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The Second Generation
Andreas Schwenk, Weaver/Councilman

In May of 1641 when Andreas was born, times were not peaceful nor prosperous in Laichingen. On the contrary. The Thirty Year's War still raged, and a peace agreement would not be made until Andreas reached his seventh birthday. The population of this community in 1634, just before the bloodiest part of the war struck Laichingen and the surrounding areas, stood at around 1200; casualties resulting from combat and later the plague and hunger left Laichingen with only 270 people in the year 1652. That is a loss of about 77 percent of the population. It is not known how many people actually died; many fled to the protection of walled cities such as Ulm and Urach.

When Andreas was a little boy, most of the fields surrounding the village lay in waste. Without the flax grown on those fields, the weaving industry in Laichingen came to a halt and very nearly perished. When the conflict ended in 1648, many families moved to Laichingen from Swizerland, the upper parts of Austria and from villages in the Swabian region to fill up the vacuum caused by this depopulation. Several of those 50 or so families moving in from neighboring villages in Swabia were our direct ancestors.

One of those was Georg Sauter from Nellingen, a village about 7 miles NE of there. He was a baker and brewer. He and wife Waldburga apparently moved in before 1648, for he was honored by the community for his heroism in the spring of 1647. Rather than this writer try to describe what followed, let us have the author of a series of three booklets on the history Laichingen published in about 1964 tell this story directly.

Georg Sauter Saves the Church Buildings

In the spring of 1647, the Swedish and French armies moved toward Bavaria; 25 French members of a regiment marched through Schelklingen. What remained of Merklingen, Nellingen and Oppingen were set afire, Geislingen was plundered. On the return march, a number of French troops spent ten days in Laichingen, burned the oak plank beneath the gate leading to the churchyard, likewise the stairs of the church tower and the church buildings ( fuel for their campfires ). The church became their main quarters; their campfires glowed in the cemetery and on Weiten Street. Upon their departure, the troops failed to extinguish the fireplace flames in the church buildings, and these began to burn out of control, whereupon Georg Sauter appeared and extinguished the flames, he being the only person remaining in the community at that moment. Georg Sauter later became the keeper of the Rad Inn and received a 40 Kreuzer reward for the saving of our church buildings."

In June of 1995, Richard L. Schwenk and wife Caring stayed overnight in the very same Rad Inn mentioned above. Little did they know then that one of Richard's ancestors had been the proprietor some 300 plus years earlier! About one week later, they returned to Laichingen and stayed at the Hotel Krehl. A hotel clerk, upon seeing their names, asked, "Is your name Schwenk? There are lots - no many Schwenks in Laichingen." This kind lady then phoned a Holger Schwenk, local attorney who speaks English. Later that day, Holger introduced Richard and Caring to his uncle, Heinrich C. Schwenk. And that is the serendipity or God's will, or both - as Richard has described those events - which led us to learn of our distant cousins in Laichingen! And now back to the Sauter family.

St. Alban Church 2 St. Alban Church in Laichingen

One of the children of George and Waldburga Sauter was a daughter named Barbara. She was born in November of 1641, probably in Nellingen. She and Andreas Schwenk became more than friends and on May 17, 1664 in the St. Alban Church in Laichingen said their vows. Here is what the pastor entered into the marriage register:

"1664 May 17th, Tuesday before Ehrenfronis Tag was consecrated in the local church, Andreas, son of Conrad Schwenckh, weaver, and Barbara, the daughter of Jerg Sauter, innkeeper and baker."

Directly beneath that entry, the pastor entered a three-line postscript, indicating this couple had made a "pilgrimage" to the higher church authorities in Urach, an administrative city about 14 miles west of there, to seek permission to marry earlier that year (in March as can be best determined). Permission to marry then was denied. Reasons not given in the postscript. Andreas was not quite age 23 in March. Perhaps the denial had to do with his age. People wishing to marry at that time in the Duchy of Württemberg had to receive permission from the church authorities (all communities under the rule of the House of W_rttemberg were Lutheran since 1534). In any event, permission was apparently granted later sometime before May 17th. Then on the right margin of the marriage entry, we find the following words:

" Born on October 15th a son, 1664, in the twenty-second week following the marriage."

And then in different handwriting, directly below the above entry:

" Finally, in the month of May, 1667, she paid 12 days penitence in the local Häuslin."

