  
The Adickes of
Wurstenland
The Adickes originally came from Wurstenland, Province of Hanover on the northwest coast of Germany which was settled by people who came from Friesland and were of Teutonic stock. They were apparently a noble family that oversaw the maintenance of the dikes to protect the village farms from flooding.
The oldest known ancestor, Johan Adickes, in 1662, owned a large estate near a Church at Cappel in Germany.
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Eggerich Johan Adickes (1704-1772), a known descendant of Johan Adickes, married in 1735, 17-year old Hille Doreathea Hars,born 1718, heiress of the German family of Durett Hars. They had ten children.
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Henning Frederich Johan Adickes
Henning Frederich Johan Adickes (Eggerich1) was born in 1744. He was a land owner, corn dealer, and supervisor of the dikes. In 1803 he became Marshland Deputy for Wusterland. He was married to Regine Friedericke von Lehe. Henning and Regine had two sons:
- Eggerich Johan, born March 2, 1776; came to America, married Sarah Moore; and died September, 1919.
- Erich Frederiche born 1802, remained in Germany. He married Dorothea Veronica Eibs.
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The Adickes of York
Citations of "York" refer to York County, South Carolina before 1916, when the village of Yorkville changed its name to "York," since it had become to large to call it a town.
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Eggerich Johan
(John) Adickes
Eggerich Johan (John) Adickes (Eggerich1, Henning 2) was born March 2, 1776 in Hamsburg, Germany. In 1804 he became a merchant and came to America in order to avoid an arranged marriage to a first cousin. He made numerous trips between Germany and America, transporting goods. About 1808, he lived in Chester County, South Carolina, and courted Sarah Moore in York County, South Carolina.
Sarah was born August
3, 1786. She was the third of Mary Dorcas Erwin and Alexander Moore's six children. Her father, born 1750 in Virginia, was a prosperous planter and Commissioner in Equity in Chester County, South Carolina (where he died in1816). Her mother died in 1768 and her father remarried soon after to Mrs. Catharine Palmer Marion, who was very protective of her step-children. Sarah was said to have been very beautiful and had many suitors. According to lore, her stepmother wouldn't allow Sarah to marry a German immigrant tradesman, so Sarah went on a hunger strike for three days to get her way. They were married about 1808.
After the marriage, John continued to conduct trade, and opened a country store in Chester County.
John and Sarah had four children:
He never returned from his last journey in September, 1919. There are two accounts of his death: he either drowned at sea, or died of yellow fever after landing in Charleston during an epidemic.
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Henning Frederick Adickes
Henning Frederick Adickes (Eggerich Johan Adickes1, Henning Frederich Johan2, Eggerich Johan Adickes3) was born January 21, 1809 in York, South Carolina. His father died when he was nine years old, so as the eldest son, he assumed responsibility at a young age. Henning consoled his mother in her grief, and took charge of the plantation and slaves, according to the testimony of his son, Withers Adickes. At age 17, he was a teacher in the small country schoolhouse for the children of prominent men in the community. At age 20, he became a clerk in a store in Yorkville, South Carolina where he worked for three years. Then, he was offered two partnerships in mercantile businesses. He was successful and gained enough experience, and before long, was operating his own lucrative business, with profits to spare for generous philanthropy for his church, charity and educational causes.
In July 14, 1842, he married Mary Lavonia Withers born April 6, 1821, also of York. She was a daughter of James Randolph Withers, and his wife Sarah Meredith Bailey. Her brother, Judge Thomas Jefferson Withers was a signer of the Declaration of Secession.
He had a three-story building built in Yorkville, on the corner of Congress and Liberty Streets. He kept his family here on the second and third floors before moving them to a house on the corner of Roosevelt and East Liberty Streets in York Henning and Mary had nine children as follows:
- Sarah Randolph Adickes ("Say"), born July 3, 1843, died unmarried August 9, 1927
- Mary Lavonia Adickes ("Sis May"), born August 17, 1845, married Lawrence Stirling Alexander, M.D.
- Amanda Antoinette Adickes, ("Sis Manda"), born September 27, 1847, married Thomas Williams Clawson.
- Katherine Margaret Adickes, ("Sis Kate"), born November 9, 1849, married David Leroy Black.
- Henning Frederick Adickes ("Bud"), born October 15, 1851, married Emily Browning Clawson.
- Eggerich John Adickes, born September 24, 1855, and died October 28, 1862.
- Withers Adickes ("Wid"), born December 14, 1857, married Helen Margaret Wardlaw.
- Blanche Adickes, born May 20, 1860, married John Robert Lindsay.
- Annie Lee Adickes, born July 9, 1862, married Walter Bedford Moore.
(Note: The abbreviated names shown above were ones always used by the younger sisters, Blanche and Annie Lee, when speaking to or of their older sisters and brothers.)
