1920-1953 - Some Hickman & Sprout photos
The beginnings of the US Hickmans
By Steve Glennon
DISCLAIMER (OF SORTS) I have really enjoyed pouring over all the old black-and-white photos from the early 1900s that many of you have shared with me from your private collections. It is so interesting to examine them closely, looking for fine details like gloved hands, unbuttoned buttons, signs in windows, etc. My frustration, however, is that so much of the detail visible in these original photographs is lost when you photocopy photos. I have tried to be as careful and attentive as possible when copying photos for this book, balancing the desire to retain detail with the need to make the images as sharp as possible. Therefore, those of you who receive a first-generation copy of this book (photocopies of original photos) should be fairly well pleased. My concern, however, is that as others ask you to make a copy of this book for them, and you run-off second-generation photocopies, even more detail from the "photocopied images" of the original photos will be lost. Yet, I suppose this is unavoidable. Since I have had to return all the photos lent to me, no "master copy" of this book will exist. The best quality versions of "THE HICKMANS IN AMERICA" book (in terms of photo detail) will be the eight first-generation copies I have made in this first edition printing. One of the eight, I will keep for myself. Six will be given as gifts to the people who have helped me most by consenting to be interviewed for the book. Moreover, one will be designated as the first-edition "Traveling Copy" which may be sent out on loan to interested parties. As a partial remedy for what I fear will be a decline in reproduction quality over the years as later copies of this book are run-off, I have made a note beneath each caption as to which family member owns the original photo. Should anyone desire actual reprints in order to see all the fine details in a particular photograph, please contact the owner of the photograph. I hope that one day, someone will create an actual library of these old photos, and everyone will share all the pictures they have, so that we will have a complete pictorial history of the Hickman family in America. FOREWORD I am realistic enough to know that my three brothers have never had even a remote interest in anything artistic or historic, and never will. And my mother, my cousins, my mother's cousins, and any other Hickman relation I have ever spoken to claims (s)he is "not a writer," and therefore feels incapable of researching and recording our family history on paper before more of the "Old Guard" dies-off, and more of that history is lost. And so, in wondering how the remnants of the story of an immigrant family could be captured and woven together before they are lost forever in a world preoccupied with preparing for tomorrow rather than remembering yesterday (and, in the absence of any volunteer hearty enough to take on this labor of love and duty), I suppose it falls to me to pick-up where I left off compiling the Hickman lineage chart last year, and put down on paper the story of the Hickman Family in America - as much of that story as I can discover through the public record or learn with the assistance of those who share that heritage and are still alive to tell what they remember. It is either do this, or let all the old black and white photographs and mementos from more than half a century ago remain in boxes in my mother's attic, where they've lain for years as decaying memories, and where they would never mean anything or tell any story to future generations who share this heritage. It is for them and for every family member who is (or may one day become) interested in knowing their roots that I try to rediscover and formally record as much of our common Hickman family past as I can, before I too pass away from the present and into history. I mean for this body of work to be a hybrid of sorts: a documenting of factual historic research using public records, crossbred with a compilation of personal remembrances capturing a flavor of humanity of our Hickman family forebears, and what it meant to live in the time they came of age. However, before I begin, I must say that I am only 36 years old at the time of this writing, and have left my personal life on-hold for 1-1/2 years, moving across the country to undertake this lineage project. Being anxious to return to what awaits me in the course of my life, I can only take time enough now to research and record the stories of the generation which brought the family line across the ocean from Europe to America in the late 1800s, and the first generation of American born Hickmans who grew-up in the waning years of the 19th century and the early years 20th. The stories of six of the seven members of that first American generation were passed down second-hand through their children (who are now in their 70s and 80s) because only one of the original seven Hickman children survives at the time of this writing.
