The Hardick Page

The founding father of the Hardiecks in Millstadt (IL, USA) is Johan Friedrich Hardeick. According to the records he was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

This is wrong: he is the only son of Johan Friedrich Hardieck and Anna Dorothea Scherenberg and his name is Johan Diderich Caspar Hardieck.

His father was born in Versmold, Germany as the seventh child of Johann Dietrich Johann Hardieck and Margaretha Elisabeth Kammeier. He went to Eibergen (the Netherlands) with his uncle Johan Friedrich Kammeijer in 1833. He worked on the summer estate (huis Wisch link goes to Dutch Wkipedia article) of Mr. Constant Siegismund Wilhelm Jacob, baron van Nagell as a coachman and probably met his wife there who was a domestic servant. Marriage place and date are unknown but in 1849 their son was born in Ambt Doetinchem (The Netherlands). In 1851 they left for the USA (listed as Hardijk in SWIERENGA, ROBERT P, compiler. Dutch Emigrants to the United States, South Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia, 1835-1880: An Alphabetical Listing by Household Heads and Independent Persons. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1983. 346p).

Their port of arrival is unknown but was probably New Orleans as Anna Dorothea died there in 1858 (Haddick,  Dorothea Scherenberg,  38 yrs, F(emale), W(idowed) , died 8/31/1858, 19, 372 in New Orleans).

The orphaned Johan Diderich Caspar was taken in by his uncle and aunt William Otten and Anna Elisabetha Scherenberg. Most likely they did not know exactly where he was born (and his name?) and so it happend that he is listed as born in Amsterdam with the name of his father.

There is one more notable thing about this family: the daughter of Johan Diderich Caspar (aka Johan Friedrich) is mentioned in three newspaper articles. Dora Hardieck was engaged to Albert Rodemich, brother-in-law of Fred Baltz. Mayor of Mlllsladt, Ill., and son of Fred Rodemlch, a wealthy farmer living on the outskirts of the town. In January 1908 she sued him for $10.000 when he broke the engagement. The cause was him playing the clarinet and later his romance with Mary Fischer, who he met while rehearsing with the village band in the hall above her father’s business. The claim was high because of the fact that during the four year romance Dora Hardeick did not work:

Miss Hardelck’s father Is a miner with a large family, and he is bitter against her one-time suitor. “I have a large family to support,” he said, “and Rodemich wouldn’t let me send Dora to St. Louis to work, because he said he couldn’t bear to have her so far away from him. She has lost four years of work on his account.”

Alfred and Mary maried on Feb 25 and in April 1908 Dora dismissed her claim and got $150. [Source: St. Louis Post- Dispatch Jan 25, and 26 and Apr 22, 1908] In 1914 she married William Jacob Lindauer.

The search for this family took 15 years and involved many people: Erwin Redeker (Versmold), who showed us a travel document of Johan Friedrich from Versmold to Eibergen, Alise Streutker who made the connection between Hardijk en Hardieck, Donald Hardiek of Teutopolis who made pictures of the tombstones, Robert Buecher (St. Louis) who found obituaries and finally Kathy Wieland (St. Louis) who made a copy of the book "Kruse, Hardeick and related Families. Compiled and published 1974 by Mrs. Dennis Fletcher" and mailed the newspaper articles about Dora Hardeick.