Caspar Lucke and Mary Elizabeth Scheckel

         We believe that Caspar Lucke was born in the 1850’s, in Germany – perhaps Westphalia.  Around 1870, Caspar emigrated to the US, leaving his Family behind, and came to New York.  The true pronunciation of the Family name was “looh-keh” (there was an umlaut – two dots – over the “u”) but it was “Americanized” to sound like “lucky.” The only photo we have is the one below that shows Mary Elizabeth with the first 3 Lucke children, Mary Catherine, Frank, and Leo.

Mary Elizabeth Scheckel was born in New York (probably Herkimer) around 1860.  As a teenager, she and her Girlfriends volunteered to serve refreshments for German immigrants at their Church’s socials.  It was there that Caspar and Mary met, and fell in love.  This love produced 13 children.  Two of these children (#6 Lucy and #12 Caspar Ambrose) died young; the other 11 married and, with the exception of #9 Joe, had children of their own. [For the remainder of this article, we will refer to Caspar and Mary Elizabeth as Grandpa & Grandma.]

Grandpa Lucke was very industrious.  In addition to working for a newspaper, he built houses in Brooklyn including the Family home at 21 Suydam Place.  Some of his children, when they married, lived in houses that he had built.  Lena Horne also lived in one of his houses.  The Luckes were devout Catholics and attended St Benedict’s Church where most of the children were baptized.

Grandpa was also very practical.  “Legend” has it that one day #1 Mary got exasperated with Grandpa because the ceilings needed painting.  Grandpa merely said “Don’t look up!”  This was an early example of what has later been described as “Lucke humor” [that is, quite corny!!!!]

Sometime after the birth of Child #13, Caspar John (Jack), Grandpa Lucke came home one afternoon and sat on the porch of the house at Suydam Place.  One of the children found him there, having peacefully died in his chair.  This was about 1908.

Grandma was a warm, gentle and easy-going person; in German terms she would be called “gemutlich!”  She had an unmarried sister, Frances Scheckel, whom everybody called Auntie, who lived with the Lucke Family.  Between them, the two Sisters took care of the household chores, with Auntie being the cook and Grandma the seamstress (making most of the children’s clothes), and both of them doing the weekly washing every Monday.  Although Auntie was famous for her recipes, Grandma was also famous for her annual meal of Hasenpfeffer (rabbit) – which she refused to eat herself!  Some of Auntie’s recipes that were handed down were potato pancakes, apple (or peach) cake with brown sugar and a delicacy she called “kisses.”  Yummy!

Some time after Grandpa’s death, Grandma, along with the unmarried children, moved to Flatbush, to 779 East 32nd Street between Glenwood Road and Avenue H.  Later, she moved to 553 East 34th Street between Clarendon and Avenue D.  Some of us remember the latter house, with the big piano, #11 Anna’s huge painting of The Girl at the Well and that ferocious dog, Buddy.  Everybody loved to go to Grandma’s house, in good times and in bad – she made you feel warm and loved!  Rita remembers Anna going to Grandma’s and getting her reassurance when she was having her first baby.

Grandma died on July 1, 1942 and is buried in Most Holy Trinity Cemetery in Flatbush.  Auntie then went to live with Anna for a few years until she became sick; she died in 1947, and was buried wearing her Secular Franciscan habit.

Legends:

• Every Christmas at Suydam Place, Santa Claus would come stomping into the front parlor to dispense gifts – or lumps of coal!  It was years before the Lucke youngsters caught on that it was Auntie!  Another story concerns #7 Charles (always called Carlie) who loved to tease Auntie.  Of course, she pretended to be stern with him, but he got around her by tickling her feet, which broke her – and everybody else – into stitches.
• Rita remembers that, on her way to get the IRT subway to work, she would often see Grandma (by then in her late 70’s) briskly walking to St Jerome’s Church for morning Mass.