By Steve Glennon
DISCLAIMER (OF SORTS) I have really enjoyed pouring over all the old black-and-white photos from the early 1900s that many of you have shared with me from your private collections. It is so interesting to examine them closely, looking for fine details like gloved hands, unbuttoned buttons, signs in windows, etc. My frustration, however, is that so much of the detail visible in these original photographs is lost when you photocopy photos. I have tried to be as careful and attentive as possible when copying photos for this book, balancing the desire to retain detail with the need to make the images as sharp as possible. Therefore, those of you who receive a first-generation copy of this book (photocopies of original photos) should be fairly well pleased. My concern, however, is that as others ask you to make a copy of this book for them, and you run-off second-generation photocopies, even more detail from the "photocopied images" of the original photos will be lost. Yet, I suppose this is unavoidable. Since I have had to return all the photos lent to me, no "master copy" of this book will exist. The best quality versions of "THE HICKMANS IN AMERICA" book (in terms of photo detail) will be the eight first-generation copies I have made in this first edition printing. One of the eight, I will keep for myself. Six will be given as gifts to the people who have helped me most by consenting to be interviewed for the book. Moreover, one will be designated as the first-edition "Traveling Copy" which may be sent out on loan to interested parties. As a partial remedy for what I fear will be a decline in reproduction quality over the years as later copies of this book are run-off, I have made a note beneath each caption as to which family member owns the original photo. Should anyone desire actual reprints in order to see all the fine details in a particular photograph, please contact the owner of the photograph. I hope that one day, someone will create an actual library of these old photos, and everyone will share all the pictures they have, so that we will have a complete pictorial history of the Hickman family in America. FOREWORD I am realistic enough to know that my three brothers have never had even a remote interest in anything artistic or historic, and never will. And my mother, my cousins, my mother's cousins, and any other Hickman relation I have ever spoken to claims (s)he is "not a writer," and therefore feels incapable of researching and recording our family history on paper before more of the "Old Guard" dies-off, and more of that history is lost. And so, in wondering how the remnants of the story of an immigrant family could be captured and woven together before they are lost forever in a world preoccupied with preparing for tomorrow rather than remembering yesterday (and, in the absence of any volunteer hearty enough to take on this labor of love and duty), I suppose it falls to me to pick-up where I left off compiling the Hickman lineage chart last year, and put down on paper the story of the Hickman Family in America - as much of that story as I can discover through the public record or learn with the assistance of those who share that heritage and are still alive to tell what they remember. It is either do this, or let all the old black and white photographs and mementos from more than half a century ago remain in boxes in my mother's attic, where they've lain for years as decaying memories, and where they would never mean anything or tell any story to future generations who share this heritage. It is for them and for every family member who is (or may one day become) interested in knowing their roots that I try to rediscover and formally record as much of our common Hickman family past as I can, before I too pass away from the present and into history. I mean for this body of work to be a hybrid of sorts: a documenting of factual historic research using public records, crossbred with a compilation of personal remembrances capturing a flavor of humanity of our Hickman family forebears, and what it meant to live in the time they came of age. However, before I begin, I must say that I am only 36 years old at the time of this writing, and have left my personal life on-hold for 1-1/2 years, moving across the country to undertake this lineage project. Being anxious to return to what awaits me in the course of my life, I can only take time enough now to research and record the stories of the generation which brought the family line across the ocean from Europe to America in the late 1800s, and the first generation of American born Hickmans who grew-up in the waning years of the 19th century and the early years 20th. The stories of six of the seven members of that first American generation were passed down second-hand through their children (who are now in their 70s and 80s) because only one of the original seven Hickman children survives at the time of this writing.
