closed the reunion with a prayer in which he said:

"They braved the hardships, and, with God's blessing, built a land of free people, honest and honorable citizens. We should be worthy of their sacrifices."'

Contributed by: Louise Thompson, Stevens Point, Wi
4-4-2004