Wackes Family History
  • Welcome!
  • INTRODUCTION
    • Start Here
    • The Quest
    • About Our Name
  • Suhl Wackes
    • About Suhl
    • Luther & Suhl
    • Early Wackes
    • Johann Michael
    • "My 3 Sons"
  • To USA
    • Karl's Story
    • Ship Travel 1884
    • Baltimore
    • PHILA
  • Charles Louis II
  • Paul George
    • Ruth E. Wackes
  • Ken & Ruth Wackes
  • Spiritual Heritage
  • Wackes DNA
  • Documents
  • Blog

  • Luther's Impact
  • Karl Louis & Luther's Catechism
  • Revivalism in America
  • Welsh Revivalt
  • Move to Florida

Our Spiritual Heritage

The only true legacy worth leaving to one's progeny as he or she exits this earthly life is the Gospel of Christ, the Good News. Everything else is perishable and transitory. The Apostle Peter reminds us: "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." (I Peter 1:18-19)  And Jesus challenges us, as we think about how best to influence and shape our own children and grandchildren, with his clear, to the point question: "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26), and Paul adds, "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." (Eph. 6:4)​

Who in our long line of forebearers passed down to us the Good News of Jesus and lived it out for our example? Who prayed for us long before we were born? Some know. About others, we don't know who they were for certain. But there are certain specific events that may give us clues or hint at possibilities.

Martin Luther and the Reformation in Saxony

Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door in Wittenberg, about 120 miles away from Suhl, in 1517. But the impact of this event did not impact Saxony in particular until 1521 when Luther was convicted of heresy at Worms, and was hidden away at Eisenach by Elector Prince Frederick, 30 short miles from Suhl. The Protestant Reformation was adopted by the people of Suhl in 1544. It emphasized justification by faith and not of works. There were Wackes family members there as part of that important decision! Suhl had less than 3,000 people at the time. From that point forward, every Wackes in our line was baptized and married within, and buried from St. Marien's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Suhl.

Were they all people of faith? We presume that many were. The price at the time was too heavy to pay to play games. During the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) the people of Suhl experienced marauding armies that swept through town. Suhl was located on a straight route from Munich in the south to Erfurt and Leipzig in the north and at the foot of the only passage way from south to north over the Thuringia mountains. In 1634 the Catholic army from Croatia burned the town to the ground. They left several buildings--the major gunmaking shops and in nearby Neundorf, an inn which they used for their headquarters. Built in 1591, Ruth and I ate dinner there with Gunther Wackes our first night in Suhl in 1998. 

If you are interested in the causes of  this horrific war that reached to tiny Suhl, click the button below "Background."
Background of the 30 Years War
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What caused the war? Rome's attempt to regain Germany from the Lutherans (all Protestants, including Calvinists and Anabaptists, were called Lutherans).
By the end of the 16th century the Protestant Reformation was reshaping the religious landscape of Europe. All of the German states, except for the four southern states, were now Lutheran.

Calvinism was dominant in the Netherlands and among the nobility in Hungary, Bohemia, and much of France.

Sweden, Denmark, and Norway were now Lutheran states. Switzerland, among the German speaking cantons, embraced Lutheranism. Most of the French speaking cantons, led by Geneva, embraced Calvinism. And France had been embroiled in a bloody war between Catholics and Calvinists in the middle to late 16th century. England supported the Huguenots (Calvinists) with money and weapons.)

Council of Trent & the Counter-Reformation
The Roman Church launched its own Counter-Reformation. In 1534 the Jesuit Order was established with a major objective--recapture Europe for Rome.

​In a series of three councils held between 1545 and 1563 at Trent, Italy, Roman leaders reaffirmed Catholic doctrine in a series of dogmas.

Two of the more pertinent dogmas were: 1) anyone who teaches that salvation is by faith alone and not by faith plus good works is anathema; and, 2) anyone who teaches that the sole authority for faith and practice is scripture alone and not scripture plus Church tradition is anathema.

Hence, all Protestants, from princes to ministers to simple villagers, were heretics and fair game in a holy war. And thus Suhl was razed to the ground by the Catholic Croats in 1634.

Ottoman Turks in Eastern Europe
It was not only the Protestant Reformation that Rome had to contend with, but another enemy threatened from the east, the Muslim Ottoman Turks. The Muslim Turks had by this time subjugated Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Croatia, Serbia, and eastern Hungary. In 1529, under Suleiman the Magnificent, the Turks laid siege to Vienna, the capitol of the Austrian Habsburg Empire!