Here and now, I state my hope that some day, someone else in the Hickman line (perhaps another of the 47 third-generation great-grandchildren of Charles and Lina Hickman, of which I am one) will pick-up where I left-off, coordinating work on a more complete 2nd edition of this manuscript, including biographical writings on every person born into the Hickman family line, living and dead. Further, I hope the person who undertakes this task will not wait until those stories are only available through second-hand sources. The person who lived it best tells the story of a life. CHAPTER ONE LAST GENERATION GERMANY: THE EUROPEAN TRANSPLANTATION There is no point in pretending to begin at the beginning, since no one alive today knows when that beginning was, or who began it. The Great Depression year of 1929 - although 70 years in the past - is hardly then. And God said, 'Let There Be Light ... '" genesis of the Hickman family. But as in any other story of an American family, the Hickman line came to the New World of America as immigrants. They fled central Europe and its conditions of war, poverty, unrest and a blighted future, which we today, in our lives of comfort and security, cannot identify with and only think we can imagine. KARL HEUCHMANN, a.k.a. CHARLES HICKMAN KAROLINA FRIES HICKMAN The Hickman family tree in 20th (soon to be 21st) century America sprouted from roots planted in 19th century Germany, an ocean away and more than 100 years ago. The man who bridged that ocean and brought the Hickman line to the New World was my great-grandfather, Karl Heuchmann, born in the town of year before Karl was born, Otto von Bismarck was appointed Minister of State (Prime Minister) and Acting Chairman of the Cabinet of Prussia, and would remain in power for the next thirty years, surviving a succession of Kings and Emperors, and master-minding and dominating European politics as no other figure before or since - not even the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Bismarck's aim was not so much to unify the German states as to advance Prussian military and economic domination of the region and to contend with the then four great world powers, Britain, France, Austria and Russia for territory and influence. In 1864, Prussia allied with Austria to wrest control of the provinces of Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark. The Prussian parliamentary chamber did not support Bismarck's war and refused to foot the financial bill. Bismarck's defiant response: "If it becomes necessary to go to war, we shall do so, with or without your approval!" When Prussia easily won the war and helped itself to the territorial spoils, Bismarck was greeted with such popular praise, that he received no further trouble from parliament during his next foray against his former ally Austria, the biggest thorn in his side on the political landscape and an impediment to Prussian ambitions. Again, Prussia emerged from the war victorious, ending Austria's influence over the German Confederation and establishing Prussia's dominance over a new Northern Confederation. The southern states, most notably for our purposes Bavaria where our Heuchmann ancestors lived, was left to continue its course of progressive liberal government. The population of the southern states was predominantly Catholic, as opposed to the Protestant north. But the weaker southern kingdoms were bound-up in cooperative military treaties subordinating their military forces to Prussian control. In 1870, As France and Italy were eyeing territorial acquisitions in the southern confederation region; Prussia went to war against its neighbor France, one of the four predominant European military powers. Again, the Prussian military machine trampled its foe into the dust of the continent, setting off a wave of nation-state sentiments among people in both the north and south to unite all the German kingdoms and principalities into one Reich. Under political pressure from German nationalists in Bavaria, the King of that prosperous state offered his crown to Prussian King William, in effect unifying the majority of the German Confederation of States into the contentious nation of Germany in 1871. This all said, it is clear that Karl Heuchmann grew up knowing of war, even though still too young to be a participant. After defeating France and annexing territory along the Rhine River, the next thirty years in Germany up to the turn of the century were ones of prosperous industrial growth for German society.
The Krupps Company became a titan in the continent's armaments industry. Suburban sectors around large cities grew rapidly as Germany entered the industrial age, and the output of its hardworking industrial base soon surpassed France as the continental leader. Karl Marx was a prominent activist and agitator for the rights of the workers, preaching a proletariat revolution against the bourgeoisie. In addition, finance capitalism began to take root, as the German banking industry flourished. My great-grandfather died when my mother was 15. She does not recall ever asking him about his life pre-America. Or what his childhood was like back in Bavaria. In fact, he was a very quiet but physically large and imposing man in his later years, and his grandchildren were quite afraid to talk to him! Whenever he looked at them, they cowered and ran! However, we do know that he came to America from Germany by boat on May 12, 1887 (a Thursday) just shy of age of 24. Perhaps Karl Heuchmann was what we would today call a "draft dodger," because my mother and her cousin Charlie both seem to remember hearing years ago that the main reason their grandfather left Germany as a young man was for avoiding induction into the army. Yet, when Karl Heuchmann left Germany in 1887, there was no major war in progress. That has not to say there was not a long and prominent tradition of military conscription. Perhaps he merely saw the handwriting on the wall and wanted to get out while the getting was good. The earliest photograph we have of Charles Heuchmann is circa 1889, the year he married. But I like to picture my great-grandfather two years before that, as a young man arriving