Ancestors

Johan Dietrich Macke

Johan Dietrich Macke was born in Germany in May 1832. The Zion Lutheran family register at Friedheim gives his birth as 1 May 1832. His memorial gives his birthplace as Oldenburg, without a source, and reads the age on his stone as 61 years, 11 months and 2 days, which would put the birth at 11 May. In the photograph of the stone the days appear as 12, which agrees with the register's 1 May.

He married Christine Nickel, born on 9 March 1838. A New York passenger list of the Oldenburg bark Fanny Kirchner, sworn on 28 June 1861 after a crossing from Bremen, opens with "Ludwig Macke 29", a baker, and "Louise Macke 23". The ages fit Johan and Christine exactly. The given names do not, and the identification is a memorial contributor's, so it stays a possibility.

Their daughter Ida Maria was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, on 25 May 1865. By 1880 the family was in Adams County, Indiana, where the census taker wrote the name as Mikey, and later two miles east of Ossian in Jefferson township, Wells County. The children in the Friedheim register and in Christine's will are Ida, 1865; John, 1870; Anna, 1872; Louise, 1875; William, 1877; Christina, 1880; and Henry.

He died suddenly of heart disease on the morning of Friday 13 April 1894, at sixty-one. The Bluffton Evening News printed this four days later: "John Mockey, an old citizen of this township, living two miles east of town, died Friday morning very suddenly of heart disease. Funeral at Freidheim cemetery Sunday. Mr. M. was an industrious, frugal German, who by patient toil had acquired a home for himself and family, and was ready to lay aside the cares of life and enjoy his home and surroundings, but suddenly and with little warning he was summonsed. He leaves a widow and a large family of children to mourn their loss." He was buried in the Zion Friedheim Lutheran cemetery on the Sunday. His stone, a granite block with MACKE across the top, is lettered in German with the date of his death, "gest. 13 Apr. 1894", his age and a funeral text. After his death his widow and children changed the spelling of the name to Mackey.

If Johan Dietrich Macke is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Johan Dietrich Macke (1832-1894)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/johan-dietrich-macke-1832-1894-a02210.