Ancestors

Christina (Macke)

Christine Nickel was born in Germany on 9 March 1838, by her death certificate and her gravestone; her obituary says 13 March. Her memorial gives her birthplace as Bierde. There are two villages of that name, one in the Heidekreis of Lower Saxony and one in Kreis Minden, and which is meant is not known. Her father's surname is written Nickle on her death certificate and Nickel in the church register. His given name, and her mother's name, were not known to the son who answered for her.

She married Johan Dietrich Macke, six years older. A New York passenger list of 28 June 1861 has a Ludwig Macke, 29, and Louise Macke, 23, off the Oldenburg bark Fanny Kirchner from Bremen, ages that fit the couple exactly; whether it is them is not proved. Their first child, Ida Maria, was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, on 25 May 1865. By 1880 they were in Adams County, Indiana, and later in Jefferson township, Wells County, two miles east of Ossian. Six more children followed: John in 1870, Anna in 1872, Louise in 1875, William in 1877, Christina in 1880, and Henry.

Johan died suddenly in April 1894 and left her with a large family. In 1900 she was keeping house at Tocsin, in Lancaster township, with John, William and the youngest girl. The family by then spelled the name Mackey. She had a farm of forty acres, the south-east quarter of the north-west quarter of section 24, township 28 north, range 12 east, and a strip sixteen and a half feet wide off the next quarter. It carried a mortgage of five hundred dollars to the Common School Fund of the State of Indiana, the state fund that financed schools by lending on farm mortgages.

On 29 June 1911 she made her will and signed it with her mark. About four weeks before her death she had a stroke. She died at eleven in the morning on 6 February 1912, of bronchopneumonia, in the house of her daughter Ida, Mrs John Dettmer, two miles east of Ossian, and was buried at St. Mark's Lutheran on 9 February. The Fort Wayne Sentinel reported it the same day: "Mrs. C. J. Gruber, of 1311 Jackson street, received a telephone message this morning notifying her of the death of her mother, Mrs. Christine Mackey, which occurred this morning at the home of her daughter, Mrs. John Detimar, who resides two miles east of Ossian. Mrs. Mackey suffered a stroke of apoplexy about four weeks ago, and since that time has been steadily failing. The deceased was born March 13, 1838, and was 74 years, 10 months and 24 days of age at the time of her death. She is survived by seven children, Mrs. C. J. Gruber, of this city, Mrs. John Detimar, with whom she made her home, Mrs. I. Cloud, and Henry, John and Will Mackey, all residing near Ossian." Her granite stone reads "MOTHER / CHRISTINE MACKEY / MAR. 9. 1838 / FEB. 6. 1912".

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Cite: Heirology, "Christina (Macke) (1838-1912)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/christina-macke-1838-1912-fadbe4.