Last Updated on July 13, 2018 by Terry
Grandma Hickey and Terry with a fish!
My mother and I have discovered six notebooks that my grandmother had written in about her family history. She did this when she was in her 90s so it’s difficult to work through as she started over in some of these notebooks with much duplication. She probably was suffering from the onset of dementia or something similar and was compiling this from memory, so it may not all be accurate and might conflict with what her sisters had told their families years ago.
Who knows which of the three sisters had the best memory. So, all my second and third cousins calm down. One thing was consistent, her dates. Everyone from her grandparents to her brother and sister’s birthdates, marriages, and deaths were always the same, whether they were right or wrong.
I haven’t decided exactly what to do with all of it, but I have been working through them attempting to get one set of notes. I have organized what I have looked through so far but it is time-consuming and between work, my own books, and keeping this blog consistent, I don’t have a lot of time to work on it. (And a fellow needs to go fishing sometime!)
I do want to share what I have found that she recorded about the beginning of her family’s immigration to America. I realize that the entirety of these writings will only be interesting to my many family members, including brothers, first-second-third-fourth cousins, aunts and uncles, and the like, so I will not be putting all of it on my blog. But, I urge you to read this first part. It is a very common story about the early immigrants and their difficult journey to get here.
My grandmother is Annie Hild Hickey. She was raised at the corner of Colonel Glenn road and what is now Lockert lane. Her parents owned a ten-acre plot there. It now belongs to Youth Home. Many of my friends will remember that my immediate family moved onto the back of the property in the late sixties and lived there about 8 years. It is also where McHenry Creek begins as a spring bubbling up out of the ground underneath our pond.
Their home design was called a Dog Trot. It had a large front porch with five or six steps leading up. When you reached the top, you could see all the way through the house to the back porch. It was called a breeze way. It was about ten to twelve feet wide. As you walked through, the kitchen and living room were on your left and the bedrooms were on your right. The term came from the thought that a dog could trot right through the middle of the house, from porch to porch. I remember it had high ceilings in order to help with cooling. No AC back then.
My three best memories of my great grandparents and their home were:
- Getting to go to the bathroom in a small shed out back. Still not sure why that was fascinating to 7-year-old boy.
- Helping draw water from their open well with the water well cylinder draw bucket.
- Granny Hild’s special sugar bread she would fix for any kids that showed up.
My grandmother’s parents were John, born 1869 and Emma Hild, born 1878. My great grandfather’s name was Hildenstine until they left Germany and came to America. My grandmother seemed a little confused on their origins in Germany, but mentioned two locations that they may have been from.
Her notes include “Auschwitz Germany” and “Henna Maessa Austria Germany.” The second place does not exist as she lists it but everyone will recognize the first location. Although the Auschwitz death camps were in Poland if my history is correct. I don’t really know or can’t confirm either place. I’m sure she was merely attempting to remember what she heard as she would listen to stories around the dinner table.
John and Emma had nine children. The first three daughters all lived less than two years and the last three daughters, the ones of west Pulaski County folklore were sisters Christina Thompson, Mattie Goodson, and Annie Hickey. All three of which lived into their mid-nineties.
The most interesting travel adventure from her notes came as Michael and Teresia 
Machiel Hild, her grandparents and my great-great grandparents, made their trek to the docks at Hamburg, Germany in 1883. The apparent German Jews had ten children and most were born when they left Germany. A little more research on my part could determine how many exactly. Maybe someday.
My great grandfather was about fourteen when they boarded the “second” ship. We have discovered a ship’s log of passengers from January 24th, 1883 and can clearly see their names on it. The ship’s name was Westphalia and piloted by Captain Barends. My grandmother’s notes say the departure was 1880, so she was only off a few years and that was a long time ago.
For reasons unknown by most, they were late arriving at the docks earlier that week. I can easily envision that they had stopped somewhere on the journey to go fishing, being that they were relatives of mine and my immediate and extended families. When they did arrive, the family was unable to board as the ship was in the act of departing. This was devastating news to the now homeless family, but word got out about a second ship and they were able to sustain themselves somehow and board within a few days for the journey to America.
I surmise that they were lucky that they had caught some fish on the way and therefore were able to eat. There was a rumor that a couple of friends traveled with them and the total number of the caravan was thirteen. Hmmm, Lucky and 13. Makes a guy wonder. You know, I betcha one of them was red headed.
The fascinating part, and the part that allows me and all my first through quadruple cousins to now be alive is this: The first boat, the one they were late for and missed, sank! No survivors.
If you have read my first two books you may remember that I mention I have had several near death experiences. I guess this was the first one. On second thought, maybe it should be referred to as a near unalive experience rather than near death.
Lesson to learn: fishing is a good thing. If I am right and their tardiness was due to a fishing trip, it definitely worked out for all the cousins and me!
“The Lord shore do work in mysterious ways” Sargent Alvin York
