Margaretha Hinkel

I am only just now trying to tackle the ancestry of Margaretha or Margarete Hinkle.  Her family maintained close associations with allied families from the mother-land and into several generations in America.  I will attempt to articulate my hypothesis of her origins here.

Margaretha Hinkle or Hinkel was born about 23 August 1860 (I say “about” because I have only found an index listing her gravestone and a picture of her gravestone, and since the informant was not present at her birth, their information is secondary and prone to errors and engravers were prone to errors also, even when given correct information).  She was likely born somewhere in Indiana (same problem with birth date).

I could only find her marriage recorded on an index which provides her marriage to “Ohlrick Kucks” on 25 January 1878 at the age of 17 – supporting a birth year of 1860 or 1861.

Evidence supporting her surname as Hinkle are the index to marriage records, marriage records of her children (Margaret, Elizabeth, Marie, and John), and Ohlrich’s death certificate which names her “Margarete Hinkle”.

Using a practice called cluster research, I believe her parents are immigrants John Hinkle and Elizabeth Morgal.  Here’s how I got there – get a drink and a bowl of popcorn before proceeding.

Hinkles and Morgels always seemed to live near each other in Iowa.  After his marriage to Margaretha, Ohlrich’s family always lived near both Hinkle and Kahler families in Iowa.  In 1885 they lived near Martin Kahler’s family and in 1910, Ohlrich is living with Martin Kahler’s family.  In 1925, Ohlrich is living with his daughter, Margaret Neidermeyer – who lived near a Hinkle family.  So, I started looking into these families.

In 1885, one household separates Ohlrich’s family from Martin Kahler’s family (both on the same page of the census).  Martin’s family consisted of Margret (42yr), John (12yr), Lennie (8yr), Margret (5yr), and a 70-year-old widow, Lennie.  These are presumably his wife, children and maybe his mother.  Next door to Martin (on the next page of the census) is Elizabeth Hinkle (widowed) and four minors (Eliza, Laney, and John).  Remember the widow, Elizabeth Hinkle.

In 1910, when Ohlrich was living with the Kahlers, Martin’s wife is still Margaret, and daughters Helena (Lennie or Laney) and Margaret (both single) still live with him.  So, it’s the same Martin and Margaret Kahler from 1885 (ages also matched for all individuals).

A little research on Martin Kahler reveals that his marriage to Margaret Morgal occurs in 1870.  Ok…so, who was Margaret Morgal?  A 16-year-old Margaretha Morgal came to America from Prussia in 1859 with her mother, Helena (a widow).  Heading this family at the time of their migration was her adult brother, Johannes (John) Morgal. Immigrating with them is a woman named Eva (later identified as Eva Hinkler, Johannes wife) and a sister, Helene.  Johannes, Eva, and his mother Helena are also found in the same areas of Indiana and Iowa at the same times as the Hinkles and the Kucks’.  Helena, the mother, is also found living with Margaret and her husband, Martin Kahler, in Harrison County, Iowa in 1880.  So, Margaret Morgal is the connection to the Kahler family.  What is the Hinkle connection?

Going back to the 1859 immigration records/passenger list, enumerated right below Johannes Morgal and his family on the immigration records is John Hinkle and his wife Elizabeth.  Their son’s Harrison County, Iowa marriage record identifies her as Eliz Mordell (sp), wife of John Hinkel.

Remember the widow Elizabeth from the 1885 census?  The one living next to Martin Kahler’s family?  This is her, bringing us full circle in connecting Morgals, Hinkles and Kahlers.

A curious family tradition crops up in the names of Morgal children:

1. Mother, the widow Helena, had a son, Johannes or John and daughters, Margaretha, Helena and maybe Elizabeth
2. Margaretha (Morgal) Kahler names her son John and daughters Elizabeth, Helena, and Margaret
3. Elizabeth (Morgal) Hinkle names her son John and daughters Elizabeth and Helena and maybe Margaretha
4. Johannes Morgal names his daughters Helena and Lizzie (Elizabeth), and of course a son, John

I hypothesize that Elizabeth (Morgal) Hinkle is a sister of Margaretha (Morgal) Kahler and Johannes Morgal (Eva Hinkler may be Hinkle misspelled, a relative of John Hinkle).  Not only do they live close together over the decades and immigrated together in 1859, they name their children similarly and their ages all align as siblings and children of Helena.

