Bernard Awerkamp 1849|KZFH-YMB,KFZH-Y97
I have heard that BERNARD (JOHANN BERNARD AWERKAMP) came over with his mother and an older brother (WILLIAM) after his father (FRANK) died in Germany. I had always heard that they came over because they already had purchased the tickets before BERNARD’s father died (2 Nov. 1851). My records show that BERNARD came to this country at the age of 5. He did not turn 5 years old until 6 Jun 1854. Two years and 8 months seems like a long time to have tickets, but I have heard that there was a long wait frequently. I have seen a letter of introduction from the bishop but no relative admits to seeing it in 30 years. It was written in German, of course, and I remember a torn wax seal and fancy penmanship.
At the age of twelve, BERNARD became an apprentice in the office of the Quincy Tribune, published by CARL ROTTECK. Later he was employed in different stores, until finally, in December 1869, he secured a position in the Ricker bank.
The family was befriended by a Mr. RICKER who owned the RICKER Bank. Mr. RICKER’s bank did not have a safe when it first started and for quite a few years, Mr. RICKER took the money home each night. This was confirmed in a newspaper article. For years my father (JOHAN BERNARD AWERKAMP) has told the same story about his grandfather, BERNARD, taking the money to Mr. RICKER’s home each night when Mr. RICKER got older. He took it in a wheel barrow. My father, JOHN, asked BERNARD if he was worried about getting robbed and he answered: “No. There is always a faster horse.” When asked what he meant, he said people liked to get in a posse and chase robbers. He advance in position at the bank until in 1881 he was selected as assistant cashier.
BERNARD was “a scribe” according to my father and earned money writing letters for people when he was very young for soldiers passing through Quincy during the Civil War.
A newspaper article in 1934 states “On November 30 BERNARD AWERKAMP, a Quincy resident for more than 80 years, and a Quincy banker for 60 years, died in his home at 1401 Oak. He was brought to this country in 1864 [wrong] at the age of 5 from Germany. He attracted the attention of the late HENRY F. J. RICKER, who at the time was in partnership with EDWARD ARNTZEN in a general store. RICKER took the boy in and when RICKER entered the banking business, so did little AWERKAMP, who started as a clerk, moved up to teller and then to cashier. When the Quincy National and the Ricker bank merged , he retired. “My dad said he was about 5’-6” and very “proper.” He had a cottage out south east of Quincy that was a summer home. He has a nice pair of white horses for his carriage. He had a very large brick home at 1401 Oak Street that he probably had built. It is still a beautiful home in a nice neighborhood on a large corner lot. May 9, 1876, BERNARD married DOROTHEA LOUISA DIEFENBACH, a daughter of Captain MICHAEL DIEFENBACH, a daughter of Captain MICHAEL DIEFENBACH, for many years engaged in river traffic. BERNARD’s wife, DOROTHEA, and my dad did not get along too well. He said that about all she ever said to him was “wipe your feet.” He said she was not unpleasant, just not your usual grandmother.
BERNARD had 7 children:
1) THEODORE A. (b. 1877)
2) WILLIAM F. (b. 1879
3) FRANK A. (b. 1881)
4) EUGENIA (b. 1883)
5) CARL EUGENE (b. 1885)
6) ARTHUR ALOYSIUS (b. 1887)
7) WALTER P. (b. 1890)
THEODORE worked at the Ricker Bank and I remember him. He was the oldest, but the last to die. He has built a new beautiful stone home on Kentucky Road in Quincy and when the banks folded during the depression, he lost his home and all his savings. He lived in an apartment when he died and his estate pretty much only covered what he owed. But he died at age 84 and was a very nice person, and I remember him as being very distinguished looking, very old, proper speaking and acting.
WILLIAM F. was with the Standard Oil Company.
FRANK A. was book keeper with Suedder & Gale.
EUGENIA married ARTHUR HUNSAKER who was very proud of being part Indian and liked to hunt and canoe, but I know nothing of her.
CARL AWERKAMP was a superintendent for Otis Elevator Company here in Quincy. He went to New York to be a plant manager for Otis Elevator when World War II broke out. He came back to Quincy in 1944 and was despondent over financial or health problems (I don’t know which)and committed suicide by shooting himself. He was a very fine machinist and my father says he was very smart and nice. CARL’s wife, STELLA, was interesting. She worked at the State Street clothing store in Quincy and I used to dread going in there as a child in the 1950’s. She wore a lot of make-up, was the “lovey-dovey” type who wanted to tell everyone in the store how cute I was - very loudly, and hug and kiss me. It was a terrible experience for me as a child, but at age 51, I still think I’m cute. So what the heck.
WALTER B. was a foreman in Geise’s garage.