The Scheckels

While searching for information about Carlie, Dottie Gucker found some papers pertaining to Grandma Lucke’s Family:

• letters, written in German, from a Brother who lived in Detroit.
• a funeral bill for the burial of Franz Anton Scheckel (Grandma’s Father), dated Dec 13, 1886 and paid for by Mrs. Katharina Scheckel, 238 West 31st Street,NYC.  This bill was from John Roth’s Sons, 3937 7th Avenue between 31st and 32nd Street. (That’s where Madison Square Garden in located now.).
• a funeral bill from William J McCaw, 1737 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, dated May 9, 1910 for Anna C Scheckel.  This was paid for by Miss Frances Scheckel (Auntie), 21 Suydam Place, Brooklyn.
• a Certificate of Baptism for Mary Frances Scheckel (Auntie). child of FrancisAnthony  and Anna Maria Sondermann, born in New York City on January 17, 1862 and baptized on January 23, 1862 in the Church of St John the Baptist, 210 West 31st Street.
•  With this information, we wrote to St John the Baptist Church and received Baptism records for some of the Scheckels.  We also wrote to Most Holy Trinity in Brooklyn to find out who was buried in the Family plot there.  Both places sent us valuable information which helped fill in some of the blanks on the Scheckels.  Here’s what we have so far; if anybody can help with further information, it would be greatly appreciated.

Franz Anton Scheckel b. 1830, Germany ?, m. Anna Maria Sondermann, b. 1831, d. 1-May-1910,    buried: 8-Dec-1886, Most Holy Trinity Cemetery.

I.   Francis Joseph Scheckel b. 16-Apr-1858, New York NY, Bapt 25-Apr-1858, St John’s NYC NY.

II.  Mary Elizabeth Scheckel b. 1860, Herkimer, NY, occupation Housewife, m. 2-Feb-1879, in St John’s            Church, NYC NY, Caspar Lucke, b. 1848,  Westphalia, Germany, occupation Builder,         Newspaper, d. 19-Jun-1908, Brooklyn, buried: 22-Jun-1908, Most Holy Trinity Cemetery.  Mary   died 1-Jul-1942, Brooklyn, NY, buried: 4-Jul-1942, Most Holy Trinity Cemetery

(Parents of The Thirteen)

III. Mary Frances Scheckel b. 17-Jan-1862, New York City, Bapt 23-Jan-1862, St John the Baptist, NYC,          d. 17-Dec-1947, Brooklyn, buried: 20-Dec-1947, Most Holy Trinity Cemetery.

IV.  Leopold Scheckel b. 11-Feb-1866, New York NY, Bapt 23-Feb-1866, St John the Baptist, New York NY.

V.   Charles Scheckel m. Mrs Charles Scheckel.

A.   Charles Scheckel Jr

B.   Mary Scheckel

C.   Gertrude Scheckel

D.   Lucy Scheckel

 

VI.  Wilhelm Scheckel b. 1871, Brooklyn NY, d. 20-Nov-1899, buried: 23-Nov-1899, Most Holy Trinity

 

The Thirteen

 

#1 MARY CATHERINE LUCKE (born 29-Mar-1880, died 27-Dec-1961)   m. John Jacob Muller

#2 FRANCIS PETER LUCKE (born 18-Oct-1881, died 24-Mar-1968)   m. Mary Margaret Cramer

#3 LEO CASPAR LUCKE (born 19-Aug-1883, died 15-Mar-1943)   m. Mary Anna Karl

#4 BEATRICE LUCKE (born 25-Aug-1885, died 21-Jan-1914)   m. Fred Lang

#5 ELSIE LUCKE (born 24-Jul-1887, died 15-Feb-1970)   m. Joseph Vincent Bond

#6 LUCY MARY LUCKE (born 7-Aug-1889, died May 1892)

#7 CHARLES BERNARD LUCKE (born 27-Jun-1891, died 10-Dec-1966)   m. Mary Dorothy Bronjesk and m. Helen Gorman Kiernan

#8 WILLIAM JOSEPH LUCKE (born 25-Oct-1893, died 31-Mar-1969)   m. Loretta Dougherty

#9 JOSEPH ANTHONY LUCKE (born 8-Oct-1895, died 11-Jul-1967)   m. Beatrice Bier

#10 MARGARET MARY LUCKE (born 31-Oct-1897, died 3-May-1959)    m. Edwin Magee

#11 ANNA GERTRUDE LUCKE (born 12-Dec-1900, died 26-Jul-1981)   m. Lloyd Howell Campbell

#12 CASPAR AMBROSE LUCKE (born 20-Oct-1902, died 9-Nov 1904)

#13 CASPAR JOHN LUCKE (born 27-Dec-1905, died 25-Oct-1985)   m. Anne Veronica Reilly