Rather than fighting two enemies on two fronts at the same time it was decided that suppressing the Reformation in Germany was the easiest of the two. The word from the Pope to the Austrian Habsburg Emperor was, "Get your house In order."

The Defenestration of Prague 1618
Bohemia (present day Czechoslovakia) had largely become Calvinists. In 1618 the new Habsburg emperor, Mattias, determined to restore the Catholic Church. In a meeting of Bohemian nobles with five pro-Catholic city officials, three of the city officials were "defenestrated" out a third-story window. 

When the emperor sent troops to Bohemia, German Lutheran states went to their rescue.

Thus, the Thirty Years War broke out in 1618. The ultimate goal was to crush the German Lutheran states militarily and to eradicate heretical Lutheran doctrine.

For a more in-depth but brief overview of the Thirty Years War go see the Boise State University summary. 
During the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) the people of Suhl experienced marauding armies that periodically swept through town. Suhl was located on a straight route from Bavaria to Erfurt and on to Leipzig. The only major route through the passage way over the Thuringia mountains north and south was through Suhl.

The outcome
It is generally estimated that about one-third of the German population died from either warfare or disease during the Thirty Years War. It took almost a century (1748) for the German population to reach its 1618 level. That we are here today is a tribute to the Wackes family members who survived that horrific time.

The war destroyed the traditional dominant role of the Catholic empire in Europe and in its place arose independent nation states.

The war ended with no formal treaty. But in 1648 a peace was mutually agreed upon--the Peace of Westphalia.

Major agreements of the Peace of Westphalia (1648):
  • Religious liberty was guaranteed for German Lutherans and Calvinists.
  • The Calvinist Netherlands was guaranteed independence from the Spanish Habsburgs.
  • The independence of the Dutch Republic and Switzerland was recognized. 
  • The German states were given the right to make treaties and alliances, thus diminishing the authority of the Holy Roman emperor (a.k.a. Austrian Habsburg emperor).
  • Alsace was given to France. The majority Germans in Alsace were referred to as "der Wackes."
  • France became the dominant power in Europe, replacing their hated neighbor, Austria..
  • The Austrian Habsburgs turned their attention eastward towards Hungary, Bohemia, and the continuing struggle against the Ottoman Turks.
  • The Spanish Habsburgs became isolated.​​

Perhaps the worst part of the war and its direct impact on the Wackes family was the method of compensating troops for their service. "Feed yourself and clothe yourself with whatever you want, wherever you want, however you want, and consort by force or persuasion with whomever you want. 

So when the Croatian army reached Suhl in 1634, the townspeople, including the Wackes families, grabbed everything they could and fled to the surrounding mountains. When they returned, Suhl laid in total ashes. All livestock was gone, all fields stripped bare, all industry destroyed, and all belongings vanished. 

​The Wackes family has its roots in those ashes.

If your interested in learning more about the Thirty Years War, 
click the following button.

Brief Overview of 30 Years War
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To understand this major war, for simplicity sake, let's look at the war as a football game with four quarters.

The Teams

The teams? Italy, Spain, Austria, the Holy Roman (Habsburg) Empire, the Pope, the German Catholic states (4), and Croatia vs, the German Protestant states (c. 100), Denmark, Sweden, and France.

The Play By Play

Quarter #1 (1618-1629): Habsburgs 1 - Germans 0 -- The Catholic forces from Spain, Italy, Croatia, and Austria almost annihilated the German Protestant armies. During this period the Habsburgs, drunk with early successes, took a step so inflammatory that the German Lutheran populace, like those in Suhl, vowed to fight until death. On March 6, 1628 the Habsburg emperor, Ferdinand II, issued the Edict of Restitution which called for the return of all land formerly held by the Catholic Church, the banning of all Calvinist states (the Netherlands, Saxony, Bohemia) and the expulsion of all Protestants from Catholic states. Thousands of Protestants became exiles. Question: Could this have resulted in a family group called "Wackes" leaving Alsace for Suhl? 

Quarter #2 (1630-1635): Habsburgs 0 - Germans 1 -- King Gustavus Adolphus of Lutheran Sweden, master military tactician and aided by French money, (Wait a minute! I thought the French were Roman Catholic!), drove the Habsburgs (a.k.a the Holy Roman Empire) back to Bavaria and Austria.