Häuslin translates literally to "little house." It is almost certain this term was the local vernacular for what we sometimes call the "hoosegow", "can" or jail. This incident illustrates the dim view held by the spiritual community of a newly wedded couple whose first child arrived too soon after the wedding. We must keep in mind that this was not long after the end of the 30 Year's War. The Church was doing its best to bring back prewar standards of morality. Those years of horror and deprivation had caused what German historians call, a Verwilderung, a return to a wild or savage state. And so Barbara's 12 day stay in the Laichingen hoosegow reflected the Church's thinking at that time.

That little first-born was christened Johannes. The father, in the birth register, was noted as, "young Andreas Schwenckh, weaver." So now we know he followed his father's trade. The "young" prefix, but sometimes placed after the name, "the younger", was to identify him from other Andreas Schwenks of Laichingen. A few years later, another Andreas Schwenk married a Barbara and began having babies. One can imagine the grief caused to the researcher trying to sort out the children born to our Andreas and Barbara from the couple with the same names. Only sporadically would the parson add the word "young" by our Andreas' name. Fortunately, he did insert Sauter as Barbara's maiden name!

Here below is printed all ten of the children born to Andreas and Barbara:

1. Johannes: b 15 Oct 1664 --- d 21 Dec 1667
2. Johann Georg: b 20 Oct 1665 --- d 1665
3. Andreas: b 19 Oct 1666 --- d 28 Jan 1667
4. Conrad: b 17 Oct 1667 --- d 21 Sept 1754
5. Georg: b 9 Feb 1669 --- d bef. Oct 1736
6. Bernhard: b 14 Apr 1670 --- d 1670
7. Bernhard: b 8 Sept 1672 --- More later
8. Ursula: b 9 Oct 1673 --- d 21 Nov 1741
9. Andreas: b 1674 --- d 1674
10 Anna Maria: b 5 Feb 1679 --- d 1679

As you can see, this was a home in which the cradle never stopped rocking, nor the diapers ever tucked away. Four of the children survived and married. Before we learn a little about their lives, let us see what the pastor had to say upon the death of the first-born, Johannes. He made an entry alongside the original birth entry of Johannes. He noted the date and time of death of this little three year old and referred to him as, "Dieses Pfeifferlin , which translates literally to, " this little whistler", and suggests a cheerful little personality.

The Four Surviving Children of Andreas and Barbara

Conrad. Born Nov. 17, 1667, was a weaver and town council member. His first marriage was with Anna Maria Bucz (sp.?) in February of 1691. She died in 1729. He remarried on Nov. 17, 1729 to Apollonia, daughter of Johann Mangold. No search was made to record the children born in these two marriages, but a son Conrad was born on the 20th of October, 1732.

On April 3, 1752, a certain pastor Bredtt in Laichingen was very busy writing letters to his superiors in Urach. The subject of one of those was young Conrad Schwenk above. He wanted to marry an Ursula Mangold, age 21. Conrad was then only 19. His age was the problem. It seems that the father Conrad, then age 85, wanted to turn over his property to his young son "before his end" should come. The pastor's penmanship would have won no awards and so the deciphering was difficult. The original which went to Urach may have been more legible than the copy which he scribbled into the church books; in any event, nothing was discerned in the copy which suggested any problem other than the young age of the would-be groom. Close consanguinity of Conrad and Ursula was not mentioned. Apparently Urach gave its approval, for on August 1st of that year, the two were married. Here is their common kinship: Andreas Schwenk 1641 > Georg 1669 > Ursula 1697 > Ursula Mangold 1731. Andreas Schwenk 1641 > Conrad 1667 > Conrad 1732. Thus, the bride and groom were first cousins once removed. Now, keep in mind the wedding date of Aug. 1, 1752. Other interesting events occurred on that date. We will learn of those later.

Conrad, son of Andreas, died on Sept. 21, 1754, nearly to the age of 87, but lived to see his young son marry.

Georg. Born on Feb. 9, 1669. On Oct. 6, 1689, he married Ursula, the daughter of the late Johann Laur, former weaver in Laichingen. Through the year 1705, they brought seven children into the world. One of those was Andreas. We learned earlier that he took over the Konrad Schwenk weaving company as CEO # 3 from his probable great uncle, Andreas Schwenk.

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One of those seven children was Ursula, christened Anna Ursula. She was born on March 9, 1697. At age 22, she married Hans Jerg Mangold, a farmer, weaver and attorney in Laichingen. That wedding took place on Oct. 3, 1719. Now the story get weirder and weirder. We have already learned about one of Hans and Ursula's children in the preceding paragraphs, the Ursula who married the grandson of our Andreas. But another daughter, Anna Maria, born on Sept. 2, 1721, would later become one of our direct ancestors! She would marry an Andreas Ostertag in 1742 and they would have a daughter would later marry one of our Schwenk ancestors. Let us wait until Generation # 4 to see that connection.

