Carl Heinrich Wilcken

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Portrait photo of Carl Heinrich Wilcken (around 1890)

Carl Heinrich Wilcken , in the USA Charles Henry Wilcken (born October 5, 1831 in Eckhorst near Lübeck ; † April 9, 1915 in Salt Lake City , Utah ) was a civilian miller and a NCO of the Prussian army in the Schleswig-Holstein revolt against Denmark . After emigrating to the United States, he became a private in the US Army in the Utah War , when he transferred to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), where he was bodyguard and confidante of John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff became, two of their presidents.

Life

Carl Heinrich Wilcken had learned the miller's trade as a young man in Schleswig-Holstein and was married to Elisa Christina Carolina Wilcken née Reiche (1830–1906), with whom he had two children, namely Anna Johanna Dorothea, called Dora, and Carl junior . In the Schleswig-Holstein uprising from 1848 to 1851 he served as a non-commissioned officer in the Prussian army. For this he was awarded the war memorial . When Schleswig-Holstein lost the war in 1851, the Schleswig-Holstein Army was disbanded on April 1, 1851. Many officials and officers of the Schleswig-Holstein government and the military then left the country, some emigrated to the United States and Australia. Carl Heinrich Wilcken also emigrated to New York in 1857; Wilcken initially left his wife and two small children in Schleswig-Holstein.

Since Wilcken was largely destitute and as a result soon became homeless, he was recruited by the US Army. He became a member of "Johnston's Army" under General Albert Sidney Johnston , which was used in the Utah War (1857-1858) against the Mormons, some of which did not obey the federal laws prohibiting polygamy . The food and morale of Johnston's Army were poor. Wilcken deserted immediately and ran over to the " Nauvoo Legion" of the Mormons by allowing themselves to be captured by their scouts. He converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and first practiced his learned trade as a miller in Salt Lake City. In 1860 his wife Elisa Christina Carolina Wilcken moved to Utah from Germany with their two children Dora and Carl. In 1873 Wilcken's widowed mother Annie, his brother August and three nieces - daughters of his older sister Anna Catharina Christine Dahmke - also arrived in the USA. Wilcken is said to have married three other women in Utah from 1861 and was the father of a total of 15 children; polygamy was not officially abolished among the Mormons until 1890.

Wilcken became director of irrigation operations in Utah, community police officer, and chairman of the Deseret Telegraph Company, the Mormon telegraph company. He later became the bodyguard and confidante of John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff , two Mormon presidents. In old age he worked as a tour guide in the Temple District of Salt Lake City.

Wilcken's granddaughter Anna Amelia Pratt (1876-1926) was the mother of the American politician George Wilcken Romney (1907-1995), governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969 and from 1969 to 1973 Secretary of Construction and Development under US President Richard Nixon . George W. Romney is in turn the father of Mitt Romney (* 1947), who was a Mormon bishop from 1981 to 1986, governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and later a candidate of the Republican Party for the US presidential election in 2012. Mitt Romney is therefore a great-great-grandson of Carl Heinrich Wilcken.

Web links

Commons : Charles H. Wilcken  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karin Jordt, "Mitt Romney has Holsteiner Blood", in: KN - Kieler Nachrichten, March 25, 2012, kn-online.de, https://www.kn-online.de/Nachrichten/Hamburg/Mitt-Romney- hat Holsteiner Blood , accessed on September 20, 2019
  2. ↑ Karin Jordt, "Mitt Romney has Holsteiner Blood", in: KN - Kieler Nachrichten, March 25, 2012, kn-online.de, https://www.kn-online.de/Nachrichten/Hamburg/Mitt-Romney- hat Holsteiner Blood , accessed on September 20, 2019
  3. ↑ Karin Jordt, "Mitt Romney has Holsteiner Blood", in: KN - Kieler Nachrichten, March 25, 2012, kn-online.de, https://www.kn-online.de/Nachrichten/Hamburg/Mitt-Romney- hat Holsteiner Blood , accessed on September 20, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Wilcken, Carl Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilcken, Charles Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian NCO, Müller, Mormon
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Eckhorst near Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1915
Place of death Salt Lake City , Utah