Connie Jo (Merck) Parker, 1949-2009

Connie Jo (Merck) Parker passed away in her sleep Monday, 12 January 2009, at her home in Jacksonville AR. Her mother and I love her and miss her.

Obituary

Dan Whalen - Interim President of Saint John's University

Dan Whalen (grandson of Anthony J. Merck), a 1970 graduate of Saint John's University ( www.csbsju.edu), has been named interim president of Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota. The announcement was made October 21st to the campus community by Jim Frey, chair of the Board of Regents. "I am certain that Dan's leadership will inspire the trust and confidence of everyone in the Saint John's community", said Frey.

Whalen replaces Br. Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, president emeritus of Saint John's University, who announced his resignation on Oct. 16. "Dan is a remarkably kind and generous man," said Reinhart. "His willingness to serve as interim president of Saint John's University reflects a deep love and gratitude for the educational community that has nurtured his heart and fired his desire to make a difference in the world. The leadership of Saint John's could not be in better hands!"

"I cannot fill Br. Dietrich's shoes. No one can," said Whalen. "But thanks to Br. Dietrich's remarkable leadership, Saint John's is a strong and resilient institution. I am excited about joining the first class leadership team that he put together. And I am pleased to join the partnership with Dr. MaryAnn Baenninger and the College of Saint Benedict."

"Dan Whalen is an excellent choice for interim president of Saint John's," said MaryAnn Baenninger, president of the College of Saint Benedict. "I've had the pleasure of working with Dan during his time as chair of the Board of Regents, and I look forward to working with him again as interim president. Dan is a man of character, creativity and compassion. He has a great wit, and a warm, welcoming sense of humor. He understands and supports Br. Dietrich's vision. I look forward to having Dan as a partner in the coordinate relationship between College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University."

Whalen grew up in Argyle, Minn. and East Grand Forks, Minn., where he, after attending Saint John's Preparatory School for one year, graduated from Sacred Heart High School. In the mid-1960s, Whalen, his mother and his siblings moved to St. Cloud, Minn. Whalen attended Saint John's University and majored in government.

Merck/Eberle Letters in der Staats-Anzeiger

Additional letters that appeared in der Staats-Anzeiger German language newspaper have recently been translated. Joseph Merck, after having been in North Dakota for only five months (1912), expressed a desire to obtain land in Montana in 1913 and to move his family there. As we now know, he didn't do that, but eventually moved to Oregon after about ten years in North Dakota. His brother-in-law, Felix Eberle, also corresponded with the newspaper in 1912 to recommend the newspaper take a stand for legislation setting a minimum price for the crops of North Dakota farmers.

Merck, Arkansas

Yes, there is a Merck, Arkansas.

I continue to be amazed at how good the Google Earth program is. An interesting discovery of little value was made when I recently entered Merck, Arkansas into the search function of Google Earth. Surprisingly it found a site named "Merck (historical)" not far from where I live. It is located at 35-19N 90-37W. There is little information to be found about that location, but it appears that it was the location of a church. Out in the country on a county road, it is close to the town of Parkin in Cross County.

One day when I am bored and have a couple of hours to spare I will drive to that site to see what I can find out about it. It is likely that I will need to use my GPS to find it -- it's not likely there will be any signs pointing to it or to announce when I have arrived.

Joseph Merk Family Trip From Argentina

Joseph Merk did write a letter to der Staats Anzeiger newspaper within a few days of arrival in Balfour, North Dakota, after their journey from Argentina in 1912. That letter has recently been translated from its original German language and is now online with the other letters he wrote to that newspaper. The letter, dated 15 June 1912 is available at the below link. In it, he tells of taking one ship from Buenos Aires to Las Palmas, Canary Islands, and then another ship from the port of Tenerife to Vera Cruz, Mexico. They then took a train overland. It was a lengthy trip because of the route they took, partially necessary because of alleged eye disease found in several of the children. Merck Letters

Kutschurgan Villages 200th Anniversary

Michael Miller, Director and Bibliographer of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Library, is now leading the 14th annual journey to the homeland. While on the current tour, he today sent an email from Odessa. He said, in part: "Other tour members and myself visited Elsass, Kandel and Selz of the Kutschurgan District villages. We went to the Elsass school to see the room for their museum. Elsass will celebrate their 200th Anniversary as a community and former German colony on 20 September 2008. Selz will celebrate its 200th anniversary for all of the six Kutschurgan District mother colonies with programs on 21 September 2008. Both of these September days will be important to the community of Germans from Russia with Kutschurgan ancestry in Germany, Canada and USA."

He offered to carry to Elsass and Selz for us a copy of a Merck Family History book for their museums. I included in the book a section of pictures taken while our family group visited the Kutschurgan villages in 2007. Additionally, I included several enlarged color photos taken while we were in Elsass and a similar package for Selz. So, our family will be part of the 200th Anniversary, at least in book form.

Merks in Weidenberg Village, 1908-1944

Weidenberg, also known as Nowo-Nikolajewka for a time, was a daughter colony of Elsass, founded in 1908. The limited amount of land each of the Kutschurgan villages owned could not support the population as it grew, so land was purchased elsewhere for daughter colonies. Weidenberg was located about seventy kilometers east of Elsass in Beresan and about sixty kilometers northeast of Odessa. In March of 1944 the colony had about sixty-seven inhabitant families (after starting with sixteen) when all those of German descent fled with the retreat of the German Wehrmacht to Poland. At that time, two Merk families were among the once proud German farmers of Weidenberg. Joh. Merk (probably Johann or John) and Ch. Merk (probably Christian Merk) were the heads of those two families.

There was a Christian Merk, born 1883 in Elsass, who married Katherine Rissling in 1907 in Elsass. In documents prepared by Katherine, among German records captured by the U. S. Army concerning those who made that trek to Poland, I learned that her husband Christian died in 1941 in Weidenberg. They had a son also named Christian, born 1913 in Weidenberg, who married Helene Fischer in 1936 in Weidenberg. I also found similar documents prepared by Helene in Poland, but have not yet found similar documents prepared by her husband. I also have not yet found records of Joh. Merk from Weidenberg. Nor have I learned the fate of those Merks who reached Poland in 1944. However, most of those of German descent in those camps in Poland were forced by Stalin into slave labor in Siberia.

It is a curious coincidence that Katherine Rissling Merk's maiden name Rissling is an alternate spelling for Luisa Riesling (Rissling) who manages the museum at Selz. That lady resides in a home that had belonged to an ancestor in Selz, a home she graciously showed to our group during our visit there in June 2007. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me that it is possible that there is a family connection.

der Staats-Anzeiger Letters

In previous posts to this blog it was explained that many of the Germans from Russia wrote letters to the German language newspaper der Staats-Anzeiger as an easy way to communicate with their friends and former neighbors. This North Dakota newspaper was distributed widely in South Russia, Argentina and throughout areas of the United States where these immigrants settled. My grandfather, Joseph John Merck, was a frequent correspondent as were his Eberle brothers-in-law. As a volunteer working with the project of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society to translate letters from the newspaper archives, I attempt to locate those written by relatives. The latest letter I discovered was written July 15, 1912, shortly after the Merck family arrived in the United States from Argentina. I think it is unusual that this letter makes no mention of that journey, so I believe there may be other letters yet to be discovered that were written about the same time. If I do discover them, I will make them available as I did with this one at the link you find here.