Grandpa Henkel -- More Family History

Grandpa Henkel was born 153 years ago in Germany on Halloween evening. He was christened "Anton Henkel" on All Souls Day, 1873 by Father Mönnichs in Cobbenrode. I was lucky to know him until he breathed his last among the Carmelite Sisters at St. Luke's Infirmary at Centralia, Washington in 1963.

It's strange. Grandpa started out as a Catholic, and ended up as a Catholic, but he was no Catholic. So far as I know, he just didn't care about all of that. But at the age of ten, what did I know? Not much.

When he was six years old, in 1879, Anton Henkel migrated to Loretto Tennessee with his family. There he was was named Anthony Frank. Later, he was just Frank Henkel. In Loretto, he knew his birthplace was in Germany, but in his adult life, he conveniently forgot all of that and consistently reported his birthplace to be Loretto, Tennessee. That lie expressed his desire to be known as an American. The stories surrounding the lie create the legend of Grandpa Frank Henkel. While I knew him, he was in his eighties and was a quiet man. His story came to me from my mother.

Frank, or Tony as he was known in Tennessee, came of age in 1891. As the oldest son in the John Henkel family, he was sent to a seminary to become a Catholic priest. I happen to be living proof that it didn't work out according to John Henkel's plan. What did occur is that Frank decided the priesthood was not for him and he left the seminary. But he did not return home. He ventured West, riding the rails and finding work along the way with the railroad and in lumber mills. To me, the story was mythic; my Grandpa was the hero in his own story. Upon his death in 1963, I was given his Elgin pocket watch, which ticked in his pocket for decades. Mom described it as his railroad watch. It is a prized possession and still ticking.

In 1910, when he was 36 years old, he married a girl of 18, Elsie Roney, who became my grandmother. Frank was a strong-willed person, but so too was Elsie. Prior to agreeing to the marriage, she insisted that Frank write to his family in Tennessee, so that they might recommend him for the marriage! The result was an enthusiastic letter from his sister Lizzie, who said that he had been a good boy in Tennessee. She and her family were happy to hear that he was alive and seeking a good marriage. She wished the couple well, and said she hoped to see them sometime. That was Frank's first contact with the family since he left the seminary nineteen years earlier.

When Mom was a young child, she coaxed her dad to teach her some German words. He always rebuffed her saying, "I don't know any German. I'm an American, born in Tennessee." She had been born in 1916 amidst the First World War. It was a good time to be an American, and not a German in the United States. His lie served him and his family well.

In Mom's childhood years, before the Great Depression, Frank Henkel was a lumberman who owned his own sawmill. He employed a small crew, and he was reasonably prosperous. In 1927, he bought a new Model T Ford and embarked on a road trip with his family of four from Centralia, Washington to Loretto, Tennessee, a distance of more than 2500 miles.

For Mom, the trip to Tennessee was the adventure of a lifetime, and she enjoyed recounting the tale. After enduring poor roads, flat tires, and sleeping on the ground. Frank, Elsie and their two girls arrived in the farmyard of John Henkel and family. As my mother told the tale, the yard was swarming with children. Frank had pridefully printed calling cards for himself. He handed his calling card to one of the older boys and said, "Take this in the house, and see if anyone knows this fellow."

The boy excitedly replied, "Oh sir, I know they surely will!" and then ran to the house with the card. Such was the beginning of a two-week stay with a multitude of kin in Loretto, Tennessee.

Mom soon got a new life lesson, as she found that her father had been quite capable of telling a decades old fib. Upon meeting her grandfather, John Henkel, she learned that he spoke only German! And instantly, her father began to speak fluent German, despite the claim that he knew only English. She particularly appreciated getting to know her Aunt Lizzie who told her, "Well Tony certainly knows where he came from! He was six years old and on that boat with me. Of course he knew he was born in Germany."

Mom connected some other parts of the story then. When discussing schoolwork, her dad had told her that he did fine in school, except for first grade. First grade was awfully hard. He had to spend three years in first grade before he could advance to second grade. "Well," she would say, "of course it was hard. He couldn't do his school work if he didn't speak any English. After spending three years learning English, he did fine!"

In 2001 and 2017 I visited kin in Loretto Tennessee. On my first trip there, I spent considerable time in the local library. It was there that my my story of Grandpa Henkel got a new twist. It happened that the librarian on staff there was a Henkel. I told her of my adventurous and industrious grandfather, who rode the rails and made his own life. She knew the family history and quickly recognized who I was talking about, saying, "Oh! He's the one who left!" And instantly, I saw my mythic grandfather in another light.

With good fortune, I recently found the baptismal record for Grandpa Henkel at Matricula Online. With even more good fortune, my friend Klaus Ziemann interpretted the ancient German cursive for me:

Related Posts:

• Grandpa Henkel
• Cousins Meet in Loretto Tennessee
• LaRue Henkel McGuire Oral History
• LaRue Henkel McGuire Oral History Part 2

Photo Gallery

Grandpa and Grandma Henkel in 1961 at Centralia Washington with me and my sisters Carol and Nadine

Frank Henkel and his daughters Bernice and LaRue (my mother) in 1926?

Frank and Elsie Henkel wedding photo, 1910.

Frank and Elsie Henkel 50th wedding anniversary, 1960.

Window at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Loretto, Tennessee

The home of John Henkel (my great grandfather) built at Loretto, Tennessee in 1889. This is the home Grandpa and family visited in 1927.

Comments