at Ellis Island after many long days at sea crossing the tumultuous Atlantic Ocean on a west-bound steamer ship. One among the "poor, tired, huddled masses" seeking to make a new life in a new land; gazing up at the towering Statue of Liberty overlooking New York Harbor as his boat followed its beacon to shore. I don't know what fare my great-grandfather paid for his trans-Atlantic passage; which of his family members watched as he set sail from the shores of Europe; the name of the ship he came on; whether he went first-class or steerage; how long the ship was at sea; if the boat was "Quarantined" at Ellis Island (many boats were) while passengers were examined for infectious diseases; how much money he had in his pocket; if he made the trip alone; whether or not he had friends or connections already living here who took him in and helped give him a start; where he spent his first night in what was According to my mother, who was told by her mother, these are the April 1889 wedding photos of Karl Heuchmann and Karolina Fries Heuchmann. Karl was 25 and Lina 24 when they were married. Notice (if this photo reproduces well) Karl's slicked down and parted hair, the slightly skewed collar and tie, and the slanted pocket in his jacket. You can tell he was a big guy. If you look hard, this photo of Lina is visible in another photo I've included in this book, taken circa 1954 of Joan and Tessie Braband and Lina (then in her 80s-90s) in the Hickman living room. The photo is in the background, framed, atop a bureau behind the three women. to him a strange land; the circumstances of his attaining citizenship; or what he might have had to endure in finding a job and creating the beginnings of a life in a country that was born barely one-hundred years before he arrived, and was truly a wide-open land of opportunity, but not yet the domicile of the fabled American Dream. (NOTE: research into shipping records for boats leaving Germany and/ or arriving in America on May 12, 1887 yielded no information about passenger Karl Heuchmann or the name of the ship he sailed on.) It boggles the mind to think how thoroughly frightened a person in his situation must have been, leaving behind everything and everyone he knew in the land of his birth to sail across the ocean for a country he had never before seen. A land where his native German was spoken only in certain ethnic neighborhoods, but was not the predominant language of the country. Despite the paltry details we know about the circumstances of his actual emigration, a review of the New York Times newspaper for events occurring on the day Karl Heuchmann arrived in America (May 12, 1887) yields some interesting, even humorous information on the temper of the times in his adopted homeland. The front page of the May 13, 1887 edition of The Times (which gave news about the events of the prior day, May 12) indicates that on the day Karl arrived in America, the big event of the day was the unveiling of a statue in Washington, D.C. in honor of former Union Army General and former U.S. President James A. Garfield, slain seven years earlier by an assassin's bullet. Current President Grover Cleveland led a procession down Pennsylvania Avenue to the west end of the Capitol Building, where the $57,000 ten-foot granite statue of Garfield, his "left hand extended in gesture," had been erected on an 18-foot bronze pedestal facing Maryland Avenue. According to The Times, Mrs. Cleveland accompanied her husband, "becomingly dressed in black silk, wearing a black bonnet and carrying a black and white striped parasol." Onlookers and bystanders profusely complimented sculptor J.Q.A. Ward of New York for his fine work on the Garfield monument, even though the statue did not turn out quite perfectly. It seems that whoever carved the inscription screwed up, referring to Garfield as "Senator," not his correct title. The misinformation was to be blotted out, and a new inscription added later to correct the mistake. After the Marine Band played the Star Spangled Banner, President Cleveland himself gave an "impressive" speech, calling the fallen Garfield the "People's President," and his monument a "tribute to American greatness." But he also spoke words of hope to people like Karl Heuchmann who had arrived in this country on that proud and eventful day: "The genius of our national life beckons to usefulness and honor those in every sphere and offers the highest preferment to manly ambition and sturdy, honest efforts, chastened and consecrated by patriotic hopes and aspirations." Yet, I do not know if Karl Heuchmann even spoke English upon his arrival on these shores! Nor if he could read President Cleveland's words as quoted in The Times. If he could read English, no doubt my great-grandfather would have noticed the item on page 3, column 1 of that day's paper: "Policeman O’Brien accused of unjustly clubbing James Duffy for playing an accordion (badly) waived examination in the Yorkville Court yesterday and was held for trial." Or the item further down the column: Thirteen undertakers will be among the guests at tonight's dinner of the Thirteen Club. The members will make big jollification over the fact that the hanging of Peter Smith took place on Thursday instead of Friday." Had he read those items to find out what life was going to be like in his newly adopted homeland, Karl Heuchmann might very well have gotten on the next boat back to Germany and braved the wrath of both Bismarck and The Kaiser! But another item in the bottom right-hand comer of page 3 probably would have led him to stick-it-out. I refer, of course, to the notice about AYERS SARSAPARILLA, touted as "a thoroughly reliable medicine... by which all diseases of an eruptive nature such as Eczema, Erysipelas, Boils, Carbuncles, Pimples, Scrofulous Sores" and other "diseases of the blood" are N effectually cured" by "a remedy you may rely upon." Rev. S.J. Graham of Buckhannon, West Virginia gave his personal testament to 'the miracle elixir, saying: "I never had better health in my life since using Ayers Sarsaparilla!" Druggist A. Stonebraker of Black Jack, Kansas hailed Ayers' brew as "The Blood Purifier of the Nation."