Ursula, daughter of Georg, who had married Hans Jerg Mangold, brought eight children into the world. Two were just mentioned. On Dec. 10, 1738, she was widowed with the early death of Hans Jerg, then only age 40. She was left with three children to care for, but she did not remarry until her youngest, Ursula, was old enough to marry. That was in 1752. And now we return to the parsonage library to find Pastor Bredtt writing this second letter to his superiors in Urach. He had just finished writing the letter concerning that 19 year old Conrad Schwenk and the 21 year old Ursula Mangold. Now it seems another Schwenk wanted to marry a Mangold woman. This time, age was not the problem, rather a possibly too close consanguinity. The would-be groom was Johannes Schwenk, widow, age 65. Remember him? He was the son of Heinrich, younger brother of our Andreas. He wanted to marry Ursula Mangold, then age 55, the daughter of Georg Schwenk and widow of Hans Jerg Mangold. Herr Bredtt drew a diagram in his letter showing the kinship of each of the two. Conrad Schwenk 1601 >Joh. Heinrich 1645 >Johannes 1687. Conrad Schwenk 1601 >Andreas 1641 >Georg 1669 >Ursula 1697. Once again, Pastor Bredtt's superiors said, "okay." And so on Aug. 1, 1752, a mother and daughter married their first cousins, once removed; three of the four were born with the Schwenk name.

But this little tale is not over. On the very same date in the same church, another Schwenk said his vows. This time, Pastor Bredtt had no need to seek special dispensation for the pair. The groom was Peter Schwenk; the bride was Christina Gauss. Peter belonged to the Schwenk Schreiner clan of Laichingen. And as it turned out, Peter and Christina are direct ancestors of our cousin Elsbeth Schwenk-Schwahn! August 1, 1752. What an interesting day that was!

Now back to Georg. When his wife died on Oct. 1, 1736, at the age of 68, she was shown as a widow of Georg Schwenk, weaver and Maierbauer This term was used to describe a large farmer. And so it seems that Georg was a very prosperous man in the community. His death date could not be found.

Bernhard . Born Sept. 8, 1672. Ours. The central character in the next chapter. Ursula . Born Oct. 9, 1673. She married on June 11, 1694 to Georg Schloder of Laichingen. A search for children of this marriage was not made. She died on Nov. 21, 1741 in Laichingen.

And now back to Andreas and Barbara. They nearly got lost in the shuffle. It is painfully difficult to try to paint a complete picture of Andreas and his life when all there is to paint with are a few scribbled entries in the birth, marriage and death registers; All we can do is sketch an outline. If one could visit the town hall in Laichingen and get permission to peruse the old tax records, property sales and citizenship records, a more complete picture would emerge. For now it seems we'll have to be content with what the church books reveal. This holds not only for Andreas but for all the generations down to our immigrant ancestors.

In 1665, when baby Johann Georg was christened, Andreas was a "Weber und Haus Metzg ." Translated: Weaver and house butcher. In those days a villager butchered right on the street directly in front of his house, or hired someone to do this. Keep in mind that part of the ground floor of the residence contained stalls for livestock and still does today in agrarian communities. A regular "Metzger" or butcher conducted his business (and still does) in the ground floor of his residence; in other words a regular retail store. A "Haus Metzger" would be one who goes to the customer's home to provide the butchering service, a "custom butcher" he is called - at least in the western United States.

In 1666 with the birth of his third child, only "weaver" appeared by his name. "Haus Metzger" is not mentioned again. Apparently our Andreas gave up this sideline job of butchering. We know that later he became a member of the town council.

His name was seen often in the birth registers as Godfather. In the search for Elsbeth Schwenk-Schwahn's ancestry, he was found to have been Godfather for all eight of the children born to her Georg Schwenk (b 1650). It is interesting to speculate whether Georg and Andreas were first cousins or just good friends. If their paternal grandfathers, Jörg Schwenk, schreiner and Andreas Schwenk, weaver were indeed brothers, then they were more than just good friends.

Andreas' life came to an end on April 10, 1709 in his home village. The simple, brief entry (the pastor at that time entered nothing but brief entries) went as follows:

On the 10th of this month, Andreas Schwenk, local RathsG. died. Age 68, less 3 weeks. After the funeral sermon was held, he received a Christian burial.