Quarter #3 (1635): Habsburgs 1 - Germans 0 -- King Adolphus was killed in battle and the Swedish/German forces went into disarray. Both sides were exhausted. When Wallenstein, the key general of the Habsburgs, attempted a secret peace agreement, he was assassinated by his own troops. A temporary "time out" was called, but the Habsburgs gained the advantage.

Quarter #4 (1636-1648): Habsburgs 0 - Germans 1 -- Cardinal Richelieu (yes, that's right, a Catholic cardinal) and chief minister to Louis XIII of Catholic France entered the war on the side of the Lutheran Germans! Surrounded by the Spanish Habsburgs who controlled Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy, and the Austrian Habsburgs controlling Austria and Hungary,  France was surrounded. 

To prevent the Habsburgs from becoming the dominant political and military power in Europe, France entered the war on the Protestant side. By 1648 both sides were bloody, battered, and exhausted. An approximated 8,000,000 had died, the majority of them Germans. The German population figures for 1515 were not equalled again until 1750. German agriculture and industry were destroyed and religious prejudices were ingrained for generations.

Karl Louis and the Lutheran Catechism

What fourteen year old boy voluntarily attends catechism class every week and studies to pass the final test in the Lutheran catechism? Hardly any. A boy would rather hang out with his friends.

​And so we know there was a diligent, widowed mother in Suhl who made certain that her son, Karl Louis Wackes, did so. He received his certificate of completion in March 1876. To do so, he had to memorize scripture and to have a clear knowledge of the Christian Gospel.
Picture1868 German edition, Luther's Shorter Catechism
Fifteen year-old Karl was confirmed at St. Marien's Lutheran Church on March 20, 1877 on his mother's birthday! (That was a Tuesday--a strange day to confirm someone, unless, perhaps, that was her birthday request,)

​Unfortunately, neither Karl nor his wife seem to have developed a strong spiritual component in their family life after emigrating to America in 1884. We have no indication if Auguste was confirmed or not. However, all of their children, including the "Baltimore babies," Freda and Charlie,"were baptized at St. John's Lutheran Church in Springfield, a neighborhood near to their home in Philadelphia. Their infant twins, Alice and Theodor, were buried there in 1904. 

As you study the events of their life in childrearing, it seems that they became "religious" when calamity struck. 

What might be significant is that St. John's Church in 1903-04 was part of the first group of churches to leave the American Lutheran Synod to form the new Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, in protest against the theological liberalism that had captured the American Synod.

​

Revivalism in America and Annie Wackes (nee  Ahrens)

PictureBethel Temple Church, From: https://betheltemplecbc.com/aboutus/
As with the Wackes family, the Ahrens family were Lutherans, originating in the duchy of Oldenburg, near Hamburg.

There seems to have been a much stronger spiritual dimension coming through the Ahrens family line, at least through Caroline Ruppel Ahrens and her daughters Marie, Carrie, and Annie. Marie was the mother of John Cavanaugh, the Sunday School teacher of Henry and Paul at Bethel Temple. Carrie never had children but had an influence on her younger sister, Annie.

Annie brought a strong spiritual component into her marriage with Charles Wackes II and into the upbringing of their children. She was a strong woman of prayer who prayed for each of her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great- grandchildren daily by name.

From her own account, Annie remembered well the impact that two evangelists had on her life.

​The first, Billy Sunday, visited Philadelphia in January 1914 at the invitation of John Wanamaker, eminent Philadelphia businessman. Born in 1862 in Iowa, the same year as Karl Louis, Sunday was a famous player for the Chicago White Stockings, who, after his conversion became an evangelist. Sunday preached for 10 weeks to an average of 30,000 people per day. Some days he preached as many as four times. 5,000 prayer groups met daily. Over 42,000 people trusted Christ. The New York Times on January 17, 1914 headlined, "Shouting, Kicking, Slangy Evangelist in Action." Read the article by clicking here.

Annie recalled seeing people fall to their knees on the sidewalk during that period.

​The second, Aimie Sempel McPherson, visited Philadelphia in 1924 to crowds even larger than those who heard Billy Sunday. It is estimated that 2% of the nation attended her crusades. She helped spawn the Four Square Church Association. The faith healer-evangelist also influenced the leadership of the church Annie attended--Bethel Temple, officially named The Full Gospel Church Bethel Temple. McPherson was the founder of Pentacostalism in America.

​Both evangelists stirred Annie greatly.