Ayers Sarsaparilla went for $1 a bottle, or a six-pack for $5, and was sold exclusively by reputable Druggists, not just as a remedy for the aforementioned ailments, but also as a cure for scourges such as "Weakness, Weariness, Debility, Loss of Functional Power, Low Spirits (often the precursor of insanity), and all those disorders of mind and body occasioned by worry and overwork." I do not know what my great-grandfather might have thought upon reading about the wondrous uses American medicine had found for a social elixir available in probably every beer garden back in Bavaria. But I do know that Karl Heuchmann did not roam far from where he got off the boat. He settled in New York and lived there for the next 57 years until his death in the latter days of World War II, when his native German homeland was again at war with, and out of favor in, his adopted country. There are conflicting stories circulating in the family to this day about Karl Heuchmann's marriage to my great-grandmother, Karolina Fries. Some hold they were already married when they came to this country. But judging by information in my grandmother's German language prayer book (which gives us the date Karl emigrated/ immigrated), this cannot be the case because Karl Heuchmann and Karolina Fries were married on April 20, 1889, nearly two years after my great grandfather arrived in America. If Karl and Karolina were not married, it would not have been considered proper for her to make the trans-Atlantic journey with him. And after she joined him in America, they had separate residences, as indicated on their marriage certificate, filed with the Borough of Brooklyn that year. My mother remembers hearing that my great-grandfather had made the crossing alone and later sent money back for his bride-to-be to join him. And on their 1889 marriage certificate, they listed separate residences: hers at "252 Stag Street" (the correct spelling is "Stagg") which today runs through both Ridgewood and Bushwick, and his at 51 Monteith Street, which is in Bushwick. Karolina Fries (she referred to herself as "Lina") was born on December 6, 1864 in Germany - in the same town of Schollbrun where Karl was born, according to baptismal records for her children.
Certificate #1686 for the year 1889 in the Borough of Brooklyn is the "Certificate of Marriage" for "Carl Heuchmann" and "Caroline~ Fries," found on microfilm at the New York City Municipal Archives at 31 Chamber Street. The microfilm was in bad shape. This is the clearest image that could be reproduced. In examining the handwriting, I believe both bride and groom penned their names on the top two lines, instead of the minister filling-out the form. Both spelled their first names with a "C," which I would say was their first effort at Americanization. The true Germanic spelling used a "K.” Karl forgot to put the umlaut over the "u" in his last name. The signature of the person attesting to performing the ceremony is illegible, partially concealed by the "Department Of Health" date stamp. However, his "Official Station" indicates he was a "Pastor.” The names of the witnesses appear to be "Adam H. Schlossnick" and "Ernst Karl." it is unknown who they were. However, according to records at St. Aloysius Church in Ridgewood, someone named "Appolonia Karl" was the sponsor and witness ten years later in June 1899 at the baptism of the fifth Hickman child, Joseph. Joseph. And of course, they named their first child "Ernest," possibly in honor of "Ernst Karl." The information on page 2 of the "Certificate Of Marriage" is hard to read. Karl lists his occupation as "Blacksmith," and his parents as "Johann Heuchmann" and "Barbara Fraeg." His death certificate 55 years later shows his mother's name as "Barbara Weinig." Karl's residence at the time of their marriage was at "51 Monteith Street" in Bushwick. Lina listed hers as "252 Stag Street" (correctly spelled as "Stagg), a road which runs through both Bushwick and Ridgewood. Lina's parents are listed as "Sebastian Fries" and "Caroline Schich." (I believe the "C" is an Americanization.) Both Karl and Lina list their place of birth as "Bavaria, Germany." Her parents (my great-grandparents) were Sebastian Fries and Karolina Schick. So, my great-grandmother was named after her mother. And Una's son Peter (the only surviving original Hickman child at the time of this writing) said he believes his mother's father (Sebastian Fries) was a "Burgermeister" (the equivalent of a Mayor) back in Bavaria. After their marriage in America, Karl and Lina rented a series of apartment in multi-family dwellings as they added child after child to their growing family. The first borne my great-grandparents owned was at 1867 DeKalb Avenue in a row of 13 brownstone houses on the north side of the street, between Onderdonk Avenue and Woodward Avenue, a few hundred feet west of the Linden Hill United Cemetery in the Ridgewood section of Queens, New York. Today, the borders of Ridgewood are roughly Myrtle Avenue to the south; Metropolitan Avenue to the north; the Fresh Pond Road vicinity in the east; and in the west, Wyckoff Avenue, which runs in a northwest-to-south-easterly direction. Past Metropolitan Avenue in the north is the East River, and across