Palatine’s Haemker family celebrates reunion
On Sunday, July 14, Chuck and Margie Anderson held a Haemker family reunion picnic at their home in Palatine. It was the first Haemker family reunion since 1983, when the family gathered at the Palatine Legion Hall. Relatives came from as far as Florida and Iowa, to participate. One couple attending had just moved back to Palatine from California.
As far back as the Andersons know, the Haemker family started with Gottleib Haemker born in Schaumburg, Germany, around 1840, who married Engel Sarges. They came to America in 1867, and had 9 children. The oldest child was Fred who married Bertha Toppel and they had 13 children.
Fred was a farmer, a saloon keeper, a sausage maker, owned a threshing machine and was a house mover. After their first child Herman was born, they moved to a farm at the end of Palatine Road at Algonquin Road where the second child Minnie was born.
They moved several times: To Highland Grovenear, the Henry Bruns farm; next was a farm on Frost Road (Herman Arndt Farm); then to Rohlwing Farm, in Highland Grove, for two years. The next home was a tavern on Algonquin Road, west of Little City, between Roselle and Ela roads, the building is still there. The last move was to North Plum Grove and Robinson streets, in Palatine.
All the boys helped their dad with the house moving business which was continued by Fred Jr. Many of the photos of buildings and houses being moved are in several businesses and at the Palatine Historical Society.
Familiar Palatine area names from the Haemker family include Dierker (Chuck’s grandmother was Minnie Haemker Dierker), Anderson, Hartman, Harnfeldt, Popp, Wiehrdt, Herschlag, Hildebrandt, Stoekel, Meyer, Wichman, Helgeson, Irons, Frohne, and many, more.
The picnic was a big success, lots of photos, stories and laughs were shared. All received updates on where relatives are living, along with children, marriages and new grandchildren.
The Haemker Family plans for another get together next June, hoping to add some more relatives.
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