The Full Gospel Church Bethel Temple

Not realizing at the time how Bethel Church would play a major role in uniting their families,  Annie Wackes and Eunice Whitfield both attended a new church holding meetings on the second floor of a corner market. Annie's two youngest children, Henry and Paul, attended Sunday School,  Eunice took her granddaughter Ruth Sutcliffe to the same Sunday School after she and her mother, Lillie, moved to her home from Maryland. Just about that time in December 1929 the small church, according to its present web site, "purchased two run down row homes on the corner of Ella Street and Allegheny Avenue  and cleared them away to make room for the building of Bethel Temple.

Annie's view of the Christian life, per her children, often was tilted towards the "don'ts" more than the promises--including a ban on pork and eschewing all medicine, including aspirin. But she mellowed greatly in later years and was a truly spiritual matriarch, loved by all of her children and grandchildren.

The Welsh Revivals

PictureMiners' Prayer Meeting in a Welsh mine. From: http://daibach-welldigger.blogspot.com/2012/01/revival-meetings-in-coal-mines-in.html
In Ruth Sutcliffe's spiritual background were two women, her grandmother Eunice Swain Whitfield, and her mother Lilly Whitfield Sutcliffe.

Eunice was born in Wales, the daughter of a Welsh coal miner.
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Three revivals swept through Wales in the 19th century: 1838, 1848, and 1858. The third spiritual revival in Wales in 1858 resulted in 100,000 conversions reported. Many of them occurred  in the coal mining areas of North Wales, like the village of Chirk, where Eunice was born in 1862. Certainly her parents were impacted in a small town of several thousand residents, most of whom were miners like her father, John Swain. For conversion numbers see http://www.revival-library.org/catalogues/1857ff/index1857.html). See also, The History of Revivals in Wales at https://www.lifeaction.org/revival-resources/heart-cry-journal/issue-12/history-revival-wales-19th-century/


Eunice's father, at age 43, died on April 6, 1868 due to a gas explosion deep within the Black Park coal mine where he was working. Shortly after John's death, his wife, Elizabeth, placed six-year old Eunice as a servant girl in a more prosperous household. While at first it seems a cruel thing to send out a six-year old to work, it most likely was her mother's only option to give Eunice a chance at survival. And if the revival of 1858 impacted towns like Chirk, as reports indicate, it may very well be that she was taken into a Christian home in Chirk. Her father's death was the only death in the Black Park Mine in 1858 and the plight of his family would be more pronounced than if 20-30 had died in the gas explosion accident. At the time, about 400 men and boys worked in the mine.

Eunice's first tasks as a six-year old was sweeping floors, baking bread, and shining the shoes of the household's children before they went to school each day.


Throughout the nineteenth century, conditions remained absolutely appalling, with major mining disasters claiming thousands of lives. Safety precautions were still non-existent: it took the death of 204 mineworkers at Durhams Hartley Colliery in 1862 to force the Government and owners into introducing up cast shafts for ventilation. It was only following other major disasters that any sort of proper legislation began to appear.

The economics of capitalism (slump and boom) meant that mining communities were at the mercy of the market; lifted for brief periods from literal starvation to simple hardship, only to be dropped back into starvation whenever the marker collapsed into slump.

(http://www.num.org.uk/?p=history&c=num)
PictureBlack Park Colliery, Chirk, Wales. From:aditnow.co.uk//Photo/Black-Park-Colliery_103197/
It may even have been the mine manager's wife who took Eunice in out of compassion. After all, how much work can a six-year old perform? We simply do not know much about the particulars. Eunice only lived in Wales/Great Britain for one ten-year census (1871) and her name does not appear in that census. What we can presume is that Eunice stayed in close proximity to her mother and kept in contact with her. Eunice said that her mother’s tears at her departure almost caused Eunice to remain in England. Eunice did return to England in 1883 to visit her mother and sisters.

Although she never learned to read, Eunice knew the lyrics to many of the old hymns. Were any of these learned while still in Wales? When old-age prevented her from walking the distance to church, Eunice listened faithfully to Christian ministers on the radio. (On her marriage license of 1880, Eunice signed her name with an "X."

​As noted above, Eunice introduced nine year-old Ruth to Bethel Temple. 
While her mother, Lillie, fully supported Ruth's attendance at Bethel, she was personally more comfortable with the liturgy of the Episcopal Church and attended regularly the nearby St. Ambrose Episcopal Church. During the time she home-schooled Ruth for her two first years of schooling, Lilly also instructed her in the familiar Bible stories and verses. Lillie also attended Bethel Temple frequently, and it is to be remembered that its minister had been the next-door neighbor of her parents when she was a child and teen.