that, Manhattan Island. (NOTE: in the days when the Hickmans lived on DeKalb Avenue, parts of Ridgewood were officially in Brooklyn, formerly named Kings County. Today, it is all considered Queens, with Wyckoff Avenue as the dividing line between Ridgewood, Queens and the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, which is definitely not considered a nice neighborhood.) DeKalb Avenue, which runs from Bushwick into northern Ridgewood, was named in honor of Major-General Baron Johann DeKalb, a soldier born in Bavaria in 1721 who fought in twenty years of wars in that region from 1743 to 1763. In 1777, during America's war for independence against England, DeKalb (then age 56) sailed across the Atlantic as part of a French mercenary force under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette. He briefly commanded the colonial forces fighting in the south before being mortally wounded in the Battle of Camden, South Carolina, and died in 1780. For many years, the Hickman home on DeKalb Avenue was the site of family gatherings for not only Karl and Lina and their seven first-generation American born children, but 21 second-generation grandchildren, most of whom lived and grew up in the days of The Great Depression. In the years surrounding World War I, with anti-German sentiments running high in America, and German immigrants feeling conspicuous, it was common for German families here to "Americanize" their names.
Thus, "Heuchmann" became "Huckmann” became "Hickmann" during the years after my great-grandfather's arrival in America in 1887. Record keeping being what it was at the time, I believe this name-changing process was unofficial. Through various baptismal records, marriage certificates, death certificates and property deeds I have been able to accumulate, I have managed to construct a rough time frame for the metamorphosis of the family's surname. On my great-grandparents' 1889 Certificate Of Marriage, Charles still wrote his last name as "Heuchmann," which is logical, since he had only immigrated two years before this in 1887. The next piece of documentation I came across was the 1895 baptismal ledger entry for daughter Wilhelmina, on which Charles and Lina wrote their last name as "Hickmann.” So, the Americanization of the surname began in that intervening six-year span. Baptismal records for their fifth and sixth children also show the spelling of "Hickmann" for son Joseph in 1899 and son Andrew in 1901. Later, in 1904, baptismal records for the couple's seventh child, son Peter, list the family's last name as "Huckmann.” And it was still listed as "Huckmann" in March 1913 on the deed conveying ownership of the house at 1867 DeKalb Avenue to the Hickman family. Yet, the 1911 Certificate and Record of Marriage for eldest son Ernest (predating the purchase of the home by two years) shows a return to the spelling of "Hickmann. That same spelling held on the marriage certificates for daughter Teresa (Tessie) in 1912 (also pre-dating the home purchase), daughter Wilhelmina (Minnie) in 1921, son Joseph in 1924 and son Charles Jr. in 1926. (NOTE: One wonders if this change of spellings was a subject talked about and agreed upon within the family, or was perhaps left up to individual preference. At times, I suspect Charles and Lina may have become confused by all the flip-flopping, and unconsciously employed a prior spelling of the surname. It's impossible to say.) By the 1928, however (after the close of World War I), the name was further Americanized and spelled as "Hickman" on the marriage certificate of son Andrew; and again for son Peter, who married five years later in 1933. Eventually, six of his seven grown children in the family adopted the surname spelling of the single-N "Hickman," dropping the last "n" to push a Germanic connection even further away. At her death in 1957, my great-grandmother's death certificate shows her name as "Lina Hickman" (one "n"). But my great-grandfather's 1944 death certificate shows his last name as "Huckmann," a return to the prior spelling, and perhaps a mistaken entry by the medical official who filled-out the form. And at some point after he arrived in America, my great-grandfather also Americanized his _first name from "Karl" to "Charles," a name he bestowed his second son at his birth in 1897. So, it is likely he adopted the name "Charles" fully around or by the time of this son's birth. On his marriage certificate eight years earlier in 1889, he wrote his name as "Carl" (with a 'C' not a 'K'), so the process of leaving the Germanic connotations behind and adapting to his new country was already underway. Karl "Charles" Hickman was a big man, and strong. Peter Hickman remembers that his father (my great-grandfather) worked as blacksmith and wheelwright by trade, repairing the wooden wheels of carts and wagons in the days before the proliferation of the early automobiles. These were times when the term "horse-power" was to be taken literally. My great-grandfather owned his own tradesman shop somewhere in the New York area, but the location has been long since forgotten. His wife Lina kept house, although back in Germany, it is my mother's understanding she worked as a nanny, caring for the children of a wealthy family.