That is all that was written. "Raths G." , abbreviated for Rathsgemeinde translates to town council member. No reference to his apparent principal occupation of weaver. However, for the sake of brevity, many pastors entered the most prestigeful position held by the deceased. But we do know from those few words that Barbara was still living, otherwise "widower" would have followed his name. A search subsequent to this 1709 date yielded the following:

CONTINUE


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	The Second Generation Andreas Schwenk, Weaver/Councilman
	In May of 1641 when Andreas was born, times were not peaceful nor prosperous in Laichingen. On the contrary. The Thirty Year's War still raged, and a peace agreement would not be made until Andreas reached his seventh birthday. The population of this community in 1634, just before the bloodiest part of the war struck Laichingen and the surrounding areas, stood at around 1200; casualties resulting from combat and later the plague and hunger left Laichingen with only 270 people in the year 1652. That is a loss of about 77 percent of the population. It is not known how many people actually died; many fled to the protection of walled cities such as Ulm and Urach. When Andreas was a little boy, most of the fields surrounding the village lay in waste. Without the flax grown on those fields, the weaving industry in Laichingen came to a halt and very nearly perished. When the conflict ended in 1648, many families moved to Laichingen from Swizerland, the upper parts of Austria and from villages in the Swabian region to fill up the vacuum caused by this depopulation. Several of those 50 or so families moving in from neighboring villages in Swabia were our direct ancestors. One of those was Georg Sauter from Nellingen, a village about 7 miles NE of there. He was a baker and brewer. He and wife Waldburga apparently moved in before 1648, for he was honored by the community for his heroism in the spring of 1647. Rather than this writer try to describe what followed, let us have the author of a series of three booklets on the history Laichingen published in about 1964 tell this story directly. Georg Sauter Saves the Church Buildings In the spring of 1647, the Swedish and French armies moved toward Bavaria; 25 French members of a regiment marched through Schelklingen. What remained of Merklingen, Nellingen and Oppingen were set afire, Geislingen was plundered. On the return march, a number of French troops spent ten days in Laichingen, burned the oak plank beneath the gate leading to the churchyard, likewise the stairs of the church tower and the church buildings ( fuel for their campfires ). The church became their main quarters; their campfires glowed in the cemetery and on Weiten Street. Upon their departure, the troops failed to extinguish the fireplace flames in the church buildings, and these began to burn out of control, whereupon Georg Sauter appeared and extinguished the flames, he being the only person remaining in the community at that moment. Georg Sauter later became the keeper of the Rad Inn and received a 40 Kreuzer reward for the saving of our church buildings." In June of 1995, Richard L. Schwenk and wife Caring stayed overnight in the very same Rad Inn mentioned above. Little did they know then that one of Richard's ancestors had been the proprietor some 300 plus years earlier! About one week later, they returned to Laichingen and stayed at the Hotel Krehl. A hotel clerk, upon seeing their names, asked, "Is your name Schwenk? There are lots - no many Schwenks in Laichingen." This kind lady then phoned a Holger Schwenk, local attorney who speaks English. Later that day, Holger introduced Richard and Caring to his uncle, Heinrich C. Schwenk. And that is the serendipity or God's will, or both - as Richard has described those events - which led us to learn of our distant cousins in Laichingen! And now back to the Sauter family. St. Alban Church in Laichingen One of the children of George and Waldburga Sauter was a daughter named Barbara. She was born in November of 1641, probably in Nellingen. She and Andreas Schwenk became more than friends and on May 17, 1664 in the St. Alban Church in Laichingen said their vows. Here is what the pastor entered into the marriage register: "1664 May 17th, Tuesday before Ehrenfronis Tag was consecrated in the local church, Andreas, son of Conrad Schwenckh, weaver, and Barbara, the daughter of Jerg Sauter, innkeeper and baker." Directly beneath that entry, the pastor entered a three-line postscript, indicating this couple had made a "pilgrimage" to the higher church authorities in Urach, an administrative city about 14 miles west of there, to seek permission to marry earlier that year (in March as can be best determined). Permission to marry then was denied. Reasons not given in the postscript. Andreas was not quite age 23 in March. Perhaps the denial had to do with his age. People wishing to marry at that time in the Duchy of Württemberg had to