Henning retired about 1860, taking some of his children to Germany to see the land of their forefathers and thence to look up a rumored estate that his father had supposedly left with some Philadelphia relatives. It was said that Henning never traveled without his pistols, in case of robbers. The estate never materialized, unfortunately.
The Civil War then broke out in 1861, and he lost most of his own earnings. After the war, he went back to work, and was able to have his children educated.
Henning Adickes died on August 5, 1881, at the age of 73, and buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in York, South Carolina.
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Mary Lavonia Adickes Alexander
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Lawrence Stirling Alexander, MD
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Mary Lavonia Adickes was born August 19, 1845, in Yorkville, South Carolina and baptized in the Presbyterian Church in Yorkville. She was a talented artist and musician and the attended Yorkville Female Academy.
She met Lawrence Stirling Alexander, M.D. while he was visiting his Clarke cousins in South Carolina. On September 1, 1868 they were married in a Presbyterian Church, and lived in Manassas, Virginia where the three oldest children: Fredericka, Eugene, and Elise were born. They then moved to York, South Carolina (or Yorkville, as it was then called) where the Adickes family lived and where the next four children were born: Helen, Florence, and the first set of twins, Blanch and Annie Lee.
South Carolina had been very hard hit by the Civil War, and Florida was believed to offer better prospects for her husband to establish his medical practice. He moved there first and settled in St. Augustine. Mary and the children stayed behind for a year. Mary taught school to help with the family finances. Eugene died of diphtheria at age two years old. Mary kept a small locket with a snip of "Gennie's," hair, which she always cherished.
Lawrence was chosen to be the attending physician at St. Joseph's Academy, a Catholic girls' boarding school. He kept his practice there until his death 30 years later. The girls all went to the convent school. Being Protestants, they were excused from all religious studies.
Conditions were always difficult financially for the family. St. Augustine was a lovely town, but the only industries were tourism, small cigar factories and fish markets. Their home was about three blocks to the north of the old Spanish fort, Fort Marion on the Sebastian River. This is where the twins Laurie and Lucy were born. Laurie died after six days, leaving the family with seven daughters. They were always able to provide, however, for all the out-of-town friends and relatives who visited them and see the town.
Mary Lavonia Adickes Alexander died on October 14, 1930 in Charleston, South Carolina and was buried in St. Augustine, Florida.
Mary and Lawrence Alexander had children as follows:
- Fredericka Alexander was born August 17, 1869, in Centerville, Virginia and died on May 13, 1957, in Camden, South Carolina, age 88. She married Thomas Jefferson Kirkland of Camden, South Carolina.
- Robert Eugene Alexander died age 2.
- May Elise Alexander was born on November 28, 1871 in Yorkville, South Carolina. She was a school teacher for ten years in St. Augustine. She also lived in Amarillo Texas, and Orlando, Florida where she died on February 26, 1954. She was buried in St. Augustine. On February 28, 1905, she married John N. Bradshaw. They had no children.
- Helen Laurie Alexander was born June 18, 1874, in Yorkville, South Carolina. On June 1, 1899, she married Henry Savage. They lived in Camden, South Carolina and had six children. She died in 1956.
- Florence Alexander was born September 3, 1875, in Yorkville, South Carolina. In 1902 she graduated Charleston City Hospital as a registered nurse. She married Dr. Manning Simons on October 14, 1903, in St. Augustine. They had one child.
- Blanche Adickes Alexander was born June 14, 1878, in Yorkville, South Carolina. She was a registered nurse and married Thomas Singleton Coart. They resided in Jacksonville, Florida and adopted one child.
- Annie Lee Alexander was born June 14, 1878 in Yorkville, South Carolina. She married Arthur Lining Burne on August. 15, 1905 in St. Augustine. They had four children.
- Lucy Abbott Alexander was born on 3, 1884 in St. Augustine, Florida. Her twin sister Laurie died in infancy. She received private instruction in music, voice, and composition; and received a B.S. in music from Columbia University, New York City. She published and sold compositions: Fugue for Pianos: "Kangaroos"; "Madrigal"; "The Cossack's Song"; and others. She was chairman of the music department of Florida State Organization of Women's Clubs from 1910-11; soprano soloist at Trinity Church, in St. Augustine, 1914-15 and at the Church of the Holy Communion; and was a member of the Oratorio Society of New York, 1918-20. She married and divorced Arnold Goldy.
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Sources
"Genealogy of the Adickes Family," by Clarke W. Adickes, Jr.
"Reminiscences of York," by Dr. Maurice Moore, written between 1865 and 1871
Lucy Abbott Alexander's family history, transcribed by Lane Reynolds Dye
Photos contributed by Rannie Kirkland |
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