Carrie Mellecker



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Generation: 1

  1. 1.  Carrie Mellecker

Generation: 2

  1. 2.  Kenneth Joseph Mellecker was born on 21 May 1936 in Iowa, USA (son of Frances Joseph Mellecker and Josephine Carolyn Doyle); died on 21 Dec 2007 in Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa, USA; was buried on 27 Dec 2007 in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Hills, Johnson County, Iowa, USA.

    Kenneth married Janet Shank [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  2. 3.  Janet Shank
    Children:
    1. Piper Mellecker
    2. Shelli Mellecker
    3. 1. Carrie Mellecker


Generation: 3

  1. 4.  Frances Joseph Mellecker was born on 10 Mar 1897 in Liberty, Johnson County, Iowa, USA (son of Joseph William Mellecker and Maria Magdalena Birrer); died on 26 Jul 1972 in Hills, Johnson County, Iowa, USA.

    Frances married Josephine Carolyn Doyle on 2 Jun 1925. Josephine was born on 26 Aug 1902 in Iowa, USA; died on 3 Feb 1973 in Hills, Johnson County, Iowa, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  2. 5.  Josephine Carolyn Doyle was born on 26 Aug 1902 in Iowa, USA; died on 3 Feb 1973 in Hills, Johnson County, Iowa, USA.
    Children:
    1. Bernard Mellecker
    2. Dolores Mellecker
    3. Gerald Francis Mellecker was born on 3 Feb 1934 in Hills, Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 7 Jul 2003 in Hills, Johnson County, Iowa, USA; was buried on 11 Jul 2003 in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Hills, Johnson County, Iowa, USA.
    4. 2. Kenneth Joseph Mellecker was born on 21 May 1936 in Iowa, USA; died on 21 Dec 2007 in Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa, USA; was buried on 27 Dec 2007 in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Hills, Johnson County, Iowa, USA.
    5. Eileen Mellecker


Generation: 4

  1. 8.  Joseph William Mellecker was born on 14 Aug 1872 in Iowa, USA (son of Johannes Mellecker and Karolina Schulze); died on 7 May 1942 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA; was buried in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa, USA.

    Notes:

    BIOGRAPHY: Today's story about the Melleckers of Johnson County kicks off a week-long series celebrating people who, long ago, came to the area, got married and settled down to raise their families.
    Their reasons for coming were many - jobs, adventure, family. For generations, their descendants have helped shape Johnson County.
    Like Jack and the Beanstalk, the story of the Mellecker and Birrer families in Johnson County may best be symbolized by a bag of beans.
    "Mollie Beans," that is.
    As Catherine (Mellecker) Simon tells it, her great great aunt, Mollie Brockman, brought the beans with her when she came to America from Germany in 1852. The family moved to a small home in north Iowa City in 1869, where Mollie enjoyed growing vegetables and sharing them with her friends and neighbors.
    Each year, Mollie would save seeds from the current harvest to plant in her garden the next year. Because she never married, the habit of growing and saving the beans was passed down to the family of her sister, Christina (Brockman) Birrer, who passed it on to subsequent generations.
    Today, those yellow beans continue to thrive in Mellecker gardens around Johnson and Washington counties. And like those beans, the Mellecker family has sunk deep roots into the soil of eastern Iowa.
    Proof of that history can be found in the bill for Joseph and Magdalene's Mellecker's 1896 wedding as well as the bow tie Joseph wore to the ceremony. The family also still has a pocketwatch owned by Joseph Birrer before he was killed in a mine explosion in France in 1816 as well as a wardrobe by patriarch Francis Xavier Mellecker more than a century ago.
    To the Melleckers, those memories are like a comfortable chair or a favorite quilt. They are not meant to be stored away in a box or hidden behind glass, but taken out and enjoyed.
    "Our grandmother was the first recycler," Eileen (Mellecker) Yotty said. "She never threw anything away. Some of the pages of her scrapbooks were the white butcher paper they wrap meat in."
    "I know she still used flour paste," added her sister Catherine (Mellecker) Simon.
    Two families
    Those scrapbooks tell the story of two families: the Birrers and the Melleckers. The Birrers came to Johnson County from Bourbach le Bas in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France in 1846 while the Melleckers, also from the Alsace-Lorraine, came in 1853.
    "We don't know why they left," Bernard Mellecker said. "That part of Europe was constantly changing hands, though. One year it was part of France and the next year, part of Germany. That might have been why they decided to come to America."
    The land they came to also was in flux. Iowa had just become a state. Mesquakie Indians, though officially removed from the area to Fort Des Moines in 1843, still lived in southern Johnson County along Sand Road, a few miles from the Birrer family homestead in Liberty Township.
    Bernard Mellecker said he remembers that when he was a boy, his great grandfather, Martin Birrer, would gather the family around him to tell stories about those days.
    "He would talk for an hour or so," Bernard Mellecker said. "Then after he started repeating himself, our grandmother would come in and say, 'Dad, you should go to bed.'"
    Birrer, who lived to be 101, died in 1943.
    "I don't remember a lot of it," Bernard Mellecker said. "It didn't mean that much at the time. He told me about the Indians, though. He told us that Indians were not allowed to come into anyone's home. They had to stay outside. Why that was, I don't remember."
    Martin Birrer also told the story about his father, Nicholas, who drowned in Old Man's Creek while coming home from a school meeting on March 21, 1870.
    "The horse came home without him," Bernard Mellecker said, remembering the tale about his great grandfather. "No one knows why he decided to ford the creek instead of using the bridge."
    At the time, the creek was swollen from the spring snowmelt and Nicholas Birrer's body was not found until a week later.
    The Mellecker family followed a similar path in America. Francis Xavier Mellecker, also known as F.X., was a distiller, a carpenter and a farmer when he brought his family to Johnson County in 1853. In fact, F.X. carved the altar in St. Stanislaus Church outside of Hills using just a steel blade knife.
    That altar still graces the front of the little rural church.
    "It still has the original layer of paint on it," Catherine (Mellecker) Simon said

    Joseph married Maria Magdalena Birrer on 28 Apr 1896. Maria (daughter of Martin Birrer and Christine Philomene Brockmann) was born on 24 Mar 1876 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 11 Feb 1955 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  2. 9.  Maria Magdalena Birrer was born on 24 Mar 1876 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA (daughter of Martin Birrer and Christine Philomene Brockmann); died on 11 Feb 1955 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA.
    Children:
    1. 4. Frances Joseph Mellecker was born on 10 Mar 1897 in Liberty, Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 26 Jul 1972 in Hills, Johnson County, Iowa, USA.
    2. Bernard Otto Mellecker was born on 6 Aug 1898 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 8 Mar 1899 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA.
    3. Urban Edward Mellecker was born on 14 Jul 1900 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 3 Feb 1983 in Colorado, USA.
    4. John Martin Mellecker was born on 22 Jul 1902 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 12 Feb 1995 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA.
    5. Albert Leroy Mellecker was born on 4 Dec 1903 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 22 Jan 1978 in Iowa, USA.
    6. Celesta Magdalena Mellecker was born on 2 Jul 1905 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 7 Apr 1985 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA.
    7. Cletus Henry Mellecker was born on 16 Jul 1907 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 28 May 1981 in Iowa, USA.
    8. Leonard William Mellecker was born on 17 Oct 1908 in Liberty, Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 19 Nov 2003 in Colorado, USA.
    9. Adrian Nicholas Mellecker was born on 5 Aug 1910 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 24 Aug 1910 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA.
    10. Joseph Gerald Mellecker was born on 19 Jan 1912 in Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 16 Aug 1989 in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona, USA.
    11. Eymard Norbert Mellecker was born on 18 Jun 1913 in Liberty, Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 30 Sep 1983 in San Diego, San Diego County, California, USA.
    12. Willard Raymond Mellecker was born on 10 Oct 1914 in Liberty, Johnson County, Iowa, USA; died on 24 Nov 1997 in Grants Pass, Josephine County, Oregon, USA.