By way of a strong German work ethic, my great-grandparents raised seven children of their own in a solid blue-collar upbringing in their new American homeland. And, while not wealthy, they accomplished this feat in conditions far above a level of poverty. The key to status in society of the early 1900s was the ownership of property. And however they must have scrimped and saved and worked their fingers to the bone to do it in a time before eight-hour work days, five-day work weeks, workers compensation and unemployment benefits, my great-grandparents - after years of living as tenants in rental units owned by others - carne to own property. After hours of research at the City Register's Office in Jamaica, Queens County, New York, poking around a dark, deathly still basement filled with thousands of thick, musty, hundred-year-old ledger books with browning, brittle pages that crinkled and broke at my touch, I finally located information regarding the deed which gave Charles and Lina Hickman ownership of their first home at 1867 DeKalb Avenue. In the "Grantor's Index" for 1912 to 1915, which I then cross-referenced with the "Grantees Index" for that same period of time, I learned that "Charles and Karolina Huckmann" (the spelling listed) bought the single family dwelling at 1867 DeKalb A venue from Frank C. & Mary A. Beckert, et. al. on March 1, 1913. The sale was officially entered and recorded by Queens County two days later. I then used the information in this ledger entry to look-up the actual instrument of sale on microfilm in the City Register's Office. NOTE: Because the copy I obtained from the City Register's Office was printed on cheap thermal paper, which does not reproduce well, I will not reprint the deed here. It is just dry, technical language anyway. However, for anyone who wishes to browse the microfilm, it is on "Liber 1861, Page 329-330.")
The Beckerls and their partners, John and Katharina Glilckert, are listed throughout these old index books as sellers of dozens of properties throughout Queens County. The homes on the various lots in this block of DeKalb Avenue were newly built in the 1911-housing boom in the Ridgewood vicinity, and the Beckerts and Glilckerts were apparently real estate investors who bought-up newly constructed dwellings and then sold them for a profit. Charles and Lina Hickman bought the 19' x 100' lot at 1867 DeKalb Avenue for the sum of $3,000, subject to a mortgage. nformation on the deed also gives the Hickmans' address at the time of this purchase as 2016 Himrod Street, a five-family, 3-story home between Fairview and Grandview avenues, only three blocks south of DeKalb. The Himrod apartment was to be the family's final rented residence. From then on, they would own the home they lived in, fulfilling a basic tenet in the realization of the American Dream.
Thus, "Heuchmann" became "Huckmann” became "Hickmann" during the years after my great-grandfather's arrival in America in 1887. Record keeping being what it was at the time, I believe this name-changing process was unofficial. Through various baptismal records, marriage certificates, death certificates and property deeds I have been able to accumulate, I have managed to construct a rough time frame for the metamorphosis of the family's surname. On my great-grandparents' 1889 Certificate Of Marriage, Charles still wrote his last name as "Heuchmann," which is logical, since he had only immigrated two years before this in 1887. The next piece of documentation I came across was the 1895 baptismal ledger entry for daughter Wilhelmina, on which Charles and Lina wrote their last name as "Hickmann.” So, the Americanization of the surname began in that intervening six-year span. Baptismal records for their fifth and sixth children also show the spelling of "Hickmann" for son Joseph in 1899 and son Andrew in 1901. Later, in 1904, baptismal records for the couple's seventh child, son Peter, list the family's last name as "Huckmann.” And it was still listed as "Huckmann" in March 1913 on the deed conveying ownership of the house at 1867 DeKalb Avenue to the Hickman family. Yet, the 1911 Certificate and Record of Marriage for eldest son Ernest (predating the purchase of the home by two years) shows a return to the spelling of "Hickmann. That same spelling held on the marriage certificates for daughter Teresa (Tessie) in 1912 (also pre-dating the home purchase), daughter Wilhelmina (Minnie) in 1921, son Joseph in 1924 and son Charles Jr. in 1926. (NOTE: One wonders if this change of spellings was a subject talked about and agreed upon within the family, or was perhaps left up to individual preference. At times, I suspect Charles and Lina may have become confused by all the flip-flopping, and unconsciously