receive permission from the church authorities (all communities under the rule of the House of W_rttemberg were Lutheran since 1534). In any event, permission was apparently granted later sometime before May 17th. Then on the right margin of the marriage entry, we find the following words: " Born on October 15th a son, 1664, in the twenty-second week following the marriage." And then in different handwriting, directly below the above entry: " Finally, in the month of May, 1667, she paid 12 days penitence in the local Häuslin." Häuslin translates literally to "little house." It is almost certain this term was the local vernacular for what we sometimes call the "hoosegow", "can" or jail. This incident illustrates the dim view held by the spiritual community of a newly wedded couple whose first child arrived too soon after the wedding. We must keep in mind that this was not long after the end of the 30 Year's War. The Church was doing its best to bring back prewar standards of morality. Those years of horror and deprivation had caused what German historians call, a Verwilderung, a return to a wild or savage state. And so Barbara's 12 day stay in the Laichingen hoosegow reflected the Church's thinking at that time. That little first-born was christened Johannes. The father, in the birth register, was noted as, "young Andreas Schwenckh, weaver." So now we know he followed his father's trade. The "young" prefix, but sometimes placed after the name, "the younger", was to identify him from other Andreas Schwenks of Laichingen. A few years later, another Andreas Schwenk married a Barbara and began having babies. One can imagine the grief caused to the researcher trying to sort out the children born to our Andreas and Barbara from the couple with the same names. Only sporadically would the parson add the word "young" by our Andreas' name. Fortunately, he did insert Sauter as Barbara's maiden name! Here below is printed all ten of the children born to Andreas and Barbara: 1. Johannes: b 15 Oct 1664 --- d 21 Dec 1667 2. Johann Georg: b 20 Oct 1665 --- d 1665 3. Andreas: b 19 Oct 1666 --- d 28 Jan 1667 4. Conrad: b 17 Oct 1667 --- d 21 Sept 1754 5. Georg: b 9 Feb 1669 --- d bef. Oct 1736 6. Bernhard: b 14 Apr 1670 --- d 1670 7. Bernhard: b 8 Sept 1672 --- More later 8. Ursula: b 9 Oct 1673 --- d 21 Nov 1741 9. Andreas: b 1674 --- d 1674 10 Anna Maria: b 5 Feb 1679 --- d 1679 As you can see, this was a home in which the cradle never stopped rocking, nor the diapers ever tucked away. Four of the children survived and married. Before we learn a little about their lives, let us see what the pastor had to say upon the death of the first-born, Johannes. He made an entry alongside the original birth entry of Johannes. He noted the date and time of death of this little three year old and referred to him as, "Dieses Pfeifferlin , which translates literally to, " this little whistler", and suggests a cheerful little personality. The Four Surviving Children of Andreas and Barbara Conrad. Born Nov. 17, 1667, was a weaver and town council member. His first marriage was with Anna Maria Bucz (sp.?) in February of 1691. She died in 1729. He remarried on Nov. 17, 1729 to Apollonia, daughter of Johann Mangold. No search was made to record the children born in these two marriages, but a son Conrad was born on the 20th of October, 1732. On April 3, 1752, a certain pastor Bredtt in Laichingen was very busy writing letters to his superiors in Urach. The subject of one of those was young Conrad Schwenk above. He wanted to marry an Ursula Mangold, age 21. Conrad was then only 19. His age was the problem. It seems that the father Conrad, then age 85, wanted to turn over his property to his young son "before his end" should come. The pastor's penmanship would have won no awards and so the deciphering was difficult. The original which went to Urach may have been more legible than the copy which he scribbled into the church books; in any event, nothing was discerned in the copy which suggested any problem other than the young age of the would-be groom. Close consanguinity of Conrad and Ursula was not mentioned. Apparently Urach gave its approval, for on August 1st of that year, the two were married. Here is their common kinship: Andreas Schwenk 1641 > Georg 1669 > Ursula 1697 > Ursula Mangold 1731. Andreas Schwenk 1641 > Conrad 1667 > Conrad 1732. Thus, the bride and groom were first cousins once removed. Now, keep in mind the wedding date of Aug. 1, 1752. Other interesting events occurred on that date. We will learn of those later. Conrad, son of Andreas, died on Sept. 21, 1754, nearly to the age of 87, but lived to see his young son marry. Georg. Born on Feb. 9, 1669. On Oct. 6, 1689, he married Ursula, the daughter of the late Johann Laur, former weaver in Laichingen. Through the year 1705, they brought seven children into the world. One of those was Andreas. We learned earlier that he took over the Konrad Schwenk weaving company as CEO # 3 from his probable great uncle, Andreas Schwenk.