The Move to Florida

Pictureshutterstock_367012055.jpg Licensed
The move from Pennsylvania to South Florida was, perhaps, the single most spiritually significant event for the Charles Louis II branch of the Wackes tree. Granted, the coming to America by his parents was important. After all, where would we be if we were born and raised under communism in Suhl, East Germany?

A  new, vibrant Christian community

 Paul and Ruth were invited into a large, dynamic, energized Christian community which at the time had great influence sprituallly, socially, politically, and economically within Greater Fort Lauderdale in the time period of 1955 to 2000. That community was comprised of people from numerous churches but brought together by civic and spiritual enterprise. 

In the Northeast, Christians were somewhat conventional, staid, and perhaps even in-grown. The churches had  experienced  and still felt the effects of the intense theological battles between liberalism and fundamentalism during the 1920s and 1930s. Fort Lauderdale 1n the 1950s and 1960s, however, presented a whole new spiritual climate.. Nearly everyone came from "someplace else." A large percentage of the Christians were converted after moving to South Florida. There were few entrenched traditions and practices and the mores and taboos of the North were known to few.

In the Northeast, Baptist churches were thought to be conservative and there were many independent, non denominational churches. Presbyterian and Methodist churches were considered o be "liberal." In Fort Lauderdale there were no independent churches and the Presbyterians were the most vibrant.

Hence, on their first Sunday, Paul and Ruth attended Bethany Presbyterian Church and soon became members. Their Christian activities are listed in other sections of this narrative. As the oldest child, the move to South Florida had the most impact  on Ken. He had been the one most cognizant of the Christian thinking of the Northeast--no dancing, no movies, no bible but the Scofield Reference Bible, and Christian schools were for brats and troubled kids.

They're everywhere!

That's what it seemed--from the city council to elected officials, from law firms to shop owners, from bankers to physicians, and most important to Paul, in the building trades. The Christian Business Men's Committee was packed for their weekly luncheons. Paul served numerous terms as chairman. And. for most of his 40+ years as a building contractor in South Florida, Paul only engaged Christian sub-contractors.

Picture
Christian Schooling

Little did Paul and Ruth, Henry and Elsie realize how important a role Christian schooling would play in their lives in Florida. Between the two families, twenty of their children and grandchildren and three spouses would be educated in Christian schools. Paul and Ruth's oldest son, Ken served as headmaster for 32 years at Westminster Academy in Fort Lauderdale, and granddaughters Karen Beard (Wackes) and Meghan Wells (Wackes) taught at the school. Alan served as athletic director and coach.
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Steve, Paul and Ruth's youngest child, graduated from Westminster Academy, as did Alan and Jane's three children, Rob, Katie, and Meghan, as well as Rob's wife, Lu, and Katie's husband, Aaron. Ken and Ruth's children, Paul, Karen and Linda, as well as Paul's wife, Allison, graduated from the same school. Paul and Allison's sons, Paul and Christian, graduated from Westminster, and their youngest, Aaron, graduated from a school owned and operated by Christians. Karen and Anthony' Beard's children, Tyler and Rebekah, graduated from Westminster Academy and their third child, Hannah, will graduate from Seven Rivers Christian School in Lecanto, Florida in May 2017. The three oldest children of Linda and husband, Rob Turner--Jonathan, Lauren, and Kendall--have all graduated from Christian schools in Virginia, and their youngest, Daniel, is currently enrolled at Norfolk Christian School.

Henry and Elsie's youngest daughter, Susan, attended Gold Coast Christian School, and the four children of their oldest son, Henry and wife Barbara--Donna, Keith, Robin, and Troy--graduated from the same school. ​

Wackes Family History created using  theme EtherealPRO by Luminous
Ken Wackes - kenwackes2@mac.com - June 2016
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  • Welcome!
  • INTRODUCTION
    • Start Here
    • The Quest
    • About Our Name
  • Suhl Wackes
    • About Suhl
    • Luther & Suhl
    • Early Wackes
    • Johann Michael
    • "My 3 Sons"
  • To USA
    • Karl's Story
    • Ship Travel 1884
    • Baltimore
    • PHILA
  • Charles Louis II
  • Paul George
    • Ruth E. Wackes
  • Ken & Ruth Wackes
  • Spiritual Heritage
  • Wackes DNA
  • Documents
  • Blog