employed a prior spelling of the surname. It's impossible to say.) By the 1928, however (after the close of World War I), the name was further Americanized and spelled as "Hickman" on the marriage certificate of son Andrew; and again for son Peter, who married five years later in 1933. Eventually, six of his seven grown children in the family adopted the surname spelling of the single-N "Hickman," dropping the last "n" to push a Germanic connection even further away. At her death in 1957, my great-grandmother's death certificate shows her name as "Lina Hickman" (one "n"). But my great-grandfather's 1944 death certificate shows his last name as "Huckmann," a return to the prior spelling, and perhaps a mistaken entry by the medical official who filled-out the form. And at some point after he arrived in America, my great-grandfather also Americanized his _first name from "Karl" to "Charles," a name he bestowed his second son at his birth in 1897. So, it is likely he adopted the name "Charles" fully around or by the time of this son's birth. On his marriage certificate eight years earlier in 1889, he wrote his name as "Carl" (with a 'C' not a 'K'), so the process of leaving the Germanic connotations behind and adapting to his new country was already underway. Karl "Charles" Hickman was a big man, and strong. Peter Hickman remembers that his father (my great-grandfather) worked as blacksmith and wheelwright by trade, repairing the wooden wheels of carts and wagons in the days before the proliferation of the early automobiles. These were times when the term "horse-power" was to be taken literally. My great-grandfather owned his own tradesman shop somewhere in the New York area, but the location has been long since forgotten. His wife Lina kept house, although back in Germany, it is my mother's understanding she worked as a nanny, caring for the children of a wealthy family.
By way of a strong German work ethic, my great-grandparents raised seven children of their own in a solid blue-collar upbringing in their new American homeland. And, while not wealthy, they accomplished this feat in conditions far above a level of poverty. The key to status in society of the early 1900s was the ownership of property. And however they must have scrimped and saved and worked their fingers to the bone to do it in a time before eight-hour work days, five-day work weeks, workers compensation and unemployment benefits, my great-grandparents - after years of living as tenants in rental units owned by others - carne to own property. After hours of research at the City Register's Office in Jamaica, Queens County, New York, poking around a dark, deathly still basement filled with thousands of thick, musty, hundred-year-old ledger books with browning, brittle pages that crinkled and broke at my touch, I finally located information regarding the deed which gave Charles and Lina Hickman ownership of their first home at 1867 DeKalb Avenue. In the "Grantor's Index" for 1912 to 1915, which I then cross-referenced with the "Grantees Index" for that same period of time, I learned that "Charles and Karolina Huckmann" (the spelling listed) bought the single family dwelling at 1867 DeKalb A venue from Frank C. & Mary A. Beckert, et. al. on March 1, 1913. The sale was officially entered and recorded by Queens County two days later. I then used the information in this ledger entry to look-up the actual instrument of sale on microfilm in the City Register's Office. NOTE: Because the copy I obtained from the City Register's Office was printed on cheap thermal paper, which does not reproduce well, I will not reprint the deed here. It is just dry, technical language anyway. However, for anyone who wishes to browse the microfilm, it is on "Liber 1861, Page 329-330.")
The Beckerls and their partners, John and Katharina Glilckert, are listed throughout these old index books as sellers of dozens of properties throughout Queens County. The homes on the various lots in this block of DeKalb Avenue were newly built in the 1911-housing boom in the Ridgewood vicinity, and the Beckerts and Glilckerts were apparently real estate investors who bought-up newly constructed dwellings and then sold them for a profit. Charles and Lina Hickman bought the 19' x 100' lot at 1867 DeKalb Avenue for the sum of $3,000, subject to a mortgage. nformation on the deed also gives the Hickmans' address at the time of this purchase as 2016 Himrod Street, a five-family, 3-story home between Fairview and Grandview avenues, only three blocks south of DeKalb. The Himrod apartment was to be the family's final rented residence. From then on, they would own the home they lived in, fulfilling a basic tenet in the realization of the American Dream.
www.JosephHickman.com