ARTHUR A. was my grandfather. I was 13 when he died on Good Friday of a heart attack while working as a plumber at age 73. He had a plumbing company: “Awerkamp Plumbing + Heating” and a good reputation. He traveled around the country when he was younger working on plumbing jobs as a union plumber. My grandmother (MARY JOSEPHINE WISMANN) got him to stay in Quincy after they had been married about 13 years. He was an avid hunter and later a fisherman. He made his own boats including one that was like a clam shell and opened by unfolding at a hinge in the middle. I remember him making me a wooden barn when I was about 2nd grade and telling me that Santa had forgot to leave it at our house. So he left it at their’s knowing that I’d be coming over later on Christmas. It was neat. He worked hard and was 5’-6”, a little heavy, tough, and very nice. Everybody liked him. He was a sharp dresser when invited to weddings, graduations, etc.
My father, JOHN AWERKAMP, is 82 and still real sharp. He started fixing bikes when he was 10, and got into the machine shop trade. He learned the trade at Stegeman Machine Shop owned by my other grandfather (THEODORE STEGEMAN). During World War II he had 200 people working for him making LST’s for the Navy here in Quincy. After the war he ran Stegeman Machine until 1947 when he opened his own machine shop in his 3 car garage at 1503 Spring. The Machine Shop is now at 7th and Vermont and a second facility is at 321 Broadway which is a steel sales and fabrication division. Either is the largest and best equipped within 100 mile radius. Total employment is 48.
In 1986, I went to Germany and visited Holtwick and Billerbeck north of Dusseldorf, I saw the old Catholic churches in both cities which are beautiful inside and out. Both would have been where our ancestors were baptized and married. The oldest is in Billerbeck and it was being restored. There were several recent (1980’s) AVERKAMP grave stones in the cemetery behind the church in Holtwick. Some kids led me out of town to the east or south on a blacktop road to the house where BERNARD and WILLIAM lived as children. There was a birthday party for an 82 year old man. His mother was an AVERKAMP and he was similar in height, weight, and face to my grandfather. There were about 80 people there and about half had AVERKAMP’s as ancestors. The party was being held in a very clean brick barn to the south of the beautiful brick house, on a large cement area between the barn and the house, and inside the house.
The lane on the west (front of the house) was arched by trees and there was one home about directly across and another about three (900 ft) blocks north across the lane. That last house also had AVERKAMP relatives living there that were very old and not well and not at the party. Another family lived south and east across a field about ¼ mile away that they all agreed were not nice AVERKAMP’s and barely related. There were no other houses in view. The 82 year old man answered all the questions directly to me and an 18 year old boy interpreted. The boy told me to look at the old man when I spoke, when the 82 year old spoke. He said to do this out of respect. The 82 year old remembered as a youth hearing other relatives talking about a cousin who died in Germany and whose wife and children went to America after he had died. He said that no other relatives of theirs that they could think of lived in America. He asked what religion the AWERKAMP’s were in America and I said they were Catholic. He was very pleased and said that being Catholic was all that mattered and extremely important.
I asked if they had any old pictures of relatives and they took me inside through the kitchen in the rear of the house. The kitchen was huge, probably 20 feet by 20 feet. I remember a lot of food being prepared by several women for the party, and I remember several flies (as flies are rare in Germany) and cheese and bread meat. We walked down a hall on the north side to an entrance area by the front door and then upstairs. The stairs were marble with a red removable runner secured to the back of each step with a brass rod slid into brass holders on each side. There was a hall at the top of the stairs going east and about four people went into a crowded 6’ x 10’ room on the north side with a lot of family pictures on the west wall. None of the pictures were taken prior to 1880 and were of no help but the quick home tour will never be forgotten. They agreed that I was the only AWERKAMP to visit from America since just after World War II when a U.S. soldier visited. No one remembered his name or where he was from in America.
Holtwick is a very clean and well maintained town of about 2,000 people. I saw nothing that looked run-down. I next visited Billerbeck, about 10 miles east south east. Billerbeck was much larger - about 15,000. It was not as clean and I saw several run-down buildings. There was a beautiful street down town that had no vehicular traffic allowed and was lined with beautiful small shops. There was a neat old church with one tower. The tower was bent about half way up and appeared dangerously close to falling over. The inside was run-down, but luckily, it was being restored. The area around Holtwick and Billerbeck is very flat and I remember flying over the towns a few days later. I was a navigator in F-4’s and we were visiting a British base. I lead a flight of four F-4’s from the base west of Dusseldorf on a low level flight to the north. About 100 miles north of Holtwick there are very few towns and few farms. On the way back we circled Holtwick and then Billerbeck at about 1,000 feet above the ground. I took a few pictures figuring I would never get to see them from the air again.
Story by Bill Awerkamp, 1997.
Quincy and Adams Co. History and Representative Men by David F. Wilcox, Chicago Publishing Co., 1919. P.415
<< Back