How did I connect Margaretha (Hinkle) Kucks to John Hinkle and Elizabeth Morgal?

1. There are no other Hinkle couples old enough to be Margaretha’s parents in Harrison County, Iowa when she marries Ohlrich except John and Elizabeth.  At the age of 17 in the 1870’s, Margaretha is not likely to be living far from her parents (that would be a rare occurrence), so they must have been in the area when she married. 
2. A nice and neat little timeline emerges when we look at the immigration year of John Hinkle and Elizabeth Morgal (1859 – with no children), then the birth years of their established children (1866 through 1872, all in Indiana), and then look at our Margaretha’s birth of 1860 or 1861, also in Indiana.  This timeline suggests Margaretha was the oldest child of John Hinkle and Elizabeth Morgal and there may have been other children that didn’t make it to Iowa (large enough gap between Margaretha’s birth in 1860/61 and the next child in 1866).  
3. In addition to my clustering exercise, Margaretha and Ohlrich named children John, Elizabeth, and Margaret – continuing the family tradition.
4. Finally, one of Ohlrich and Margaretha’s daughter, Mary, lived with her “Aunt Lizzie Adams” in Dodge County, Nebraska in 1920.  Lizzie Adams was Elizabeth Hinkle, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Morgal) Hinkle.  Elizabeth (Morgal) Hinkle also lived briefly in Nebraska with Lizzie Adams.

My grandmother told me about Ohlrich having a close relationship with “the Kahler sisters” and confirmed that he lived with them late in his life and visited them when he could.  Even later, the Kahler sisters sent cards and gifts to the Kucks children.  But Grandma never knew what any family connection was, or if there even was one.  If my hypotheses are correct, the Kahler sisters were Martin and Margaretha’s unmarried daughters from the 1910 census, Helena (Lennie) and Margaret.  They would be the first cousins of Margaretha (Hinkle) Kucks through their Morgal mothers.

Genealogical Summary:

Margaretha Hinkle was born likely 23 August 1860 in Indiana.  She may have been the eldest child of John Hinkle and Elizabeth Morgel, both immigrants from Prussia (Germany).

After living in Indiana between 1859 and 1872, the Hinkle family moved to Harrison County, Iowa where Margaretha met Ohlrich Kucks.

At the age of 17, she married Ohlrich Kucks on 25 January 1878 in Mondamin, Harrison County, Iowa.

She died at the age of 34 on 22 February 1896 in Iowa and is buried in Fairview-Council Bluffs Cemetery, Pottawattamie County, Iowa.

Margaretha and Ohlrich had four children:

1. John H. Kucks was born abt. December 1878 in Iowa or Nebraska.  He married Anna Sophia Wiederholz on 25 February 1914 in Pottawattamie County, Iowa and had two sons, Max and Dale.  He lived his entire life in Harrison County, Iowa.  He died in 1955 and is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Harrison County, Iowa.
2. Elizabeth Kucks Aleck: This was grandma’s grandmother.
3. Mary Kucks (she of the large hats) was born 9 September 1884 in Iowa or Nebraska and married Harry C. Wiederholz on 24 August 1921 in Harrison County, Iowa.  Before marriage she lived briefly in Nebraska with her Aunt, Elizabeth (Lizzie) (Hinkel) Adams – a daughter of John and Elizabeth Hinkle, my proposed parents of Margaretha.  She died in June of 1976 in Little Souix, Harrison County, Iowa.  She and Harry never had children.
4. Margaret (Maggie) Kucks was born 8 April 1887 in Iowa or Nebraska and married August Niedermyer on 9 March 1910 in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, Iowa.  She died in December of 1973 in Pisgah, Harrison County, Iowa and is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Harrison County, Iowa.

The only records indicating place of birth for the children that I have are census and social security applications.  I haven’t really looked that hard for records of birth recorded closer to the events so I am not sure if the children were born in Nebraska or Iowa (records conflict for each child).  Considering Margaretha and Ohlrich married in Iowa in 1878, the year John H. was born, I am leaning towards Iowa, but it is plausible they lived in Nebraska between their marriage in 1878 and the first Iowa census they are recorded in (1885).  Besides, it’s really not that big of leap between Harrison County, Iowa and Dodge County, Nebraska with Omaha in between.😊